Musical questions and answers thread

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Arnold's own recording (with the LPO on Lyrita) takes 54'11"; Penny (National SO of Ireland on Naxos) 37'47"; and Handley (RLPO on Sony, originally Conifer) 37'26".
What, if anything, does that tell us?
(I don't think there are any repeats that the composer follows that others don't!)

There's a recording of a Live performance conducted by Arnold (the World Premiere, in fact) which matches the 37 minute duration of Handley & Penny (in fact, he's even sprightlier):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJdS_K1C4aw

There may be all sorts of reasons why he takes his Music so much slower - and, no, there are no issues of "missing repeats" here. His psychological & physical problems in the 1980s are well-documented, and he had ceased composing completely by 1990, when he made the Lyrita recording - ill health? Old age? Indifference? A completely different man from the one he was 30 years earlier?

[Serial_Apologist]

Whoa. Really? Surely you'd have to have more evidence than that before coming to such a sweeping conclusion.

In my case more an instance of taking one to recognise one than having any evidence basis, really...

[Pulcinella]

There's a recording of a Live performance conducted by Arnold (the World Premiere, in fact) which matches the 37 minute duration of Handley & Penny (in fact, he's even sprightlier):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJdS_K1C4aw

There may be all sorts of reasons why he takes his Music so much slower - and, no, there are no issues of "missing repeats" here. His psychological & physical problems in the 1980s are well-documented, and he had ceased composing completely by 1990, when he made the Lyrita recording - ill health? Old age? Indifference? A completely different man from the one he was 30 years earlier?

You're probably right in thinking old age/illness: his 1980 and 1990 recordings of the Sarabande and Polka from Solitaire (Bournemouth, EMI: 5'47"/2'55"; LPO, Lyrita: 5'39"/2'46") are similarly lethargic compared to Bryden Thomson and the Philharmonia in 1990 (Chandos: 3'09"/2'22"), to choose another example from my shelves. I've probably set a hare running that didn't need to be let loose!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

(R-K's Scheherazade benefits tremendously from a conductor's alterations to the score - such as replacing it with a different work.)

R-K in turn did great things to improve upon some of Mussorgsky's works. I'll always regret that he never did a version of Pictures...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

R-K in turn did great things to improve upon some of Mussorgsky's works. I'll always regret that he never did a version of Pictures...

Where's me pills??!! WHERE'S ME PILLS?????!!!!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Where's me pills??!! WHERE'S ME PILLS?????!!!!

[Bryn]

Where's me pills??!! WHERE'S ME PILLS?????!!!!

Never mind the pills. Just put on some of the real, unvitiated stuff and take a few deep breaths.

[BBMmk2]

Ferney, I’ll take you back to the ward, matey!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

One question I'd like to have the answer to:

Why, when I can play Chopin Études, Late Beethoven Sonatas and Rachmaninov preludes, can I not play The Entertainer?

The two hands refuse to work together.

[LeMartinPecheur]

One question I'd like to have the answer to:

Why, when I can play Chopin Études, Late Beethoven Sonatas and Rachmaninov preludes, can I not play The Entertainer?

The two hands refuse to work together.

In the words of this master pianist in a German copy I own, "Üben, immer üben!"

[DracoM]

Q: does the VPO delay or what the 2nd or 3rd beat of a bar when playing Viennese waltzes?
No other band can play like this, and I wonder how it is done.
They seem NOT to get it from the conductor, but from an almost tribal telepathy and unspoken, unwritten orchestral instinct....AFAICS

[Richard Barrett]

Q: does the VPO delay or what the 2nd or 3rd beat of a bar when playing Viennese waltzes?
No other band can play like this, and I wonder how it is done.
They seem NOT to get it from the conductor, but from an almost tribal telepathy and unspoken, unwritten orchestral instinct....AFAICS

The second beat is played slightly early. That's just how all Austrian musicians (and not just them) know that waltzes are played. Of course it has to be learned, but it's no more telepathic than jazz musicians knowing how to swing or Japanese gagaku musicians knowing how to speed up gradually over the course of a piece. None of this is any more difficult than playing equal beats!

[DracoM]

OK, well it SEEMS a spontaneous move by the whole band - I love it, and ............well, I find it v.diff to imitate.

[Richard Barrett]

OK, well it SEEMS a spontaneous move by the whole band - I love it, and ............well, I find it v.diff to imitate.

It does take time and effort to be sure, but so does getting any other subtle musical feature right... more generally, though, the point of demystifying music is to make its central mysteries even more apparent (and more mysterious)!

[DracoM]