Originally posted by ardcarp
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You probably know about this marvellous cd,a favourite of mine
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Thank you.
You probably know about this marvellous cd,a favourite of mine
“Music is the best means we have of digesting time." — Igor Stravinsky -
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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It would have been better if I had used the word "habitual" or "regular" rather than professional. Although I personally cannot stand either to sing or to sit through Leighton, I have a hunch that for many it's more pleasant to perform than to have to passively endure.Originally posted by hmvman View PostComment
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Staying off the King's CE broadcast....but sticking with Leighton.
As a graduate student, I had a brief period in charge of a choir during an interregnum of cathedral organist (sounds grander than it was: yes, a cathedral, but in general we only sang Sunday services). I introduced them to Leighton's Solus ad victimam, which they found hard work and initially unrewarding. But in the context of the Holy Week service in which we performed it, it was incredibly moving, and a few of the choir thanked me specifically afterwards for getting them to learn it. I think it stayed in their repertoire as part of the music for that service after I had left, too.
(Apologies if I've told this story before; I think I may have!)Comment
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For me, Leighton is most definitely to be listened to. I find his craftsmanship immaculate. I will admit to never having clicked with Solus ad victimam, maybe because I have never experienced it live in context, but as for Crucifixus pro nobis, I find it hard to imagine a more intense expression of pain, loneliness and desolation. Those searing dissonances express so much more than mere diminished sevenths could possibly. I also think we'll have to go a very long way to find a more powerful, moving performance than King's last Wednesday. I felt quite drained by the end. Everyone - soloist, organist, choir - was superb. That Phineas Fletcher setting at the end really is a tear-jerker, isn't it? I do hope it all finds its way to YouTube: it would be a shame if it were lost to posterity.
I really didn't like the choice of Anglican chants - though they were very beautifully sung.Comment
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I do hope mw963 isn't feeling 'ganged up against' ! I'm sure no-one wants that. All are absolutely entitled to their own likes and dislikes. I've got a few. However, I must say Lully Lulla is very beautiful harmonically...all chords that Howells or RVW would be happy with...and the solo sop part.
The organ piece Paean OTOH is definitely 'gritty' and intended to be. It's a superbly written piece, and one I love playing, but I can accept it isn't everyone's cup-of-tea. [Especially in my hands!]Comment
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Indeed. We all have our tastes. If it's any consolation to mw963, I can't stand the Rubbra canticles. It's not that I mind the dissonance; I just find them contrived, nowhere more so than in those wretchedly cheesy contrary motion scales in the organ part of the Gloria. I'm sure the only reason Rubbra wrote them as triplets v. duplets was to stop the organist going to sleep.
I agree about Leighton's Paean. I loved it from the moment I first heard Simon Preston play it (before it was published). Most people play it too fast though. Doesn't anyone these days know what "marziale" means? Perhaps we should bring back National service!
OTOH if you play it fast I suppose it reduces the risk of the repeated quaver chords sounding like a clucking chicken.
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I remember being overwhelmed when (aged probably 19) I first heard the Rubbra, and particularly by the organ in the Gloria. Familiarity (having now sung it at least once a year for the last 25 years) has, I'm afraid, very much dulled its appeal, and I'm afraid I'm now very firmly in VH's camp. As I discovered two years ago, it is also the worst possible piece to have to sing when suffering the onset of severe sinusitis.Originally posted by Vox Humana View PostComment
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No, on the whole everyone on here has been very kind, and I don't doubt that those of you who have heard me on the subject before wish I would hold my peace. I only wish I *could* love Leighton.
I'm sure I read somewhere that - given that we all hear things in different ways - it's likely that I'm one of those people who are never going to be able to tolerate an interval such as a minor ninth. When they're hidden in rich harmonic textures it's a different matter, but on their own I would guess that it sets off a physiological revulsion (if that's the right phrase) in me that for others might be caused by chalk squeaking on a blackboard, or red and pink geraniums in the same flowerbed, or blue-coloured food. In other words it isn't (for me) a question of acquiring the taste, it's actually a genuine barrier that is set by the way my hearing works. That's only a guess on my part, but I think it might explain why - having come across Leighton's music first in an AB Music Exam piano piece list aged nine (and hating it then!) - no amount of exposure is going to cure my aversion.
Such is life. It would be a shame if we all liked the same things.Comment
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I'm one of those people who are never going to be able to tolerate an interval such as a minor ninth. When they're hidden in rich harmonic textures it's a different matter,
mw, I guess you like your suspensions to resolve. If only life were like that.
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No one is expecting you to like it. Please stop torturing yourself (and me!). You don't like it. Fine. It is well-written. It isn't provocative. You just don't like it. I like much of it, but not all. Celebrate the music you enjoy, PLEASE!!Originally posted by mw963 View Post
NVVComment
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That might explain a lot. Early impressions can have far-reaching consequences. My youthful piano lessons were an unmitigated disaster for various reasons, but all mainly concerned with the fact that I had no interest in the instrument whatsoever. I can remember being utterly disaffected from York Bowen and Niels Gade by having to learn what seemed to me some trite and uninteresting examples of their work. It took me decades to discover that Gade is actually a major talent. Bowen was no slouch either. But I still feel lukewarm about the piano as an instrument - unless it's Debussy. It's my loss, I know.Originally posted by mw963 View PostComment
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Well there we have much in common to celebrate. My preferred classical station (MDR Klassik on Astra 1 satellite) plays a good deal of Gade, and whilst there is some indifferent stuff from him there are real flashes of - as you say - talent.Originally posted by Vox Humana View PostComment
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I just feel the need to rescue his reputation from that of being merely an Associated Board Gradgrind. I came across his Flute Sonata a little while ago (in the role of accompanist) and was amazed by the quality of the piece. Almost in the Paris Flute Concours tradition.York Bowen
Are we drifting off topic?Comment
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ERm......................you might say that.......I couldn't......etc etc
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