5 Pieces

[Stillhomewardbound]

A rather bargain basement list of choices, but here goes:

Grieg/Piano Concerto in A minor
Carmen / Bizet (Ma mere il la revois/Jose singing to Micaela)
Huapango suite/Moncayo
Schubert Trout Quintet
Officium/Cristobal (Hililard Ensemble & Jan Gabarek)

SHB

[Thropplenoggin]

Beethoven Piano Sonata op.111 (Pollini)
Debussy - Estampes: Pagodes (Richter's 6 minute version on DG)
Mahler - Symphony 4's adagio (Ivan Fischer & Budapest Festival Orchestra)
Beethoven String Quartet op.132's 'Hymn of Thanksgiving' (Borodin Quaret, Virgin Classics)
Schubert D.959's 'andantino' (Uchida)

Performers listed are the interpretations I heard when I heard each piece for the first time; these were the performances I subsequently purchased.

[Serial_Apologist]

Debussy - Estampes: Pagodes (Richter's 6 minute version on DG)

This, from around the same time, is for me a most extraordinary piece of music, harmonically speaking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOIquKv30Bw

Messiaen learned so much from this piece, one thinks. Imho the only thing Debussy does wrong in this piece is resolving the chain of unrelated chords at 0'57". But one has to remember, this piece was composed in 1905 . The harmonic juxtaposition at 3'24" is one of the most extraordinary moments in all music, for me, coming at it, as I always seem to, unprepared.

Pure

[Osborn]

"Pieces that blew me away the first time I heard them?" None.
But some performances I've attended have had pretty much that effect.

[salymap]

To 'blow me away'suggested big orchestral works, which is what I chose at the beginning of this. Would it be possible for me to have a second five, probably chamber music or piano solo.? I only asked ??

[Thropplenoggin]

This, from around the same time, is for me a most extraordinary piece of music, harmonically speaking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOIquKv30Bw

Messiaen learned so much from this piece, one thinks. Imho the only thing Debussy does wrong in this piece is resolving the chain of unrelated chords at 0'57". But one has to remember, this piece was composed in 1905 . The harmonic juxtaposition at 3'24" is one of the most extraordinary moments in all music, for me, coming at it, as I always seem to, unprepared.

Pure

Thanks for that, Serial_Apologist. A tough listen for me, but I like to dip my toe into new sound waves from time to time.

[David-G]

To 'blow me away'suggested big orchestral works, which is what I chose at the beginning of this. Would it be possible for me to have a second five, probably chamber music or piano solo.? I only asked ??

I don't see why not! I am curious what your next set of choices will be. I am sure that it is quite possible to be "blown away" by something other than a big orchestral work.

[MrGongGong]

Thanks for that, Serial_Apologist. A tough listen for me, but I like to dip my toe into new sound waves from time to time.

Wonderful stuff
but I'm intrigued by the notion that it's a "tough listen" ????
compared to ?

[Thropplenoggin]

Wonderful stuff
but I'm intrigued by the notion that it's a "tough listen" ????
compared to ?

I mostly listen to Beethoven and Mahler, and, for the most part, I find Mahler an easier listen than this, even his extremer passages, like the Rondo-Burleske of his 9th Symphony. My musical sensibilities have quickly adjusted to Maher in the wake of finally beginning to get Beethoven's final quartets. Mahler seems to me like the natural progression/evolution of Beethoven, the next giant leap for music that Beethoven made after Mozart.

But my ears have yet to adjust to the adagio of his 10th Symphony (I'm not interested in listening to other people's reconstruction of the rest of this symphony.) Therefore, the music of Webern and Schoenberg and late Debussy's use of the whole tone scale, surely where Mahler was heading, is not something I have developed a palate for. I'm quite new to classical music - only seriously listening and building up a collection for the past three years.

So nurr.

[decantor]

Wonderful stuff
but I'm intrigued by the notion that it's a "tough listen" ????
compared to ?

Wonderful indeed. I was grateful for the hint that it looked forward to Messiaen, but it also struck me that it was still rooted in big-hearted romanticism (like, say, Scriabin). The wonder lies in that Janus-like ambivalence, linking two distant worlds whilst remaining a world of its own.

[Dave2002]

To 'blow me away'suggested big orchestral works, which is what I chose at the beginning of this. Would it be possible for me to have a second five, probably chamber music or piano solo.? I only asked ??

Peter Donohoe attacking Prokofiev's 6th sonata was a pretty big event!

[Serial_Apologist]

Wonderful indeed. I was grateful for the hint that it looked forward to Messiaen, but it also struck me that it was still rooted in big-hearted romanticism (like, say, Scriabin). The wonder lies in that Janus-like ambivalence, linking two distant worlds whilst remaining a world of its own.

It may seem ridiculous that, at the age of 66, after a lifetime's exposure to all kinds of wonderful musics, ancient and modern, European and non-European, I remain addicted to Debussy's. I agree with what you say about its Janus-like ambivalence, decantor, but I'd go further and argue that the ambivalence is at work on many other levels too within the best of Debussy's music. I completely understand what Boulez is saying when he describes it as seeming as though improvised; the first ever time I heard La Mer, there was this constantly rising feeling of the music backing itself into impossible corners, from which it would then escape by the most unexpected means. He's teasing us as he goes along. This time, that series of chords resolves; next time we hear it, it won't. Taken out of contexts in which they might well sound ordinary and even banal, melodies, which are rarely stated in their entirety in Debussy - he offers us the choice of continuing them ourselves, especially in 'Jeux' - are somehow made innocent and charmed. I really do think of Debussy as a "gateway" composer to more advanced areas of music which followed in his wake.

[teamsaint]

I mostly listen to Beethoven and Mahler, and, for the most part, I find Mahler an easier listen than this, even his extremer passages, like the Rondo-Burleske of his 9th Symphony. My musical sensibilities have quickly adjusted to Maher in the wake of finally beginning to get Beethoven's final quartets. Mahler seems to me like the natural progression/evolution of Beethoven, the next giant leap for music that Beethoven made after Mozart.

But my ears have yet to adjust to the adagio of his 10th Symphony (I'm not interested in listening to other people's reconstruction of the rest of this symphony.) Therefore, the music of Webern and Schoenberg and late Debussy's use of the whole tone scale, surely where Mahler was heading, is not something I have developed a palate for. I'm quite new to classical music - only seriously listening and building up a collection for the past three years.

So nurr.

The wonderful thing about being new to something, like classical music perhaps, is that there is SO much to discover....and also, percentage wise, one's knowledge increase at a rapid rate from a modest base !

I find that it is best to accept one's ignorance on certain matters, and to invite the guidance of other, more experienced listeners, as a short cut.
I have had my interest in classical music hugely revived in recent years, and the people on this board are a great help (and encouragement) on my musical journey.
This year I have "dicovered " Bruckner and Bliss, as well as much else.
I don't know where I am going, but I am enjoying the ride !!

Oh, and as for Mahler 10.....I wouldn't be without it now......'pure' Mahler or not.

[decantor]

If "mind-blowing" can be re-interpreted as "memorably spine-chilling", here's a random selection from my past:

Honegger - Pacific 231 (at age 8)
Holst - Mars (at age 11) and soon after all the Planets seemed wondrous
Purcell - Hear My Prayer
Stravinsky - Sacre (and soon Symphony in 3, & of Psalms)
Messiaen - 4tet End of Time

But my spine also tingled at Chris Barber (Revival) and Dave Grusin (The Firm). It's in the nature of music in all genres to tingle the spine over and over again. How can I not have mentioned Britten's 3rd 4tet by the Amadeus in the Maltings just after the composer's death? And the opening bars of both Bach Passions do it every time......

[ardcarp]

decantor, Having mentioned your age at the first two spine-tinglers, you omitted that information for the rest! Come on....fess up.