Rolling Classical 2020

So these are the compositions up for a Grammy tonight. There are a few composers I like a fair bit but I haven't actually listened to any of these yet.:

Berme: Migration Series For Jazz Ensemble & Orchestra, Derek Bermel, composer (Derek Bermel, Ted Nash, David Alan Miller, Juilliard Jazz Orchestra & Albany Symphony Orchestra)
Higdon: Harp Concerto, Jennifer Higdon, composer (Yolanda Kondonassis, Ward Stare & The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra)
Marsalis: Violin Concerto in D Major, Wynton Marsalis, composer (Nicola Benedetti, Cristian Măcelaru & Philadelphia Orchestra)
Norman: Sustain, Andrew Norman, composer (Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic)
Shaw: Orange, Caroline Shaw, composer (Attacca Quartet)
Wolfe: Fire in My Mouth, Julia Wolfe, composer (Jaap Van Zweden, Francisco J.Núñez, Donald Nally, The Crossing, Young People's Chorus Of NY City & New York Philharmonic)

And Higdon won, it seems. I remember liking her Zaka quite a bit. I'm interested in new harp music. Look forward to hearing this.

I know the cellist from the Attacca Qtet, very cool that they got a nomination

I don't know Higdon, but the Grammys nominating Norman, Shaw, Wolfe and Marsalis is honestly better than expected. Though there's probably still people out there complaining serialism got snubbed.

Though there's probably still people out there complaining serialism got snubbed.

Hi.*

*Well, not quite, insofar as serialism is hardly progressive these days and hasn't been for a long time – just another tool in the contemporary composer's shed – but I do find this list of nominees rather and safe and yawn-inducing and American-centric. Not that I expect anything else from the Grammy Awards regardless of category. As a side note, I will no doubt get eviscerated for including none of these composers in the upcoming late 20th/early 21st century decade polls, but when canonical consensus becomes more problematic than ever, I think it's best to own up to one's more subjective intuitions. But we should be fine up until the… 1990s, maybe?

*rather safe

You kinda have to have Partita and Play on there... And Beyond Ocean. Don't fill it up with US hipster stuff, but those three have to be on there imo.

No, it's definitely American-centric, but it's the Grammys, so. I think it's pretty amazing that Andrew Norman is considered safe, and you're probably right, he is, but Play to me is still wtf-just-hit-me incredible.

I don't like Partita and haven't heard Play but as a merciful poll god I will likely include them nonetheless (the former for sure, as its impact is undeniable).

Beyond Ocean will definitely make it – I'm a JLA fan.

I honestly think you might like Andrew Norman. It's pretty crazy. And he has been good at explaining what is new, I've used quotes from him in a couple of film reviews.

Sold. I've added him to my list.

We're talking about the awards given out by an organization of leading figures in the US commercial recording industry so, yes, it's going to be US-slanted and on the safer side. (They're notoriously stuffy even about pop music.) Maybe I should raise my standards but tbh I'm just impressed that they nominate new music at all every year. I've written two serial pieces in the last few years but you could definitely get MORE conservative than Norman/Shaw/Wolfe/Higdon.

Maybe I should raise my standards but tbh I'm just impressed that they nominate new music at all every year.

Realistically speaking, it's pretty cool that they even so much as acknowledge the field.

I reviewed a new album of organ music - Susanne Kujala's Organ Music of the 21st Century. It's really good.

Yeah, I remember you mentioning it upthread. I'll check it out, thanks.

Peter Serkin just passed away. He was an extraordinary pianist, as comfortable in Webern, Messiaen and Takemitsu as he was in the mainstream canonical classics. I don't think I've ever heard a recording of his that I didn't like. He will be missed.

Just saw that news myself
A rather underrecorded pianist unfortunately

Unsuk Chin wins the Sonning award for 2021. They continue their good run, after Hans Abrahamsen in 2019 and Barbara Hannigan in 2020.

I think I have a ticket for the Hannigan award gala. She is doing most of Crazy Girl Crazy, both Berg and Gershwin.

Happy to hear it! I haven't kept up with her recent work at all but she remains an incredible composer.

i need her to record schoenberg op. 10. I have a live capture but the sound has probz

Sweet premise:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/20/beethoven-the-1808-concert-review-st-davids-hall-cardiff-carlo-rizzi-jaime-martin

― pomenitul

if they're not grossly underrehearsed it shouldn't count!

quick nerd question, Sveshnikov's recording of "All-Night Vigil", there's only one of those from '65, right? the recordings i'm finding are dated '73 but i don't know if that's just when they released it in the west...

I'm fairly confident it's the same recording.

i sort of figured so, thanks!

in between superficially checking out some of the decade poll stuff i am unfamiliar with (there's too much for me to absorb it all!) i've been getting more into ars subtilior... at least the quantity of this stuff is more manageable, as far as i can tell most of it comes down to the codex chantilly. lots of different recordings, but that's all for the better.

Fascinating to see/hear the Ensemble Intercontemporain play Takemitsu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5fCEnY4tDE

Nice little article on classical guitar in Ottawa/Gatineau: https://www.cbc.ca/music/how-ottawa-gatineau-became-canada-s-classical-guitar-capital-1.5446054?fbclid=IwAR2enJHj_zlw9J_alaTNeiX_gtyYxDwQb_nfEK1mwkl5ogXXOqY4ykUJ8lQ

Cool. Do you think you might go to any of those festival concerts?

The Saturday night Perroy concert would probably be easiest since I work during most of the others. Friday night possibly but Feb 14 is, uh, not necessarily the best day to make plans to bro down over nylon strings.

Cool article, and I enjoyed the YT embeds as well.

A couple nights ago I saw this piece by Quebec composer Jacques Hétu, based on the occupation of France. I thought the choral movement (4. Liberté), with text by Paul Éluard, was really gorgeous. Julie Payette was in the choir, randomly.

https://youtu.be/E998yQCDfuE

I've always been a bit wary of him as he is championed by reactionaries such as Le Devoir's resident classical music critic, and I have little patience for straight Neo-classicism in general, but I'll check it out anyway.

Went to the P2 Award Gala last saturday. It opened with the winner of the Talent award, 24-year old Gustav Piekut, playing Debussy's L'Isle Joyeuse, and I think the video works: https://www.facebook.com/drp2/videos/180211973206107/

Other award winners included Event of the year going to Hans Abrahamsens 'Snedronningen', which, duh. Best New Music album was Nordic String Quartet for a recording of string quartets by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgren. I'm not saying what won Best Danish Album, because you can all figure it out, even more duh. Yeah, that album, an Abrahamsen opera, Piekut beginning to break through. Classical is doing pretty damn well in Denmark at the moment.

Enjoying this a lot lately
https://store.acousticsounds.com/images/large/ADGR_89301__136546__07242018025451-1865.jpg

Curious to hear his Bach "Reworks" album but also sort of skeptical

RIP Christophe Desjardins, an absolutely incredible violist who specialized in contemporary classical music. Here is his take on Gérard Grisey's Prologue to Les espaces acoustiques:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owh959MChmw

Reinbert de Leeuw, to my mind one of the greatest conductors of the late 20th/early 21st century, just passed away. As a pianist, he was preternaturally attuned to the mystical side of late Liszt and Satie, channelling their works into an impossibly slow processional. As a conductor, he excelled not only in Andriessen, whose operas he championed without fail, but in a remarkably broad repertoire that emphasized the poetry and plurality of the modernist idiom. He was equally at ease in Schoenberg and Ligeti, Messiaen and Kurtág, Ustvolskaya and Adams, Gubaidulina and Britten. With the astonishing Asko/Schönberg Ensemble and Susan Narucki, he notably recorded nigh-definitive versions of Claude Vivier's Lonely Child, Zipangu, Prélude pour un Marco Polo and Bouchara, to say nothing of his generous commitment to bringing Vivier's works to the stage via the Rêves d'un Marco Polo project, which did much to raise Vivier's profile abroad. What a sad day this is.

I don't often agree with him but… Alex Ross otm:

https://www.therestisnoise.com/2020/02/for-reinbert-de-leeuw.html

Why don't you often agree with Alex Ross?

Not in the mood to properly expand at the moment but I find him way too US-centric for comfort.

RIP RDL. Will play Via Crucis (his solo piano rendition) in valediction.

He recorded some Satie songs as accompanist to our lass Hannigan as well

Interviewed violinist Isabelle Faust this afternoon. It'll be up as an episode of my podcast next month.

Oh do link it!

Can anyone get google to translate the Dutch newspaper memorium linked from Alex ross’ piece?

LBI?

Look forward to that interview, unperson. Isabelle Faust is a personal hero of mine, so to speak.

RIP. I really liked that Via Crucis recording.

4665/5000
Tekenlimiet: 5000
An unconditional belief in music
Reinbert de Leeuw. Image Frank Ruiter

Conductor, composer and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw (81) has died. A spokesperson on behalf of family and friends said so. De Leeuw's performances were uncompromising, inspired and almost always normative.
Frits van der Waa14 February 2020, 18:07

"A masterpiece!" If Reinbert de Leeuw was enthusiastic about something, he would not hide it. De Leeuw unconditionally believed in the music he performed, so in his eyes the pieces he performed were always masterpieces - he didn't do it for less. His performances were uncompromising, enthusiastic and almost always normative.

In Reinbert de Leeuw, Dutch music life loses one of its most prominent foremen, who has left his mark on music practice as a conductor, pianist, composer and director for more than half a century.

In 2011, he was saddened to see how much of what he had achieved was demolished in a short time by the culture cutbacks of the Rutte I cabinet, which was blown in by the PVV. his old love, and with his eloquence, became a welcome guest at DWDD, where he was particularly astonished with a performance of 4'33 ”, a 'totally silent' piece by John Cage. His performance in Zomergasten of 2014 (where he took the opportunity to light a shekie during the screening of a video clip) was also memorable.

In 2014 he composed another great orchestral piece, Der nächtliche Wanderer, and continued to broaden his horizons. From 2013 on, for example, he conducted Bach's St. Matthew Passion and, in 2018, the John: because of his love for the sublime, the sublime, in fact a very logical step. Duyns also made a documentary about De Leeuw's Matthäus-love, in which the 78-year-old musician sighs: "I would like to have a lifetime to devote myself to this."

Google translate of the Volkskrant article, as requested (sorry, no time to 'smoothen' or correct the English). Hadn't seen this thread earlier, but I'm still really sad about this.

One to watch is his full 'performance' of 4'33, live on telly, in the most popular tv show over here (a show that invites bands to play live for one minute usually). Only he could do this with both authority and irony. Will see if I can find it.

4090/5000
An unconditional belief in music
Frits van der Waa14 February 2020, 18:07
6-8 minutes

Conductor, composer and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw (81) has died. A spokesperson on behalf of family and friends has said so. De Leeuw's performances were uncompromising, inspired and almost always normative.

"A masterpiece!" If Reinbert de Leeuw was enthusiastic about something, he would not hide it. De Leeuw unconditionally believed in the music he performed, so the pieces he performed were always masterpieces in his eyes - he didn't do it for less. His performances were uncompromising, enthusiastic and almost always normative.

In Reinbert de Leeuw, Dutch music life loses one of its most prominent foremen, who has left his mark on music practice as a conductor, pianist, composer and director for more than half a century.

From rebel he grew into an authority, according to some even as a culture man. But the influence that De Leeuw exercised was always at the service of music. It was never about himself. It should not even concern himself: in 2014, he voiced his veto about a biography of Thea Derks devoted to him. The book was published anyway, but unauthorized.

De Leeuw was born on 8 September 1938 on Amsterdam's Koninginneweg, a neighborhood where he lived for most of his life. His parents, both psychiatrists, died young, so he had to find his own way when he was 18 years old. While studying piano with Jaap Spaanderman and composition with Kees van Baaren, he became a teacher at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 1961 he met composer Louis Andriessen, who became a friend for life and of whom he directed all major works.

In the 1960s he made himself heard as a member of the Nutcrackers, an action group that argued for a more progressive artistic course with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. With four other composers from this group, he wrote the collective opera Reconstruction, which caused a stir in 1969.
Reinbert de Leeuw in 1971. Image Vincent Mentzel

He fought for unknown composers, such as George Antheil and Charles Ives, about whom he wrote a book together with the writer Bernlef. He composed a large orchestral work, Abschied (1973) and the opera Axel (1977), together with Jan van Vlijmen. These works already show his desire for a great expression, for the example, but not directly with the means of Romanticism.

"I've always been immensely interested in that period of late Romanticism, roughly from 1880 to 1914, sometimes it was almost an obsession," he said in 1986. other such crushing pieces have been written. "

Composing fell into the background, certainly when he took care of the Hague club of conservatory students who from 1974 would be called the Schönberg Ensemble. Over the years he has recorded the complete chamber music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. To his surprise he probably scored a big hit with his quirky, remarkably slow renditions of piano work by Erik Satie. In the meantime, he worked for all kinds of innovations in music practice, and stood at the cradle of the Fund for Creative Music, that composers had to offer a reasonable fee.

The eighties and nineties were his heyday. He collaborated with composers he admired such as Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti and Mauricio Kagel. Director Cherry Duyns, a loyal brother-in-law, made the revealing series Toonmeesters, which contains wonderful moments, such as his first interview with the shy Belgian composer Galina Oestvolskaya, who did not even want to be portrayed. Oestvolskaya’s uncompromising music, with its hammered dissonant chords, is exemplary of the musical truth, or rather truths, that De Leeuw has always been looking for.

The passion with which De Leeuw defended his beloved repertoire went so far that he sometimes called on critics because of the "damage" they caused to the music, or demanded that high-level editors be put inactive. However, in the eyes of the world he always remained civilized and reasonable.

Although he also enjoyed international prestige, especially in the United States, he did not care for fame or wealth, he drove around in a crashed car and used the shaver mainly when he had to go back on stage.

In 2011, he was saddened to see how much of what he had achieved was demolished in a short time by the culture cutbacks of the Rutte I cabinet, which was blown in by the PVV. his old love, and with his eloquence, he became a welcome guest at DWDD, where he was particularly striking with a performance of 4'33 ”, a 'totally silent' piece by John Cage. His performance in Zomergasten of 2014 (where he took the opportunity to light a shekie during the screening of a video clip) was also memorable.

In 2014 he composed another great orchestral piece, Der nächtliche Wanderer, and continued to broaden his horizons. From 2013 on, for example, he conducted Bach's St. Matthew Passion and, in 2018, the John: because of hi
s love for the sublime, the sublime, actually a very logical step. Duyns also made a documentary about De Leeuw's Matthäus-love, in which the 78-year-old musician sighs: "I would like to have a lifetime to devote myself to this."

Screwed up the first copy/paste.

Thanks!

Der Nachtliche Wanderer is awesome btw. 5 Against 4 blog has a downloadable Proms recording of it if I’m not mistaken.

The Judicaël Perroy concert was great, probably the most clean and precise classical guitar playing I've ever seen live, on some dazzlingly difficult material (including BWV 997 and transcriptions of Mertz and Rachmaninoff); also very nice performance of Sor's Fantaisie élégiaque. Projected very strongly while maintaining a soft, rounded tone.

I got his 2010 Bach CD on Naxos. It's been sounding v good so far.

absolutely bracing stuff here, very worth your time

https://cenkergun.bandcamp.com/album/sonare-celare

Yow

Thanks for the heads up – I'll listen to anything released by the JACK Quartet.

The "Dawn Chorus" movement is completely acoustic? Wow.

The bassoon solo "Axis Mundi" is really interesting too; a lot of energy and good variety in timbre and dynamics with a clear enough narrative shape. I'd be happy to go back and pick out the form a little more closely.

Her and Richard Barrett are my favourite Elision-affiliated composers.

Speaking of which, I had no idea the latter had released anything this year until TRJ included Mirage in his EOY list. I'll have to seek it out asap.

Nm, it's the same performance as the one xyz posted upthread.

"Songs Found in a Dream" pretty interesting timbrally as well, although I'm having a hard time processing these as 'songs' (or tbh picking out the sectional form with ease). Haha, Rutherford-Johnson did the liner notes? I will admit that the nebulous quasi-spiritual descriptions of the concepts behind the pieces are not really my thing but the sounds override these.

https://www.rarenoiserecords.com/2020/10/03/new-release-october-2020-stephan-thelen-presents-world-dialogue/

The Al Pari Quartet, a Polish, all-women ensemble, heard Kronos Quartet’s rendition of “Circular Lines” and began performing it at their own concerts. News of their interest in Stephan’s work reached him and he went on to collaborate with them as well on the other three pieces in this album.

this is really growing on me.

You can tell the composer is a mathematician.

I hear some Eastern influences in there as well as the math-rock, but I know what yer saying!

DG's video is shameless gothic cheese but how had I never heard this Schubert Lied before?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqfp06MLbeM

I hope she'll tackle Winterreise some day. She clearly has the idiom down pat.

Her two 2020 albums for Alpha Classics, Paradise Lost and Bach: Redemption, are likewise amazing.

That was amazing and just what I needed right now, thanks. I don't think I knew that piece either, although I own the 20-CD Schubert Meisterwerke on DG.

It's gorgeous, isn't it?

Turns out she and Eric Schneider skip the first six (!) stanzas. You can hear the full version here, sung by the equally stellar Christian Gerhaher, at a mildly faster clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih43NAQnmMU

One thing led to another and I ended up on a late night Schubert Lieder YT binge. It brought me back to the great Thomas Quasthoff, who never disappoints:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pze4NxCOjg0

Happy birthday Beethoven!

^this!

what do ppl feel are his best works and what are the best recorded performances?

I'm no expert on the guy yet but the grosse fuge and no 32 sonata are total bangers

Lazy answer: all of his works are his best works.

Real bullet-point answer, which is highly subjective:

* 16 string quartets, esp. the late quartets (12-16 and the Große Fuge) – Alban Berg Quartett (live, 1989); Belcea Quartet; Quartetto Italiano
* 9 symphonies (esp. 3, 5, 6, 7 & 9) – countless performances, for a complete set I've always been fond of Claudio Abbado's live renditions with the Berlin Philharmonic; Wilhelm Furtwängler's wartime (1942) recording of the 9th with the Berliners is stupefyingly intense, and not just because of the obvious historical context; Carlos Kleiber's takes on the 5th and 7th are rightly celebrated as well
* Missa solemnis (Beethoven thought it was his best work) – Michael Gielen, et al., with the caveat that there is no single 100% satisfactory recording of this one, unfortunately; Philippe Herreweghe's recent re-attempt at a historically informed performance is also quite good
* 32 piano sonatas (esp. 8, 14, 21, 23, 28-32) – Stephen Kovacevich; Maurizio Pollini
* Diabelli Variations – Stephen Kovacevich; Maurizio Pollini
* 5 cello sonatas (esp. 4-5) – Miklós Perényi & András Schiff
* 10 violin sonatas (esp. 9-10) – Isabelle Faust & Alexander Melnikov
*5 piano concertos (esp. 4-5) – Maurizio Pollini, Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado
* 7 piano trios (esp. 5-7) – Trio Wanderer
* violin concerto – Isabelle Faust, Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado (yeah, I love me some late Abbado)
* An die ferne Geliebte – Christian Gerhaher & Gerold Huber
* Bagatelles for piano – Stephen Kovacevich

As you can see, his late works are almost always best in my book. Performance-wise, these picks tend to highlight a more forceful and dramatic view of Beethoven without ever overdoing it. Basically, I want my Beethoven to be as Romantic and dynamic and transcendental as possible while maintaining a firm foothold in the classical tradition. I dislike genteel takes no less than self-indulgent re-imaginings. Really, though, these suggestions are just meant to get you started – part of the fun is seeking out different recordings and seeing which ones jive with your own ears.

I screwed up the bullet point formatting, but this should be readable enough.

tysm that’s fantastic!!! bookmarked

from what I’ve heard the later works feel more profound but that also makes me a bit scared of them. the earlier stuff goes down easier for casual listening but it doesn’t always stick with me

I fancy tackling the big symphonies first bc they’re so familiar as cultural signifiers/cliches but I’ve hardly ever listened seriously to them (except for 9 which I love 3/4 of). abbado is one of the few conductors I’m a little familiar with so he’s the easy choice

Bitte schön.

Chronologically working your way through just about any single one of these cycles is the most straightforward approach. It makes it easier to tackle the next cycle, and so on, until you hit the Missa solemnis and go 'wtf' because so many of his late creations are downright bizarre, including the finale to the 9th, imo among the most surreal (if you'll allow the anachronism) of normalized/institutionalized classical warhorses and impossible to hear with fresh ears until you suddenly do (that 1942 Furtwängler recording is what did it for me, appallingly bad nazi sound notwithstanding).

Btw finding the exact Abbado set I was talking about can be a bit confusing because it's a live re-recording of a to-him-unsatisfactory studio attempt (and I tend to agree with that assessment).

thank you. it’s hard to just wade in with this stuff when you have no context for it

This is the one:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7965665--beethoven-the-symphonies

It seems to have also been reissued as part of the DG's Abbado Symphony Edition boxset, which is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

cool thx

I don’t hate the 9th finale I just don’t know what the hell it’s trying to do most of the time. I will probably have to listen to the nazi one at some point

I'm not sure I do either tbh. One last thing: I didn't have much of a context for this stuff either when I got started, beyond a few pieces my dad was into when I was a kid. I just thought some of it was really moving and stayed with that feeling. I still can't read a score or play an instrument, but amateurishness is a huge step up from the legions of bougie concert-goers who dgaf about the music to begin with and who just show up to be *seen* and to mingle during the intermission (ye shall know them by their conspicuous absence whenever a post-1900 work featuring a smidgeon of dissonance is included in the concert program).

whether the rite of spring counts as music is still controversial in some of those circles

Some recent guitar stuff to check out:

https://www.lafolia.com/string-theory-35-mostly-guitars/

Thanks, putting on the Fongaard now.

Heh, these are definitely not inventions in Bach's sense of the term.

Ferneyhough’s Renvoi-Shards is not so different from the surrounding Fongaard

Haha what

I haven't listened to the album yet but that also made me go o_O based on Covell's description alone.

It's interesting but a long double album. I will come back to the later pieces.