Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1870s

Tempted to go with the Franck Quintet. But the sheer amount of composer-contenders is rising as move forward.

"Ma Vlast" jumps out at me but I haven't heard most of this stuff.

Tchaik 4

Tchaik 4

Another wee playlist (open to improvement, as always)
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nbUGwir6ESgJVJdZBRSR9

We've entered a period where I'm a little better informed. eg. the Bruckner, Smetana and much of the French and Russian stuff were amongst the earliest such things I listened to properly, for some reason. Brahms, however, doesn't seem to stick with me, so I'm again going to try harder on that front!

Too hard
There at least 8 first choices here

Voted Dvorak's Slavonic Dances for nostalgia, also cuz it bangs hard

There have been no less than two remarkable recordings of Liszt's Via crucis this year: Reinbert de Leeuw's with the Collegium Vocale Gent and Kaspars Putniņš's with Kalle Randalu and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. The work itself is a characteristically eccentric take on the Stations of the Cross, substituting a piano for the traditional organ, which gives the proceedings a harder, almost pitiless resonance, rendered all the more dolorous by the excruciatingly slow tempos, a throwback to Haydn's Seven Last Words. I imagine Messiaen found much to draw upon in this piece, at once ancient due to its overt Roman Catholic touchstones and utterly novel in its vocal and pianistic idiom (I doubt he approved of its pervasive bleakness, though).

i like brahms symphony 2 and the faures

My 8-year-old piano student at Halloween self has to vote for "Danse macabre."

Obligatory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CHqhsMP80E

Oh, and speaking of 2019 classical releases and Fauré, Eric Le Sage's recording of the Nocturnes is possibly the best I've ever heard. I hope an intégrale is in the works.

Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 (1875)

really sad that i have to choose between these two :(

De Leeuw made a new recording of Via Crucis? His old one on Philips/Universal is my top choice for the piano & chorus version.

BUT

On Youtube there is a live performance of De Leeuw playing the solo piano version (no voices) and it is NOT TO BE FUCKING MISSED

i have always wanted to send David Tibet a copy of Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses and Via Crucis

I forgot to mention that it is indeed a new recording and it ROOLZ (as does the old one tbf).

RIP master pianist Abbey Simon, whose old Vox recordings of the following pieces (from prior polls in this series) are all at or very near the top of my recommendations:

Chopin Etudes
Schumann Carnaval + Fantasie
Liszt Paganini Etudes
Ravel complete piano works
(I am going out on a limb and assuming at least some Ravel solos will be in the 1900s and 1910s polls...)

Vox was a budget label but these recordings were all beautifully engineered in nyc.

He was 90 and still performing sometimes.

These threads continue to be an absolute gold mine, thanks pom.

And this is probably for another time (and thread) but it would be interesting to hear any thoughts about the links between classical music and extreme metal or - if indeed there are any.

It was the Faure Nocturnes that prompted that particular post. Absolutely glorious.

Well here’s thrash metal band Mekong Delta doing the full Mussorgski Pictures At An Exhibition.

Well here’s thrash metal band Mekong Delta doing the full Mussorgski Pictures At An Exhibition.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted for Pictures, although I wish I listened to more over the past week. Amazing how adaptable that piece is, though. (I did get around to listening to the ELP version for the first time; it was better than I expected.) "The Old Castle" is even a classical guitar classic.

too much

bruckner 3
ma vlast
s-s is fine
verdiem
pictures
wagner

voted moldau

As expected, chalk one up for the Franck Quintet (I was afraid no one else would vote for it).

Yeah, I've seen that performed by Cecilia String Quartet and Georgy Tchaidze and loved it.

Carmen was probably what I was considering for #2. Kind of funny that no one has mentioned it.

Carmen really is great (Nietzsche otm).

After tense deliberation, Bruckner 5 over Siegfried, Brahms 1, Via Crucis, Peer Gynt and Tchaik 4.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Ravel’s orchestration or the solo piano original? (Both are valid of course.)

Ravel's was decades later, right?

And props to whoever voted for the Fauré.

Yep.

xp

1922, to be precise.

I don't love Segovia on everything but he was great on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXAnPoUMikU

I’m struggling to narrow the next poll down to 50. I’ll try to get it done tomorrow but there may be a 24h holiday slump.

And to answer the question, I really was voting for the original composition, not the Ravel orchestration, since that's what was done in the 1870s.

that danse macabre cartoon... that's like marvel 1960s cartoon levels of limited animation!

one of the more fascinating corners of the secret chiefs 3 discography has been trey spruance's continuing fascination with danse macabre - i think his most recent release of it is the dec 2017 version, but who's to say he won't go back to it again!

https://secretchiefsthree.bandcamp.com/album/danse-macabre-superdeluxe

Ravel’s orchestration or the solo piano original? (Both are valid of course.)

― pomenitul, Wednesday, December 25, 2019 8:28 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

solo piano! saw conrad tao perform the whole thing a few years back and it was incredible.

regret not voting for the tchaikovsky--that deserved a vote.

I voted for the solo piano original too--it was the piece I knew best, from my poor attempts to master it. Came close to giving Delibes' Sylvia a vote though.

There have been no less than two remarkable recordings of Liszt's Via crucis this year: Reinbert de Leeuw's with the Collegium Vocale Gent

Just listened to this. Tbh, I didn't know the piece and it is incredible!

Yup

I choose to believe that it invented death/doom metal.