Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1940s

Honourable Mentions

Arnold Schoenberg – A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 (1947)
Benjamin Britten – Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22 (1940)
Benjamin Britten – String Quartet No. 2, Op. 36 (1945)
Bohuslav Martinů – Symphony No. 1 (1942)
Bohuslav Martinů – Symphony No. 2 (1943)
Bohuslav Martinů – Symphony No. 5 (1946)
Dmitri Shostakovich – Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61 (1943)
Dmitri Shostakovich – Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1944)
Dmitri Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68 (1944)
Dmitri Shostakovich – From Jewish Folk Poetry, Op. 79 (1948)
Olivier Messiaen – Trois petites Liturgies de la Présence divine (1943-1944)
Pierre Boulez – 12 Notations (1945)
Vagn Holmboe – Symphony No. 6 (1947)

By the way, I'm going to have to put this series on hiatus for a little bit after this poll, as March is going to be an exceptionally busy month and the coming decades will require further (re)listening and exploration.

top five right now: shostakovich 9 < turangalila < villa-lobos preludes < quartet for the end of time < in a landscape

need to check out the lutoslawski. hoping harry partch's the wayward appears in the 50s list

Noted. I couldn't find an authoritative date of completion, but I can work with 1965 or 1967 (final revision).

I am p hazy on dates for these things but it looks like most of the wayward was written in the 40s with later revisions. I humbly suggest that US Highball is a total jam

As an aside, I have never knowingly heard anything by Michael Tippett.

Nice to see Honegger, Martinů and Lutosławski. But I'll just go with Vingt Regards I think, if only because that was the first classical thingy I ever walked into a store with the express purpose of purchasing. (The Naxos one, the only recording they had!)

Since I can't stop stanning for Enescu (don't worry, he died in 1955), I suggest Gidon Kremer and Oleg Maisenberg's recording of the Impressions d'enfance, a vivid suite of 'childhood impressions' for violin and piano that happens to be one of his most immediately likeable works. The Piano Quintet and 2nd Piano Quartet are considerably more recondite, in the vein of late Fauré, who was his mentor, but to my mind they are some of his greatest compositions. There's a very good recording of both by the Solomon Ensemble on Naxos. Kremer and his Baltica crew have also given us a persuasive take on the Quintet. I haven't included his unfinished 4th and 5th Symphonies, as that would just be overkill, but Pascal Bentoiu's completions are very much worth seeking out.

this decade is pretty unknown to me other than the shostakovich symphonies and bartok piano concerto

Lots of good options here (all the Shostakovich, Peter Grimes, Prokofiev piano concerto #6), but Fin De Temps is the only answer for me

Vingt regards

I'll definitely acquaint myself with this batch of 40s Enescu before I vote, a huge discovery for me thanks to these polls. No matter March will be poll-free Pom, it's not like we'll run out of things to listen to here!

Witold Lutosławski – Paganini Variations (1941)

I forced Pom to include this and it gets my easy vote for being exactly the type of piano repertoire I revere and love working on. But Messiaen's "Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus" is great too.

there is so much great stuff on this poll -- the Messaien piano music is tremendous, Vier letzte Lieder is gorgeous, those Prokofiev piano sonatas are some of my favorite listening ANYWHERE right now -- I got the Anne McDermott set after flipping over the No. 6 on Kissin's "Carnegie Hall Debut" set; they are just wonderful; the Shostakovich is great, the Bartok is great. Gonna do a bunch of listening before voting

Oops, I agree also that Prokofiev's 7th piano sonata is a titanic work, obvs.

I'm listening to Shostakovich Quartet No. 4 right now and like...the later ones are better but this music is sublime. Visionary.

Speaking of Messiaen's piano music, I really hope Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich will record the Visions de l'Amen some day.

now on Quartet No. 5. You could play the Andante in the middle of a Music from Hearts of Space set and it'd fit right in, it's so enveloping. The shift into the Moderato is like the most seamless DJ transition ever, like it physically lifts me. Timelessly great music

lol fuck n/m No. 5 ain't on this list

No way in hell I'd ever consider not including every single remaining Shosty quartet in the upcoming decades, so fret not.

By the way, I'm going to have to put this series on hiatus for a little bit after this poll, as March is going to be an exceptionally busy month and the coming decades will require further (re)listening and exploration.

― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Thursday, February 20, 2020 5:44 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i guess this means we can safely call Shostakovich #10 the '50s winner, congrats dmitri.

Don't underestimate the secret Marteau sans maître stans.

or Peter Grimes! really a feast here

peter grimes is so good

xpost or Vox Maris!

I recall reading that it wasn't left unfinished after all. You can certainly expect it along with the 2nd String Quartet and the Chamber Symphony once we reach the 1950s.

many great options, but In a Landscape for me

I love that but Sonatas and Interludes will probably win this for me. Amazing decade, though: Concerto for Orchestra, Peter Grimes, Villa-Lobos Preludes, Quatuor pour le fin de temps, Turangalila all top-tier.

Another playlist here. I need to return later to finish it though! (It's again set to collaborative should anyone wish to select some recordings.)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0a7k9N52t3W6hQ7lSfH5w4

I can think of a few reasons why you wouldn't want to BUT wouldn't it be fun and mb worthwhile to divide the rest of the 20th century into 5 year blocks rather than decades now that we're in what I consider 'the juicy bit'? betraying my own biases here and expect this to be shot down but thought I'd throw it out there

It would make for an interesting experiment, to be sure, but you may find yourself disappointed with my picks anyway. Besides, I think we're bound to get fewer and fewer voters as the decades advance, or at the very least a higher quotient of little-known titles, so I think it's best to keep it as manageable as possible (not just for my sake!). I also plan on introducing two-week intervals to ensure that everyone has enough time to get acquainted with some of the more 'obscure' (a relative term, of course) material.

That said, should ogmor's proposal be appealing to a majority of vocal participants, I am a magnanimous democrat and will endeavour to make it happen.

I'm not sure about leaving the 'poll per decade' format, which has worked fine up until now?

Yet I'm also not sure about:

I think we're bound to get fewer and fewer voters as the decades advance

You've iterated this before, and I'm wondering what fuels this suspicion? I would've thought, with the influx of more (post-)modern classical music (with the likes of Stockhausen, Cage, Reich, Glass, Riley, Pärt etc entering the arena) it would lead to more, not less voters?

I certainly hope you're right. As a general rule, I tend to assume that people are more familiar with the warhorses of yore than they are with the modern 'classics', but then again, this is ILM, so the opposite may well turn out to be true.

The influence of the more modern composers shows more directly in the music people like 'today'? Sonic Youth's experimentation pointed fans to Branca, Cage and Stockhausen. For ambient/kosmische fans it's a small step from Göttsching's E2-E4 to Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato or In C? These are just two examples though, and yes,

but then again, this is ILM,

this disclaimer (or new board description?) should always be applied.

I'm more interested in other strands of postwar and contemporary composition (Grisey, Niculescu, Kurtág, Nørgård, Barrett, Sørensen, Rădulescu, Takemitsu, Gubaidulina, Tulve, Andre, Harvey, Sciarrino, Levinas, etc.) that are nowhere near as discussed in my admittedly limited experience. We'll find out soon enough!

Oh absolutely, and I'm looking forward to learning more about that strand!

I'm thinking about voting Sonatas and Interludes, but shit, I listened to Enescu's Impressions d’enfance last night, and whoa.. I'm a fan!

:)

Otoh, Maroon 5 points us straight to Pachelbel.

Brian Eno too tbf.

Galina Ustvolskaya – Piano Sonata No. 2 (1949)

👍👍👍

But yeah, sticking with the decade format makes sense to me, although I am intrigued by the idea that ILM loves postwar notated composition so much as to need 50-option polls for 1970-1975 as well as 1975-1980.

I'm sure pomenitul could rattle off 50 pieces of 70s romanian spectralism for us if necessary

We could do polls for individual postwar composers once we're done with this series. I'd definitely be up for it.

xp possibly, I like a good challenge!

Which Iancu Dumitrescu piece is proggiest (politically speaking)?

All of them, obv.

We could do polls for individual postwar composers once we're done with this series. I'd definitely be up for it.

or we could do it for post-romantic composers? just trying to keep you busy, pom

We'll do one for each known composer chronologically, starting with Machaut.

no perotin no credibility

mb some themed listening threads to incorporate the lesser-known names?

split my vote between shostakovich 7 and bartok concerto for orchestra

I know one of these works and it’s quartet for the end of time and I’m voting for it, fuck it

Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, no question, and I will go into it at length when I have more time. <3

― Turangalila, Tuesday, February 25, 2020 11:28 PM

What treachery is this?

lol

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

Ooh, big votesplit for Messiaen there; is up 10-7 on Cage in total votes.

Messiaen is totes the real winner. For that whole century even, LOL.

I eagerly await Turangalila's treatise on 20 Regards...

did not get my vote in in time, which in the end would have been for one of the Prokofiev piano sonatas

I voted for In a Landscape. Never thought Cage would win, though. And not even among my favorite Cage piano works.

I almost voted for the Britten Serenade, surprised at zero votes for that or grimes

Glad to see someone went with Enescu's 2nd Piano Quartet. Post-Romanticism so inward-looking it borders on modernism.

Anyway, I'll be back in a few weeks with a proper follow-up.

good results, shostakovich perhaps a bit short-changed. excited to vote for some tape music !

Shostakovich's best works are still very much on the horizon.

There will be some canonical tape music, just don't expect oodles of it.

Anyway, I'll be back in a few weeks with a proper follow-up.

In the meantime, thanks a lot for running these! :-D

My pleasure. Thanks to everyone who participated so far!

Yes, thanks so much Pom. It's enriched my classical music repertoire and knowledge greatly.

Have you read and/or can you recommend a good biography of Enescu?

I haven't read it, but Noel Malcolm's George Enescu: His Life and Music seems to be the English-language reference.

Thank you! The publisher says it's OOP but available as print on demand, but I found a copy near to me.

If you do find the time to read it at some point, let me know what you think. Anyway, based on my admittedly limited knowledge, Enescu led an interesting life and, unusually for a noted Romanian of his generation, did not dabble in fascism at all.

It's already ordered and on the way, so no doubt I'll read it rather sooner than later! Will definitely let you know; his wiki alone reads like the tip of a huge iceberg of a life equally interesting as dramatic. And sad.

Since we're all stuck indoors anyway, I'll try to get the 1950s edition up and running by week's end.

Yay!!!! :)

excellent news

I'm thinking of leaving the remaining polls open for two weeks at a time. Would that be alright with everyone?

sure

Absolutely!

Any requests btw?

In favour of two-week cycle. Also yay!

xp You'll doubtless come up w/ a great list and I'll probably vote for one of the more obvious picks but since you asked I'd love to see some Lou Harrison, mb Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra, Serenado por Gitaro, Seven Pastorales, or Songs in the Forest?

I'll see what I can do. There will definitely be some Harrison in the coming decades, I can promise that much.

this coincides nicely with me re-organizing my classical LPs.

pom i’m sure i’ll be happy with any list you come up with. and if not, i’ll at least try to be amusing in bitching about yr glaring omissions :)

Bitch on! That’s what these polls are for (beside other, less edifying things).

I’ve not many 50s requests. Assume Stockhausen will appear in some guise.

Not sure if choral music for church services is in your wheelhouse BUT it would be great to see Herbert Howells’ St Paul’s service.

Kreuzspiel is my Stockhausen request.

Done!

Any Cage requests? I've got four on my long list so far.

Also
Reginald Smith Brindle - El Polifemo de Oro

Xenakis - Pithoprakta

concret ph too, please

I might have to veto the latter, alas. A separate poll for musique concrète would make more sense imho.

sure, it’s your poll after all.

It's a question of space more than anything. I've got 30+ works to excise already.

will any berio make the cut ?

“thema” would seem out by your standards, but perhaps there’s room for “serenade i”

i’m not advocating for either, just asking out of curiosity

A separate poll for musique concrète would make more sense imho.

agree w/this fwiw

There will be some Berio, and increasingly more as the decades advance, obv.

Is Ligeti's Concert Romanesc eligible in the 50s, or do we have to wait for the 70s?

I'd hope Elliott Carter's Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord from 1952 makes the cut.

His second string quartet too!

Is Ligeti's Concert Romanesc eligible in the 50s, or do we have to wait for the 70s?

As much as I enjoy it, I'm afraid it's too minor a piece to qualify.

xps Carter's definitely in – anything less would be criminal.

Reboot:

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1950s