Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1970s – Part II (1975-1979)

Honourable Mentions

Alfred Schnittke – Cello Sonata No. 1 (1978)
Alfred Schnittke – Symphony No. 2, ‘St. Florian’ (1979)
Benjamin Britten – Phaedra, Op. 93 (1975)
Elliott Carter – A Symphony of Three Orchestras (1976)
George Benjamin – Octet (1978)
Giacinto Scelsi – Maknongan (1976)
Hans Abrahamsen – Walden (1978)
John Cage – Etudes australes (1974-1975)
John Cage – Etudes boréales (1978)
John Cage – Roaratorio (1979)
Karlheinz Stockhausen – Tierkreis (1974-1975)
Krzysztof Penderecki – Violin Concerto No. 1 (1976-1977)
Luciano Berio – Sequenza VIII (1976)
Luigi Nono – Al gran sole carico d’amore (1975)
Maurice Ohana – Anneau du Tamarit (1976)
Maurice Ohana – Livre des prodiges (1978)
Morton Feldman – Piano (1977)
Per Nørgård – Seadrift (1978)
Pierre Boulez – Messagesquisse (1976)
Sofia Gubaidulina – De profundis (1978)
Ștefan Niculescu – Echos I (1977)
Tigran Mansurian – Double Concerto (1978)
Toru Takemitsu – Quatrain (1974-1975)
Valentin Silvestrov – Symphony No. 4 (1976)
Witold Lutosławski – Les espaces du sommeil (1975)
Wolfgang Rihm – Klavierstück Nr. 6 (1976-1978)

Right off the bat, allow me to advertise Ștefan Niculescu's Ison II, among the most ecstatically gorgeous pieces to have come out of a half-decade filled to the brim with ecstasy and beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G774tcYlv1I

Spectralized Romanian folk melodies ad infinitum, which is as sublime as it gets for yours truly.

And speaking of orchestral (and choral) euphoria, do NOT miss out on Per Nørgård's 3rd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY0F8D6lIkA

I could vote for any of these:

Alfred Schnittke – Piano Quintet (1972-1976)
Alfred Schnittke – Violin Concerto No. 3 (1978)
Arvo Pärt – Tabula rasa (1977)
György Kurtág – Hommage à András Mihály: 12 Microludes for String Quartet, Op. 13 (1977-1978)
Iannis Xenakis – Jonchaies (1977)
Per Nørgård – Symphony No. 3 (1972-1975)
Sofia Gubaidulina – Introitus (1978)
Ștefan Niculescu – Ison II (1975-1976)
Valentin Silvestrov – Silent Songs (1974-1975)
Wolfgang Rihm – String Quartet No. 3, ‘Im innersten’ (1976)

Louis Andriessen -- De Staat (1972-1976)

Don’t care how bathetic, for me it’s Part’s Cantus in Memorium of Benjamin Britten

I don't get Andriessen at all, sorry.

I mean, Pink Floyd was absent from the 1970s polls that inspired this series and I complained about it as loudly as I could, so you know what to do.

oh don't worry, i'm going to make everybody here miserable

anyway, speaking of spectralized romanians: will we see rădulescu at some point ?

We most certainly will!

Fratres easily, I love it so much esp. the 12-cello version

in fact, I love it so much that I voted for it before I saw Einstein. oh well. consider it a split vote.

I don't blame you in the least, although for my money Tabula rasa (the original ECM recording with Gidon Kremer and… Alfred Schnittke) is Pärt's greatest achievement.

yeah I admit I did hesitate on that as well

I'm much less intimately familiar with the second half of the 70s, apparently. (Though I have old CDs of a few of these -- Rzewski, Birtwistle, Pärt, Berio -- that I don't seem to play!) Really want to revisit Vivier, Murail, Rihm and further Kurtág, Lachenmann, Gubaidulina, Ustvolskaya, Takemitsu, Dutilleux, Ferneyhough and Schnittke.

Niculescu is certainly sounding cool so far!

went with english country-tunes

Another playlist (though 2-3 things seem unavailable again, to me least)
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7okUyP6WrAzMaFSA3VKtQ4?si=Mj23r9j8SwS6GhPEcLhVGQ

I would have voted for what I think is my fav Feldman, Violin & Orchestra, because I love its quiet momentum as it moves in a sort of call and response between those very memorable, kind of gorgeously oversaturated, restless, avian violin phrases and those brooding rhythms, and the use of piano is v striking BUT now I get to vote for the monstrous Jongchaies.

Tabula Rasa or Coro. Einstein will do fine without me I am sure.

Belated write-in vote with regards to Part I for Penderecki’s Symphony (commissioned by Perkins Engines!)

Yeah this is Einstein for me.

that Niculescu is sublime, might just listen to it on a loop today and ignore the other stuff

Frederic Rzewski – The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)

James Pursey - If The Kids Are United They Will Never Be Divided! (1979)

Had to be a corny indie fuxor and go for MF18M.

Einstein, I love, and it is incredible and I feel super lucky to have seen two performances but musically it's not as strong as most of what I've heard from this list, the themes being so heavily extrapolated across its duration.

Violin and Orchestra strikes me as one of the more forbidding of Feldman's works in that vein. Which recording would you recommend, ogmor? I've only heard Carolin Widmann's with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Emilio Pomàrico.

That's the only recording I've heard too but I love it. Something about the way the two different sorts of motion fit together just sucks me in

a dear friend once memorably said "Every piece of classical music sounds like a rare dying animal being carried through the streets of a central European city to its grave, and that's why I like it". this is obviously more true of some pieces than others (verklarte nacht, hi) but there's something of it to violin and orchestra as well, with the violin as some sort of rare bird, not carried so much as dragged, thrashing in the torque of its tether, as the rest of the orchestra watches on, ready to murder it. it's tight!

Music for 18 vs Ginastera guitar sonata. One of the greatest pieces of music and most pleasant listening experiences vs possibly the greatest guitar composition of the late 20th century.

Music for 18 Musicians is magical, it puts you into a trance. When I used to work in a bookshop whenever I put it on people would browse with more quiet intensity and we'd sell more.

Yeah, absolutely, and, ha, that's an interesting use of it.

Massive thanks to everyone who’s contributed to this thread and its predecessors btw.

a lot i haven't heard once again. but it'll be hard for me to find something better than cantus in memoriam benjamin britten

No need for me to add to the vote tallies for Stevie R and Arvo, so I’ve gone for Takemitsu’s Flock as I’ve got the 1980 Deutsche G of that on vinyl and it still gets an airing every few months.

my copy of feldman violin + orchestra is Isabelle Faust and Hans Zender on CPO, it is excellent

Goddamn this is a tough one, but Fratres is all time for me, especially this version with Gil Shaham on lead violin:
https://youtu.be/NLvLQpSFbV0

Yeah - gonna have to go for that.

I managed to forget Xenakis’s Pléïades somehow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I'm listening to the new recording of Coro by Grete Pedersen and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Soloists' Choir, it's quite beautiful, sounds a little "random notes"-y in spots, but then swells and swoops and dives back into if not a tonal harmony, then something suggestive of consonance.

I'm going to try to listen to a couple of the Schnittke pieces tonight too, I have the Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra and the Concerto Grosso on an old Bis CD but I don't think I gave it a careful listen when I bought it. I have a couple of the Pärt pieces and two recordings of the Gorecki, but I didn't want to vote for a hit single. Of course, all that said, I probably did already vote, and I probably voted for the Gorecki or Tabula Rasa. Ah well.

Requests for the early 80s:
Don't think you'll forget Reich's Tehillim, Monk's Dolmen Music, and Vivier's Lonely Child, but just mentioning them.

Some guitar repertoire (although none of it will beat the above three pieces, I'm sure):
Leo Brouwer - El Decameron Negro
Denis Apivor - Ten Serial Pieces
Maurice Ohana - Cadran lunaire
Elliott Carter - Changes

And I couldn't not vote for Music for 18 Musicians in the end.

would prob vote for Dolmen Music, depends on what else is there

Have a couple more to hear, but leaning towards the ginastera guitar sonata, which is bad ass

Oh, phew, I'm glad someone is. Which recording you listening to? I like Aussel's.

Was listening to the Eduardo Fernandez recording, but was really won over by this mad Marcin Dylla performance: https://youtu.be/vETsXy7Og7Q

Ah, I saw Dylla in 06. I picked up this CD at the gig, which includes the Ginastera: https://www.discogs.com/fr/Marcin-Dylla-Chitarra-Giocosa/release/5624347. I haven't listened to that in a while but I remember it being good. Some solid shredding in that performance. I don't know Fernandez. I'll look for it. Timo Korhonen's recording was a p aggressive one iirc.

Thanks, Sund4r. I’ll try to include as many as I can (full disclosure though: Meredith Monk is a blind spot for me).

The Niculescu upthread is terrific.

Glad you like it! And there’s more to come. These days he seems be doomed to oblivion, including in Romania where his music was often performed during his lifetime. Yet Ligeti was a friend and admirer (the feeling was mutual, of course). Anyway, anyone who’s interested in Niculescu should check out this in-depth blog post:

http://soundproofedblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/Niculescuspectral.html

Lots of great discoveries here - Silent Songs (classical singing for ppl who hate classical singing - yes pls), Ison II, Silbury Air, and the Ginastera guitar sonata have all really impressed me - but I'm still going for the awesome Jonchaies, the largest piece of music in the world

Want to actually play the Ginastera sonata again now.

i think i might give this to the Norgard.

Lol so many good works here, with great ppl signing off. Coro as Berio's greatest work. Jonchaies is probably the last great orchestral work by Xenakus although Nono would undergo a renaissance, with Feldman actually entering into an unbelievable, unexpected run.

Roaratorio is great and should've perhaps been included.

Finnissy and Ferneyhough are produced their first peak work.

There is some great footage of English country tunes. This is a work I have seen played a couple of times though not by the man himself.

https://youtu.be/kXBR0JcFO48

Going for that one.

Love the Maxwell Davies (so much good shit with his Fires of London ensemble), Birtwhistle. I've been reading some Geoffrey Hill for the last couple of days and you could conclude that England were produce some very good, serious art (and that's discounting the stuff coming out of pop and plastic arts) right at this time.

Dutilleux, Vivier, Rzewski and Lachenmann are the other ones I've enjoyed a lot from.

Pulled out the Dylla disc and, yep, that's a great recording of the sonata, so precise while taking those faster movements at quite a clip.

Last minute vote for Lachenmann, if only because I appreciated the incentive to dig it out for the first time in ages.

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

Sorry, Ginastera.

That said, the winner p much always feels like the best music ever written when it's on.

Though that also applied for Schnittke, Vivier, Dutilleux, Ustvolskaya... This was pretty hard.

(XP) Cool that my Schnittke choice, at least, got some love.

I was the Schnittke voter :) I hadn't voted after all, and that Schnittke was the last thing I listened to last night, and it was spooky and sinister enough to pull my vote. Coro came close, as did Why Patterns?

It's ok, American minimalists are about to fly out the window anyway.

Sweet turnout btw.

Next!

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1980s – Part I (1980-1984)

can't argue with that. so much great stuff on this list. listened to the rzewski on election day while travelling through the rain to get the vote out, felt suitably tragic and defiant

Arvo got split too much, but good showing

I did vote for norgard but then I listened to the Ginastera sonata and wished I’d voted for it.

Sort of :( and :) at the same time.

Glad I voted for it now!

The Juniper Tree is from this period too, here is an excerpt. One of the great pieces; Richard Emskey composed really great things over a very short period.

https://youtu.be/_C80QJmtky8

Kinda sad Rzewski never got any votes.

Maxwell Davies' Aves Maria Stella is another classic from this period

His masterpiece imo, and the ideal balance between his early provocateur aesthetic (which I favour) and his sadly underwhelming transformation into an elder statesman of British music. The Fires of London recording is canonical, but I quite like Gemini's as well, if only for its engineering, which really brings out the work's tightly woven strands.

Late 70s is when Donatoni got going:

https://youtu.be/ZI7MEnElhOc

Do you like Kagel, Pom? Went through a few threads but don't remember you listing anything..

Afraid not. My ears are impervious to his music. Ludwig van (the film) is kind of great, though.

Ok, yeah he gets that reaction a lot of the time. Never seen that film