Classic(al) Performances: Search & Destroy

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Thinking about summer & listening to Rachel's, I've developed a hankerin' for some Vivaldi. I could probably drive down to the local MediaPlay and snag a version of _The Four Seasons_ to get my fix. But, then, I remember listening to my mom's classical tapes back in the day, where she had TWO version's of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (I think). One version played it straight, while the other did a bit of creative re-interpreting (which amounted to playing one section at a slower tempo than the others, creating contrast, heightening the emotional appeal, etc etc etc). I can't recall who was involved in either, though - I do remember that the "good" performance was on this tape from a classical music club, though.

So, assuming that there are some classical heads in the viewing audience, what performances of which composers' pieces would you recommend? (Personally, my favorite composers include the aforementioned Beathoofen, Vivaldi, and DeBussy, with a bit o' Ravel, too, but I'm open to other suggestions as well.) Are you more a traditionalist, or do you don the spiked powdered wigs? Do you go for the bombast, or are gentle piano pieces more your speed?

― David Raposa, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, as I;ve stated I prerfer my classical music switched-on. But I think its often hilarious when conductors twist peices all around. I get so used to hearing it one way...I mean composers then wrote music as if it was a reocrding, to be reproduced a certan way always. It sweird when suddenyl a section is fast for some reason, or louder then usual

― Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

IANACH. But: yesterday, in what will go down as one of the great musical bargain days of Tracer's life, I picked up pristine Deutsche Gramaphone vinyl of Ivo Pogorelich playing a bunch of Chopin stuff. Before having read the liner notes, I already noticed something very different about the playing - big changes in tempo; something sticky and undisguised about the phrasing, like each section is a knotty problem; notes coming in very late or very early, entire phrases rhythmically isolated from the rest of the piece; almost as if the v. familiar music was a 2-D construct and suddenly Ivo is twirling three dimensions around for you, revealing entire surfaces and indentations previously unnoticed. According to the liner notes Pogorelich was not admitted to the final round of the 1980 Chopin competition because half the judges gave him the highest score possible and half the judges gave him the lowest. The record that I'd bought off the street is "his repley to the Warsaw competition".

I hardly ever listen to classical music but small stuff when I do. I can't wait to take a crack at Josh's list of small chamber recordings.

There has been much annoyance here at "murky, samey" orchestral recordings - does anyone have any counterexamples? Any really punchy, adventurous miking/mixing?

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If you can find a copy of "Carmina Burana" conducted by Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos, BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. It's a completely different piece. (At least, it was a completely different piece to sing.)

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Try Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa if you can find it -- newer classical, to be sure, but I think I've rarely heard any piece sadder than "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten."

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So this version is actually good somehow, Dan? :)

Wot Tracer said - see the "chamber music" thread. Will post more later sometime eventually.

― Josh, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I would recommend Holst's "Planet Suite", good varied mood. A word of warning though carefull of some of the live recordings because the audience seems to made up of members of the local bronchitus club.

― tom, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Carmina Burana= the most awful, over-rated piece of trash ever. Oh, sure, everybody knows and loves the first (and last, which is exactly the same as the first) movement(s) that they've heard in countless movies, but I got stuck analyzing this over-blown bit of shit for one of my comprehensive music exams in college (kind of like, instead of a senior thesis), and once you get into the less-than-spectacular middle movements, it makes you want to tear your ears off rather than listen to such unjustly-popular bullshit. 'nuff said.

― Danielle, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry, Dan... didn't want you to think I was being hostle towards *you*... just have CB trauma, in case it's not obvious...

― Danielle, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well maybe you just can't HANDLE Carmina Burana .

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mike- how do you figure? I think there are lots of other pieces (Rite of Spring, Copland's Poems of Emily Dickinson, Mahler's Das Leid von der Erde) that are way more challenging and which I absolutely LOVE.

― Danielle, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Large chunks of CB can be irritating, I guess. It's a piece I've always enjoyed, primarily because of the subject matter and the solo pieces.

FdB studied the piece with Orff and conducts it more like a Stravinsky piece than a romantic piece. He gets around a lot of the mind-numbing repetition by highlighting different aspects of the orchestra (best example: "Fortune plango vulnera". Each time the orchestral bridge comes around, he brings everyone except for one part of the orchestra way down so that different aspects come out, changing the character each time) and by emphasizing the text. His tempos are MUCH faster than most are used to, with a lot of the baritone solo stuff turning into accelerated chant rather than syrupy romantic nonsense that goes on forever. The soprano solos also become magical. "Veni, veni, venias" moves by so fast it's frightening and nothing really beats "In taberna quando sumus".

― Dan Perry, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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