Deano's Classical Journey, Where Next?

try kraftwork tel

For a different flavor in the time period you like, give the Prokofiev Violin Sonatas a try - Shlomo Mintz did a spectacular set which is available from ArkivMusic. Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 is another great work - Levine and Chicago did the most stunning rendering of this work that I have heard, also from ArkivMusic.

If you haven't tried Stravinsky yet, you are in for a treat. Abbado and London have a terrific 2 cd set with all the big ballets on DGG. Petrouchka and the Firebird are the place to start, but you should also try to develop a taste for Pulcinella, which is simply exquisite.

Another form I really enjoy are tone poems by different composers, partly because they are short. Richard Strauss has some wonderful works at that cusp period, as well as Sibelius.

If you want to get tawdry try the opera Salome, the Met HD version done last year was amazing and really salacious at the end. Beautiful music while she is making love to a severed head. aaaach!

Somehow I'm drawn to tawdry and always got in trouble for that growing up. Now most of my friends are the same way. We just love to be shocked.

I am well into Brahms at the moment. This box set is superb IMHO. It's a slow grower.

Dean,

I'd second the choice of Brahms, a natural progression from Beethoven. But I'd go for the Bruno Walter/Columbia set recorded toward the end of his career and representing some of the very best, particularly his interpretation of the second and third symphonies.

The overtures, particularly The Academic Festival are as good as any. There is also a wonderful set of Haydn Variations. Superb.

The Sony reissue CDs have been SBM'd but I assume you would hunt the vinyl down. If not, the original CDs on CBS do turn up in second hand stores.

Have you investigated Rachmaninov or Dvorak?




Joe.

Another terrific Brahms set is the Abbado/Brahms Symphonies with Berlin, my favorite.

But Brahms is a fair distance from the Russians you were curious about.

Dean, from the time period you mention, I'd recommend sampling some Alexander von Zemlinsky, Alexander Scriabin, and Karol Szymanowski. All offer lush music with extraordinary orchestration, though all are forward looking, if you will. (Zemlinksy was even one of Schoenberg's teachers, and one of Alma Mahler's, um, friends, so he was steeped in the Mahlerian era.) Erich Korngold also might be worth considering, even though he's from a later generation. He maintained the tradition. The aforementioned Richard Strauss is also superb. Some works from the composers:

Zemlinsky - Die Seejungfrau, Sinfonietta, Der Traumgorge (if you like opera)

Scriabin - Symphony 3, Poem of Ecstacy

Szymanowski - Symphonies 3 & 4, Metopes and Masques (for piano music), Mythes (for chamber), King Roger (for opera)

Korngold - Symphony in F sharp, violin concerto

Strauss - Yes. (Seriously, any of his tone poems or operas up through Der Rosenkavalier would suffice.)


If you want to go deeper into the 20th Century, as Prokofiev would indicate, well, start with Prokofiev, Shostakovich, early Bartok then later Bartok, Stravinsky from the Rite up through Agon, and Schulhoff if you want to hear classical and jazz fused. Really, the period offers more than be covered in even a dozen threads.


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Guys thanks for your suggestions.


Loads to think about and investigate in the new year.

Now I have Petrouchka on vinyl Mike, I will dig that out, so there's my first Stravinsky and seeing as I have Provokiev's Romeo & Juliet & Symphony #5 I'll grab the Violin Sonata's. Now I might as well make it a Russian investigation and go for some of Todds suggestions to get a feel of Russian music at that time as a whole. That leaves Brahms and Richard Strauss, which I shall keep in mind for the next part of my journey.

Keep the suggestion coming though.



Dean...

I am a long time lover of the Richard Strauss Tone Poems, as I have been a trumpet player for a long time, and he is like a playground for the brasses.

But I find he does not age well, as his music is constructed according to a formula, which, as you come to understand it, becomes quite boring.

So enjoy it while you can :-) So little time, and so many climaxes to endure!

But if I had an itch only Richard Strauss could scratch, I would head straight for "Don Quixote" by Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, with Janos Starker. This one has a playfulness that eludes "Alpine Symphony", "Hero's Life", "Zarathustra" and the others.

Joe,


I have Dvorak's Symphony From The New World & Symphony #7. I do not have any Rachmaninov and as far as I know haven't knowingly heard any of his works. Brahms & Haydn are really a little to early for what I looking for at the moment, though I will get round to them, I just feel attracted to time scale I asked about.



Mudwolf,

I shall definitely keep your suggestion in mind as I do like a opera, which is probably the biggest surprise about my investigation into the Classics.


Dean...

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
I might as well make it a Russian investigation and go for some of Todds suggestions to get a feel of Russian music at that time as a whole.

(Minor point: For composers where I listed works, only Alexander Scriabin is Russian. Don't hold that against the others, though!)

Oh, and consider some Rimsky-Korsakov, too.



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quote:

Originally posted by Todd A:

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
I might as well make it a Russian investigation and go for some of Todds suggestions to get a feel of Russian music at that time as a whole.

(Minor point: For composers where I listed works, only Alexander Scriabin is Russian. Don't hold that against the others, though!)

Oh, and consider some Rimsky-Korsakov, too.



--

Ok thanks Todd.



Dean...Learning everyday.

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
Joe,


Brahms & Haydn are really a little to early for what I looking for at the moment, though I will get round to them.

Dean...

Dean,

Brahms is not early, he died in 1897 (he is a cornerstone of the romantic period) which is what I thought you asked about.

I think you are misreading my post. The Haydn Variations are by Brahms.

The Rachmaninov symphonies are a must. I recommend the Ashkenazy (Decca) set as a cheap way in.

Thanks again Joe,


Now as you can see I am a bit ignorant with all this so another



Dean....

Brahms is late enough to have refused Edison the opportunity to record one of his symphonies, but his sound has little to do with the 20th century, so don't feel bad.

If I had to pick one piece of music by Rachmaninoff, it would be his "Symphonic Dances", which is available as an orchestral piece and also as a duet for two pianos, both of which deserve a listen.

Hi Dean,

There have been plenty of good and interesting suggestions already, but there are some notable absentees:


Wagner

The inspiration for the juicy chromatic slidy-aroundiness so loved by Mahler and Sibelius (though some might argue that Liszt was the real genius).

Sadly, most of Wagner's astonishingly gorgeous music is wrapped up in marathon heavyweight operas, featuring heroins with ringed pigtails.

Try Tristan und Isolde. This is surely one of the most influential pieces of music written in the 19th century. It defines a new musical language (again, Liszt proponents may disagree) that proved incredibly influential upon most composers that followed. This influence will be immediately apparent to anyone familiar with Mahler and Sibelius. The love scene in the second act is filled with amongst the most beautiful shifting chromatic music you'll ever hear.


Debussy

La mer, Prelude d'apres midi d'un faune, Jeux: works like these should appeal to a late romantic who enjoys music that harmonically dances in unexpected directions.

There's a wide-ranging repertoire to choose from: from the opera Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy was derogatory about Wagner's operas, yet this comes from a sound-world not far removed from the latter's Parsifal) to the piano music, for which he is most renowned.


Bruckner

A cross between Mahler and Sibelius, but not quite as good as either? Bruckner's later symphonies are pretty stunning though, particularly the 9th. They show the same harmonic inflections as Mahler and Sibelius: he's not as idiosyncratic as Mahler, and less brooding than Sibelius. And his masses are lovely.


Ravel

Another Frenchman. Difficult to classify, and much less like Mahler and Sibelius than Wagner, Bruckner or even Debussy. But if you start out from his piano concertos, you might find, like me, that he's a composer that you play much more frequently than his reputation would suggest he deserves.


Shostakovich

A good suggestion from Todd. Shostakovich is clearly much more 'modern' than Mahler and Sibelius, yet the constructions of his symphonies bear a striking resemblance to those of Mahler in particular. The melodic line and counterpoint can sound a bit 'thin', but so do Mahler's. And just as Mahler's slow movements offer 'rewards' for the listener patient enough to endure the more challenging or ironic sections, Shostakovich rewards the listener with exquisitely pungent harmonies, and brooding lower strings.


Richard Strauss

You can draw a straight line from Wagner, through Mahler and onto Richard Strauss. Those chromatic shifts still sound adventurous after 100 years of development. I like the symphonic poems, but the real corker in Strauss' output is his four last songs. A desert island disc, perhaps?


Richard Strauss - Four Last Songs, Vier Letzte Lieder - Lisa Della Casa, Böhm

Thanks Nathaniel, a few more to muse over.



Dean....