What are you currently listening to?

[chill319]

The last two days, Volmer's accounts of Tubin 9, 10, 11. Some composers are naturally diffuse and discursive -- therein lies their charm. I count Richard Strauss as perhaps the best of these. Alfvén is another of the best, to my ears; therefore, I find his fourth symphony more characteristic than his fifth, even though Alfvén himself preferred the fifth. Among the smaller group of composers who become less and less diffuse and discursive as they write, I, like many others, have particularly valued Sibelius for his last two symphonies, which cut to the bone.  And now I am equally amazed, even startled, by Tubin 10. It is a work whose unbroken emotional logic concludes precisely when it has had its full say without a moment of rhetorical repetition. In that it is like Sibelius 6 and 7. Yet it is as unlike those works as Tubin's creative period (ca. 1930-80) is unlike Sibelius's (ca. 1890-1930). The symphony was in very good hands during the first 2/3s of the 20th century. Among those elite. few composers push my buttons as reliably as Tubin.

[Jolly Roger]

Since it's a boring evening of transferring music to a new back-up drive, & have just done 'D', thought I'd have a 'D'-themed concert !

Ingolf Dahl - The Tower of Saint Barbara
 Ikuma Dan - Symphony no. 3
 Marc-Andre Dalbavie - Flute Concerto
 Rihards Dubra - Mass Signum Magnum

Dan's symphonies are great, esp 4.
BTW: One was to get back to the same page for a posting, I copy and paste the (url, which has the current page number) in my email or notepad entitled "bookmark" and posters name. The next time I want to return, one click and I'm there...I get so mad when I forget to do update that.
Try this poster I have been following, this is page 298:

bookmark user hamerkop
http://classical-music-online.net/users/?p=29&item=17103&tab=files

bookmark user oboeist
http://classical-music-online.net/users/?p=113&item=33822&tab=files

lastly,
bookmark Gabisou (page 1)
http://classical-music-online.net/users/?item=33642&tab=files
last page
http://classical-music-online.net/users/?p=628&item=33642&tab=files

If you forgot to bookmark last time, key a page number after p= an take a shot.

http://classical-music-online.net/users/?p=999&item=33642&tab=files

[cjvinthechair]

Mr. JR - a star, Sir: some technical advice even an idiot like me might,just,be able to follow !
Hamerkop I haven't tried, but will try to get round to....sometime !
Gabisou is great, but had despaired of ever even beginning to work my way through 6000+ pages.
Oboeist I have a note of, under if/when/life's too short !
The other one I like, with not too much to work through, is Rugbytaganrog. Imagine you know him too ?

Great - will set up a 'holding file' for pasting, & see if I can get it to work. Much appreciated !             Clive.

[Jolly Roger]

Mr. JR - a star, Sir: some technical advice even an idiot like me might,just,be able to follow !
Hamerkop I haven't tried, but will try to get round to....sometime !
Gabisou is great, but had despaired of ever even beginning to work my way through 6000+ pages.
Oboeist I have a note of, under if/when/life's too short !
The other one I like, with not too much to work through, is Rugbytaganrog. Imagine you know him too ?

Great - will set up a 'holding file' for pasting, & see if I can get it to work. Much appreciated !             Clive.

I am primary after non operatic, non vocal works for orchestra, and if a poster ventures from that, I give up easily.
Yes, Rugbytaganrog (how could I forget that name?) was one of the first I scoured but can't remember the nature of his postings.
I must admit paging by postings is the least efficient way to plod thru everything. Its not so much that I am technically inclined,
I just have far too much time on my hands.
But it is akin to panning for gold, if you get my drift.

[Jolly Roger]

back to the thread topic,
I am relistening to the music of Arnold Cooke and find there is something captivating about the hybrid music of Hindemith and The English.  Cooke's music may be derivative, but if it is great, what's the diff? And I really like Arnell's earlier music, which are markedly Hindemithian in style,eg..try the grand piece of New World Overture and think Matis der Maler, http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/35006 or the Hindemith variations by Walton which I find totally captivating http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/21216.
Maybe its just a personal preference, but these are works that have real staying power with me as does Arnold Cooke. I do not feel the same way re Genzmer, often considered as Hindemith's contemporary. Good, but not great and nearly the inspiration of Hindemith.
Can anyone suggest and Hindemithian derivatives I may be missing, British it or otherwise? Maybe a thread for the Hindemith "school" is long overdue here.

[Gauk]

I was listening yesterday to Humiwo Hayasaka's 1948 Piano Concerto, well worth hearing. I'm always curiously about two-movement works: this one is straightforwardly slow-fast. The orchestral opening sound like it might be a pastiche Bruckner symphony; the influence of Bruckner on Japanese composers is interesting to note. But after the piano enters and the movement proceeds, it soon enters very un-Brucknerian territory and becomes much more oriental, at times inhabiting a similar sound world to Hovhaness. The rondo finale, in contrast, is a madcap romp that would be fitting for the Keystone Cops.

[shamus]

Reading a biography of Ravel, so have listened to pieces as I go, always have loved the orchestral music, now will delve more deeply into the piano and chamber music.

[Jolly Roger]

I just listened to the 2 symphonies of Frederick Schipizky and it amazes me that his music has been under
the radar for most of us unless someone here knows of him. These symphonies are unforgettable.

His bio is here;
http://www.vancouversymphony.ca/artist/frederick-schipizky/

more at this thread on Canadian composers:

http://artmusic.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,3345.msg18728.html#msg18728

[shamus]

Amazing how now one can go to YouTube or Naxos and hear just about everything Ravel wrote (and I am still working on him--and enjoying things I never thought I would such as his sonata for violin and cello). I started listening to serious music in the 1970's when if my local library didn't have something I was interested in (off the beaten track, even then)--and they usually didn't unless it was standard repertoire--one had to wait to be able to afford to order something or go without. Of course I haunted every used record store I could find in any town I found myself, too. Of course only an old fart could write this "amazement" down in this day of instant access to so much. Thanks, also for bringing up Schipizky, I will listen to him again, it has been a few years. Best, Jim

[Christo]

back to the thread topic,
I am relistening to the music of Arnold Cooke and find there is something captivating about the hybrid music of Hindemith and The English.  Cooke's music may be derivative, but if it is great, what's the diff? And I really like Arnell's earlier music, which are markedly Hindemithian in style,eg..try the grand piece of New World Overture and think Matis der Maler, http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/35006 or the Hindemith variations by Walton which I find totally captivating http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/21216.
Maybe its just a personal preference, but these are works that have real staying power with me as does Arnold Cooke. I do not feel the same way re Genzmer, often considered as Hindemith's contemporary. Good, but not great and nearly the inspiration of Hindemith.
Can anyone suggest and Hindemithian derivatives I may be missing, British it or otherwise? Maybe a thread for the Hindemith "school" is long overdue here.

For me it still works the other way around. I never took a special interest in Hindemith, but I love and admire Cooke and see what you mean with Arnell in the early 1940s. I really cannot tell how big the Hindemith influence is, but to my ears Cooke's music inhabits a world of his own, more lyrical and transcendent. In short: English. :-) For me, his closest connection might be Lennox Berkeley of the 1940s and 1950s, whose inspiratons are supposed to be French and not German. Again, I find his style rather English and prefer it to his supposed sources of inspiration, e.g. Poulenc or Milhaud. Personally, I would loosely "group" Cooke with Berkeley, and perhaps Arnell, Goossens and Rawsthorne. But I hope you have even beter advice for me.

[Elroel]

One of the members told us he is very interested in 2 movement concertos. He may know the following two already,
but I found them very pretty to listen to:

Thomas Oboe Lee Piano Concerto and Violin Concerto.

Both in that magnificent collections CB , CB 2 and CB 3

[shamus]

Now I am reading Cesar Franck biography, so last night I listened to his early oratorio "Ruth" and I found it most beautiful even without the libretto. Also I have been listening to all the British pieces mentioned elsewhere that are on "James Stuart"'s channel on Youtube--all intriguing.

[Jolly Roger]

back to the thread topic,
I am relistening to the music of Arnold Cooke and find there is something captivating about the hybrid music of Hindemith and The English.  Cooke's music may be derivative, but if it is great, what's the diff? And I really like Arnell's earlier music, which are markedly Hindemithian in style,eg..try the grand piece of New World Overture and think Matis der Maler, http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/35006 or the Hindemith variations by Walton which I find totally captivating http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/21216.
Maybe its just a personal preference, but these are works that have real staying power with me as does Arnold Cooke. I do not feel the same way re Genzmer, often considered as Hindemith's contemporary. Good, but not great and nearly the inspiration of Hindemith.
Can anyone suggest and Hindemithian derivatives I may be missing, British it or otherwise? Maybe a thread for the Hindemith "school" is long overdue here.

For me it still works the other way around. I never took a special interest in Hindemith, but I love and admire Cooke and see what you mean with Arnell in the early 1940s. I really cannot tell how big the Hindemith influence is, but to my ears Cooke's music inhabits a world of his own, more lyrical and transcendent. In short: English. :-) For me, his closest connection might be Lennox Berkeley of the 1940s and 1950s, whose inspiratons are supposed to be French and not German. Again, I find his style rather English and prefer it to his supposed sources of inspiration, e.g. Poulenc or Milhaud. Personally, I would loosely "group" Cooke with Berkeley, and perhaps Arnell, Goossens and Rawsthorne. But I hope you have even beter advice for me.

Thanks for the Berkeley lead, I need to hear his music, any piece in particular that features Hndemith style, or will any work do?.

[Dundonnell]

Lennox Berkeley's music is certainly not Hindemithian and it would be misleading therefore to point to any particular Berkeley composition in such a context.

What Johan(Christo) is saying-as I understand him-is that, though Cooke studied with Hindemith, the influence of the German composer on Cooke is often over-stressed and that if we regard Cooke as a Hindemith epigone we are being unfair to a composer who developed a style of his own but with a neo-classical clarity of expression which reminds him of Lennox Berkeley. Berkeley is generally regarded as having been influenced by the French composers mentioned by Johan. In truth however the music of Berkeley is a fusion of such influences with the English tradition. What it is not, I would argue, is particularly like Hindemith. Even here however we need to be careful because Hindemith's own music demonstrates a degree of development and change over his lifetime.

[Gauk]

I've never got on with Lennox Berkeley's music. His idea of "continuous development" (i.e. never repeating material) does not appeal to me, interesting though it is intellectually.