Webern edition
This thread is for the discussion of music in the Western (European) classical tradition, as well as classical instrument-playing.
How do I get into classical?
This link has resources including audio courses, textbooks and selections of recordings to help you start to understand and appreciate classical music:
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Previously, on /classical/:
weber
:/
webern
:)
Who is that?
Eww. SVSlop
I meant who is Webern
did you even look at the OP?
The OP contains the name Webern and a photo of a random dude titled webern, that doesn't tell me who he is though.
feels like a Das Lied von der Erde morning
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one community reviewer writes
An uniquely effective Das Lied von der Erde.
There are numerous recordings of Mahler's masterpiece adopting some old (Tang) Chinese poems.
The composition is often considered as Germanic, since Mahler lived in the Germanic speaking area in his lifetime and the lyrics are in German.
Hence, the majority of the interpretations of Das Lied von der Erde are Germanic. No quibble about this approach at it.
Kent Nagano's reading, however, is quite unique. First of all, he is Asian by blood, coming from a nation that have adopted a vast amount of ancient Tang culture throughout the Middle Ages. This alone would have accounted for why Nagano has his own to say in this famously Germanic Song Cycle.
The orchestration he adopted is different from, say, Karajan's, or Giulini's. His choice of singers fits into his perspective like a 'T".The overall transparency and surreal quality are highly touching.
Both tenor Vogt and baritone Gerhaher own highly flexible but smallish voices. They themselves make an uniquely admirable pair for this work. Both singers are very detailed in their interpretations, and their voices offer wonderful dynamic ranges for their respective pieces, sometimes jubilant, sometimes nostalgic. They overall effect is more poetic than some 'major' recordings.
What I particular find appealing in this performance is the overall more 'Zen' like or oriental approach, which suits the lyrics well. It is one of the most atmospheric renditions of this delectable piece of work, and a most worthy addition to collectors of 'Das Lied von Der Erde'.
Unreservedly recommended.
plus Nagano has one of if not the best Mahler 8, so that alone makes this worth hearing
He'd have done well composing film scores in Hollywood
supermarket aesthetic, cashiers point-of-view vibe?
SVSlop is quintessentially failed supermarket music. It was auditioned for supermarket ads but got rejected.
Boulez on other composers (direct quotations):
Brahms
"a bore”
Tchaikovsky
“abominable”
Verdi
“stupid, stupid, stupid!”
Schoenberg
"most ostentatious and obsolete romanticism”
Webern
“too simple”
Berg
“bad taste”
Ravel
“affectation”
Shostakovich
"a second, or even third, pressing of Mahler"
contemporary twelve-tone music
"overrun by number-fanatics engaging in frenetic arithmetic masturbation”
Messiaen
“brothel music”
John Cage
“performing monkey"
Stockhausen
“hippie"
American minimalism
“a supermarket aesthetic”
American serialism
“a cashier’s point of view”
Nagano
Negan and Nagato?
This sucks
Slightly.
We measured the predictability of tone sequences in music by Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern and found the successive pitches were less predictable than random tone sequences.
For listeners, this means that, every time you try to predict what happens next, you fail. The result is an overwhelming feeling of confusion, and the constant failures to anticipate what will happen next means that there is no pleasure from accurate prediction.”
Some of the things that were done by those composers such as Schoenberg undermined this cognitive aid for making music easier to understand and follow. Schoenberg’s music became fragmented which makes it harder for the brain to find structure.
Atonal music is so unpleasant that it's played in Berlin train stations to scare off drug addicts.
C Major
Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children's talk.
C Minor
Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.
D Major
A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.
C# Minor
Penitential lamentation, intimate conversation with God, the friend and help-meet of life; sighs of disappointed friendship and love lie in its radius.
D Major
The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.
D Minor
Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.
E Major
The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.
D# Minor
Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.
E Major
Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.
E minor
Naïve, womanly innocent declaration of love, lament without grumbling; sighs accompanied by few tears; this key speaks of the imminent hope of resolving in the pure happiness of C major.
F Major
Complaisance & Calm.
F Minor
Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.
F# Major
Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief utered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.
F# Minor
A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.
They should play something predictable like Mozart to lure them away to another part of town
This is the male vocalist for DLvdE I've been waiting for. I'm just not a fan of that overbearing baritone sound, Mahler's intentions and Germanic and Western tastes be damned. Definitely one of my new favorites now.
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Oh wait, this is a double male vocalist recording? LOL fuckin' dropped, nvm. shame
found a complete set of Karajan's EMI recordings on RT and I'm using it to obtain the Bruckner 4, 7, and 8 (two 8ths) he did for the label. I'm quite excited :)
If anyone wants to join me, here's the 4th on YouTube
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Is there any work you'd like to listen to 24/7, but don't, because then it wouldn't feel special anymore?
I don't know about 24/7, but are there certain works which, while masterpieces, I don't like listening to often because of their emotional content and dramatic intensity? Sure. And are there great pieces which I've listened to too much and worn out, and no longer enjoy as much as I used too? Also yes.
now playing
start of Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60, 'Leningrad'
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An unaffected, deeply humanising Seventh; quite possibly the best thing Paavo Järvi has ever done. ---- Dan Morgan
There need be no reservations as to the quality of the performance and interpretation; this is now a leading choice for the ‘Leningrad’. ---- John Quinn
I cannot imagine a better recording of this Seventh Symphony arriving any time soon. Järvi, the RNO and the Polyhymnia recording team are to be congratulated. ---- Dave Billinge
Should be good! Love this symphony, but I feel it is difficult to do well, or at least to my tastes. I prefer less tragic, anxious sentimentality and more emphasis on the compositional beauty and majestic poetry; less diatribe against the madvillainous Soviets and more of an aesthetic achievement.
Added, thanks. You've got quite the collection of choral music.
The combination of the human voice and instruments is just perfect to me, I also like non-choral music of course, but it just doesn't scratch that itch for me.
nothing but the hottest takes here
webern
schoenberg
I know this is a joke, but even ironically, why would that be a hot take?
berg
Will I look like a pseud if I buy glasses like Webern's?
Granny glasses?
no
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Bartal is the complete hero-poet-bard, a richly endowed, sensually responsive Lisztian dreaming and dramatic. Time and again she halts us in our tracks, inviting us to re-think old attitudes, to re-focus familiar horizons. Nothing is taken for granted. In her producer/engineer/editor, Cécile Lenoir, she has the perfect companion – a “twin sister” – to share the journey. One who understands art, theatre, style, the electricity of performance, the urgency of the moment. One who recognises that having a great pianist, a thoroughbred piano and legendary music doesn’t necessarily guarantee a great story. A special resonance, an inspirational atmosphere is needed too. The Priory at Chiren, founded by the Benedictines in the eleventh-century, provides that. A rough-hewn place soaked in history and associations off the old road from Bourg-en-Bresse to Grenoble in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes – eighty miles south of Geneva. It’s a region of distinctive air and natural beauty, an environment where no musician, no creative, could be indifferent. Suzana Bartal is nothing if not impassioned flesh and blood. In such surroundings, you feel, she’s poured out all her heart and soul, every muscle, tendon and nerve end in accord, springtime and life on the wing.
Poèmes, élégies, victoires. Elation, memories, tears. Listening sends shivers.
Absolutely incredible. Highly recommended.