Awful, but magnificent!

[giles.enders]

'Awful but magnificent' to my ears would be an apt description for all of Bruckner's symphonies. I have occasionally thought that if they were run end to end from 00 to 9, it wouldn't matter if I dozed off as they would be still be going when I woke.

[Delicious Manager]

Giles, perhaps the curiosity on the following link will be either your worst nightmare or a mercifully short musical summary of Bruckner symphonies 0-9: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=883982&content=songinfo&songID=8661782

[Albion]

Giles, perhaps the curiosity on the following link will be either your worst nightmare or a mercifully short musical summary of Bruckner symphonies 0-9: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=883982&content=songinfo&songID=8661782

Fantastic! I love Bruckner, but can rarely devote the time necessary to a complete symphony (with so much else to listen to). The incredible thing is that it (more or less) actually works - much like 'reduced Shakespeare': I would put it right up there with Anna Russell's The Ring of the Nibelungs.  Now, how about Draeseke's Christus? 

[Mark Thomas]

Such a time saver! Why, if the same was done with the other three movements, we'd have the whole Bruckner symphonic canon over and done with in half an hour...

[Pengelli]

I've always been curious about Bungert. Partly because of the name (!) & also because I first heard about him through the writings of Havergal Brian.His life story,on it's own, would certainly make a good read. Mind you,the way all these revivals of long forgotten composers are going,we probably will get to hear poor old Bungert's efforts. I just wonder if it will be worth it,or whether we would only really listen to his 'Homerische' trilogy,all the way through, if we had to.....at gunpoint.
One of the problems when people go on about how truly terrible something is......the masochistic urge to hear it for oneself. Like Bernstein's 'Enigma Variations'. Everyone says it's so terrible & such a travesty. But,why? Sooner or later I'm going to have to give in to temptation & buy a copy,just to find out. And if anyone here tells me not to,I'll only want to hear it even more!
I have also heard some one say that the worst piece of music they had ever heard was Lev Knipper's Fourth Symphony,which was hugely successful within the old Soviet Union. In fact,they made it sound so terrible,I really wouldn't mind hearing it. I bet the Soviet leadership thought it was magnificent,even if we think it's awful.
I wonder if some of Bantock's colossal unrecorded works fit into the 'Awful but Magnificent' category. Again,the way things are going we may eventually find out,if the manuscripts are intact.

[Delicious Manager]

The Knipper Fourth Symphony is certainly a truly awful piece (maybe we should have a poll of the 10 worst symphonies of all time?) and contributors can judge for themselves here:

1st movt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Ga-mfkJAU
2nd movt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmWt51cxnXU
3rd movt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-88Oee9nFKE
4th movt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KexjqOOebTU

[Albion]

The Knipper Fourth Symphony is certainly a truly awful piece

Many thanks for the links to Knipper's sublime 4th - I'm listening to it as I type and it's really brightening up my day. I especially warm to the warbly, folksy vocal contributions and the slithery, meandering quasi-fugal entries that pop up like frogs at the fair only to be bopped on the head with an orchestral hammerblow. I simply can't wait for the box set of all 20 from Warner! 

[Albion]

Now I'm into the fourth movement. Lawks a mussy - dig that crazy xylophone and the forced rosy-cheeked hysteria! God only knows what they're singing about, but who cares when you're having so much state-sponsored fun - just off to goose-step around the garden and then haul a barge up the nearest canal. 

[Pengelli]

The fabled Knipper at last! Hallelujah! And I thought it was just a myth,like Eldorado.

[Pengelli]

It would make  an ideal coupling for the Khatchaturian 3rd. To be fair,they do sing it with some gusto,it's good fun,(but not too often,perhaps),and his use of brass & one or two touches here & there make me think that maybe,just maybe, Knipper might have something tucked away in his output that might be really worth hearing. I am given to understand that he was a bit of a creep,though. I'd buy it though,if it was re-released though,just for the fun of it,and because some of those forgotten & politically incorrect soviet composers do intrigue me. I have some Tikhon Krennikov symphonies,for example,and I hate to say it,but I quite enjoyed them.
Anyone heard Knippers eighth,by the way ? The few reviews I saw were mixed.
Anyway,thanks for the link DM. Bernstein's 'Nimrod' next,please!

[Delicious Manager]

You mean this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmC2MB9h5qI#t=1m06s

[khorovod]

I'm grateful for the direction to the Knipper symphony as he's a composer I've been curious about for a while. I doubt any record labels or sellers will be grateful for the link though as, having finally heard some of his music, I've added it to my "don't bother buying" list. It was nice to be reminded what a stirring and lovely melody Polyushka polye is though!

It prompted me to seek out Salmanov on Youtube too, another composer I had been curious about. The deleted Mravinsky set of his symphonies has been on my "watch list" for some time and has also now been removed after hearing the performance of his second on Youtube - pleasant but ultimately pretty thin stuff, I thought.

[eschiss1]

I'm grateful for the direction to the Knipper symphony as he's a composer I've been curious about for a while. I doubt any record labels or sellers will be grateful for the link though as, having finally heard some of his music, I've added it to my "don't bother buying" list. It was nice to be reminded what a stirring and lovely melody Polyushka polye is though!

It prompted me to seek out Salmanov on Youtube too, another composer I had been curious about. The deleted Mravinsky set of his symphonies has been on my "watch list" for some time and has also now been removed after hearing the performance of his second on Youtube - pleasant but ultimately pretty thin stuff, I thought.

I have Salmanov 4, which is pretty good.

This is beginning to feel like a resurrection of a recently locked thread.
On another topic, has anyone ever heard of Grachia Spiridonovich Melikian ?

[Alan Howe]

The motivation for this thread was music which tries so hard to say something big and meaningful, but which is just not up to the job - but which attains a kind of perverse magnificence because of its overweening ambition. For me, Bruckner's music actually is sublime, so he doesn't count at all. Bungert's Mysterium is just trying so hard to be grand and significant - but the composer just doesn't have the ability. The huffing and puffing is truly magnificent in its awfulness.

[TerraEpon]

I don't quite get the use of the term 'awful'. People here seem to ENJOY Khachaturian's 3rd (as do I), so even if it's not deep and is kinda silly, how is it 'awful'?