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Topics - saxtromba

#1
Composers & Music / For Minneapolis members
Friday 01 May 2015, 22:11
I found this on Facebook (while looking for something else, of course  :) ), and remembered that there are one or two posters here who are in Minneapolis, at least some of the time.  There's more recent music as well, but the first piece, being by Rubinstein,  is what caught my eye, and then a couple of others: https://www.facebook.com/events/983773554966158/

#2
Composers & Music / Why Unsung?
Sunday 12 January 2014, 17:55
Scrolling through various discussions, I came across the claim that Joachim Raff was not merely a better composer than Brahms, but made him look like "a lumbering dolt".  Clearly this is not a majority opinion, but forget for a moment whether or not you agree with it and think about the further question it raises if you assume that it's correct, the question which is the thread title.

There are composers who are considered to be among the greats, whose body of work provides touchstones against which to measure the work of other composers.  These composers are, by and large, the "sung" composers.  Brahms is generally accepted as belonging to this category.  So if we assume that Raff is a greater composer than Brahms, this raises the question as to why Raff is pretty much unsung and Brahms is not (for comparison: there are currently more recordings of any one of Brahms's symphonies than all of Raff's music put together).  It can't simply be that Brahms had the press on his side and Raff did not; even a quick glance at reviews from the 19th c. shows that Brahms faced much opposition and Raff was, if anything, more popular.  Nor can it be pure obstinacy on the part of conductors; many are the composers who have fallen from favor despite the best efforts of partisans on the podium.  If it's record sales, then why is Raff so much less sellable than Brahms?  What, then, are the reasons?

Then extend the question (after all, not everyone takes Raff to be better than Brahms).  Why do certain composers (whose worth you would be willing to defend) fall out of the repertoire while others go on and on?  Is it purely random?  On the face of it, this seems improbable, but maybe there's some evidence to support it.  If you met a person who knew nothing of serious Western music who asked who was worth hearing and why, and who was not and why not, how would you answer?

#3
Some of you may not know that Hyperion has a section of their website called "somebody, please buy me".  It's for disks which haven't sold in a while, which are offered at a huge discount with free postage to anywhere.  It changes irregularly.  As of this post, the RPC volume devoted to Draeseke and Jadassohn is available, both as an MP3 and as a disk. for six pounds (about 10.00 US) (5.60 plus a .40 handling fee).  This is the first time I've seen a volume in this series available, and I bet they take it down fairly soon.  Just thought readers here might want to know....
#4
Composers & Music / Great Unsungs: A Question
Thursday 13 June 2013, 17:36
A little while ago Alan Howe attempted to start a discussion regarding the elevation of unsung composers to the pantheon.  For various reasons that discussion never quiet worked.  Here's a different approach which I hope might generate some interesting discussion.

Bach: B Minor Mass; Toccata & Fugue in D Minor; Cello Suite #5
Mozart: Piano Concerto #20 in D Minor; The Magic Flute; Symphony #40 in G Minor
Beethoven: String Quartet in C# Minor, Op. 131; Piano Sonata #32 in C Minor; Symphony #9 in D Minor

I start with a brief list of indubitable masterworks of music (that is, anyone who disparages them had better have some pretty strong reasons, way beyond "I don't like that piece", if they want their opinion to be taken at all seriously) to set the stage.  These are composers and works widely known to, and influential among, the serious musicians of our specific period.  These are great works-- and we consider their composers great because, a) they produced works of equivalent quality in a wide range of musical categories (choral/vocal. symphonic. concerted, chamber, solo instrumental, etc.), and, b) they did so repeatedly.

The questions are these: 1) are there unsung works which could keep company with such works as these; if so, how so?  2) Are there unsung composers whose overall body of work sustains comparison with composers such as these; if so, how so?

Please note that this isn't a question about the particular works I've listed; I chose them more or less at random to suggest the scope of the music written by recognized great composers.  I am certainly not saying that to be a great composer you need to have written a choral symphony or an opera or a string quartet.  But I am suggesting that you need to have done more than produce pleasant music in a few genres or have composed one or two really striking works amid an overall body of competent but otherwise unimpressive music.  So I hope that people will not respond with lists of favorite composers, but with short (or maybe not so short :) ) discussions of why the pieces they mention indicate that the unsung composer is worthy to rank with the greats.
#5
Composers & Music / Saxophone in Chamber Music?
Monday 03 December 2012, 16:38
Although the saxophone didn't really make its way into the orchestra until the 20th century, there were several composers in our period who used it orchestrally (Thomas, Bizet, Debussy, Strauss, etc.).  But what about chamber music?  Does anyone know of any chamber pieces whatsoever written during the 19th or pre-Great War 20th century which used the saxophone (not counting arrangements, if any such exist)?
#6
Composers & Music / Mixed Quintets Without Piano?
Friday 17 August 2012, 17:52
I'm looking for recommendations of quintets with either two strings and three winds (or brass, but, apart from French Horn, I doubt you get much of that before the 20rth c.) or three winds and two strings.  Any instrumentation, but not involving piano or solo plus string quartet.  If there's a four winds plus one string piece from our period I'd be interested as well.

Thanks.
#7
A recent release from Fc Records, a Finnish company, is the fourth in a series of Russian pianio music disks.  The first three are Tschaikowsky, Arensky, and Tschaikowsky, respectively; apparently someone decided that Russia's most important 19th Century piano composer shouldn't be ignored altogether, though little thought seems to have gone into the selection of pieces.

The major work is the Sonata #1 in e minor, Op. 12 (now the most frequently recorded of Rubinstein's four solo piano sonatas).  Somero's performance is earnest, though generally lacking in passion.  As do the others who have recorded the piece, he omits the first movement exposition repeat.  As is the case throughout this disk, he favors slower tempi; his timings are consistently slower than anyone else's.  In movements 1 and 3, the difference is but a few seconds, but movement 2, at 8'36", is more than two minutes slower than anyone else, and movement 4, at 9'03", is almost two minutes slower than anyone else.  While tempo is, to a degree, a matter of taste, there comes a point, especially in Romantic music, where the melodic line starts to sag and loses focus, and I believe that to be the case here.  There are also some noticeable finger slips in some of the harder passages which would be less significant at a faster pace.  The fugal section of the last movement is hard to follow, and the climax loses some of its spectacular aspects.  This isn't really a bad performance (there is some nice work in each of the movements, and especially in the scherzo), but it is uncompelling, and does not overshadow either of its predecessors.

The remainder of the disk is taken up with a hodge-podge of shorter pieces drawn from several different sets.  The big three (Melody in F, Reve Angelique, and the Romance in Eb, Op. 44, #1) appear, as do the only slightly less familiar Barcarolle #3, Op. 50,#1, and Etude in C, Op. 23, #2.  These performances are all s-l-o-w; in every case save one, they are the slowest known to me, often by far (take the Reve Angelique: Somero's 10'52" is longer by more than two minutes than any other solo piano recording I've heard, and almost exactly twice as long as Michael Ponti's 5'30" (okay, Ponti favors speed, but the point is still valid.)).  Again, it's not the tempos per se which are problematic, but their impact on the musical line.  The Barcarolle (5'38") is becalmed, losing all forward motion, and even the indestructible Melody in F (5'30", but this includes some slightly extended internal cadences) drags unduly.  Rubinstein himself played it quite quickly, and he would probably have preferred to shave a minute or more off the timing.  Only the Romance in Eb (3'27", about a minute longer than the standard timings) seems to gain from the slower tempo; its climax was perhaps the most passionate moment in the whole recording.  The Etude (4'57") is the only piece for which I know a slower recording (Morton Estrin, at 5'11'); Somero's version played some games with tempo shifts and dynamics which made it more interesting than most of the other well known pieces.

Rubinstein completists will want this disk, though, for the other two short pieces: the Preghiera in Bb, Op. 44, #3 and the Melancolie in g minor, Op. 51, #1, both apparently receiving their first recordings here.  Just following the scores suggests that the tempos are slow, with the Preghiera suffering as well from a rather dry recording ambience, which minimizes the operatic melodic aspects (so often important in Rubinstein's music).  Nonetheless, the performances are focussed enough to give at least some idea of the better qualities of each piece, and the latter part of the Melancolie, with its fluttering sixteenth note triplets, rises to a certain power.

I wanted to like this disk more than I really can, and I wish more thought had gone into the selection of music (did we really need new recordings of the big three?).  Nonetheless, it is not without interest, and those looking for variant interpretations of some of Rubinstein's better known music (or who are less averse to slow tempi in shorter pieces than I am) will find something to think about here.
#8
I thought I remembered there already being a post devoted to this recent release, but I couldn't find it.  Hence this new thread.

Rubinstein: Persian Love Songs (Helene Lindqvist, soprano; Philipp Vogler, piano)

6 Songs, Op.32; 12 Songs, Op. 34; 6 Songs, Op. 57; 6 Songs, Op. 72

This release from the Art Song Project (main site: http://theartsongproject.com/ ; this release: http://theartsongproject.com/persian-love-songs-rubinstein-english ) is a major addition to the Rubinstein discography, and the most important recording of his lieder yet released in any format.  Rubinstein composed somewhat over 150 solo lieder, so the thirty on this CD represent just under 20% of the total; the quality of the music, the performances, and the recording make an excellent case for further recordings of the remainder.

Several of Rubinstein's most famous songs appear here.  "Der Asra" (Op. 32, #6) is a hauntingly gorgeous piece which used to be a common encore number; listen to it two or three times and you will remember it for a long time to come.  "Du bist wie eine Blume" (Op. 32, #5) has been recorded before; it, too, was once well known.  And of course the whole of Op. 34 was justly famous; Rubinstein manages to capture the hints of exoticism implied by the title without ever doing violence to his own style, mainly through careful use of occasional unexpected flats, sharps, or naturals, and a great deal of melismatic writing, all of which is beautifully done by Lindqvist.

Speaking of which-- the singing is superb.  Lindqvist's voice is light but warm, pure, unforced, and very smooth; she uses comparatively little vibrato, and her grace notes and mordents are crystal-clear (not the vague blur all too common).  Her interpretations are very intelligent, and the quiet intensity evidenced in, for example, "Es war ein alter Konig" (Op. 32, #4) or "Nun die Schatten dunkeln" (Op. 57, #2) is radiant.  In some of the more dramatic pieces she slightly favors a thoughtful approach over a passionate one, but never to the detriment of the music (only "Die Waldhexe" (Op. 72, #3) is, I think, a little too calm, though since the poem itself (by the rather obscure Gustav von Boddien (1814-1870) is something of a knock-off of Goethe's "Erlkonig", too much forcefulness in the performance would simply call attention to the similarities rather than the musical differences).

Vogler's pianism is likewise very clear and rhythmically crisp, with comparatively little use of pedal (one of my few quibbles comes in "Der Asra" (Op. 32, #6), where the descending bass line as the slave reveals his name and fate strikes me as too dry and distinct).  A couple of oddities do appear; in Op. 32, #5 the last two measures are omitted, making the ending rather abrupt, and in Op. 57, #4 the penultimate measure is omitted (as this is also the case in the only other recording of this set (Johanna Rutishauser and Ana Dimova on the Real Sound label), this may stem from the use of an alternate edition not known to me).

Lindqvist likewise opts to drop a few verses from strophic songs.  In the case of the hilarious drinking song "Die Weise guter Zecher" (Op. 34, #5), where she sings verses 1, 2, and 5, this is of little importance; Rubinstein simply put repeat marks at the final measure, so if you want the full effect you can just program your player to repeat.  In "Schlag' die Tschadra zuruck" (Op. 34, #7), though, Rubinstein actually wrote out the strophic verses in full, which to my mind suggests that he very much wanted to avoid having the last (of three) omitted.  It might also be worth noting that Lindqvist occasionally substitutes vocalises for words (as in Op. 34, #5) or extends them, though in no case does she do so to the detriment of the music.  In the case of the drinking song, the words would probably come across as something of a gabble, which I suspect was Rubinstein's intention (it is a drinking song, after all), but this is a minor point.

I cannot imagine anyone who has even a remote openness to solo vocal music not enjoying this disk, and it goes without saying that anyone interested in Rubinstein's music should buy it.  There are simply no comparable recordings.  An old Melodiya recording of Op. 34 has no modern incarnation (it may have been released in the West on cassette(!) decades ago, but not since then).  Only one other complete set of solo Rubinstein songs (Op. 57) has been recorded, so far as I know; this is the aforementioned Rutishauser version.  Her voice is heavier and darker (rather more operatic than I think is best for the songs, but that's a matter of taste), and she uses way more vibrato.  Other than that, every other recording is either duets or selections from single opus numbers.  I recommend this very highly, and, as I said, hope to hear more such Rubinstein recordings.
#9
Even apart from standard piano trios, there are many trios for violin, piano, and this, that, or the other intrument (violoncello or clarinet, e.g.).  Ditto violoncello and piano.  But the viola doesn't really start to show up until piano quartets, etc.  So I'm wondering what good original pieces (not arrangements, however well done) for viola, piano, and [any third instrument] people here would recommend.  Suggestions?
#10
I was listening to one of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger's concerti for Jew's Harp, Mandora, and Orchestra (no, really-- http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=127441&name_role1=1&bcorder=1&comp_id=5490 ; I believe he wrote seven, of which two have been recorded), and started to wonder what other, shall we say, unusual instruments have had genuine concerti written for them.  There are several -- well, at least a few-- harmonica concerti, accordion concerti, and even theremin concerti.  But how about really atypical solo instruments?  I do mean serious concerti, not gag pieces or new-agey slush such as pan pipe 'concerti'.  Any suggestions? 
#11
Composers & Music / Unsung Key Signatures
Thursday 31 March 2011, 20:05
Certain key signatures aren't very common, especially ones with lots of sharps or flats, and doubly especially the enharmonic key signatures (a-flat minor for g-sharp minor, and so on).  I'm wondering how many pieces (or at least movements) people can think of which use, as the foundational key signature, the four seven-accidental key signatures (a-flat minor, C-sharp Major, a-flat minor, and C-flat Major).

So far as I can tell, a-flat minor is the most common.  The slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 26 piano sonata is so signifies, as are several pieces by Janacek, Dmitri Cuclin's 13th symphony, and so on.  C-sharp Major was actually more common during the Baroque period than D-Flat Major, with the most famous example being the third Prelude and Fugue in The Well-Tempered Clavier; in modern times, D-Flat Major takes over, as in Prokofiev's seventh symphony, where the last movement should be in C-Sharp Major yet is notated in D-Flat.  But C-Flat Major and a-sharp minor?  Can anybody here think of such pieces?  (remember, I'm asking about whole movements or entire pieces, not sections within movements).
#12
Composers & Music / Unsung Lieder: Rubinstein
Tuesday 15 February 2011, 17:05
Although there is still a great deal of Rubinstein's music yet to be recorded, his solo piano sets are fairly well represented in the catalogs (I know of complete recordings of Opp. 3, 10, 14, 21, 22, 23, 26, 30, 37, 69, 71, 75, 81, 109, 114, and 118).  Not so the songs, even though he wrote nearly as many as he wrote piano pieces.  The duets of Op. 48 have been recorded (all 12 by Dorte and Heidrun Blase on the Thorofon label, 11 of the 12 by Jadwiga RappĂ© and Urszula Kryger on the Dux label, as well as various selections in various collections), and the Blase sisters also recorded the Op. 67 duets.  But that's it as far as complete sets go.  There was a recording of the Op. 57 songs, and I remember seeing the Persian Songs, Op. 34, listed (in a cassette recording, which gives you some idea of how long ago that was!), though I was never able to find them.  The Northern Flowers volume 1 of Rubinstein songs offers five of the ten Serbian Songs, Op. 105, but there doesn't seem to be a follow-up disk coming any time soon.

So the only option is collections which happen to feature a few Rubinstein songs.  Rubinstein wrote songs to German and Russian lyrics, as well as a few to French, Italian, and even English words (three that I know of; these have been recorded in German versions, but never in the original).  There being many lieder collections out there, I'm wondering whether anyone has suggestions for ones which, a) have a fair number of Rubinstein songs on them; and, b) are well-performed.
#13
Composers & Music / Unsung String Quintets
Tuesday 01 February 2011, 15:52
There are gazillions of well known string quartets, but not so many well known string quintets (Schubert, Bruckner, Brahms, a few others).  I can certainly think of ones which should be better known (Rubinstein, e.g.), but I'll bet there are others I've never even heard of.

Recommendations?  I'm looking for the combination of either 2 violins, viola, and two violoncellos, or 2 violins, 2 violas, and violoncello, not the string quartet plus double bass versions (e.g. Hummel) or piano quintets.

Thanks.
#14
It's really unfortunate that the very recent release of Anton Rubinstein's piano trios by the Edlian Trio comes as a two-disk set rather than two separate disks; in the latter case, it would be possible to recommend, albeit with reservations, the second disk and recommend ignoring the first.  As it is, though, Rubinstein completists such as myself will want the whole thing, but others may want to hold off due to the high price of the set.

There's good news and bad news, musically speaking.  The fifth trio is indeed complete, filling one of the many large holes in the Rubinstein discography.  The fourth trio is cut, but not massively; movement one is complete, movement two omits the repeat but is otherwise complete, movement three is missing 18 measures just before the end, and movement four is missing 36 measures, and has a noticeably bad edit just before four missing measures at the return of the main theme.  I suspect the whole thing was recorded (minus repeats; the Edlian Trio takes only one of these in the entire set), and then cut down to fit the CD.

The major cuts come in the earlier trios.  The third trio, first movement, is missing 12 measures; as every other recording of this trio, so far as I know, is complete, this alone would remove the Edlian version from serious consideration.  The second movement is complete, while the third lacks the repeat in the middle section (the repeat in the main section is observed), and the fourth is missing 82 measures. 

Much more damage is done to the first and second trios.  The first lacks the exposition repeat in the first movement (ten pages worth of music), as well as that in the third movement.  More seriously, all of the repeats in the slow middle movement are omitted (94 measures worth), along with an additional 38 measures in the opening and closing sections.  But these omitted repeats are not simply the same music heard twice; Rubinstein starts each variation with one statement, explicitly calling for the repeat to add new material, thus creating a sort of expanding dialogue ( as well as allowing for sections in which the two strings are heard without the piano).  All of this is missing (to be fair, the same omission occurs in the only other recording of this trio known to me, that by the Romantic Trio on Russian Disc some years back; this trio still very much needs a truly complete recording)

Weirdest of all is the fate of the second trio.  The first movement lacks the exposition repeat and twelve measures at the conclusion.  The second movement has six (yes, just six) measures excised.  The fourth movement lacks the repeat and a few other measures.  The third movement is utterly mangles; the entire opening section is missing (135 measures), and there are other cuts as well.  What makes this particularly odd is that a couple of years ago the Edlians released the same recording (so far as I can hear), presumably as part of the fund-raising toward this release, and all of the movements were complete (except, of course, for the missing repeats). 

As to the performances and recordings themselves, the energy level is usually high; in fact, some of the tempos seem a bit rushed (the middle movement of Trio #1 especially).  The violin sound is rather thin, and balance between the instruments not always good (the violoncello simply disappears on more than one occasion).  It's good to have five and most of four (the latter is, I'm inclined to think, Rubinstein's best trio, though not by a wide margin); better versions of the other three exist (If you can find the old Melodiya recording of Trio #3, with Eleanora Teplukhina, Marat Bisengaliev, and Yuri Semenov, grab it; it's a superb recording and performance).  This would have been a better release had it been on three disks, with the Piano Quartet filling out the third, leaving room for truly complete versions.