Dead-Composers Society

[MichaelS36]

11 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

Then it mentions all of those songs were only possible because Foster's husband and collaborator, the talented poet George Cooper. Despite his man's love, Foster succumbed to depression and alcoholism, dying tragically young in 1864 at the age of thirty-seven. It was George who did all he could to make sure Stephen's music stayed in the limelight for decades afterwards, until he too passed away.

 

It worked! Yay love.

That is very young, such a shame.  Why is it, that so many of the most talented are so haunted, or suffer in some way?  Thank you for sharing this AC. 

[Mikiesboy]

Oh! We talked about this before. Like Michael said, it is very sad. But people do still know who he was... xo

[AC Benus]

Leontyne Price singing Dvorak's "Song To The Moon" from Rusalka.

 

 

[Parker Owens]

@AC Benus : Leontyne Price is one of my all time favorites. Thank you for posting this. I seem to remember her in Aida, too...

[AC Benus]

1 hour ago, Parker Owens said:

@AC Benus : Leontyne Price is one of my all time favorites. Thank you for posting this. I seem to remember her in Aida, too...

She's a great singer. I have her in Verdi's Requiem too. Amazing 

[Tiger]

 

 

[AC Benus]

7 hours ago, Tiger said:

 

 

Love it! Thanks for posting

 

[Tiger]

2 hours ago, AC Benus said:

Love it! Thanks for posting

 

I listened to it before I went to sleep. It's one of the most relaxing songs ever. 

 

 

[AC Benus]

"Poor flowers,

the jewels of the meadow,

born only yesterday,

today you are dying,

like the promises

of a faithless heart!"

 

Olivero performs Poveri fiori live. One of the greatest actresses of the opera stage, ever. 

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Can anyone really listen to Variation IX and not think it's about love? About expressing the joys and pains of affection and emotion shared between two people? 

 

But I guess as it's by a man for another man, it's an inconvenient truth to ignore at all costs. right?  

 

Elgar's tribute to August Jaeger, the man who told him not to give up on music. It starts at min. 14:44

 

 

Edited August 8, 2018 by AC Benus

[Mikiesboy]

10 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

Can anyone really listen to this and not think it's about love? About expressing the joys and pains of affection and emotion shared between two people? 

 

But I guess as it's by a man for another man, it's an inconvenient truth to ignore at all costs. right?  

 

Elgar's tribute to August Jaeger, the man who told him not to give up on music. 

 

 

it is absolutely beautiful 

[Parker Owens]

@AC Benus That's magnificent. How I wish I could leave such a tribute to those I love and revere.

[AC Benus]

Sometimes nothing beats a little slice of Italian sunshine

 

 

 

[Parker Owens]

Yes.... Italian Sunshine....

 

 

[Tiger]

 

[Atheugorei]

Just found this thread. One of my favorite classical pieces (or romantic, as it were) is Chopin's Barcarolle. Easily one of my favorite pieces on the piano ever!

[Parker Owens]

Am traveling over an hour to hear a carillon concert. Rain threatens, but I hope it holds off. Here is what it might sound like...only outdoors. 

 

 

[AC Benus]

I know nothing about this composer, except he wrote this in the 1890s, and was thus a contemporary of Elgar's. The movement starting at min 18:22 is so beautiful....omg....

 

 

Edited August 13, 2018 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Hi @MacGreg! Hope your day is going well. I'm listening to this right now, and thinking it's something you'd enjoy as well

 

Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez

 

 

 

 

[MacGreg]

1 hour ago, AC Benus said:

Hi @MacGreg! Hope your day is going well. I'm listening to this right now, and thinking it's something you'd enjoy as well

 

Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez

Thanks for thinking of me with this piece, AC! I enjoyed listening on my lunch break.The composition sounds beautiful on the classical guitar. I also love this version, Chet Baker and Paul Desmond 

 

 

[AC Benus]

20 minutes ago, MacGreg said:

Thanks for thinking of me with this piece, AC! I enjoyed listening on my lunch break.The composition sounds beautiful on the classical guitar. I also love this version, Chet Baker and Paul Desmond 

 

 

Chet Baker! I love everything by him

[mollyhousemouse]

oh @AC Benus and @MacGreg Sir

these were lovely, and have been added to my playlist! 

thank you both so much!

[Tiger]

 

[Saraband]

On 7/21/2018 at 1:04 PM, AC Benus said:

Can anyone really listen to Variation IX and not think it's about love?

OK, I'll bite. I have listened to this and carefully thought about it for a whole week now, and I don't think I hear what you hear. At least not entirely, or entirely within the "Nimrod" variation. (Buckle up, this is longer than I wanted it to be, but your question deserves full and respectful consideration You can, of course, tell me to piss off if you want.)

 

I'm no expert on Elgar -- in fact, I have a guts-deep impression that late romantic music, and English late-romantic music in particular is way more in your wheelhouse than mine -- but for starters, nothing I knew of him up to now, or have learned this week, makes me think Elgar was all that gay. (If you know something else about this, please DO send it my way -- I want to know!)

 

For seconds, I have probably listened to more f**king Enigma variations this week than I have to all other music by Elgar in the rest of my life, and I do this for a living. (I mean, it's surprisingly easy to function as a jazz pianist and teacher without Elgar in your life, so there's that. But still.) So: my overall impression of Variation IX is of grandeur and melancholy, with more or less elements of serenity and brightness, depending on who's playing it. And, in that regard, I think the Warsaw recording you shared above is one of the most intense and distraught versions I've heard -- although the conductor does right by the climactic moment, putting it later in the cadence than a lot of folks seem to want to do. Barenboim in Chicago was unsurprisingly "meh;" Solti in London was skipping-fast, which was super surprising (and I didn't like it, either). Stokowski's version with the Czech Philharmonic is probably the closest I heard to the Warsaw performance, and is still a little more hopeful in outlook, I think. My favorites were actually two Russian conductors' interpretations: Rozhdestvensky at the Proms several years ago, which is a standout both for the maestro's insight and because I actually just love watching him lead the orchestra, and Yuri Temirkanov's version with St Petersburg, which I think is my overall winner. Both of these last two recordings -- in addition to being complete performances so I could do a real apples-to-apples comparison of the conductors' whole outlook -- had "Nimrods" with great tempo, sensitivity, dynamic and emotional range. Rozhdestvensky brings out a sense of catharsis, with serenity and lightened resolve by the end of the variation; Temirkanov's take is a little more stoic, but brings a sense of stability: a confidence that everything is beautiful, and somehow all right. Programmatically, that seems to have been Elgar's intent for this movement, as you also pointed out in the OP. Which brings us to the next part of your question:

 

On 7/21/2018 at 1:04 PM, AC Benus said:

About expressing the joys and pains of affection and emotion shared between two people? 

Yeah, I'd say this is definitely a thing here, and the Jaeger dedication attached to one of the three or four most substantial and emotionally intense variations (including the composer's self-portrait at the end) clearly shows the importance of Elgar's relationship with him. My read on this movement is that it is a depiction of both the character of Jaeger, and of the role his friendship played in Elgar's life. We know that Jaeger helped Elgar get through his "Heiligenstadt Testament-moment", and resolve to continue working artistically. As I described above, I think these elements come through clearly in the writing, and in most performances -- it's only when someone decides to double-down on the hyper-romantic interpretation that the variation starts to sound really wrought. And, even acknowledging that Jaeger was almost certainly one of Elgar's most intimate friends, can we conclude that there was a romantic element to their relationship (from this music or anything else written by or about them)? I'm actually not entirely sure whether you're supposing this, or a more platonic intimacy between them -- but from your statement about "an inconvenient truth to ignore", I get the sense you believe the two were romantically involved. I wouldn't blow off the possibility, but I'm not ready to jump on that wagon.

 

But what about this possibility? Variation 1 (for Elgar's wife) is characterized by delightful melody, warm harmonies and some really tender orchestration. From what I know, the story of Elgar's marriage to Alice is fairly compelling, and I don't believe their relationship to have been any kind of a sham. Variation 9 (for Jaeger) is already discussed -- but let's say overall is weightier, solid in character. Variation 13 (which seems to have some uncertainty surrounding its dedication, and could be for one of a few different women, including an ex-fiance, and a possible illegitimate daughter) is brooding and oblique: around three minutes of conflicted thematic and orchestral writing. Sometimes-bright, sometimes-sinister sounding, with the clarinet whipping back and forth between carefree, sad, and even spooky lines that never seem to get all the way to wherever they could be going. Whomever this movement is written for, Elgar must have had some very complicated feelings about that person. And finally, Variation 14 (the man himself) starts out marchy and even gets a little manic in a kind of weird resolutely-affirmative way. Then it unites material from Variations 9 and 1 in the uptempo, major-key, exhilarated finale. The dedication of the work is to "my friends pictured within," and is assuredly a loving depiction of each one of them, even when Elgar is teasing them.* But I do notice that the composer's picture of himself could not be complete without including both his closest friend and his wife.

 

Now, if only I could listen to this music and not see footage from Dunkirk in the film-reel of my mind, that'd be perfect.

 

*Except maybe for Variation 13, which is weird.

 

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to spend some serious time getting to know music I never thought I'd find all that interesting.

[Tiger]