Dead-Composers Society

[BigBen]

Orlinski has a wonderful voice and impeccable musicality.  I watched a masterclass he did with Joyce Didonato at Juilliard a few years ago, and all she could do was say, "Keep on doing what you're doing."  Alas, however, he plays soccer for the other team. (sob!)  Now, Jaroussky, on the other hand, is definitely well-acquainted with Dorothy, lol!

Meanwhile, this just appeared in my YouTube recommendations.  Not quite sure what to make of it, but it's pretty, and the performers are good.

 

[AC Benus]

The clip you didn't know was missing from your life: the bagpipe blues 

 

[Ron]

I like classical music but I'm not a fan of opera. I've had the pleasure of hearing the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, and Boston Symphony along with the Boston Baroque, I enjoyed them all. My post isn't to discuss music because I really don't have anything to offer you on this topic. But I ran across this in the Boston Globe, and I thought you all would like to read it.

Shushed at the symphony

[Zombie]

18 hours ago, Ron said:

I like classical music but I'm not a fan of opera. I've had the pleasure of hearing the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, and Boston Symphony along with the Boston Baroque, I enjoyed them all. My post isn't to discuss music because I really don't have anything to offer you on this topic. But I ran across this in the Boston Globe, and I thought you all would like to read it.

Shushed at the symphony

excellent blog/article, and it mentions my only real bugbear about audience applause for live “classical”:

I especially prize silences at the very end of a work — that magical moment when a conductor holds the silence as 2,000 people hold their breath, and the sound fades into its own ghostly resonance. Where else in a noisy, distracted culture can you experience such a thing?

I used to go regularly to live concerts (time, other commitments etc) at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, which has a fantastic (tuneable) acoustic and at the end of one well known piece (can’t recall which) the orchestra rises to a huge crescendo and ends on a final, full-throttle chord played by the entire orchestra, the conductor signals the players to stop, and the sound slowly dies away over maybe 4-5 seconds into nothingness and silence. The audience, who would have known this was the final chord (it was a famous symphony I think) sat motionless into that silence, then stood up and gave the longest, loudest, most enthusiastic applause I’ve ever experienced - a truly memorable moment.

Interesting to contrast “classical etiquette” with live jazz where players expect, and get, enthusiastic applause for every solo improv, and even “stuffy” operas where audiences will applaud the end of each act and sometimes outstanding arias (but not Wagner, apparently )

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Zombie

[northie]

4 hours ago, Zombie said:

I especially prize silences at the very end of a work — that magical moment when a conductor holds the silence as 2,000 people hold their breath, and the sound fades into its own ghostly resonance. Where else in a noisy, distracted culture can you experience such a thing?

As a performer, to experience that is also special, even more so in such a fantastic space as Symphony Hall. You feel as though every single person is held in the same, oh-so-fragile trance.  You do need a conductor with presence to help make it work though. 

[BigBen]

It takes not only a sublime piece of music, but also an inspired performance, to bring about that pause before the applause begins.  It's not going to happen every night, nor should it be expected.

However, Uta Hagen writes about this hush in Respect for Acting:  there is a profound difference between the sort of bravura performance that brings an audience instantly to its feet, and a performance that reaches from the depths of the actor's soul into the audience's.  That, she says, is the performance that creates the hush before the audience bursts into applause, and we should always be striving for that level of performance, no matter that we are inevitably going to fall short on many nights.

I am old enough to remember when the Metropolitan Opera began to ask the audience not to applaud after every aria, on the grounds that it hindered the singers from sustaining the dramatic flow of the opera.  It may be true for more modern works, but Baroque operas were written to be interrupted.  I do, however, appreciate being able to listen in silence while the music is actually occurring, though I figure that if you need to cough, you need to cough.  Rattling your program, however, is under your control, so watch it, buster! 😁

In general, though, I favor a sincere reaction from the audience over rigid etiquette, so I'm not going to shush anyone who wants to applaud after the first movement.  But I'm not in favor of the compulsory standing ovation and wild cries that are apparently de rigueur these days.  Much as we wish they could all be, most performances aren't that wonderful!

[AC Benus]

Though I prefer the genius of the father Alessandro in every genre, here is the genius of Plentnev playing some of (brat) Domenico Scarlatti's pianoforte sonatas 

(Compare to the radiant warmth of the father

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Going to repost this because it's totally worth revising

 

[AC Benus]

Etsuko Hirose performs Moszkowski's Liebeswalzer

 

[Parker Owens]

3 hours ago, AC Benus said:

Etsuko Hirose performs Moszkowski's Liebeswalzer

 

Bravo, and thank you! It brightened my afternoon whole grading papers.

[Parker Owens]

May I suggest the Godowski Passacaglia? Delucchi plays it beautifully.

 

[AC Benus]

Jakub Józef Orliński sings "Vedro con mio diletto" from the Vivaldi opera Il giustino

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Filippo Mineccia sings "Dormi o fulmine di guerra" [Sleep, o fulminations of war] from Alessandro Scarlatti 1697 dramma per musica Giuditta

 

 

[ghazestor]

I’ve missed it there doesn’t seem to be anything by Henry Purcell 

[Zombie]

There is 

England’s only truly “great” composer of that age

and you’re welcome to post your own favourites  

[AC Benus]

3 hours ago, ghazestor said:

I’ve missed it there doesn’t seem to be anything by Henry Purcell 

 

 

[AC Benus]

4 hours ago, ghazestor said:

I’ve missed it there doesn’t seem to be anything by Henry Purcell 

[ghazestor]

I am old enough to remember when the Metropolitan Opera began to ask the audience not to applaud after every aria, on the grounds that it hindered the singers from sustaining the dramatic flow of the opera.  It may be true for more modern works, but Baroque operas were written to be interrupted.  I do, however, appreciate being able to listen in silence while the music is actually occurring, though I figure that if you need to cough, you need to cough.  Rattling your program, however, is under your control, so watch it, buster! 😁  mobdro 2022

[AC Benus]

A melancholic voice for a winter's night . . . I don't know much about this composer; a German living and making his way in France. 

The adagio sostenuto and rondo from Rudolf Kreutzer's 15th violin concerto

 

[AC Benus]

In classic Beaumarchais intrigue,  Tarere has been disguised and sneaked into the chambers where his fiancee is being imprisoned against her will. Getting the tip that a stranger is on his way to 'kidnap' the woman, she switches clothes with her maid. Once Tarere discovers the switcheroo, he tries to make his escape, alone. But...but the maid has taken a fancy to him already  

Stage works don't get any better than this. Period

[AC Benus]

"O sleep, ye fulminations of war." amen

 

[AC Benus]

The clock strikes midnight, and Falstaff appears in antlers to meet up with his lady friends

 

[BigBen]

Just came across this.

 

[AC Benus]

More American Lieder: Tomorrow, by Korngold (1942). Seems to have a wartime sadness to it, appropriate for our own era

 

Tomorrow

 

When you are gone,

the birds will stop their singing,

When you are dead,

no sun will ever rise.

No more, no more

the joyful days upspringing

shall bless these eyes.

 

When you are in your grave,

the flowers blowing

shall hang their heads

and sicken in their grove.

Beauty will fade

and wither at your going,

oh, my own love.

 

Ah, say not so,

another love will cheer you.

The sun will shine

as bright tomorrow morn.

The birds will sing,

though I no longer near you

must lie forlorn.

 

When I am in my grave,

the flowers blowing

shall make you garlands

twenty times as sweet.

Beauty will live,

though I must sleep

unknowing beneath thy feet.

 

 

Edited March 18 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

One of music's most startling and effective key changes from minor to major? You can't miss it; it comes immediately after the end of the development section 

 

The only proper visual counterparts are the Classical paintings of David

 

Edited April 4 by AC Benus