Classical music...

[CH1]

On the recommendation of Slavoj Zizek I'm listening to Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder.



Early romantic Schoenberg still with a tonal centre. It does sound like late romantic opera but with a touch of edge. It's glorious.

Funnily enough I have a vinyl double album of this work which I picked up in Relay Records who used to have a concession in "The Bon" the attempt to keep Bon Marché in Brixton going in 1978-1980 or thereabouts.
This recording apparently dates from 11th April 1932 - so must originally have been a set of about 12 12 inch 78s. The recording quality isn't that bad - it didn't get reprocessed into "Electronic Stereo".
The double LP version was released as a vintage recording in 1976, and by the time it found it's way to Bon Marché it cost me £1.

 

[Knotted]

Awesome. Great cover and all.

 

[CH1]

The Proms programme looks quite good, though I think they've upped the non-classical content again.
In case anyone was worrying please rest assured that Stravinsky'd The Firebird is on the menu (18th August).
Can anyone remember a year when The Firebird was NOT played?
Did Lord Reith enter some sort of Faustian pact with Igor Stravinsky?

Pardon Our Interruption

 

[Cloo]

Thanks for reminder CH1, will look at that now and optimistically put things in the diary

 

[CH1]

Just spent 40 minutes queueing on the Royal Albert Hall website to (successfully) get my Proms season ticket.
There was a certain camaraderie queueing at the Box Office in person - you could hear about that Joe Loss concert in 1965, why the chap's wife doesn't like classical music but wants to see John Wilson conduct "Annie Get Your Gun" - that sort of thing.
Digital convenience is destroying those random friendly encounters.

 

[CH1]

As I post BBC Four are in the middle of a film "Late Flowering Lust" - a Nigel Hawthorne 1993 TV film choreographed by Matthew Bourne, narrated by John Betjeman's poetry.

Seems to me this film is a slight case of to much information. Jim Parker and John Betjeman brought out as an LP following on from the successful "Banana Blush"
Late Flowering Love was a great solace at 2 am in my student years

 

[existentialist]

I'm just going to put this here.

That has the potential to be a heart-rending piece.

This recording really wasn't it.

 

[CH1]

That has the potential to be a heart-rending piece.

This recording really wasn't it.

I thought it was OK, but you can have it with histrionic dance and orchestra from Manchester
- would not embed as it was on Facebook - sorry -see Opera North 5 December 2023

 

[CH1]

Music from the other side............................

I've booked - but then I'm a sucker for the Swedenborg Society.
This event seems to be a promotion for a new book they have produced: SWEDENBORG'S LUSTHUS
but Peckham Chamber Orchestra and a choir from Sweden - what more could set you up on a Friday evening?
Swedenborg House, 20 Bloomsbury Way, WC1A 2TH London, United Kingdom
Free
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-gothenburg-indie-choir-peckham-chamber-orchestra-live-visions-tickets-929134244537
PS I found that "free" meant "donation" but this started at £1.

 

[Knotted]

I was listening to a thing about Glenn Gould and he said he thought about Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen everyday. So I listened to it. Now I can't stop thinking about it. Thankyou Glenn Gould.

 

[CH1]

Something of an old-style popular Prom yesterday am at the Albert Hall.
This was an organ recital of arrangments. Started with Wagner's Tanhauser Overture, ended with Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture.
Rounded of by an encore of Nessum Dorma
BBC Proms - 2024 - Prom 29: Jonathan Scott – Organ Recital - BBC Sounds in case anyone is interested. 64 days only.

 

[Cloo]

My choir's concert next week:



The Schoenberg is an extraordinary piece on the cusp of modernism, and the Dvorak is seldom heard which is suprising as it is really lovely and deserves to be much more popular.

 

[rutabowa]

I found some classical music that I genuinely like! Ravel. Would def go see this performed, I guess there aren't too many pianists who could do it though

 

[Cloo]

It's a shame that Ravel is best known for his least interesting piece (Bolero) - his music is really varied and original

 

[Skinny Ethel]

Absolutely beautiful and haunting.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

I just adore this. Cry every time I hear it.

 

[Lorca]

Other than the odd dalliance with folk and jazz, I only really listen to classical now. I'm currently enjoying Strauss's 'Four Last Songs,' which he composed shortly before he died and is not what you would expect Strauss to sound like at all - and Mahler's 'Kindertotenlieder.'

 

[Cloo]

Other than the odd dalliance with folk and jazz, I only really listen to classical now. I'm currently enjoying Strauss's 'Four Last Songs,' which he composed shortly before he died and is not what you would expect Strauss to sound like at all - and Mahler's 'Kindertotenlieder.'

Loooove the four last songs, have had a go at singing 'September' but they make me cry my eyes out! My mum has always said it's the music she'd like played on her deathbed.

 

[Skinny Ethel]

Composer of the week Purcell radio 3 . Listening but its not really got my toes tapping but i bet it goes down a storm in funeral parlours.