Classical Music for Aficionados

Ahhh,thats KEF .

Re recent comments about the minimalist movement (Glass), evolution in music…..and television.

If one gives any credence to the notion that any art form’s relevance can be judged (some would say should be) by how well it portrays the time of its creation, the question of greatness is put in a context where it becomes, if not irrelevant, pointless to compare to geniuses like Mozart and Bach; greatness, the likes of which we will probably never see again. While I’m generally not a fan of this type of relativism, it is certainly true that evolution does not necessarily mean “better”. However, in this context it is also true that it doesn’t necessarily have a to mean “worse”.

Came across this interesting Belgian chamber ensemble that I think is a pretty good example of minimalism meeting today’s genre-crossing and globalist attitude:

https://youtu.be/NSIFpi4fBQc

https://youtu.be/mJzrFbdthyg

«The wise old crocodile said to me just before trying to eat me that his "tastes" need  perhaps to be refined and diversified»-Groucho Marx  🤓

«Are you saying that we all keep an old crocodile in our brain?»- Harpo Marx

I think we live in an era where listening music is no more only a "cultural" activity, but also no more only a religious activity either...

It is more nowadays a conscious spiritual activity ...With all the reproducing technology, music is no more confined to be a social or familial event only....

We are listening nowadays not the sound only, but the effect of the sound traveling through our body to our heart and from our heart to our "seeing"....This fact is reflected in the musicians playings  and the listeners alike...

We listen not the music style so much sometimes than the effect of the music on our own Body/heart/brain...These are 2 different complementary way to listen...

One is a cultural and a nostalgia habit, the other is a search of meaning more than a leisure...

Minimalism, dodecaphonism, gong and hymalayan bowls, or any "new sounds world" attract us now...They are the signs and symptoms of the new "aperspectival integral era" in musical history for the philosopher Jean Gebser...

Music is emotion yes, but also a " new meaning" we can "see" for the first time in history and which can push us toward a new kind of emotion or a new level of emotion...

It is a good thing sometimes to forget our own taste and go at risk....Muting the crocodile so to speak....

At the end music is an initiatic mystery....An introduction to the invisible cosmos seen through the internal eye : the ears...

Personally i discovered music with Bach very young...After that at mid-life with Scriabin and Bruckner and Mahler....They changed my way of "seeing" music...

In the last 20 years i discovered that all written music and unwritten one is played by musicians...

I listen musicians now more than music.... 😊

Then i can listen any genres or styles, because i listen more the musician effect on me than the music he choose to play....

Music is like some plants at the origin of many religious experience a way to open our consciousness...And music is more subtle in his action than LSD or psylocibyn but no less potent on a life long period....

This is the reason why music is also a fundamental social and cultural,spiritual and therapeutical need and a "drug" only music can give for the best or for the worst...


Music is like an economical "spatial ship" to explore the stars or our own metabolism ...Nothing less for me....

Schubert,

You are just a Ray of Sunshine.

Cheers

I consider myself a Christian, with no church affiliation though...

I like choral religious music a lot...On par with Bach.... 😊 For me Josquin Des Prez is a musical god, and Tallis and Obrecht ,Gesualdo and too many others to be named...

Between Hildegard of Bingen and Bach the number of musical known geniuses COMPOSERS by me exceed the number of geniuses composers i know of in the period beginning AFTER Bach till our day ...

And sometimes so good a modern genius is , it does not move me like an old one....Glass whom i like a lot is not a genius on the level of Schutz or Vittoria or Schubert or Bruckner...This is clear...But it is also clear how Glass inherited from the growing seeds of these master in him....His music make sense in this history not out of it....I will place Glass with Villa-Lobos for example and others great modern masters...Neither walk in the shoes of the past giants but they are admirable and original pupils at least and own a merit which is related to compositional and fusional techniques which are relatively new in their scope....

It is perhaps the opposite for the number of great musicians compared to composers in this century, i feel there is more geniuses playing musicians now more than ever.... Demographic? Technological succeess of music diffusion and reproduction?
With the communicating interpenetrating cultures now , written music has receded in favor of improvisationnal playing and fusion....jazz was the begininng of the modern era for me....

A great % of my music collection is more improvised music than european written one....Some tanbur master may rival Bach on his own ground....Ostad Elahi for example....

And also astute observation of history has proven that the instinct toward the "sacred" when no more satisfied by genuine traditional religions oriente itself towards cults, uncontrolled irrational fears and idolatry and sometimes worst : new abominations and unrecognized and hidden "religious movement" like transhumanism....

Good point schubert....

Thanks

frogman, 

Very true about the Belgian piece , a LOT  to say in a world going to hell .

The county has a lot of fine classical groups not known in North America .

IMO Ghent is among the best cities to live in in all Europe .

I have almost everything you have and feel about the way you do .

We are about 2 souls in a thousand , if that .

When we speak truly with one another, we are always two.....

Thanks for your beautiful post to me...

My deepest respect...

Canadian Military:

I am sure the troops are just fine, however they do have a serious and I mean serious problem with the senior officer corps.

The last three Canadian equivalents of our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs have been relieved of command for sexual misconduct. Three in a row!  These are their highest ranking officers in uniform.  Their special ops Chief was also relieved for sexual misconduct.  One Admiral has been accused of RAPE by a fellow female officer.  All of this in the past few years / months.

A few years ago, a full Colonel,  their best and brightest Air Force Officer, he flew the Queen around Canada during her visit, was commander of their largest Airbase, was convicted of two murders of young women, one a female airman under his command.  He also burgled many houses and took selfies of himself while wearing the underwear of the women of the houses.

They do have an anti-military socialist government and it shows.  But, when you have a border with a friendly superpower, you tend to get sloppy.

Cheers

my gut still says Putin is more dangerous than ping-pong .Belarus is his test .

I don't think either one is a military threat to the U.S.  We are in a class by ourselves when it comes to military power and the ability to project that power.

I think Putin wants influence in the world and a buffer between Russia and NATO in Europe.  He is also a master at sowing discord within Europe and to a lesser degree in NATO.  He has a talent for seeing the weak links.  He even tested the U.S. in Syria but 2 or 3 hundred Russians were missing from morning formation the next day.

Ping-Pong is more of a economic threat.  They too want more global influence.   But, we could always stop buying their stuff and educating their elites.  Geography  works against them.  Few friends and bases outside of the country.

And last, but not surely not least, we have the 1st Cavalry, and they don't.  :)

Cheers

I hate to be a wet towel here, but really guys, this is supposed to be a site that concentrates on music.

A thousand apologies.

Cheers

No need for apologies!

The singing is great of course, but listen to the strings!   I have never heard it played like this before.  Like an old 3D movie,  it just jumps out at you.  Love it.

Handel - Messiah (Stephen Layton)

stroll down and click on part 2  -- at   1:33:01 
why do the nations so furiously rage together?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXjYsBZTBTA&t=5746s

Cheers

Rarely does  one  actually hear what the singers are  singing .

Must get this jewel !

"The whole economic activity serves  the common good "

Bavarian Constitution , Art.151

 

 

mahgister, does this fit within the religious music that appeals to you?

 

 

 

 I have the original LP on Philips. I'm not a religious person but I find this beautiful and uplifting.

 

@schubert        Len, I see your favourite Orchestra and Conductor ( Vanska ) won the Gramophone Orchestra and condutor of the year. Well done!!!

Take care friend , Jim.

This is indeed uplifting like many other sublime rythmical works from New world composers in 18 centuries Spanish and Portuguese americas...

 

This version is top....And especially moving... I will search for it....

Thanks very much and my deepest respects...

 

mahgister, does this fit within the religious music that appeals to you?

 

 

 

I have the original LP on Philips. I’m not a religious person but I find this beautiful and uplifting.

Well , as I said , Jim . The Minnesota was always good but Vanska made it world -class .

VERY unusal for the Classical Bible to give 5 Stars to any US band not on a coast !!!

Vansa is going to Seoul next year , I would say it has about 50 times as much cash

as Twin Cities an to boot he is taking our 1st violnist with him , but considering he married her , not much we can do .

 

,

 

P. S . Reading the semi-story of you life you put on shows me, but one thing .

You are Scotland and You are Brave !

And a true son of Babby . Ah dinnae ken if  I  could  do what you have .

 

Currently enjoying the heck out of "Il delirio della passione," an album of Monteverdi songs sung by Anna Lucia Richter. I found it featured on the home page of my Idagio feed. Great imaging. Great tonal quality. Performed with lots of drama and beauty.

Thanks .

"to boot he is taking our 1st violnist with him"

Thats one way to preserve talent!

@schubert

Who dat say Cav can’t jam!!

 

 

Who are The Hellcats??

 

Cheers

This music of coming death by Oliver Messiaen was made , and played ,

in a concentration camp in Germany where the Quartet, and every one else, thought they would be gone shortly , many were in starvation .

 

IMO one of the greatest chamber pieces of the last century both in life and death.

 

 

 

That’s a good one piano !

 

I don’t know rok , do know it was best Div USA put into field at one time .

Bragging another time is a road to defeat .

 

 

Does anyone know any interesting concert venues in upstate NY around Albany NY area? I am aware of SPAC in saratoga where philadelphia orchestra plays one week every august. I’m looking for smaller music halls in the area that host world class soloists. Is there such a place within 100 miles of albany NY?

Ya , NYC . In Troy on top of a Bank is a small hall that has FANTASTIC sound

and World Class recordings are made there , Long time since I’ve been there

but guess a few jet-setters do play there.

Actually the Albany orchestra it self is worth listening to if not world class .

2 of the rich colleges about 1/2 way down the Hudson, Bard and Vassar, have

very good music concerts .

Rok + anybody 

 

I have zero doubt that this is the best song the US  forces sing . 

Fact is it is played all over the world just for it's musical merit.

Only one that could make me go over the trence in my 80"s

This is the best rentation I have heard , Band is German School Kids .

Even the Royal Swedish Air Foce agrees ,

Japanese Navy Bands as well .                                 

 

Told you so!

 

 

In Tokyo no less .I went to Vietnam  on The USS Hancock , a carrier .

A thousand men standing on rails as you go under the Golden Gate 

is a once in a life  event , Unless you are a sailor  of course ,

Had a lot more respect for Navy when I got off than when I got on.

Happy Veterans Day  

- Claude DEBUSSY, Suite bergamasque, Zoltán Kocsis ‎(piano) - discogs. Magnificent interpretation, very good recording.

INTERPRETATION: 🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼

SOUND:                🎼🎼🎼🎼

 

-Steve REICH, Music for 18 Musicians, ensemble Signal - discogs - Superb interpretation (awarded in French magazine Diapason), outstanding recording.

INTERPRETATION: 🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼

SOUND:                🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼

Just finished listening to an Idagio stream of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by William Steinberg. Recorded who knows when, sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s. Anyway, a compelling, full-blooded performance that satisfies on all levels.

 

Interestingly, it seems the producers/engineers had to move their mike positioning for the fourth movement to make room for the chorus and vocal soloists. Sound quality took an unmistakable hit. What was previously spacious and lovely was now a bit flat and buzzy. Dynamics went south, as well. Still, a performance eminently worth visiting.

Deutsche Welle is a German Public Broadcast Service

 

 

For all Canadians and their Sycophants

Cheers

i come here for music discussion

political/historic subjects are a turn off

good bye

"political/historic subjects are a turn off"

"good bye"

 

If it "turns you off" sitting in the comfort of your home listing to your million dollar stereo system, try to imagine what it was for the kidnapped  children undergoing sexual abuse and torture.   I bet they thought it was a real 'turn off' also.

Good Bye and Good Riddance.

IMO one of the greatest chamber pieces of the last century both in life and death.

What a discovery for me, and thank you.

I have one album from Messiaen that I never could approach since it was contemporary (I'm more a fan of classical(-baroque/+romantic)). But this piece is phenomenal for what it conveys from its backstory. You can sense the sadness, despair, and fear of death underneath - but what’s up front is the hope and devotion to faith, which underlines all of human nature. Thanks again - I’m looking for another album now...

Seems strange you do not show the MANY more children the US did the same to.

At least Canada has showed real remorse .

I understand that some of the Best Art and Music are the Yang to the Yin of Death and Misery but couid we concentrate on the Art and Music here...? Just because I like sausage does not mean I want to see how it was made.

Messian is awesome!

Amen!!