Let's talk music, no genre boundaries

@frogman 

When I was studying poetry with Gary Snyder back in the mid-sixties, we had a discussion about why poets no longer wrote in rhyme and meter. He talked about artists tapping into the music of their society. He quoted an Arab saying, "When a music of a society dies, the society dies." The implication is that the music of the society is the foundation of the society. As an artist, one needs to understand their society's music and tap into it.

I read about Rachmaninoff being upset that he was writing Romantic music in the twentieth century alongside "modern" composers like Stravinsky. Rachmaninoff was a great composer, I think, and I have read music critics say that he did incorporate modern elements into his music. The same story with Sibelius who is one of my favorite composers, despite the fact that he wrote in the late Romantic style while Stravinsky and other modern composers were changing the structure of music.

Here is an absolutely beautiful piece of music by Sibelius

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5xJAOlXdUI

@audio-b-dog 

Thanks for recommending Martha Argerich. I'm sorry -- should have stated earler that I've never been a fan of the orchestra. Perhaps if I had a dedicated room and a system that could present such recordings more realistically, I'd grow to appreciate the sound. Nevertheless, I do enjoy solo Classical piano, so I will seek out Argerich in that context.  

@stuartk 

Argerich has a numerous solo piano albums. She is known for Chopin and Schumann, among others. Schumann is a hard composer to cozy up to. He died in a mental institution at 35 of manic depression, I think. His long piano works will move from absolutely beautiful melodies to dark, cacophonous passages. His wife, Clara, was a composer in her own right and an extremely popular concert pianist. She introduced a number of his works. You might look for Argerich playing "kinderszenen." It is about the phases of childhood, if I remember correctly. The early passages are lovely, then he descends into a kind of madness, but pulls out of it. It must be so hard for a pianist to express his soul  as @mahgister says.

@audio-b-dog 

Thanks. 

I’ll check out the Chopin. I already have a recording of Nocturnes by a S. American pianist whose name I don’t recall... Maria Pires, I think. 

Not sure I want to hear the sonic equivalent of a child 
"descending into madness"               ;o) 

@stuartk 

I have Maria Pires playing Mozart’s sonatas. She is pristine in her delivery. I have others playing Mozart piano sonatas who bring out emotional depth that Pires avoids, I think. Her notes sparkle. For her, I think, it’s all about the touch and the timing. She leans more toward a Classical interpretation, where others lean toward the Romantic.

Argerich is bold and powerful, at least that’s the way I hear her. I know you don’t play orchestral music (although I think you can. I used to listen to it on a $100 Sears suitcase stereo that probably didn’t go below 80 Hz.) If you were to try a piano concerto, she does a mean Prokofieff’s 3rd piano concerto. It has the most amazing build I’ve ever heard. He mastered the art of the build, rising up to a crescendo then descending. Rising up again and descending. Until finally the crescendo comes and it is extremely satisfying.