Classical Music Thread

[Man vs persistent rats]

I always thought Scriabin was a kook, but I recently read up on the relationship between him and Stravinsky and it was mindblowing to realise that his delusions progressed to the point he thought he was a literal god. Had he lived longer, he would've had a full-on schizoid breakdown.

It's interesting because there are some almost certainly diagnosable schizos like Hans Rott who manifested correct symptoms at an early age, but Scriabin is his own unique basket case. I have to wonder whether it propagated from whatever infections led to his death.

Re. Australian composers, you reminded me to check Carl Vine whom I used to like. I recall his symphonies being appealing in a Honegger-esque way, but it's all so much "vibrant" university band-sounding music to my ears now.

One other rough-yet-lyrical and fairly short symphony that I do still like (sounds more like Havergal Brian than I remembered):

 

[MIU]

I always thought Scriabin was a kook, but I recently read up on the relationship between him and Stravinsky and it was mindblowing to realise that his delusions progressed to the point he thought he was a literal god. Had he lived longer, he would've had a full-on schizoid breakdown.

I wonder if the world would have ended had the piece he was writing that was meant to bring it about was finished

 

[Positron]

I wonder if the world would have ended had the piece he was writing that was meant to bring it about was finished

Alexander Nemtin made a performance version of some scraps of that piece "Mysterium". My impression is that it sounds like dissonant Rachmaninov.

 

[MIU]

I don't really get why it's so uncommon to have the act finales in this opera to just be a single track. They're meant to be single lengthy numbers.

 

[MIU]

Really like this composer's orchestral output, sadly he didn't seem to write that much for orchestra.

 

[MIU]

Average Chopin fan

 

[Ora et Labora]

Next week I'm going to hear Shostakovich's Fifth symphony live. I have great love for Russian composers like Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, but I never really paid too much attention to Shostakovich. What works should I listen to before I attend the concert?

 

[Positron]

Next week I'm going to hear Shostakovich's Fifth symphony live. I have great love for Russian composers like Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, but I never really paid too much attention to Shostakovich. What works should I listen to before I attend the concert?

Shostakovich's Fifth is written soon after Stalin's condemnation of him for the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District. So stylistically it called for a recalibration to put himself in line with the party line. It is more tonally grounded, and much more bombastic than his earlier (and later) works, although most hear the bombast of the Final Movement as a motorized "forced rejoicing", someone beating you with a stick and ordering you "Your business is rejoicing", you can still hear it as a simple celebration without the political pretext.

But if you subscribe to the idea that such motoric frenzy is a "march to the death", a similar strain might be heard in Shostakovich's jewaboo works, such as the Final Movement of his Second Piano Trio and the Second Movement of his String Quartet No. 8.

Really like this composer's orchestral output, sadly he didn't seem to write that much for orchestra.

My favorite of Messiaen's orchestral work is his Réveil des oiseaux. Dreamy atmosphere, his obsession of birdsongs, manageable length and without theological / exegetic baggage.

 

[MIU]

Next week I'm going to hear Shostakovich's Fifth symphony live. I have great love for Russian composers like Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, but I never really paid too much attention to Shostakovich. What works should I listen to before I attend the concert?

I personally kinda dislike the very "thin" orchestration it has. It's good, but not really on the list of my favorites.

Shostakovich's Fifth is written soon after Stalin's condemnation of him for the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District. So stylistically it called for a recalibration to put himself in line with the party line.

Granted, I don't think Stalin was necessarily wrong in his critique and it did help soviet music to become distinct from western modernism.

 

[Man vs persistent rats]

Next week I'm going to hear Shostakovich's Fifth symphony live. I have great love for Russian composers like Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, but I never really paid too much attention to Shostakovich. What works should I listen to before I attend the concert?

The piano quintet just because it's so good and has won over many a Shostakovich hater. For something orchestral, the first cello concerto is very fine and crowd-pleasing, with some neoclassical elements that you may enjoy from the other composers you list. If you want to glean more of the stylistic u-turn, then the 4th symphony has some of the same post-Mahler sarcastic marches, but is overall a much different creation.

 

[MIU]

Random thing but something that really annoys me in some opera recordings is the panning of the voices back and forth, like dickhead it's an audio recording just do it concertante and have the voice be in 1 place. If I am listening to a recording I am more occupied with the music and stuff like that is just distracting.