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Tonight's concert looks like a good one.
First off, this is only the second time we will have seen young Conductor Krzysztof Urbanski since his debut as music director a year ago. I'm really looking forward to seeing him again since all of our other experiences with guest conductors at this symphony during the interim.
The program looks wonderful, considering we got a small dose of Ravel last month and we both love Shostakovich.
1) Ravel - "Pavane Pour Une Infant Defunte"
2) Ravel - Piano Concerto in G with Simon Trpceski, pianist.
3) Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10
I am looking forward to hearing Simon on the piano as he has received some glowing performance reviews and his recordings of Debussy and Rachmaninoff have also been reviewed nicely.
As usual, I'll provide my amateur musings after the show tonight.
Follow Ups:
What a nice thread. You're wife's response is so interesting, particularly in light of what was happening in music around about 1918-1925.
I know that Rachmaninov [one my favs] head left Russia for good due to the revolution, and had visited our country, where he eventually settled. In the process, he was exposed to jazz. It was, obviously, the early form of jazz. I think he chiefly heard Paul Whiteman's band.
He liked it. He said so. Curiously, later he didn't like the newly emerged swing, but he continued to have affection for the jazz of the teens and twenties. The first composition, AFAIK, that he completed, under the influence of his American stay, and Gershwin specifically, was the 4th Piano Concerto.
And, obviously, we have the Ravel concerto, composed under the influence of jazz and Gershwin.
So, what other works were also influenced similarly? I know that there were quite a lot.
And this was after Gershwin had already achieved a certain fame. At the first meeting, Ravel asked Gershwin how much money he made. When Gershwin told him, Ravel answered, "Well then, perhaps I should be taking lessons with YOU!"
Nuggets such as that are really great.
I believe that in the 1920's, the center of music creativity shifted from Vienna to Paris, with some competition from Berlin. Paris was swarming with Russian and eastern European musicians and composers who'd escaped the Russian revolution. Prokofiev and Stravinsky were there.
Additionally, Paris based musicians were a magnet for training the new generation of composers from around the world, particularly from the USA. Nadia Boulanger and others thought so many young Americans who went on to be a creative force in shaping 20th cent music.
Jazz had apparently'd become the rage in France, and it permeated artist's creativity.
Great info, Mike. I'll have to give Rachmanioff's 4th Piano Concerto a listen. I have the box set of four Rachmaninoff piano concertos with Previn and Ashkenazy which I haven't listened to yet. It will be next up.
I'd also love to hear of more classical works influenced by American jazz.
was definitely infected early on :)
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
Any particular works of Bartok that were especially infected?
The concerto, music for string percussion and celesta, miraculous mandarin, the string quartets, all have a drive that could only come from a dude who was immersed in jazz at one point or another.
dee
;-D
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
Penguin,
Thanks! I don't own any works by Bartok, so I'll add these to my list of pieces to look for.
I don't know if Bartok WAS immersed in jazz, but he was a "collector" of folk music from Eastern Europe, and the rhythms and drive he found in those songs are all through his music.
of his contemporaries :)Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano (1938)
Bartóks only trio came to be composed as a result of a request by the Hungarian violinist Josef Szigeti, who had emigrated to the United States, and the "King of Swing" clarinetist Benny Goodman. After a meeting with Szigeti, who early in the summer of 1938 broached the idea to him, and then a meeting onthe Riviera with Goodman, who was on a tour in Europe, Szigeti wrote a letter formally commissioning the work. Bartók was initially not enthusiastic about the proposition, particularly the idea of writing for a jazz musician. But his meeting with Goodman and his subsequent familiarity with the work of Goodmans trio (Teddy Wilson on piano, and Gene Krupa on drums) through recordings won him over to the project and he completed the original work in little over a month. The commission had some requests. "If possible", Szigeti wrote, "the composition should consist of two independent parts (with the possibility of playing them separately - like the First Rhapsody for violin) and, of course, we hope that it will also contain brilliant clarinet and violin cadenzas." In addition, Goodman wanted a work consisting of two brief movements that could be recorded, one per side, on 12" 78 RPM phonograph records. Bartók complied with these requests and the original work entitled Rhapsody following the traditional model of the two movement Hungarian Rhapsody was premiered at Carnegie Hall on January 9, 1939 by Szigeti, Goodman and pianist Endre Petri. The work was received enthusiastically.
During his lifetime, his works were often described with such scatological epithets as "mere ordure" (piano music), or caustic but imaginative: "the singular alarmed noise of poultry being worried to death by a scotch terrier" (Fourth Quartet). In a letter dated February 8, 1939, Szigeti wrote to Bartók, "The second part had to be repeated and we also played the second part of that movement because my E string had snapped!....through Benny Goodman, the premiere aroused such a clamour in the press which could never be hoped for by a composer or artist in our milieu..." However, he did add that he did not think that an orchestral version would be needed "for the time being." (Bartók had provided versions with orchestra of both his rhapsodies for Violin and Piano).
On April 21, 1940, the work was again played at Carnegie Hall, with Szigeti and Goodman, this time, joined by Bartók himself at the piano and with the addition of a third movement (Pihenö - Relaxation) placed between the two original movements. It was renamed Contrasts and recorded a month later by Columbia Records, with Szigeti, Goodman and Bartók. This recording is still available today on compact disc.
The work is indeed a study in contrasts: the tone color of the three different instruments, the different musical idioms, the jazz and classical players, the moods and tempi.
The first movement, Verbunkos, opens with pizzicatos, according to Szigeti, inspired by the blues movement of the Ravel Sonata for Violin and Piano (SCS 1991 season). It is to Bartóks credit that he did not fill this work with the ersatz "jazz musik" that many European composers were tempted to introduce into their works. Except for this fragment at the beginning (perhaps, humorously intended), the work remains in Bartóks own musical language all the way through.
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
Edits: 05/31/12
We started the night with 10 minutes of drive time toward downtown, when my wife asked, "do you have the tickets?". "Crap!", I blurted. I had to drive another 3 miles to turn around on the interstate and then return to the house to print the tickets. I didn't know if we could get in without them, but after finally arriving, the ticket office said we could have gotten in with a simple check-in. So, now I know.
That "little" delay cost us enough time that we couldn't eat at our favorite "before symphony" restaurant, so we had to settle for some bad bar food with lousy drinks. Oh well, and as my wife said, "It's all about the show, anyway."
OK, so on to the show...
We hadn't heard any of these pieces before, so we didn't know what to expect.
The first Ravel pavane was absolutely lovely and, as usual, well played. However, after the bad dinner we needed a little orchestral fireworks to lift our spirits.
Ravel's Piano Concerto in G was, to say the least, unexpected. I would describe it as a cacophony of sounds, rhythms and phrasing with a beautiful melody stuck in the middle. My wife would look at me occasionally when particularly discordant notes were struck during the first and third movements as if to ask, "What the hell was that?".
Simon's playing was awesome as his hands flowed over the entire keyboard and he blended so well with the orchestra when such was called for. I certainly don't have anything to compare his performance to since the music was so unusual, but an immediate, and I mean immediate standing ovation by the entire audience (the place was packed) pretty much told me what I needed to know. After he appeared for the 4th time during the ovation, he played an absolutely lovely piece by Chopin, but from our nose-bleed seats, I couldn't hear as he announced the piece. I only caught Chopin's name.
Our overall opinion on the piano concerto? Awesome, even with the modern atonal, discordant sounds that we usually do not get along with. This one worked for us.
Last but not least was Shosty's 10th. We both just love big Russian symphonies, and this was no exception. The ups and downs of the first movement, the composer's percussive musical description of Stalin in the second, the beautiful, melodious third and then the final amped up finish of the fourth, all had us completely involved. We love this stuff!
Conductor Krzysztof Urbanski is definitely interesting to watch. His movements are very soft and flowing, sometimes forming into complete body movements that looked like he was dancing. We've not seen anyone like him before. I caught my wife mimicing his movements several times during the concert without realizing she was doing it.
Again, a superb performance by the Indianapolis symphony orchestra. They are the one really great thing about being located in Indiana for a few years.
That's it for this report. As usual, any recommendations for recordings of these pieces would be welcome. I prefer vinyl, but CD recommendations are good, too. I bought 5 pieces of really excellent vinyl based on recommendations after our last symphony thanks to you folks.
Chao!
Ravel PC, in G
I have it on LP w Werner Haas...don't know how this compares to other LP's recommended by the folks who answered.
How was the kids' performance? Must be kinda cool to watch the young ones play.
Thanks for the Werner Haas recommendation.
CYMO.org
My child is in training orchestra of 80 players, and I was worried this year (younger and less experienced vs last yr). She is in her 2nd yr.
As it turns out, they did fine.
A little out of synch at times, like the brass section or winds section would not quite synch with percussion, etc.
But still generated a beautiful sound and a much better one than our stereos.
Poet and Peasant, Marche Slave, Syncopated Clock, American Salute and Carmen Suite 1. A very enjoyable program. The conductor and his wife had a lot of patience but nurtures the group well!
(CYMO, the main orchestra) not at the Hollywood Bowl, as it might appear on the webpage, but at Walt Disney Hall as part of a youth orchestra festival earlier in month.
my cheap camera pic, CYMO Intermezzo 2011, last yr.
Our Intermezzo and the coming CYMO concert are at Pomona College. The hall is very very nice, seats about 600 or so, intimate and clear.
Docw,
It would be fun to hear them. They have a great venue!
posted to myself, oops, see link
I can see how you might find the outer movements of the Ravel Concerto somewhat discordant in places, depending on what your reference and previous experiences are. I think Ravel often uses these dissonances for humor in this work - I'm so used to them now (after decades of hearing this piece) that they don't surprise me nearly as much anymore. Your post is a good reminder of what a listener's first experience with this work could well be. My first experience hearing it live was with Martha Argerich and the LAPO under Mehta in the late 60's. I was so bowled over that I attended a repeat of the concert the next day! (It was also an incentive that Martha was a babe at that time!) I know Trpceski is an excellent player, so I'm sure the performance you heard was also excellent.
He wrote the thing, and she gave the premier and made this first recording.
P.A.
I'll look for a copy of that performance. There are a few different ones on LP, so maybe I'll get lucky and find a good one.
I think I'd been "listening to the past through rose-colored earphones" when I referred to this recording in my post below! Although Long herself is fine, the orchestra is sometimes scrambling to stay together. The trouble with recommending performances such as Long's to newbies is that, despite what one might imagine as the authority deriving from a composer-directed performance, the presentation of the music on this old recording is really sub-par, compared to most other recorded performances. I mean, when you hear the woodwinds kind of grabbing for the notes just to get to the next beat on time, you're really not hearing an optimal presentation of the music. Not to mention the antique recorded sound - this is simply not making the best case for the music. Of course, the Long performance should be studied by everyone interested in the composer-sanctioned view of the music - but, IMHO, only as a supplement to better performed and recorded editions.
While on Spotify, I also listened to what I believe is the very newest recording of the Ravel Concerto, the one with Stefano Bollani, Riccardo Chailly and the LGO:
The difference between this performance and the Long performance is almost night and day: the beauty and refinement of the playing in the modern performance (both pianist and orchestra), the sureness of the characterization, the wonderful recorded sound (apparent even on the lossy 320kbps Spotify stream) - all of this combines to make this new recording almost an ideal introduction to the work for a listener coming to it anew. This doesn't mean that the other recordings are unworty - or even that the Long performance is unworthy! It's just that Bollani and Chailly really do bring qualities to their performance that can make this concerto a striking experience if the listener is at all receptive to it.
I do appreciate the Marguerite Long recording (although it's been a LONG time since I've heard it). As you may have inferred from my other posts however, I'm not a partisan of the proposition that composers necessarily make the best interpreters of their own music. Nevertheless, I did like the Long recording when I heard it long ago (in the days of LP's!) - and I do need to refresh my acquaintance with it.
pp
which I'm quite fond of.
But it's out of print. Must not be that highly regarded.
There is now! Boy, the RCA labels on eBay are pricy! The EMI re-master even more so. I'll have to dig through some thrift store bins for that one.Thanks, Garrod.
Edits: 05/21/12
performance. Why it's not TAS-listed I don't know. The "militaristic" passages in the last half of the Left hand Concerto are so life-like it's scary. Wonderful sense of hall.
jdaniel,
This one sounds good, too. Only one copy on eBay and it's pretty expensive. I'll keep and eye out for a better buy. Thanks for the recommendation.
There is much controversy among LP collectors as to the relative merits of Decca and London LPs. Decca could not use its name in the U.S., but their London LPs that were sold in the U.S. were also made by them in England (and later in Holland). Some (on the 'net notably Arthur Salvatore) argue that Decca LPs are not necessarily any better than, or even any different from, London LPs.
EMI and Angel is a different story, since EMI decided to have its American LPs manufactured in the U.S. by Capitol starting in 1957.
So if the Decca version is too expensive, try the London version.
Thanks, I'll do that.
.
Chris,
Do you have a favorite recording of this pisno concerto? I see Argerich has a CD with the LSO on DG.
Thanks
I love my RCA/BSO/Leinsdorf LP. RCA LSC-2667 with Lorin Hollander at the piano. It's also paired with another very interesting piano work: Dello Joio "Fantasy and Variations".
"Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to" Mark Twain
Just received my NM copy of this album today. The Ravel piece is outstanding, but I gotta say that the Dello Joio piece is phenomenal! I never would have heard this piece if you hadn't suggested it. What a wonderful companion piece to the Ravel Concerto in G.
Sonics are excellent as well. I received an exceptionally clean copy.
Again, thanks for this recommendation. It's spinning as I write.
I should receive my copy of the Ravel Concerto on the German DG with Argerich in a few days. Looking forward to that, too.
and delighted to get a follow up which happens, IMO, all too seldom in these pages. I, for one, always love to hear how a suggestion/recommendation turns out.As for your assessment, I couldn't agree more.......that LP has been a favorite for a very long time. There is no "B" side is there?
"Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to" Mark Twain
Edits: 05/30/12
I'm a big fan of Hollander (saw him perform live once), a big fan of Dello Joio, who contributes a high-spirited piece, and of course a big fan of the Ravel concerto. The LP is not rare, but I would be surprised if it wasn't reissued on CD at some point.
Thanks for the additional comment on Hollander.
I just grabbed a copy of the Leinsdorf/Hollander LP in NM condition from eBay. I'm looking forward to it.
The Ravel G major PC was the composer's respone to jazz music he heard on an American tour in the late 1920's. Basically it's the French version of "Rhapsody in Blue" and Gershwin's own piano concerto in F.My all time favorite performance captures the jazz elements in the writing perfectly, and the soloist stays quite on top of the notes despite demanding passagework in the finale. I speak of Bernstein's stereo remake with the "Columbia Symphony Orchestra"--I've never heard his first mono effort on Brunswick. In both cases, Lenny conducts from the keyboard.
Edits: 05/20/12
Brian,
That's interesting as during the 1st movement, my wife leaned over and whispered in my ear "kinda jazzy".
Thanks for the Bernstein suggestion.
Thanks! I'll see what I can find.
Martha recorded it twice for DG - they're both great. There's also a Japanese EMI disc with Martha which I have not heard:
But there are many more very fine performances too, including the following which I can also vouch for:
Chris,
I just won a mint pressing of the German DG Argerich that you showed. I'll have the Leinsdorf/Hollander to compare it with.
Thanks again.
Great recording! Really enjoyed the Prokofieff concerto, too. My copy is a bit noisier than I like (or expected), but it's a keeper until I find a better copy.
I can tell from my small sample that her reputation is well deserved.
Thanks for the recommendation.
She's been recommended by others and Iv'e bought a CD a few month back but haven't tried her yet.
Your post just reminded me I still need to listen to it.
Thanks, Chris. I'm checking out the DGs on vinyl first. I need to get started on some Argerich, as I own none yet. Shame on me!
fds
Oops, I did use that term twice. I have to recheck my editing skills. ;> )
I was going to use "wonderful" once, but it didn't fit. I guess, I'm around my nieces and nephews too much. Maybe a 60 year-old shouldn't be using that term.
had a flashback...
Funny!!!
hope he does it justice........
"Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to" Mark Twain
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