Music Lane

Posted by hesson11 (A) on January 03, 2015 at 16:48:48

In Reply to: RE: I agree with some others here: Sibelius is the odd guy out in your troika posted by Chris from Lafayette on January 03, 2015 at 13:00:04

>>"the last five Sibelius symphonies (the last four in particular) are a law unto themselves, and there's nothing prolix about them at all IMHO. Those last four are among the greatest symphonies ever written"<<


I couldn't have said it better, Chris. I see Sibelius's cycle as working ever more diligently toward sublime reduction and concision.

As for Mahler, I love him, but I believe he sometimes outwrote his material, so to speak. Perhaps the problem is not with our attention span but with his propensity to elaborate on things that do not hold up to quite so much elaboration.

As to Bruckner, I'm almost ashamed to say that he is too long and my remaining life is too short. Perhaps if I had started earlier!
-Bob