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Opus132

Jack Kelso wrote: What?! Schumann's chamber music unmelodic or bland??!

Sometimes it's out right dreadful.

Opus132

If you think those works are boring, you need to be fitted for new ears. It wasn't my intention to imply that the music was boring, but those works are usually the most popular among new comers. It's like arguing that Beethoven's piano piano music is hard and heavy, except for the 'moonlight' sonat...

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They just about brought our civilization to it's cultural knees and now they are bored because there's nothing left to degrade and dump down. Lovely.

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jbuck919 wrote:
Jack Kelso wrote:
I'm not referring to the Sextet, op. 18 or the 1st Piano Quartet, op. 25, nor the Piano Quintet, op. 34.
I am delighted that you found some exceptions.

And some rather boring exceptions at that. Why am i not surprised that Bach is among the least popular composers around here?

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piston wrote:composers-worth-listening to

That's where i'm trying to narrow it down to.

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piston wrote:In any case, I have been vaccinated against the greatness virus.

Which in newspeak translates as: i'm running on so much estrogen i can eschew all forms of objectivity and wallow in comfortable relativity.

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Chalkperson wrote:
I'd add the Goldberg Variations by Angela Hewitt to the list - every bit as fine as Glenn Gould's.
I would add Perahia and Schiff to that list also...

Hewitt, Perahia and Schiff, the most bland Bach interpreters that ever lived. Nice...

Opus132

slofstra wrote: From what eminent orb do these individuals drop onto our planet: Schubert, Shostakovich, Gould

Did you just name Gould next to Schubert and Shostakovich?

Isn't that going a bit far? We are talking about the man who thought Mozart was a bad composer for god sake.

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Chalkperson wrote: And you John, are a man without taste...

When everything that was ever inked on a sheet of music is considered great, then nothing is. You call that taste?

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piston wrote:composers before Toru Takemitsu:

Yeah, but what about 'great' composers before Takemitsu?

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The problem with finding good performances of Mozart's sonatas is that most of those sonatas aren't that good to begin with (sorry).

To be frank, i've always been happy with Casadesus. He didn't record all of them, but the ones he did are spectacular.

Opus132

BWV 1080 wrote:So in terms of "historical importance" it is clearly Dunstable, who plays the same role in terms of Renaissance music that Monteverdi plays in regard to Baroque

I think that honor goes to Dufay. Monteverdi didn't invent the Baroque idiom after all.

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piston wrote:Handel does not qualify./ Sorry.......................

Really?

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The Chinese were too busy smoking on that opium to care about classical music.

Wait, what?

Opus132

"Immigration is wonderful," Giuliani said. "Immigration is the best thing we have going for us. We need new people. We need people who are going to inform us, give us new ideas, but it has to be legal. No dear Giuliani, we don't need any of that, but your lobbyist friends sure enjoy the cheap labor...

Opus132

Handel.

Ok, Byrd maybe. Not big in English composers.

Opus132

jbuck919 wrote:But the commonly held opinion, with which I agree, is that the Western division of labor is responsible for the historic differential in accomplishment between the sexes.

I disagree of course, but fun that may be, i'd rather not go into that direction at the moment.

Opus132

jbuck919 wrote:
"Among humans, women can accomplish anything that men can."

Except composing great music.

Opus132

That's too bad. You cut yourself out of so much enjoyable and appealing music if you listen only to the composers that John doesn't dump on. Except i don't limit myself to anything, i merely agree with John regarding some of his objective observations. When he states that the late piano music of De...

Opus132

Maverick? A maverick is a calf that strays from the herd The herd in this case being people like you. Posturing relativism is the norm nowadays. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms are treasures, of course. And now, for a nice strawman. By all means, feel free to point out one single instance in wh...

Opus132

Copland might have thrown off such a phrase, but I can't believe he actually thought there was a French Brahms. I don't think he meant to say Faure was as great as Brahms (Debussy is the only composer who might be worthy of that honor), but he is the one closer in spirit to the great German master ...

Opus132

I thread about Faure and no mention of his chamber music? Shame indeed.

Opus132

It is not for expressing the opinion that Bach & Beethoven are supremely great composers that you get chastised from time to time; rather, you are chastised for your boorish habit of routinely going out of your way to dump on composers outside of your personal pantheon. I rarely found jbuck919 to b...

Opus132

As usual, opus whatever, you're obnoxious (How many times have you sent insults my way, I ask you?). As often as you keep this inane argument going. The idea that somehow we've all been brainwashed (except for you, the enlightened one) to buy into the idea of 'greatness' and German supremacy is not...

Opus132

Wallingford wrote:
Ahem, Opus. Regarding Rachmaninov.......

I'm not to keen on him myself, but he is held in high esteem nonetheless by most people i've talked to. Somehow, it seems the 'myth' of German national superiority isn't doing a whole lot to undermine Russian composers.

Opus132

Frankly, I don't see the point in the celebration of greatness if it implies the rejection of hundreds of artists as minnows. There is no other way to celebrate greatness, unless you plan on living forever. Your discourse is nothing but a myth -- the myth of cultural evolution. Proof? As a matter o...

Opus132

certainly the inflections of folk-music "inform" a great deal of his composition. It does, but to my knowledge he never directly quoted folk melodies in his music. Even his transcriptions of folk songs are rarely left in pure form. He didn't simply borrow, he actually developed the Hungarian folk i...

Opus132

Anybody should simply begin with Bach (arguably, the first 'modern' composer) and move forward. It just seems the most logical approach to me.

Opus132

Justin wrote:I don't listen to Bach

Opus132

http://www.matchavariani.ge/alexi/rec.html

Opus132

Corlyss_D wrote: Why would this be your last day?

Liberals are like scientologists. They cannot allow themselves to be exposed to views contrary of their own without sacrificing their well being in the process.

Opus132

But what I’d really like to see is a million angry protesters marching on the headquarters of the National Republican Party in Washington. Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is. The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disen...

Opus132

1) Piano Trios (Katchen, Suk, Starker; Trio Wanderer) 2) Piano Quartets (Rubinstein, Guarneri) 3) Piano Quintets (Rubinstein, Guarneri) 4) String Sextets (The Raphael Ensemble) 5) Cello Sonata (Starker, Sebok) 6) Horn Trio (Florestan) 7) String Quartets (Alban Berg on Teldec) 8 ) Violin Sonatas (Jos...

Opus132

SaulChanukah wrote: He is a Schmuck!

I don't know, it seems like a clever move to me.

He may be a sly ex-KGB evil bastard but he knows how to move his pawns. Dangerous fellow.

Opus132

jbuck919 wrote:Whoever wrote that must have listened only to Bruckner.

I'd say Liszt is more likely. That description seems to fit his music like a glove.

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I think women are just more prone to follow social traditions or customs, that's all.

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Opus132

George Benjamin?

Opus132

jbuck919 wrote: Grout and Reese were approximate contemporaries.

I'm referring to Grout's book as it now (seventh edition), not Grout himself.

No idea what his original publication was like.

Opus132

Here's just a smattering of titles incorporating research into musical practices after Reese. Donnington: The Interpretation of Early Music Donnington: A Performer's Guide to Baroque Music Page: Voices & Instruments of the Middle Ages: Instrumental Practices and songs in France 1100-1300 Page: The ...

Opus132

Look, I had a college professor who in 1973 already was saying that Reese was out of date in terms of scholarship. Willi Apel, who wrote the book on Gregorian Chant, is obviously out of date just according to my own scholarly standards. The problem is that an entrenched treatise on an extremely spe...

Opus132

I don't know how fast knowledge and theory is evolving in musicology, but Crocker's book is more than 20 years old, it's prehistoric. You won't be missing a whole lot in terms of 'musicology' by opting for an older book, but you may gain the advantage of being exposed to superior scholarship. A lot...

Opus132

I can't image anyone sitting down with any tome large enough to do justice to the topic of Western music and reading it from Table of Contents to Index. Why not? I found Lang to be a gripping read from start to finish. His book is not a reference work, but a collection of essays elucidating many di...

Opus132

My favored so far.

I tried Grout (latest edition) but i just found it to be mind numbingly boring. It's a reference book, not something you can read from cover to cover, and i really couldn't stand all the PC going on.

Opus132

Krystian Zimerman is my benchmark. I like my Debussy with a rougher coat.

Opus132

Brendan wrote:That would hardly explain Moslem hatred

Heh, i actually forgot about that.

Opus132

Is there a particular reason why there's so much hatred towards the Jews in western countries? Is it because of Christianity? It seems so odd that a race of people which are nearly indistinguishable from us and abide to an exclusive and non intrusive religious system should garner so much hatred, ev...

Opus132

A proper question would be: why don't they ever talk about composers in the history channel? You'd think the occasional documentary about Mozart wouldn't hurt every now and then.

Opus132

Music is not the serious business elitist listeners want it to be. Yes it is. Indeed, it seems to me classical music started to shift out of public view the moment it's prestige as a serious and elitist form of art begun to wane. You can't expect people to take music seriously anymore if classical ...

Opus132

I'd argue that music is inherently more fun than science. And you'd be wrong. It doesn't take a genius to figure out cosmology (and science in general) has been extremely successful among the population. Look how popular science fiction has been since the 30s, and look how obsessed people are with ...

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