bruckner 6: jochum/dresden

Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme

Rostropovich / Rozhdestvensky / Leningrad

Nothing like going to the source.

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Saturnus queries C Major, I am no expert but I would have thought that Schonberg more than most would have realised that in his attempts to force us all into Atonal hair shirts, he was threatening the very heart of five hundred years of musical development. Their is something primeval about the scale of C , it is in a sense the simplest scale and all other keys are organic variants. At one time, composing in C was considered old hat and irrelevant by the 'Progressive' school of composers. But Vaughan Williams remarked that only Sibelius could make C Major sound completely fresh.
Has regards Edgar Varese, have you heard 'Hyperprism' yet, surprisingly I enjoyed it, great percussion and facinating sound patterns. Varese was a great admirer of Sibelius's music and conducted a number of his works in America.--kullervopete.

dvorak: sym 7/kubelik/bpo

dj

Well, I bought the complete set (it's only 2 CDs not exactly "a set") because I heard 'Hyperprism' in music history class. I find his music interesting but it is certainly not the best amusement one can find. 'Deserts' is the best of his I have heard, I think it's his last one, each movements has an interlude, or 'interpolation of sound' which is a tape with "remixed" sounds of various types, but Varése was a pioneer in music for tape.

kullervopete wrote:

Their is something primeval about the scale of C , it is in a sense the simplest scale and all other keys are organic variants. At one time, composing in C was considered old hat and irrelevant by the 'Progressive' school of composers. .

Hehe, the 'progressive' ones should have spared themeselves all the effort by playing on baroque period instruments (they are tuned in 415 hz instead of 440 hz, the common practice today, but C major in 415 hz = H major in 440 hz).


In the player right now: Sibelius 3rd & 5th symphony (Segerstam)

Saturnus wrote:

... 440 hz, the common practice today ...

Ah good "old" 440, I still relish in the sound when I hear orchestras tuned to this pitch. When I came to my orchestra, they were tuning to 443, which was as shrill as a steam whistle. I managed to whittle them down to 442, but any lower would mean civil war.

In the player: Sibelius songs, Karita Matilla.

Do you seriously hear the difference between 440 and 442 (unprepared)?

(In player: Bartók - String Quartet nos. 4 & 5 (Tokyo SQ)

Saturnus wrote:

Do you seriously hear the difference between 440 and 442 (unprepared)?

I do not have perfect pitch, but it is more a feeling than an accoustic experience. 443 was an alien sound to my ears... I'm not sure that I would have been able to tell if it were just the oboe playing... but once the rest of the orchestra begins to tune and then play in 443, yes, there seemed to be a veriable canyon between that tuning and the traditional 440.

Well, it makes sense. Like, if I where to play in 440 (play usually in 442) I had to make longer reeds or change my scrape, but play on the same standard oboe, so the change is not linear. Something like this probably applies to other instruments as well.

right now it's mendelssohn/sym 2/abbado/lso

dj

Sibelius' complete symphonies, Maazel/VPO.

Vaughan Williams:Symphony No. 5 in D Major--London Philharmonic, Sir Adrian Boult.

The original manuscript score of this beautiful work bore the following words, 'Dedicated without permission and with the sincerest flattery to Jean Sibelius, whose great example is worthy of imitation'. Also it is known that Sibelius was delighted and deeply moved by V W's gift,--kullervopete.

Dvořák Piano Concerto.

Sviatoslav Richter / Carlos Kleiber / Bavarian Radio Symphony

Not often played, even in the Czech Republic...

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Now the Mahler symphonies with Bernstein and the Brahms symphonies with Karajan conducting!

mendelssohn #1, abbado/lso

dj

Alright, I admit... Debussy!!! (cue the four most famous notes in musical history)

It was too hard to resist... I went in the book store... and there it was, just staring at me... I went to get Sibelius, but... it just kept leering at me, that dreadful, inanimate, plastic leer!!!

I'll try not to ever again, I swear it!!! Please!

Nothing wrong with listening to Debussy, but you've got me stumped... 4 most famous notes? Which piece is that?

Kurkikohtaus wrote:

Nothing wrong with listening to Debussy, but you've got me stumped... 4 most famous notes? Which piece is that?

the 'dragnet' tv theme?
beethoven's 5th?

????

David Johnson got it right, it's the first notes of Beethoven's fifth. It's kind of pathetic too, I like the second movement a bunch better...

World Violist wrote:

Alright, I admit... Debussy!!! (cue the four most famous notes in musical history)

Aha, now I understand, you were presenting this as a sort of documentary narrative, the statement being followed by the dramatic opening to Beethoven's 5th.

Careful though, you may want to reconsider, as I think dj's suggestion of using Dragnet (Duuuun-ta dun dun) is just as good, if not better. Also, if the theme is completed, you get that closing interval of a tritone, which brings us full circle to Sibelius' 4th.