Comments | mechanyx: To Remember Those Who've Died...

mechanyx

To Remember Those Who've Died...

Jan 06, 2005 01:51

...we honor their memory.

Almost 6 months prior to the writing of this entry, I wrote this. This entry is the promised continuation of that ( Read more... )

Comments 16

lubedpumpkin January 6 2005, 07:37:15 UTC

Lux Aeterna is creazy neat.

lilitaly January 6 2005, 15:48:48 UTC

Bartok - 4th String Quartet (1928)

I'll have to give this another listen. I've got a recording of 6 of his String Quartets, but I can never seem to get into them.

Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936)
Gustav Holst - The Planets (1916)
György Ligeti - Lux Aeterna (1966)

These rock my world.

Richard Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra, Op.30 (1896)

I don't listen to this enough.

mechanyx January 6 2005, 17:31:26 UTC

It's amazing how a sub-par performance can ruin a brilliant piece.

I've never found this statement to be more poignent than with the Bartok quartets.

I don't believe any quartet has managed to perform the Bartok quartets as written due to Bartok's sense of exact time. The Emerson String Quartet come close on their recording of the cycle but the truly great recordings were done by the Alban Berg Quartet.

Seriously, the first movement of Bartok 4 as played by the Berg Quartet is unparalleled.

The fifth quartet is the epitome of heavy metal for string quartet :)

x_medivh_x January 6 2005, 17:24:09 UTC

Gustav Mahler? Did i miss something?

mechanyx January 6 2005, 17:33:40 UTC

I do not hold Mahler in the same regard that most do.

If there's one thing Mahler will never be accused of, it's being a tight composer.

x_medivh_x January 7 2005, 16:44:02 UTC

Lol...you do have a point.

He certainly was the most anal-retentive composer ever in existence.

chrislyons January 6 2005, 17:51:14 UTC

Ronald Stevenson - Passacaglia on DSCH
Charles Valentin Alkan - Concerto for solo piano
Kaikhosru Sorabji - OPus Clavicembalisticum
Ferruccio Busoni - Fantasia Contrapuntistica

These are all great piano works that I would consider some of the most important masterpieces of music.

mechanyx January 6 2005, 17:57:42 UTC

Yakov once said that writing a piece on someone else's monogram was like wearing someone else's underwear - you don't do it :)

lol

I can't get my hands on a recording of the Busoni and I'm unfamiliar with the Alkan and Sorabji pieces.

chrislyons January 9 2005, 19:39:49 UTC

It was written and given as a gift to Shostakovich. Ronald has shown me the photos of him presenting it. The piece is an eighty minute long single movement masterpiece that has to be heard to be believed. Murray McLachlan made a fantastic recording of it. There is a Ronald Stevenson society on the web and he is well worth checking out - a genius without doubt. I will try and post a link. Ronald Stevenson was a friend of Shostakovich's ( ... )

mechanyx January 9 2005, 20:53:42 UTC

That's awesome.

Richter has always been my favorite pianist but Ogdon is awesome. His recording of the Scriabin cycle is the best I've heard. (Side note: There's a Jonathan Ogden who plays for the Baltimore Ravens)

I will definitely try to get my hands on these pieces.

willowfinn January 7 2005, 05:56:40 UTC

Felix Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844)

One of my favorites. The little Asian violinist (I know, like, WHICH ONE?) across the hall from me practices it incessantly. Fortunately, its never at the same time that Sharon (yet another little Asian violinist -- only you've met and spoken with this one) is practicing that Prokofiev concerto I love so much. I love living near all the little Asian violinists.