Top products from r/ElitistClassical

I've said it before, and I'll say it again....

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I absolutely LOVE this piece. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.

• I've often claimed it's my all-time favorite classical piece -- for going on close to 20 years now (I think I first heard it in about 1994 or 1995) -- though truth be told, it's really just somewhere really, really, REALLY high in my 'top 10'.
  
  
• EVERY time I've seen a used copy of this in a store, I've bought it -- and given out close to 20 copies to friends over the years, and even made a couple friends by giving a copy to some professional musicians or (professional) music critics I only barely knew at the time (and then, one of whom, became one of my very best friends).
  
  
• The VERY first "brand new" DVD I ever bought on-line was this one, which includes a complete live performance of the Requiem (from which the Youtube clip you posted was taken).
  
  
• I first discovered Henze when I became totally smitten with the Ensemble Modern's performance of Frank Zappa's "Yellow Shark" -- so much, that I sought out EVERY single CD by the Ensemble Modern -- which quickly lead me to the Henze Requiem.
  
  
• I've never heard it performed live, but I'd move heaven and earth to hear it someday.
  
  
• Henze's Requiem lead me to 25+ other CD's of Henze's music, but the Requiem has and always be my favorite of the bunch.
  
  
• One of the most power pieces of music, ever.
  
  Did I mention how much I love this piece??

Thanks for sharing. Schmitt's an excellent composer who probably did wonders to fuck up his long-term appeal by being more than a little bit of an asshole. It's probably also a result of his music being simultaneously less revolutionary than that of, say, Debussy or Messiaen and less immediately-appealing than that of Ravel or Poulenc.

As for the string quartet, the first time I heard it was in a radio program where it was presented back-to-back with Vincent D'Indy's third quartet...so, basically, a pair of excellent late-career works by a pair of composers whose biographies and reputations do a lot to push them to the back of the shelf with contemporary listeners.

For people who enjoy this work, I'd recommend both that D'Indy String Quartet no. 3 and Jean Roger-Ducasse's late-career String Quartet no. 2. The latter is an excellent large-scale piece that's surprising available on a disc:

https://www.amazon.com/Roger-Ducasse-String-Quartet-No-2/dp/B00000JLKU

I've just finished reading Memories of Shostakovich, which is a collection of interviews with his children and his friends. It's not big on his musical ideas or thoughts, but it gives a very good description of his day to day life and his personality. I found it nice to hear what his children thought of him, and how they got on with him and his quirks. There are also several pages of family photos as well, most of which I hadn't seen before. It's a short book and is easy going, so I'd recommend it to anyone looking for some music history to read.

Glad you liked it - I got hold of the CD of his 7th & 8th symphonies some years back, and while I found them interesting, it wasn't love at first hearing. The 6th, however, appealed to me immediately. His 5th Symphony is very impressive too: I've not checked out the others yet.

Yes.

EDIT:

>I was relieved to read that Fall of Baghdad "is an explicit homage to George Crumb's...Black Angels" and that Ge's intent was to "compose a string quartet that could, on the one hand, pay tribute to Crumb and, on the other hand, record my musical thoughts provoked by the [Iraq] war."

- from the Editorial Reviews section of its Amazon page.

That fucking picardy third on the second line is so freaking good it made me do a backflip. Love the medieval vibez in this.

If people like this, I highly recommend checking out any complete works of Ravel CD. He has a lot of little tiny pieces like this that managed to slip past me when I was first doing a deep dive into his piano music. For instance, his homage to Borodin is A+ and also very tiny.

My ensemble recorded an arrangement of this back in the 90's. They're very fun to play, and No. 7 is one of my favorites.

You can hear a sample on Amazon. I couldn't find a free streaming version, but you're welcome to buy the record!

What!? no!

I was in the Portland State University Chamber Choir and we got to work with Mr Tormis to record his works in english: https://www.amazon.com/Veljo-Tormis-American-Shores/dp/B000XLQGM2 .

He was truly a beloved composer in the choral community. He will be missed.

https://youtu.be/HPerWq-hnhE?list=PLMMsZ_leBbZLslMuK1aRg4V-SztuOgi4q

Gérard Grisey, Le Noir de l'étoile

Péter Eötvös, Kosmos

Claude Vivier, Orion

Henri Dutilleux, Timbres, espace, mouvement ou La Nuit étoilée

Matthias Pintscher - Chute d'étoiles

You may also be interested in this album.

Lots of great music ignores ''structure to time''.
See: https://www.amazon.com/Forces-Motion-Thoughts-Anthony-Paperback/dp/0306803429
That book will bend the most elitist classical person's head.
http://tricentricfoundation.org/musical-systems
He is on hundreds of recordings, and cannot be classified.
Edit: video http://roulette.org/event/anthony-braxton-syntactical-ghost-trance-music-choir-123tet-echo-echo-mirror-house-2/