Classical Music - February 2016

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.19
Beethoven - Variations on 'Ein Maedchen oder Weibchen' for cello and piano
Brahms - Clarinet Sonata No.2
Debussy

• Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
• Nocturnes for orchestra
• Marche ecossaise (orchestral version)
• String Quartet
• Images, Book I
• Images (oubliees)
• Estampes
• Pour le piano
• Suite Bergamasque
• L'Isle Joyeuse
• Masques
• D’un cahier d’esquisses
• Deux Arabesques
• Mazurka
• Reverie
• Tarantelle styrienne
• Ballade slave
• Valse romantique
• Nocturne for piano

Dvorak - Piano Quartet No.2
Dvorak - Piano Trio No.4, 'Dumky' 
Faure - Cinq mélodies 'de Venise'
Haydn - Symphony No.103
Holmboe

• Concerto No.13
• Sinfonia in Memoriam
• Sinfonias 1 to 4
• Epitaph
• Monolith
• Epilog
• Requiem for Nietzsche
• String Quartets 4 to 7
• Piano Trio
• Brass Quintet No.1
• Aspects
• Quartetto Medico
• Sonata for solo flute
• Liber Canticorum, Books III and IV
• Simeon's Song of Praise
• Hevjið í homrum (Raise in the Passes)
• Glemselshejren (The Heron of Oblivion)
• Sange mod Vårdybet (Songs Towards the Deep of Spring)

Mozart

• Piano Sonata No.17
• String Quartet No.23
• Quintet Movement for clarinet, basset horn, violin, viola and cello 

Shostakovich - Symphonies 3 to 7
Shostakovich - String Quartet No.1 
Vine - Symphony No.1, 'Microsymphony' 

Well, it's fairly obvious where my focus lay during February. The explorations of Debussy, Holmboe and Shostakovich dominated.

The Shostakovich focus may be less obvious until you realise that there are 5 symphonies listed here, and several of them are very large works indeed. The 3rd symphony lived down to its reputation, and the 4th I struggled with, but the others made a strong impression.

Much of the Debussy was from the new set of the piano music that I purchased in late January (performed by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet), which I found very rewarding indeed. Certain pieces that I thought I already knew came to life when heard this way. Suite bergamasque was a particular standout.

The Holmboe exploration covered music from 1953 to 1964, moving further and further away from the more folk-influenced works into some of his most complex music. The material from the 1960s is about as avant-garde as Holmboe ever managed, though I suspect by the standards of some other 20th century composers it's still fairly traditional.

I want to mention a couple of other pieces, though. Vine's 1st symphony does exactly what it says on the tin; it goes through the elements of a symphonic form in less than 11 minutes, and I found it highly effective.

Listen for yourself. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has uploaded it (and indeed, the entire set).

The other work I ought to tip my hat to is Haydn's 103rd, possibly greatest symphony. It certainly is a masterpiece, from its opening drumroll onwards. I deliberately left it last in working through the 23 Haydn symphonies that I own, in a listening exercise that took me about 10 months. And now, I want to get some more.

Popular Music - February 2016

Tori Amos - To Venus and Back (venus orbiting)
Tori Amos - Unrepentant Geraldines
Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man
Toni Childs - House of Hope
Paul Dempsey - Everything Is True
Bryan Duncan - Mercy
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Gotye - Making Mirrors
Sophie B. Hawkins - Whaler
Jars of Clay - Much Afraid
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid (Metropolis Suites II and III)
Something for Kate - Echolalia
Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science

It's really happened this time. I've left it too late, and too much has been happening in my life, and frankly I don't even remember listening to some of these albums recently.

I believe this might be the first time an Elbow album has appeared on the list, after a couple of false starts, but I can't recall enough to comment on The Seldom Seen Kid in any detail except to confirm that I liked it. Bizarrely, it's the 3rd Elbow disc I've bought. Having streamed all of their albums a year or so ago, and deciding that I liked them, my first purchase was actually a B-sides collection owing to some peculiar circumstances. I decided, however, that it was best not to listen to that first!

And then their most recent album was bought, but somehow I didn't manage to sit down and listen to it the whole way through as required by my "rules" for this blog and my spreadsheet. So The Seldom Seen Kid has crossed the line first. Barely.

Jar of Clay's second album, Much Afraid, was listened to for the first time in a number of years, and I was reminded how much better I think it was than their debut. The songs are in general a lot more nuanced and interesting, though the album still doesn't quite hold together as some songs don't seem to contribute the right tone. But that tone overall is tentative, questioning, troubled... afraid. And when it works, it's very affecting.

I have the impression that in some Christian circles, though, the tendency of Jars of Clay to express trouble and doubt are somehow seen as wrong. A Christian band should be all happy and clapping and telling everyone how joyful it is to be a Christian.

For me, the song on the album that best captures how beautiful and powerful the Jars of Clay approach can be is "Portrait of an Apology". It's dark, melodramatic, full of self-condemnation... and ultimately a cry for rescue.

Classical Music - January 2016

Bach, J.S.

• Ach Gott, von Himmel sieh darein (Oh God, look down from heaven)
• Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid (Oh God, how many a heartfelt woe)
• Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (In deep distress I cry to you)
• Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (Oh Lord, do not punish me)

Beethoven

• String Quartet No.14
• Große Fugue 
• Piano Sonatas 1, 4 and 20
• Piano Trio No.3
• Theme and variations for piano trio, op.44
• Piano trios in  E flat (WoO 38) and B flat (WoO 39)
• String Trio No.1
• Clarinet Trio
• Quintet for piano and winds
• Ah! Perfido
• Variations on 'See the conquering hero comes' for cello and piano 

Brahms - Clarinet Sonata No.1
Chopin - Three Mazurkas, op.50
Chopin - Impromptu No.3
Debussy - Piano Trio
Debussy - Danse bohémienne
Dvorak

• String Quartet No.11
• Piano Trio No.3
• Piano Quintet No.2 

Dukas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Haydn - Symphony No.98
Holmboe

• Symphonies 6 to 8
• Chamber Symphony No.1
• Concertos 10 to 12
• String Quartets 1 to 3
• Primavera
• Suono da Bardo
• Liber Canticorum, Books I and II
• Moya

Janacek - Concertino
Mozart

• Symphonies 28 and 40
• Piano Sonatas 2, 8 and 10
• Oboe Quartet 

Rachmaninov - Songs, opp. 8 and 14
Rachmaninov - Suite No.1 for 2 pianos
Schumann - Kreisleriana
Shostakovich - Symphonies 1 and 2
Shostakovich - Piano Trio No.1 
Sibelius - The Bard
Snider - Penelope
Stravinsky

• The Firebird
• Petrushka
• The Rite of Spring
• Jeu de Cartes
• Orpheus

Whitwell - Flatworm's Heaven - A Train Song 

Having taken some time to listen to all the Beethoven I had acquired, I finally reached the pinnacle of his late string quartets. No.14 in C sharp minor is something very special, and I also listened to the "great fugue" which I hadn't heard before.

And so, I promptly went back to the beginning again.

Because Beethoven's opus numbers are at times quite misleading, I've used a couple of resources to create a more chronological picture of his work. This doesn't just apply to the music I have recordings for, but all sorts of other items as well.

I decided that Beethoven was yet another composer who should be subjected to a chronological listen, only this time I would lump together a few years at a time. I only have recordings of a couple of works from the early 1790s, so the rest of the entries here are works from 1795-97. This includes his earliest opuses, but also works that were published without an opus number or published much later.

And this earlyish Beethoven is... nice. It is consistently of high quality, but to modern ears it's not often that ground-breaking (however contemporaries might have reacted). And it's actually a bit surprising how sunny much of it is. We tend to think of Beethoven as a rather stormy figure, but a lot of the early chamber music in particular is designed to be light and enjoyable.

Debussy and Shostakovich also started receiving the chronological treatment in January, prompted by some new purchases of both (piano works for Debussy, and symphonies for Shostakovich). I'm using online streaming to hear those works I don't own.

I also explored Stravinsky's ballets, including 2 later ones from a disc that I bought last year but listened to for the first time in January. Both Jeu de Cartes and Orpheus were quite enjoyable, and I think Stravinsky is yet another composer I would like to know more about.