Sergei Prokofiev - Scythian Suite

The nice thing about being in charge of a 24Classics playlist is that it gives me a reason to both seek out new music and to go through my own collection to find suitable pieces. When your music collection has grown to a certain size sometimes you forget to listen to certain albums for months (… if not years) and the re-discovery tends to be a really happy moment. My most recent one has been Prokofiev's Scythian Suite which I absolutely love. It's fun and loud and full of brassy goodness.

Today I found out that there is a video of my favourite orchestra (the Rotterdam Philharmonic, of course) playing it (conducted by Valery Gergiev), so obviously I have to share it:

It is not the best recording because it's from a VHS tape and therefore a bit grainy, if that annoys you you can go here to see Claudio Abbado and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra play it (also a good version, but not as violent as Gergiev's). 

The Scythian Suite was written by Prokofiev in 1915 (Prokofiev was 24 when he composed it), though in its original form it was a ballet called Ala and Lolli, and it was commissioned and rejected by Diagheliv and the Ballet Russes (why it was rejected is a mystery to me, it's such a good piece). Prokofiev reworked the music into a suite, which consists of four movements and lasts around 20 minutes. It's very fast and energetic for most of these 20 minutes, and calls for a large orchestra which might explain why it's not performed as often as it should be. The piece was eventually premiered in 1916 (the first premiere was cancelled because of a lack of musicians) and apparently was quite a riot. As we can read in my favourite book on music;

"Crashing Siberias, volcano hell, Krakatoa, sea-bottom crawlers. Incomprehensible? So is Prokofiev. A splendid tribute was paid to his Scythian Suite in Petrograd by Glazunov. The poor tortured classicist walked out of the hall during the performance of the work. No one walked out of the Aelian Hall but several respectable pianists ran out."  (Musical America, November 20 1918)

I hope you enjoy it more than Glazunov did.

Other YPGTCM posts on Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet, Piano Concerto No.2, Piano Sonata No.6.  

Thomas Adès - Totentanz

So the BBC Proms with Adès turned out to be rather fabulous, Totentanz is an incredible new piece.  This is some of what I had to say on it:

The music was typical Adès in some ways, with the strings remaining in the higher register for a large part of the work, exciting rhythms throughout, and some incredible percussion moments. I would say that it is one of the best pieces he has written, with incredible depth, clarity, and some musical moments I will never forget. Adès had already proved to be a great writer for voice, not least in his two operas, and Totentanz only adds more proof of this. At times the singers could not combat the sound coming from the orchestra, but overall they more than held their own. One of the most memorable parts of the music was when from the character of the mayor onwards, Keenlyside and Stotijn sung “together” – singing different melodies and text, yet at the same time – guided by the orchestra, who eventually took over and offered a loud, stunning musical climax.

The ending of Totentanz was surprising for Death’s words to the child: “Nimm zarter Säugling an den frühen Sensenschalg. Und schlaf hernach getrost bis zu dem Jüngsten Tag!” (“You tender babe, behold the scythe’s untimely blow. Till the last day, sleep now: sleep on, consoled”). This was the first and only tender moment given to this character. Keenlyside and Stotijn entered into a duet that was almost like a lullaby, comparing rather sweetly to the rest of Totentanz. Of course, the darkness soon returned, and the last word – “Tanze”, sung repeatedly by both Keenlyside and Stotijn – was poignant and impressive.

It's definitely worth a listen. The Lutoslawski was also played expertly by everyone, and the Britten was overall not quite as exciting as I sometimes find it but this performance of the second movement, Dies Irae, was definitely all kinds of amazing. You can read my full review here on Bachtrack, but what you really ought to do is listen to the concert on the BBC website here or tune into BBC Four on the 28th of July.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg - Sinfonietta No.1

I've been having some trouble with finding inspiration for blogposts because lately I have really only been listening to the same three composers over and over again (with some short excursions into others); Weinberg, Martinu and Shostakovich. And of course I'd like this blog to be diverse but hopefully this will be okay as well (and you can just go to 24classics for some diversity and excitement). So here's another post about the under-appreciated Mieczyslaw Weinberg! For those of you paying close attention I've actually posted this piece before, in the post on Spring Music. But I love it so much that I think it deserves some more attention, on its own.

Miecyslaw Weinberg - Sinfonietta No.1 (I Allegro risoluto and II Lento)
Played by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice, cond. Gabriel Chmura


Sinfonietta No.1 (III Allegretto and IV Vivace).

The Sinfonietta No.1 was written in 1948, and Weinberg had already moved to Moscow at that time. It's heavily influenced by Jewish folk music, which you can hear very clearly throughout the work (look out for the clarinet solo in movement 2!). It's a wonderful piece to listen to and not particularly complicated or opaque but I feel like it has such a mesmerizing beauty to it. Some of Weinberg's symphonies are as dark and emotional as Shostakovich's, and this Sinfonietta is obviously quite a bit more uplifting. It's energetic and catchy and just really, really good. 

Other YPGTCM posts on Miecsyzlaw Weinberg: Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes

24classics

Last week saw the launch of a fabulous new website: 24Classics. It plays host to 24 playlists with different kinds of classical music, and these playlists are curated by people from the Dutch classical music scene. I'm in charge of the Heavy Symphonic aka the loud stuff, but there are a whole bunch of great lists. I particularly love the Adventure playlist, curated by Micha Hamel, Modernism, curated by Rob Overman and Sunday Morning by Petra Geresse.  

"Heavy Symphonic" isn't a self-evident genre, and I'm not able to provide a nice one-sentence definition. It isn't merely about the volume, although my list will comprise of a lot of loud music. Sometimes I consider a piece 'heavy' because of a certain darkness, a certain emotional depth, as in the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4 that you find in this first list. I've tried to not make the music too overwhelming, and to alternate really loud things with some that are not quite so ear-splitting. For example, the piece from Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, 'Gegrusst, O Konig, an Gurres see Strand' is probably the loudest and most chaotic of the bunch (though also one of my favourites). As such, an upbeat and relatively uncomplicated movement from Prokofiev's Symphony No.5 precedes it, and the aforementioned Tchaikovksy 4 comes after Schoenberg. For me this brings out the strength in all three tracks, as they contrast really beautifully. At the same time the contrasts aren't so massive that you think you've suddenly ended up in a different playlist, it really is a balancing act. 

On 24classics there's a heavy symphonic and a Light Symphonic (curated by conductor Jan Willem de Vriend) playlist, but nothing in between and I think some of the things I put on my list, and also probably some that will appear on the Light playlist, are just simply "symphonic" works. Brahms symphonies for example, I wouldn't consider light OR heavy. And one of the great things, for me, about 24classics is that the compiling of playlist really is up to our own discretion and our own assessment of works. So maybe a movement from a Brahms symphony will show up in my playlist sometime, and even in this first one there are a few tracks that might not be traditionally considered "heavy". 

Because of licensing restrictions (that will hopefully not be around forever, I'm also trying to swap some tracks for different versions from smaller labels that aren't being difficult) you can't simply skip from one track to another so I hope you can find the time to listen to the whole playlist. There are still some issues that come with any new site, so if anything goes wrong or if you have any advice or feedback, please go to the info page, there's contact information on there (or leave me a message here, if it's about the playlist). 

I don't think it's particulary worthwhile to write something about every track on my list, also partly because I can only say "well I like it so that's why it's on my playlist" so many times. If you have any specific questions, or any feedback, please comment. Here is the full list, with a few elaborations: 

Spring music

Officially it's spring, but with the weather still feeling like winter it's difficult to tell. So I've been listening to music that does remind me of spring because we need to get our sunshine from somewhere. Here are a few of my favourites (some of these are overtly related to spring, some much less so, but I hope you enjoy all of them nonetheless): 

Claude Debussy - "Rondes des Printemps" from Images


Igor Stravinsky - "Spring Rounds" from The Rite of Spring


Dmitri Shostakovich - "Folk Feast" from The Gadfly


Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Easter Festival Overture


Mieczyslaw Weinberg - I Allegro risoluto and II Lento from Sinfonietta No.1


John Adams - The Chairman Dances

Witold Lutoslawski - Concerto for Orchestra

One of the things I absolutely love most about classical music is that I keep discovering new composers and new pieces. There is such an endless amount of fantastic music out there, and still being quite young and relatively ignorant, there's still so much I have yet to discover. Every year I have some more composers to add to my composers-I-love list, and this year has already proven to be quite successful in that regard: I discovered Witold Lutoslawski.

These past months the Philharmonia Orchestra had a festival going on called Woven Words. It is in celebration of Witold Lutoslawski, who was born 100 years ago this year. I was lucky enough to see the first concert at the Royal Festival Hall, which included Lutoslawski's Piano Concerto (played by dedicatee Krystian Zimmerman) and Musique Funèbre (and also a fabulous performance of Ravel's complete Daphnis et Chloé!). Both pieces were beautiful, and the Piano Concerto in particular blew my mind. Needless to say I immediately searched out more of Lutoslawski's music and I've loved everything I've listened to. This inspired me to go to yet another of the Woven Words concerts, this time with a raucous performance of Debussy's La Mer and two Lutoslawski pieces: the Cello Concerto and Concerto for Orchestra. It's this latter piece that I'm going to talk about in this blog post.


Witold Lutoslawski - Concerto for Orchestra : I Intrada (allegro)
Played by the Polish National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lutoslawski himself.

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) was a Polish composer. Many people consider him to be one of the most important composers of the 20th Century, though he is not as well-known as he deserves. He wrote, among others, four symphonies (the second is my favourite), a bunch of shorter orchestral works (Like the Musique Funèbre, Livre pour orchestre, Mi-parti and Jeux Vénitiens), and some great vocals works (like Paroles Tissées and Les Espaces du Sommeil). He is perhaps best well-known for his use of the alaetory technique, in which the musicians and conductor can decide when each instrument moves from one section to the next - there is a precise structure but also some freedom in interpretation. He had an immense talent for orchestral colour and texture, perhaps reminiscent of Ravel and Debussy (which is why the Woven Words concerts were so beautifully programmed), but more modern and chaotic (even though his music makes complete sense to me).

The Concerto for Orchestra was finished in 1954, and originally inspired by Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. It consists of three movements, I Intrada, II Capriccio, Notturna e Arioso and III Passacaglia, Toccata e Corale. It contains a lot of folk(-inspired) melodies, taken from Lutoslawski's native Poland. I absolutely love the piece because it's exhilarating and unpredictable yet it never becomes confusing. It has some wonderful loud moments, which of course I always love but Lutoslawksi's music is so full of constrasts, and this makes every loud moment and every quiet moment effective and at times very, very moving. But above all Lutoslawski's music is just really exciting, always.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg - Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes

Quite sometime ago I saw a concert in Utrecht that had Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Violin Concerto on the program. I hadn't heard Weinberg's music before and even though it wasn't the most genius thing I'd ever heard, I really enjoyed the Violin Concerto and it piqued my interest to find some more of Weinberg's music. I have since fallen in love with quite a lot of his pieces, especially his orchestral work and feel like it's time to share one!

This is the Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes. It starts off really calmly, with cellos and basses, though pretty soon the rest of the orchestra joins in and the main melody first appears just after 2 minutes. But for me the real joy is after about 6 minutes! There are Weinberg works that I find more beautiful or more moving and I'm sure I'll post those sometime, but I've been addicted to this Rhapsody for a few days now because it brings a smile to my face. Have a listen:


Mieczyslaw Weinberg - Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes
Played by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Gabriel Chmura.

Mieczyslav (Moisey) Weinberg (1919-2006) was a Jewish Polish/Russian composer. He was born in Warsaw, where he later studied at the conservatory. The history of his family is tragic, his parents and sister died in the Trawniki concentration camp, but when WWII broke out Weinberg fled to the Soviet Union, settling in Minsk. In 1943 Dmitri Shostakovich convinced him to move to Moscow, and the two became good friends. Weinberg was never a part of the musical elite in Russia, some considered him a bad version of Shostakovich, but at the same time many other composers (and some critics) did love Weinberg's music. Nowadays he is still much less well-known than his contemporaries, though last year the Vredenburg in Utrecht had a small festival dedicated to his music (and of course I am very much regretting not seeing more of those concerts!). Weinberg wrote 22(!) symphonies, 17 string quartets, 7 operas and whole bunch of other music including a requiem. I still have to a lot to explore when it comes to his music, but I'm very excited to do so.

The Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes was written in 1949. Unfortunately I can't find all that much information on it. It's about 12 to 15 minutes long and its title already gives away where much of its inspiration was taken from. One of the reasons why I like it so much is that although it contains some upbeat catchy melodies it's not a consistently joyful piece. Take the opening for example, which one could perhaps compare to something like Shostakovich's Eight Symphony (and no one could ever call that a happy piece!). It is slow and brooding, almost foreboding. It doesn't betray anything of the energetic and joyous middle part, yet everything flows and everything works well together. I hope at the very least that it makes you remember Weinberg's name and perhaps search out some more of his music.

Sergei Rachmaninov - Isle of the Dead

This month's Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival included quite a few amazing concerts. I'd say it's probably one of my favourite classical music festivals, simply because the Rotterdam Philharmonic are always amazing and their programming usually involves a lot of Russian (and you all know how much I love Russian music). Gergiev is of course a legend, and somehow I always feel like it's an honour to see him conduct. This year, I decided to go to only two of the concerts, the first of them with Gergiev himself conducting the R'dam Phil in an amazing program of Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead, Shchedrin's Piano Concerto No.4 (not really a fan) and Prokofiev's Symphony No.5 (one of my favourite symphonies!). I wrote about it here on Bachtrack. I will definitely do a post on Prokofiev's Fifth sometime soon (seriously, it's so great) but first, here's the Isle of the Dead!

Sergei Rachmaninov - Isle of the Dead

Isle of the Dead is a one-movement symphonic poem written by Rachmaninov in 1908. A year earlier he had seen a painting with the same title by Arnold Böcklin, which I posted above. It inspired him to write a piece of music depicted the journey in Charon's boat, across the Styx. You can hear Charon rowing because of the 5/8 time in the music (even if you don't know what this means, you will hear the rowing, trust me!). There is a beautiful coherence to the piece, from start to finish there isn't a single note that shouldn't have been there or anything that you would've wanted differently. It may actually be my favourite Rachmaninov piece (although I am a sucker for his piano concertos, as is everyone else I think). It's a really dark and intense piece of music, but it's all incredibly dynamic and somehow still sounds subtle and just honestly so beautiful. Give it a listen, I hope you'll enjoy it. 

Other YPGTCM posts on Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2.

Benjamin Britten - Sinfonia da Requiem

I realised that I haven't written any proper posts on Benjamin Britten yet, which is a bit silly because he is actually one of my favourite composers. My lack of writing on him is partly because I love his operas so much and I don't yet know how to post on opera in here, and how to do the genre justice (I'm sure some posts on opera will appear soon though). Of course 2013 is going to be Britten-year which is rather exciting! Peter Grimes on the beach at Aldeburgh! How amazing will that be? Very, I tell thee.

Anyway, for now I'd like to talk about Britten's Sinfonia Da Requiem - not to be confused with his actual requiem which I did write about briefly here. The Sinfonia da Requiem is more of a symphony, and is in fact the largest purely orchestral piece Britten wrote. The origin of the piece is somewhat interesting, as it's reported that Britten originally started writing it as a requiem to his parents, as a reaction to WWII and expression of his own pacifism (also very apparent in the War Requiem but also after being commissioned (via the British consulate) to write a piece for Japan. The Japanese didn't seem to approve of the piece as it was considered to gloomy and Christian for their particular celebration, and then Pearl Harbour happened which obviously put a damper on the Britain-Japan relations. The piece was therefore premiered in New York, in March 1941.

My favourite part is the second, "Dies Irae" (as always) - but thankfully youtube has a video of the entire thing:


Benjamin Britten - Sinfonia da Requiem (I Lacrimosa, II Dies Irae, III Requiem Aeternam)

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was an English composer who's definitely most well-known for his operas (including Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, Death in Venice and The Rape of Lucretia) and his War Requiem. In general his compositions for voice (so the operas, cantatas, songs etc) are to die for. He was really good friends with Mistislav Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya and of course Shostakovich, who admired him greatly. In fact, Britten conducted the first non-Russian premiere of Shostakovich's Symphony No.14. He and his partner Peter Pears launched the Aldeburgh Festival which is still going strong to this day. Here is my favourite picture of him, with Galina Vishnevskaya:

Quick message

Hey everyone. Just a message to let you know that even though I would love to update my blog again soon, I am currently in the middle of finishing my degree so I will be super-busy until mid-July. There will still be the occasional review on Bachtrack but I'm afraid that this blog will probably be slightly neglected.

In other news, at the end of september I'll be moving to Colchester for a PhD, which means that I'll be able to go to concerts in London! I'm really excited and when I have some time I'll write a post on some of next season's concerts I'm looking forward to. In the meantime, have some Shostakovich to tide you over;

Pjotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Marche Slave

We all know those pieces of music that we love but are slightly embarrassed about. Because really, it's too cheesy or too simple etc etc. For me, one of those pieces is Tchaikovksy's Marche Slave. It's so incredibly bombastic and in-your-face (which of course is my kind of thing) and it has the simplest but insanely-catchy melodies that will linger in your head for days. The strings are lush, as always with Tchaikovksy, and the brass is nice and loud but what really sells it for me is the percussion (esp after around 2 minutes, don't know why, the percussion really isn't that prominent). I bet that if I was the kind of person who'd get drunk (...ever) this would be my music of choice if only because it's the best thing to airdrum to.

Here, have a video of the Russian National Orchestra playing it very seriously:

Edgard Varèse - Amériques

As I described in this post, one of my musical highlights of 2011 was the performance of Edgard Varèse's Amériques by the Concertgebouworkest. I only knew Varèse by name because of "The Rest Is Noise" by Alex Ross (must-read for everyone!) and hadn't heard his music before but the concert was so impressive that I quickly sought out more of his music and everything I've heard so far has been amazing. Amériques is a crazy piece, it's written for a massive orchestra (especially the original version, which is what the Concertgebouworkest played) and there's all sorts of funny sounds in there but most of all it's such an intense and powerful work.


Edgard Varèse - Amériques.
Performed by the Polish National Symphony Radio Orchestra, cond. Christopher Lyndon-Gee.

Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) was a French/American composer. He lived in France, Italy and Germany before moving to the United States in 1921. Back in Europe he knew Debussy, Strauss, Satie and others and he had seen the first performances of Stravinsky's ballets - all influences he brought with him to the US. Amériques was the first piece he wrote there, and it's famous for its depiction of the New York skylines and the hustle and bustle of the city in general. He experimented with electronics as well as traditional instruments and thereby influenced a great number of other composers, including Penderecki, Stockhausen, Schnittke, Rihm, Xenakis and Messiaen.

Amériques was originally written in 1918-1921 and first performed in 1926 by the Philadelphia Orchestra, but in 1927 Varèse revised the work (both versions are still performed, though the revised version is definitely more common). It's scored for an orchestra with at least 10 percussionists who make all sorts of weird sounds (there's a siren! a wind machine! a lion's roar!). Its opening is obviously reminiscent of Debussy, but don't let that mislead you. Similarly, some of the rhythmic drive and mad dance-like moments in the music sound Stravinskean, but despite these influences, Amériques is a very idiosyncratic work that deserves to be played way way wayyyy more often.

Maurice Ravel - La Valse

Waltzes are generally a really bad idea. They either remind me of André Rieu (URGH) or the Wiener Philharmoniker's New Years concert (URGH again) - two things I really don't want reminding of. There's a few exceptions, some symphonies have interesting waltz-like movements and of course Shostakovich's Waltz No.2 from Jazz Suite No.2 is quite lovely. But there is only one waltz that I genuinely love, and mostly because it's kind of weird and it's Maurice Ravel's La Valse. I'm currently on a bit of a Ravel-bender because I saw his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand a little while ago, played by Nikolai Lugansky (who else) twice in one weekend and it was amaaaaazing (my review of one of these concerts is here) and then last saturday I saw a the Finzi Quartet play his string quartet (Shostakovich's 8th string quartet kinda outshone the Ravel but it was still great, review here), and a little while ago I bought a CD of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic playing a whole bunch of Ravel's orchestral music which is really wonderful.


Maurice Ravel - La Valse.
Performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conductor Myung-Whun Chung.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a French composer. He's appeared on this blog before but only as an arranger, he orchestrated Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition that I posted about here. That may be slightly misleading, because he was an absolutely amazing composer in his own right. His most famous work is probably the Bolero, but that piece seems to have as many haters as lovers. Some of my favourite works by him are Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, the two piano concertos, Rhapsodie Espagnole and Tzigane. He was apparently friends with Debussy, and they really admired each other's music even though their styles were so different. One of the things I like most about Ravel's music is his use of rhythms, most of his works have a tangible rhythmic feel to them without becoming predictable. You can hear this very clearly in La Valse. Like Debussy, he could also create intense atmospheric music that glides and almost makes you drift off into a fantasy world.

La Valse was written in 1919-1920 and was commisioned by Diaghilev of Ballet Russes fame. Ravel had previously written the ballet Daphnis et Chloé for Diaghilev (Stravinsky called it "one of the most beautiful products of all French music" but it wasn't really well-received at the time). Diaghilev didn't like La Valse, however, which was the end of their friendship. It was first performed as a ballet in Antwerp in 1926, but nowadays it's mostly performed as a purely orchestral piece.

Claude Debussy - Six épigraphes antiques (arr. for orchestra)

I'm a naturally stressy person. I get stressed out easily, I worry about everything and sometimes find it really difficult to relax. Music is one of the best ways to calm myself down, and although pretty much any music I love will help me relax, there are some works that accomplish this more than others. For example, the Satie piano music I blogged about here are beautiful pieces that really do have a calming effect. Another composer that has written a lot of works with the same effect is Claude Debussy. A couple of weeks ago I went to a concert in Utrecht that opened with Debussy's Six épigraphes antiques, arranged for small orchestra by Rudolf Escher. As soon as the music started I found myself breathing more slowly, and becoming more and more relaxed.

Six épigraphes antiques is originally a piano work for quatre-mains (though Debussy also made an arrangment for solo piano). It has been transcribed for the orchestra by Dutch composer Rudolf Escher as well as Ernest Ansermat and Jean-Francois Paillard. I can't find the Escher version on youtube but apparently the Escher and Ansermat versions are quite similar, so I'll post that one instead.

Claude Debussy - Six épigraphes antiques (arr. Ansermat).
Performed by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, cond. Ansermat (recorded in 1953).

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a French composer. He's often called an impressionist but this was not a term he liked (to be honest I think "impressionist" doesn't do his music justice either). Debussy was really popular with the ladies and had a string of affairs as well as two marriages (when he divorced his first wife she tried to kill herself by shooting herself in her chest, somehow she survived). He's written some really well-known pieces such as Clair de Lune and La Mer as well as a huge amount of works for the piano. Some of his works I would almost consider to be dull (though this definitely depends on the performer/conductor - for example, Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes any Debussy exciting) but there's some beauties as well, such as the Nocturnes and Pélléas et Mélisande. There's somewhat of a spring-like element to most of his music, which means that you can often easily recognise works as his.

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Execution of Stepan Razin

I actually have a favourite piece of music. My all-time, absolute, undisputed favourite piece of music. Unsusprisingly it's a Shostakovich piece, but it's one that's not heard nearly as often as it should be: The Execution of Stepan Razin. It's a cantata for bass soloist, male and female chorus and orchestra. It's one of those works that I keep going back to, it doesn't matter what kind of mood I'm in or even if I'm keen on listening to music at that moment: I will always love it. There's probably quite a big risk with presenting a piece as your all-time favourite, expectations will be high and I'll probably be slightly offended when people don't like it (though this is always the case with Shostakovich pieces, I can't help it!), but I think it's important to emphasize just quite how much this work means to me. I think it might very well be the most-listened-to piece of music in my entire life.

In a way, it's surprisingly simple for a Shostakovich piece. It's not *that* loud, it has quite basic rhythms and beautiful but understated melodies. But it's just so incredibly good, especially the vocal lines, for both the bass and the chorus and it does have a few wonderfully spastic moments in the music that always put a smile on my face. The story tells of Stepan Razin, a Cossack leader in the 17th century. He led an army of peasants against the Tsar and captured a few cities before being defeated and eventually executed in Moscow. The particular words Shostakovich uses are a poem by Yevgeni Yevtushenko, who we also know from, among others, his beautiful Babi Yar which Shostakovich used in his 13th Symphony.


Dmitri Shostakovich - The Execution of Stepan Razin (composed in 1964)
Performed by the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Symphony Chorale, cond. Gerard Schwarz and bass Charles Robert Austin (my favourite recording is the world premier recording of Kondrashin with Gromadsky, which is also on youtube but that one's cut into bits and also the sound quality of this one is a tiny bit better. But if you're interested in getting the work, get the Kondrashin LP!).

The work lasts around 28 minutes (depending on the recording) and I really would recommend you listen to its entirety. My favourite part is after about 20 minutes, when the entire chorus sings "Not for nothing! Not for nothing!" (Nye zazrya!), it gets me every single time. Because the work very clearly tells a story, I will post the words here in English, with a little note saying who's singing, so that you can keep track while listening (when it's a soloist and chorus the italics specify when it's just the chorus singing):

Arnold Schoenberg - Gurrelieder

As a rule I like my music loud (surprise, surprise). What I like to be especially loud are choral and vocal works. Although beautiful subdued choral works can be lovely too (like the heartbreaking Rothko Chapel by Morton Feldman), I find it much more exhilirating when there's just lots of noise. A little while ago my dad bought a CD of Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder and even though I have a bit of an ambiguous relationship with Schoenberg's music I have to say that this piece is exactly my cup of tea. Here's why:

Arnold Schoenberg - Gurrelieder Part I: 4 Ross! Mein Ross!
 

Part I: 12 Tauben von Gurre!


Part II: Herrgott, weisst du, was du tatest


Part III: 3 Gegrüsst, o König

All these recordings are conducted by Riccardo Chailly with the Radio Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Siegfried Jerusalem, Susan Dunn, Brigitte Fassbaender, Hermann Becht, Peter Haage, Hans Hotter and the Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale Berlin. I prefer Esa-Pekka Salonen's recent recording with the Philharmonia because that one's EXTRA-LOUD but this will do just fine.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was an Austrian/American composer. He is perhaps most well-known for his twelve-tone technique and atonal works. He wrote all sorts of weird things I can't wrap my head around but also some other wonderful pieces like Pierrot Lunaire and some of his chamber music. He seems to have been one of those composers that spent just as much time thinking about the structure of his music as he did composing it (though this could just be my interpretation). He was ridiculously influential though and influenced composers like Alban Berg (who I love), Alexander Zemlinsky, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez and of course Anton Webern. If I had my copy of Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise with me I'm sure I could come up with some more interesting information, but that will have to wait till next time I'm afraid.

Gurrelieder is an absolutely massive work (probably most accurately called a cantata) for five soloists, a chorus, a narrator and orchestra. It is based around poems by Jens Peter Jacobsen (translated to German by Robert Franz Arnold). The story tells of two lovers, Waldermar and Tove. Waldemar was a king in love with his mistress Tove but Helvig the queen jealously murdered Tove. The distraught Waldemar somehow brings his dead soldiers back to life (rising of the dead always makes for good music, doesn't it?) and then they go riding around scaring everyone silly at night, until the sun rises again. The entire text can be read here (with an English translation). The composing-process of this piece was very interesting and complex. Schoenberg started writing it in 1900, intending it to be a small-ish piece and worked on it until 1903, although by this time it had taken on its more massive scale. In 1910 he returned to it, and by this time he had already written a bunch of atonal works (like the Five Pieces for Orchestra) but the Gurrelieder remain far from being atonal. Apparently he was influenced by both Mahler and Wagner in the writing of this piece, which is definitely not a surprise when you're listening.

Esa-Pekka Salonen - Foreign Bodies (post #2)

Look at what I just found on youtube!



It's Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting his own orchestral suite Foreign Bodies!! I wrote about in this post and it's one of my absolute favourite pieces of music ever. Obviously you should watch this video (even though the volume's a bit low).

Thomas Adès - Tevot

Two posts about the same composer on one page might be a bit much, but I've decided that I don't really care. Because I have to talk about how much I love Thomas Adès (remember him?). Last friday I went to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to see him conduct three of his own works (Tevot, Polaris, Concentric Paths) and it was just so incredibly fantastic (here's my review). The concert was one of those rare and beautiful moments where I just felt so intensely grateful for having been able to be there, so grateful for being alive and being able to listen to this music. I know that there are plenty of people who think Thomas Adès is overrated, or who find his music inaccessible. I will admit that some of his music takes some getting used to (but really just some, you don't get much more accessible than Powder her Face or Three Studies after Couperin etc.), because sometimes it's so intricate and complex, but it's worth every effort to understand and love. And I will probably post a lot of his music on here, because there's sooo many amazing pieces, but today will be about Tevot.


Thomas Adès - Tevot

Tevot was written in 2007 for the Berlin Philharmonic. It's a one-movement orchestral piece scored for a massive orchestra. This is how I described it in my review: "It starts off with whispering strings playing, once again, in high registers, but these high notes are quickly compensated by the low notes many other musicians are playing. The music turns into an organic whole until the xylophones and woodwinds start playing jumpy, flea-like music, fast and on edge. The brass, percussion and strings once again take over, and lead the orchestra to the sweeping, loud and incredibly exhilarating middle part of the piece. Tevot ends with a loud, proud, major chord". Perhaps not the most eloquent description, but I think it rings true. Give it a listen!

Thomas Adès - Asyla

My second review is also up on bachtrack.com, you can read it here. It was a night at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ with 2/3 pieces of wonderful music. I absolutely adore MacMillan and Raskatov is an incredible composer. The Terteryan piece mainly confused me though. But I hope you guys will enjoy the review and if you have any feedback, it's always welcome!

One of the concerts I'm most looking forward to these next couple of months is Thomas Adès at the Concertgebouw. He will conduct three of his own works (his violin concerto Concentric Paths (played by the incredible Leila Josefowicz), Tevot, and a new work) and also a piece by Vermeulen. Thomas Adès is one of my absolute favourite contemporary composers (I would say favourite, but there's Esa-Pekka Salonen..). This is the first piece I heard by him that started my love:


Thomas Adès - Asyla: III Ecstasio 
(performed live by the Berlin Philharmonic, cond. Simon Rattle)

Thomas Adès (1971-) is an English composer. He studied piano and composing at a whole bunch of different universities, and he was also a professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. He's written a lot of amazing works, including two operas (Powder her Face and The Tempest) and quite a few chamber music works. My favourites are Asyla, Concentric Paths and Powder Her Face, out of the ones I've heard. Of course with him being so young, we've hopefully got another couple of decades of new music to look forward to!

Asyla is a four-movement work, somewhat like a symphony (but only 22 minutes long, so not quite). It was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and was first performed in 1997. The movement that I posted here, the third, is definitely the most bombastic and energetic (I read somewhere that it's supposed to portray a nightclub in London), but the rest of the work is also rather beautiful. If you want to listen to the rest: Mvt 1, Mvt 2, Mvt 4. Hope you enjoy.

Esa-Pekka Salonen - Foreign Bodies

One of the things I love about classical music is that it's constantly evolving and there's always exciting new things happening. Right now there's a lot of talk about Mark-Antony Turnage's new opera Anna Nicole, last summer was the premiere of the amazing opera A Dog's Heart by Alexander Raskatov, and there are lots of exciting composers like Nico Muhly, Matthias Pintscher, James MacMillan, Michel van der Aa, Thomas Adès, Sofia Gubaidulina, John Adams, Louis Andriessen etc etc. My favourite contemporary composer, however, is Esa-Pekka Salonen (he's also one of my favourite conductors). He's written lots of amazing works; Piano and Violin Concertos, Helix, Insomnia, Wing on Wing, LA Variations etc. My favourite is Foreign Bodies which is an incredibly exciting work (if you only want to listen to one part, which would be foolish by the way, I suggest III):

Foreign Bodies: I Body Language


Foreign Bodies: II Language


Foreign Bodies: III Dance

Esa-Pekka Salonen (1958-) is a Finnish composer and also a rather well-known conductor. As a conductor he's a champion of contemporary music, and has conducted quite a few premieres like Arvo Pärt's Symphony No.4, Louis Andriessen's Haags Hakkûh, Mark-Antony Turnage's From the Wreckage and a whole bunch of works by Marcus Lindberg and of course himself. As a composer his main influence seems to be (to my ears anyway) Igor Stravinsky, they have a similar rhythmic drive and spastic melodies. He says this about music: ""Musical expression is bodily expression, there is no abstract cerebral expression in my opinion. It all comes out of the body." Apparently he is planning to write an opera which would surely be the greatest thing ever.

This is what he has to say about Foreign Bodies:

"“Foreign Bodies” is scored for a very large orchestra; in fact the largest I have ever used with quadruple woodwinds, six horns, two harps, four percussionists and organ. For fairly obvious reasons, my thinking tends to be orchestral even when writing music for another medium, which makes it very natural to expand ideas in an orchestral context. I’m endlessly fascinated by the complexities of texture, balance, timbre and instrumental gesture; therefore the category “Kapellmeistermusik” has no pejorative meaning to me.

As the title “Foreign Bodies” suggests (it actually suggests lots of things), the music is very physical in expression, almost like an imaginary scène de ballet. The title also refers to the fact that I am less concerned about the purely cerebral aspects of music and more interested in the physical reality of the music, i.e. the sound itself, than before. Also, more than two decades of conducting have helped me to think in a simpler, more direct way than before."

If you enjoy this piece I suggest listening to Gambit, Mania and Insomnia. Unfortunately it's not easy to find any music by Salonen on the internet (*some* record label owns him and doesn't like his music being on youtube) buuut there is a video here of Salonen conducting three of his own works: Helix, the Violin Concerto (which is amazing, it even has a drumkit! My favourite bit is from 28 minutes onwards when for some reason he starts laughing) and Wing on Wing (this piece was somewhat of a grower for me, but I love it now!).