Classical Music II

[trolls' bane]

Aleksandr Borodin...
There's someone I'll have to look up.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by trolls' bane

Aleksandr Borodin...
There's someone I'll have to look up.

the chemist's common interest... I should've known

[trolls' bane]

LOL!
Most of these composers I've never even heard of. I'll have to look up those Pol-something dances.

EDIT: I'm finally downloading John Adam's Nixon in China. I've also downloaded Missa Solemnis because you two are talking about it. Don't know who conducted it.
I find so little time to listen to these big compositions, much less convert them to MP3 so I don't have to listen to them at home and can get through them quicker.

It's difficult for me to just sit and listen to something. Often the entire composition will fall on deaf ears, as I'm busy reading moot posts, etcetera.
What I need is the ultimate visualization like they have on Windows Media. Like a three dimensional one. Or that cube that dances to music. Or something with an idiot-fascinating (as my mom would say) array of geometric shapes and colors, and lots of ribbony things that look like a Frank O. Ghery building.

[hectorberlioz]

I answered most of these, but some was trivia which I wasn't going to give away...
Hope you guys enjoy it, and tell me if you think it was any good as a survey...


Favorite Kind of Bach: (i.e. Keyboard, choral...)
Fav Bach Organ Work:

Name Four Handel Operas (NOT Oratorios):

Favorite Mozart Work:
How many symphonies did Mozart write?:

Favorite Beethoven Work:
Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory" is pro or con Napoleon?:

Schubert wrote what number of symphonies?:

Antonio Salieri's pupils include: Schubert and Liszt, true or false?

Favorite English Composer:
Holst or Britten?:

On a scale of 0-100, what do you rate Wagner?:

Have you ever heard of Rikard Nordraak?:

In Your Opinion is Mahler; supreme or just a big whiner?:
Bruckner or Mahler?:

Best Mahler Conductor?:

Favorite Czech Composer:

Favorite Scandinavian Composer:

Favorite Concerto:
Fav Violin Concerto:
Fav Wind/Brass Concerto:

Favorite Symphony:

Favorite Opera:

Favorite String Quartet:

Favorite Sacred/Secular Choral Work:

Favorite Solo Keyboard Work:

Can You Name One Belgian Composer?:

Favorite Russian Composer:
Rachmaninov or Shostakovich?:

Who wrote the symphonic poem "The Water Goblin"? Choose from: Liszt, R.Strauss, Dvorak, Enescu, Howard Hanson.

[hectorberlioz]

Favorite Kind of Bach: Keyboard
Fav Bach Organ Work: Passacaglia and Fugue

Favorite Mozart Work: Piano Concerto No.20


Favorite Beethoven Work: Missa Solemnis


Favorite English Composer: Britten
Holst or Britten?: Both

On a scale of 0-100, what do you rate Wagner?: 95

In Your Opinion is Mahler; supreme or just a big whiner?: Both
Bruckner or Mahler?: both

Best Mahler Conductor?: tie: Abbado, Klemperer

Favorite Czech Composer: Dvorak

Favorite Scandinavian Composer: Sibelius

Favorite Piano Concerto: Rachmaninov No.3
Fav Violin Concerto: Mendelssohn
Fav Wind/Brass Concerto: Mozart Horn Concertos

Favorite Symphony: Symphonie fantastique, Mahler's Fifth

Favorite Opera: Tie: Les Troyen, Die Meistersinger

Favorite String Quartet: Dvorak no.12

Favorite Sacred/Secular Choral Work: Missa Solemnis, Berlioz Requiem

Favorite Solo Keyboard Work: Goldberg Variations

Can You Name One Belgian Composer?: Franck

Favorite Russian Composer: ...do I have to answer that?
Rachmaninov or Shostakovich?: !!!

[hectorberlioz]

I forgot! I went *naughty naughty for spending money* to Hastings this morning. I just had this feeling that I was going to find a real deal. Well, what do you say to the Ashkenazy/Decca set of Rachmaninov's Symphonies for eight dollars? Not bad eh? Along with The Bells, Sym Dances, Isle of the Dead ...

[hectorberlioz]

Barber Toccata Festiva I listened to the whole of this two days ago, and last night again; and I must say, it's the most "different" kind of Organ I've ever heard yet...instead of the Transylvania feel, you get the monster-in-the-swamp-stalking-you feel. Who would have thought Barber was a good organ composer? Too bad he didn't write more! The piece makes you think of Louisiania and swamps, which says something, I suppose for Barber's power to conjure unique images. The piece didn't seem that interesting when I tried to listen to it on the Naxos Marin Alson/Thomas Trotter team-up, but E.Power Biggs and Thomas Schippers[? or is it Ormandy?] really wowed me. I think the organ in the Naxos version suffers from being distanced from the recording microphones, because it sounds like it's miles away from the Orchestra.

Mendelssohn Organ Sonata No.6 "Aha!" You say to yourself when you've finished listenening to this work; "So Mendelssohn is wrongly stereotyped as a kept-in-check kind of composer." Exactly right. As with the Barber piece, at first this Mendelssohn didn't interest me, but since I thoroughly listened to it one night, I've listened to it multiple times since.
Bach is of course very evident, especially in the "Fugue". Merc! I highly recommend this!

Bruch Scottish Fantasy I think the Bruch bug has gotten to me, because I've listened to this piece for about five nights in a row...
Obviously the tunefulness is due in large to the great Scottish songs used, but since I have no expertise in that knowledge, I wont' try to elaborate...
Except I have this to say: Bruch is treated unfairly, no thanks to Brahms...that jerk

[Fat middle]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

You EDITED!....I just know you edited it out! I could have sworn from the treetops...grrrrr....

I distinctly remember telling you about the Nashville recording after you said your were dissapointed w/ Klemperer....

LOL Nope, not dissapointed. Perhaps tired and looking for something else, but not dissapointed.

Ah well, here's something else that caught my eye:


It so happens that I have an a two disc set of the 4th and 9th conducted by Celi, in a blue case with a very cheap booklet that only names the tracks. There is no indentification of the label. I'm assuiming it's one of the pirated versions...

Hey! I've got those 4th and 9th CDs too! One with the Munich Philh. and the other with an italian orchestra, doesn't it? And yes, the Mass I was talking about is from that label too.

[Fat middle]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

*sigh*...wrong "K" conductor, eh?

LOL I was telling you...

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Fat middle

Hey! I've got those 4th and 9th CDs too! One with the Munich Philh. and the other with an italian orchestra, doesn't it? And yes, the Mass I was talking about is from that label too.

Hmmm...you know, for some reason I didn't pay attention to the Orchestras...

the "Mysterious" label?

[trolls' bane]

[b]Favorite Kind of Bach: (i.e. Keyboard, choral...)
Fav Bach Organ Work: The Toccata, of course!

Name Four Handel Operas (NOT Oratorios): Whatever hector would put.

Favorite Mozart Work: Requiem in D Minor
How many symphonies did Mozart write?: A lot.

Favorite Beethoven Work: Finale to the 9th symphony
Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory" is pro or con Napoleon?:

con

Schubert wrote what number of symphonies?: Less that Mozart.

Antonio Salieri's pupils include: Schubert and Liszt, true or false?
Erm, yes?

Favorite English Composer: Don't know any.
Holst or Britten?: Um...what were the choices again? Holst! I don't know who the latter is.

On a scale of 0-100, what do you rate Wagner?:
97.576849303203007653653923102421

Have you ever heard of Rikard Nordraak?: Who?

In Your Opinion is Mahler; supreme or just a big whiner?: Whatever Hector put.
Brucner or Mahler?: What!? Who're they?

Best Mahler Conductor?: Um...Bernstein?

Favorite Czech Composer: Let me think about this one...

Favorite Scandinavian Composer: Erm...Frank Sinatra?

Favorite Concerto: Double Harpsicord Concerto
Fav Violin Concerto: Honestly can't name any.
Fav Wind/Brass Concerto: Whatever Hector put.

Favorite Symphony: Shostakovich's 5th

Favorite Opera: That one that was on the radio the other day. With the song about a paradox.

Favorite String Quartet: One of Shostakovich's

Favorite Sacred/Secular Choral Work: Hallelujah, from Handel's Messiah (Wasn't that an easy answer?)

Favorite Solo Keyboard Work: William Bolcom

Can You Name One Belgian Composer?: No.

Favorite Russian Composer: Shostakovich
Rachmaninov or Shostakovich?: Shostakovich

Who wrote the symphonic poem "The Water Goblin"? Choose from: Liszt, R.Strauss, Dvorak, Enescu, Howard Hanson.
That last one... or maybe the one before him. Definitely probably one of those two.

[hectorberlioz]

You're such a cheater...

So you've gotten to like Shostakovich a lot eh? I knew you would love his stuff.

[trolls' bane]

My liking in him grows at approximately the rate my computer loads.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by trolls' bane

My liking in him grows at approximately the rate my computer loads.

That's kinda slow isn't it?

[Mercutio]

I'll catch up in this thread later....I'm really busy with stuff this afternoon.


--until then--

[trolls' bane]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

That's kinda slow isn't it?

LOL! Yeah.

I'm so excited! I have downloaded a CD. Leonard Bernstein, analyzing Beethoven's 3rd, Dvorak's 9th, Schumann's 2nd, Brahm's 4th, and Tschaikovsky's 6th.
So far I've only got past the first one.
"This very chord is a fact. Beethoven always started with a fact--an axiom."

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by trolls' bane

LOL! Yeah.

I'm so excited! I have downloaded a CD. Leonard Bernstein, analyzing Beethoven's 3rd, Dvorak's 9th, Schumann's 2nd, Brahm's 4th, and Tschaikovsky's 6th.
So far I've only got past the first one.
"This very chord is a fact. Beethoven always started with a fact--an axiom."

I have Lenny's version of the Symphonie fantastique, and there's a special talk he gives at the end. It's really cool. And he talks perfectly except for his R's. "Orchestral cullah" (Color)

[trolls' bane]

LOL!

Whe'd you paak the caa?

[Mercutio]

Favorite Kind of Bach: this is rather hard. Probably the cantatas (so choral)

Favorite Bach Organ Work: too difficult to choose. Something with a solo...maybe an Orgelbuchlein.

Name Four Handel Operas (NOT Oratorios): honestly no idea

Favorite Mozart Work: I just don't really like Mozart at all.

How many symphonies did Mozart write?: 40 something

Favorite Beethoven Work: Don't particularly know--piano sonatas? Sorry for all these ambiguous answers

Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory" is pro or con Napoleon?: pro

Schubert wrote what number of symphonies? ???

Antonio Salieri's pupils include: Schubert and Liszt, true or false? false

Favorite English Composer: Vaughan Williams

Holst or Britten?: Britten all the way.

On a scale of 0-100, what do you rate Wagner?: 78

Have you ever heard of Rikard Nordraak?: no

In Your Opinion is Mahler; supreme or just a big whiner?: supreme

Bruckner or Mahler?: would have to listen to more to make a good decision. From what I know they rate about the same with me.

Best Mahler Conductor?: Eschebach's done some amazing things recently.

Favorite Czech Composer: Sylvie Bodorova

Favorite Scandinavian Composer: I'm thinking Sibelius.

Favorite Concerto:

Fav Violin Concerto:

Fav Wind/Brass Concerto:

Favorite Symphony:

Favorite Opera: Tosca or Turandot. The problem is I haven't actually seen Turandot.

Favorite String Quartet: Not the Trout. I can tell you that for certain.

Favorite Sacred/Secular Choral Work: John Rutter's Requiem is pretty high on my list right now.

Favorite Solo Keyboard Work:

Can You Name One Belgian Composer?: Flor Peeters

Favorite Russian Composer:

Rachmaninov or Shostakovich?: Rachmaninov

Who wrote the symphonic poem "The Water Goblin"? Choose from: Liszt, R.Strauss, Dvorak, Enescu, Howard Hanson.





I'll finish these up later. I need to contemplate more.

[trolls' bane]

So that is who Britten is. He wrote Peter Grimes. I just downloaded it, but have not yet had a chance to listen to it.