What Are You Listening To?

[brianvds]

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Reminds me of the scene in Amadeus in which Mozart, unable to choose between three wigs, exclaims "I wish I had three heads!"

Most certainly one of my all-time favorite films. And to be honest,

A great film, as long as we remember that it isn't a biopic.

It was Amadeus that first truly turned me on to Mozart and Opera. At the time I was quite a fan of the Baroque: Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi (The Baroque Revival that began to employ historic instruments and performance styles as well as rediscovering the endless forgotten works by Baroque composers was just underway.) I was also quite a fan of Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, Tchaikovski, and Stravinsky at this time.

I have long wondered whether opera productions were as spectacular and lavish in Mozart's day as they are in the film. In any event, I can see myself becoming a fan of opera if they do it that way. I don't get how people can listen to a whole opera production. Opera is a show, not just abstract sound, and thus, by my aesthetic, productions should be as visually spectacular as we can make them. Not at all a fan of the new-fangled thing you sometimes see, with virtually bare, minimalist stages and singers in modern business suits and that sort of thing.

No. Valkyries should have horned helmets, dammit.

One of the marvels of YouTube: plenty of opera productions, with subtitles. (Subtitles are another essential item - an opera is a story, and if I cannot follow what's going on it would be like watching a French film without subtitles.) I have even downloaded some, and will watch them soon as I am done reading that book on procrastination that I have been pottering around with.

You may see me rave about Wagner yet.

 

[stlukesguild]

A great film, as long as we remember that it isn't a biopic.
Oh yes... the movie was based on the play by Peter Shaffer... which itself was based on the play Мо́царт и Салье́ри (Mozart & Salieri) by the Russian author, Alexander Pushkin. But then films and novels and plays have always played fast and loose with historical facts. Look at Shakespeare's "Histories".

Not at all a fan of the new-fangled thing you sometimes see, with virtually bare, minimalist stages and singers in modern business suits and that sort of thing.
Minimalism I can handle. It's when the director/producer completely undermines the original with their bizarre visions...

... that I can't truly stand.

Some time ago I began collecting DVDs of opera productions. There are some fine productions... especially by William Christies... of Mozart, Rameau, etc...

In this vein... take a look/listen to this lovely piece... The Dance of the Blessed Spirits... from the opera Orfeo ed Eurydice ... by Christoph Willibald Gluck... one of the most underrated composers of all time:

Gluck: Dance of the Blessed Spirits

 

[brianvds]

A great film, as long as we remember that it isn't a biopic.
Oh yes... the movie was based on the play by Peter Shaffer... which itself was based on the play Мо́царт и Салье́ри (Mozart & Salieri) by the Russian author, Alexander Pushkin. But then films and novels and plays have always played fast and loose with historical facts. Look at Shakespeare's "Histories".

There are broadly two types of historical/biopic film: those that are inaccurate but make some or other point, and those that are plain inaccurate.

Not at all a fan of the new-fangled thing you sometimes see, with virtually bare, minimalist stages and singers in modern business suits and that sort of thing.
Minimalism I can handle. It's when the director/producer completely undermines the original with their bizarre visions...
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... that I can't truly stand.

Yup, also irritating. I once saw excerpts from an opera by Berlioz in which people flew around in helicopters and stuff like that. Now I suppose some operas and plays lend themselves to such treatment better than others. But for many decades the west has suffered from neomania, in which we almost desperately pursued "originality" for its own sake.

Some time ago I began collecting DVDs of opera productions. There are some fine productions... especially by William Christies... of Mozart, Rameau, etc...

As I noted, there are plenty on YouTube. Will download and watch some time, at least the ones that have spectacular stage design, and subtitles. I have seen excerpts from John Adams' Nixon in China that made me want to watch the whole thing, but alas, can't get hold of a subtitled version. Don[t know if I'm alone in this, but I find it almost impossible to make out the words when people sing them, so I need subtitles even for an opera in English!

In this vein... take a look/listen to this lovely piece... The Dance of the Blessed Spirits... from the opera Orfeo ed Eurydice ... by Christoph Willibald Gluck... one of the most underrated composers of all time:

Gluck: Dance of the Blessed Spirits

All very well, but where are the blessed spirits, dancing or otherwise?
Seriously though, very nice, and precisely the kind of stage effect I want to see in an opera.

Like everybody else except you, Dance of the Blessed Spirits is the only piece by Gluck that I know. I naively thought he was a one-hit wonder.

 

[stlukesguild]

Like everybody else except you, Dance of the Blessed Spirits is the only piece by Gluck that I know. I naively thought he was a one-hit wonder.
Don't underestimate Gluck... and unfortunately he is one of the most underestimated composers of classical music. He broke away from the ornamentation of Baroque opera and pointed the way toward the Classical Era and the operas of Mozart.

Orphée et Eurydice (Orpheus among the Blessed Spirits)

Gluck composed a good number of impressive operas including:

Armide
Iphigenie en Tauride
Orphee et Eurydice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Iphigénie en Aulide
Alceste
Paride ed Elena

All are available in marvelous recordings by some of the finest singers and conductors... including Paul McCreesh, John Eliot Gardiner, Rene Jacobs, William Christies, etc...

Paride ed Elena

You are correct, however, in the Gluck's Orpheus operas Orfeo ed Euridice (Italian) and Orphée et Eurydice (French). The operas include many differences beyond that of the language including the addition of a number of ballets (popular with the French audiences) including "Dance of the Furies" and "Dance of the Blessed Spirits".

 

[Hermes2020]

It must be a wonderful experience for an orchestra to play a piece conducted by the composer. Here Schuller conducts the Radio Philharmonic of Hannover in his pieces inspired by Klee: 7 Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, composed in 1959.

 

[brianvds]

It must be a wonderful experience for an orchestra to play a piece conducted by the composer. Here Schuller conducts the Radio Philharmonic of Hannover in his pieces inspired by Klee: 7 Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, composed in 1959.

Interesting pieces - thorny modernist stuff with a bit of jazz thrown in.

In somewhat similar vein, in that it's inspired by modern art, South African composer Peter Klatzow with Three Paintings by Irma Stern:

Alas for local composers, they can't always get hold of an actual orchestra to perform their work, so he had to make do here with an electronic realization.

 

[Hermes2020]

I am aware of Klatzow's work. I think he composed the music for the ballet Raka, which I saw on video once and liked very much.

 

[Hermes2020]

Wow, I just finished listening to the Klatzow and enjoyed it very much.

 

[stevenD]

A very insightful song:

 

[brianvds]

I am aware of Klatzow's work. I think he composed the music for the ballet Raka, which I saw on video once and liked very much.

He died in 2021, of Covid. It hardly even made the news here; just a short article in a newspaper or two. And like much of this sort of thing, virtually no recordings available, with some company probably clinging to copyright and not allowing anyone to put anything online.

 

[brianvds]

In its weird wisdom, YouTube recommended this to me:

Most "popular" music tends not to do much for me, but I really enjoyed Sufjan Stevens's soulful sadness in this collection. A sort of Rachmaninoff of folk, is my verdict - it takes some spine to compose a lyrically beautiful song about, wait for it, John Wayne Gacy..

 

[john]

In its weird wisdom, YouTube recommended this to me:

Most "popular" music tends not to do much for me, but I really enjoyed Sufjan Stevens's soulful sadness in this collection. A sort of Rachmaninoff of folk, is my verdict - it takes some spine to compose a lyrically beautiful song about, wait for it, John Wayne Gacy..

Glad you mentioned him Brian. He had slipped under my radar since the Cat Stevens days. I'm listening again to him. He's put out a lot of music since then. He still has a great voice and is still a poet. Great folk singer/songwriter still.

 

[john]

Ran across this one recently. It's fairly groovy.

 

[stlukesguild]

Glad to see that Niel Young's work is back on Spotify.

 

[john]

During my painting session yesterday I listened to my vinyl copies of

I've taken a liking to anything that the chamber ensemble yMusic is involved with. Paul Simon worked with them also. The above Music for Heart and Breath takes a little patience but as background while painting is very nice.

and

looks like I unkowingly had an angels theme going with the last two.

 

[stlukesguild]

It's a blah rainy day here and my wife is passed out in bed with the pups after spending much of the morning at the laundromat... trying to get all the laundry done in time for our upcoming trip to visit the older daughter in New Jersey... and possibly make a day trip to NYC.
Mozart's "boring" chamber music seemed perfectly suited for the afternoon... performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter:

 

[stlukesguild]

Now its time for a classical work that is anything but "boring"... Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Somewhere buried in my boxes of endless CDs I have this box set:

Since the French and the Russians have always struck me as the finest in the interpretation of Russian music I decided to go with Igor Markevitch who offers the best of both worlds as a Russian who spent much of his career in Paris.

 

[stlukesguild]

Let's continue with the Russians... Rimsky-Korsakov & Stravinsky:

Scheherazade is an exotic favorite... which makes since considering that The Arabian Nights is a favorite book. I have about 4 or 5 translations/editions of the Arabian Nights. I have a truncated volume of the translations by Sir Richard Francis Burton (someday I'll get the complete multi-volume set):

Burton's translation was infamous for not avoiding the erotic elements of the tales. Recently I picked up the acclaimed Annotated Arabian Nights:

This is one more book of collected tales that I want to read again in the near future.

 

[brianvds]

Let's continue with the Russians... Rimsky-Korsakov & Stravinsky:

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Scheherazade is an exotic favorite... which makes since considering that The Arabian Nights is a favorite book. I have about 4 or 5 translations/editions of the Arabian Nights. I have a truncated volume of the translations by Sir Richard Francis Burton (someday I'll get the complete multi-volume set):

View attachment 41624

Burton's translation was infamous for not avoiding the erotic elements of the tales. Recently I picked up the acclaimed Annotated Arabian Nights:

View attachment 41625

This is one more book of collected tales that I want to read again in the near future.

I discovered Scheherazade in my teens. At the time I didn't know much of anything about the Arabian Nights (and indeed, apart from children's book versions of the stories, I still don't). But I was reading a book or two about otters while I was discovering the piece, and ever since, imagery from those books have become indelibly connected in my mind to the music.

This is one thing that music does: it takes us on a trip down memory lane. I listen to that piece, and I remember those books, and what was in them, and how it made me feel.

In similar exotic vein - I cannot remember when I first heard Janacek's Sinfonietta. I do remember that I disliked it at the time. Too much spice, too many notes. And nowadays I can't work out how I could ever have disliked it. All that fiery spice is the whole point.

 

[john]

I forget if I posted this before, but I think it's beautiful.......Iceland.... One of the dancers showed up in my latest painting. Is this classical? Contemporary classical? Seems like an oxymoron. Neoclassical?

And God, I love her voice....