What are you listening to now?

[Peter]

Time for a new thread on this as the other has reached its 5 page limit.

Been listening to Purcell's Fairy queen and King Arthur as I've recently watched the film 'England, my England' - wonderful music, not so sure about the film - anyone seen it?

[TiberiaClaudia]

Battisti!

Right now...

I Giardini di Marzo by Lucio Battisti.

EXCELLENT song!

J

[ruudp]

I've been playing Mozart's Adagio in b minor kv.540 lately *on the piano myself*. A most hauntingly beautiful piece if he ever wrote one. I must confess though I didn't know it untill rather recently and fell in love with it after one hearing only.

[Peter]

I've been playing Mozart's Adagio in b minor kv.540 lately *on the piano myself*. A most hauntingly beautiful piece if he ever wrote one. I must confess though I didn't know it untill rather recently and fell in love with it after one hearing only.

Yes these short late pieces are very fine. Others include the Rondo in A minor K.511, Eine Kleine Gigue k.574 and the Andante for clockwork organ in its piano arrangement (K.Anh.145a).

[Quijote]

Klavierstucke 11, by dear departed Stockhausen. This has got to be the 'Hammerklavier' of the 20th century.

[PDG]

I've been playing Mozart's Adagio in b minor kv.540 lately *on the piano myself*. A most hauntingly beautiful piece if he ever wrote one. I must confess though I didn't know it untill rather recently and fell in love with it after one hearing only.

It's the only work he wrote in this key...

[Sorrano]

Klavierstucke 11, by dear departed Stockhausen. This has got to be the 'Hammerklavier' of the 20th century.

Why so? And how do you judge a work that is never the same per performance?

[Sorrano]

Today it is Bruckner's 6th Symphony and Dvorák's orchestral pieces, My Home and Scherzo.

[Sorrano]

It's the only work he wrote in this key...

Seriously? That is interesting!

[Hofrat]

It's the only work he wrote in this key...

Well, if you look at Beethoven's list of piano works, you will be hard pressed to find something in b-minor. Off the top of my head, I can only think of the bagatella opus 126 number 4. b-minor was not a favored key in Beethoven's day. Nor was c# minor, which Beethoven was sharply criticised for when he wrote his c# minor piano sonata.

[Peter]

I suppose in this dvd age we ought to include what we're watching as well! I've just seen Tony Palmer's 'Harvest of sorrow' about Rachmaninoff - very interesting and moving account in the composer's own words in a letter written to his children about the difficult years of exile. Includes excerpts of the lesser known works such as some of the songs and his opera Aleko. Also the wonderful symphonic poem Isle of the dead, The Bells and The Symphonic dances - all great music that deserves to be better known.

[Peter]

Well, if you look at Beethoven's list of piano works, you will be hard pressed to find something in b-minor. Off the top of my head, I can only think of the bagatella opus 126 number 4. b-minor was not a favored key in Beethoven's day. Nor was c# minor, which Beethoven was sharply criticised for when he wrote his c# minor piano sonata.

Haydn was very experimental in his key choices, but I don't remember reading about him being criticised for his C# minor sonata!

[Arno]

Listening to early orchestral works of Otto Ketting.

Arno

[Sorrano]

I suppose in this dvd age we ought to include what we're watching as well! I've just seen Tony Palmer's 'Harvest of sorrow' about Rachmaninoff - very interesting and moving account in the composer's own words in a letter written to his children about the difficult years of exile. Includes excerpts of the lesser known works such as some of the songs and his opera Aleko. Also the wonderful symphonic poem Isle of the dead, The Bells and The Symphonic dances - all great music that deserves to be better known.

Isle of the Dead is one of my favorite Rachmaninoff works! The Bells is a good work, too.

[Quijote]

Why so? And how do you judge a work that is never the same per performance?

Your first question : because I consider Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI to be as iconic and as groundbreaking as the Hammerklavier. Your second question, how to judge a work that is never the same per performance : I hope never to hear identical performances of the Hammerklavier, either. The fact that the order of its (Klavierstück XI) constituent parts is left to the choice of the performer throws up interesting questions, doesn't it? But I'm glad music challenges us in that way (or should). Even Beethoven offers us a tantalising glimpse of such as question – consider 0p. 130 with its original (grosse fuge) finale and the later substituted (lighter) last movement; in effect there exist two alternative endings. Solomon has much to say on this topic : see his ‘Late Beethoven : music, thought, imagination’, University of California Press, 2003 (chapter 7, ‘The Sense of an Ending’).

Will you be posting on Christmas Day, Sorrano? I hope to do so, if I can take a break from preparing my roast loin of camel with gnat sauce, to be served to a specially selected panel of fellow madmen who believe the rest of the world to be crazy. Speak to you on that day, perhaps?