What are you listening to now?

[Sorrano]

This morning:

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapshody

[Enrique]

We can never have enough Bach! [...]

Indeed, Don Quijote.

Beethoven: Symphony no.4, in B flat major, op.60. This is a recording following Beethoven's metronomic indications, Renè Leibowitz conducting. Very natural option for a pupil of Anton Webern's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jUa41kgPc0

Compare with Kleiber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3-jlAamGCE

Later on:

Steve Reich: Drumming. Listening to this composer, I confirm my opinion about minimalism: it is unworthy of the name of art.

[Enrique]

This evening:

Palestrina: Missa de Beata Virgine.

This is music to be listened with the loudness control low, I think.

[Quijote]

[...]Beethoven: Symphony no.4, in B flat major, op.60. This is a recording following Beethoven's metronomic indications, Renè Leibowitz conducting. Very natural option for a pupil of Anton Webern's [...]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I vaguely remember reading that Boulez stormed out of a 12-tone "harmony course" given by Leibowitz, shouting, as he left, that he (Leibowitz) was a total merde.

[Enrique]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I vaguely remember reading that Boulez stormed out of a 12-tone "harmony course" given by Leibowitz, shouting, as he left, that he (Leibowitz) was a total merde.

I don't know the anecdote but, are there people who does not think in the same way about dodecaphonism these very same days. However, do you know if he was referring to Leibowitz as a person. Or to what he taught?

[Quijote]

[...] Later on:
Steve Reich: Drumming. Listening to this composer, I confirm my opinion about minimalism: it is unworthy of the name of art.

I missed this comment when I first read your post, Enrique!
I have to disagree with you, I'm afraid. If you had mentioned Philip Glass then I may well have agreed with you. But not with Reich.

[Quijote]

I don't know the anecdote but, are there people who does not think in the same way about dodecaphonism these very same days. However, do you know if he was referring to Leibowitz as a person. Or to what he taught?

It was a long time ago, but I vaguely remember reading that Boulez was fed-up (estar harto de / en avoir marre de...) with Leibowitz's "dry and salty" way of teaching twelve-tone technique.

[Enrique]

I missed this comment when I first read your post, Enrique!
I have to disagree with you, I'm afraid. If you had mentioned Philip Glass then I may well have agreed with you. But not with Reich.

Quijote, I was referring to minimalism and not to Reich. The fact that he originated it is merely coincidental. Seriously, what do you find attractive in minimalism?

[Quijote]

Quijote, I was referring to minimalism and not to Reich. The fact that he originated it is merely coincidental. Seriously, what do you find attractive in minimalism?

A good question, and I hope I can answer it adequately: first, the sheer (= simple) pleasure of execution and/or reception (depending on which side of the audience/performer divide I'm sitting on); secondly, as "auditor" (forgive me this term), I like the fact that (Reich in particular) your own ears lead you through the patterns, creating in a way one's own composition. I'm not saying that I spend huge parts of my time listening to minimalist music, but I'm certainly not averse to it.

[Enrique]

Well, one thing is for sure. It is very close to computer generated music. Perhaps, and it's a mere question in reality, repetition is the true substance of music, and not variety. Or rather, it is a game with these two principles.

[Enrique]

I did not know you guys had such a good conductor at the London Symphony. Here is a performance of Scherezade (Rimsky-Korsakof) by Valery Gergiev at the Salsburg
Festival:
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQNymNaTr-Y[/YOUTUBE]

He is the epitome of histrionism but he does it well. Doesn't he.

[Enrique]

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, Prelude.

No doubt a deity hold Wagner's hand when writing this.

[Enrique]

Listening to the Ninth. Listening to it once in a while is invigorating. It makes us more human, I mean, more men to us, males (do not know about women). Hard to find a satisfactory version in Youtube. This one has the old slow (for modern standards) tempi and an appropriate (not too slow) one for the 3rd movmemt.

[Sorrano]

Listening, lately, hasn't been so good, but I will get back on track soon.

[Sorrano]

This morning:

Beethoven: String Quartet #12 in E-Flat, Op 127