• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Classical ♫ Music only | Some you listen now or recently, some you love...

Piazzola has been *really* fashionable in the media for a few years. Lots of CD/streaming releases, lots of mentions and plays here in UK on BBC Radio 3. Lots of airtime for performers who say how much they enjoy playing his stuff. If only his stuff was enjoyable to listen to he'd be a musical god.
 
Piazzola has been *really* fashionable in the media for a few years. Lots of CD/streaming releases, lots of mentions and plays here in UK on BBC Radio 3. Lots of airtime for performers who say how much they enjoy playing his stuff. If only his stuff was enjoyable to listen to he'd be a musical god.

This is a recent collaboration by 2 talented artistes:


Chloe's 2018 recital of the Cafe 1930 with Kevin was really surprising:

 
Piazzola has been *really* fashionable in the media for a few years. Lots of CD/streaming releases, lots of mentions and plays here in UK on BBC Radio 3. Lots of airtime for performers who say how much they enjoy playing his stuff. If only his stuff was enjoyable to listen to he'd be a musical god.
Some way I expected reactions like yours, still I don’t understand. Funny that your first two sentences about Piazzolla can be said about a lot of musicians, Bach for instance. The fact that Bach’s music has received so many different performances and interpretations (from Gustav Leonhardt to Wendy Carlos) and has been the object of recurrent “revivals” in the history, just witnesses of its universality.
You are entitled to your personal tastes but It seems to me that you go beyond, implying that Piazzolla’s music is inherently “poor”, mere fashion or irrelevant.
Personally I do not like very much the music of Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms but I can’t deny their role in the music history. Piazzolla is not Bach, off course, but his music deserve the place that has acquired trascending the limits of the musical genre.​
 
Some way I expected reactions like yours, still I don’t understand. Funny that your first two sentences about Piazzolla can be said about a lot of musicians, Bach for instance. The fact that Bach’s music has received so many different performances and interpretations (from Gustav Leonhardt to Wendy Carlos) and has been the object of recurrent “revivals” in the history, just witnesses of its universality.
You are entitled to your personal tastes but It seems to me that you go beyond, implying that Piazzolla’s music is inherently “poor”, mere fashion or irrelevant.
Personally I do not like very much the music of Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms but I can’t deny their role in the music history. Piazzolla is not Bach, off course, but his music deserve the place that has acquired trascending the limits of the musical genre.​

I've given this a great deal of thought and here is my conclusion:

People who disagree with me or who do not share my tastes are simply wrong.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
 
I’ve been a strict classicist never really venturing farther than Brahms in my everyday listening. Lately I’ve been trying to expand my listening world by finding composers who used broader tonality while adhering to classical structure. This thread has been a jumping off point for me.

Cello is my favorite instrument, and I came across Shostakovich’s sonata in D minor. I am very impressed; it sounds positively Brahmsian at many moments. I’ll have to listen more.


Also decided to give a listen to his rival, Bruckner. His first symphony has a catching theme at the beginning that made me continue forth, despite the roaming chromaticism that I usually find so off-putting.

 
Talking about cello, Jacqueline du Pre was sort of a revelation for me.
Two of her iconic romantic performances:


Her Elgar with John Babirolli remains THE Recording by which all others since are judged by. And it will be 60 years soon.

Her Dvorak and Schumann are also exceptional.

So sad that her brilliance was cut down so early.
 
Russian school, cello and a composer contemporary with Brahms and Bruckner that I love

 
Some way I expected reactions like yours, still I don’t understand. Funny that your first two sentences about Piazzolla can be said about a lot of musicians, Bach for instance. The fact that Bach’s music has received so many different performances and interpretations (from Gustav Leonhardt to Wendy Carlos) and has been the object of recurrent “revivals” in the history, just witnesses of its universality.
You are entitled to your personal tastes but It seems to me that you go beyond, implying that Piazzolla’s music is inherently “poor”, mere fashion or irrelevant.
Personally I do not like very much the music of Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms but I can’t deny their role in the music history. Piazzolla is not Bach, off course, but his music deserve the place that has acquired trascending the limits of the musical genre.​
I'm a fan of all five composers mentioned here. Brahms last works---op.111 to Op. 122---have qualities distinct from earlier works, much as Beethoven's Late Period has its own character:


Schumann's music depends on the performer more than most. His Second Symphony can be wonderfully manic, as in the David Zinmann/Tonehalle Orchestra performance:

 
After reading the recent obituary of the Brazilian-born pianist Nelson Freire, I downloaded several albums on Qubuz, and his Chopin is ethereal…Nocturnes, Études, etc. Must confess that I hadn’t even known his name before reading the obit in the NYT.
 
This would probably be more along the lines of Modern Classical or maybe even bordering on Ambient music but one of my recent discoveries has been Hania Rani, a Polish pianist. Bought several CDs and some vinyl.

Thank you. Listened for "Esja" and "Inner Symphonies" with Dobrawa Czocher.
Cannot say that I loved it but it was definitely interesting and I think I can say I enjoyed it. :)
Sounds (to me) like Michael Nyman with a pinch of Philip Glass.

I would say it is for sure modern classics, particularly minimalism.


 
This is the best version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons I've heard [so far]. Vivid playing and great audio engineering, the intended end product being these videos on You Tube from Voices of Music:




 
Back
Top Bottom