Mastodawn

#classicalmusic #karolSzymanowski
Spinning, violin concerti of Karol Szymanowski - great stuff - very much in a classic film score vein. And I do not denigrate it in saying that. There were stupendous film scores being produced back in the '30s & '40s, by the likes of Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Miklós Rózsa, etc. Szymanowski would have fit in perfectly with all the other expats.
I don't know Alena Baeva, but she sounds great - brava!

capt_subway 1d ago

#newYorkPhilharmonic #beethoven #classicalmusic #fredericRzewski
At the NY Phil in Geffen Hall, a few nights ago: Dudamel conducted the "Eroica" (horns very much in the forefront here - perhaps more so than would be expected?), and the world premiere of the orchestration - by 18 individual composers of 24 of the 36 variations in Frederic Rzewski's variations (for piano) on the Chilean protest anthem "¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!" (The people united will never be defeated).

capt_subway 1d ago

#beethoven #alfredBrendel, #classicalmusic
Spinning, Brendel playing the Beethoven Diabelli Variations, an old Vox recordings. Brendel recorded almost all the Beethoven solo piano music (and the concerti, too) for Vox in the very early 1960s. Late in life, after having gone on to record all this stuff with major labels, several times over, he dismissed these early Vox recordings as being distinctly inferior, played on crappy pianos and in third rate recording venues with poor acoustics. Hm...

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capt_subway 1d ago

@IHender
Nope. I'm not a nit picker. I'm just happy to be there, hearing the music. As a production, it was far from the worst I've seen at The Met. As far as horrendous Regietheater $hitshows are concerned, try the The Met's Carmen, set at the Tex/Mex border, with Cartel smugglers bringing in drugs, Escamillio a race car driver, act II playing inside a 16 wheeler; or La Forza del destiny, played inside what looks like an abandoned NY subway station; Cosi fan tutte in 1940s Coney Island, etc..

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capt_subway 1d ago

@IHender
Was there at The Met. Loved Davidsen & Spyres. Some dismissed Davidsen as just being loud, and not much beyond - rather harsh, I think.
The production could have been worse. That whole mime thing doubling the action. And what was with the baby Brangäne was holding in her arms at the very end?

capt_subway 1d ago

Spinning for lunch, Brendel playing the Beethoven Diabelli Variations, one of those old Vox recordings. Brendel recorded almost all the Beethoven solo piano music (and the concerti, too) for Vox in the very early 1960s. Late in life, after having gone on to record all this stuff with major labels, several times over, he dismissed these early Vox recordings as being distinctly inferior, played on crappy pianos and in third rate recording venues with poor acoustics. Hm...

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capt_subway 2d ago

@kitchen5203.bsky.social
Mariam is stupendous. Saw her NY debut back in 2016, playing Handel, Liszt & Bartok. Sadly she hasn't been back here since - a damned shame. She surely deserves to be much better known. She has virtuosity to burn.

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capt_subway 4d ago

@deeplyclassical @classicalmusic @symphonies
Love her violin concerti. Guess I'll need to move on to the symphonies now.

capt_subway 4d ago

At the NY Phil last night in Geffen Hall: Dudamel conducted the "Eroica" (horns very much in the forefront here - perhaps more so than would be expected?), and the world premiere of the orchestration - by 18 individual composers of 24 of the 36 variations in Frederic Rzewski's variations (for piano) on the Chilean protest anthem "¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!" (The people united will never be defeated).