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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 16:40:41 GMT -8
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 16:44:29 GMT -8
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Post by artraveler on Dec 22, 2021 17:21:32 GMT -8
this is considered his greatest work. Yes it is. He spent several years in America and there are some themes that feel typically American in the symphony. Richard Rodgers used the main theme in Victory At Sea segment dealing with the Normandy landing. Rodgers weaves the theme through the entire episode. Truly Normandy and the liberation was from the new world. |
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 22, 2021 18:01:09 GMT -8
Re: Berlioz: Harold en Italie ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Antoine Tamestit ∙ Eliahu Inbal
Okay. Didn't hit me immediately as extraordinary.
Re: Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 "Organ"
Fuck ya. I've got some great, clean base in my speakers and that organ rumbled the walls. Scared me. I thought Gabriel was blowing his horn. Nice sweeping arrangements. Not boring.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 22, 2021 18:11:34 GMT -8
I will check that out soon. Note that the piece that auto-plays after Ma Vlast is also extraordinarily good. Not be confused with...  |
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 18:20:04 GMT -8
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 22, 2021 18:21:55 GMT -8
Re: Gustav Holst - The Planets, Op. 32 with Maciej Tarnowski as conductor and Henryk Wojnarowski as the choir director. (There will be a spelling test at the end of this review.) Excellent opening. I almost expect to see Darth Vader come jumping out. Very nice camera work in the video, allowing us to almost become a part of the orchestra. Not perfunctory. And you'll probably never see a skinny small guy blowing on a tuba. Early days. Still listening.
Venus: Nice, light, airy. An obvious change-of-pace and I think it works.
Mercury: More inventive and sprightly. Subtle use of the orchestra, in general. Not just beating us over the head with ever damn person playing at the same time.
Jupiter. Very good. Very powerful. Musically inventive. More material that John Williams obviously ripped off. And toward the end it sounds as if Howard Shore also ripped off Holst. In this case for the soundtrack to Lord of the Rings.
Saturn: Brooding, solemn, majestic. Even mysterious. The first of the themes that gives me a feeling of floating in outer space.
We now travel to Uranus. I'll go easy on the jokes. But offhand, I'm not sure how the hell you give a musical theme to Uranus. I mean, Mars is the God of War. Venus stands for love. But what has Uranus ever done for you?
Another astute observation is:
All in all, okay. But we're onto Neptune now.
Neptune. The Mystic. Yeah, kinda nice. Sounds like a modern movie soundtrack. Nothing special but not bad either. Just experiencing a little theme-fatique at this point. Very Star-Trekish this last one. Another source of rip-off most likely.
Overall, interesting and quite inventive.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 18:24:07 GMT -8
You would, because John Williams stole from Holst, from top to bottom, for his Star Wars score.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 22, 2021 18:28:16 GMT -8
Watching that conductor reminds me of an interesting anecdote told in Fatal Lies. Whether it's based on a real incident or not, I don't know. But apparently some big-shot musician/conductor (not Mahler) was at a symphony in Vienna and the musicians started to get crazily out of sync. The man stood up in the audience and conducted on the spot and got them all back on track. Wonder if that's true. Good story anyway.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 22, 2021 18:28:59 GMT -8
I was going to say, had you presented that unattributed, I would have said it was John Williams...at least the Mars sequence.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 18:30:38 GMT -8
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 18:37:39 GMT -8
Possible. Things don't always go perfectly in a concert. One of my music professors was conducting an orchestra with a female soloist. I don't recall the exact details, but I believe the soloist made a mistake at the beginning and started two bars in while the orchestra played as per the sheet music. The soloist had a look of panic on her face and something had to be done.
My professor explained that he somehow communicated to the whole orchestra to jump two bars and get in sync with the soloist. He said, he couldn't believe it, but his motions worked and the song went swimmingly from there. He didn't believe many in the audience had noticed the mistake.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 22, 2021 19:26:06 GMT -8
Re: BACH Toccata and Fugue in D minor
A truly inspired piece by Bach. Inspired by who, I don't know. But I think James Mason ripped this one off. Great stuff nonetheless.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 19:32:34 GMT -8
Talking about ripping off another composer, the movie "Babe" took whole parts of the final movement and scored them for the film.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 19:41:39 GMT -8
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 22, 2021 19:46:25 GMT -8
That story is too good not to be true.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 19:55:57 GMT -8
I just checked the internet to see what happened to him. Strangely, he retired to Bellingham, Washington and died there in May of this year.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 22, 2021 20:15:39 GMT -8
Abbaddo vs. Karajan
I found the Karajan version of the New World Symphony on Apple Music. I gave them both 10 minutes of attention.
Obviously the music quality via Apple Music is going to probably be a little better than a YouTube video. Difficult in any case for me to call one better than the other. But I will continue to listen to the Karajan version while immersing myself in more of Vienna Secrets.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 22, 2021 20:20:11 GMT -8
Might as well continue listening to the best as you expand your musical horizons.  |
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 23, 2021 8:09:29 GMT -8
I definitely enjoyed the Dvořák New World Ninth.
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