For everyone who couldn't stand yesterday's listening, here is the Vaughan Williams Piano Quintet. Like the Schubert Piano Quintet it is a bass-heavy ensemble with violin, viola, cello and double bass with the piano. A charmingly robust and rambunctious piece.
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6 comments:
I was not impressed with either of these listening examples for the same reason. they don't use time well. Since no one has unlimited time artists should respect that.
As for VW he is a very interesting case. As with Mahler I listened to him quite a bit when younger and now not at all although the reasons are different. One obvious difference is that Mahler whatever his faults travels well in international concert halls while VW travels almost no where outside of the UK except on recordngs. Composers can fail because they lack imagination or because they lack nerve. i would put VW in the second category. It is instructive to compare the revised version of his Symphony 2 with the original version.
You can't hurry Morton Feldman.
“they don’t use time well” - to me a feature or bug question. Some may find Feldman’s time management admirable. I appreciate Feldman’s exploration of different ways of writing and listening. Perhaps one reason is the speed and craziness of modern life and this experience of very quiet and subtle music addresses that in some way.
Patrick, I couldn't agree more. I listened to all of the Feldman piece and I found it satisfying and worth the time. It is really all about time.
Patrick I 'm afraid I don't understand what you mean that using time well in music is a feature or bug question? I gather that you and Bryan like Feldman's works which is fine but presumably it is because you think they use time well (as Bryan specifically says) rather than that using time well could be a bug that should be avoided.
People should listen to anything they like. However, if one is looking for music that contrasts with the current fevered society I would suggest Renaissance polyphony myself and it is indisputably enduring. As a practical matter Feldman is a weak reed for current classical music to lean on since his music is invisible in concert performances even compared to avant gardists like Pierre Boulez or Xenakis. However if this is just a personal listening preference that is irrelevant.
I think Patrick meant that how Feldman uses time could be regarded as a bug or a feature (I think those terms come from critiques of software).
What I try to do in my "Today's Listening" posts is mostly put up some music that might not be heard very often. I am always looking for music that I haven't heard before. Sometimes it surprises you. So maybe the best way to listen is with neutrality just to see where it goes. The Vaughan Williams was different than I expected as well.
Taking the opposite tack, I have been listening to Bruckner 8 a lot lately and it just grows and grows and gets more interesting every time I hear it.
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