Here is Günter Wand and the NDR Elbphilharmonie in a performance from 1987 in the Lübeck Cathedral.
THE MUSIC SALON: classical music, popular culture, philosophy and anything else that catches my fancy...
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Today's Listening: Bruckner, Symphony No. 8
I've been listening to the Symphony No. 8 of Bruckner quite a few times lately. The main reason is that a performance of the piece by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Riccardo Muti on August 15 is the finale of my visit to Salzburg this summer and I want to become really familiar with the work. And, if you are wondering, nope, no tickets are available, it is sold out. Yes, already. So don't tell me that classical music is dying--only in some places. I have always rather liked Bruckner ever since singing in the university choir in a performance of his Te Deum. Sure, I fell under the spell of Mahler for a while--didn't we all--but I did come to my senses. Bruckner comes at the apotheosis of Western Civilization when it was frankly luxuriating it its accomplishments. With Mahler we are starting to feel the loss of confidence and premonition of the cataclysm that is soon to come.
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12 comments:
Bruckner I think is still rising in critical and audience estimation. As for classical music in Salzburg, empty halls there would mean that the Last Castle had fallen. What I find particularly disturbing is that two of the most autocratic countries to put it mildly are essentially the current standard bearers of classical music; particularly Russia of course but China is increasingly supplying performers. Without Russia and we have to include its composers too the entire classical edifice might have shrunk to a ranch house over the last 75 years. How many of the top performers and conductors are Russian or former Russian in origin? Yes there are a few old Italians still running around but they will be replaced by Chinese.
Maury, you put it that way, classical guitar has had some giants but that's so niche it isn't counted as classical music but I was grateful to be exposed to the work of Angelo Gilardino. For the sake of his memory I still need to write blog posts on his wonderful sonatas for solo guitar.
But he was up until a few years ago one of the old Italians, more or less.
The Hatchet, one could add to guitar that Western Europe is still the mainstay of Early Music performance. But even Baroque opera features more and more well trained Russian singers. As should be clear I would welcome any country adding to the supply of fine musicians. But that is something different than large scale replacement through indifference.
The Hatchet, can you help me out with Gilardino? I looked for his guitar sonatas as you stated but could find only one possibly although not named as such in a compilation. All I see are are Etudes and Studis. Can you point me to particular performers? Thanks
Yes, Bruckner has taken a long time to be appreciated. Ironically, much longer than, say, Stravinsky.
The nexus of politics and classical music is pretty complex these days. Yes, Russia is a huge force in classical music, but actually, much of Scandinavia is as well. Let's not forget Finland, which is not autocratic at all. And China has had a huge turn towards the appreciation of Western classical music with literally millions of young music students. This is why so many young performers these days are Chinese. What is the connection there with an autocratic system and classical music? That's complicated. But we might look at the kinds of psychological pressures that are affecting young people in the developed Western nations and conclude that they might not be conducive to a disciplined devotion to fine art. Could be lots of explanations. Too many to speculate about. What disturbs me is that so few young people in the West seem really interested in creative fields. They would rather become acolytes in crude ideologies.
Angelo Gilardino was a fine and very prolific composer for guitar. Yes he wrote several books of studies for guitar (four I think?) that are also excellent pieces of music. Also a whole bunch of sonatas that I am not very familiar with. He wrote adventurous and demanding music that was extremely idiomatic for the instrument. Here is a YouTube clip of a Gilardino guitar sonata:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frYtsxiRJ6s
Don't forget that Finland was part of Russia until WW1 (1917). Thanks for the Gilardino link but again it is part of a compilation. Looking around I see very few CDs of his music. Am I right or not looking in the right places? Also who are the top performers of his music in your (or The Hatchet's) opinion?
I'm not sure that there are few young Westerners in creative fields per se. It's just that their creativity is focused on genres that are popular (and to some extent possibly ephemeral) rather than formal art.
Classical guitar albums are more typically compilations of various composers than not. There are whole albums of Gilardino; I have one by Cristiano Porqueddu on Brilliant Classics and it is a two-disc set. It has a bunch of the Studies, a concerto and a suite--no sonatas alas. I'm afraid that Gilardino, while a fine composer for guitar, is still not widely known.
The YouTube clip I put up in my last comment is of the four movements of his Sonata 2, so the clip is not a compilation, but a complete work.
Porqueddue has featured Gilardino sonata's on at least two box sets.
The biggest one is a Gilardino set covering music from 1965-2013
https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/g/gilardino-complete-music-for-solo-guitar-1965-2013/
That is 14 discs, which is a staggering amount if you're not willing to just dive in but it does have his five guitar sonatas on there and, of course, the Studi.
At a much smaller scale is Porqueddu's 5-disc box set Novecento Guitar Sonatas.
https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/n/novecento-guitar-sonatas/
IT features Gilardino's guitar sonatas and also sonatas from
Gilbert Biberian (Biberian's sonatas are all worth hearing)
Franco Cavallone
Georges Migot
Evgeny Baev
Joan Manen
Alfred Uhl (this one is pretty cute, I must say)
Porqueddu recorded his first of three sonatas on this box set
Miklos Rozsa's sonata rounds off the box set
This second box set is tougher to find in the US but is hopefully easier to find elsewhere.
Bryan linked to a YT video of another recording of Gilardino's No. 2 sonata.
Giulio Tampalini (besides recording all of Matiegka's solo music) has done some fun recordings of Gilardino's 2nd and 3rd sonatas, if memory serves.
I tried to purchase the scores to Gilardino sonatas, without success!
Bryan & The Hatchet,
Thanks very much. That's enough of a discography to get me going.
some of Gilardino's scores have been surprisingly hard to get ahold of since his passing. For a couple of sonatas I wouldn't even have them if Angelo had not been gracious enough to send along PDFs before he passed. Word got around, apparently, that I was looking for the scores for his sonatas.
I still very much owe him a set of posts discussing his sonatas.
Fortunately several guitarists have put in a ton of work to get his music recorded.
I may beg you for a copy of a sonata or two!
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