Possibly My Favorite Work Of Schoenberg's, Certainly Right Up There, And Perfection In Every Way. I Didn't

Possibly my favorite work of Schoenberg's, certainly right up there, and perfection in every way. I didn't altogether appreciate GG's performance when I first heard it 30 yrs ago or so. I was at that time under the spell of Charles Rosen's complete works performances. (And if I still had my copy of that out-of-print gem, I could talk more intelligently about it.) But I like this very much now, to say the least. Irrespective who you listen to, or play it yourself, this is 12-tone's apotheosis. Worth living for.

atonalitydotnet:

Glenn Gould - Schoenberg, suite Op. 25

Complete playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMhNcmmMn0A&feature=PlayList&p=B7EA5853D24983FF&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1

Back in 1963 a wonderful book of music was published: New Music for the Piano, and it covered a tremendous variety of mid-century composers. I first came across, not the book, the recording of all the pieces in the book by the indefatigable champion of living composers: Robert Helps. I found it in my local public library at some point in the 1960s when I was a boy. I checked it out, took it home, played it over and over. I was especially taken by Leo Kraft’s Allegro Giocoso and Ernst Bacon’s The Pig-Town Fling. I’ve since come to love not only those but many other pieces in the book. I ordered the score through a local music store way back then (it took weeks and weeks to arrive) and tried to learn the pieces, though they were a bit too much for my tiny technique of the time. I've since found many, many other wonderful miniatures in this book. I lost my original copy, I do not know how, and the book seems to be out of print. However, of all places, B+N stocked it and at the original price! So here it is back in my paws. Wonderful.

I have a Nord too. I confess I like it.

thepianoblog:

I’m sick to death of every band that has a synth player using Nord keyboards. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! I mean obviously they are good if people use them but it would be nice to see some diversity. At least Enter Shikari used Korgs.

komangography:

violinplayah:

blogthoven:

nostalgiya:

In Grozny Central Park, February 1995.

(via)

In a world of Taylor Swift... talk about heterogeny!

atonalitydotnet:

Elliott Carter: Two Diversions, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

The contents of the aforementioned New Music for the Piano.

Fanfares (1958) - Ingolf Dahl

Two Preludes (1951) - Kent Kennan

Capriccio (1954) - Samuel Adler

Polarities No 1 (1958) - Hall Overton

Partitions (1957) - Milton Babbitt

Piano Suite No 3 (1951) - Miriam Gideon

Syncopations (1958) - Sol Berkowitz

Humoreske Op 49 (1958) - Ben Weber (2)

Nocturnal Interlude - Paul A. Pisk*

Etude (1957) - Mel Powell

Rag-Blues-Rag - Morton Gould

Allegro On A Pakastani Lute Tune, Op 104, No 6 (1952) - Alan Hovhaness

Six Preludes, Op 20B (1946) - George Perle

Sonata, Op 53, No 3 (1950) - Norman Cazden

Two Bagatelles - Joseph Prostakoff

Prelude For A Pensive Pupil - Peggy Glanville-Hicks

The Pig Town Fling - Ernst Bacon

Image (1957) - Robert Helps

Six Bagatelles (1958) - Mark Brunswick

Two Bagatelles (1948/50) - Earl Kim

Incantation (1964) - Josef Alexander