Study Music 17 October

Through a range of links I clicked on Spotify to follow random curiosities I landed on an album of music for clarinet performed by Evgeni Petrov. Before getting to the music, I have to say it was not his album alone; every piece features Tatiana Tarasevich on piano. I know there's a view that the piano part is "accompaniment" but the works do not work without it. I've seen albums that acknowledge the "accompanist" on the cover and frame them as duos, and I think that is a more accurate representation than this -

The album was bookended by Bizet's Carmen, which sounds strange but really isn't. The first piece is Fantasie Brilliant on the themes of the opera Carmen by Bizet, a long title, and was arranged by Francois Borne. It's a lovely trip through all the themes, as it says, and reminds me of Liszt rewriting whole operas and symphonies for solo piano concert pieces. At the other end is Alexander Rosenblatt's version with the slightly shorter title Fantasie on the themes from the opera Carmen by Bizet. It's short and livelier too and a great way to round off the album.

Camille Saint-Saens' clarinet sonata is the meat in the sandwich. I don't know that it's going to become a favourite of mine but it does demonstrate the highs and lows of the clarinet as it goes through most, if not all, of its register. The slow movement didn't quite do it for me, but the two allegros were fun.

As condiments there were also some other pieces. Debussy's Premiere rhaspsodie which was indeed rhapsodic and a good listen; and Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte, arranged by Petrov himself it was still a ho-hum number for me, it's either too maudlin or just lack-lustre in my mind, although I think there are some exceptional performances of it about. Maybe it's just the typical translation of the title that puts me off: Pavane for a Dead Infant.

A final dash of spice came in the form of a miniature by Alexander Ilyinsky called Butterfly. It does indeed float and flap and dance along and, together with Rosenblatt's Carmen fantasy, was the real highlights of what is a solid, nice album, if not a humdinger.

New Home and New Classic 100

So the Giant Squid has relocated to the Southern Ocean and I have moved to Tasmania to keep in touch - climate change affects us all and it's a good move. If you haven't heard by the way, Wandering Capriccio is now the musical appreciation tentacle of Giant Squid Creations.

Last year was a busy one for me personally, so this blog was very quiet as you may have noticed. What there was, was in relation to the wonderful Sydney Youth Orchestra which kindly invited me to attend the main concerts to review them here. I will miss that orchestra, and not much else about Sydney. If you are in the area, get to their concerts! 

Now I'm here I look forward to music from the TSO and Hobart Chamber Orchestra, and hopefully the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra too, which I'm sure rivals the Sydney one. All that is to come, when opportunity and finances allow.

For now, there's another Classic 100 beginning via ABC Classic FM. The topic this year is Dance - music that makes you move - and for the first time in a few years I'm actually excited about it. It's in the nomination stage at the moment and I'm working on my list as I write (Dvorak's 5 Prague Waltzes are playing and I'm erring on whether to put them in). 

My first thought was the Bacchanale from Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah, although I confess I couldn't remember what it was called at the time. I know it from an ABC Classics release from years ago called The Dance of the Hours, and here's a fine performance of it for you by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

Next I had to nominate Bizet's Farandole from L'Arlesienne. That piece was on a Reader's Digest compilation I had in my teens and it's always stirred me to movement and inspired me generally. Here it is with Paavo Jarvi conducting the Paris Orchestra.

Of course, there are others I am nominating, some of which are obvious and others not so much, but I won't tie you down with the whole list here. What I might do is create a Spotify list with not just my nominations but pieces I like to move to that I know won't be in the countdown for one reason or another and I'll share that soon.

Until then, keep exploring, and dancing, in the world of music.

My Halloween Playlist - 2013

Just a small selection of tunes for Halloween.

Dvorak's The Water Goblin

Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain (via Rimsky-Korsakov)

Grieg's March of the Trolls

Schubert's The Erl King

Berlioz's March to the Scaffold

Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre

There are many, many more of course. This is just a taste! Enjoy and explore!

Classic 100 Music of France - Day 5

Two great symphonies in today's countdown. Franck's opened proceedings this morning and it was quite a journey I must say. From the brooding opening chords to the celebration of light at the conclusion. A real journey and good fun. And from that straight into Saint-Saens' second piano concerto which is simply brilliant in its shifts from light poetry to strong declamation then back to dancing instruments and all seamlessly. The second symphony was Bizet's which is a sheer joy to listen to.

Keeping with new pieces (for me), Chabrier's Espagna was a jolly jaunt with Spanish flair. Interesting just how many pieces were written by non-Spanish people inspired by the country. I love that Franck wrote his violin sonata as a wedding present for a violinist who managed to take the score and play it at the wedding. The slow movement seemed strangely sorrowful and I don't think the rest of the piece is entirely lovey-dovey but it's mostly celebratory, at least of violin playing. Overall I prefer the cello version but I prefer cello in general so that's to be expected.

Despite comments from the announcers about Faure being boring, I found his Cantique de Jean Racine to be one of those tranquil pieces you can really just stop the world and listen to.

And my wish from yesterday came true! Giselle came in, what a treat that was. Great story behind it, and the music really rocks along. Then a second ballet with Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. I'd only heard the second suite before today which doesn't do the whole work justice. As a whole it weaves a spell that can't function as well when it's broken into pieces.

A few more operas made it in today. Interesting to note Offenbach used the can-can in his Orpheus in the Underworld as well as in Gaite Parisiene. Gounod's Faust was a bit different and quite nice. I love the Bacchanale from Samson et Delilah too, it's fantastic. But I'm still not an opera fan overall despite the beautiful music between the main singing. Sorry opera buffs.

From here it's tempting to start predicting the rest of the pieces to come in. So here it is - in no particular order - my predictions. Happy to be wrong.

1. Debussy – Suite de Bergamasque
2. Debussy – Pavane ... Faun
3. Debussy – Submerged Cathedral
4. Debussy – Girl with the Flaxen Hair
5. Debussy – La Mer
6. Ravel – Pavane for a Dead Princess
7. Ravel – Bolero
8. Ravel – String Quartet
9. Ravel – Piano Concerto
10. Faure – Pavane
11. Faure – Requiem
12. Delibes – Lakme
13. Delibes – Coppelia
14. Satie – Gymnopedies
15. Satie – Gnossiennes
16. Saint-Saens – Danse Macabre
17. Saint-Saens – Carnival of the Animals
18. Saint-Saens – Organ Concerto
19. Dukas – Sorcerer’s Apprentice
20. Bizet – Carmen
21. Bizet – Pearl Fishers
22. Bizet – L’Arlsienne
23. Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique
24. Massenet – Thais
25. Poulenc – Sextet
26. Offenbach – Tales of Hoffmann
27. Faure – Bereceuse, Op 16
28. Ravel – Tzigane

Classic 100 Music of France - Day 4

Second day in a row the countdown has opened with a choral work of Hector Berlioz I hadn’t heard before. The Requiem is huge and glorious in parts, although it lacks much of the emotional landscape of Durufle’s; maybe not the Gloria or the angelic reflections of the conclusion. In all I probably prefer the Te Deum from yesterday but hey. It was followed by a bit of his oratorio about the Childhood of Christ which was quite serene in general.

I hadn’t, and still haven’t apparently, heard the entire Turangalila symphony of Messian. It’s a strange work to be honest and I’m afraid I have to admit it really does sound like a ’50s B-grade SF/horror soundtrack. The alien monster, attacked by the marines but falls in love with the hero’s fiancée whose father is the scientist who first noticed the strange spacecraft …

I may have heard Marais’ The Bells of St Genevieve before but this was my first time really listening to it. The sense of rhythm and the rocking of the bells back and forth is very strong and quite enthralling in its way.

First time hearing Harolde in Italy all the way through too, that's a fun piece sort of a concerto with a plot. Only the second time I'd heard Saint-Saens' fifth piano concerto but it was on my favourite list from the first time. What a magical piece! It's not like any other concerto I can think of, evocative and mysterious.

Interestingly no operas today, although a few choral works and songs. No ballets in the countdown yet, so hope Adam's Giselle gets in and Delibes' Coppellia - I want to hear them in full. One of the expert guests today suggested Faure's Requiem and Pavane would both probably miss out ... I think he might be wrong about that somehow but we'll see.

More Classic 100 Music of France Musings

So it’s getting to crunch time and I’m going to have to make some decisions. As I said in my first post I already know I’m voting for Faure’s Pavane; that was decided as soon as I knew the theme for the countdown. It’s such a beautiful piece and I’ve loved it for years, I even used it in the soundtrack to a short film I made in uni. So I not only love it, it has some personal attachment.

If I use the idea of significance I can probably also lock in Bizet’s L’Arlesienne. When I was in my late teens I bought a cheap CD with that and Carmen, because I knew of Carmen and thought it’d be good to have in a collection. But it was the Farandole from The Girl from Arles that really captured my attention and imagination. I used to play it a lot while writing my play for HSC Drama, a melodrama about a knight and an evil king. And it is great music.

Saint-Saens raises problems with this approach though. The Danse Macabre and Carnival of the Animals are both some of the earliest classical music I knew and loved, and the Organ Symphony is one of the first symphonies outside Mozart and Beethoven that I knew. I could vote for all three and be done with it, but that leaves so many others and I have this thing about spreading the love and not wanting to give one composer more than others – irrational it may be but I never claimed to be a slave to logic or reason.

Leaving those three to battle out my third pick, I have two picks left. As I said, I feel Debussy’s Afternoon of the Faun is safe to do very well without me, but there is his Reverie and Nocturnes – and I’ve just discovered his first piano trio ... I’ve got to put a Berlioz in there too of course, his flair for the dramatic really captures my fancy. I’ve got that down to two, King Lear and The Roman Carnival Overture, the latter because I’ve loved it for a long time and the latter because as well as being good in itself, it’s King Lear, a play I have a near fetish about.

Which leaves Ravel’s string quartet and tzigane, Satie’s Gnossiennes, and of course Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice – another early love – to battle it out for the last pick. And even then there’s a mass of pieces I’m rooting for from the sidelines. And new discoveries waiting for me to indulge in which possibly deserve more attention.

I may have to take Classic FM’s tweeted challenge up and see if I can convince some other people to vote too, after all it’s more fun if you vote for something. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to Wandering Capriccio, the place where I share my love for classical music. I figure a little introduction is a good way to start. First of all, I’m an enthusiast, nothing more. I have no training beyond second grade clarinet. So don’t look for in-depth analysis here or hassle me out if I call something good that is ‘technically’ not up to some standard or other. I’m into the music for its beauty, its passion, its humour or its despair.

Why this blog? Because it’s fun and I like to share. I’ll post reviews of albums – which I mostly get from classicsonline – talk about events if there are any coming up I’m attending or whatnot, and share little factoids I may come across. I guess that’s what blogs are all about after all. And of course, I’ll share some music too, with links to youtube etc.

The big event at the moment, ABC Classic FM’s Classic 100 – The Music of France. I’ve been looking forward to this since last year’s finished, and once the initial list went online I’ve been contemplating my votes. I was working on the basis that it would be like last year’s voting and I could shortlist on the site, then cull it down to 10. So imagine my surprise to learn you can’t and you’re only allowed five votes! Turmoil is all I can say my response to that has been.

With 10 I figured I was fairly safe to include all three of the Saint-Saens I wanted to vote for (Organ Symphony; Danse Macabre; Carnival of the Animals), now I’m thinking it’ll have to be one. Same for Faure, which will have to be his Pavane because it’s one of my all time favourites. So that’s two gone, three to go and oh-so many options to fill them. It’s tough, so I’m trying to think which ones people will vote for anyway, so not worry about them, but that leaves the trick of ‘what if everyone assumes that?’ Imagine a French Classics countdown with no Debussy in the top five. But I’m feeling pretty confident my favourite of his, Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun, will do well enough without me. So yes, I’m probably not voting for dear Claude, even in his sesquicentenary.

To make up for it here’s a version of his third Nocturne, the Sirens, conducted by Pierre Boulez.