20th Century Radicals

[kindofblue]

Could anyone please tell me which performance of Pierrot Lunaire was used on this Sunday's programme [June 8th]? It isn't listed on the BBC Sounds page.

[bluestateprommer]

Perhaps it's the Alpha recording with Patricia Kopatchinskaja?

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8894896--schoenberg-pierrot-lunaire

[Quarky]

Yes probably.. Patricia Kopatchinskaja is primarily a violinist, but "uses her voice", according to Wikipedia, on some modern works.

I prefer a voice with more "body". Used to have a Saga LP, with Alice Howland, mezzo, with which I felt more at home.

[Pulcinella]

Yes probably.. Patricia Kopatchinskaja is primarily a violinist, but "uses her voice", according to Wikipedia, on some modern works.

I prefer a voice with more "body". Used to have a Saga LP, with Alice Howland, mezzo, with which I felt more at home.

Didn't we all have that (maybe in my case for Dumbarton Oaks!)?

https://www.discogs.com/release/7585552-Arnold-Schoenberg-Stravinsky-Pierrot-Lunaire-Dumbarton-Oaks

[Quarky]

Didn't we all have that (maybe in my case for Dumbarton Oaks!)?

https://www.discogs.com/release/7585...Dumbarton-Oaks

Yes - absolutely!

[oliver sudden]

How has the series been going in general? Do we have some faithful tuners-in hereabouts? If so, any highlights? I heard the Gruppen one, which had some good and some less good aspects, but didn’t manage to keep up.

[smittims]

I'm afraid I haven't listened. 50-60 years ago it would be essential listening for me, and it is the sort of thing we've often said R3 ought to be doing. But I fear a sort of giggly-jokey 'Blue Peter' style presentation,and I can't believe they'll actually talk about the music (i.e. musical analysis) raher than the sex-life of the composer. I hope I'm wrong. I'm still fuming from hearing Katie Derham say 'they were an incestuous lot' because Schoenberg married Zemlinsky's sister ( dear Katie, incest is when you marry your own sister) and without telling us anything about the music.

[oliver sudden]

“A Reduced Listening production”, I see. Would have picked another name, myself.

There’s no playlist at all on the site for the Schoenberg episode, as far as I can see. How odd!

[smittims]

I know I ought to make an effort and listen to one of them . But I'm such a chicken these days.

[oliver sudden]

There was some discussion of the opening salvo on the Rest is Noise thread, starting here:

Someone started an anticipatory thread on a Radio 3 forthcoming series on the subject of modernism in music - must have been about a year ago. I can't find it anywhere. I'm interesting in this area and era of music and thought I knew a bit about how to approach it. Would it have been this one? And did anyone give it a listen? I just did, and frankly didn't know what to make of it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0029hrv

I can't see how this way of presenting musical trends will appeal any more than previous efforts.

[Old Grumpy]

“A Reduced Listening production”, I see. Would have picked another name, myself!

How about "A Reduced Brow Stature Production"?

[Quarky]

I'm not dismissive of this series. The ladies do play the whole work the subject of each episode, which is a good starting point.
Takemitsu was very good - a speciality of Gillian Moore.
Evidently the level of analysis is nowhere near the Discovering Music series.
Currently listening to the podcast of Charles Hazelwood and Claire Booth discussing Pierrot Lunaire:: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p01zl2vv
Claire Booth: a commanding performance:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-1w1puzrJ0

[smittims]

I am suitably abashed, Quarky. Certainly their playing the whole work is a point in their favour , even if it means they probably won't be doing Moses und Aron. .

But sadly, Charles Hazlewood is just not the person I want to hear talking about Pierrot Lunaire. If they could have got Robert Craft or Charles Rosen, or Allen Shawn to do it that would be worth hearing.

[kindofblue]

Thanks everyone, it is indeed the PotKap version on the programme. I listened again this morning and enjoyed it very much a second time, PK's approach allows her to explore an incredible range of sounds in enunciating the German.
I'm enjoying the series; yes, we're running out of new anecdotes about these composers, but along with Quarky I learned some more about Takemitsu and I have yet to explore Kurtag but now am inclined to do so. It's Cardew this coming Sunday and I know practically nothing about him

[smittims]

I once met Cornelius Cardew . He was a curious fellow and I suspected some traumatic incident in his youth which made him the way he was. I don't even know if it was his original name , as it is also the name of a fictional character, in 'The Shooting Party' (played in the film by JohnGielgud).

At that time (early 1970s) he was a fervent Maoist and seriously believed there would be a world-wide Communist revolution very soon . He was a fine pianist and played some simple diatonic songs with a Maoist message. He denounced the music of his former contemporaries such as Howard Skempton and John White as 'completely pointless and irrelevant'. I lamented his early death as he was clearly an intensely musical man who had a lot to give, if he had emerged from his fixed political beliefs .