# Post an incredible recording of an under-appreciated classical music work (i.e. not contained in any T.C. List)



## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

Here is the current list:









Compilation of the TC Top Recommended Lists


Welcome to the TC Top Recommended Lists project! The project philosophy is summarized below: - The TalkClassical members with a wide variety of interests and experiences can reach a consensus on the top works from a variety of musical forms. - The process should lead to some interesting debate...




www.talkclassical.com





All you have to do is post a photo of this wonderful obscure/underrated classical music recording - from early music to present day…

Feel free to explain why you appreciate this recording/work so much…

Linda Catlin Smith is one of my favourite contemporary composers. This Canuck is bringing the baroque back into fugue fashion through whatever gnarly means necessary…


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Easy. The vinyl MGM or Heliodor historic recording of Hovhaness' PC No. !,_ Lousadzak_, with Maro Ajemian, piano and Carlos Surinach and the MGM string orchestra. This is backed by the Hovhaness violin concert No. 2 with Anahid Ajemian and same MGM orchestra under Surinach.. I can't show the LPs because I wore them out decades ago--I have them on a CD. _Lousadzak _has been recorded by others but they don't have a clue, as Maro Ajemian premiered the piece under the direct tutelage of Hovhaness. Ditto with the violin concerto except nobody has ever recorded it other than A. Ajemian. If only......


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

I have a bunch, do you mind if I name more than one piece?


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

Josquin13 said:


> I have a bunch, do you mind if I name more than one piece?


Absolutely! Name as many as you want. Do post album covers, if possible…


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

I'll cheat a bit since this is, technically, on the list of works that deserve to be better known, but since I agree that it deserves to be better known I'll post it anyway in the iconic recording by George Szell:


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Eva Yojimbo said:


> I'll cheat a bit since this is, technically, on the list of works that deserve to be better known, but since I agree that it deserves to be better known I'll post it anyway in the iconic recording by George Szell:


I remember a conversation I had with a friend who is a professor of composition, who told me about having been listening to an unfamiliar work and been unable to decide whether it was by Hindemith or Walton ...

P.S. I'm not sure which was more surprising to him, discovering the answer or my identifying it before he finished the story.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

The problem here is knowing where to begin ... not even specific works but completely unrepresented composers...
Eduard Tubin
Douglas Lilburn
George Lloyd
Rodion Shchedrin
Joly Braga Santos
Herbert Howells
Carlos Chavez
Erno Dohnanyi
Jennifer Higdon
Hubert Parry

...and those are just the easy ones...


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

The best sessions (recordings) on Sessions (Roger) are on Argo ... ergo ...


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

hammeredklavier said:


> Andromeda e Perseo


There's a recording of the German language version conducted by Reinhard Goebel, which is a bit more famous, but I think the tempo of that is horrendous.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Here's a performance and reccomended recording of Matthews 5th Symphony, a little known gem by one of the UK's finest alive today....


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

Becca said:


> Herbert





Becca said:


> The problem here is knowing where to begin ... not even specific works but completely unrepresented composers...
> Eduard Tubin
> Douglas Lilburn
> George Lloyd
> ...


I‘ve just listened to Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite (Janson). Far better than that trashy, bloated Bizet mess.

Am now Listening o Howells’ incredible Hymnus Paradisi (Hickox). Lil Ludi is having to reflect on his prejudice against English pastoral composers. Anything else of his worth checking out?

Off to listen to Lloyd’s 7th Sym next…


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

*Saariaho: L'Amour de loin*

Daniel Belcher, tenor (Jaufré Rudel), Ekaterina Lekhina, soprano (Clémence) & Marie-Ange Todorovitch, mezzosoprano (Le Pèlerin)
Rundfunkchor Berlin & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Kent Nagano

Link to complete label authorized recording - 



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mo8mpbe60bUdo-7jJR6c6Vt_-IZWAB4Qo


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

*Higdon: Cold Mountain*

Jay Hunter Morris (Teague), Robert Pomakov (Owens), Adrian Kramer (Owens’ Son), Nathan Gunn (W.P. Inman), Kevin Burdette (A Blind Man) & Isabel Leonard (Ada Monroe)
The Santa Fe Opera Orchestra & Members of The Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers, Miguel Harth-Bedoya

Link to complete label authorized recording - 



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mrxDs6JmQ4I8IYGZsCEtUuVt04V3L8eME


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

Eva Yojimbo said:


> I'll cheat a bit since this is, technically, on the list of works that deserve to be better known, but since I agree that it deserves to be better known I'll post it anyway in the iconic recording by George Szell:


A great work. Shell’s recording if the 2nd Sym is also excellent… I’ve tried so often to find omething redeeming in his lauded 1st Sym, but apart from the plaintive 3rd movement, I consider it complete trash, unworthy even of that other mincing queen, Tchaikovsky…


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

*Dobrinka Tabakova: Kynance Cove, On the South Downs, and Works for Choir*

Natalie Clein (cello)
Truro Cathedral Choir, BBC Concert Orchestra, Joseph Wicks, Christopher Gray

Link to complete label authorized recording - 



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mliDzr5dM7bwN45YVq555T4r2b8hmk5EY


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

ludwig my problem is the following; i post at least once a week a new outstanding contemporary work ( which would never appear on tc lists; there are no decent composers after stravinsky on those lists except for exceptional exceptions) on "best contemporary composers" and get enough views but only comments from the chosen few; linda catlin smith which you posted as well is a very good example; i could post a different work by her during 50 days; i have 400 contemporary composers like this in my archives; i am not gonna do this until i feel members take a serious interest and react with a written comment, positive or negative; the same is true for pre 2nd world war composers; i also have more than 400 composers in my archives and could post a different work every day that does not appear on any tc list; what for? btw i totally disagree with your views on bizet, but that is why we are members of tc, to share, exchange, agree or disagree


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

*Julia Wolfe: Anthracite Fields*

Ashley Bathgate (alto), Mark Stewart (electric guitar), Mark Stewart (tenor)
Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Julian Wachner

Link to label authorized recording - 



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjnccbW1Wa6QFsceMFaLBlTisHoPVV_YS


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

Shaughnessy said:


> *Saariaho: L'Amour de loin*
> 
> Daniel Belcher, tenor (Jaufré Rudel), Ekaterina Lekhina, soprano (Clémence) & Marie-Ange Todorovitch, mezzosoprano (Le Pèlerin)
> Rundfunkchor Berlin & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Kent Nagano
> ...


Saariaho is simply incredible. Without doubt, the greatest living composer in Lil Ludi’s eyes.

Those Goddam Finns, in particular, and Scandis, in general, have produced an unbelievable amount of first rate classical music over that last 125 years… How they’ve done it? I don’t know… unostentatious, intellectually-minded, social democracy at its zenith…


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

justekaia said:


> ludwig my problem is the following; i post at least once a week a new outstanding contemporary work ( which would never appear on tc lists; there are no decent composers after stravinsky on those lists except for exceptional exceptions) on "best contemporary composers" and get enough views but only comments from the chosen few; linda catlin smith which you posted as well is a very good example; i could post a different work by her during 50 days; i have 400 contemporary composers like this in my archives; i am not gonna do this until i feel members take a serious interest and react with a written comment, positive or negative; the same is true for pre 2nd world war composers; i also have more than 400 composers in my archives and could post a different work every day that does not appear on any tc list; what for? btw i totally disagree with your views on bizet, but that is why we are members of tc, to share, exchange, agree or disagree


Please keep posting here, Justekaia! I always read your posts with keen interest. I know we share a love of obscure spectralism, and I would be keen for you to list as many contemporary exemplars, as possible.

Chapeau, mon ami! 🎩


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

Ludwig Schon said:


> Saariaho is simply incredible. Without doubt, the greatest living composer in Lil Ludi’s eyes.
> 
> Those Goddam Finns, in particular, and Scandis, in general, have produced an unbelievable amount of first rate classical music over that last 125 years… How they’ve done it? I don’t know… unostentatious, intellectually-minded, social democracy at its zenith…


I have questioned several Finnish and Estonians top composers on this very subject. They realise how little they have contributed in the past and want to show the world how well they can perform in terms of composition and performance.The young crop is absolutely incredible and will challenge Saariaho and her colleagues.And the rest of the world.


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

Ludwig Schon said:


> Please keep posting here, Justekaia! I always read your posts with keen interest. I know we share a love of obscure spectralism, and I would be keen for you to list as many contemporary exemplars, as possible.
> 
> Chapeau, mon ami! 🎩


life is a two way street, not a dead alley; as long as there is no dialogue i will be sparing with my posts


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I would consider Augusta Read Thomas to be underappreciated.

While this is no doubt, a modern piece, it is fairly approachable.

EOS: (Goddess of Dawn) (2015)

And of course, being on the Reference Recordings label, the sound quality is extremely good; dynamic, detailed, with a huge 3d soundstage, with pinpoint imaging.

The other pieces on this recording are also quite good. I especially like Andrew Norman's percussion concerto, "Switch".


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

The English music press and concert halls love promoting any old reductive rubbish by the likes of Ades, Turnage and Panufnik, yet Lil Ludi can‘t download/stream one recording of Robert Sampson’s SQs.

By comparison, there have been three complete recordings of Weinberg‘s SQs in the last 15 years. Now I love Weinberg’s SQs, but who makes these sort of decisions?

If it was up to me, I would have an embargo on any recording of the all the works contained on the TC list for a 10 year period.

There is so much amazing music out there that has either never been recorded or has been, but to a poor standard…


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

A fine work in excellent sound and beautifully played.


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

justekaia said:


> life is a two way street, not a dead alley; as long as there is no dialogue i will be sparing with my posts


Justekaia, when a flâneur like you minces down a street, he‘s primed and plucked like a peacock. While he avoids all eye contact, he nevertheless craves attention.

By contrast, a drifter like Lil Ludi seeks no such attention. I’m a hobo, happily asleep upon a hay-bale, riding the rails through the midwestern plains… 🚂💨


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Ludwig Schon said:


> *If it was up to me, I would have an embargo on any recording of all the works contained on the TC list for a 10 year period.*


Listen up everybody - Seriously - Do not, I repeat, do not give him this kind of authority - Somehow... someway... it just... kind of seems like a really really bad idea...


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

A work that I have enjoyed for many years by a composer rarely mentioned.
*John Casken, Cello Concerto - Northern Sinfonia, Heinrich Schiff (cello/director).*


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

Ludwig Schon said:


> Justekaia, when a flâneur like you minces down a street, he‘s primed and plucked like a peacock. While he avoids all eye contact, he nevertheless craves attention.
> 
> By contrast, a drifter like Lil Ludi seeks no such attention. I’m a hobo, happily asleep upon a hay-bale, riding the rails through the midwestern plains… 🚂💨


keep sleeping, so we will have no arguments; btw i would rather be called a flâneuse than a flâneur, although i object to this characterisation as i consider myself to be a dynamic woman; sleep tight


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

justekaia said:


> keep sleeping, so we will have no arguments; btw i would rather be called a flâneuse than a flâneur, although i object to this characterisation as i consider myself to be a dynamic woman; sleep tight


Ooh la la! A dynamic French lady… a flâneuse!

Lil Ludi has a vision of Stéphane Audran in Claude Chabrol’s Les Biches, smoking Sweet Afton cigarettes, while tootling around Saint Tropez in a 2CV…


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Roberto GERHARD: Concerto for Orchestra (1965)
:: Del Mar/BBC SO [Argo LP ’67]

Arnold Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra meets Edgard Varèse’s _Arcana_ in 1965 Technicolor. I tend to resist works that beat me over the head with striking effects and sonorities, but Gerhard beats me into submission and wins me over with the onslaught of effects and sonorities that he unleashes in his Concerto for Orchestra.


__
https://soundcloud.com/jstnlsd%2Froberto-gerhard-concerto-for-orchestra-1966


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I'll mention Carl Nielsen's Commotio, which I don't see on any of the lists--a beautifully melodic, cumulatively powerful work for solo organ.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Merl said:


> A fine work in excellent sound and beautifully played.


Most of Bloch's oeuvre is under appreciated. It's their loss.


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

I am absolutely loving the work that I'm hearing from Holland Baroque lately...this album has been the gateway....


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I'm in difficulty here as I know (or have at least heard) most of those mentioned and had decided that they deserve their relative obscurity! I have tried to click "like" on the ones that I would like to see getting more exposure. One record that comes to my mind (is it a work or just a well-programmed CD?) is this one:










An incredible musical experience that I find it hard to imagine anyone with open ears not responding to.

Maybe it came to mind because I was just listening to some Holliger and I'll try to think of others. I don't remember anyone mentioning Veress so far.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Ludwig Schon said:


> The English music press and concert halls love promoting any old reductive rubbish by the likes of Ades, Turnage and Panufnik, yet Lil Ludi can‘t download/stream one recording of Robert Sampson’s SQs.
> 
> By comparison, there have been three complete recordings of Weinberg‘s SQs in the last 15 years. Now I love Weinberg’s SQs, but who makes these sort of decisions?
> 
> ...


eh? Are the Arcadia and Silesian Weinberg cycles complete? If so they haven't been boxed as far as I know. Perhaps the Danels will redo them anyway --their live cycle (which I heard in Manchester) was more powerful and profound than their recordings. If you're referring to Robert Simpson, then I would indeed welcome more recordings of his excellent string quartets.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Ludwig Schon said:


> Saariaho is simply incredible. Without doubt, the greatest living composer in Lil Ludi’s eyes.
> 
> Those Goddam Finns, in particular, and Scandis, in general, have produced an unbelievable amount of first rate classical music over that last 125 years… How they’ve done it? I don’t know… unostentatious, intellectually-minded, social democracy at its zenith…


except that the Scandianvians are increasingly abandoning their social democracy, sad to say (I say this as a half-Swede). I get the impression that Finland is a country that still believes in society though.


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

Ludwig Schon said:


> Here is the current list:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you for sharing this recording...it made for a great early morning spin this morning...


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

Shaughnessy said:


> *Julia Wolfe: Anthracite Fields*
> 
> Ashley Bathgate (alto), Mark Stewart (electric guitar), Mark Stewart (tenor)
> Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Julian Wachner
> ...


I have this on right now...deep into the second movement and really enjoying this...great find!!!


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

dko22 said:


> eh? Are the Arcadia and Silesian Weinberg cycles complete? If so they haven't been boxed as far as I know. Perhaps the Danels will redo them anyway --their live cycle (which I heard in Manchester) was more powerful and profound than their recordings. If you're referring to Robert Simpson, then I would indeed welcome more recordings of his excellent string quartets.


Yep, Robert Simpson… Goddam autocorrect must be under the auspices of Dellilah…

The Silesian has one album left to release and the Arcadia are only starting off, however, given the Danel only completed their cycle in the last 10 years, it’s saturating what is already a tiny market of works that I admittedly adore, but would far prefer to hear new recordings of Simpson or Othmar Schoeck’s SQs…


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Ludwig Schon said:


> Yep, Robert Simpson… Goddam autocorrect must be under the auspices of Dellilah…
> 
> The Silesian has one album left to release and the Arcadia are only starting off, however, given the Danel only completed their cycle in the last 10 years, it’s saturating what is already a tiny market of works that I admittedly adore, but would far prefer to hear new recordings of Simpson or Othmar Schoeck’s SQs…


don't think i know any Schoek so will give him a quick try asap


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

His vocal works, especially his lieder are incredible, but the less heralded SQs are also well worthy of consideration:


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

I wish to continue depositing in here, but it appears this thread's Oirish discussion-starter had gotten himself banned to the other end of the rainbow (with no pot O'gold).

For those folks still in the board room, if you love the hedonistic & Dyonisian compositions by Szymanowski, Merikanto, Scriabin, Amfitheatrof, etc. - then you'd be receptive towards this 30-year-old disc by Ondine on phantasmagorical ecstatic tone poems written by Väinö Raitio ... with superb sonics & superlative performances










One of my favo(u)rite 100 albums.


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## Scherzi Cat (8 mo ago)

The Double Bass Concerto by Nino Rota should be listed somewhere but it is not. What a great work! And this recording by Bogustaw Furtok with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony directed by Peter Zelienka is what made me discover it. Please give it a listen.


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Frank BRIDGE: String Quartet No. 3 (1926)
:: Endellion String Quartet [Virgin]

String Quartet No. 3 is the highlight of Bridge’s one-man English Expressionism movement of the 1920s and ’30s and one of my favorite English or Expressionist string quartet of any decade. The work is laid out and structured traditionally enough, having a sonata-allegro first movement, an intermezzo second, and a sonata-rondo third/final. It’s with tonality and harmonics that Bridge breaks with tradition: it’s chromatic, with all twelve tones and a lot of dubious harmonies revolving around a nebulous C-major tonal center. The work is based entirely on thematic material (all manner of motifs) introduced in the slow introduction of the main Allegro section of the first movement.

What makes the work go is the sheer vigor and intellectual rigor of Bridge’s development, which makes for one highly wrought and organic piece of music. Even when I can’t specifically cite why—which is to say much of the time, as my motif-recognition skills rather suck—the music at any given point always “sounds” strongly related to the rest of the music; nothing comes across as extraneous or gratuitous or out of place. The themes built from the basic thematic material morph and develop in long stretches (especially in the first movement) that are worked out to the bitter end, giving the work an ever-evolving sinewy quality. The lyrical Intermezzo, a muted discussion between violins over a spare viola (pizzicato) and cello accompaniment, serves as a respite from the obsessive development and stressed, sighing lyricism of the first movement before Bridge ramps things back up in the combative, march-like final movement.

There’s a certain Bergian lyrical and harmonic feel about much of the writing, though it seems to presage the Violin Concerto as much as look back on Berg’s earlier works. (That said, Berg’s _Lyric Suite_, also of 1926, would make an ideal coupling on disc.) The more vigorous rhythmic writing has a Bartók quality about it, and the Intermezzo verges on “night music,” though I might term it “twilight music” in this case. If the prevailing mood of the work is postwar grim, it’s not all grim, and the various signs of hope make strong impressions. Still, it’s not the work you ask the quartet to play at your daughter’s wedding.


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## scott.stucky48 (7 mo ago)

Same problem as others, too many to list. Here are two: Peter Mennin, Symplony 3 (1946), Mitropoulos, NYPO (Columbia, 1953); David Diamond, Symphony 4 (1945), Bernstein, NYPO (Columbia).


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Galina USTVOLSKAYA: Duet (1964)
:: Beths & De Leeuw [hat ART]

The first section contains Ustvolskaya’s most brutal and harshly contrasted music, with the big bad piano trying to pulverize the hapless, stressed-out little violin, which sounds as if it’s strung with raw nerves rather than catgut. The second section is more of an inquisition, with the violin desperately trying to plead its case only to be shut down by short, bold retorts from the piano; the violin loses and goes into lament mode, occasionally taunted by the piano. The final section is quiet and resigned and relatively lyrical, almost nostalgic, sounding a bit like austere Satie. On the whole, this is about as stark and viscerally raw and brutal as music gets.


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## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

Michael Haydn, the "half unknown" brother of Haydn, wrote such funny music!
Here a movement from Divertimento MH 179 for oboe, viola and double bass!




The complete recording of the Divertimento on period instruments is available here.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

NovAntiqua said:


> Here a movement from Divertimento MH 179 for oboe, viola and double bass!
> The complete recording of the Divertimento on period instruments is available here.


All the 6 movements of that work are melodically memorable to me, and the middle movements III, V seem to share thematic resemblance (in terms of leaps and turns):








Try this. There's also a recording by Piccolo Concerto Wien, but this one feels the most appropriate to me in terms of tempo:


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