# 2021 Listening Project - Jan 30



## daco (Jan 5, 2021)

Vivaldi
Four Seasons: Autumn
Simon Standage, violin
The English Concert
Trevor Pinnock, conductor

More baroque music that makes me think of 80's metal. I love the quiet background pizzicato in the middle movement, and the drone in the last.

Ives
Symphony No. 1
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

So different from his other music! I've always really liked this piece, and enjoyed listening this time too. I guess this isn't particularly "original", but that's OK with me.

If this had been written between 1998 and 2002, I would say that the 2nd movement contains "echoes" of Howard Shore's LOTR soundtrack (in particular the Hobbiton stuff). But since it was actually written between 1898 and 1902, I wonder if Shore was influenced by this piece? If so, I'd like to think that Ives would have been pleased, given how much he himself incorporated popular tunes into his own music.

The opening of the 3rd movement also seems familiar to me ... not sure if it's because I've listened to this before (but not in quite a few years), or because Ives is quoting someone else.

I love the finale of the 4th movement, including that way that it goes on a bit. But I think that maybe the earlier parts of the movement could have been shortened.

Haydn
String Quartet No. 59
Emerson Quartet

Another good quartet. This was my favorite so far.


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