# Any interesting musical discoveries during pandemic?



## mahlernerd (Jan 19, 2020)

I think it’s safe to say this year hasn’t been great for most of us. However, I have made some great musical discoveries during this pandemic. I have expanded my exploration of Baroque music, and have really gotten into Bach and Handel’s oratorios. I have started to become more well-acquainted with opera and appreciate Wagne, Verdi, and others much more than I have in the past. And finally, not really a discovery, but Bruckner’s music (particularly his symphonies) has finally clicked with me. For a few years I have been struggling with Bruckner’s music, and honestly, I used to hate it. However, with some intense listening sessions of his symphonies, I can now say that Bruckner is one of my favorite composers now. How about you? Have you made any interesting musical discoveries during these past months of this pandemic?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

John Cage's _Thirteen._ I didn't find it very interesting as music, but it was interesting reading SeptimalTritone's analysis of it, and interesting giving a bit more thought to Cage's aesthetic assumptions. I perceived a fundamental resemblance to works of Morton Feldman, which I hadn't listened to for quite a long time.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I've been getting into Furtwangler. I looked at my CD stack, and I have more of his recordings than I realized, so I've been rediscovering things that I've been neglecting.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

During the course of the pandemic I've discovered that I actually like a bit of contemporary/modernist music, found many new works to love through the Weekly Quartet, 1980-2000, and Early Music listening groups here on TC; listened through all of Bach's cantatas, devoted significant time to studying Beethoven's piano sonatas and Shostakovich's symphonies, and got into lots of lesser-known composers that deserve more attention. So I'd say that my listening has been productive!


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Yes, mainly due to the TC games. And thanks to member Bulldog's new game about favored symphonies, I'm now in the middle of a personal project to discover pieces of the genre (one of my favorites in classical music): I've been listening diligently to about four or five symphonies daily in the last few days, and so far I have discovered music I greatly enjoyed in symphonies such as Hovhaness' #19 "Vishnu", Raff's #9 "In Summer", Górecki's #2 "Copernican", Scott's #1 and Amy Beach's "Gaelic." Four hundred pieces were nominated for the game and I plan to be familiarized with each of them by it's end.

The game is in it's beginning, and here is the link to it's current round in case other members here want to play.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Lots of new discoveries, love theme all.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

Vagn Holmboe string Quartets, anything Bacewicz, Farrenc Symphonies.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Rachmaninov. For reasons not really due to the pandemic (at least not directly) but happened during a concurrent time period. I mean, I knew of him (of course) but had just never personally liked his music.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

I learned of the _*nonatonic scale*_ today -- said to be found in the works of Vaughan Williams and Bax. It is a nine-note scale, beginning on C would be:

C D Eb E F# G Ab Bb B (C)

Also have listened to the orchestral music of Vincent D'Indy, and like most of it. Plus I read some quite straightforward information that helps the listener understand his music. My favorite work is a late symphonic poem -- _Poème des rivages_.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Rogerx said:


> Lots of new discoveries, love theme all.


There are an astonishing number of threads here for both classical and popular music, including the game room thread where we name 10 songs with a common word in the title, or a common theme.

I made a Youtube "watch later" list, & just kept adding to it as songs and other works popped up here, and on facebook. 
That list is well over 500 videos long now.

Right now I'm listening to SIT IN THE MIDDLE OF THREE GALLOPING DOGS, because someone suggested it, or perhaps merely mentioned it. Or, more likely, someone mentioned BROKEN CHORDS CAN SING A LITTLE, also by "a silver mt. zion", 'cause that's right before this track.

Before that it was George Harrison's ALL THINGS MUST PASS. Next up is Johnny Burnette's YOU'RE SIXTEEN, then Flume's HYPERREAL, then Elizabeth Cotton IN THE SWEET BY AND BY.

But in the last hour I heard a Shostakovich Waltz (#2) and the Finale to Symphony #5, Utopia's Freak Parade, and Myaskovsky's Cello Sonata No. 2.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BachIsBest said:


> Rachmaninov. For reasons not really due to the pandemic (at least not directly) but happened during a concurrent time period. I mean, I knew of him (of course) but had just never personally liked his music.


Are you discovering some of it that you like? What in particular?


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## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

Have been a Mahler lover for decades with many recordings of the symphonies by various orchestras & conductors, in a dull moment, I looked through them and found the Wyn Morris Symphonica of London recording of the Mahler 5 that I had entirely forgotten. 

Morris was a most difficult, erratic man, by all accounts and it shows in his conducting. Edward Seckerson in The Gramophone largely rubbished this performance and while I can understand how he may have perceived parts of Morris's account as a "grotesque parody" I disagree. It seems to me that Mahler wanted exuberance and here, he got it! 

Maybe the Adagietto is, as described by David Nice "a passionate sprint" but it seems to me to have lost nothing of its inherent beauty. 

Others may not like this version, but it certainly appeals to me.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Responsoria in coena domini, MH 276: 
I. In monte Oliveti
II. Tristis est anima mea
III. Ecce vidimus eum
IV. Amicus meus
V. Judas mercator pessimus
VI. Unus ex discipulis meis
VII. Eram quasi agnus innocens
VIII. Una hora
IX. Seniores populi

In parasceve, MH 277: 
I. Omnes amici mei
II. Velum templi scissum est
III. Vinea mea electa
IV. Tamquam ad latronem existis
V. Tenebrae factae sunt
VI. Animam meam dilectam
VII. Tradiderunt me
VIII. Jesum tradidit impius
IX. Caligaverunt oculi mei

In sabbato sancto, MH 278: 
I. Sicut ovis
II. Jerusalem surge
III. Plange quasi virgo
IV. Recessit pastor noster
V. O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam
VI. Ecce quomodo moritur Justus
VII. Astiterunt reges terrae
VIII. Aestimatus sum
IX. Sepulto domino


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Woodduck said:


> Are you discovering some of it that you like? What in particular?


probably these things:


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Debussy (particularly Estampes) and Satie.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Penderecki and Pettersson - very rewarding in the past few months.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Yes. I really don’t like baroque. :tiphat:


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## RobertKC (Dec 9, 2013)

While being sequestered due to the pandemic lockdown I've been listening to music by Russian composers, including Rachmaninoff:











(Late at night, when I can't sleep, I listen to Rachmaninoff's entire "All Night Vigil.")

Tchaikovsky:






Pavel Chesnokov:






Unknown:






I'm a classical music novice. I'd appreciate recommendations of similar music that can serve as balm during these troubled times.


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## RobertKC (Dec 9, 2013)

I'll add a Russian folk song by Aleksander L'vovich Gurilyov:


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