John, another thoughtful and educational work on your part. Although to tell the truth by the title of this article, I thought you would be doing an analysis of George Harrison’s 5th and most introspective album as he was going thought significant personal upheaval the year it was created. Again thanks for your always horizon expanding writing for your audience.
0. Sylvia McNair's rendition of "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" may be the most beautiful singing I have on record, in any genre. The piece itself is a far greater artistic achievement than the Adagio for Strings. But at least in my world it is played often, probably whenever there is a soprano around who can handle its technical difficulty, and hardly constitutes a "dark horse."
1. For those who are not committed Bachophiles, the Brandenburg Concerti are not remotely the right place to start with Bach. He was a religious man and he does best when there is religion in the music, whether stated (I believe the St. John Passion may be the best of all his works) or implicit (as in the most serious of the string solo works, and particularly the Chaconne for violin). The prelude to the St. John Passion, for me, is a kaleidoscope of both religion and music. Listening to it is almost like some kind of drug trip, and in any event I hear Beethoven, Wagner, and the hardest metal you can think of when I listen to it.
2. So much trouble over the Brahms Requiem would have been saved if its name were only translated correctly in English. It should be "A Requiem in German," not "A German Requiem." The "deutsches" in the German title is clearly about the vernacular language. The piece is the very furthest thing from a nationalist exercise. It's universal, non-sectarian, and self-abasingly humble throughout. It's Brahms sharing with us a vision of his own mortality and uncertainly, but hopefully, trying to find faith.
3. If you don't hear Wagner in La Mer, try again. Of all the canonical Debussy works I think it's the one that shows the Wagner influence the most clearly.
4. Everything by Sibelius, even the three war horses (Finlandia, the Violin Concerto, and the Second Symphony), is underrated. That's probably because few orchestras really get the music right. To play Sibelius well you have to be willing to make sounds on the very edge of what the instruments are capable of, and they are not always pretty. I really struggle trying to guide people to recordings of Sibelius because very few of them really get the range of colors he was trying to write. As a conductor with Sibelius, you have to be ready to push both yourself and your players way out of their comfort zones. It's not really late Romantic music in that way. It's closer to what composers like Webern were doing.
5. The less said about the piece of shit Carmina Burana, the better.
Oh, and it just occurred to me, for Jack's benefit: Sylvia McNair (referenced in #0) was born in Mansfield and is not only one of the great American singers but also a very easy person to root for.
Back in the late 80s, the Baltimore Symphony did a runout concert in the high school where I was teaching (band director). They performed the entire Berlioz album that was later released on Telarc. And there was Sylvia McNair on the edge of the stage belting out La Marseillaise with full chorus and orchestra, and I was on the front row not 6 feet away. Glorious. Belting, but fortunately, no shower.
Sylvia McNair came to my attention via Telarc's 1984 Atlanta Symphony "Messiah." When I was putting together Nathaniel Rosen's short-piece album "Orientale," I tried to engage Alfreda Hodgson (who was also in that cast) to sing on one track, only to learn that she had just succumbed to cancer.
So, I engaged Kaaren Erickson, who also sang on the Shaw Atlanta Telarc Messiah. Kaaren died not long after that CD was released.
I think that Kaaren's "Morgen" is for the ages. Pedantry: That's "Morgen" in the sense of "tomorrow," not in the sense of "morning." I also think that the singer is singing to an empty room. That's because his beloved has died; all the lyrics are just wishcasting.
Funny, that of all the possible repertory choices, I chose that song.
I have a few things I produced which I like to think of as, "Well, if that didn't justify my existence, nothing will." This is one of those:
0. I have no idea where you are located. I live in The Peoples' Democratic Republic of Rhode Island. Just like North Korea, except with Italian food. And, I used to be a Visiting Lecturer at Thomas More College in NH.
May I as tactfully as possible suggest that many New Englanders seem to be Insular, Clannish (with a "c," not a "k"), and Snobby?
The relevance being, that I think it's possible that the word "Knoxville" in the title is the "Kiss of Death" for that piece, at least with the Boston Symphony. The BSO did not perform "Knoxville" between 1948 and 1984. Since then, a handful of times; but some of those at Tanglewood, and one of them a teaching-seminar recital by Phyllis Curtin. The last BSO-at-Symphony Hall performance was... 2006.
1. I am in overall agreement with you about Bach. My personal theory is that Bach wrote some of his most important works in sets of six as a reflection of the Six Days of Creation. Others have commented that Bach liked the key of three flats because it was a bow to the Trinity. And the D-Minor Chaconne is one of the supreme works of anything. And there again you find three sets of chords of three notes each. One could easily spend an entire semester on the Chaconne. Where I come out on it is that it can be considered to be pure music, not burdened by "thought." But I think it is equally valid to think of the Chaconne as a protracted meditation on Suffering, Death, and Hope.
I released Arturo Delmoni's D-Minor Partita on my label JMR, as well as Nathaniel Rosen's solo-cello Suites. Rosen's recording was selected by the committee that selects in-flight music for United States Presidential Aircraft AIR FORCE ONE. Back in the 1990s.
2. You make a good point about the title translation, thanks. But the piece still does not "play itself," and I have heard a greater number of "Almost Out of Control" performances than performances that felt right.
3. I think there are a few Wagner-ish horn-section chords in La Mer. But for me the Ultimate Debussy piece with Wagner influences is The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. But but but but I would never claim that Saint Sebastian is a canonical Debussy work. Hard to cast, hard to stage, and the twists and turns of the plot get yicky. (Too bad the Grateful Dead sang about Stephen and not Sebastian.)
4. I don't think that Sibelius' Violin Concerto is under-rated. It's certainly in the Top Six (non-Baroque), is it not? I think the really under-rated 20th-c. violin concerto is Prokofiev 2.
5. Harris Goldsmith (RIP) wrote something along the lines of, "Carmina Burana shows the power of brutality. But it also proves that brutality is self-limiting."
I appreciate your reflections on Bach. I (a violinist who included Partita no. 2, with the Chaconne, in the degree recital for my master's degree) hear and feel the Chaconne as a journey in which the theme is heard in radically different ways as the player or listener learns more of its facets. I don't think it's much of a stretch to hear it as an allegory for grappling with the difficult aspects of Christian belief. Shortly before the end, there is an ecstatic variation that I hear very much like a personal statement of belief in which all contradictions are resolved and salvation seems assured. Then at the very end we return to the original statement of the theme but see it in the light of what came before, and it suddenly seems sensible and natural instead of jagged and strange.
I need to go listen to The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.
Please email me "johnnywehardly" located at jee-mail.com (anyone else, too)
and I will Dropbox you Arturo Delmoni's Ysaye-Kreisler-Bach solo-violin album that was praised by BBC Music and The Strad, etc.
Obviously, for the D-minor Partita.
Arturo was a Heifetz student; but Gingold was his largest influence. He also studied with Milstein, and briefly with Szigeti. I once, in private, played Bartok Duos with Arturo, and I (obviously) lived to tell about it.
My principal teacher Henryk Kowlaski (NOT the second cousin at Bloomington) had studied with Thibaud and also Maia Bang, who was a Heifetz classmate in the Auer master class, pre-revolution.
Oh come now. Carmina Burana is loads of fun. Ribald songs by medieval clerics, what’s not to love? I sang it in college, played it in an orchestra (great tuba part), and conducted it (which was challenging).
I feel it would be remiss to discuss Delius without mentioning Kate Bush's absolutely BIZARRE tribute to him on her generally insane "Never For Ever" album. If you've never heard the disc, or if your entire impression of Kate Bush is from "Running Up That Hill", then you're going to have a real experience.
Once you've heard, and been astounded/bewildered by, the whole thing, take a breath and read the following sentence:
Kate was 21 years old when she wrote and recorded all of it.
Well, Jack, congrats! You mined a piece of data that was new to me! I agree that the track is bizarre. I also think that dedicating a piece to him is a bit strange. I wonder if there was any particular piece that inspired Kate.
"My educated guess is, the chief reason for Barber’s Adagio’s popularity is its near-total lack of “Look at Me,” self-conscious 20th-century musical-Modernism posturing."
One reason is lazy music directors when the film's director says, "Give me something sad."
I'm satisfied, thanks for the recommendation. They do what they need to do, provide music in my work room (doesn't everyone have two 3D printers, a table router, and a drill press in their dining room?).
Surprising bass from such a small box. I can't really comment on imaging and soundstage as right now I have them sitting only about 3' apart.
I have to finish the Dyna Mk IVs I'm rebuilding but for now the Vanguards are working well with the little RCA integrated Class A tube amp I scavenged from a mid-century console.
I'd work on the Dynas but I got distracted fixing up a Norlin/Gibson/Moog Lab Series guitar amp head that I picked up for just $75. Best known as B.B. King's preferred amplifier, it's one of the few vintage solid state amps that amp snobs respect. It looked rough but after I cleaned the pots, switches, and jacks with De-Oxit everything worked but the reverb. Based on the chewed up plug for the reverb, I'm guessing the rust stains on the reverb tank were from mouse urine, so rubber gloves and disinfectant cleaners were the order of the day.. Don't want to end up with hantavirus like the late Mrs. Gene Hackman.
There's a cooling fan on the head that sounded like a Pratt & Whitney J57, so I replaced it with a modern fan that's quieter, moves more air, and weighs about a lb less than the pot metal original. The grille for the fan had a broken corner so I 3D printed a replacement.
Well, I Bowdlerized the Kenny G bit. A bit. The original I heard used an STI that began with "S," but I thought that Scrofula was better for most audiences.
Centuries ago, people thought that Kings and Queens inherited a gift for curing scrofula by touching the afflicted. "At age three (1712) the English lexicographer Samuel Johnson, for example, was treated for scrofula in this way, touched by Queen Anne and presented with a piece of gold, unfortunately, to no effect." (Wiki)
I can recall way back when Catholic churches would have "Blessings of the Throat" with beeswax candles.
So, thanks!
But I also think that the skit about Bach seeing into the future and learning that BMW was using his music to sell cars was the funniest bit of music writing I have ever done.
There is a whole lifetime of inspired listening in these Dark Horse masterpieces recommended by John Marks. It can be tricky for music lovers to know which diverging path to take in the snowy woods, but with John as your guide, you can't go wrong with any of these treasures!
John, another thoughtful and educational work on your part. Although to tell the truth by the title of this article, I thought you would be doing an analysis of George Harrison’s 5th and most introspective album as he was going thought significant personal upheaval the year it was created. Again thanks for your always horizon expanding writing for your audience.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Horse_(George_Harrison_album)
Thank you as always for this. A few comments:
0. Sylvia McNair's rendition of "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" may be the most beautiful singing I have on record, in any genre. The piece itself is a far greater artistic achievement than the Adagio for Strings. But at least in my world it is played often, probably whenever there is a soprano around who can handle its technical difficulty, and hardly constitutes a "dark horse."
1. For those who are not committed Bachophiles, the Brandenburg Concerti are not remotely the right place to start with Bach. He was a religious man and he does best when there is religion in the music, whether stated (I believe the St. John Passion may be the best of all his works) or implicit (as in the most serious of the string solo works, and particularly the Chaconne for violin). The prelude to the St. John Passion, for me, is a kaleidoscope of both religion and music. Listening to it is almost like some kind of drug trip, and in any event I hear Beethoven, Wagner, and the hardest metal you can think of when I listen to it.
2. So much trouble over the Brahms Requiem would have been saved if its name were only translated correctly in English. It should be "A Requiem in German," not "A German Requiem." The "deutsches" in the German title is clearly about the vernacular language. The piece is the very furthest thing from a nationalist exercise. It's universal, non-sectarian, and self-abasingly humble throughout. It's Brahms sharing with us a vision of his own mortality and uncertainly, but hopefully, trying to find faith.
3. If you don't hear Wagner in La Mer, try again. Of all the canonical Debussy works I think it's the one that shows the Wagner influence the most clearly.
4. Everything by Sibelius, even the three war horses (Finlandia, the Violin Concerto, and the Second Symphony), is underrated. That's probably because few orchestras really get the music right. To play Sibelius well you have to be willing to make sounds on the very edge of what the instruments are capable of, and they are not always pretty. I really struggle trying to guide people to recordings of Sibelius because very few of them really get the range of colors he was trying to write. As a conductor with Sibelius, you have to be ready to push both yourself and your players way out of their comfort zones. It's not really late Romantic music in that way. It's closer to what composers like Webern were doing.
5. The less said about the piece of shit Carmina Burana, the better.
Oh, and it just occurred to me, for Jack's benefit: Sylvia McNair (referenced in #0) was born in Mansfield and is not only one of the great American singers but also a very easy person to root for.
Back in the late 80s, the Baltimore Symphony did a runout concert in the high school where I was teaching (band director). They performed the entire Berlioz album that was later released on Telarc. And there was Sylvia McNair on the edge of the stage belting out La Marseillaise with full chorus and orchestra, and I was on the front row not 6 feet away. Glorious. Belting, but fortunately, no shower.
Well, Mansfield continues to have a strong vocal music tradition... because I'm here.
*clears throat*
Sotto la gronda...
Sylvia McNair came to my attention via Telarc's 1984 Atlanta Symphony "Messiah." When I was putting together Nathaniel Rosen's short-piece album "Orientale," I tried to engage Alfreda Hodgson (who was also in that cast) to sing on one track, only to learn that she had just succumbed to cancer.
So, I engaged Kaaren Erickson, who also sang on the Shaw Atlanta Telarc Messiah. Kaaren died not long after that CD was released.
I think that Kaaren's "Morgen" is for the ages. Pedantry: That's "Morgen" in the sense of "tomorrow," not in the sense of "morning." I also think that the singer is singing to an empty room. That's because his beloved has died; all the lyrics are just wishcasting.
Funny, that of all the possible repertory choices, I chose that song.
I have a few things I produced which I like to think of as, "Well, if that didn't justify my existence, nothing will." This is one of those:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBNeJD34svM
Thanks for reading and thanks for writing in.
0. I have no idea where you are located. I live in The Peoples' Democratic Republic of Rhode Island. Just like North Korea, except with Italian food. And, I used to be a Visiting Lecturer at Thomas More College in NH.
May I as tactfully as possible suggest that many New Englanders seem to be Insular, Clannish (with a "c," not a "k"), and Snobby?
The relevance being, that I think it's possible that the word "Knoxville" in the title is the "Kiss of Death" for that piece, at least with the Boston Symphony. The BSO did not perform "Knoxville" between 1948 and 1984. Since then, a handful of times; but some of those at Tanglewood, and one of them a teaching-seminar recital by Phyllis Curtin. The last BSO-at-Symphony Hall performance was... 2006.
1. I am in overall agreement with you about Bach. My personal theory is that Bach wrote some of his most important works in sets of six as a reflection of the Six Days of Creation. Others have commented that Bach liked the key of three flats because it was a bow to the Trinity. And the D-Minor Chaconne is one of the supreme works of anything. And there again you find three sets of chords of three notes each. One could easily spend an entire semester on the Chaconne. Where I come out on it is that it can be considered to be pure music, not burdened by "thought." But I think it is equally valid to think of the Chaconne as a protracted meditation on Suffering, Death, and Hope.
I released Arturo Delmoni's D-Minor Partita on my label JMR, as well as Nathaniel Rosen's solo-cello Suites. Rosen's recording was selected by the committee that selects in-flight music for United States Presidential Aircraft AIR FORCE ONE. Back in the 1990s.
2. You make a good point about the title translation, thanks. But the piece still does not "play itself," and I have heard a greater number of "Almost Out of Control" performances than performances that felt right.
3. I think there are a few Wagner-ish horn-section chords in La Mer. But for me the Ultimate Debussy piece with Wagner influences is The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. But but but but I would never claim that Saint Sebastian is a canonical Debussy work. Hard to cast, hard to stage, and the twists and turns of the plot get yicky. (Too bad the Grateful Dead sang about Stephen and not Sebastian.)
4. I don't think that Sibelius' Violin Concerto is under-rated. It's certainly in the Top Six (non-Baroque), is it not? I think the really under-rated 20th-c. violin concerto is Prokofiev 2.
5. Harris Goldsmith (RIP) wrote something along the lines of, "Carmina Burana shows the power of brutality. But it also proves that brutality is self-limiting."
Thank you.
I appreciate your reflections on Bach. I (a violinist who included Partita no. 2, with the Chaconne, in the degree recital for my master's degree) hear and feel the Chaconne as a journey in which the theme is heard in radically different ways as the player or listener learns more of its facets. I don't think it's much of a stretch to hear it as an allegory for grappling with the difficult aspects of Christian belief. Shortly before the end, there is an ecstatic variation that I hear very much like a personal statement of belief in which all contradictions are resolved and salvation seems assured. Then at the very end we return to the original statement of the theme but see it in the light of what came before, and it suddenly seems sensible and natural instead of jagged and strange.
I need to go listen to The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.
Please email me "johnnywehardly" located at jee-mail.com (anyone else, too)
and I will Dropbox you Arturo Delmoni's Ysaye-Kreisler-Bach solo-violin album that was praised by BBC Music and The Strad, etc.
Obviously, for the D-minor Partita.
Arturo was a Heifetz student; but Gingold was his largest influence. He also studied with Milstein, and briefly with Szigeti. I once, in private, played Bartok Duos with Arturo, and I (obviously) lived to tell about it.
My principal teacher Henryk Kowlaski (NOT the second cousin at Bloomington) had studied with Thibaud and also Maia Bang, who was a Heifetz classmate in the Auer master class, pre-revolution.
Oh come now. Carmina Burana is loads of fun. Ribald songs by medieval clerics, what’s not to love? I sang it in college, played it in an orchestra (great tuba part), and conducted it (which was challenging).
You're about as likely to get me to say something nice about Carmina Burana as you are to get Jack to say something nice about a 997 911.
Wouldn’t dream of it. It’s not a piece to take very seriously.
I feel it would be remiss to discuss Delius without mentioning Kate Bush's absolutely BIZARRE tribute to him on her generally insane "Never For Ever" album. If you've never heard the disc, or if your entire impression of Kate Bush is from "Running Up That Hill", then you're going to have a real experience.
Once you've heard, and been astounded/bewildered by, the whole thing, take a breath and read the following sentence:
Kate was 21 years old when she wrote and recorded all of it.
Well, Jack, congrats! You mined a piece of data that was new to me! I agree that the track is bizarre. I also think that dedicating a piece to him is a bit strange. I wonder if there was any particular piece that inspired Kate.
Again, thank you, John, for sharing your firehose of history/goodliness/aspiration.
"My educated guess is, the chief reason for Barber’s Adagio’s popularity is its near-total lack of “Look at Me,” self-conscious 20th-century musical-Modernism posturing."
One reason is lazy music directors when the film's director says, "Give me something sad."
Thanks. How are you liking your new loudspeakers?
I'm satisfied, thanks for the recommendation. They do what they need to do, provide music in my work room (doesn't everyone have two 3D printers, a table router, and a drill press in their dining room?).
Surprising bass from such a small box. I can't really comment on imaging and soundstage as right now I have them sitting only about 3' apart.
I have to finish the Dyna Mk IVs I'm rebuilding but for now the Vanguards are working well with the little RCA integrated Class A tube amp I scavenged from a mid-century console.
I'd work on the Dynas but I got distracted fixing up a Norlin/Gibson/Moog Lab Series guitar amp head that I picked up for just $75. Best known as B.B. King's preferred amplifier, it's one of the few vintage solid state amps that amp snobs respect. It looked rough but after I cleaned the pots, switches, and jacks with De-Oxit everything worked but the reverb. Based on the chewed up plug for the reverb, I'm guessing the rust stains on the reverb tank were from mouse urine, so rubber gloves and disinfectant cleaners were the order of the day.. Don't want to end up with hantavirus like the late Mrs. Gene Hackman.
There's a cooling fan on the head that sounded like a Pratt & Whitney J57, so I replaced it with a modern fan that's quieter, moves more air, and weighs about a lb less than the pot metal original. The grille for the fan had a broken corner so I 3D printed a replacement.
So, John: your post has left me with
1) a greater appreciation for orchestral music
2) a renewed closeness with Iesus, Hominem Salvator
3) two good belly laughs (at the Kenny G mnemonic device, and at the Gopher Tuna video)
4) a craving for a Subway tuna sandwich on honey oat with sweet onion sauce (also from the Gopher Tuna video)
I tell ya, a subscription to ACF proves its value in unexpected ways.
Hi, Thanks.
Well, I Bowdlerized the Kenny G bit. A bit. The original I heard used an STI that began with "S," but I thought that Scrofula was better for most audiences.
Centuries ago, people thought that Kings and Queens inherited a gift for curing scrofula by touching the afflicted. "At age three (1712) the English lexicographer Samuel Johnson, for example, was treated for scrofula in this way, touched by Queen Anne and presented with a piece of gold, unfortunately, to no effect." (Wiki)
I can recall way back when Catholic churches would have "Blessings of the Throat" with beeswax candles.
So, thanks!
But I also think that the skit about Bach seeing into the future and learning that BMW was using his music to sell cars was the funniest bit of music writing I have ever done.
There is a whole lifetime of inspired listening in these Dark Horse masterpieces recommended by John Marks. It can be tricky for music lovers to know which diverging path to take in the snowy woods, but with John as your guide, you can't go wrong with any of these treasures!
Awww... thanks.
Lest anyone be ignorant of the commenter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykMpRPtXfVg