Your top 3 symphonists

[kentel]

Maxwell-Davies? Hmmm...I have heard his name for years but haven't heard any of his symphonies. What is his music like?

Pretty uneasy to describe. Imagine an one hour-long symphonic Britten enhanced with the flowing orchestral textures of a Tippett and the magmatic effects of a Birtwistle. I think Britten is the most important there because the evocation of the sea is crucial in all these symphonies, and PMD makes it sounds the same way Britten does : windy and salted (hope it makes sense...). I don't know if it helps... In any case, I find it absolutely enthralling.

[Mirror Image]

Pretty uneasy to describe. Imagine an one hour-long symphonic Britten enhanced with the flowing orchestral textures of a Tippett and the magmatic effects of a Birtwistle. I think Britten is the most important there because the evocation of the sea is crucial in all these symphonies, and PMD makes it sounds the same way Britten does : windy and salted (hope it makes sense...). I don't know if it helps... In any case, I find it absolutely enthralling.

Interesting. Thanks for your feedback. It looks like Naxos will be reissuing all of those Maxwell-Davies recordings from the Collins Classics label. I'll probably pick them up at some point.

[kentel]

Interesting. Thanks for your feedback. It looks like Naxos will be reissuing all of those Maxwell-Davies recordings from the Collins Classics label. I'll probably pick them up at some point.

Yes, that's great because these Collins recordings were really good - not only the symphonies but also the Strathclyde Concertos series. However, only the 6 first symphonies were issued by Collins : the 8th ("Antartica", probably the most beautiful) was made available exclusively in mp3 on the composer's website. This site have been open only a few months and was closed for legal reasons (there's a discussion about this issue on the composer's thread in this forum, if I remember well). So the 8th is a rarity - you had to pay to download it, which I actually did. As for the 7th, I've never heard it nor even seen it anywhere...

Here are the Collins covers of the 6 first :

[jlaurson]

and Ives (as an American I feel Ives' music more than ever now).

Ah, yes, Ives! I just had dinner with a dear friend and mentor and made him edit a review that's essentially a love letter to Ives.
Would NEVER have 'gotten' his music, beyond the Concord Sonata, from recordings. But live, and well played, you can smell the music.
The avant-garde likes to pretend he's a proto-modernist...  but that label doesn't quite stick. In some ways he's the American Mahler (marching bands crashing into the music at all points); in other ways he's the anti-Mahler, because his music is of a healthy honest robustness that is more like Bruckner... not the endlessly wrung question marks of ol' Gustav.

[kentel]

Ah, yes, Ives! I just had dinner with a dear friend and mentor and made him edit a review that's essentially a love letter to Ives.
Would NEVER have 'gotten' his music, beyond the Concord Sonata, from recordings. But live, and well played, you can smell the music.
The avant-garde likes to pretend he's a proto-modernist...  but that label doesn't quite stick. In some ways he's the American Mahler (marching bands crashing into the music at all points); in other ways he's the anti-Mahler, because his music is of a healthy honest robustness that is more like Bruckner... not the endlessly wrung question marks of ol' Gustav.

I think Ives is merely unique. He was deeply influenced by the transcendantalist American writers (Thoreau, Emerson, etc.). The idea was that a creator, being he writer, composer or whatsoever, was to refuse the adherence to aesthetic, ideologic, religious or political principles, and find his own way to express himself independently.  In many ways, that's what Ives did - and that's certainly what Thoreau and Emerson did. You've got nothing equivalent to Ive's music in the 1910's. Hence I would say that Ives is not "post-modern" nor anything corresponding to the current classifications of music trends. I think he's "transcendantalist", and probably would have agreed to be considered so. Or at least I guess.

This literary movement has had, through Ives, a deep impact on the history of American classical music. In fact, I don't think you could find such transcendantalist inspired composers outside the USA (guys like Varèse, Nancarrow, Cage, Crumb  etc.).

[Mirror Image]

Ah, yes, Ives! I just had dinner with a dear friend and mentor and made him edit a review that's essentially a love letter to Ives.
Would NEVER have 'gotten' his music, beyond the Concord Sonata, from recordings. But live, and well played, you can smell the music.
The avant-garde likes to pretend he's a proto-modernist...  but that label doesn't quite stick. In some ways he's the American Mahler (marching bands crashing into the music at all points); in other ways he's the anti-Mahler, because his music is of a healthy honest robustness that is more like Bruckner... not the endlessly wrung question marks of ol' Gustav.

I think the combination of a deep reverence of the past, memories from his childhood, and an uncertainty about the future haunt most of Ives's music. You can really hear it in Holidays Symphony, which, for me, is one of his finest works.

[calyptorhynchus]

1. Robert Simpson
2. Havergal Brian
3. Carl Nielsen

[mahler10th]

Maxwell-Davies? Hmmm...I have heard his name for years but haven't heard any of his symphonies. What is his music like?

For me it is a mix of musical lego and meccano.  Sorry to say, MaxDav fans that I stay well away from him...if you want to convince me otherwise, by all means try - but what I've heard (Symphonies 1-3), he can not be on my playlists.   

[Mirror Image]

For me it is a mix of musical lego and meccano.  Sorry to say, MaxDav fans that I stay well away from him...if you want to convince me otherwise, by all means try - but what I've heard (Symphonies 1-3), he can not be on my playlists.   

Yeah, I've done some research on his music and the more I read about it the less likely I am to buy any of it.

[Mirror Image]

1. Robert Simpson
2. Havergal Brian
3. Carl Nielsen

I'm trying to get more into Robert Simpson. I listened to the 6th earlier and I really enjoyed it. Obviously, Simpson isn't a tunesmith, like Prokofiev or Vaughan Williams, but the construction of this particular symphony was fascinating. It certainly had some great rhythmic energy too.

[DavidW]

I'm trying to get more into Robert Simpson. I listened to the 6th earlier and I really enjoyed it. Obviously, Simpson isn't a tunesmith, like Prokofiev or Vaughan Williams, but the construction of this particular symphony was fascinating. It certainly had some great rhythmic energy too.

Awesome!  Great to hear you getting into Simpson.

[Mirror Image]

Awesome!  Great to hear you getting into Simpson.

I've enjoyed Simpson off/on, but I have only recently been giving a more careful examination. I own the Handley set on Hyperion.

[kentel]

I really doubt that any of us have heard a significant amount of his oeuvre to really say anything significant about him. He has over 250 symphonies now! I've heard a few that have really caught my ear, like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAydCG0KTdQ

I've heard 6 of his symphonies (11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18) and I enjoyed every note of them. Just great. Few of them have been recorded though.

The reason why there's so much symphonies lies within his writing process, where improvisation plays a significant part. But the result is awesome IMO.

[Cato]

Never heard of him, but there's no way high quality could have been maintained over anywhere near that many ... I'll check him out.

update:  Oops! I see I have a Scriabin LP that he conducted the Stockholm Phil on.

I came a cross a Leif Segerstam BIS CD at the public library back in the 1980's or early 1990's: I believe it contained Symphony #16 which had a subtitle about "My Thoughts" or something similar, which I found superfluous.  I was not impressed.  The work reminded me of the one-movement 15-20 minute symphonies cranked out by professors of Music back in the 1940's and 1950's.

He had conducted an excellent performance of the Hans Rott Symphony on BIS, so I gave him a chance as a composer.

[kentel]

I came a cross a Leif Segerstam BIS CD at the public library back in the 1980's or early 1990's: I believe it contained Symphony #16 which had a subtitle about "My Thoughts" or something similar, which I found superfluous.  I was not impressed.  The work reminded me of the one-movement 15-20 minute symphonies cranked out by professors of Music back in the 1940's and 1950's.

Thank you for giving him that chance, I'm sure he appreciates.  May I ask which "music professors" wrote "15-20 minutes symphonies" in the 40's and the 50's - so that I could listen and try to understand what your criticism is about - ?

[kentel]

I came a cross a Leif Segerstam BIS CD at the public library back in the 1980's or early 1990's: I believe it contained Symphony #16 which had a subtitle about "My Thoughts" or something similar,

By the way, the title of this symphony is "Thoughts at the Border", not "My Thoughts".

[madaboutmahler]

I'm trying to get more into Robert Simpson. I listened to the 6th earlier and I really enjoyed it. Obviously, Simpson isn't a tunesmith, like Prokofiev or Vaughan Williams, but the construction of this particular symphony was fascinating. It certainly had some great rhythmic energy too.

Awesome!  Great to hear you getting into Simpson.

Glad to hear this, John! The 6th is one of the ones I am yet to hear. So far I know no.4 and 7 which are both excellent, and very very different. This Saturday when I get back to the academy (we have just had the 'half term' holidays), Matthew is planning on playing me another Simpson symphony, which I am very excited to hear. I think he said it would be no.8 we'll be listening to.

By the way, if you want the most thrilling rhythmic energy, take a listen to the Scherzo from the 4th symphony! Matthew was right in telling me before we listened to it that 'you will have never heard a scherzo quite like this before...'. Such a thrilling piece!

[jlaurson]

Ah, yes, Ives! I just had dinner with a dear friend and mentor and made him edit a review that's essentially a love letter to Ives.
Would NEVER have 'gotten' his music, beyond the Concord Sonata, from recordings. But live, and well played, you can smell the music.
The avant-garde likes to pretend he's a proto-modernist...  but that label doesn't quite stick. In some ways he's the American Mahler (marching bands crashing into the music at all points); in other ways he's the anti-Mahler, because his music is of a healthy honest robustness that is more like Bruckner... not the endlessly wrung question marks of ol' Gustav.

Musica Viva Munich: Ives, the American Mahler?
Ives - Birtwistle - Poppe
Musica Viva Munich: Ives, the American Mahler?
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/02/musica-viva-munich-ives-american-mahler.html

[Bulldog]

In no particular order:

Shostakovich
Mahler
Weinberg

[vandermolen]

All of these composers are outstanding and are some of my favorites. Glad to see Myaskovsky and Tubin on your list, Jeffrey. Their music is simply stunning. I'm surprised Braga Santos isn't one of your favorites though.

I nearly chose Braga Santos instead of Tubin John. However, I like all the ten completed Tubin symphonies, but only nos 1-4 of Braga Santos.