Thursday, October 30, 2008

Playlist 10/30

Stylistically Unclassifiable Neglected Midcentury Classical Works! Hooray.

Bela Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, mvt. II "Pair Games" (1943)
Arthur Berger: Duo for Cello and Piano (1951)
Frank Martin: Mass for Unaccompanied Double Choir (1922/26)
Bohuslav Martinů: Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Timpani (1938)
Henri Dutilleux: Symphony No. 2 "Le Double" (1959)

Okay, the Bartok is not neglected. But: can you guess the compositional aspect that allowed me to free-associate this program, but that does not justify itself as a programming hook?

The Martinů concerto has been raved about in this space previously. You absolutely must track down the Frank Martin Mass, if you at all enjoy twentieth-century music and choral works; it's astounding. (And the man sat on it for forty years! Forty years before it was performed.) Berger's duo is an abstract little gem of a work; the Dutilleux symphony is brighter and more luscious than the later orchestral work he made his name with, situated between Ravel and the esoteric second half of the century.

2 Comments:

Blogger Dan B. said...

I saw the Martinu Oboe Quartet recently, and I have rapidly developed or possibly rekindled a love.

The piece is just plain weird, boardering on incoherent, which makes it all the more arresting.

10/31/2008 12:15 AM  
Blogger nate said...

I hear everything twice!

10/31/2008 8:38 PM  

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