Dorks
Is this a shitpost
It’s a good one, if so
I have a CD-player alarm clock, and since I have not bothered to change the CD in probably three years now, I have become quite familiar with Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” I often hear it in its entirety because I do not get up immediately.
I also like Philip Glass’s “The American Four Seasons.” Here’s a movement from it (probably my favorite part):
I’ve been listening to Mahler and Shostakovich symphonies quite a bit, as well as listening to JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and orchestral suites frequently. Here’s a decent performance (poor audio quality due to the SD nature of the video on YT, tho) of Mahler’s 3rd:
and here’s Shostakovich’s 9th, which is a frequently mocking, evasive work, same quality warning:
can’t imagine seeing Stalin’s face when he heard this
timestamped to the 2nd movement, adagio
I’ve been going back to the symphony a bunch in the last couple years – I was hugely into classical when I was in high school and while I’ve always enjoyed dipping into it now and again, it’s nice to really try and expose myself to more of it.
What I’ve heard recently:
Shostakovich’s 10th and 8th
Mahler’s 7th and 9th
Stravinksy’s Firebird, Petrushka, and Rite of Spring
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima - Penderecki
As is fairly obvious from the list, I’m primarily interested in Modernist works, for me it’s the sweet spot of experimental approaches while still having the overall classical structure. If pressed, I’d say that Shostakovich is my favorite composer, mainly because he does so well in translating the feelings of anxiety and unheimlichkeit in writing music that can nominally be identified as Communist agitprop, yet sounds increasingly wrong to that end the more that you listen to it.
The piece I’ll embed here though is Penderecki’s Threnody, the video here has an animated version of the score, which is a unique optical system that denotes tone clusters and odd playing techniques. It is a profoundly affecting and unsettling work, particularly live, and I urge everybody to attend a performance if you get a chance:
i’ll crosspost this to the “share and talk about your music” thread, but here’s a chippy cover i made of the third movement of eine kleine nachtmusik:
been on a real Mozart kick lately. Die Zauberflöte (the magic flute) is just the fucking best shit there is
Wrong. It’s Marriage of Figaro mothafukka
i’ll get there! i just need to listen to die zauberflote like… 5 more times. then i’ll get there
R. Muti version ONLY