tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post8654638114836870622..comments2023-09-26T03:53:17.142-04:00Comments on Pentimento: Spring Can Really Hang You Up the MostPentimentohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-35822174908797149792009-03-28T14:44:00.000-04:002009-03-28T14:44:00.000-04:00I always thought it would be an incredible experie...I always thought it would be an incredible experience to play in those two pieces - my fantasy instrument is actually the viola, jokes notwithstanding. But it must be incredible to play in orchestra, too.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-69061070363425900132009-03-28T13:02:00.000-04:002009-03-28T13:02:00.000-04:00Sadly, my ensemble broke up at graduation. In coll...Sadly, my ensemble broke up at graduation. In college, I did symphony, but not chamber, and then I switched to English.<BR/><BR/>So no Brahms.BettyDuffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17130418609022759086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-55416045942015308872009-03-24T18:23:00.000-04:002009-03-24T18:23:00.000-04:00The most evocative pieces I know are both by Brahm...The most evocative pieces I know are both by Brahms - his Trio in B Major and his Piano Quartet in C Minor - but it's really hard to describe what they evoke. Did you ever play those, Betty?Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-58039776643542727082009-03-24T15:26:00.000-04:002009-03-24T15:26:00.000-04:00As a former cellist, Ravel recalls Spring for me a...As a former cellist, Ravel recalls Spring for me also. We played the quartet for our senior "Contest" piece--quite poorly, I might add.<BR/><BR/>It isn't French, but the Shostakovich piano quintet also makes me think green and violet thoughts--sort of tortured ones, though.BettyDuffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17130418609022759086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-14989147883841285502009-03-23T11:59:00.000-04:002009-03-23T11:59:00.000-04:00I think the Ravel has a lot more warmth and lyrici...I think the Ravel has a lot more warmth and lyricism than the Debussy, which is very cool in its essence, and more experimental.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-84586016260362087182009-03-23T00:15:00.000-04:002009-03-23T00:15:00.000-04:00The actual vinyl is long gone from my house, so I ...The actual vinyl is long gone from my house, so I can't check, but I remember reading that the similarities between the two quartets raised some eyebrows, and Debussy said or wrote something to Ravel along the lines of, "We'd better not be seen together in public for a bit." Or something like that. <BR/><BR/>OtepotiAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-45111221645300916592009-03-22T21:38:00.000-04:002009-03-22T21:38:00.000-04:00So the radio station is playing the same old vinyl...So the radio station is playing the same old vinyl you had?<BR/><BR/>I think that Debussy was actually quite encouraging of Ravel, wasn't he? And D's quartet predated R's by some years. <BR/><BR/>Both have this wonderful sense of starting in the middle of continuous motion, as if the opening phrase actually begins somewhere to the left of the page.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-52579030755228107892009-03-22T19:35:00.000-04:002009-03-22T19:35:00.000-04:00The Concert Programme is part of our national publ...The Concert Programme is part of our national public radio. I could ring or write and tell them, but chances are they wouldn't have the time or staff to put it right. I just wonder if Debussy and Ravel would smile about the confusion, since the similarity between the quartets was popularly supposed to have caused (but did not in fact cause) a rift between them. <BR/><BR/>(According to the back of the record cover. I got most of my musical education off the back of vinyls!)<BR/><BR/>Cheers<BR/><BR/>OtepotiAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-43996269983664718392009-03-22T08:52:00.000-04:002009-03-22T08:52:00.000-04:00Have you ever wanted to get up on the stage and an...Have you ever wanted to get up on the stage and announce the correction to the audience? :)<BR/><BR/>At the time of the Betty Carter tape and the long walks up Riverside Drive, I was also reading Remembrance of Things Past and listening to a lot of French chamber music. One piece I listened to a lot was the Franck violin sonata (known in the business as the Franck Sinatra -- it's been transcribed for just about every instrument), which is supposedly the real-life version of the sonata by the fictional Vinteuil which Proust weaves in and out of his narrative.<BR/><BR/>Speaking of Franck, when I sat for my second doctoral exams there was an orchestral score that I had to identify on sight, and write an essay persuasively explaining why I had so identified it. I wrote a detailed essay on why it was Wagner, but it turned out to be Franck's Symphony No. 1. My answer was accepted, however, because the piece was very, well, Wagnerian.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-30996126684725788632009-03-22T03:03:00.000-04:002009-03-22T03:03:00.000-04:00Oh, I heard the Parennin Quartet play the Ravel, i...Oh, I heard the Parennin Quartet play the Ravel, in 1976, when they toured NZ. They played it as though it had been written for them - they were the best quartet I've ever heard. <BR/><BR/>I remember that first winding phrase of the Ravel struck me so deeply, I wept hot, wet, teenaged tears. This is true. <BR/><BR/>I was bowled over, saved up and bought the vinyl. I played the grooves off it - it had the Debussy one side, the Ravel the other. <BR/><BR/>Funny thing was, the labels on the record were reversed. The Debussy was labelled Ravel, and vice versa. So to this very day, you occasionally hear the quartets being played on New Zealand Concert Programme, and announced, incorrectly, as each other! <BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/><BR/>Otepoti<BR/><BR/>I don't cry at music any more. When and why did I stop, I wonder?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com