Britons! What are you listening to?

[Creatio ex Nihilo]

Checking my recordings and having an ear out for CSI ^_^  

[TheVampireQueen]

The annoying buzz of computors in our school ICT room. Thats what i'm listening to. Also nothing else due to the fact my I-Pod battery is flat, and my computor has no sound.  

[Creatio ex Nihilo]

TheVampireQueen

The annoying buzz of computors in our school ICT room. Thats what i'm listening to. Also nothing else due to the fact my I-Pod battery is flat, and my computor has no sound.

yes the buzz is rather annoying; Not to mention Courtney and her chavvy music. *shivers* If I'm forced to listen to that "Sweat Box" Song any further I shall commit murder! scream domokun stressed  

[Foetus In Fetu]

Creatio ex Nihilo

TheVampireQueen

The annoying buzz of computors in our school ICT room. Thats what i'm listening to. Also nothing else due to the fact my I-Pod battery is flat, and my computor has no sound.

yes the buzz is rather annoying; Not to mention Courtney and her chavvy music. *shivers* If I'm forced to listen to that "Sweat Box" Song any further I shall commit murder! scream domokun stressed

You could ask her to turn it down.  

[Creatio ex Nihilo]

Foetus In Fetu

Creatio ex Nihilo

TheVampireQueen

The annoying buzz of computors in our school ICT room. Thats what i'm listening to. Also nothing else due to the fact my I-Pod battery is flat, and my computor has no sound.

yes the buzz is rather annoying; Not to mention Courtney and her chavvy music. *shivers* If I'm forced to listen to that "Sweat Box" Song any further I shall commit murder! scream domokun stressed

You could ask her to turn it down.

Don't think we haven't tried.  

[Invictus_88]

A recording of the 1822 Overture which is not actually cheesy and irritating. Conducted by Karajan in 01967, opening with a long a cappella Russian choir.

Refreshing really.  

[Creatio ex Nihilo]

Somthing from Vivaldi..I've got recordings of the stuff I play on violin. So yeh.  

[Le Aristocrat]

I've just finished listening to the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, and now I'm listening to the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor.

Grieg = amazing.  

[Emmanuela]

Le Aristocrat

I've just finished listening to the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, and now I'm listening to the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor.

Grieg = amazing.

Hey.... You're on here too?!

I'm listening to Billy Holiday, I love her! I only got into her because of when I went to Brighton there were all these shops playing 30s jazz and stuff. I really want a proper old grammaphone and 30s jazz records. Ultimately cool stuff!

My bedtime listening is actually Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto and some of his Vespers. Absolutely lovely, although you might think I'm crazy trying to get to sleep listening to his 2nd piano concerto!  

[Le Aristocrat]

Emmanuela

Le Aristocrat

I've just finished listening to the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, and now I'm listening to the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor.

Grieg = amazing.

Hey.... You're on here too?!

I'm listening to Billy Holiday, I love her! I only got into her because of when I went to Brighton there were all these shops playing 30s jazz and stuff. I really want a proper old grammaphone and 30s jazz records. Ultimately cool stuff!

My bedtime listening is actually Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto and some of his Vespers. Absolutely lovely, although you might think I'm crazy trying to get to sleep listening to his 2nd piano concerto!

It's you!

I love the 2nd Piano Concerto, especially the opening chords, where the piano goes so low it's almost a rumble. Absolutely spectacular!  

[Invictus_88]

Emmanuela

Hey.... You're on here too?!

I saw his coherent and admirable posts in the musical subforum, so decided to extend an invitation.  

[Boolean Julian]

Do you know the Rachmaninov cello sonata? It's quite similar to the 2nd piano concerto in terms of what he was trying to do, but it's actually a much greater work. It's got a highly focused development and structure (most of the time), and has very little of the vague sprawl of extraneous material that Rachmaninov tends to favour - whereas the piano concerto is by comparison bits of lovely tune and bits of virtuosity held together with string.  

[Le Aristocrat]

Boolean Julian

Do you know the Rachmaninov cello sonata? It's quite similar to the 2nd piano concerto in terms of what he was trying to do, but it's actually a much greater work. It's got a highly focused development and structure (most of the time), and has very little of the vague sprawl of extraneous material that Rachmaninov tends to favour - whereas the piano concerto is by comparison bits of lovely tune and bits of virtuosity held together with string.

Yes, I am familiar with the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata. It's lovely. However, the power of the 2nd Concerto is intoxicating, which is one of the reasons I love it. I don't think the Cello Sonata has the same power.

Rachmaninoff a vague sprawl? Never! How rude.

Still, I prefer the 3rd Concerto, possibly the most difficult piece of piano ever written. The Cadenza is stunning in the first movement.

However, I will not pretend to be an expert on Rachmaninoff. Chopin's my strong point.  

[Emmanuela]

Invictus_88

Emmanuela

Hey.... You're on here too?!

I saw his coherent and admirable posts in the musical subforum, so decided to extend an invitation.

Most excellent!

Oui, you're right about the first chords. I printed off the music for it, had a spazz that my hands were way to small and then just adjusted the music a bit so that I can play itXD Blasphemy it is, but sounds amazing!

Hah, I'm listening to the 2nd piano concerto yet again. I've just become slightly obsessed with it since we played it with Alasdair...*sigh*  

[Boolean Julian]

Le Aristocrat

Boolean Julian

Do you know the Rachmaninov cello sonata? It's quite similar to the 2nd piano concerto in terms of what he was trying to do, but it's actually a much greater work. It's got a highly focused development and structure (most of the time), and has very little of the vague sprawl of extraneous material that Rachmaninov tends to favour - whereas the piano concerto is by comparison bits of lovely tune and bits of virtuosity held together with string.

Yes, I am familiar with the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata. It's lovely. However, the power of the 2nd Concerto is intoxicating, which is one of the reasons I love it. I don't think the Cello Sonata has the same power.

Rachmaninoff a vague sprawl? Never! How rude.

If you analyse his structures, you'll see what I mean. Most of the development material in the 2nd piano concerto is fairly extraneous, with little relevance to the thematic material. The cello sonata, however, is much more focused and disciplined in its structure. All the thematic material is extensively explored and returned to, and there is a clear developing of musical ideas throughout.

I'm talking particularly of the first movement there, which is of course in sonata form - the second movement being a fairly conservative ternary form; the third is, well, a Romantic slow movement. The fourth is again a sonata form, although looser than the third, with a little more unrelated material. However, I somehow feel that by this time in such a large scale work the sonata has in some way earned"a right to go off at a tangent slightly, and it seems in keeping with the celebratory tone of the movement - there's one particular section I'm thinking of in a slower tempo, and one feels that it has a definite place there, and that it's necessary in the progression of the sonata as a music narrative, which is a sense one doesn't have with some of the more tangential sections of the 2nd piano concerto. There's also a lot of interrelation between movements on a more general level.

The 2nd piano concerto is a terrific work, of course, and it has some of Rachmaninov's loveliest tunes in it (wonderful clarinet solo in the 2nd movement - he used that orchestral technique again in the 3rd movement of the 2ndsymphony); but if one were making the case of Rachmaninov as one of the great composers of all time, it begins to stand out as perhaps not the best illustration of his compositional powers. All of Rachmaninov's work is in some ways intuitive, slightly clumsy and sprawling, lacking the mathematical grace and symmetry of Beethoven, for example, but a work like the cello sonata shines through as one where the composer has disciplined and crafted his idea to that higher levels.