David Ayers

Would anybody like to name their favorite Schnittke composition? I'm interested to know because I haven't so far taken anything to heart. Jurowski here in London conducts some Schnittke but I haven't been to hear any. Viola Concerto on Saturday so...maybe...

If nobody else is going to speak up for Ronnie Laws, Pressure Sensitive and Fever, then I will. Fusion. It's fusion. Not jazz. Fusion.

I see that another recording of the violin concerto is about to appear, this time recorded by Ilya Gringolts. The disc also includes the 4th Symphony. http://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/120400/Weinberg_-_Violin_Concerto,_Symphony_No.4.htm The blurb amused me though: 'Although Weinberg’s music bears traces of the acerbic wit, melancholy and grotesquery associated with Shostakovich, his lively, neoclassical idiom remains accessible in the manner of film music.' Gosh

Maybe this interview with Magnus Lindberg is relevant to this discussion http://www.sinfinimusic.com/uk/features/interviews/composer-interviews/10-questions-for-finnish-composer-magnus-lindberg-ahead-of-his-london-premiere

That Sonata is a bit more iike it. Maybe the way in is via the chamber music.

Have to say, there is no substitute for learning to play an instrument or instruments, taking singing lessons, studying music theory, and reading up on the compositions which interest you. Really anyone can do it. It all gets easier after that.

Well we have discussed Weinberg before and I can only repeat that I have given him time and really do not understand the valuation that recording companies and collectors place on him. Not conductors, orchestras, soloists, or concert promoters, as far as I can tell. I just don't hear him making any interesting moves.

You could try this: Hm - you might be right. The book is unimaginatively conceived (songs in alphabetical order of title, so not really any kind of history), but some of the information I am wondering about could be read off from it...

I guess I'd be interested to learn more about the dynamics of the 'standard'. It is one thing to cover a song in the moment when it is popular. Another to cover it once it has ceased to be current but remans recognisable. Another again to cover it when it is little-remembered. Another, even, again, to do as Sinatra and Rollins did in their different ways and restore to their own songbook - and thereby to that of others - songs which are long-forgotten. Of course, many popular songs adopted as standards by jazz musicians are now no longer well-known at all as songs. I wonder if anyone has written even a brief history of this?

Just a note in passing that the comparative lack of protection in copyright law for performers as opposed to composers was related to the desire to stop performers claiming credit for material they had jazzed up. A lot followed from that, not least the constant debates here about PD. Hence our sense that improvisers have done a lot with the material they play, as opposed to the law's sense that all they did was play something written by someone else. Hence the over-use of new compositions, often on standard changes, on studio LPs, and the thankful presence of so many standards by the same musicians on live bootlegs. If I understand the history correctly.

LPO has announced ints 2015-16 season http://issuu.com/londonphilharmonic/docs/lpo_season_brochure_201516_web I'd pick out appearances by Kavakos and PatKop, a new violin concerto from Lindberg (as well as the old one) and a rare-ish outings for Die Seejungfrau. Jurowski worth watching in Mahler 7 and Alpine Symphony.

Ah yes, the Eldridge. I was thinking of opening mine just the other day...

Got it - thanks.

Thanks for posting. Most comment I have read about this piece - which I have never heard - concentrates on the (for the period) lavish use of instruments, and also the spatial deployment of the singers and musicians. I guess there was not much use of space, but how about the instruments? I wonder if a stage-presentation somewhat neutralises the effects of the instruments and makes them sound more like the backing-band? Also I wonder if Alia Vox will issue this. Savall does issue a lot of stuff...

Yes London concerts are not expensive. I'm on a Haydn kick myself at the moment - the classic RCO/Davis London Symphonies. Those are recordings I can just keep coming back to.

Had to do a double-take when I saw this: LSO Composer Focus: Thomas Adès Thomas Adès Polaris Brahms Violin Concerto Thomas Adès Brahms Thomas Adès Tevot London Symphony Orchestra Thomas Adès conductor Anne-Sophie Mutter violin

Three Benjamin concerts, three Macmillan concerts, only two Ades though (I know - almost as if we are not even interested in music here...); Fleming, Bartoli, Villazon; Bronfman, Pires, Aimard (in Vingt Regards !!); Tetzlaff, Kavakos, Znaider, Batiashvili, etc. The only down side of the London concert season is all the things you have to miss.

Meanwhile the Barbican in London has announced its 2015-16 season http://www.barbican.org.uk/classical1516/media/summary-sheet.pdf Standouts include Gergiev in a Bartók/Stravinsky series, Immersion Days on Andriessen, Górecki and Dutilleux, and so much more. Wynton Marsalis violin concerto! Two Mahler 3s in there, one of them from LA. And so much more, as you can see. There will be another stack of stuff announced soon at the Royal Festival Hall, not quite the same range as at the Barbican but all grist to the mill. What have you got going on in your town...? OK I know no-one can match all that. But don't be jealous - just come and live here.

You have changed your question since the first post, where it was just 'thoughts?' on volume and 30s/40s jazz. If you are talking about hiring musicians regardless of genre why not hire a string quartet? If you are asking about any musician in the jazz improv tradition, the quietist I have heard in recent months is Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury playing as AMM. If you are looking to hire, that will depend on location/budget, I imagine. What is the occasion? OK, I admit, I don't get this thread.

Part of the monotony of jazz which 'fans' rarely notice is the relentless loudness and lack of acoustic subtlety. Van Gelder, as an admired engineer specialised in mixing LPs up to (and beyond) distortion point, was only a symptom of turning jazz into racket. But really it was the big, shouty dance bands that created this. Count Basie!

Apparently, Scotland (and Canada) still get Victoria Day off. Plus, every time the Royals get hitched they can call a bank holiday in the UK. Must be nice. Swiss national holiday, August 1st celebrates the three oath takers of the first Swiss confederation Werner Stauffacher, Walter Fürst and Arnold of Melchtal. Interesting...

In Europe I am not aware of any holidays commemorating secular figures. I'd be interested to hear of any - ?

Shock! But of course it is not his first gig in ten years!

No-one here has endorsed SHM except to say that these SHM CDs seem to be good quality. As far as I can gather, there has been a lot of work on the industry to improve the quality and durability of the CD material over the years. You think that is basically wasted effort, that's fine. When SHM was sold at a premium price, as SACD once was and occasionally still is, then it was logical to resist, as the likelihood of any SQ improvement was disappearingly small. But now they are sold so cheaply what different does it make? It remains the only way to obtain these new masters until the same masterings are re-issued as lower price standard CDs, which will also be fine, for sure. And these remasterings are good. These SHMs cost less than $13 a shout. If to you that's a 'scam' then it is. To others it is just a bit of inexpensive fun, nothing to get exercised about.

Hell is other people, right?