12 ESSENTIAL 20TH-CENTURY SYMPHONY CYCLES for BEGINNERS
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- Опубліковано 2 сер 2024
- 12 Essential 20th-Century Symphony Cycles for Beginners
Gustav Mahler: 10 Symphonies (plus Das Lied von der Erde)
Albert Roussel: 4 Symphonies
William Grant Still: 5 Symphonies
George Lloyd: 12 Symphonies
Serge Prokofiev: 7 Symphonies
Malcolm Arnold: 9 Symphonies
Carl Nielsen: 6 Symphonies
Don Gillis: 10 ½ Symphonies
Bohuslav Martinu: 6 Symphonies
Ralph Vaughan Williams: 9 Symphonies
Jean Sibelius: 9 Symphonies (7 numbered)
Dmitri Shostakovich: 15 Symphonies
I hear the Baxian Embassy has lodged a petition to the UN General Assembly about this video. Could get ugly.
Indeed it could! Honegger, Szymanowski, Joly Braga Santos, Kurt Atterberg have also lodged complaints. While Penderecki and Rautavaara are preparing for war!😄
Roussel 🎊 🎉❤😊 let’s all scream his name from the rooftops and get him performed more!!!
He's been called a composer's composer, which may account for some of his abiding obscurity with the wider public.
ROUSSEL!!! ROUSSEL!!! (PLAY MORE) ROUSSEL!!!
@@Ziad3195 I think it is analogous to how American poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) has been called a poet's poet, meaning in her case that she was highly attentive to technique and form, not modifying her style to court public approval. A lot of the nuances of her art are fully appreciated only by fellow poets (for general readers, some of her poems can appear deceptively simple). Bishop was also a perfectionist, sometimes spending years honing a single poem.
So I interpret this categorizing of Roussel as a composer's composer as indicating that he was someone who didn't modify his art and style to suit fleeting fashion, and always remained faithful to his personal standards of artistry, also suggesting that the nuances of his craftsmanship are best appreciated by others who have pursued this particular vocation.
Yes, please.
A great list, and not just for beginners.
yes, indeed, if I may, I do not believe I am a beginner, but there are some unusual names in this list. I'm not scandalized but rather curious
What a joy to see Don Gillis on your list. Agent provocateur.
This is one of your greatest videos. Incredible pithy roundup of the composers that many neophytes tend to come to after hitting the standard 18th/19th century biggies.
I was introduced to Albert Roussel with a lovely 2-disc set of the symphonies under Marek Janowski. It was a great introduction.
That's a really fine set.
That is a great list, not just for beginners. I've been listening to classical music most of my life and you had some new names for me. Thank you!
Thanks for this, Dave - a perceptive list as always. I suspect that you may be persona non grata on the planet Baxia, though.
Nah. They know I think they're special.
I am amazed at the scope of your knowledge! Your encyclopedic understanding of the internationally famous 20th century symphonists such as Mahler, Sibelius, Nielsen, Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev and Shostakovich is impressive in itself, but I had not even heard of Don Gillis.
Thanks for that list, Dave. Once again you have produced some new names to whose music I must now listen, namely William Grant Still, George Lloyd and Don Gillis. I completed yesterday my annual chore of putting my last 12 months' purchases (around 70 CDs) into their proper alphabetical places on the regular shelves and note that there are very many with which I still need to familiarise myself better. There is a very full listening programme ahead for the next few months!
Have fun!
Dang......Now I have a lot of homework. Got a long car ride tomorrow so just have to figure out where to start. Martinu it is
A wonderful list. And yes, despite I am involved with classical music (as a consumer) for several decades, there are two new names for me on the list, BOTH AMERICAN! Dear American people, please, do the rest of us a favour and take better care of your own heritage, so that we could know about it, learn it, listen to it and enjoy it, too.
Wonderful video! I’ve loved Lloyd, Arnold, Martinu and Gillis for years and was delighted to hear your comments!
This is a great list -- I just recently got the Arnold clump set and, though I haven't heard them all yet and certainly haven't given them the time they deserve, I did find that the first two are fine, and appealing, and all that, but when you get past them, as you say, you suddenly find yourself in a world that is all Arnold's own. Still haven't heard 7, 8, or the dreaded 9. I don't think Chandos has made a clump release out of their Yoshimatsu recordings, but they should. Glad to see Gillis made the list -- I have all the Albany recordings and a couple that aren't on Albany, including the tintinabulistic Variations on a Kitchen Sink. He's somewhere between Aaron Copland and Raymond Scott, with maybe a nod to Spike Jones and Roger Roger... who but the most snobbish could turn their nose up at that. Surprised you didn't mention Schwarz's Howard Hanson clump, but you gave Hanson his due -- and he deserves it, he's my favorite American symphonist, another one of those guys like Creston, Diamond, and Cowell who got unjustly buried in the Great Avant-Garde Avalanche of the 50s and 60s -- in another video some time ago.
The Hanson was done by Schwarz, not Slatkin.
@@DavesClassicalGuide You're right, I was juggling that reply with a phone call about the water leak under the house, got my "S" guys confused. I'll fix that.
I think there should be part two of this video in the future :)
Wow! That was amazing. I was unaware of a few of these composers even after all these years. What a treat.
Wow - you took part in the world premiere of Lloyd's Fifth! What a glorious piece that is. I like to think of Sir William Glock of the BBC turning in his grave at the inclusion of Lloyd: the snootiness of the BBC towards him was unforgiveable. As far as I know, there's never been a boxed set of Lloyd., though Albany did them all, I think. Maybe someone could, you know, actually *record* a new cycle rather than giving us another Bruckner?
Fat chance of that!
And give thanks to Edward Downes RIP for his efforts
Great list as usual and I've been wanting join in the congratulations on your recent milestone - here's to the next 3000! I'm of course not seeking to add to or subtract from the list, which I treat as holy writ, but I'd be interested if you've any thoughts about the recent recordings of William Wordsworth's symphonies - of course, delete this if I have blasphemed in any way.
Dave isn't a line guy or a chord guy, he's a clump guy👍
Busted!
He's really a Form guy
Glorious video -- you've turned me into a beginner!!! I can't wait to get started...
What a list! I love the variety, some unfamiliar to this jaded guy. Thank you.
Thanks for the Gillis recommendation - hadn't heard any of him at all before.
A great list, would love some more of these clump videos. A lot of names here either new to me or only vaguely half-remembered (I'm primarily a piano obsessive).
Great list! So what about (roughly) the last 50 years? I can suggest a few works but is there a great symphonist?
Sure!
Speaking of Prokofiev cycle , i wonder what you think of the Prokofiev cycle by the Czech Philharmonic with Zdeněk Košler . I am discovering the symphonies by this cycle and it is really a joy .
I'm not familiar with his Prokofiev, but I've heard a few other recordings by Košler that were excellent. He was a student of Karel Ančerl, and was strong in the Czech repertoire. I'll have to find that Prokofiev. Thanks for the tip.
I love the Arnold symphonies! And the Penny cycle sounds great to me.
No Pettersson 😢
Great stuff, but I wouldn't classify his symphonies as "beginner friendly".
@@ftumschkYeah they are dark as fuck, but I love em
Mr. Hurwitz, your knowledge of music is incredible! Thank you so much!
Really interesting to see how international and non-Germanic the world of classical music became in the 20th century. I would love to hear more about the music from the continents we oh so rarely consider or hear about for their classical music traditions, certainly in the concert hall at least: Latin America, Asia, Africa, Australasia. Around the world in 80 symphonies!
There's certainly some insteresting stuff on disc, like Villa-Lobos, Revueltas, Chavez, and Ginastera from Latin America. The great Lilburn from NZ, Sculthorpe and Vine from Australia. Naxos has a big Japanese Classics series. (Assuming you're talking about the European Classical tradition as absorbed on other continents, not indigenous classical traditions, which are equally fascinating.)
hey, dave, i was wondering if this could be a good ideia for a series: something in the form of like: if you like x, then you're gonna love y, this envolving composers or works, or even artists.
That was my first book...
That was fun! Looking forward to the symphony cycles for non-beginners.
Thanks so much!
I think Shostakovich's 4th is more accessible than its reputation might indicate. The most "difficult" thing about it is its length, but it's shorter than most of the symphonies of Mahler. (Mahler was of course an important influence on Shosty, who was never more Mahlerian than in his 4th symphony.)
Don Gillis is immensely fun.
One of your best videos. I discovered Roussel thanks to you some years ago. I´m from Brazil...and the list has everything but...ok ok this is it as far as I risk to go without found guilty of blasphemy and be expelled of this church.
Cough cough, Villa-Lobos, cough cough...
@@ColinWrubleski-eq5sh😊😊😊😊
A great list and very useful introductions to these composers' symphonies. I'm going to take 'beginners' to include me in that I knew nothing of Still and less than I should about some others. I wouldn't dare wish to change your list and there's no reason to do so but I do have one question, which probably comes from my ignorance as a non-American. I've never really got his symphonies but what is your expert reason for not including Charles Ives?
Much to agree with, some to disagree with but all interesting. Welcome back, looking and sounding hale and hearty!
Where was I?
Maybe you have been here all along but I couldn’t get you for awhile! 🌞
This list is as good a list of all lists that could possibly be listed.
Shostakovich 14 IS deadly serious (pun intended) but try playing it on Halloween with the lights down low with cider and popcorn as I once did and it can actually be great spooky fun.
Hello Mr Hurwitz!
I would like to ask you to consider to make a talk about 12 essential 20th century symphony cycles for those of us who has been listening to classical music for some years.
Best wishes Fred from Kristianstad.
If you've been listening for some years then they wouldn't be essential, and of course I have no idea what you've been listening to! I don't think that would work. Sorry.
It's quite a shame that Korngold didn't achieve Symphonic Clump status. His sole entry in the genre is a 20th-century highlight that lovers of Mahler or Atterberg would likely enjoy.
Yay for Don Gillis!
I salute the member of this community who had this idea. A follow-up to this video would be to do a review of the discography of Gillis (whom I didn't know) and Grant Still. It seems to me that the offer is low and a little help would be appreciated to navigate through it. I can't speak for everyone. But I would really appreciate it.
Check out the Gillis reviews at ClassicsToday.com. I believe I covered all of the symphonies.
Prokofiev;s Fourth Symphony contained no music in either version from Chout, but lots from The Prodigal Son.
Whatever.
Will you do one for 19th century symphony cycles? Pretty please? 🙂
Sure.
Then 18th Century Symphony cycles...please...I mean, besides the Haydn Crusade, we got CPE, Stamitz, Cannabich, Mozart ...would love the clumps
A good talk! I'm going shopping! Can you provide a list of (and talk about) the 10 greatest music works composed since the death of Shostakovich?
I don't think so. We need more time to figure out what they might be.
Written like a true historian, lol! How about a list of contemporary music pieces "not to be missed!" Not able to be considered "great works of art," but certainly worth a listen. I'd hate to miss a "contemporary " piece worth a listen.@@DavesClassicalGuide
WHOA!!-- No Segerstam [5,280 Symphonies??) Just kidding; don't delete, please. LR
Fascinating selection, Dave. I'm surprised no american composers make the list. I vow even so not to mention any. 😉
William Grant Still and Don Gillis were American.
William Grant Still was third on his list, and Don Gillis was eighth
I detest Stalin as much as anyone...but I have to hand it to him for dragging Shostakovich down a little from the dizzying heights where his genius wanted to carry him so "ordinary" people could listen to his stuff and actually move to it.