[Trombone-l] Artistry

[Charles DePaolo]

JcS,

Walter and the NYPO were certainly a great combination.  But I think you need to listen to M2 by a few more ensembles as well.  There are so many different ways to interpret this work that a single conductor/orchestra's reading really can't be the basis for an opinion.  

M9 is from a different period in the composer's life when he was really straining at the bounds of Romanticism (not that M2 is all that conformist itself).  Certainly one can compare and contrast M2 to M9--an early and a late symphony by the same composer over a span of years.  This has probably been the subject of many academic papers. 

Personally, I think M2 is a great work.  I don't find one thing "Hollywood" or "student-ish" about it at all.  I find it to be a work of great inner tension (chaos?, schizophrenia?) and contemplation that took several hearings before I began to understand it.  I still don't "get it" and probably never will.

Besides, Hollywood came after M2 by about 50 years, so if anything, Hollywood might sound a little Mahlerish.

--Chuck



-----Original Message-----
From: trombone-l-bounces at samford.edu [mailto:trombone-l-bounces at samford.edu] On Behalf Of thetubameister at roadrunner.com
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 11:55 AM
To: Daniel Pliskin; Jeff Albert; Rod Ellard
Cc: bone bone
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] Artistry

My answer is simple - I'd be happy to sub for Mr. Finlayson if Mr. Kaplan comes back :-)

J.c.S.


---- Rod Ellard <e11rod at yahoo.ca> wrote: 
> A bit off topic, but is M2 really all that great a piece?  After following the Finlayson/Kaplan thread in TTF for a couple of days, I put on my recording of M2 by Walter conducting the NYPO (someone will chime in with the date). There were some great parts but there were some not-so-great parts.  Some parts sounded like bad Hollywood, some sounded a little student-ish, similar to but maybe not quite what Gustav able to do in, for example, M9 ( a piece I am still coming to grips with after, oh, twenty years of owning Solti/Chicago's M9 - Pankow plays great on that recording by the way). 
> 
> We can genuflect before artistic genius and demand the same from others, but perfection is rarely attained by even the best and criticizing anyone for falling short seems to be a mug's game at best.  Mr. F's comments seems to be a little like complaining about the moneylenders being allowed inside the temple and for that I respect his remarks but where the line is to be drawn is a difficult question.
> 
> R.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> 
> I didn't hear the Kaplan performance.  It may have been a pedestrian 
> reading of a great piece.  I don't have a problem with calling BS when 
> it is present.  We all have to find the balance between being true to 
> our standards, and doing the things we have to do to be able to be 
> working musicians at all.
> 
> Jeff
> 
> --
> www.jeffalbert.com
> www.scratchmybrain.com
> www.openearsmusic.org
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