Deathmage

Wellidy, wellidy, wellidy...

It's been a while since this thread, it seems.

haha. I'm in law school and working at Best Buy. Sorry for the delay, but that's what I do best...

Only just noticed your Water Goblin link.

I heard this one live back when I was in Edinburgh. Very nice.

Norris is indeed a modern composer. I think this orchestra's plan is to pair famous pieces everyone will go to with new compositions. Last time, in Scheherazade, I heard a really nice fresh piece about R. Kelly's life - the motif was fantastic, but I couldn't remember it.

This is the da-da-da-DUN. http://www.cso.co.nz/concert.asp?concertid=2025&eventsmonth=2010-07-17
It's paired with Mozart's Basson Concerto and Strauss' Metamorphosen. Sounds pretty solid.

I'm really gutted about missing a lot of last year's stuff. There was Saint-Saen's Organ Symphony, and there was Dvorak's Ninth (!) paired with Rhapsody in Blue (!!!).

EDIT: Hmm, I just noticed I'm posing this on my own page. Oh well.

I aprrove of this concert :D I've not heard Norris (I assume this is modern?) but the other two are excellent.

I had a good laugh when I saw "good ol' da-da-da-DUN", though the fact I knew straight away what you meant says a lot about just how overplayed it is :shake: I'd say check what it's paired with. If there's something else with it that's good then definitely go for it. And of course it's always nicer live than it is on a recording (or on a stupid TV ad...)

Newsflash.

If you can find Debussy's Dances for Harp and String Orchestra (or maybe just orchestra?), listen to it and let me know what you think. If you like "magical" themes (and I see to remember you do) then you'll love it.

That is all.

I found the Musical Joke to be more weird than funny actually, mainly because a lot of things he does with tonality and (a)symmetry are pretty much standard in contemporary music. I wonder if he was aware he was setting the stage for 20th century composers... he might have been experimenting with things that were completely beyond the classics of the time and decided to disguise the experiment as a joke - I don't think experimentation was something you could even think of doing in court music at the time.

Shosty recommendation: cello concerto, symphonies 5 and 10. There are others but I'm ill and not very able to think straight, I'll send you some more when I recover. For the cello concerto find one where Mstislav Rostropovich is playing if you can - the concerto was dedicated to him and every time I hear/see it performed it's always him I imagine playing.

Happy new year!

The stuff that removes your jaw? I think the evidence speaks for itself.

BTW, you're the second person to post one of these message thingies on my profile thing. And as chance would have it, it was dead on 365 days after the first one. Anyway, happy new year man.

My Meharry surname is originally Irish, the King side is english pretty much all the way through. Though the Armsdon side has Mexican/Spanish along with Rom. Douglas as far as I know is Scotts as far back as we can trace.

I've never heard this one before. Beautiful! Very Shostakovich-y.
The speed isn't surprising. You'll notice this with most compositions. Gershwin played his Rhapsody in Blue much faster than anyone does nowadays. Khatchaturian gives Gayeneh a much faster pace too (very noticeable with the Saber Dance). I think later conductors/solists add the more ponderous and grandiose interpretations to what are originally very fluid pieces.
I just got past the 4 minute mark. I love that bit.
I like one of the comments. "Too fast for Allegro, but he's the composer..."

Ni hao. But sorry, my mandarin is terrible, haha. I'm really a Cantonese speaker.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll look for them. Any particular recording?

Forgot to ask you! How was Saturday's concert?

Oh by the way I booked for Scheherazade too, being played in spring here in Montreal. Can't wait!

I don't know the other two either...

I would just go and be surprised by them. You already know the major piece anyway.

My signature is a quote from VADM James Bond Stockdale -- he received the Medal of Honor for his actions while a prisoner of war in Hanoi.

My previous signature was a quote from Lord Admiral Nelson.

The quote on my profile page is Einstein.

I've not heard Shostakovich's piano concertos. His symphonies are a bit aggressive (the 5th especially); most of the pieces he did while Stalin was still alive express his frustration. His cello concerto is really cool but very bizzarre. Fun trivia: he sneaked in a variation on Stalin's favourite nursery rhyme as an "homage"! (I assume Stalin didn't catch it)

If you like piano concertos, must-haves: Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Rachmaninov, #2 of each. For Tchaikovsky's you have to be very careful because recordings are incredibly rare (there's about a dozen all told and not all exist as CDs) and most of them are butchered and missing about half of the 2nd movement (which naturally is the best part in the entire piece). If you can find the recording with Peter Donohoe it's my personal favourite interpretation, although sadly it's not the best recording (the piano is recorded at a much softer volume and so gets drowned by the orchestra at some points).

Glad to hear you've recovered the iPod!

Definitely don't miss Scheherazade! I've never heard it live so I'm a bit jealous. I've listened to many recordings and I don't remember the orchestras or who conducted them. But my favourite by far (and the on I bought) is Ferenc Fricsay conducting the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra (I think). Fricsay has a very unique sound; he gives the wind section a stronger presence than most, and he likes to use them as a bludgeon and contrast them with the strings. The contrast works really well with Scheherazade because of the extensive use of the first violin (especially the superbly lyrical theme of Scheherazade herself that keeps reappearing).

Yeah I don't blame you. They're long. There's one in particular that I find amazing, but I can't remember if it's the first or fourth.

By the way I've recently started on Bela Bartok. Very highly recommended! It might sound very odd at first if you've not listened to 20th century classical but if you like Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Shostakovich, or any of the other moderns, you'll love it. These three I just cited are also great by the way, especially Shostakovich; if you can get hold of his 5th symphony it's amazing, and I was very lucky to listen to it live back when I was in Edinburgh :)

Hullo deathmage... I should respond to your post here, right? Feel free to ask these in the forum, others might get use of the answers, no need to make 'em private :)

Anyways. Glad you like the mods. :)

1) Almost Maximum HP Tweak: We'll see. It's not a bad request. Not sure how to implement it, but it may be doable. I'll roll it around in my head for a while.

2) The portal to exit the Candlestick area is on the east side of the room. You have to get pretty close to the right spot, and I think it has to be TNO near it. If you approach the area and hear the portal opening sound but it isn't actually opening, do two things: 1. save, reload, try again. 2. Let me know, cause that shouldn't be happening anymore.

Qwinn