Music of the month club. September.

[ahmedito]

I'm going to attempt to start a discussion group, see some ideas that come up.

What is this about?

You've probably heard of "Book of the clubs", where all of the members have a reading list and get together to discuss the books in question. I am attempting something similar, seeing that there are many people here with very interesting opinions and insights into the music, as well as lots of conflicting opinions. I'll post a listening/analysis list at this time each month and afterwards there'll be discussion amongst the members. This is the chance for intelligent discussion on pieces which will be known and analized by other pianists.

Now some rules:

1) At the beggining of the month I'll post a list of music. Send me a private message to become a club member for this month. By sending me a message wanting to join, you make a comitment to do your best to listen to all the music on the list, preferably with score in hand. It's be better if you actually play the music and analize it, but at least listen to the pieces as the month passes.

2) Once you send me the message, I'll add you to a list on this thread. Once you're on the list, you can post replies to the topic with insights, questions, and opinions (alongside the pieces, I will also post some questions that I think are relevant to start a discussion).

3) I have asked Nils to look over this thread and remove threads that do not contribute at all (I do hope he's for the idea). I'd like to keep these club threads (provided they continue to grow) as clean and legible as possible. If you're not a member but have something meaningful to say about one of the pieces or topics being discussed (because you know the music well obviously) feel free to do so. In any case, replies containing no content or illegible content will probably be deleted.

4) Feel free to send me suggestions for next month's listening list . Keep in mind that it can't be anything too obscure or hard to get, as well as pieces discussed to death before (Fantasie-Impromptu for example).

I really hope this club will gain lots of members ready to discuss music in a profound way, discovering and learning as we go along. I also hope it becomes a source of good information on this forum, alongside m1469's attempt at indexing the whole freaking thing

I hope this is all clear, and that we have fun and learn about music. Here's this months list (seeing as its the first one, I've decided on it myself, although feel free to send me suggestions via private message for the next one). If you decide to join, that means that you will do all you can to listen to, analize and play this music.

This Months List:
Seeing it's the first month, I decided to list music from two very pianistic composers, this IS a piano forum after all. This music is all about maturity and being on the verge of something new for Liszt, or in the case of Chopin, reaching a point of expressive intensity unseen in his prebious works. What do you think that maturity brought to their music? How did their treatment of the piano change? What insights into life, love, spirituality (they were romantics after all) do these pieces give you? I'd recommend just listening to them for a while, let them settle in. Maybe a couple of times, try playing them. See what you think. Late Liszt and Chopin, in my opinion are very different, I do not post them together to compare them or relate them in any way. Late Liszt is made up of very radical sound experiences while late Chopin is very surprising in regard to the change that ocurred in his own style. Even so, they are both composers that all pianists should at least know and have an informed opinion on (which is hard when most pianists know Chopin from his most popular stuff and Liszt from Hungarian Rhapsody number 2 and Piano Etudes ) Don't think of this as a musicological discussion, talk about what this music makes you feel or think, what you think it is. Above all, have fun discovering new things. Some of these are hard to get, but do your best (I'm still trying to get my hands on some of the Liszt pieces).

Enjoy listening to these, they are among my favourite music by these masters:

- F. Chopin -- Sonata for Piano and Cello op. 65
- F. Chopin -- Nocturnes op. 62
- F. Chopin -- Fantasie-Polonaise op. 66
- F. Chopin -- Barcarolle op. 60 (If you find it, listen to Dinu Lipati's version)
- F. Chopin -- Melody from 1847 (It's his last song, this one is a little hard to get)
- F. Chopin -- Mazurkas op. 59 and op. 63
- F. Liszt     -- Nuages Gris
- F. Liszt     -- Die Trauergondel I and II
- F. Liszt     -- Les Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este (Claudio Arrau and Zoltan Kocsis)
- F. Liszt     -- Toccatta
- F. Liszt     -- Fünf Klavierstucke
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On chamber music, here are two works:

- J. Brahms -- Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano in Eb
- G. Ligeti   -- Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano
- Any other horn, violin, piano trios you can find (there are some by Duvernoy, Simpson, etc. although those are a bit too obscure).

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About Jazz I really don't know enough to provide a good list of music, I'm a big John Coltrane-Thelonius Monk fan. Here are a couple of things for this months list. I hope the jazz people out there give me some input on whats good to listen to.

- Thelonius Monk (anything, though I recommend anything he recorded with Coltrane, or any of his versions of Blue Monk). What do you think of the way he plays the piano? of his rough metallic sound?

- Jaques Loussier Trio (the other extreme... completely , what do you think of his recordings of Bach and Ravel? Crass comercialism or worthwhile?)

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There you have, that is this months listening list. I'll post the next list next month or if the discussion starts getting stale. Send me a message if you want to join the Music of the month club, and lets start listening so we can post some replies.

Music of the Month Club members so far:
- Ahmedito 
- Dinosaurtales
- Perfect_Pitch
- m1469

[dinosaurtales]

What the hell.  Add me to the list.  Are we on our own for getting cd's of the music, or do you know of a site that has most of these recorded on it? 

[ahmedito]

You're on your own. Just take a week to listen to all you can from the list and I gather by then we'll start getting some opinions. If you search the web, you're bound to find a few of those though. I tried to mix in some more well known stuff with the obscure, so you can borrow or get from libraries at least that.

[ahmedito]

Just to make something clear, I've been asked on private message: This isn't an mp3 trading or exchange thing, I will not provide any of the music. (of course, if you play any of it yourself, feel free to upload it so we can listen), I'll probably upload my trio playing the Ligeti in a few weeks.

All of the rare Liszt stuff was recorded by Leslie Howard. I'd recommend looking over Chopin's Trio op. 8 to compare with the cello sonata. I just listened to a very strange version of the Fantasie-Polonaise/Barcarolle by Ivan Moravec. His Chopin playing is frankly very strange, there were things I loved but my favourite Barcarolle is still by Dinu Lipati.