CSO - Beethoven's Ninth - free download MP3s

[vienna]

Thanks for thr links, Frau; I've downloaded the 9th, but passed on the Schoenberg...

BTW, in the picture of the auditorium audience, which one is you? Or is the intent a sort of "Where's Waldo?", you know "Where's Frau?"...

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[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by vienna

Thanks for thr links, Frau; I've downloaded the 9th, but passed on the Schoenberg...

As did I.

I went to the first performance, on a Thursday evening, and the final one on the following Sunday afternoon. On Sunday there was a family sitting behind us, a mother and father and a boy of maybe 10-11 all dressed up in a suit jacket and bow tie. He was adorable. As we were filing out into the aisle to leave he was standing next to me and said "I really liked the symphony but that first piece was a little... odd."

"It's an acquired taste," I told him, "and I have yet to acquire it."

BTW, in the picture of the auditorium audience, which one is you? Or is the intent a sort of "Where's Waldo?", you know "Where's Frau?"...

I was about six rows back, dead center behind the conductor the first time, and maybe three rows back one section to the right of center on Sunday, at the far right end of the row.

But in both cases I was in the balcony, which means I was somewhere directly under all the people in the foreground of that picture. Which may have been taken at Saturday's performance, in which case I was probably at home puttering around in my jammies.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by vienna

but passed on the Schoenberg...

My thoughts exactly. My father played in the German Symphony Orchestra. When a piece of so-called modern music was part of the program, many musicians used to have pills against headaches with them and hiddenly consumed them, when situation allowed. No joke. Nickname for Schoenberg and generally modern music was "Musik des Grauens" ("music of horror"). Directors sometimes love it, because it gives them a stage to make it into the news, the noisier the better. But musicians hate it, almost all of them. Modern music would not be performed, if it were up to the orchestra to decide. Back then there were three other orchestras in (West)Berlin. Musicians there did not see it any different than their colleagues in the DSO.

And the "partitions" the really modern Modern music has, not necessarily Schoenberg on mind. No notes and lines - but random Kritzelkrakel. Like what you see in comics when they use graphics to indicate wild cursing, a rumblefight or something like that. Noise, with the optimistically labelled "partition" just serving as an alibi.

Not everything new necessarily always is the art of the future. Sometimes garbage even after a hundred years still is just garbage. If it still is even remembered then.

[vienna]

I'm not opposed to modern "classical" music, per se. I have broad, and to some, annoyingly eclectic tastes when it comes to music. I have a strong liking of Satie, for example, but somehow cannot wrap my mind around Schoenberg...

The observation of music being performed for the sake of shaking up the "scene" to create attention is, I feel, valid. It is often very easy for a new or upcoming coductor or director to make a name for himself by being "daring" and performing "disturbing" or "disquieting" pieces. Here, in Los Angeles, our big headache is the tendency of the Philharmonic to pad out their programs by performing movie theme music, usually someting like "Star Wars"; it fills the seats and sells the tickets...

If any of you are interested, there is a very good (and, in recent years, only) classical station in Los Angeles. It is run by the University of Southern California (USC) as a public broadcasting, non-profit (no commercials) station. The on-air staff is very good and has a great sense of humor. There is virtually none of the severe, grave intonation of the compser's name and composition one hears on other classical stations. A couple of the staff are given to making rather outrageous puns and sly jokes. The station is avialable on the 'Net at KUSC.org. Right now, they are going through a fundraising drive, so you might want to sample the station after the end of the week; however, the staff has atendency to get a bit silly and loopy as the drive goes on and acn be very entertaining. Oh, and Frau, it is a tradtion of the station to end their drives by playing Beethoven's 9th...

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[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by vienna

our big headache is the tendency of the Philharmonic to pad out their programs by performing movie theme music, usually someting like "Star Wars"; it fills the seats and sells the tickets...

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra generally caters to the people who want that kind of performance in these parts. That leaves CSO free to stick to more "traditional" programs. They're basically the same bunch of musicians, and the Pops was formed as and remains part of the CSO, but they have separate seasons and separate directors.

If any of you are interested, there is a very good (and, in recent years, only) classical station in Los Angeles. It is run by the University of Southern California (USC) as a public broadcasting, non-profit (no commercials) station.

We are also very lucky in Cincinnati to have full time public station devoted to classical music, it's been on the air for over 50 years and is still going strong. They used to be affiliated with the University of Cincinnati but that relationship ended a while back so they are now fully funded by grants and donations.

[Platapus]

So I take it that this Beethoven guy did something with music?

Beethoven wasn't so great! He never had his picture on a bubble gum card, has he?

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Platapus

So I take it that this Beethoven guy did something with music?

Beethoven wasn't so great! He never had his picture on a bubble gum card, has he?

[vienna]

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[Onkel Neal]

(interest in Beethoven growing)