Thursday, December 3, 2015

Acoustic Counterpoint: Classical Guitar Music from the 1980's - Sir Michael Tippett, The Blue Guitar - Reich, Electric Counterpoint (solo guitar) - Maxwell Davies, Sonata - Roberto Sierra, Triptico - Toru Takemitsu, All In Twilight - David Tanenbaum, Guitar - The Shangihai Quartet - New Albion 1990

I haven't posted any guitar music in a long time (actually I haven't posted enough guitar music on here period) so here is a very fine disc on New Albion with one of my favorite guitarists, David Tanenbaum. I thought to post this recording because I have been listening to a lot of Roberto Sierra lately, chamber music and a few wonderful concertos in particular, and I just found this in my piles. Sierra's "Triptico", which I barely remember, is scored for Guitar and String Quartet, and I am really warming up to it, the second of the three movements "Ritmico" is especially electric and this might just become my favorite work here. 



I have always been fond of Tippett's "The Blue Guitar", and here Tanenbaum plays it rather straightforwardly, and crisply; this is not a bad thing, Tanenbaum strums with great precision, his take is just a tad more serious in atmosphere. My favorite version is on an older Nimbus disc entitled "The Blue Guitar", definitely a disc I'd want to share with all of you when I can find it. Takemitsu's "All In Twilight" is a gentle, contemplative work-the four movements a state of musical nirvana (as one would expect!). Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint", which otherwise I could take or leave-is here presented in its guitar arrangement (what a bloomin' surprise ay??) and I do enjoy it-as in it's Reich that I would actually give repeat listenings. The least interesting piece for me personally is the Sonata by Peter Maxwell Davies. It's not bad at all, it's just these ears. I have never been a huge fan of Maxwell Davies for whatever reason.



Enjoy ye guitar-heads and explorers alike!

David_Tanenbaum-Acoustic_Counterpoint-Tzadik.zip

http://www81.zippyshare.com/v/77poygiP/file.html

8 comments:

Scraps said...

I know you've listened to Eight Songs for a Mad King, so I'm not going to bother if you don't like it. But maybe (and you've probably listened to every classical music that I've listened to), I say maybe, have you listened to Worldes Blis? That's my favorite Maxwell Davies (and I have a lot; my friend and several times housemate Don Keller turned me on to Maxwell Davies thirty years ago).

Anonymous said...

First, thank you for posting all these wonderful recordings. I've only recently discovered the site and am glad to be able to hear so much unfamiliar music -- especially that of Hovhaness.

Regarding this David Tannenbaum recording, the links for his recording of Hovhaness, among others, seems to be broken:

http://www19.zippyshare.com/v/77745951/file.html

Is there any possibility this could be re-posted?

Again, many thanks.

Philip
Canada

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I posted the wrong URL on my previous message. The posting whose links are broken is this:

http://nocturna-artificialia.blogspot.ca/2015/01/david-tanenbaum-guitar-recital-alan.html

Age is creeping up on me.

Philip
Canada

Tzadik said...

Hey Scraps. Actually, I do like Eight Songs, kinda forgot about that piece. It's an odd one, a lot of fun stuff going on-that's why I like it ;)

To be honest, I don't recall Worlde's Blis at all. If it's your favorite, well then I'm keen to hear it. After all I never wrote-off Maxwell Davies, it's just I have heard enough that left me indifferent. I'm always excited to reevaluate any composer :)

TZ

Tzadik said...

Hi there and welcome Philip, thank you for stopping by. I hope you do so often (and it's great if you should feel like commenting often too!) Happy you are enjoying the Hovhaness :) I am re-upping the Tanenbaum disc for you now, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

This is one of my favorite guitar discs of all time, it's just exceptional. -What other link or links are dead?

Regards,

TZ

Tzadik said...

Well...age is indeed 'creeping' up on me too (make that hitting me on the head with an iron pan) so I hear ya. I have my moments, indeed I keep forgetting simple things lately-and I'm currently 41. Bad sign. Really what I need to do is learn to calm down, for even 5 minutes per day ;)


TZ

Tzadik said...

One more thing-you can click on 'David Tanenbaum' under labels to get to the other posts; I forgot to list him (!) somehow under labels for the disc I just re-upped.

TZ

Scraps said...

Peter Maxwell Davies - Worldes Blis
http://www6.zippyshare.com/v/1b8ri5Zw/file.html