Thanks Di for opening this thread.
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The last concert I went to (just before Easter) was of the St Matthew Passion, and it was a highly emotional experience for a number of reasons, not least the sheer beauty in the lines of the music.
I’m not overly familiar with Brahms 1st Piano Concerto, but will now go and find myself a copy to listen to on the strength of your recommendation.
I adore the Rite of Spring, Yovargas. I wonder if audiences nowadays would riot like that, when they were confronted with something so new and boundary-shattering. I seem to recall that the audiences were also a little unsettled when Debussy’s ‘Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune’ premiered. Perhaps we’re all a bit complacent now, too sophisticated to do more than clap politely.
I also like Stravinsky’s Firebird, but for ‘comfort’ listening I’d probably turn to ‘The Pulcinella Suite’, his take on various classical styles. (I do prefer his earlier works to the later, atonal ones full stop, actually. I like form and relatively predictable tonality, I do!)
I’m amazed at the immense creativity that was flowering in Paris around the time that Stravinksy lived there. At the tail-end of impressionism (Debussy was to die just 5 years after the premiere of the Rite), Stravinsky himself worked with Diaghilev and Nijinsky, and later Picasso and others. In music, in art and in poetry – it must have been a wonderful time to be alive and talented!
Eru, you asked if music triggers memories. The short answer is yes, it happens to me too.
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