Pianophilia

But who is Starer?

isokani wrote:But who is Starer?

i think it refers to Robert. I scanned his complete works for piano (except for piano sonatas No'2 and 3 as the volumes I had access to were published before these were done) in hopes of posting some but the rights to the out of print scores were 'revived' it seems and recently put back into print...but here are some freebies for folks not familiar. Definitely worth exploring, lots of great piano music. I personally prefer a lean more to David Diamond, John La Montaine, and Francis Thorne (I think studied some with Diamond?), but all these cats have some fantastic moments (particularly Diamond's Symphony No 2 which has been called by some -and I tend to agree- the greatest 20th century symphonic work by an American...the other movements are work seeking out, example http://youtu.be/Z3AudRE8ghY )

isokani wrote:But who is Starer?

I'd never heard of him either! This is the Robert Starer website:-
http://www.robertstarer.com/index.html

Quite cheeky for a New Yorker to write a piece called Twilight Fantasies in 1985!

Quite cheeky for a New Yorker to write a piece called Twilight Fantasies in 1985!

caostotale wrote: To be sure, I would put Sessions, Starer, Szymanowski, and plenty of other 'S' composers ahead of Sorabji as well. Your response is too humble and polite to even come close to the sorts of pie-fights that my post aimed to prevent!

Your post was more likely to start a pie fight rather than prevent one and I think you knew this. At least I gave you the opportunity to impress by naming some more plinkers starting with "S" . I cannot resist Sorabji threads as they normally end up being longer and more enjoyable than his music.

I have immense respect for JP and his unprecedented stamina, but he could have played the complete piano concertos by Steibelt in well under 6 hours and added some De Meyer transcriptions to send the crowd home happy.

Thal

I have one of Isokani's Sorabji recordings, and I like it enough to be sure that it will not be the last. But it is not exactly the stuff I come across here in Denmark

Riodk

thalbergmad wrote:

caostotale wrote: To be sure, I would put Sessions, Starer, Szymanowski, and plenty of other 'S' composers ahead of Sorabji as well. Your response is too humble and polite to even come close to the sorts of pie-fights that my post aimed to prevent!

Your post was more likely to start a pie fight rather than prevent one and I think you knew this. At least I gave you the opportunity to impress by naming some more plinkers starting with "S" . I cannot resist Sorabji threads as they normally end up being longer and more enjoyable than his music.

I have immense respect for JP and his unprecedented stamina, but he could have played the complete piano concertos by Steibelt in well under 6 hours and added some De Meyer transcriptions to send the crowd home happy.

Thal

Wow, even Szymanowski's a plinker now? How soon before this plague engulfs Debussy and Faure as well?

To be sure, I'm with you on the idea that Sorabji's music is too long and difficult to enjoy in a concert setting, but I don't share the view that the solution is to replace it with a crate of unused 200-year-old unsung works that few under the age of 50 could get much out of (at least in regards to Daniel Steibelt's work). I'd rather have a recital one-third the length with a proper mixture of different stylistic flavors, past and modern. As regards rarities of all times/places, I think it's good for all of them to at least be documented in some way, shape, or form.

caostotale wrote:To be sure, I'm with you on the idea that Sorabji's music is too long and difficult to enjoy in a concert setting, but I don't share the view that the solution is to replace it with a crate of unused 200-year-old unsung works that few under the age of 50 could get much out of (at least in regards to Daniel Steibelt's work).

It pleases me that you have obviously studied sufficient Steibelt to formulate that opinion.

Well done.

Thal

Has the pie-fight already started by accident? If so, I'll watch from the sidelines.
Unless I'm mistaken, there still seem to be a number of Sorabji piano works still
as yet unrecorded, such as the earlier piano symphonies.
Btw, 3 other important 20th. century 'S' composers haven't yet been mentioned:-
Schnittke, Sibelius, and Stockhausen.