Dvorak vs. Rachmaninoff

[sc_curtis]

...Dvorak or Rachmaninoff...

Rachmaninoff Sym No. 2 vs. New World...

Rach

I very much like the independence of the tuba part as opposed to the sometimes standard "4th bone" feeling. Same as Prokofiev, Rach gives us a chance to shine (and some of the colors created from the mix of tuba and others is just appealing).

[Wyvern]

I generally prefer playing Rachmaninov - currently practicing his 3rd symphony.

However I very much like Dvorak's late symphonic poems such as the Wood Dove, Golden Spinning Wheel and Noonday Witch. A pity they are not played more.

[UDELBR]

Both composers works are (in general / mostly) stuff I'd rather listen to than play...

Really?? I can't think of a single piece of any kind of repertoire I'd rather listen to than participate in.

[OldsRecording]

Both composers works are (in general / mostly) stuff I'd rather listen to than play...

Really?? I can't think of a single piece of any kind of repertoire I'd rather listen to than participate in.

Actually, as a tubist, participating in a performance of the New World Symphony is mostly listening anyway...
As for the question at hand, all depends on my mood. Sometimes I'm in a listening-to-a-nice,-happy-Dvorak-string-quartet-outside mood, sometimes I'm in a listening-to-Rachmaninov's-"Vespers"-in-a-dark-room kind of mood.

[UDELBR]

Both composers works are (in general / mostly) stuff I'd rather listen to than play...

Really?? I can't think of a single piece of any kind of repertoire I'd rather listen to than participate in.

I can. Many. Of course, there are also many pieces that I wish would not get played anymore, ever again. But that is me.

Over the last two decades I have grown to miss sitting in the audience. I rarely get to just go and listen to another tubist in a good orchestra.

I'll admit to having become too critical to really enjoy that. And orchestras, like it or not, have become museum pieces in the face of all the other forms of 'entertainment' that have arisen in the last 100 years.

Call it ennui or malaise or whatever, but sitting in the hall is the quickest way to bring on a nap for me.

[OldsRecording]

I think that most modern orchestras in our hemisphere are very boring in live performance and even more so in recordings.

I feel that this comes nearly always from the strings. The strings are the orchestra. Everyone else is there just to add timbrel "candy" to the sound palette of the composer.

One time my dad and I were listening to a recording of Beethoven Sym.#6 on the radio, and we could tell something was different, we just couldn't put our fingers on what. It just sounded amazingly CLEAR-in passages with unison cellos and bassoons we could actually hear the bassoons equal with the cellos- the woodwinds and horns actually had texture to them. It was very cool listening to an old warhorse like the Beethoven 6 with interest and excitement. Then at the end of the piece, we found out- it was an 'original instrument' ensemble. The string section was probably half the size of a modern orchestra, and thus the timbre was much more wind-oriented, but the strings were not lost, either- it was a very nice balance between the groups.
Yes, I do think the modern orchestral sound has become very generic- there is no longer much discernable style or timbral differance between international orchestras, let alone between any two American orchestras.

[SplatterTone]

You want them old time strings? Here you go.
http://tinyurl.com/2s64zs

[Evil Ronnie]

I think that most modern orchestras in our hemisphere are very boring in live performance and even more so in recording

Elephant,

You sure have a lot to say, and I can't say that I disagree with what you're saying. I've lived in small and medium sized cities most of my life.

It just makes me more appreciative of my current situation living just four blocks from Orchestra Hall in Chicago since summer of 2000. I ordered my subscription tickets yesterday - twenty one concerts in all.
Mahler 6 and 1 with Bernard Haitink, Shostakovitch 4 Haitink and 7 Seymon Bytchkov, Tristan, Symphony Fantastique, Rachmanninoff Sym. #2, Rhenish, Heldenleben, Dvorak 8 and Bruckner 4, Brahms Piano 1 & 2, Tchaikovsky 4,5, and 6 Prokofiev 3 with Riccardo Muti, Planets, Petrushka, and Firebird.

And the CSO brass in December again this year for the Mid West folks.

And although not every performance is magical, they make a lot of incredible music, in my opinion.

You want to hear an American orchesta recording that's on fire? Get a copy of the Mahler 3rd they recorded last season (I was lucky to hear it the first night) with Haitink, on their new label CSO Resound, which you can get from the CSO website or from Archicmusic.com. (You can listen for free on the CSO website)

And although I enjoy both, I have to say that I prefer Rachmanninoff.

I'll crawl back in my hole now.