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Polish Classical Music


Bobko 25 | 1,941
1 Jul 2022 #61
I think Spartacus is more of a Russian thing than American

Interesting. Probably true - Spartacus is big for us ever since the October Revolution. The reason every sports facility in every town is named either Dinamo or Spartak (just joking).

I actually know nothing about this specific piece. Is it tinged with a Russian/Soviet hue everywhere it's produced?

Edit: ok just learned it's a Soviet work. Maybe it was not the NYCB when I watched it but some visiting group?
jon357 74 | 21,763
1 Jul 2022 #62
Why has this discussion turned to r*ssian music?
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
1 Jul 2022 #63
@Bobko
It might have been. Maybe Bolshoi. I don't think it's in the Mariinsky repertory, or anywhere but Bolshoi that I know of.
If you want a really interesting ballet, watch the Legend of Love, but I think it's only performed at the Bolshoi and Mariinsky. You can tell a company's country by looking at the dancers. Russians have beautiful arms and back in either style, French have beautiful legs and feet, English is just beautiful classical line, American is fat dancers, Italian have beautiful balance and ballon, there are more like Bournonville, but I've rambled enough already. And Russian dancers are taller and thinner than others.

@jon357
Not Russian music, though it has gone a little off topic. Who cares, it hard to stay on one topic of conversation.
jon357 74 | 21,763
1 Jul 2022 #64
And most of it dreadful kitsch.

Best to stick to music that has some connection to Poland.
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
1 Jul 2022 #65
@jon357
What do you think of Paderewski's Minuet? It's one of my favourite pieves.
jon357 74 | 21,763
1 Jul 2022 #66
Very popular and very Polish too, echoing Chopin.

I prefer his Piano Concerto.p, the one in I think A minor.

Although the minuet (and the other pieces in that suite) are well crafted and meant to be light and popular, I've never been a huge fan of his music.

Now you've mentioned it, I'll listen to it again and see if I still think the same.
Bobko 25 | 1,941
1 Jul 2022 #67
echoing Chopin.

Apologies in advance for the inquiry - but is there any other Polish composer to discuss?
jon357 74 | 21,763
1 Jul 2022 #68
A few.

Of course you could always start s thread on orc music.

Szymanowska deserves to be better known outside Poland.
Bobko 25 | 1,941
1 Jul 2022 #69
you could always start s thread on orc music.

Ahahahaha. I don't know why, but this was very funny to me. "Orc Music" - lol.

I would imagine it would be Heavy Metal or some Prodigy/Aphex Twin style music.
Alien 20 | 4,732
1 Jul 2022 #70
@Bobko
Wieniawski Henryk, born in Poland, died in Moscow......
jon357 74 | 21,763
1 Jul 2022 #71
Not quite Polish music though there's a Poland connection: parts of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman are set in Głogów.

Hoffman was briefly the/an organist in Warsaw.
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
5 Jul 2022 #72
@jon357
Tales of Hoffman is very good opera. Pretty much everything Offenbach composed is nice.
johnny reb 47 | 6,793
5 Jul 2022 #73
Le papillon (The Butterfly) is a 'fantastic ballet' with music by Jacques Offenbach to a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges.
Just glorious, I must say.
jon357 74 | 21,763
5 Jul 2022 #74
Tales of Hoffman is very good opera

Yes. People mostly know it for the obvious however it's worth watching as a whole.

A bit modern for me but still enjoyable and of course tenuous connexion to Poland.
johnny reb 47 | 6,793
5 Jul 2022 #75
and of course tenuous connexion to Poland.

Of course joun, that is what made it so enjoyable for me.
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
5 Jul 2022 #76
johnny reb- Le Papillon

It's a beautiful ballet! Especially danced by Olesya Novikova, I think there's a recording of the variation out of context somewhere.
I think Petipa once made it into a four act with extended music by Minkus, for the Bolshoi Kamenny in St. Petersburg, in I think 1873 or 1874. It's strange that he could alter the score that way, I can't imagine butchered. Though messing up the music was common at the time, look at Swan Lake or (the worst) Don Quixote.

youtu.be/watchv

It's the whole pas de deux. With Novikova and Alexander Sergeev
I'm not sure the link worked, probably not.
jon357 74 | 21,763
5 Jul 2022 #77
Petersburg

All r*ssisn stuff.

Don Quixote.

Western European so culturally nearer to Poland.

what made it so enjoyable for me.

Tell us about the Polish bit you say you liked.
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
5 Jul 2022 #78
@jon357
I was referring to Don Quixote ballet, which was made in Russia, though by Petipa, who was French. It's a very Russian ballet though, to the level of La Bayadère, but it is danced abroad.

I must be smart today, I managed to remember the "e" in Quixote. I always forget, in Russian it's Дон Кихот, nothing extra at the end. I'm so dumb I though Paquita was Pakhita because it's Пахита, with the х in the middle, which normally transcribed to kh.
jon357 74 | 21,763
5 Jul 2022 #79
I wasn't, though for some reason you managed to mention r*ssia or r*ssian things 5 times including their language.

The opera is of course by someone from further west.
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
5 Jul 2022 #80
@jon357
I'm not very familiar with the opera, do you mean the one by Massenet?
Lyzko 45 | 9,345
5 Jul 2022 #81
"Thais", I'd guess you mean.
Which other operas did he compose off the top of your head?
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
5 Jul 2022 #82
@Lyzko
No, Don Quichotte. He composed Le Cid, Manon, Chérubin, others as well, quite a lot.
jon357 74 | 21,763
5 Jul 2022 #83
do you mean the one by Massenet?

I meant both.

I've only heard a recording of the other however I prefer almost anything to Massenet who I've never got along well with.
jon357 74 | 21,763
5 Jul 2022 #85
I think so, yes. No fan of Massenet.

They did some at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw not long either before or after the covid. I forget what,
Lyzko 45 | 9,345
5 Jul 2022 #86
Thanks, RussianAntiPutin, yet I believe Massenet also penned "Thais", unless I'm completely mistaken.
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
5 Jul 2022 #87
@jon357
I think the same theatre with Polish National Ballet. It's quite a small company I think, but the dancers are very nice, particularly the former Bolshoi soloist Chinara Alizade (deserved to be a Bolshoi prima, but she has real Bolshoi style, so was a soloist).

I don't like Massenet either, not the really a special composer, boring I'd say.
@Lyzko
Yes, Thais as well he composed. In my opinion, a very bad opera.
jon357 74 | 21,763
5 Jul 2022 #88
@RussianAntiPutin
It's a particularly wide stage, one of the widest in Europe of its type. That's why they do co-productions with Brussels and. Cardiff.
OP RussianAntiPutin 8 | 242
6 Jul 2022 #89
@jon357
Interesting. From the picture I looked up, the building is really wide and a similar colour to the Bolshoi. How big roughly is the stage?
mafketis 36 | 10,687
6 Jul 2022 #90
I don't like Massenet either

Massenet can be pretty good (though he is very uneven). Of his better known works Werther is probably the best... he was better when tied to a recognizable European world than exotic or fantasy settings....

I'm also partial to Therese (a short work, not long enough for a full evening's program).

An interesting example of a famous Polish work that is very unknown in modern Poland might be 'modlitwa dziewicy' (Maiden's Prayer) by Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska

It remains very popular with Asian pianists and also has an important place in the history of western swing (and north Mexican music).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiden%27s_Prayer

piano:

youtube.com/watch?v=dTww0x2dHt0

western swing:

youtube.com/watch?v=NKqt1lxAs4o&list=RDNKqt1lxAs4o&start_radio=1

there used to be a mexican version on youtube but I can't find it now...


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