1904 in Music

List of Music reviews for music published in 1904.

 

1. Alexander Glazunov: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, op. 82 (8/10)

The violin concerto is a great showpiece for the instrument and is actually a little odd in its layout. I figure there’s a reason he’s known for it, as it’s kind of nuts at times – there’s lots of reasonably unconventional playing for the instrument itself, even if the music around it isn’t particularly daring. A pretty neat piece.

 

2. Erik Satie: Le Piccadilly (La transatlantique) (8/10)

A ragtime piece, basically. So neat for a French composer to be getting into this. With his usual inventiveness.

 

3. Claude Debussy: L’isle joyeuse (8/10)

This piece has those trills similar to Masques, composed around the same time. This piece strikes me initially as less impressive, but there’s more information about it out there, so it comes across as intellectually more impressive because you can read about how Debussy is playing with rules of tonality right at the time of the big break. He was probably doing the same thing on Masques only I didn’t notice.

 

4. Claude Debussy: Masques (8/10)

This is vibrant but sombre piece that sounds really hard to play (to my totally untrained ears). There’s lots of movement even though it’s brief and an image, rather than a progression. Neat.

 

5. Edward Elgar: “In the South (Alassio)”, Op. 50 (6/10)

“In the South” is one of those weird things that composers write where it feels like there should have been more (and they acknowledge that in classifying such pieces). But anyway, it feels a little slight.

 

6. Enrique Granados: Allegro de concierto (7/10)

The Allegro is pleasant but I wouldn’t pay much attention to it off by itself if I hadn’t found it with some other, better music.

 

7. Gustav Holst: 6 Songs, Op. 16 (6/10)

The “Six Songs” are less interesting than Holst’s later “4 Songs,” which makes sense given that they are earlier work. This is standard late Romantic borderline-impressionist lieder. I’m just not really sold on them as anything special.

 

8. Gabriel Faure: Impromptu D Flat Op. 86 bis

One to revisit.

 

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