If I Could Choose Only One Work By...BARBER

It Would Have To Be...Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Because even though I personally can't stand the piece, there is no more exquisite marriage of words and music in the English language.
The List So Far...
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South
32. Sullivan: The Mikado
33. Dvořák: Symphony No. 8; Cello Concerto (Piatigorsky/Munch/Boston Symphony) RCA
34. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
35. Monteverdi: Orfeo
36. Scarlatti: Sonatas
37. Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op. 17
38. Berg: Wozzeck
39. Hermann: Psycho (film score)
40. Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini
41. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
42. Holst: Suites for Military Band
43. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
44. Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures
45. Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Pohjola’s Daughter (Bernstein, New York Philharmonic) Sony
46. Britten: The Turn of the Screw
47. Borodin: String Quartet No. 2
48. Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen
49. Korngold: Violin Concerto
50. Tallis: Spem in Alium
51. Nielsen: Symphony No. 5

[@marks1417]

"...even though I personally can't stand the piece," Ha - you rarely see a critic being so honest. Gives credibility to this whole fine series

[@kylejohnson8877]

For me, it’s the marvelous Second Essay for orchestra. It packs as much variety and emotional punch in 10 minutes as most hour-long symphonies do. It also showcases multiple sides of Barber’s compositional personality in its rugged grandeur interspersed with moments of tender lyricism. There’s even an ingenious fugal central section to boot! And the coda is simply awe-inspiring in its upward striving, defiance, and ultimate triumph. A masterpiece!

[@evansercombe]

I completely understand and respect this pick, but I would still have to choose the First Symphony. It has all of his formal rigor and ingenuity, sweeping lyricism, and absolutely gorgeous instrumental writing. It’s simply a masterwork. (But then again, so is Knoxville)

[@mikeleghorn6092]

Not only can I “stand” Knoxville Summer”, I love it. The last minute or so of it moves me to tears.

[@dennischiapello3879]

Mere tears? I shiver and slide off my chair onto the floor.

[@_earthling]

My immediate thought was Knoxville (I'm partial to Sylvia McNair's performance on Telarc). I tear up... Every. Single. Time. It really has a sort of Thorton Wilder Our Town feel to me, both in the small town Americana depiction, but also how it abruptly goes into a bog cosmic view in stark contrast. That juxtaposition (and Barber's setting of Agee's text), combined with that childhood nostalgia) really hits me in the gut hard. And the best part is I can't explain why it hits me so hard (some things I like not knowing or understanding).

[@tommarshall-113th]

"One of the reasons I don't like it is because it's so good at what it does." The line of the century! One of the reasons why Dave Hurwitz is a national treasure!

[@johnwright7557]

My choice, too! Barber was equally great in composing songs and instruments/orchestra. I totally agree on Dawn Upshaw’s wonderful recording.

[@bbailey7818]

Definitely my choice. It really is a great piece to hear outdoors on a hot summer night, by the way, along with RVW's Serenade to Music. I never imagined it could annoy anybody, though. I think Antony & Cleo is a very fine work also.

[@markmiller3713]

"Nnoxville: Summer of 1915" is one of my favorites. I especially enjoy Silvia McNair's version (with the ASO).

[@gertyup]

I would like to submit a suggestion( or rather, suggestions) regarding Glazunov. He is mainly known as a ballet guy and his music is highly reflective of this particular pursuit with all of its beautifully lyrical, evocative and dramatic qualities. My suggestion therefore is The Seasons due to the aforementioned musical qualities that it contains. And since we are always on the lookout for loopholes and ways of bartering with the evil god himself, why not throw in the stunningly gorgeous and exhilarating 5th symphony which is contained alongside The Seasons on the Serebrier, Scottish Symphony, disc and see if the old curmudgeon himself will accept the offer.

[@robertjones447]

My nominee: Piano Sonata.

[@annakimborahpa]

Key of Eb Minor - OMG.

[@robertjones447]

@@annakimborahpa William Strunk was a music editor, though his most famous composition was in the key of Eb White.

[@annakimborahpa]

@@robertjones447 As opposed to Eb Black, which would be Eb Minor Pentatonic that uses only the black keys on the piano?

[@robertdandre94101]

barber....the 2nd movement of his piano concerto, canzone.....magnificent.....very beautiful moment.and knoxville summer of 1915,,,,sing by renée fleming.....!

[@judsonmusick3177]

Dave, the Dawn Upshaw recording of "Knoxville Summer of 1915" is my favorite version of this work also. Great minds think alike!

[@walter9215]

I love this work! The Leontyne Price recording is extraordinary!

[@steveschwartz8944]

@@paxpaxart4740 I love the Steber recording as well. It was the one I imprinted on. It's still my favorite. But diction isn't her strong point. For that, I'd go to Upshaw.

[@rbmelk7083]

The Dawn Upshaw performance is my second favorite performance. I agree that the text is a bit silly, but I have to confess that I do not pay much to text in general. I’m curious what you and your followers think about the performance by Ruth Golden with Donald Barra conducting the San Diego Chamber Orchestra? I know her diction is not nearly as good as Upshaw’s, but hers is the performance I keep coming back to. Thoughts?

[@williamwhittle216]

My selection would be the First Symphony, an ingenious yet moving work.

[@soundtreks]

Yeah Knoxville is beautiful. I’d have to go with Essay 2 for Orchestra.

[@jb1980ist]

I've started working on it. I've always loved the piece and it's satisfying to learn.

[@herrbauer]

Barber's "Sure on this Shining Night" (either solo or choral versions), also based on a Agee poem, is even more moving. I wouldn't accuse it of being "sing-songy"!

[@steveschwartz8944]

Antony and Cleopatra for me. More variety and a greater range of Barber's music.

[@barryguerrero6480]

I would pick "Knoxville" as well. "Music for a Scene by Shelly" rates high with me as well.

[@ppfuchs]

Gawd!----- thanks a lot Dave! ---- you have ruined Knoxville for me with your singsongy imitation! I always listened to the Eleanor Steber version with tears in my eyes, but now I will start laughing thinking of your mockery! Way to go, Mr. Unsentimental. ps. Steber is light years better than Dawn Upshaw!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

She's better than me too.

[@Baritocity]

I've spent the last two weeks listening to a lot of Don Gillis. I would have to recommend his 9th symphony, the "Star-Spangled Symphony," as the one piece to submit. It's definetely in Gillis's funnier vein, but it's also a great example of what all of his 10 "official" symphonies express, which is his patriotic sentiments of America. If you think an album would be better, the Varsovia orchestra coupled it with 8, the "Dance Symphony," so we could have even more of the fun stuff. If you must have 5 1/2, it's also coupled with symphony 1.

[@carlconnor5173]

Knoxville was my first thought. It’s so tender and endearing. My second thought was the Adagio. But, yes, Knoxville it is. The prose IS annoying in its triteness, now that you mention it, David. But to be honest, I haven’t paid much attention to it, if at all.

[@lovettboston]

Your annoyance is very much like that which was expressed by a Boston Globe critic in a review of Knoxville's premiere by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1948. He said that James Agee's quasi-improvisational text was inconsequential meandering that didn't amount to a story. There's certainly a lot of stylized childhood on the surface of the work, but Barber goes beyond that surface in a way that reminds me a little of Mahler in Kindertotenlieder (most noticeable in how both pieces start with winds). If Mahler composed a father's elegy on the death of a child, Barber used a text related to a grown-up child's elegy for a father--who died when Agee was 6 years old. In a way, Knoxville was the springboard for Agee's not-quite-finished quasi-autobiographical novel "A Death in the Family." The novel was published after Agee's death in 1955. Knoxville was added as a retroactive preamble, since it was written in the 1930s, at a time of turbulence in Agee's first marriage. That came to a head when Agee had an affair with his wife's music teacher. On what might have been a crazy but purposeful impulse, Agee and the teacher (Alma Mailman) drove all the way from NYC to Knoxville, and then the preamble was written. Agee was writing under other influences, as well, from his drinking to some thwarted strivings for literary greatness.. His pushing of the envelope had some good results (film criticism, the screenplay for "The African Queen," his novel, and "Let s Now Praise Famous Men"), but it's interesting to note his increased interest in James Joyce after the publication of "Ulysses" was legalized in the US in 1934. Agee even kept a copy of the book in his toilet. What does this have to do with Barber? For some reason, he decided to set parts of Knoxville to music and then got it commissioned by the soprano Eleanor Steber. If the rambling impressions in Knoxville owe something to "stream of consciousness" in Joyce, the connection becomes more explicit in Barber's very next project, again with Steber, the setting of a text, from Joyce's "Finnegans Wake," which took the form of a shorter piece called "Nuvoletta." There's a very good version of this on KZbin, with Barber and Leontyne Price. If you think nothing happened in Knoxville, it happened again in "Nuvoletta," though less intelligibly. Was Barber plunged into a rabbit-hole at this point, or was he onto something? I do think he admired and enjoyed the musicality baked into his texts, something that might appeal even to listeners who would find their verbal meaning rather elusive. What Barber did so well was take something verbally nebulous and make it musically engaging. And he would return to Irish texts later (translated into English) with the more straightforward "Hermit Songs." The first time I took part in a performance of Knoxville, our conductor showed little overt interest in the text. After our first performance, he told us there wasn't a dry eye in the house--as if that were beyond his expectations. Cause for annoyance or not, this shows that something in Knoxville got across to people, many of them probably hearing the music for the first time.

[@windowtrimmer8211]

Since you started it: There are many Barber works I can’t stand. Even in the purely instrumental pieces there is too often a yearning quality that nags. So many of his melodies tease and taunt. His harmonies are guilty of special pleading.

[@kylejohnson8877]

Well, that’s exactly what myself and many others love about his music…..

[@samuelheddle]

It's *really* tough to summarize Barber in a single work. I thought about the piano concerto which I still think is his best work, but it's probably not a good encapsulation of his career.

[@jasonquinlan731]

There's no getting around the fact that Barber was a one hit wonder.

[@jb1980ist]

No. His concertos are marvelous, the first symphony, the piano sonata, the songs and so on.

[@fulltongrace7899]

You must not have listened to much Barber. The Violin and Piano Concerto are very popular as are much of his orchestral writing like Overture to the School for Scandal, the Three Essays for orchestra……

[@bbailey7818]

​@@fulltongrace7899 The School for Scandal Overture has one of the greatest tunes ever written.

[@fulltongrace7899]

@@bbailey7818 the oboe theme?

[@johnbyrd3168]

I love Barber’s organ works. At least Dave didn’t pick that dreadful Yankee crap, Adagio for Turds

[@annakimborahpa]

How about William Strickland's arrangement of Barber's Adagio For Strings for pipe organ? Variations On A Shape Not Hymn is a good one.