Youthful regression

I just listened to Béla Bartók's Music For Strings, Percussion and Celesta. It's literally years since I listened to any of his works and it was great to re-experience the pure joy of his music after all this time. I used to be a fan of mid 20th century music (this is from 1936) - Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Hindemith, Copland, Messiaen, Vaughan Williams amongst others. I feel I may have wasted some later years playing computer games and neglecting my cultural base.

I'm going to make a playlist.

Bartók again: Concerto for Orchestra, my favourite of his works.

Hindemith: perhaps the Concert Music for Strings and Brass; there's nothing like a bit of brass. Hindemith was a prolific composer and he wrote sonatas for pretty much every orchestral instrument. I've never played his Trumpet Sonata and I don't think I've ever heard it. I really should give it a go (listening I mean, not playing).

Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time is special for its wartime context; a difficult listen but I can immerse myself. It really needs a quiet, non-football meditative evening.

In my youth I used to sometimes spend any spare cash buying long playing records (vinyl) and one of my favourites was Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1. I'll find a performance to listen to.

Charles Ives was a very odd American composer, early 20th century but stylistically adventurous. I remember his The Unanswered Question and I sought that out on YouTube. It has a trumpet solo, so that's a plus. Wikipedia tells us, based on Ives' own words:

Against a background of slow, quiet strings representing "The Silence of the Druids", a solo trumpet poses "The Perennial Question of Existence", to which a woodwind quartet of "Fighting Answerers" tries vainly to provide an answer, growing more frustrated and dissonant until they give up. The three groups of instruments perform in independent tempos and are placed separately on the stage—the strings offstage.

I've always thought of the trumpet as the ultimate in asking about life, the universe and everything!

I also discovered a YouTube channel by Thomas Ligre, where he plays 20th century classical music whilst the music score scrolls on the screen. This is magic! Totally up my street; I've subscribed and, if you are kind and leave a comment, I'll bring you some more.

Here are the opening bars of the Ives, as it appears on the video:

Not much happening, I hear you say? Wait, the trumpet will ask the question soon.

I'm regressing to my youth.