Classical Listening

[stlukesguild]

I am currently listening to David Lang, a composer I am unfamiliar with. I like his minimal-like sound. The piece I am listening to is Child. Does anyone here know his music?

I had to look him up. I've had his Little Match Girl Passion on my "wish list". THis is a vocal work drawing upon some of the format or structure of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion. It is a choral retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's tale of the "little match girl" who dies in the cold selling matches. It won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2008 and seems quite promising. The music is clearly rooted in the language of Minimalism... although I must admit to taste for the so-called "holy minimalism" found in Eastern European composers such as Arvo Part, Henryck Gorecki, etc... over the American counterparts that often strike me as merely clever.

[Gladys]

Thanks, Stlukesguild, for your biography of the subtle Schumann, whom I have come to love.

As for Glenn Gould, while liking much of his Bach, I have a high tempo recording of Beethoven's Piano Sonata 30, Op 109, that I abhor.

[stlukesguild]

Currently listening to this disc...



... of the music of Carlo Gesualdo performed by the marvelous Hilliard Ensemble.

Carlo Gesualdo (March 8, 1566 – September 8, 1613) is a truly fascinating figure within the history of music. Gesualdo was part of an aristocratic family which had acquired the principality of Venosa in 1560. His uncle was Carlo Borromeo, later Saint Charles Borromeo. His mother, Girolama, was the niece of Pope Pius IV. Gesualdo showed little interest in anything other than music
and through his single-minded devotion he rapidly developed as a talented performer upon the lute, guitar, and harpsichord.

In 1586 Gesualdo married his first cousin, Donna Maria d'Avalos, the daughter of the Marquis of Pescara. Two years later she began to have a love affair with Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria. Donna Maria successfully kept the affair secret from her husband for almost two years, even though it was well-known elsewhere.

On October 16, 1590, at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples, when Gesualdo had allegedly gone away on a hunting trip, the two lovers took insufficient precaution at last (Gesualdo had arranged with his servants to have the locks of his palace copied in wood so that he could gain entrance if it were locked), and he returned to the palace, caught them in flagrante delicto and murdered them both in their conjugal bed. Gesualdo had help from his servants, who may have done most of the killing; however Gesualdo reportedly stabbed Maria repeatedly, shouting, "she's not dead yet!" The Duke of Andria suffered numerous deep sword wounds, as well as by a shot through the head and was dressed in a woman's clothing (specifically, Maria's night dress). His own clothing was later found piled up by the bedside, unbloodied. One suggested explanation for this is that Gesualdo first murdered his wife, and only after this turned his attentions to the Duke, forcing him to don his lover's clothing, most probably to humiliate him. (Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Gesualdo )

Gesualdo had their mutilated bodies left in front of the palace with a single sword running through the pair of lovers for all to see. As a nobleman he was immune to prosecution, but not to revenge, so he fled to his castle at Gesualdo where he would be safe from any of the relatives of either his wife or her lover.

Reports of the murders widely circulated... including versified versions by poets such as Tasso. Rumors also circulated suggesting that Gesualdo had also murdered his infant son (doubting his paternity) and his father-in-law. In spite of all the grisly details and fictitious details, nothing was done to apprehend the murderer.

Gesualdo spent several years in Ferrara, one of the leading centers of progressive musical activity in Italy, especially in the madrigal. It was home to Luzzasco Luzzaschi, one of the most forward-looking composers in the genre. And Gesualdo was continually surrounded by some of the most talented musicians in the whole of Italy.

After marrying for a second time, to Leonora d'Este, the niece of Duke Alfonso II, the composer returned to his estate at Gesualdo in the Kingdom of Naples where he established an environment much like that he enjoyed at Ferrara. At his own expense he hired resident virtuoso musicians and singers to perform his work. His estate became a center of music-making for Gesualdo alone and he rarely left his castle, taking delight in nothing but music.

His second wife eventually left him and her family petitioned for divorce, claiming abusive behavior. Gesualdo continued to focus solely upon his music, and eventually slipped into bouts of depression. Whether this depression was related to the guilt over his multiple murders is difficult to prove, but the evidence is suggestive. "The evidence that Gesualdo was tortured by guilt for the remainder of his life is considerable, and he may have given expression to it in his music. One of the most obvious characteristics of his music is the extravagant text setting of words representing extremes of emotion: "love", "pain", "death", "ecstasy", "agony" and other similar words occur frequently in his madrigal texts, most of which he probably wrote himself. While this type of word-painting is common among madrigalists of the late 16th century, it reached an extreme development in Gesualdo's music." (Wikipedia)

Gesualdo's music was known for its shocking chromatic juxtapositions that push the limits of tonality in a manner that would not be seen again until the 19th century with the works of composers such as Mahler, and not fully realized until the development of atonal music with Schoenberg. Gesualdo's musical output was largely focused upon secular and sacred madrigals, a vocal form employing multiple voices (initially unaccompanied) employed in a polyphonic manner. The form would eventually be absorbed into the cantata and finally replaced by the aria with the development of the opera.

Gesualdo's later madrigals were largely madrigali spirituali or madrigals based upon sacred texts. The particular music performed in this recording is a collection of madrigals built upon the text from the Passion and used for the Tenebrae (a Latin term for "darkness" or "shadows"), a service held before Good Friday and marking the death of Christ. This particular grouping was entitled Tenebrae Responsoria employed particularly sharp dissonance and shocking chromatic juxtapositions, especially in the parts highlighting text passages having to do with Christ's suffering, or the guilt of St. Peter in having betrayed Jesus... and echoing (perhaps) the composer's own deep-seated guilt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVW8GCnr9-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZAs9LjJAHU

[OrphanPip]

I love madrigals my favorite is "Lamento della Ninfa" composed by Montiverdi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ZX5hFN-is

[stlukesguild]

I recebtly gave a second listen to Daniel Catán's opera, Rappaccini's Daughter... followed almost immediately by still another listening.



I cannot recommend this opera enough. Catán is a contemporary Mexican composer currently living in the US. Rappaccini's Daughter was the first opera composed by a Mexican to be performed in the US and his next opera, Florencia en el Amazonas was the first original Spanish-language opera to be commissioned by a major US venue and the most successful original opera ever staged in the history of the Houston opera (which commissioned the work).

Rappaccini's Daughter is based upon the Mexican poet, Octavio Paz' dramatization of the original story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The tale has all the making of a classic opera: an impossible love, a jealous father, a tragic ending... and absolutely exquisite music. Catán has been called a Neo-Romatic and a Neo-Impressionist... and there are elements of both Romaticism and Impressionism in this work: melodies are rich, broad, and expansive, drifting along like spun gold... shimmering with sensual, exotic... even erotic tonal delight and rising to blissful crescendos. The scoring glows with a painterly use of orchestration. I that anyone with a bias against contemporary classical music would be more than enthralled... especially considering the grossly inexpensive price of the Naxos edition of the premier recording of the highlights from this work.

Looking for more info on Catán after having been admittedly seduced, I discovered that the composer has attained something of a reputation as the leading Latin-American operatic composer and has received the most glowing reviews from any number of esteemed music critics. Outside of Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar...



...(and perhaps not even that) I cannot think of a recent opera... or symphonic work of any genre... that has so immediately captivated me.

Catan's next opera, Florencia en el Amazonas was afforded a lavish production by the Huston Grand Opera including a much-more lavishly produced recording:



Florencia continues Catan's exploration or embrace of the Latin-American tradition of "magic realism". The libretto was written byMarcela Fuentes-Berain, herself a literary collaborator with Gabriel Garcia- Marquez. She describes the libretto of Florencia as an homage to Garcia-Marquez.

The narrative of the opera is based upon a classic theme: the strange (river) voyage as a source of danger, wonder, and ultimately, self-discovery. The main character, Florencia, is an opera singer returning home after a long and successful career and seeking her long lost love, Cristobal, the butterfly catcher. Fellow travelers include Riolobo, a magical creature who takes multiple forms; Paulo and Alvaro, a married couple who need to learn once more how to love; Rosalbo, a journalist writing a book on Florencia and his nephew and apprentice, Arcadio... who both discover love.

The music of Florencia again builds upon late Romantic and Impressionist traditions ala Puccini with broad, lush, sweeping melodies punctuated by the dissonances of Stravinsky, Bartok, and other Modernist composers. Catan avoids the rigorous formalist intellectual "games" of composers such as Schoenberg and focuses instead upon music... sweet... bittersweet... and even dissonant... that appeals to and conveys the emotional core. Once again... while Catan's work may not tear previous conventions apart... it is incredibly beautiful and seductive and suggests that the modern artist/composer may still produce something that is more than accessible to the audience while still achieving something of real aesthetic merit.

[stlukesguild]

I'm currently listening to one of the most delightfully decadent recordings I have come across recently: Opium: Mélodies françaises...



...a collection of French songs magically performed by the countertenor, Philippe Jaoussky. This disc presents performances of songs by Reynaldo Hahn, Jules Massenet, Gabriel Faure, Ernest Chausson, Camille Saint-Saëns, Cesar Franck, etc... the greatest composers of France of the fin de siecle. These songs represent a rare and heady bouquet... perfumed and laden with the silk and satin and velvet of the French salons. The lyrics are commonly drawn from the delicate poems of French symbolism: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarme, etc... while the music speaks of the sophisticated and artificial world of the French ballet... the theater... the opera... and of the sun-dappled world of Impressionism.

Jaroussky takes these songs to an even greater height of decadence with his high falsetto. Along with Andreas Scholl, Alfred Deller, and Rene Jacobs, Jaroussky is one of a recent number of highly talented countertenors who are taking their vocal range into an oeuvre previously reserved to sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and tenors... or even baritones. The artificially high male voice almost immediately recalls the use of castrati and/or young male choir-boy vocalists in the operas and other vocal works of the baroque age. Jaroussky brings a sense of the extreme artifice of Rameau and French Baroque to the 19th century Parisian salons. While I would not be without the performances of such mezzos and sopranos as Cecilia Bartoli, Janet Baker, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Dawn Upshaw in the performance of these works, Jaroussky admittedly brings an added edge of decadence... artifice... and debaucheries to this delicate French bon-bons. I'll most certainly need to follow ths up with something unequivocally muscular/masculine... perhaps a Beethoven symphony or even some Rolling Stones.

Highly Recommended!

[stlukesguild]

Currently I am listening to the works of Domenico Scarlatti. Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer born into a family of composers. His father was the famous Alessandro Scarlatti, a well-known composer of cantatas and operas. Domenico, who spent much of his career in Spain, put most of his genius into the production of 555 keyboard sonatas. Originally written for harpsichord they are equally splendid played upon piano, as in this recording by Mikhail Pletnev. Scarlatti's sonatas were famously described by the Italian poet, Gabriele d'Annunzio as comparable to the sound made when a necklace breaks and the glistening pearls rain down in a resounding hail bouncing and rolling about like precious bubbles or drops of watery beauty. This poetic description almost perfectly describes Scarlatti's sonatas for indeed they suggest shimmering and dancing gems... a light dancing rain of exquisite musical notes. Scarlatti was a peer of J.S. Bach... but his sonatas have none of the almost mathematical perfection and complexity and density of Bach. What they do have is a delicacy and fluidity that is quite different from the great German composer and a joy to hear.

[Gladys]

Scarlatti was a peer of J.S. Bach... but his sonatas have none of the almost mathematical perfection and complexity and density of Bach. What they do have is a delicacy and fluidity that is quite different from the great German composer and a joy to hear.

I seem to remember reading that the radical Scarlatti was a major influence on the great Beethoven.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Oh my god!!! I've just found out that I have access to the entire Naxos online music library via my university log in!!! 37,000+ classical CDs!!! I'm certainly a lucky fellow, but wish I would have found out five years ago...

Current listening to:



I can't recommend the Naxos site enough and if you can't get access via a university link it may well be worth looking into subscribing, there is a free trial period for anyone interested who can't get access. I don't know what to listen to next, this is crazy...!!!!!!!

[Emil Miller]

There are many great performances of the Berlin Philharmonic on YouTube but this performance is simply the most astounding of them all. The ensemble playing defies belief. The video is truly outstanding with the cross-cutting between the players a tour de force in itself. Ravel's orchestration of the original piano score is pure genius; listen at 8.07 where the music starts to float in like waves from a distant horizon before being transformed into the massive chords of the glorious finale.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3rUbxbwGGg

[stlukesguild]

Lucky you on the Naxos access. Naxos has, from my understanding, the largest body of classical recordings of any record company. They are also a great budget label. The only downside to Naxos is that as a budget label there are little or no frills: limited liner notes, boring cover art, and no superstar performers and orchestras. This last aspect means that they are rarely the first (or second or third for that matter) choice for major symphonic works, operas, etc... On the other hand... they often are the only choice for new and relatively unknown composers. You should check out Naxos for Modern American composers such as David Diamond, John Corigliano, Ned Rorem, Roy Harris, Virgil Thopson, and even Leonard Bernstein (the recent recording of Bernstein's Mass with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has been garnering glorious reviews. Indeed... anything by Alsop, a Bernstein protege, is worth looking into. Naxos is also good for English composers such as Bax who have only recently been given attention by the big name orchestras. Among their best offerings I would count the East European Modernists such as Penderecki, Martinu, Takemitsu, and even Arvo Part. They also offer some of the only recordings of secondary composers such as Stamitz, Kromer, etc... Anything with the Oxford Camerata is also not to be missed... indeed the whole of their medieval collection is great. I think the peak of their collection, however, has to be the Complete String Quartets by Haydn performed by the fabulous Kodaly Quartet. Not only do these performances hold their own against the bigger names (the Emerson Quartet, the Takacs Quartet, the Fitzwilliam Quartet, etc...) but they set the standard. They are simply put, the best performances available of these works... and Haydn, it might be noted, was both the father of the symphony and the string quartet. I seriously have more recordings on Naxos than on any other label with the exceptions of Deutsche Grammophon and EMI (although Chandos... with their incredible high standards for performance and recording are rapidly becoming my new favorite).

[stlukesguild]

There are many great performances of the Berlin Philharmonic on YouTube but this performance is simply the most astounding of them all. The ensemble playing defies belief.

Is there any orchestra that can possibly compete with the Berlin Philharmonic? Especially under Karajan?

[LitNetIsGreat]

Thanks a lot Stlukes, I'll check those out for sure and have copied your post. I'm a lost chicken with all the choice at the moment - it certainly more than makes up for my computer misery! I've gone through about six or seven CDs already, though have come back to Bach's 6 Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord again and again, though I have not limited myself solely to Bach, but this performance for me (although I am far from an expert) is absolutely delightful:



I'm pleased you have praised the particular Haydn recording, I've been listening to a little Haydn recently so I put that one close to the top of my pile. Thank you.

[stlukesguild]

I've gone through about six or seven CDs already, though have come back to Bach's 6 Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord again and again...

I'm spoiled. I came to these through the playing of the brilliant Arthur Grumiaux... although I'll admit I prefer the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin which must be heard performed by Nathan Milstein or Henryck Szeryng.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ7bL...DCC9F8&index=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPtGo...eature=related

[stlukesguild]

I'm currently listening to Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's absolutely thrilling performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no. 4. One of those "desert island" discs... the only version of the Ravel you will ever need. Insanely, this recording is currently out of print in the EMI catalog... although it is still available as a download.



Damn! Ravel should have written more. More piano concertos... more music in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0epYg...eature=related

The Adagio from the Ravel is one of the most achingly beautiful. There is a live version of Michelangeli playing this on YouTube but the sound is rather poor and too much audience coughing! compared to the studio recording. I quite like this version from the BBC Proms.