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Naxos has what appears to be (currently) 10 volumes of Weiss' lute music marvelously performed by the acclaimed Robert Barto. The music is indeed captivating... delicate... magical. I will surely pick up a few of these recordings. I've only recently got around to getting the Bach lute suites (on lute... I've had them on guitar for some time).
Hi stlukesguild,Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Yes, Weiss's music is so nice. I found this today on youtube -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4I2kZM_JWY
Regards
Always... always... always... I return to Bach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QuNZHTG-tM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRnA8VaFzD8
Movements 1 and 3 from Cantata no. 82
To think that Bach churned out cantata after cantata... week after week... with such absolutely brilliant and moving music... just boggles the mind.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4110/...0fe5fd49_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/...39974fee50.jpg
J.S. Bach
Magnificat
Gloria patri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejOaUn0Ub5o
Too true Stlukes, too true.Quote:
Always... always... always... I return to Bach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QuNZHTG-tM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRnA8VaFzD8
Movements 1 and 3 from Cantata no. 82
To think that Bach churned out cantata after cantata... week after week... with such absolutely brilliant and moving music... just boggles the mind.
I've been comforting myself again with Mozart's 26th Piano Concerto:
First movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3stLTO64ADs
I think the reason I like this is that it was one of the first classical CDs I bought - I think I picked it up at random on a whim! I've played it over and over again throughout the years. It's also got the 23rd on. I'm more than happy that it is being played live into a couple of months - must remember to find it out and book it.
It's a nice piece. A few weeks ago I looked at the original (so-called 'autograph') score. Strange the second and third movements of this concerto are not even in Mozart's handwriting and the work itself was never published in his lifetime. (Like 500 other works published in his name up to decades after his death). Nor have any performance parts of this concerto ever been found. But that's true of all the Vienna concertos. Apart from that there are only 200 reasons why this piece is not by Mozart. Wonder why the left hand part is missing for almost the entire work, for example.
But the music itself is very nice and I like it a lot. Sometimes the actual authorship doesn't seem to matter. As we see here.
Regards
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neely
Yes Friedrich Gulda was particularly noted for his performances of Mozar but, unfortunately, like millions of others, he was swayed by the politically manufactured zeitgeist of the 1960's and became the ludicrously self-advertising clown of the concert circuit. There are many pianists, just as worthy of consideration, who lack the self-advertising showmanship of the late Mr Gulda.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neely
Oh don't start all that up, no offense of course.:smile5: (To musicology)
Yes it's a nice piece - I'm not saying it is his best work (or to you want is termed as Mozart's best) but it is just one of those that I've had for ages that plays easily and always goes down well.
Oh right, I'm not that familar with him. The CD I have is not Gulda though, I just posted that as an example.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
As with many works of the core repertoire one almost needs to sample different interpretations. I have a good number of the insurmountable recordings by Alfred Brendel... but I also have selections by Vladimir Ashkenazy, Robert Levin's HIP recordings with John Eliot Gardiner, Mitsuko Uchida, Rudolf Serkin, and Murray Perahia. I am truly enthralled with Perahia's recordings... of Bach and Beethoven... as well as the acclaimed Mozart... and so I am looking at the complete box set. I am also looking at the Gardiner set for period instruments... but then there's rather pricey... but continually acclaimed recordings by Viviana Sofronitzki which I have never heard.
Touring YouTube I found these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxk50KlKmc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0Hd2GsR30
Quite nice... but of course the sound quality is limited on YouTube.
Hi there Neely,
No offence of course. The only thing that offends me about Mozart's piano concertos is that most people don't get offended by them being performed, published and described as Mozart's for almost two centuries. But, apart from that, we are in complete agreement. The Sirens of Homer were definitely less seductive.
(I think the Gulda version of Concerto 20 and 21 on DG is specially wonderful)
Regards
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neely
I was curious: has anyone on this thread watched movies about composers multiple times specifically for the music? I've probably watched Immortal Beloved at least ten times, just because the drama seemed to lend different sort of weight to the music than when I'm just listening to it with my eyes closed. The flashback scene of teenage Ludwig running through the forest to escape his father and wading in the lake during the ninth never fails to give me goosebumps.
I think that there are any number of scenes from films... not merely those on composers... that resonate with the mind as a result of the merger with the music. Surely Hitchcock might be credited with giving birth to the one real commercially viable employment of Modernist/atonal music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5j...eature=related
the horror film.
Masterful uses of music in film include:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx7XNb3Q9Ek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx07A...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWnmCu3U09w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIxLEpgRngk
Indeed, there are many great uses of music in film. Even if you limited the choice of music to "classical", there are many films that have wonderfully scored scenes. One of my personal favorites:Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC2UB...eature=related
Not to mention amazing original orchestral scores where both the scene and the songs are inseparable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Y49...eature=related
I suppose I highlighted composer bio pics like Immortal Beloved or, say, Amadeus (as inaccurate as this particular film might be) because in most cases they focus on one composer's music throughout the film, and because of the particular feeling one gets when watching a sketch of the composers life played to his (her?)own music.
Most bio pics of composers are usually romanticised beyond recognition if one has read the known facts about them. Occasionally there is a genuine attempt to portray them as they were. The following is an extract from a famous British TV production made many years ago about Edward Elgar, generally considered to be England's greatest composer. It shows the last scene where recollections of his life cross his mind as he lies dying within sight of Worcester cathedral to the strains of Nimrod, one of his Enigma Variations and one of the greatest pieces of music composed anywhere and by anyone you care to name.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfP6auxiUOI
I rediscovered my love for cellist Stephen Isserlis last night while I was struggling through Bordieu. The only recording I have of him is a collaboration with Joshua Bell and the Takacs Quartet. They played some Ravel and Chausson, if I remember correctly.
Can anyone recommend more stuff by him?
By coincidence I was listening to him playing on BBC3 radio a couple of hours ago where they gave a rave review of his recording of the Bach Cello Suites.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilde woman
I couldn't find him playing on You tube but here's Yo Yo Ma in Suite No.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZn_VBgkPNY
Yo-Yo Ma is great. I've had the opportunity to see him perform the entire Bach cello suites some years ago. My favorites for these works are Pierre Fournier:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmQwkvlwjTA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQg2T...eature=related
and of course Rostropovitch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR9lC...eature=related
I personally prefer the slower, darker interpretations... but I would not be without Rostropovitch' fluid and fiery interpretation.
Current Listening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5fRjrTtb0M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR6m4...ext=1&index=10
Ach!!! Bach!!!:)
I was listening to one of my Pandora stations yesterday, and I heard Steve Reich's Cello Counterpoint and I was really feeling it. I thought, "Finally, something from the last sixty years which I actually enjoy!" But when I went to find a clip for it on youtube, all I could find were substandard amateur versions that didn't give me anything like what I first felt.
Masaaki Suzuki
Bach Collegium Japan
Opening Movement
St John Passion
BWV 245
April 2000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ0Vg...eature=related
This recording of a concert given in 1948 has all of the worst effects of a poor acoustic and, by present day standards, a primitive recording process.
Toscanini's recordings with the NBC Symphony orchestra are bedeviled by bad acoustics but despite that, the sheer brilliance of his conducting shines through; notwithstanding the ongoing dispute regarding tempi.
The ending to this video is as colossal as Wagner's vision of music's possibilities in conveying the greatness that humans aspire to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InPRlxxOpOc
Well, I'm delighted at the moment. After being handed a fist-full of Amazon vouchers the other day for participating in a particularly nasty neuroscience experiment (have you ever had your brain electrocuted? It's very painful, I can assure you...), I splurged on the complete works of Chopin (having previously owned only a CD of the etudes).
Even as I type this, the opening bars of the first piano concerto are filling the room. It was worth every second of pain!
What is confirmed by Music is that God has given us a strong mind. And, as for this mad world, what care we ?
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind
2 Timothy 1:7
Concerto
BWV 1051/1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecteWNfxYR8
Brandenburg 3
BWV 1048/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXBmy...eature=related
:smile5:
Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva -2010 winner of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
Frederic Chopin - Concerto No. 1
2nd Movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96kbY...ayer_embedded#!
While I don't buy any of Robert's conspiracy theory nonsense concerning Mozart and Haydn, I must admit that the era of music known as the "classical era" in which Mozart and Haydn were the dominant composers is perhaps the least appreciated... and least explored of all the eras in classical music. Romanticism, Post-Romanticism, and Early Modernism seem to be the most popular with the classical music listeners for a variety of reasons. The music is often quite emotional and dynamic and the orchestration incredibly varied and rich. The composers of the era include an incredible range: Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Chopin, Wagner, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Bizet, Offenbach, Puccini, Verdi, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Stravinsky, Ravel, etc... An incredible wealth of musical genius.
It has only been since the mid-80s and the development of the historically informed performances (HIP) which stressed performances of music employing appropriate instruments, numbers of performers, and performing styles that the interest in "early music" (music from the Baroque and earlier) has blossomed. Among the realm of classical music their are now endless early music and Baroque music fanatics. As a result, not only have we found the work of J.S. Bach become recognized as perhaps the greatest achievement in the whole of Western music... but we have uncovered the incredible depth of Handel beyond the Messiah and Water Music and Vivaldi beyond the Four Seasons. Composers such as Jan Dismas Zelenka, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Georg Philipp Telemann, Alessandro and Domenic Scarlatti, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean-Baptiste de Lully, jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dieterich Buxtehude, and Claudio Monteverdi have all been recognized as musical geniuses. Even a great many composers have been unveiled from the Renaissance and Medieval periods: Carlo Gesualdo, Hildegard of Bingen, Leonin, Perotin, Purcell, Melani, Ockeghem, Sylvius Weiss, Oswald von Wolkenstein, Guillaume de Machaut, Lorenzo da Firenze, John Dunstaple, Guillaume Dufay, Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd, etc...
The classical eras however...? This is a period that outside of a few towering giants seems to get little attention. I must admit that I am no better here. Like a great many, I began to develop my classical music collection with the central canonical figures. After this, I began to flesh out the collection with composers from the Romantic, Post-Romantic, and Early Modernist periods. Over the last several years I have made a conscious effort to explore late Modern and contemporary composers as well as baroque, Renaissance, and Medieval composers. But the "classical era"? In spite of my admitted love of Mozart and Haydn I must admit to but a scant effort at further exploration.
Of course it seems as if the arts of the 18th century as a whole are lacking any real love. Few art lovers prefer Rococo or Neo-Classicism to Romanticism, Impressionism, or Modernism. Even fewer literary buffs seem to prefer Pope, Swift, Johnson, Voltaire, or Gibbons to Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, Blake, Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, etc...
The general ignorance of the music of the "classical era" is sad because there are indeed some marvelous composers beyond Mozart and Haydn. I have just begun to explore Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Hummel was virtually of the same generation as Beethoven... the late classical era. He was a pupil of Mozart and studied with Salieri before being recommended by Haydn for a position in the court of Prince Esterházy (the same court at which Haydn had long been employed). He made whirlwind tours of Europe and was recognized as one of the most highly regarded composers and musicians. Today he often seems to be known for little more than his famous trumpet concerto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBRwz...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR8H8...eature=related
But Hummel also composed some wonderful piano concertos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dool...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VSZ2...eature=related
But as a great choral music fan I am most intrigued with Hummel's choral work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgd4fOR49w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYQCHbtRgBg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bOoe...eature=related
Hummel is clearly someone to explore in greater depth... as is the whole of the classical era.
I have just listened to the 2nd and 3rd movements and, as always, am bowled over by this music. Avdeeva is wonderful in her authoritative account of this great romantic piano composition. Thanks for posting it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
I assume, stlukes, you're saying that the classical-era composers, other than Mozart and Haydn, are undervalued. Or do you include Mozart and Haydn there?
Considering that Mozart is generally ranked among the "3 Immortals" (Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart) and generally thought to only have been surpassed by Bach, I don't see that he could possibly be undervalued. Haydn might be undervalued by those with little or no real appreciation of classical music... but he is generally credited with establishing the form of the string quartet, his piano sonatas may surpass Mozart's (whose were written more often for students than for himself), his final symphonies form a bridge from Mozart to Beethoven, and his choral works are spectacular. What I am suggesting is that whereas many classical music collections include a large array of composers from the Romantic, Post-Romantic, and Early Modern periods... and where the Baroque is no longer limited to Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi... the classical era seems largely ignored outside of Haydn and Mozart.
Thanks for explaining. I've just become obsessed with Mozart, but I've never listened to any Haydn other than "The Creation". What are his best works?
I've never listened to any Haydn other than "The Creation". What are his best works?
His choral work is fabulous: The Lord Nelson Mass, Harmoniemesse, Paukenmesse, Theresienmesse, St. Cecilia Mass, Great Organ Mass... and of course his other oratorio, The Seasons.
Among his symphonic work, the last 12 symphonies, known as the London Symphonies are magnificent... but another great selection can be found in this set:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/...583eec9c87.jpg
Of his "smaller" or more intimate compositions the string quartets are his greatest achievement... and the Kodaly Quartet which records for the budget label, Naxos, are top-notch... often unrivaled. Among the best quartets are the Seven Last Words (of Christ), Op. 76, Op. 77, and Op. 103
I have the complete piano sonatas but would recommend starting with any number of fine performances of selected sonatas. The sets by Marc-Andre Hamelin, Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Alain Planès and especially Alfred Brendel are all to be recommended.
After these...? The cello concertos are perhaps next in line followed by the piano trios.
I think we can include Beethoven under the label of 'classical', surely? And there's certainly an argument for considering Schubert as a bridging force between the classical and romantic period.Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
That would give us four noted composers: Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert. While they may be dwarfed in number by all the Romantic composers, I suspect that these four would find a place on almost anybody's 'Top 10' list of composers. I think we have a quality/quantity problem here...
St Luke's Guild writes -
''While I don't buy any of Robert's conspiracy theory nonsense concerning Mozart and Haydn''
No, but you 'buy in' to the fraternal nonsense of the Mozart/Haydn paradigm instead. And that's great. So did I. For most of my youth and adulthood. The difference between us is I started to realise I knew as much of 18th century music as I did of that from Classical Greece or Imperial Rome. Which was close to zero. That was my starting position. Quite a humbling experience after a decade of compliling notes on Mozart - all the time accepting them at face value as honest, truthful accounts, you may agree. Now, if a person admits to being ignorant of more than 99.9% of all music of an entire period (even the period of Josef Haydn and Mozart), and finally discovers for himself/herself (by spending many years on it) that dozens, even hundreds of musical works attributed to Josef Haydn and Mozart are not actually by Josef Haydn or W.A. Mozart would he/she not be right to conclude at that point (at least for himself) that there is a problem ? Would they not be in a position, as they studied these works in detail and from many angles, over decades (plus what has been said and written of them ad nauseum by the monochrome perpetuators of the Mozart cult) that they could predict there would be problems in each and every work they studied from that time onwards, in advance of actually examining them, chronologically, that is ? Which is precisely what we find, in reality ! What conclusion would we draw from that experience ?
Let us suppose, however, we have been vaccinated against 'conspiracy theories' of any kind. So that we subscribe wholesale to the 'source documents' and to 'convention' (whatever that means). What 'source documents' are these ?
Let's take a famous work. The opera 'Le Nozze di Figaro'. You can see the autograph for yourself. It's even being sold in reproduction by the Packard Institute on the internet. Wow ! See it for yourself ! There it is - indisputable evidence of Mozart's musical genius. The icon himself. From 1786. Right before your very eyes. The ACTUAL musical score. Who could argue with that ? I mean, a million experts can't be wrong, can they ? (What 'experts' is never said).
http://mozartfacsimiles.org/mf/samples.html
Well, the first thing is, it's NOT actually an 'autograph' score ! Let me repeat this. It's NOT an 'autograph' score at all. It was actually made years later. In fact 'Le Nozze di Figaro' was first published long after the time of Mozart's death. But let's not spoil the party. Let's continue to reject all conspiracy theory and take ourselves to the Austrian National Library. Where, if you are polite enough and rich enough, you can make a microfiche of the little known, ACTUAL, musical score used in Vienna at the premiere of 'Le Nozze di Figaro' on 1st May 1786. It's quite a document, you may agree. Does that matter ? Surely it does ! But not in 'Mozart Studies'. It's kept there in that library in 2 volumes. Strange, yes ? What does this document show us ? I mean, is it relevant ? Well, the first thing you will find out is nobody studies it ! Not even the Mozarteum in Salzburg !! Nor do any publications on that work in print. They never have. Isn't that strange ? There are no articles on its contents. Not one. Nor has anyone else examined it. Strange, yes ? Till 2008. When its contents were at last examined independently by Bianchini/Trombetta of Italy (experts in 18th century opera) and their published report was shown to an amazed Mozartean 'establishment'. And nor has anyone else studied that score today in the entire Mozart world of 'expertise' ! Strange, yes ? But if this is not strange, then, let's look for a definition of what 'strange' means. On such a world famous opera.
Let's forget conspiracy theories and now examine the contents of this particular document. This being the actual score used at the Vienna premiere in May of 1786. Wow ! What does it contain ? It contains so many clear examples of basic musical errors that it's virtually unplayable/unperformable. Ask ANY teacher of music to examine it for you and listen to their judgement on its contents. Perhaps this explains why this very production was booed and hissed off the stage there in Vienna in a few days during that May of 1786 in Vienna ? (Since the newspapers of the time said so). It's nothing but a hastily made and clumsy ARRANGEMENT of music that already existed with a German (yes, German) text. Newly cobbled together as an Italian language arrangement by Mozart and his friend Lorenzo da Ponte for that 'premiere' of May 1786. As an 'autograph' of that music it's sheer nonsense. But that's exactly what Mozart/da Ponte made and provided for that Vienna 'premiere'. So much for the 'autograph', yes ?
Let's ignore such damning evidence. Let's continue to celebrate the genius of Mozart regardless of actual evidence, on score after score, chapter after chapter, of indisputable, documentary, verifiable evidence. And let's not subscribe to 'outrageous conspiracy theories'. Let's subscribe, instead, to conspiracy facts.
Let us, during this transition period, above everything else, pretend we are 'educated' and 'cultured' while the entire universe fills itself with fantasies, fakes, wholesale exaggerations and false attributions on W.A. Mozart alone, from items K1 to KV 626 in the Mozart catalogue. And, as for criticism (an essential part of any valid science or academic study) let us leave such irrelevancies to one side in our conservative, elitist fashion, while the entire music industry laughs its way to the bank, and while the corporate delusion continues, at the expense of the education of students, of course - also ignoring (in our time honoured fashion) the lives and musical achievements of countless unknown composers. Whose music goes unperformed, unpublished and completely ignored decade after decade and century after century. This, we believe, is 'culture' and 'education'.
Welcome to the new world order of fraternal control of what is taught, believed and performed in the name of the Salzburg 'genius' - and of musical achievement - ('genius' being a term never defined, of course, and applying only to the cardboard creation of the usual mythmakers of western civilization).
I do not blame you. Teddy bears and Mozart are much more cuddly and iconic than the hard job of convincing St Luke's Guild that honesty actually matters. That music and its history matters also. But that's my priority. It always has been - to persuade those who care to examine the evidence (evidence of many kinds) there is a subject worthy of their attention.
Thank you to Brian - the Chopin was wonderful, yes ?
Herr Bach
Aria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWKCV...eature=related
and -
Aria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW9Wl...eature=related
Regards
Robert... the problem with your theories is that you cite endless documents as proof of your position that no one except musicologists and music historians would care to investigate or refute. And yet you have not convinced the least percentage of those who are indeed experts in the field. Of course you counter that this is but proof of how ingrained the conspiracy is... which puts the anyone else in a no win situation... or rather you would have the non-expert audience take your word... the word of an amateur... over that of all the professionals and experts in the field. If you had indisputable proof as to the falsehood of Mozart's achievements... or even enough proof to warrant serious doubts... there would be any number of academics jumping upon the information. But such is not the case. Until such time, I think I'll stick with the majority view of the "experts" in the field and believe that Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven wrote most of what is attributed to them, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, etc... and Niel Armstrong walked on the moon.
By the way... I don't see how the notion that a single composer wrote all that is attributed to Mozart or Haydn can be imagined as any more fantastic than the notion that J.S. Bach wrote all that is attributed to him. Hell, Bach's oeuvre dwarfs that of Mozart and Haydn combined. 224 cantatas alone... and this is just what has come down to us. There may have been as many as 400. Two complete passions with a Passion of St. Luke and passion of St. Mark largely lost. Some 10-15 CDs worth of solo music for the organ. Bach (and Handel) far away overwhelm me in terms of their musical output and its consistent high quality.
The problem with Robert's theory is his total "indifference" to historical facts, to then "hang it all on Rome" as if dogmas, and not other geopolitical differences, were behind 18th/19th centuries wars.
Here is his opinion on the "Mizler Music Society" of which Handel/Bach "both" were members:
One of the more remarkable 'coincidences' of musical history - you might care to examine the list of the members of the short-lived 'Korrespondierenden Sozietät der Musicalischen Wissenschaften' (Corresponding Society of the Musical Sciences) actually founded by young Mizler (actually managed by the Lucchesini clan and by others in 1738). (Lucchesinis being of course ecclesiastical elites in Rome and Marquis in Lucca before that).
Among the very few data known on this "G.Lucchesini" and his "Roman clan" is the fact that he, a servant of Rome(!), was Prussia's embassador to Paris in 1805, a critical year for Prussia's future(!!):
Only one solution remained whereby Prussia could take possession of Hanover: that it break with London and close the North Sea and Baltic ports to merchant ships sailing under the British flag. At length, Haugwitz was trapped and feared that further prevarication would cause Napoleon with each passing day to dictate stiffer terms to the proposed Treaty of Schönbrunn and refuse to grant tomorrow what he offered today. With a feeling of dread, he signed the new treaty on February 15. Naturally anxious to avoid the wrath of the King, the Queen and their advisors, Haugwitz chose the Prussian ambassador to Paris, the Marquis of Lucchesini, to take the dispatches to Berlin, where fearing that Napoleon would retract his offer of last resort, the treaty was ratified on February 25. When the news broke, a storm of outrage erupted in the Prussian capital, and the war faction, led by the Queen and Prince Louis Ferdinand, fuelled war hysteria with a stream of insult and abuse towards France in general and the Emperor in particular. Napoleon has all the more credit for persisting in his desire not to penalize Prussia too harshly despite its treachery and betrayal, given that two items of good news had arrived from across the English Channel… http://www.napoleonicsociety.com/english/chap17e.htm
Caveat emptor!
StLukesGuild,
You may be right. But the 'experts' seem to be on a long holiday and the 'endless documents' suggest why. Let's look through the widening gaps in their cardboard fence.
Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben
Werner Güra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEyT_...eature=related
Robert
The problem is that cultural fascism (a 'new kid on the block' only 200 years old and artificially bloated to enormous size by huge commerical and academic success at the hands of global occultism - this foisted on an unsuspecting world in the name of 'the history of music' and today posing as a genuine branch of musicology) has constructed and managed a carboard fence of their own design around music and musical achievement with minimal criticism - all done in the name of musicology - obscuring from view, by design, 99.99% of its reality by deliberate and indisputable acts of biographical and musical falsification, gross exaggeration, fraternal control, suppression, lack of criticism and biographical invention with the result having all the features of pagan idolatry - so we as consumers know less of it than the music of ancient Egypt, Babylon, China, Greece, or Imperial Rome. And we, in this most undeniable state of ignorance have the audacity to call it 'education' and 'western musical culture'. While its critics are ignored.Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
(The thing to do is look behind the gaping holes in their purple cardboard curtain. While its guardians, its 'experts' are on so long a holiday).
Better still, let's nail our findings to their 'church' doors. ! Please pass me a nail and hammer ! Then we can have a tea and laugh at it all.
LOL :smile5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEyT_...eature=related
Quote:
Originally Posted by yanni
Like the "classical era", the Baroque was largely ignored... with the exceptions of J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel... and for years there were limitations as to what was known of or accessible by these composers. In the mid-20th century there was a continual on-going dispute between hard-core Modernists and latent Romantics as to the direction music SHOULD take. The Modernists insisted that tonal music was dead and that any effort at tonal composition was but proof that the composer was a reactionary still stuck in the 19th century. Tonal composers, on the other hand, argued that Romanticism was the natural language of music while the majority of Modernism was but the un-listenable experimentation of composers living in an ivory tower.
At the height of this dispute, the younger generation of composers began to explore possibilities beyond this unsustainable dichotomy. They were especially attracted to non-Western musical traditions, and to earlier forms of the Western musical tradition that had been long ignored. One of the consequences of this renewed interest was the development of the Historically Informed Performance (HIP) approach to music... especially the Baroque. Conductors began to make serious study of the music of Baroque composers, the instruments they employed, the size of their musical ensembles, the manner of playing or singing. With this movement the vast oeuvres of Vivaldi, Handel, and especially J.S. Bach were uncovered... and given new life. At the same time, other worthy composers... the compatriots of Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi were "rediscovered": Rameau, Monteverdi, Domenico and Alessandro Scarlatti, Lully, Zelenka, Palestrina, Sweelinck, Buxtehude, Couperin, Byrd, Purcell, Dowland, and many more.
One of the giants of the Baroque era was the composer, Johann Adolph Hasse. Hasse and Telemann were perhaps the two most dominant composers of the era. Hasse was born near Hamburg and traveled to Naples in his early twenties where he began to develop the more "Italianate" style to his music. He studied with Alessandro Scarlatti, became friends with Pietro Metastasio, the leading opera librettist of the era, and married the soprano Faustina Bordoni. He was appointed Kapellmeister at the powerful and culturally sophisticated Dresden court, a position which J.S. Bach envied as a result of the quality musical establishment Dresden maintained. Bach is thought to have attended the premiere of Johann Adolf Hasse's opera Cleofide, and spoken well of it, while his son C.P.E. Bach suggests that his father and Hasse became good friends.
In spite of his position as Kapellmeister, Hasse continued to travel extensively... especially throughout Italy... but including extended periods spent in Vienna, Poland, and Paris. In Venice and Naples his operas were given lavish productions that made them the model for opera throughout Europe. He became a beloved by many of the European courts. He was the favorite Marie-Theresa, Empress of the Habsburg Empire during his stay in Vienna, two of his operatic arias were performed every night for a decade for Philip V of Spain, and many of his flute concertos were written for Frederick the Great, a keen flute player.
Hasse's reputation began to decline in his later years. Returning to Dresden after the Seven Years War, Hasse found much of his home destroyed and the musical apparatus of the court opera wrecked. His patron, the Emperor Friedrich August II died soon after and his successor, deemed elaborate musical events at the court superfluous. Hasse and Faustina were paid two years' wages and let go. Hasse returned to Vienna, but discovered that his music and the librettos of Metastasian were under attack by the avant garde reforms of Christoph Willibald Gluck. Hasse spent the final ten years of his life in Venice, teaching and composing sacred works. His music was almost completely forgotten following his death, with the exception of some of the sacred works which continued to be performed throughout Germany. It was only toward the end of the 20th century that the vast oeuvre of Hasse began to resurface along with that of many other Baroque composers.
Hasse's sacred works are surely quite lovely... and exhibit a theatrical, driving rhythm. His works exhibit elements that are at once Italianate in the lightness of touch and Germanicin their rhythmic solidity and complexity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEmeO9pF6c4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWutu...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfr_A...eature=related
Don't want to focus on Lucchesini and his 1805 appointment as Prussia's embassador to Paris?
I understand, the more so because his name is so closely related to Lucchesi* and "enlightment"!
Here is the late Taboga's reconstruction of Lucchesi's curious association with the electors of Kurkoeln, Haydn, Mozart and his brother in law, "Ferdinand d'Anthoin", all yours to interpret:
http://b7w.co.uk/Classical/Period/Classical/Luchesi.asp
*For laughs, Wikipedia: Andrea Luchesi was nominated official court Kapellmeister in 1774. He acquired the principality's citizenship and in 1775 married Anthonetta Josepha d'Anthoin, daughter of Maximilian Friederich's senior counselor. With the exception of a visit to Venice in 1783-84, he lived in Bonn until his death in 1801, although his role as Kapellmeister ended in 1794, when the French invasion troops suppressed the court.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
They certainly were but I wouldn't place a bet on their identity!Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Old Man River
Jim Croce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw_jU_WEK60
Giovanni Boccaccio:
Il Decameron Di Messer Giovanni Boccaccio
London-Thomas Edlin, 1725. Very Good Book A scarce edition of this famous and important work with an interesting provenance. Bound in leather with gilt lettering and decoration. This edition ofTheDecameron is a direct reprint of the 1527 edition, including the frontispiece and title page, with additional editorial matter. Includes two engraved plates, the frontispiece by Baron after Grisoni and a portrait of Boccaccio engraved by Auber. With the ink signature of Frederick Nicolay to the 1527 title page. Withthededication by Paolo Rolli. The three-pagelist of subscribers includes numerous eminent names. Paolo Antonio Rolli, 1687 1765, was an Italian librettistand poet. Hewas trained by Gian Vincenzo Gravina, andworked in London from 171544. He wrote librettos for numerous Italian operas, and worked frequently with composer Giovanni Bononcini. In addition to his work as a libretist, Rolli wrote poetry, cantata texts, satires and translations. Rolli published an Italian verse translation of Milton's Paradise Lost, widely considered the finest in any language. Frederick de Nicolay was born in Saxe-Gotha and died 16 May 1809 at St James Palace, London. Frederick was introduced to King George III, with whom he became a very great favourite, andremained ever after the confidential friend of both their Majesties, as well as of their family. He lived in St. James's Palace. Nicolay became Chief Clerk to the British Treasury. Condition: The binding is tight and firm. The front board is missing, and the rear board and free-endpaper are detached. There is wear to the extremities, including rubbing and discoloured marks, with loss to the spine, including the spine label. Internally however the pagesare brightwith only some intermittent light background spots, becoming prominent to the first few pages only as to be expected. The front free-endpaper has a very small section missing to the top corner. Overall the condition is fair but with a very good interior and would make a very good copy once rebound. Priced to allow for the excellent binding it deserves.
[Bookseller: Alibris]
Obviously a Saxegothan with strong links to pre 1725 Florence!
:angelsad2:
Mihali Mosonyi (1815-70)
Piano Concerto in E Minor
Hungarian Composer
(Excerpt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LUCs...eature=related
My grandfather years ago told me that he wanted this played at his funeral, though the Paul Robeson version:Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s
Let's hear it for Neely's grandfather, such a top fella. :gnorsi:
Still handing in there...