I've been listening repeatedly to a London Symphony Orchestra recording Brahms Serenade No. 1 in D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlY-c...eature=related
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I've been listening repeatedly to a London Symphony Orchestra recording Brahms Serenade No. 1 in D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlY-c...eature=related
Thanks for the Haydn suggestions, stlukes.
I'm currently listening to contralto Maureen Forrester singing Purcell songs and arias from Serse.
For anyone who loves Mozart's operas the recent series of recordings by Rene Jacobs are an absolute must. These historically informed performances bring a muscularity and a clarity to the music that is often obfuscated by performances employing large romantic-scale orchestras. Rene Jacobs' recordings have absolutely shaken up the world of Mozart's operas. Earlier operas that were once largely ignored such as La Clemenza di Titto, and Idomeneo Re de Creta are put forth which such clarity of thought and intensity that they are at last recognized for what they are, some of the greatest operas of the time... excepting only Mozart's own later efforts.
Currently I'm listening to the long awaited Jacobs recording of Die Zaubertflote (The Magic Flute), perhaps the most beloved... certainly the most magical and most tuneful of Mozart's operas. The deluxe packaging alone with a beautiful cardboard box with hidden storage panels and a 300+ page book with the full libretto are enough alone to seduce the Mozartian or general opera or classical music lover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkObIajZcTc
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1204/...be314b890c.jpg
Jacobs takes the work at a brisk pace... perfectly capturing the humor and unabashed joy of this work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keS32...eature=related
The sound quality... as should be expected of most Harmonia Mundi recordings... is spectacular. The stripped-down orchestrations allows one to hear all of the layers of Mozart's musical composition... even the piano forte continuo. The use of the piano forte continuo lends the music a music hall-like atmosphere... perfectly suited to this great "singspiel"The singers are splendid, if not quite of the caliber of Otto Klemperers recording with Christa Ludwig, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Nicolai Gedda, Walter Berry, and Gundula Janowitz, which is the standard by which all others are measured. Jacobs' singers, however are perfectly suited to their roles... and to his manner of performance. Daniel Behle's Tamino has a beautiful, aristocratic tenor. Daniel Schmutzhard has the ideal humorous intonation (and the perfect name:lol: ) needed to play Papageno. Marlis Peterson is a sweet and lovely voice to play Pamina... the love interest of the opera.
Of course the ultimate measure of any Magic Flute are the notoriously difficult arias of the Queen of the Night. Lucia Popp may forever own these as unrivaled in her lightness and fluidity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ufeyarJxNQ
Although much must be said for Patricia Petibon's recent emotion-laden recording of the Queen of the Night's arias:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNKEGjLSDpo
The Magic Flute remains one of my most beloved operas... it is quite likely my first choice for as my personal favorite. It was the first opera I ever watched ... in a production from the Vienna State Opera broadcast a good many years ago. It was the first opera I ever took my wife to... with the spectacular and truly magical set and costume designs by Maurice Sendak:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1351/...5118e0318b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1264/...4001de57_z.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1339/...19e396deb1.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/...64b22174bb.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1217/...6f7d3cc2a4.jpghttp://farm2.static.flickr.com/1256/...c48fb8d704.jpg
Otto Klemperer's version has long been one of my favorite opera recordings... with perhaps the greatest collection of singers ever amassed for a single production... And now Rene Jacobs new recording stands as the crowning jewel to his historically informed performances of Mozart.
Highly Recommended!:nod:
Yes, wonderful piece !!
Alexander GlazunovQuote:
Originally Posted by oshima
Symphony No. 4
1st Movement
(Start)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoqDw29LgyI
It is amazing how the musical technique of Brahms in this early work can be so readily recognised in the mature works of the composer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
As a germanophile I consider Brahms to be a truly great representative of German music, especially in his acknowledgement of Bach.
I was delighted to find on Youtube this wonderful work based on student drinking songs and dedicated to academia, which was my first introduction to this piece. If the ending doesn't thrill, the listener is obviously missing something. Barbirolli, Brahms and the musicians of the New York Philharmonic show that if human beings are worth anything it's performances such as these that prove it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJk2dfheyVw
Wonderful stuff Brian. And this -
Johannes Brahms
Variations on a Theme of Haydn
Berlin Philharmonic
Furtwangler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF9-x...eature=related
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) -
Secular Madrigal/Duetto
Zefiro Torna E Di Soavi Accenti
c. 1640
http://www.mediafire.com/?8ri8swbzerqnrjn
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
http://www.last.fm/music/Gustav+Mahler
Symphony No. 4
3rd Movement
Ruhevoll, poco adagio
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyw7b...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUlAW...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0uxQ...eature=related
Thanks for posting this Mahler, it is a symphony that I have neglected for his more frequently recorded works. It is quite magical and when Edith Mathis sings:Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
" Wir fuhren ein englisches Leben.
" Sind dennoch ganz lustig daneben."
I really did laugh out loud, remembering the fun I had in the Germany
of my younger days.
It's a quite wonderful symphony, yes ? One of those great works that never seems to end, and never should.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCsnp...eature=related
Jean SibeliusQuote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
Karelia Suite
Op.11 (1893)
Alla marcia
(Must take one every day, with fresh water) LOL !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIois...eature=related
Just been listening to Francesco Geminiani's wonderful cello sonatas, there's one here (not the same performance I've been listening to, from Naxos, but just thought I'd share it nevertheless).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWprj8JJMM8
I have recently been struggling to play this piece on the piano and have just found this video of the late Maureen Forrester singing it. I was blown away by her appearance in a performance of Mahler's 2nd symphony in London some years ago. Hers was truly a great voice as evidenced here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhN-fOdD7Jc
Jean Sibelius
Karelia Suite
Op. 11 (1893)
Opening
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Charles Mackerass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtIw5...eature=related
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto No. 1
1st Movement
Soloist: Murray Perahia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYg2FxJVN2c
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto No. 4
(End of 1st movement)
Soloist: Murray Perahia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdfpaMpRvpo
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto No. 3
Soloist - Murray Perahia
1st Movement (ending)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaiL0...ext=1&index=10
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto No 5
Second Movement
Adagio un poco mosso
Soloist: Murray Perahia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ideg2...eature=related
Johann Sebastian Bach
Magnificat
BWV 243
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUEFs...eature=related
JS Bach
Aria
Cantata 34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2JfLwVvcl8&NR=1
I've been spending the last hour or so listening to several different versions of Scarborough Fair, it's such a great song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JgaZ...eature=related
I'm in that mood...
It's Kreisler for me tonight, as I re-read King Lear.
Far, far above, and ever present.
Chorus from BWV 248
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLLYs...eature=related
Antonin Dvorak
Symphony
'From the New World'
Scherzo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSSVS...eature=related
Antonin Dvorak
Nocturne for String Orchestra in B Major
Op.40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DayCXpRoE_c
Does Kreisler's violin pair well with Lear, or is this simply coincidental? Your post makes me realize that I don't believe that this thread has ever involved a discussion of something I imagine its participants do constantly, which is listening to music while reading. Do people here consciously choose certain pieces to listen to when reading certain types of literature or specific literary works? Or are there musical pieces you associate with certain books or passages because you were listening to that music when you read them the first time? I often have music playing in the background while reading, and find it's important to have a fairly good match between the music and the text (though if I'm reading poetry for the first time or in a particularly attentive way I generally need to have a quiet room so that I can hear only the language). Sometimes when re-reading something I already know well I have a whole play list going and go back and forth between pieces as though I was making my own personal movie score for my reading experience. I know that when I was doing my reading for my oral exam year, I thought a lot about how to pair my music and my reading because pretty much all I was doing was listening to music and reading. A certain passage in Mozart's Requiem still reminds me of Camilla's death in the Aeneid, for example. I also tended to listen to certain types of scenes with the same piece. For example, for scenes of pleasure loving ladies tempting knights (something that happens a lot in Medieval literature) I tended to turn on the flower duet from Lakme:Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilde woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qx2lMaMsl8
or an appropriate excerpt from Wagner's Parsifal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ3gisZoIws
I found that an unintentional benefit to was that the music helped me remember where similar types of passages appeared in different works, which helped me in my exam. So...classical music as the path to doctoral exam success.
Does anyone else think about the music reading pairing thing, or am I just betraying my phenomenal geekiness? :D
I very rarely listen to music and read together at the same time. I will listen to music and do other things, like write or browse the internet, but when it comes to reading I like it quiet.
JS Bach
A Little 3 Part Invention in G Major
BWV 796/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdQu...eature=related
JS Bach
Invention in A Major
BWV 783
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc7Zk...eature=related
JS Bach
Chromatic Fantasy in D Minor
BWV 903/1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtKS5...eature=related
I went to a university-sponsered concert the other evening, where Raphael Wallfisch gave a complete run-through of Bach's cello suites. It was... not brilliant, and certainly not a patch on the previous year's visit by Pascal Rogé (who produced a very thoughtful programme of Chopin, Debussy and Fauré, and was probably the finest concert I have ever been to in my life).
I have a reasonably difficult relationship with Bach at the best of times, and the cello suites really aren't designed to be played back-to-back. Maybe I was expecting too much, but even my fairly average ears could pick out the many dissonances, wrong keys and off notes. Of course, the suites were not designed for a modern cello, which does make them harder to play. But Wallfisch himself seemed distracted... at times, we were listening to a world-class cellist playing beautifully, and at others he seemed to either be barely in control of his instrument, or else functioning on auto-pilot. His rendition of the 5th suite was utterly masterful (and worth the price of admission alone), but it seemed a completely different creature from his rather jarring, chaotic interpretation of the 2nd suite.
One of the friends who went with me is a musicologist, and he wasn't impressed either. But maybe the fellow was having a bad day? Who knows...
Anyway, right now I'm consoling myself (and putting off some work) with a wonderful selection of Saint-Saens that my friend has lent me - I'm really falling in love with his style.
Hi Lokasenna,
To me, those Cello Suites are often inaccessible. But at other times I really get in to them. It's a strange relationship I have with them.
The Rach Man arrived today via Amazon
Camille Saint-Saens is one of French music's great masters. The piano concertos are all worth hearing, not just the second, and his Organ Symphony is simply out of this world. I know it's become one of the standard symphonic works in the repertoire, but listening to it tells the listener more about France than reading any amount of books about the country.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lokasenna
It is geeky, but you're definitely not alone! :biggrin5: I'll usually put on classical when I'm reading for class, because I cannot focus if there are vocals. I favor the Romantics, so I'll consciously put on Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saens, or Dvorak. I noticed the other night that Carmina Burana seems to complement Beroul's Tristan, and Beethoven's piano sonatas made me a happy camper while I was reading Benjamin's Illuminations.Quote:
Does anyone else think about the music reading pairing thing, or am I just betraying my phenomenal geekiness? :D
But, like you, if I'm reading poetry, it has to be silent.
You know, you're right! I hadn't consciously thought to pair Lear with Kreisler (I was playing some of his shorter violin/piano pieces), but it put me in an especially good mood to read the play. The adjective that jumps to mind for me when I think of Kreisler is "sprightly", which definitely does NOT describe Lear, but I think it was such a nice contrast that it made for a productive reading experience.Quote:
Originally Posted by Petrarch's Love
I can definitely see that working well.Quote:
A certain passage in Mozart's Requiem still reminds me of Camilla's death in the Aeneid, for example.
Yes! Now I have a secret weapon! :smilewinkgrin:Quote:
So...classical music as the path to doctoral exam success.
Personally, I never hesitate myself from listening Shostakovich's symphonies. The ambiguity within his work thrills me very much. Besides, when I think about his uneasy relationship with Stalin during his reign in Soviet Union, I become mesmerized with his genius ability to reveal his hatred and loathsome towards Stalin.
Listen to the fourth movement of his fifth symphony. While Leonard Bernstein ends the symphony with a fast tempo, creating a hero's triumph over a conflict, Mravinsky slows down a bit, to emphasize the ugliness Shostakovich wants to depicts.
I couldn't agree more!Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
Samuel Barber
Violin Concerto
First Movement
Soloist - Hilary Hahn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2IPbc9Z6dA
Frederick Delius
Intermezzo 'La Calinda'
from
'Koanga'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6-UG...eature=related
George Butterworth
The Banks of Green Willow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOdFNwD_hPU
''There is this great difference between the works of men and the works of God, that the same minute and searching investigation, which displays the defects and imperfections of the one, brings out also the beauties of the other. If the most finely polished needle on which the art of man has been expended be subjected to a microscope, many inequalities, much roughness and clumsiness, will be seen. But if the microscope be brought to bear on the flowers of the field, no such result appears. Instead of their beauty diminishing, new beauties and still more delicate, that have escaped the naked eye, are forthwith discovered; beauties that make us appreciate, in a way which otherwise we could have had little conception of, the full force of the Lord's saying, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." The same law appears also in comparing the Word of God and the most finished productions of men. There are spots and blemishes in the most admired productions of human genius. But the more the Scriptures are searched, the more minutely they are studied, the more their perfection appears; new beauties are brought into light every day; and the discoveries of science, the researches of the learned, and the labours of infidels, all alike conspire to illustrate the wonderful harmony of all the parts, and the Divine beauty that clothes the whole''.
(Alexander Hislop)
Duet
Cantata 80/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2C6y...eature=related
Thanks for posting this video that I already posted some time ago on this thread. Although the music concerns the period when Delius was in the USA, it is essentially English in idiom. I think his music is sometimes over scored for the string section, which tends to slow down the music. La Calinda was re scored by the composer's amanuensis Eric Fenby and it is just perfect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
Antonio Vivaldi/J.S. Bach (arrangement)
Concerto
BWV 1065/3
English Concert
Trevor Pinnock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA1L0...eature=related
J.S. Bach
BWV 205/1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33nKaU7UDwE
J.S. Bach
Cantata 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkj4jf_yfvE
J.S. Bach
Cantata 70
Opening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bON6v...eature=related
J.S. Bach
Cantata 190
'Singet dem Herrn eine Neues Lied'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCgp0...eature=related
This is from the celebrated recording by Sir Thomas Beecham and a brilliant cast that included Victoria de Los Angeles and Jussi Bjorling. It may be the greatest recording of any opera at any time. Listen to Beecham's wonderful conducting, it is as perfect as it could be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icDRcc0mrIQ
Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841)
Guitar Concerto in A Major
3rd Movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmZGD...eature=related
Listening to the Rene Jacobs recording of Le nozze di Figaro. I've not listened to opera for a while, so a slight return is needed methinks.
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Minuet
Op.11 No. 5
(Orch)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fLPB...eature=related
This must surely be one of the greatest recordings ever made. I have loved it for years as it sets the standard for all others to follow and has yet to be bettered. Just an incredible performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdb94HbyRko
Henryk Górecki-(December 6, 1933 – November 12, 2010)
One of the great contemporary composers died Friday. Henryk Górecki was a Polish composer who became recognized as one of the leading figures of so-called "Holy Minimalism", the movement that included composers such as Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, John Rutter, Pēteris Vasks, Veljo Tormis, and Erkki-Sven Tüür:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/ar...B3recki&st=cse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_G%C3%B3recki
Henryk Górecki was most know for his incredibly moving, passionate... even harrowing Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)... surely one of the greatest works of classical music in recent times:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4
Other important works by the composer include the Quartet no. 3 (Songs are Sung):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiG1b__PFWo
and the Misere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_BgG9b9KrE
RIP
That one passage from Gorecki's 3rd symphony is alright, although as a matter of principle I am opposed to minimalism. Sometimes, I'll here a song of Philip Glass or somebody's and think, well that passage was alright. Then when I listen some more it's just repeated ad nauseam. I wouldn't accept that kind of laziness from a writer who fills a novel with one page of material, and I won't have it in my music.
I heard Borodin's 2nd symphony yesterday and liked it better.
Robert Schumann
Concerto in A Minor
3rd Movement
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Ernest Ansermet
Live Recording (1950)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmIEN...eature=related
Been listening to that opera recently tooQuote:
Originally Posted by Neely
That one passage from Gorecki's 3rd symphony is alright, although as a matter of principle I am opposed to minimalism. Sometimes, I'll here a song of Philip Glass or somebody's and think, well that passage was alright. Then when I listen some more it's just repeated ad nauseam. I wouldn't accept that kind of laziness from a writer who fills a novel with one page of material, and I won't have it in my music.
And yet you swear by that great American Minimalist, Hemingway.:D
Seriously, there is a huge difference between the American Minimalists who are more rigorously Minimalist in a strict formalist manner. The "Holy Minimalists", such as Gorecki, Tavener, and Part came to a more "minimal" style not as part of a formalist effort to strip music down to the bare essentials, but rather in response to older music... especially early choral music, chant, etc... In some ways, however, their efforts were just as daring in that the religious musical traditions they turned to were strictly prohibited by the Soviet/Communist regimes. The Polish composer, Penderecki began by embracing the examples of American Modernism as a form of rebellion against the limitations of the Polish Communist controls of music, but he would later turn to a more tonal... even "romantic" manner feeling that the Western Modernist represented just as great of a restriction upon musical expression. Many tied-in-the-wool Modernists dismiss Penderecki's later works as proof that the composer had sold out, but in reality, his embrace of tonalism and his focus upon music expressive of a deep-held faith was a form of rebellion against the limitations of both the Western Modernists and the Eastern Communists.
1) Don't let the name fool you. Minimalism in music and minimalism in literature are nothing alike. 2) Hemingway wasn't a minimalist.Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Frederic Chopin
Sonata No. 3
4th Movement
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti
(1947)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9C4VdwDWJo&feature=fvst
Franz Schubert
Impromptu D899/3
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSv0vC1vUbA
Frederic Chopin
Valse Brilliant
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r08Z...eature=related
J.S. Bach
Triple Concerto
BWV 1064/1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGNxFbeM6DU
Counter Tenor Andreas Scholl
'Agnus Dei'
B Minor Mass
BWV 232
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...CcQixNvg&gl=US
Le Concert Francais
Pierre Hantai
JS Bach
Orchestral Suite No. 4 (1st Movement)
BWV 1069/1
Wow !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukupd...eature=related
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11790085
2 missing Vivaldi Sonatas discovered