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Recently picked up 12 "transcendental" etudes by Liszt as performed by Alice Sara Ott. Being this is the first time I've heard these etudes, I can't say much about this interpretation, but I find her style graceful and elegant. Any suggestions for exceptional performances of these?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-R3aQlmN0
Anton Dvorak
Symphony No. 9
First Movement
'From the New World'
London Symphony Orchestra
Istvan Kertesz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R22PLfWDp48&feature=fvst
Doc Watson/Andy Griffith
Crawdad Hole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZ-esoK8J0
Currently listening to an old favorite from my teen years which I have not heard in some time: Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 1 ("Winter Dreams") which arrived yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seOq3JuUkjE
J.S. Bach
Air
From BWV 1068
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4O8...eature=related
Last week, I saw Olga Kern perform Rach's piano concerto #2 in brilliant fashion. Also on the menu were Dvorak's Carnival overture and Sibelius Symphony #1.
No classics for me tonight. I just got back from a birthday party at a local bar and I'm onto my fourth strong beer (this one is nearly 11%). It's Miles right now...
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probably followed by some good old blues.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/...713c17a395.jpg
And back on track today...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6TxTIkWAiY
Gardiner, as always, is more muscular... and admittedly this video has some distortion issues.
There's nothing on line of Schütz' piece included here... but there is this lovely recording of his O Jesu, Nomen Dulce performed by the masterful Andreas Scholl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TkRXQH5np8
Both composers were predecessors to J.S. Bach. There is a story of Bach walking several hundred miles to hear the organ works of Buxtehude... which are indeed wonderful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo388...eature=related
Liszt, who may have been the greatest performer ever, is usually more about technique than the music itself. I haven't heard these pieces before but I like this performance and Ms Ott sure is a looker.Quote:
Originally Posted by oshima
Brian... don't underestimate Liszt. He was very influential well beyond his efforts as a performer (unlike Paganini). He was instrumental in the development of the Romantic concept of Program Music, or music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas, which would be built upon even by composers such as Schumann, who rejected Liszt's virtuosity. Most important in this area, were Liszt's Tone Poems or Symphonic Poems. Some of his later works push concepts verging upon Impressionism and dissonance/atonalism to such an extent that he would be cited as a major influence upon Scriabin, Debussy, Bartok, etc...
Too often his reputation for glitz and flash overwhelms his real achievements as a composer. Here are some marvelous piano works... and some of his orchestral pieces. Brian, as a fan of Richard Strauss you should be quite enamored of Liszt's orchestral music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejXPcv9MS7s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS5LRRsNYZk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ZgG...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxmRk...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jnQ_...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z36aWM3jYT8&feature=fvst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRD5RralCgA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BZgte0ObLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRa36...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiElv...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFrCg...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkeKx...eature=related
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto
RV 235/1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvWSV...eature=related
[QUOTE=stlukesguild;982748]Too often his reputation for glitz and flash overwhelms his real achievements as a composer. Here are some marvelous piano works... and some of his orchestral pieces. Brian, as a fan of Richard Strauss you should be quite enamored of Liszt's orchestral music. [[QUOTE]
Yes you are right. Some years ago I spent several weeks staying with a friend in China. On the day I was due to leave, I was packing my things and I could hear that she was listening to Liszt's Consolation No.3 in the living room.
I went into the room and she was crying.
I should have remembered that before posting my comment.
Yes I quite like Lizst too. I'm currently listening to Stluke's links while drinking a nice cup of tea - enjoying it after today.
Tonight was an all lieder/art song evening. Perhaps its the cold weather... December and the first snow has fallen... that makes the intimacy of this art form seem best suited today.
I began listening to Jake Heggie's latest collection for the second time:
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Heggie is one of the fastest rising young composers. He has several operatic successes to his name, including Dead Man Walking and his latest, the Houston opera production of Moby Dick. It is in the field of the art song, however, that he is strongest, and stands along side Ned Rorem and Samuel Barber as one of the leading figures in the tradition of that genre. It is no surprise that many leading singers look forward to working with Heggie and recording his work: Susann Graham, Renée Fleming, Jennifer Larmore, Brian Asawa, Frederica von Stade, etc... This particular collection is marvelously orchestrated with a variety of small string ensembles and piano, as well as voice. For those who recoil from the mere thought of contemporary classical composers, I recommend Heggie without reservation.
My second selection of the evening was a recent collection of Tchaikovsky "Romances" performed by Christianne Stotijn.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5089/...fef37e0906.jpg
While Tchaikovsky is admittedly not among the upper echelon of my preferred composers, I have always liked his songs or "romances," which are stripped clean of the lush and sometimes flowery orchestration that can at times make Tchaikovsky sound too saccharine. What remains is the composer's undeniable and masterful ability to compose the most beautiful melodies... again and again.
The first performance here is by the inimitable Galina Vishnevskaya with her husband, Mstislav Rostropovich on piano.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03DTZno7oYY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew_ox74xufk
I picked up this disc on the recommendation of BBC Music Magazine, and I must concur that the young Dutch singer performs these songs marvelously... with an appropriate rich, full, sensuality of voice. She will certainly be a singer to watch.
After the US and Russia, I headed off to warmer climes with a selection of art songs by Latin-American composers:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5209/...28cf11e5f6.jpg
I had toyed with picking up this disc for quite some time, intrigued by the less-well-known repertoire and certainly aware of Barnarda Fink's abilities... but for whatever reason, the price of the disc remained consistently high. When it finally fell to around $12 last week, I decided to spring for it... and fully wish I had done so earlier. This is a marvelous recording. The disc includes songs by composers Carlos Guastavino, Manuel Gomez, Carrillo, and a handful of others all unknown to me. Indeed, the only name with which I was familiar was that of Astor Piazzolla who is well known for his tangos. Here we are given three of his efforts in the genre of art song... including two settings of texts by J.L. Borges! The music is clearly rooted in the European tradition of the art song or lieder, but employs elements that are undeniably rooted in the Latin-American musical traditions... especially the rhythm. The music is beautifully performed by Bernarda Fink and her brother, Marcos Fink... both born and raised in Argentina of Slovenian parents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeAom_k925c
My favorite song on the disc is Pueblito, mi pueblo by Guastavino, which is the final song. Sung as an exquisitely beautiful duet... unfortunately I could not find a recording of it on line by Fink and her brother, but YouTube does have a version which isn't half bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcHdcPrkC_Y
Maurice Ravel
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Minuet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9qxy...eature=related
Hello everyone! I'm new to the thread here, and taking a deeper, more serious interest in classical music. It's taking me a while, but I'm trying to catch-up on this thread. There is a wealth of selections accumulated here!
Lately I've been listening to Schumann, Schubert, and this piece from Chopin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef-4Bv5Ng0w
This Chopin preludes affects me on a profound level.
I love Chopin as well - above any other composer, he's the one I listen to consistently for pleasure.Quote:
Originally Posted by laymonite
Yes... I love that prelude myself... although my favorite works by Chopin remain his Nocturnes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnFs85pLmj4
Right now I'm exploring some older music... more specifically, compositions by the German late Renaissance/early Baroque composer, Michael Praetorius (1571-1621):
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5249/...cd891a6804.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3p6nAaOmyU
Quite suited to the season and all that.
Is there life on planet Earth ? To answer this question we go straight across to mission control -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WrKy...eature=related
I'm listening to these 21 delightful nocturns at work today! All the hustle and bustle around me is fading into the background.
Me? I'm off in left-field (surely a true Americanism... tied to our national past-time)... listening to the music of Tomás Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina performed by the ever-brilliant Hilliard Ensemble.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5250/...a49f172fcb.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBXBAUFTMLU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxe4HnEYbgA
Currently listening to one of the composers who did make Goulding's list of the 50 Greatest Composers.
Part 1 of a work of music that might arguably stand at the very pinnacle of music... if not all art:
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A lovely disc of American "art songs":
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Picked up some new CDs today. This is the start of my classical collection!
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I've got both the Liszt and the Schumann - you will not be dissapointed by either!Quote:
Originally Posted by laymonite
Nice collection Laymonite !
Robert Schumann
Concerto in A Minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTeAKJ539Is
Horowitz will also rarely disappoint. Schumann's piano works are quite lovely. The Chausson/Ravel/Debussy disc with Riccardo Muti is I believe a collection of sea-related works... including La Mer, which is a good introduction to Debussy and Impressionism in music. Thumbs up on the record labels here. All solid choices. As you start out keep your eye on EMI, DeutscheGrammaphon, Sony, Naxos, Phillips, Hyperion, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Archiv, Decca, CPO, Oiseau Lyre, Alia Vox Spain, and a few others which will usually employ the highest recording standards and the leading orchestras and soloists.
You guys are spot-on. The Liszt and the Schumann are spectacular! I began my Christmas vacation today (that's right: I'm off for the rest of the year!), so I went to one of my used book stores of choice and picked up Mahler's Symphony No. 5., along with some art books (Gauguin, Degas, and Matisse), and a book of Yeats's poetry.
Life is good.
Mahler? Now you are pushing into some music that can challenge you initially. Where Bach or Mozart or Beethoven or Schumann structure their music around a motif or melody or tune that can be rapidly grasped and then run it through variations, later Romantics like Mahler, Wagner, Bruckner, etc... structure their works on a more sprawling form. Don't get me wrong... I love Mahler and the late Romantics. Recently I've be exploring Richard Strauss' operas. His Salome is a masterpiece of German Expressionism combining the most sensuously lush music with often decadent and unsettling elements... or sheer shock as in the finale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI02Rj5xhFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJiFH...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op1Vo...eature=related
A wealth of inspiration here.
For the past few weeks, I've had Antonin Dvořák's - "Humoreska" stuck in my head.
I can't get enough of it, but I must force myself to move on.
Here are two recordings performed by three of the greats.
First Heifetz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB8mzdO3MnI
and now Perlman and Yo Yo Ma:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xaIH...eature=related
My son plays violin and is currently learning "Transylvanian Lullaby" from the movie "Young Frankenstein", which is great, but the old man wants to hear him play "Humoreska"!
It's tough getting a teenager to do what you want!
.
Here is the ultra glamorous Lola Astanova playing Rachmaninoff. I doubt that it would have received his seal of approval but even he would have given her top marks for technique. The ending really did make me laugh out loud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPEd8AZX5dQ
This is probably the most incredible playing you will ever see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1fgo7hp-Ko
Missa in A Major
Kyrie
BWV 234/1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoTWZ...eature=related
And here is Yuja Wang playing the great romantic Mendelssohn piano concerto No1 in a terrific performance combining personal beauty with brilliant playing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0L_pAqLAi0
Sergi Prokofiev
Concerto No. 3
1st Movement
Live Peformance
RAI Orchestra
Turin 2008
Soloist - Martha Argerich
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL-HA4Heu2M
Recently I have been making some efforts to rectify a few areas of obvious short-comings in my music collection. I am currently on the look out for an entire Ring Cycle. I am also looking to get hold of a number of Verdi operas... which my collection is woefully devoid of... in spite of the fact that La Traviata is a personal favorite... and perhaps the first opera I ever saw (on television) while Aida was the first opera I ever saw in real life... the experience which absolutely seduced me and turned me into an opera lover.
Right now, however, I'm listening to a slew of Stravinsky's music which I picked up for next to nothing through secondary dealers on Amazon. The Naxos recordings are already grossly inexpensive... especially considering the quality of the Robert Craft recordings. I have long loved Stravinsky... but for whatever reason, my collection of his music has remained limited to a few of the obvious works: Petrouchka, the Firebird, Histoire du Soldat, and of course the Rite of Spring. Again... for whatever reason... over time I have acquired more music by Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, Bartok... and even Schoenberg... who I really don't like.:sosp:
Anyway... these discs go far toward rectifying this problem:
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So far I've listened to the Greek Ballets twice through. The disc truly highlights Stravinsky's chameleon-like nature. The first ballet, Apollo, is quite classical in clarity of form. I most enjoyed the second movement with the solo violin playing a romance-like solo almost suggestive of a Baroque violin sonata... that eventually turned into a waltz... but a waltz gone "wrong"... not unlike those of Prokofiev or Ravel's La Valse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1iJu...eature=related
The second ballet, Agon, has been proclaimed by some as Stravinsky's masterpiece. I won't speak to that now, having only first listened to it. I will say I found it to be the strongest of these three works. Agon is constructed of a collection of brief pieces each having a unique orchestration. In one moment the composer has scored for flute and harp, in the next for woodwinds and percussion, and in the next for cabaret-like horns. There are elements of Agon that are as strident as The Rite of Spring... but then he turns around and presents something delicate and almost worthy of Debussy Impressionism... which then melts into something a bit more atonal and suggestive of Takemitsu and something exotic and Eastern. Stravinsky has clearly learned from Schoenberg and the "Second Viennese School" but he rejects the abandonment of tonality... employing rather both dissonance and harmony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz0mqFnZhLk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiELH...eature=related
Where Apollo presented us with Stravinsky's take on Classicism, and Agon had him playing with Modernism, Orpheus is Stravinsky toying with Romanticism. There are long passages of lush and beautifully sweeping melodies that might lead you to think you were listening to Bax, Vaughan-Williams, or Virgil Thompson... until he begins to play around with a strident passage here and there... with the blurring into something a bit off or a bit dissonant.
Personally I found this disc quite enjoyable and almost immediately accessible... although it is clear that Stravinsky's formalism... his manner of playing with expectations... demand repeat listenings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ZI4SIAuMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TCen...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZWzr...eature=related
I am quite looking forward to exploring the other discs.
Currently I'm listening to this disc of lovely music by Gabriel Faure. It's too bad that his reputation centers for many solely upon his Requiem... marvelous as that is. Faure's songs and his chamber works are absolutely exquisite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ZbU...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJAwkdPQMmA
Giovanni Andre Fioroni (1718-1778)
Andante for Solo Harp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwYqZTpvQx8
Best wishes for this Christmas and in the New Year.
Andreas Romberg
(1767-1821)
Clarinet Quintet in E Flat Major
Op. 57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc81b_FhnGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpKKG...eature=related
Just got Goulding's book for Christmas (a belated gift, indeed, but worth waiting for I think), and I plan to delve into a composer a week for 2011! I'll post my thoughts each week here!
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/04...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
For Christmas I used some of the money I earned from a bonus for our students have met their yearly goals to finally purchase Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen... well actually not one complete Ring cycle but two:
Herbert von Karajan's studio recording from the mid/late-1960s:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5010/...6ef06ab5b4.jpg
and Clemens Krauss' live Bayreuth recording from the early 1950s:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5250/...0339ccdf34.jpg
Krauss' recording has arguably the greatest cast of Wagnerian singers at the absolute height of their abilities, while Karajan employs a marvelous collection of newer singers with the focus upon the symphonic brilliance of the work.
I', currently working my way through Karajan's Ring... just now finishing the second opera:
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On the first listening I read the synopsis, but then listen through the whole without following the libretto... focusing on the music. After this I'll give a second listen following the libretto closely. Ultimately approaching this work is like first coming upon Dante's Comedia, Milton's Paradise Lost, Joyce's Ulysses, or the Sistine Ceiling. The work is so incredibly epic in scale that I imagine I'll be listening to almost nothing else for quite a while... which is frustrating as I have Turandot (Puccini), Die Frau Ohne Schatten (Richard Strauss), Le Nozze di Figaro, Tamerlano (Handel), Des Gewaltige Hahnrei (Goldschmidt), Carmen (Bizet), and several other operas waiting in the wings.
Here is the great, and I mean great, Yuja Wang playing Rachmaninoff's Concerto No.2. If I were young enough and rich enough, I would marry her tomorrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2JyZE-OaXY
Oh yes, we have noticed you have a crush on Miss Wang don't worry.:blush5: I agree she is a most able player indeed!Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
Any recommendations on a good recording of Bach's Mass in B Minor?
Almost always at the top of the recommendations for any of Bach's choral works are the recordings of John Eliot Gardiner with the Monteverdi Choit and the English Baroque Soloists. Rather than buying this work alone, however, I would suggest this box set:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5001/...881cffd06f.jpg
This set currently costs twice what the Mass in B-minor costs alone... but where the Mass in B-minor consists of two CDs this box set contains 22 CDs!! Included are the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, the Mass in B minor, the Magnificat, and the Christmas Oratorio as well as 10 discs of Bachs finest cantatas. All of these recordings are the same as the Gardiner recordings of these same works that were all rated consistently among the finest available choices. The soloists include some of the finest in the field of Baroque music including Nancy Argenta, Barbara Bonney, Michael Chance, Bernarda Fink, Magdalena Kozená, Anne Sofie von Otter, Mark Padmore, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Andreas Schmidt and Stephen Varcoe. The only draw back is the absence of any libretto or text to the works, although they offer a link to the same online. This set was one of the greatest purchases I made in music all last year. I still haven't shelved it as I have been playing various works from it in continual rotation.
Other possible choices after Gardiner include:
Philippe Herreweghe is always a top contender for any Baroque-period work. His Mass in B-minor is rated one of the absolute best:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5124/...dbed176f87.jpg
When it comes to Bach's choral works there are essentially 4 major contenders who have recorded or are in the process of recording everything: Garniner, Ton Koopman (who has yet to record the Mass), Philippe Herreweghe, and Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan Orchestra:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5247/...8343107ae3.jpg
I'm personally not a great Suzuki fan. I find his productions too perfect... to the point of being somewhat cold. Perhaps this has something to do with singers who do not relate to the emotional impact of the texts... or perhaps its just me.
After these top 3 choices there are always the "old school" recordings, perhaps the finest of which is Otto Klemperer's with his great collection of singers, but others would include the recording by Karl Richter and that of Herbert von Karajan:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5170/...7a9604331a.jpg
I seriously wouldn't recommend them as a first choice for the simple reason that they present Bach in the guise of the large Romantic-era orchestra. They are perhaps best to listen to once one is already familiar with more historically informed performances of Bach.
:)
Here is the final movement of Brahms mighty 1st piano concerto played by Stephen Hough and the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer.
This is a high point in German romanticism. The ending from 9.39 leads to a spectacular shot of the Albert Hall to coincide with the tremendous blaze of the final notes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt9KVYzZEbY
Thanks, stlukes. I found the first-mentioned box on Amazon.