Classical Listening

Herbert Howells- Requiem aeternam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbINuox-kZ0

John Adams- Harmonium:

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

David Lang- The Little Match Girl Passion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuOi5yIqIAQ

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stimmung:

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

Peteris Vasks- Dona Nobis Pacem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZsenEas8jw

Benjamen Britten- War Requiem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhkbphH8_Ic

Henryck Gorecki- Symphony 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4

John Rutter- Requiem aeternam:

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

John Tavener- New Jerusalem:

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

Eric Whitacre- Sleep:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCS7etNEbU

David Briggs- O Lord Support Us:

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

Krzysztof Penderecki- Utrenja:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mmcq1HylCg

Oliver Messiaen- O sacrum convivium:

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

Osvaldo Golijov- La Pasión según San Marcos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvTiWPV2da0

Philip Glass- Itaipu:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PM754CTz5I

Arvo Part- Magnificat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbxnnC22gwY

Kaija Saariaho - Lonh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXaWt0UJ5Y

(Saariaho's work is not traditional "choral" is the use of a choir. Rather she employs various electronic and recording techniques to layer voices.)

Gyorgy Ligeti- Lux aeterna:

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

Samuel Barber- Agnus Dei:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6ilqJW3fV8

Thanks Lok, and especially thanks StLukes. That'll keep me occupied for a while, for sure.

Bach, J.S. - "Air" Orchestral Suite N° 3 in D Major BWV 1068
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlT8yeEYbMs

Bach - Concerto for 2 Harpsichords in C Minor BWV 1062 - 2/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4bue...eature=related

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
'Karelia Suite'
Opening

*****

Tampere Filharmonia
Tuomas Ollila (1998)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYoJ4...eature=related

Just listened to Handel's royal fireworks music by Marriner and wondered why I bought it :( Far too smooth and slow.

Need to fix this.

Any suggestions?

I like this version by Pinnock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-yHmIObOXQ

Any other Handel performances that might fix my situation?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mal4mac

Just listened to Handel's royal fireworks music by Marriner and wondered why I bought it :( Far too smooth and slow.

Need to fix this.

Any suggestions?

I like this version by Pinnock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-yHmIObOXQ

Any other Handel performances that might fix my situation?

---

If you want something that is full-blooded and not the prissy performance that this work is often given, then you could try this one. Nobody goes to sleep when Stokowski conducts.

http://youtu.be/IzSQZveguUQ

I have been trying to play a piano arrangement of this as it's a particular favourite piece of mine but the rendition here is nothing less than superb.
Really beautiful playing that won't be bettered.


http://youtu.be/7ERK1S_BJdU

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

If you want something that is full-blooded and not the prissy performance that this work is often given, then you could try this one. Nobody goes to sleep when Stokowski conducts.

http://youtu.be/IzSQZveguUQ

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Thanks - that was fun. Real fireworks! "Third Ear" says Stokowski used "more winds than Handel and an enlarged body of strings for a total of 125 players." He gets a top recommendation there, but that's along with 9 other disks (!)

Prissy - that describes Marriner's Decca version exactly (though his earlier Argos version is supposedly better...)

Anyway, my taste (today) is PI, so I've plumped for Norrington - here's a beautiful, but not prissy, clip from Water Music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNRc8EBbDbs

The Water Music and the Royal Fireworks Music are not my favorite works by Handel. They reek a bit too much of all that is worst in English music: pomposity, pretension, Brian's noted "prissy-ness", and a lack of real elegance. His Italian cantatas, operas... or for his later English music, his Alexander's Feast the Coronation Anthems, and of course the great oratorios (ummm... The Messiah?) are stunning.

Nevertheless, I agree that in this case it may be the conductor. Sir Neville Mariner is not bad. I still hold a soft spot for his Mozart recordings... simply because it was he who really sold me on Mozart through the recordings used in Amadeus. But like Leonhardt and Harnoncourt,,, two other early HIP (Historically Informed Performance) conductors, his performances often seem tame by today's standards. Interestingly enough, he would have been criticized for his excessive speed years ago when all music... Classical and even Baroque... was played as if Mahler had written it: orchestras of 150 instruments, lush layers of strings, slow, stately performances laden with gravitas... or treacle... and no thought whatsoever given to the original orchestration and instruments used. Stokowski is always fun to listen to... but in almost every instance you get more of Stokowski than you do of Handel or Bach. Pinnock seems closer to my ideal... but I like Jordi Savall: a full balls to the wind HIP performance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsTq46JK7EU

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

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Emil Miller

I have been trying to play a piano arrangement of this as it's a particular favourite piece of mine but the rendition here is nothing less than superb.
Really beautiful playing that won't be bettered.


http://youtu.be/7ERK1S_BJdU

---

Maybe equalled? I caught this last week on Radio 3:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...Ebene_Quartet/

Their Ravel/Debussy/Faure disk is a worthy Grammy winner IMHO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Hywiv8jXU

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mal4mac

Maybe equalled? I caught this last week on Radio 3:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...Ebene_Quartet/

Their Ravel/Debussy/Faure disk is a worthy Grammy winner IMHO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Hywiv8jXU

---

Agreed, they really work at what they do and it shows in the performance.
If they stay together, they have a great future. I didn't go for the pop music videos on display but in serious music they know what they are about.

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Solveig's Song - Norway
Peer Gynt
Soloist - Barbara Bonney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHbI2...eature=related

''She played Bach. I do not know the names of the pieces, but I recognized in them the stiff ceremonial of the Frenchified little German courts and the sober, thrifty comfort of the burghers, and the dancing on the village green, the green trees that looked like Christmas trees, and the sunlight on the wide German country, and a tender cosiness -

And in my nostrils there was a warm scent of the soil - and I was conscious of a sturdy strength that seemed to have its roots deep in mother earth, and of an elemental power that was timeless and had no home in space''.

(W. Somerset Maugham)

Magnificat
BWV 243/1

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

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Musicology

''She played Bach. I do not know the names of the pieces, but I recognized in them the stiff ceremonial of the Frenchified little German courts and the sober, thrifty comfort of the burghers, and the dancing on the village green, the green trees that looked like Christmas trees, and the sunlight on the wide German country, and a tender cosiness -

And in my nostrils there was a warm scent of the soil - and I was conscious of a sturdy strength that seemed to have its roots deep in mother earth, and of an elemental power that was timeless and had no home in space''.

(W. Somerset Maugham)

Magnificat
BWV 243/1

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

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The quote is from Maugham's short story 'The Alien Corn' but in the film version, she plays a Schubert impromptu although I don't remember which one.

Ah, yes, there is the film industry for you !

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Emil Miller

The quote is from Maugham's short story 'The Alien Corn' but in the film version, she plays a Schubert impromptu although I don't remember which one.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Musicology

Ah, yes, there is the film industry for you !

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Well it was part of a quartet of Maugham's stories in one film and Eileen Joyce played the piano, although it was Francoise Rosay who played the pianist. This is the introduction to it: quite something to see Maugham on film.

http://youtu.be/WmERUgyjmWc