In response to StLukes dislike of Shostakovitchian bombast here is the beautiful elegiac slow movement to his 2nd piano concerto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1iXHFzl8wY
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In response to StLukes dislike of Shostakovitchian bombast here is the beautiful elegiac slow movement to his 2nd piano concerto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1iXHFzl8wY
Edward Greig
Concerto in A Minor
End of Second Movement
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti (1950)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKDRdEretC0
Robert Schumann
Concerto in A Minor
End of Final Movement
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti (1947)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ebJ...ext=1&index=49
A rare chance to hear part of a little known masterpiece by one of England’s finest composers - Ralph Vaughan Williams.
An opera on John Bunyan's, ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1942). Here under rehearsal by Sir Adrian Boult.
(A musical journalist of the time described this opera as "summarising in three hours virtually the whole creative output of this wonderful composer").
//
From Acts 3 and 4 -
a. http://www.mediafire.com/?idjzhd2myxj
b. http://www.mediafire.com/?kmllvyimej1
Joyfully at the start of a chamber music festival over here entitled "Classical Revolutionaries" featuring for the most Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert - gets me out of the house and great deal on prices for students!
Last night was Mozart's Oboe Quartet, Beethoven's Quintet for Piano and Wind and Schubert's great (but long) Piano Trio. Tonight's line up features Mozart's Divertimento which the programme notes says is "considered to be the greatest work ever written for this combination" sounds pretty good! :bigear:
Another 20th century giant was Maurice Ravel. This is an outstanding performance of the 2nd movement of his first Piano Concerto, which surely matches the legendary recording made by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qOhg58PwXg
Peter Tchaikowsky
Waltz
Opera
'Eugene Onegin'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTlhK...eature=related
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto No 4
End of First Movement
Soloist - Murray Perahia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdfpa...eature=related
Peter Tchaikowsky
Polonaise
Opera
Eugene Onegin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhW_o...eature=related
Sergi Prokofiev
Symphony No. 1
1st/2nd Movement
Claudio Abbado
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjzbE...eature=related
Mozart--the 'Prussian' String Quartets with the Amadeus Quartet.
Having a wonderful time with my chamber music festival, great seat the other day and great performances! Off again tomorrow, a little Bach and Mozart - great to come down with after the evils of work.
Currently listening to various bits of Mozart - Violin concerto No.5 amongst others. Ordered more operas. I'm listening to more music than I am reading at present.
Neely, remember that you are speaking primarily to Americans about "the evils of work," of which they have little concept, although my sentiments are entirely with yours. "Work", as an afficionado of Oscar Wilde, you must surely know, "is the curse of the drinking classes."Quote:
Originally Posted by Neely
Ha, ha yes indeed!Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
I wouldn't want people to think that I am not hard working though. I am constantly seeking new ways to do little - so much so that it is becoming quite tiring of late. I even cut the damn privet this Sunday (well half of it, I'll do the rest next Sunday weather permitting) it really aches the arms as I have old fashioned shears - a full 33 minutes of pain and hardship! Of course the week is the worst bit - that's the proper job. As well as suffering the pain of teenagers I have to make my own coffee at break because the tea lady uses insufficient quality material, I can't drink that stuff - imagine that hard labour and then having to make your own coffee - awful! But enough about work; I don't want to think of such horrors...I would much rather finish my Wooster and Belgian beer!
Anyway, I had the joy of the Divertimento the other day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jua7gqezWVY
(I have to grab all the classical I get up here you know, this place (Sheffield) is full of ruffians - (though as I dig more and more I am uncovering a thriving classical scene, but not much in terms of opera I'm afraid).
Bottoms up!
Brian... I haven't the least idea of what you are talking about. The American Protestant work ethic is highly overrated.:nod: I am good at my job... but if I won the lottery I'd be in the parking lot doing donuts with the car with my a** hanging out of the window. I am living for 20+ days from now when school lets out for the summer and I have all day to work upon my paintings... now that is where I have no problem with applying myself heart and soul.
I'm a bit like Neely right now in that I too am spending far more time on music than reading... although I have been reading up a good deal on the history of opera and on Baroque music. My music collection is quite deep when it comes to Romanticism and Post-Romanticism... but for the most part Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi have been extent (or nearly so) of my collection of Baroque music. I have now begun to make amends... especially considering the fact that the Baroque... limited as my view of it has been... has long been one of my favorite musical eras.
I recently purchased William Christie's and Les Arts Florissants production of Rameau's Les indes galantes on DVD... and it is absolutely stunning. I have watched it repeatedly and even garnered ideas for my own art work. I am absolutely in love with Danielle de Niese, the Australian-born soprano of Sri Lankan heritage. She's gorgeous... she can sing... and ahe can act like few other opera singers can. What more can you want? And then there's Patricia Pettibon... one of the truly brilliant personalities in contemporary opera. This is an absolute must-see!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1113/...28d63013_o.jpg
Among the music I have been listening to, some of the best has included any number of French Baroque composers who I have ignored for far too long:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/...f3a58320_o.jpg
Delalande's Te Deum is absolutely magnificent... especially as performed by Christie's Les Arts Florrissants including such soloists as Véronique Gens and Sandrine Piau... both of whom I have reviewed here earlier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix2GAITLdGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx_34...eature=related
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/...938a7051_o.jpg
Charpentier's Te Deum... performed by the blazing hot HIP conductor, Marc Minkowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQQzihD-7cQ
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/...cfd082b1_o.jpg
Campra and Couperin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zcAF...eature=related
Perhaps the most stunning recent purchase, however, has been that of a two-disc set of music by Vivaldi:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/...12f93f81_o.jpg
This "Vespers" is reconstructed according to the suggestions of musicologists from the Istituto per i Beni Musicalli in Piemonte based upon studies of Vivaldi's original scores. Vivaldi was commissioned to write several Vespers over the course of his career; unfortunately only disparate elements and fragments remain of any whole. The reconstruction of this particular Vespers is constructed of these various "fragments"... an isolated psalm from one source, a motet from another source. Great attention was paid toward maintaining stylistic coherence and following the proper liturgical order resulting in a complete Vespers cycle (wholly of music written by Vivaldi... this is not a reconstruction involving music written by others... such as Mahler's 10th or even Mozart's Requiem) suggestive of what Vivaldi might have performed in Venice.
The resulting work succeeds magnificently at suggesting a unified whole... rather than a collection of unrelated fragments. While there is a stylistic coherence, there is also a marvelous variety... as we move from rhythmically muscular passages laden with unabashed joy, to expressions of profound sadness, and even unearthly spiritual longing... Exquisite choral passages countered by lovely instrumental breaks and gorgeous music for solo voice. The performances by the Concerto Italiano is magnificent... as I have come to expect from earlier discs within the Opus 111 Vivaldi Edition series. In this particular instance the cover art... about which I have some ambiguous feelings... makes perfect sense.
There is unfortunately nothing of Vivaldi's recently reconstructed Vespers online... there is however a good deal of his choral music available... enough to make it clear to anyone that Vivaldi did far more of merit than The Four Seasons. Personally I find his choral music and opera to be his finest work. This excerpt, Cum dederit dilectis suis, from the Nisi dominus... which is almost unearthly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceazCccMvzI
'Not forgetting, dear friends, the talents of a certain Kapellmeister. Though (I am reliably informed) news of his music will eventually arrive in Vienna' -
J.N. Forkel (1749-1818) - 'Public Lecture 306' - Gottingen University - Germany 1798 -
Aria
BWV 213/7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BysoQ...eature=related
As earlier assumed, JS "Koch" was unknown in Vienna till then!
Good point (confirming my theory), Robert:
"Forkel" avoids mentioning his "other" name in Gottingen, 1798.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
Stlukes, I feel that I am being pulled towards those French operas which you keep plugging. I was particularly interested in exploring the Cadmus et Hermione one – I’ll have to look into that, but unfortunately these things are quite costly, nevertheless they come across as quite enchanting. I’ll have to check those further links out later because I am currently at that place where no civilized individual speaks of...in fact I might have to go for another coffee – dash it all! :leaving:
Stlukes...Anyone who has been in this forum for any length of time will know you possess an artistic temperement which is probably the province of relatively few of your compatriots, as is the case elsewhere. If so, then perhaps you belong to the those who are the exception that underlines the rule. I have often thought that playing the lottery is the triumph of hope over experience.Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
One thing leads to another on Youtube and I found this clip while looking for something completely different.
This man's failure to reach his full potential is one of opera's tragedies, but I don't think anybody would deny that his was a truly great voice. The film looks very well directed also, I will check it out to see if it's on DVD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJZ2XA84MPI
Hi there Yanni,
Your J.S. Koch was quite a composer, it seems ! :angel:
Bach was not too bad also.
Regards
Quote:
Originally Posted by yanni
Yes obviously our friend Slukes is above loving work for the sake of work, that should go without question - naturally I for one understood that you were referring to lesser mortals with your previous wise comments. With that said though, even though I like the fellow, I'm not sure that I would want to be standing behind him in the car park in the event of his winning the lottery!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
Wonderful night tonight. I am beginning to adore the chamber music sort of set up, I mean I am sat within touching the musicians with my foot as they string the likes of Mozart and Beethoven purely for my enjoyment - what could be better? Obviously before that I am fully loaded up with sirloin steak (well done) and red wine as you would expect, magnificent. Very varied night too, excellent. I would post more details of the set-up but I don't want to be a bore - and besides that would mean me getting up to double check the programme and I can't be having that!
Happy listening all. ;)
Stlukes, I feel that I am being pulled towards those French operas which you keep plugging.
Don't get me wrong... the Germans sill rule: Bach, Handel, Buxtehude, Schutz, Telemann... no need to wait for the Mozart/Haydn/Viennese triumvirate for the dominance of the Germans in the field of music. But pushed by a Baroque fan on a musical site that I frequent to give the French a serious listen, I find that I have long been wrong in underestimating them. Considering the dominance of the French court of the period, this probably shouldn't be surprising. What I am coming to recognize is that the Baroque era was far more rich than I had once thought... it goes far beyond Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi... and there is even far more to these three than I had once supposed.
I was particularly interested in exploring the Cadmus et Hermione one – I’ll have to look into that, but unfortunately these things are quite costly...
Yes... but I agree that this production in particular looked to be quite stunning.
I have often thought that playing the lottery is the triumph of hope over experience.
I up only playing on those rare occasions when the lottery reaches some ungodly amount. Just last week it reached some $250 Million US+. I end up going in for maybe $5 with a couple of my studio mates. It merely becomes an excuse for fantasizing about what we would do if we were to suddenly find ourselves in the possession of a great deal of money. It always seems that the thing is won by some 85-year old or somebody without the least notion of how to spend the money. They usually announce that they'll pay off the 85 Buick... perhaps take a holiday excursion to Vegas... etc...:shocked:
...even though I like the fellow, I'm not sure that I would want to be standing behind him in the car park in the event of his winning the lottery!!!
Just meet me at the bar. The Belgian ale's on me!:party::cheers2:
With all this contagion flying around, you should insist on bailing out your Mozart!
:seeya:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
Yes Yanni,
We have to start somewhere. Why not the music industry itself ? You know how a glazed look comes into their eye when they are asked to name other composers active during Mozart's Vienna career ? But these, of course, are the norms of 'Mozart research'. And if you ask whether they can name these musical contemporaries of Mozart or provide any details of their own careers they look at their watch and have an urgent meeting ! Knowing nothing of them and their music. Why, how many operas staged in Vienna during Mozart's decade in Vienna (1781-1791) have they actually heard ?
'Ah ! but Mozart was a genius', of course ! (Which is the credit card answer to every appeal). And on my last visit to the corporate pantheon of 'great composers' (there on Easter Island) the caretakers were painting their statues before another crusade arrived. (Sponsored by the usual corporations and overseen by the usual priests who have overseen the writing of our 'western musical education'). This reminded me of the music lover in Homer's 'Odyssey' - the one who had to be tied to the mast of the ship to avoid the dulcit sounds of those Sirens ! So his corpse did not join others on the island where they, the Sirens, were singing.
'It was not to charm them that the Sirens sang, but to destroy them. And therefore the Siren has not a good reputation'
(Aeschines 3.228).
LOL !! :eek6:
But, beyond that -
Cantata 42
Sinfonia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP-V4Pafu_E
Quote:
Originally Posted by yanni
Roger Sessions won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for his last major work, the Concerto for Orchestra. Considering he had already composed nine symphonies, perhaps the title was a concession to symphonic superstition.
Sessions: Concerto for Orchestra pt. I
Sessions: Concerto for Orchestra pt. II
Regards,
Istvan
As you may have gathered, I don't play the lottery. A few years ago a friend told me that if he won the lottery he would buy me the apartment in Paris that I have always wanted: I'm still waiting.Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
You are right about the kind of people who tend to win. A woman in the UK well into her eighties won it and refused to claim it because: "I am frightened of having so much money at my age. What would I do with it anyway?"
On the other hand, a 56-year-old security guard who won it made the sage remark: "My days of slavery are over." If ever a man deserved to win it, he did.
If you had started off with the right foot, you would have concluded by now, your "eek" (funny face) placed at the end of you post, "covering" Forkel's 1802 "german national hero"* JSBach-Koch as well!
We have to start somewhere. Why not the music industry itself ?
:seeya:
*Forkel was JSBach's first biographer in 1802. The same year H.C.Koch published his music lexicon. As "Beethoven's Kochs puzzle" concluded, Forkel and H.C.Koch were the same person and JS"Bach" was a Koch himself.
No, Yanni, Forkel was NOT the first biographer of J.S. Bach. (I've already said this twice).
As for your certain statement that ''J.S. Bach was a Koch himself'', we still wait for some evidence of this. The marriage and birth records of the very large musical Bach family in Germany (over many decades) strongly suggest otherwise. For a start. Take a decade or so. But DO tell us - please !
As far as the ubiquitous 'music industry' is concerned they seem to have been amazingly ignorant and disinterested in J.S. Bach until the 19th century. And even then it never features prominently. Care to give us an example of a single Bach concert in Vienna ('city of music') before the 19th century ? Or one in Vienna prior to, say, 1830 ? Or even a concert in which one (even one) of his works was on the concert programme !! Ah, yes, of course, 'Vienna, city of music', yes ?
And when did the music industry arrive ? Let's say around 1800 (with the arrival of the symphony orchestra, music copyright, the arrival of touring conductors, new techniques that would allow rapid commercial publishing of music, the founding of various music journals, the first 'history of music' and various other, increasingly international musical developments). The end of handwritten copies etc. So, by this reckoning, Bach should surely have been firmly on the musical menu by the early 19th century. In places such as Vienna.
And, suprise, surprise ! He is still not there ! Decades pass. And so it goes on. J.N. Forkel 'pulls his hair out'. And is ignored. And meanwhile arrives for the adoration of millions the ghouly trinity (Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven). Now presiding over the 'history of music' as gods of the musical pantheon and a music industry determined to ignore the history of music in Vienna itself (!) during the late 18th century. You really have to laugh at this.
The world loves its own, for sure !!
In the meantime -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyev_...eature=related
Quote:
Originally Posted by yanni
While I am away for a whole month, I'm going to embark on listening and learning Beethoven's string quartets, performed by the Alexander String Quartet.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3452/...10a369302a.jpg
This is not the Alexander String Quartet. They weren't on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awOFHfun3BQ
While I am currently engaged in a deeper exploration of Baroque music, I still have the "schizophrenic" need every now and then to explore something really different. Currently I am listening to two very unique composers: Tristan Murail and Harry Partsch.
Tristan Murail is a contemporary French composer (b. 1947). He studied economics and Arabic at the Ecole d'Hautes Etudes before entering the Paris Conservatoire to attend Messiaen's composition class (1967–72). Stimulated by Messiaen's research into resonance and his refinement of instrumental timbre, Murail and his contemporary, the composer, Grisey both used acoustics and the study of the perception of sound as the starting point for a new musical aesthetic which has since become known as "Spectral" music... which involved the use of the fundamental properties of sound as a basis for harmony, as well as the use of spectral analysis, FM, RM, and AM synthesis as a method of deriving polyphony. All of this is highly theoretical... and surely impossible for someone who cannot even read music to understand. Essentially, Murail's music is based upon sound and not upon any extraneous/non-musical considerations such as narrative, representation or suggestion of nature, emotional expression, etc... In spite of this theory... the resulting music is very evocative of nature... to a degree that places it firmly in the tradition of Impressionism and such Post-Impressionist composers as Messiaen. Like Impressionist composers such as Debussy... and especially Ravel, Murail is a master of orchestration. His choice of instruments are all highly evocative of color and mood.
This beautiful, sumptuous and gloriously colourful piece has finally made it onto YouTube:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1300/...a3fb9e66_o.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utQAX...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdROh...eature=related
Gondwana is a short orchestral work and one of Murail's finest pieces. Gondwana is the name given to a southern precursor-supercontinent...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/...b7a50a81_o.jpg
The music abounds in wave-like patterns of rise and fall, such as crescendo-decrescendo, acceleration-deceleration and tension-relaxation. If these waves of sound recall the legendary, sunken Gondwana, the geological Gondwana's turbulent history is vividly evoked in the music's more dramatic moments, especially in the volcanic "eruption" near the end of the work.
Harry Partsch is an even more unique character. Partsch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales. Microtonal music uses intervals of less than an equally spaced semitone. Microtonal music can also refer to music which uses intervals not found in the Western system of 12 equal intervals to the octave... music which contains intervals smaller than the conventional contemporary Western semitone. The term implies music containing very small intervals but can include any tuning that differs from the western 12-tone equal temperament. Microtonal music can be found especially in Asian and Middle-Eastern music... but may also be found in jazz, blues, and rock music where musicians may "bend" notes... between one not and the next on the traditional Western scale.
As a child, Partsch learned to play the clarinet, harmonium, viola, piano, and guitar. He began to compose at an early age, using the equal-tempered chromatic scale, the tuning system most common in Western music. However, Partch grew frustrated with what he felt were imperfections of the standard system of musical tuning, believing that this system was unsuitable for his ends. Partsch... who was largely self-taught... composed much of his music for custom-made instruments...
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1219/...dd360321_o.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/...1c754053_o.jpg
... often using found materials such as metal bowls, artillery shell casings, bamboo, liquor bottles, and hubcaps... that he built himself and tuned in unorthodox ways... to as many as 43 tones in a scale. He invented and constructed instruments that could underscore the intoning voice.
Partch secured a grant that allowed him to go to London to study the history of tuning systems and text-setting. While there, he met the poet, William Butler Yeats, with the intention of gaining Yeats' permission to write an opera based on the poet's translation of Sophocles' Oedipus the King. However, after his grant money ran out, he was forced to return to the U.S., at the height of the Depression. There, he lived as a hobo, traveling around on trains and taking casual work where he could find it. He continued in this way for ten years, chronicling his experiences in a journal named Bitter Music, parts of which he later set to music. In 1943, after receiving a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, Partch was able to dedicate more time to music. Partch created and maintained his own record label, "Gate 5", to release recordings of his works and generate income. Towards the end of his life, Columbia Records made recordings of some of his works, including Delusion of the Fury, which helped increase public attention to his work. He remains a somewhat obscure figure, but is well known to experimental musicians (especially those interested in microtonality) and instrument-builders.
One might explore some of Partsch' work here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6buNHKzS-Nc
I'm especially interested in his settings of the poems of Li Po:eek6: which I have on order. Further examination of Harry Partch can be found in this BBC documentary (6 parts):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cKnTj2cyNQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFtOK...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OH0W...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfCjW...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZV3z...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNqHH...eature=related
Twice already?
Quoting from the New York Times:
First Chapter
‘Johann Sebastian Bach’
By MARTIN GECK
Published: December 3, 2006
Johann Nikolaus Forkel publishes the first book on Johann Sebastian Bach in 1802, an eighty-two-page work entitled On Johann Sebastian Bach's Life, Art, and Work: For Patriotic Admirers of True Musical Art. The author was born in 1749, while Bach was still alive, in a village near Coburg, and in 1779 became Göttingen University's director of music. For years he maintained lively contact with Bach's sons and benefited from their direct, though far from complete, knowledge of their father. On one occasion, Forkel sends Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, presumably his most generous informant, several mettwursts to show his gratitude for notes the younger Bach turned over to him. Yet his sketch of Bach's life is supplemented with all sorts of anecdotal material. Although Forkel made a name for himself with a General History of Music, he seems less interested in determining Bach's place in music history than in paying tribute to him as a national hero.
Concerning the rest of your questions I suggest you either start with "Two Works by Poe decoded" OR try to explain Forkel's and HCKoch's parallel lifes and similarities in -their-early (1802 perhaps?) music "establishment" that seems to trouble you so!
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...e-musical.html
:seeya:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
Yanni,
Since this thread is on 'Classical Listening' you may wish to present some evidence to support your view on Bach. It has often been asked for. But so far you have produced none. Do so on another thread please. I promise to reply.
Here is the majesty of something far greater - far above the clouds, in fact. This is music from God. Not of this world but of a better one. I am sure of it.
Cantata 54
1st Movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SDpI...eature=related
I think it is a good opportunity at this point to remind everyone the OP of this thread:Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicology
Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
If you would like to discuss other elements of classic music, please do so in a separate thread.
There is a new film about Glenn Gould:
http://glenngouldmovie.com/
To be aired in America on PBS' American Masters programme later this year.
Well, Schecherazade, Musicology has repeatedly declared himself a fan of Bach's music and I thought it appropriate to introduce him to Forkel, Bach's first biographer, so that he may then reply to questions like stlukes: .. what do you think of it... and why?, that's all!
:angel:
A Glenn Gould movie... Now there's something I need to see. There was a marvelous film some years back entitled 32 Short Films on Glenn Gould which was absolutely splendid. The focus was predominantly upon the music and visuals. The film is constructed of a series of 32 brief vignettes that paint a portrait of the brilliant yet troubled musician. Among my favorites I would include:
45 Seconds and a Chair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5f25kL9Gio
The L.A. Concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omqUjAcE6P4
CD318:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAEJsBym5E&feature=fvw
Pills:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJoIvk-xeyU
This film unfortunately deals with Gould's use and abuse of prescribed medications.
The entire 32 films can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaJbP...x=0&playnext=1
Thanks StLukesGuild,
Glenn Gould ! There's a great subject, for sure ! Individualism in harmony with others.
Concerto
BWV 1053
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyOf_...eature=related
Partita
Gigue
BWV 825
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_K0...eature=related
Very interesting ! Thanks for this Sebas. Melmouth
Johann Sebastian BachQuote:
Originally Posted by Sebas. Melmoth
From
Cantata 131
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-OC...eature=related
Auditing Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer (Op. 52) for vocal quartet and piano four-hands.
This is a real Victorian type of home entertainment.
This recording is with the 'dream team' of Edith Mathis, Brigitte Fassbaender, Peter Schreier, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
http://www.amazon.com/Brahms-Liebesl...4025751&sr=1-2
Aria
Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO2tuSSisRA
Sanctus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0NhW...eature=related
French Suite 4
BWV 815/1
Allemande
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaumZNDlMOM
French Suite 5
BWV 816/1
Allemande
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdLDL...eature=related
Prelude in D Minor
BWV 875
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZRB-...next=1&index=3
Glenn Gould's Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier
http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Preludes-...278446-5847144
Krystian Zimerman's Chopin: the Ballades.
http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Ballade...4302097&sr=1-1
Felix Mendelssohn
Piano Concerto No. 2
Adagio: molto sostenuto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj7CC...eature=related
Zimmerman must be rated one of the greatest interpreters of Chopin's music post WW11. His performance of the Chopin Concerto's with Giulini conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra is legendary and held its place in the catalogue for over twenty years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebas. Melmoth
I've been exploring the French Baroque for a while lately... and made a number of marvelous discoveries. I am especially struck by the grand orchestration of the operatic and choral works... including dramatic drums and brass. Of course, this was the era of Louis XIV, le Roi Soleil... and the composers working in Paris were working for the most grandiose court in the whole of Europe. Bach, by comparison, was forced to compose and orchestrate with the limited resources of the largely amateur orchestra players and soloists in mind. Repeatedly, he drew criticism for composing music beyond the abilities of his players and choir. Rameau, Lully, Charpentier, etc... on the other hand... had far greater resources at hand resulting in grandiose orchestrations only found in Bach in the B-minor Mass, composed following the death of Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony and the assumption of Augustus III.
In spite all this marvelous grandiose and monumental work for orchestra and chorus and soloists, there is another... more intimate side to the French music of the period. A few days ago I picked up a marvelous disc of works for solo keyboard by François Couperin. Interestingly enough, even Couperin's choral and vocal music is composed in a strip-down, intimate manner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5SX0bL6Bik
His works for keyboard, however, are something quite special. Anyone familiar and admiring of the keyboard works of Bach, Scarlatti, and Handel should love these. While I tend to lean toward HIP (Historically Informed Performances) recordings which employ historically accurate instrumentation and performance practices in the presentation and recording of Baroque music, I have long preferred the piano to the harpsichord for the performance of solo keyboard works. Perhaps its just that the best performances of this music... such as the recordings of Bach by Glenn Gould, Rosalyn Tureck, Angela Hewitt, and most recently, Murray Perahia, have all been played upon piano. Or perhaps its just that an extended period spent with the tinkly and jangly sounds of the harpsichord becomes somewhat irritating... or as the great conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham suggested, it begins to sound like "two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm".:nod:
Whatever the case may be, I greatly enjoy this latest recording of Couperin played upon piano by Alexandre Tharaud:
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There are some lovely little video presentations of some of the highlights of this recording... including the title piece, Tic Toc Choc... which is presented as something of Tic Toc Hip Hop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMD6xBIXSWo
Most of Couperin's keyboard works are based upon dance forms and are given poetic titles so that many (including Richard Strauss, who later orchestrated some) thought of them as miniature tone poems. Tic Tic Choc is an especially challenging work... as difficult to play well as some of the most virtuosic piano works of the Romantic era. The promary difficulty lies in the continual demand upon the performer for "crossing over" of hands. A video of the great Russian pianist, Grigory Sokolov, performing the same piece gives a clear idea of the difficulty of the work as his hands continually cross... fingers closely jammed together... in a blur of blinding speed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glg99Zc0JjU
Other performances on this disc include the famous Les barricades mysterieuses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDavx0eyjUY
Still another work entitled Bruit de guerre clearly conveys a martial air:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEZjJSGSqpo
This disc closes with a performances of four brief keyboard pieces entitled La Pothouïn, by the rarely recorded peer of Couperin, Jacques Duphly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq8MfVQByW4
As absolutely enchanted as I am by this recording, I will certainly be looking into Angela Hewitt's three volume set of Couperin's keyboard works:
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What would you suggest to a new listener of classical music? I'd like to get into it, but I'm not sure where to start. Who are some standard favorites? Is there a certain mindset that needs to be cultivated?