Classical Listening

[Emil Miller]

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.

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.

[Wilde woman]

Does anyone else think about the music reading pairing thing, or am I just betraying my phenomenal geekiness?

It is geeky, but you're definitely not alone! 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.

But, like you, if I'm reading poetry, it has to be silent.

Does Kreisler's violin pair well with Lear, or is this simply coincidental?

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.

A certain passage in Mozart's Requiem still reminds me of Camilla's death in the Aeneid, for example.

I can definitely see that working well.

So...classical music as the path to doctoral exam success.

Yes! Now I have a secret weapon!

[Tobeornotobe]

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.

[Lokasenna]

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.

I couldn't agree more!

[Musicology]

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

[Emil Miller]

Frederick Delius
Intermezzo 'La Calinda'
from
'Koanga'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6-UG...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.

[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

[Emil Miller]

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

[Musicology]

Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841)
Guitar Concerto in A Major
3rd Movement

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

[LitNetIsGreat]

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.

[Musicology]

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Minuet
Op.11 No. 5
(Orch)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fLPB...eature=related

[Emil Miller]

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

[stlukesguild]

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

[mortalterror]

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.

[Musicology]

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