Part I – Aren’t these the greatest performances of classical music?

Topic

It’s been a slow day, and suddenly, as it nears its end, I ‘ve had this idea of “Classical Music” being a topic for a new thread in “Fun Stuff”. Well, as I said: slow day.

Now, I don’t expect this topic to set Woody’s on fire (although one never knows here.) But one discussion earlier on gives me a glimmer of hope this shan’t be a totally wasted effort. That conversation I just mentioned was completely off topic, but maintained enthusiastically by several of us, until KP blew her whistle and the concurrence adjourned sine die and in a hurry (although Wavy made up for that, to some extent, by starting a thread on PDQ Bach, also in “Fun Stuff”.)

To open up proceedings, besides choosing a hard-hitting title I hope will provoke some people to react at all, here are two links to an equal number of not very long performances by good musicians, posted on YouTube. They are among my favorites, and the many ecstatic comments and their two million-plus views each might give some support to that. If you dare go in there, then make sure the Ad Blocker is fully on, so you can enjoy all the beautiful notes, chords and melodies without having to consider toilet cleaning products as well.

This first one is 24 minutes’ long and remarkable for the beautiful and sensitive playing, but more than that, also for the fact that, unlike what is common practice when playing chamber music, the two performers not only do not have the score in front of them, to help stay in sync, but the cellist keeps his eyes shut pretty much throughout, so it is up to the pianist to watch him, now and then, to keep both going together. And without doing a lot of watching, at that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNcQuY1isEI

This second example is 17 minutes’ long and is from the breakout album that brought its then sixteen-year old performer to world attention and marked the start of her brilliant international career, one she is still at with continuing success. For more reference, she is a Virginian and hails from that state’s Appalachian Piedmont, in the USA.

I have recordings of this particular piece by some of the greatest performers of the XX Century, some still alive and playing today, some, sadly, no longer so on one, or even both counts. And of transcriptions for several different instruments, some scored by the likes of Brahms and some played by artists with names like Andrés Segovia on guitar, for example. However, this is my own favorite recording, because her playing is so simple, so clear and, well, so right. The way perhaps, as the old saying goes, “Angels play Bach to God (and Mozart to each other)”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqA3qQMKueA

OK, the deed is done, now let’s wait and see if anything more ever happens here. I still might be pleasantly surprised, who knows.

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Kenneth Stephens, Roy Alan Christie, doriel, lmacri, AJNorth, Fred, Myst, jburk07, Alex5723, Chessie

Replies

By the way, for anyone wondering what “arpeggione” means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpeggione

(I discovered the arpeggione watching “Whisper of the Heart”, a Studio Ghibli movie. That, in turn, lead me to learning about this sonata by Schubert – quite a famous one, but I had missed it completely until then.)

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If there are some videos of classical performances you, gentle reader, would like to share with us loungers and anonymous visitors here, that would be definitely very good of you — and even outstanding!

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nigelxxx, AJNorth, Fred, DriftyDonN

Here is a thought for all of us to ponder:

Since day one, the “greatness” of a composer or performer has always been dependent on not only the skill of the individual, but also the degree to which the work is known.

In today’s world, it is easy for a composer/performer to put the work on the internet/YouTube.

If all the composers and performers in the past several hundred years had the same privilege we do (as described above), would there be greats we have never known, or would the greats be essentially the same?

Ken

 

Kathy Stevens:

I thought this Part I of the “classical” thread was closed so I have kept this thing going with some help from other music lovers in Part II, but it looks like it still is open for comments?

Anyway, I imagine that the one thing that would happen is that great musicians of let’s say 500 or 1000 or 5000 years ago would be playing a kind of music unfamiliar to most of us and practically impossible, in consequence, to compare fairly with music of the “modern” era, let’s say from the days of Bach and Vivaldi, more than three centuries ago, to the present … Well, there is Gregorian chanting back several centuries that it still is being sang, because the Catholic Church has been very determined to having it around, so there are people keen on this sort of thing that might be able to judge how good, or not so good a performance of it is. I believe that Thomas Tallis, an English composer and organist, was of that period; last century’s professional musicians and good composers (like Vaughan Williams) appreciated what he did in his day as being truly great music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P04yfGRNebM

But most of the very old music will not be appreciated properly. How could it be the ancient music played in the first great city ever: Sumerian Ur?

To make up for this, to some extent, there is a selection of Debussy compositions recorded by Debussy in rolls of pianola, in this Part I thread, and also here there is a selection of early 1920 – 1930 great tenors singing short pieces, mostly famous arias (do a search for “Caruso” with Ctrl+F)

Also quite a bit of music, including opera snatches and also complete ones recorded in the 1950s – 60s. Plenty of harpsichord, piano and violin music recordings from the 60s -70s …

So, in answer to a precise question my most precise answer would be: Probably much the same as now.

With this proviso: that if artists of the last 300 years were all given the same opportunities to make their music known as more recent ones have been having, then more good musicians would be known better. Maybe not many new ones totally unrecognized today, but recognized ones whose works are no longer being played and are known mainly to musicologists. Take for example Anna Maria della Pietá, the successor in the job in Venice of Antonio Vivaldi: she was quite famous then, composed plenty of music, people came from all over Europe to hear her play the violin, and today only her name and little more is remembered of this artist.

One can do only so much, we’ve tried, and so much has been done.

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A Suggestion for this topic.

According to this site http://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/piano/best-pianists-ever/

“There’s a strong case to be made for Vladimir Horowitz to be crowned the greatest pianist of all time.” and one of the most fun pieces to play ( as in Difficult ) is Lizst’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2. The two together fix this topic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v95I6kGghmk

 

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AJNorth, Fred, Myst, jburk07, Alex5723, OscarCP

Thanks, anonymous, for that link. Horowitz was indeed a great pianist, although he declined noticeably at the end of his career. But when he was good, he was very great.

I must say my favorite is Arthur Rubinstein, who kept playing flawlessly until he retired when he was already in his late eighties. By then he was practically blind. Someone asked him how he could manage to play so well when he could not see well enough what he or the conductor were doing and he answered: “Well, I still can hear the orchestra and know where all the keys are in the keyboard.” Second in my list: Martha Argerich. She is still at it, also well advanced in years, and keeps intact the extraordinary ability to play, those passages that allow for it, at supersonic speed but with perfect articulation. (Someone once commented that she must have a cerebellum the size of a watermelon hidden under that still magnificent head of hair).

These links are for: (1) a long, complete recording of a historic concert given by Rubinstein in Moscow in the 60’s and (2) another, in the 70’s, playing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. He is considered, to this day, to be the greatest of Chopin interpreters of the last century and, perhaps, ever (Chopin does not count, because he was not really an interpreter of Chopin, was he?) (3)  Martha Argerich playing the Liszt Concerto No. 1, with her Argentinian – Israeli childhood friend Daniel Baremboin conducting, at the Albert Hall, during the 2017 BBC Proms in London. Look at her acknowledging, deservedly, an orchestra player that rarely, if ever gets any accolades, at the end of the concert…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K4ZwA2nQqI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_GecdMywPw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geA2Ih-GLLo

 

 

 

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AJNorth, Chessie, Fred

I love Martha Argerich’s piano playing.

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migongo, Myst

I love Rubenstein in the Chopin concerti, but in Chopin I prefer Argerich and especially Halina Czerny-Stefanska (both Warsaw competition winners).  Nobody inhabits the Polonaises like Czerny-Stefanska.

I think Rubinstein is at his best playing Brahms.

True, many older performers are so great; for me Willem Mengelberg, conductor, was very inspiring to many.

* _ ... _ *

Hi Fred! Did you get to hear him conducting at the Concertgebouw, or was he there before your time? He was a great artist. I remember listening to recordings of his work on the radio, when I was a skinny young student doing my first engineering degree. Beethoven, Strauss, I am sure it was some of it. It was a long time ago… As it is made clear by watching this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJvZie_E2dE

Now here is a perhaps a little better sounding example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TS85g2JnpA

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Fred

Fred asked me to post this:

memories
OscarCP
When you graduated, I was in high school, a little younger. Willem Mengelberg was punished shortly after the war by the puritan Dutch community for his views on society during the Nazi period 1933-45. (Was he the only one who thought so? In the 1920-30s it was modern to think so; also the royal family and notables in society did). He became a very bitter man and withdrew from the Netherlands, and then lived his life in his house in Switzerland. His much younger beloved (the only lady?, misstress?) Miss Van Eeghen was with him for a long period and was very often in Switzerland, and of course this was a social scandal in the Netherlands and was kept silent by historiography.
The last years of her life, in the early 1980s, she was looked after by her younger nephew Jan van Eeghen in the Van Eeghenstaat in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. At this time Jan van Eeghen (a technical engineer) was a retired sports friend of mine –and a co-director of the Amsterdam Jeu de Boules Bond (the Pétanque competition sport)-. After the death of Jan’s favorite aunt in about 1986 I inherited a few things, including her large collection of classical music records under the condition that they should never be allowed to be sold. This collection also contained many old and original signed recordings (78rpm) of the Concertgebouw Orkest and Willem Mengelberg from before the 2ndWorldWar. That is the time that I started to appreciate this music from him so much.
A few years after the death of his aunt, Jan finally moved to France to continue living among friends in a better and Mediterranean climate (in terms of weather, culture and lifestyle). Unfortunately I lost contact with him, and I became an unknown but “very important” I.T.-security&privacy-specialist, hahaha. I very much regret this loss of contact and friendship, but now it’s too late. It always is.
In the new CD era I passed on the inherited record music collection to someone who was really crazy about these older music recordings; but my heart is still there. I also passed on my other music records, lack of space and time, and analog recordings was out. Oh dear, new is always better, is it not?
In contradiction to my non-keeping of the old analog music I have always been very critical of this newer digital future, hence my previous professionalized interest in security and privacy in the computing industry.
Old versus new, oh boy, what will the future bring? “Franz Kafka” in civil administration has started to become normal (again). “George Orwell’s 1984” is all around, freedom and civilization are being minimized or killed. The west of the Netherlands will drown for shure, just like many other parts of human civilization. Here the ice and snow {as I knew in my youth, see the painter “Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634)”} in the wintertime have already disappeared, the summers are already getting warmer; drinking water from the major rivers is decreasing, etc.
The earth will survive for the next billions of years; but will humanity survive?

Tulips and greetings from cheesy Holland
Fred

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Roy Alan Christie, AJNorth, migongo, OscarCP

Now that Fred’s comment has been finally brought to see the light of day — and a very fine comment it is! I am moving on with something I have been wanting to bring to this thread.

The cello, of all stringed instruments and maybe of all instruments, with its register in the same range as human voice, can be made to really speak, most movingly, by a gifted musician.

Here, two examples of the power of this instrument in the hands of perhaps the most gifted of cellists ever to walk this world: more gifted than even Pau Casals, in my opinion, and that is the highest possible praise I can think of for anyone who has played the cello.

First, the “Kol Nidrei” of  Max Bruch.

Kol Nidrei is spoken at the solemn opening of the service of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, with these words:

Light is sown for the righteous

וּלְיִשְׁרֵי לֵב שִׂמְחָה

u-l’yishrei lave simchah

and for the upright in heart—joy

…

Please pardon the sins of this nation

כְּגֹֽדֶל

kih goh-dell

in accordance with the greatness

חַסְדֶּֽךָ

chas’dechah

of Your lovingkindness;

וְכַאֲשֶׁר נָשָֽׂאתָה לָעָם הַזֶּה

vih ka’ashare nahsahtah la’am hazeh

and as You forgave this people

מִמִּצְרַֽיִם וְעַד הֵֽנָּה:

mee-mitzrayim v’ad haynah

from when it left Egypt until now.

וְשָׁם נֶאֱמַר

v’shahm ne’emahr

And there it is said:

Congregation says three times:

וַיֹּֽאמֶר יְהֹוָה

vah-yoe-mare adonai

And Adonai said

סָלַֽחְתִּי כִּדְבָרֶֽךָ

sah-lach-tee kid’vorecha

“I have pardoned [them] as you have asked”

And here is the player of this ghostly work by Bruch, a player of whom we only have now also a ghost of the recorded sound, but never to be forgotten by those that love hear music well played, with great depth of feeling and a most delicate nuance at the same time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Tx8CvYxjU

And here in a coincidentally named piece by Offenbach that, played by a lesser musician, could be just a treacly over-sentimental nothing, but here is made to speak to the soul with great charm and power: “Jacqueline’s Tears”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pmBJLI4kVw

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AJNorth, Fred

Thank you OscarCP, I get your point.

Both parts Jacqueline du Pré is playing unique here, her “Tears” will live on.  In the coming days I will try this to play at a proper stereo. For common computers and phones are killing this quality of music.

💪👍👌 Fred

* _ ... _ *

Fred, I use a decent pair of headphones plugged into my laptop and the result is very, very good. In my Mac I also run an application Nathan Parker told me about called “Boom 2”, that lets one choose the type of sound enhancement one wishes to have and, or set the frequency response of the audio system that one prefers. Even with the OK but not great little speakers of the Mac, the improvement is quite remarkable. I imagine that there may be something like that for Windows too. Either way, with the headphones I manage to hear very clearly all the instruments over the whole audible range, in stereo. Harps and percussion, in particular, that tend to get their sound muddied and even lost in the sound of a full orchestra with the smaller speakers, come out loud and clear with the headphones. A different type of improvement should be possible, although I have not tried this, by connecting good external speakers to the PC or Mac. Maybe this is what you mean to do? Anyway, all the best with that, hoping you will appreciate better what you can hear better.

 

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Fred

Of course, yes and okay; but it remains an approach to how the music is meant. And with a tear I had to think back to the time that I could regularly come to the Great Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, thanks to a passepartout from a very friendly person.
Your hints and links are more than worth paying with more attention to it than the more usual commercial rim-ram music.
The “electronic improvements” in pc’s, loudspeakers and music still remain a tool that is not always very good to the original; is my humble opinion (without having become a vynyl fanatic now)

🙂

* _ ... _ *

Fred wrote:

Thank you OscarCP, I get your point.

Both parts Jacqueline du Pré is playing unique here, her “Tears” will live on.  In the coming days I will try this to play at a proper stereo. For common computers and phones are killing this quality of music.

💪👍👌 Fred

I used high-end Audeze headphones with my laptop. Switched to a 2+1 Logitech Z623 THX.
Sound is great.

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OscarCP, Fred

Taking a break from wrestling with some software I am coding and that is being really very uncooperative, right now, I’ve had the idea, after I answered Fred, above, to listen to some Beethoven, in particular his string quartet No 15, the penultimate of his five last quartets. These five pieces, in the opinion of musical scholars, well-informed critics, people who like to give opinions on anything and, of course, my totally unfounded but very own one, are some of the most extraordinary ever composed in the whole of the Western classical repertoire. And for a big heap of good reasons:

When he wrote them, Beethoven was completely deaf, could not hear anything at all. He was also in great despair, not the least because the world he lived in was going backwards politically and the new, great, fraternal society of free and equal citizens promised by the French Revolution clearly was never going to happen. He was also sick, mostly alone, and his own death was not far off. But the music he composed even so, had not only, and understandably, passages full of a deep melancholy, but also passages of transcendental serenity and others evoking a kind of profoundly serene joy. But for all that, they were intensely disliked in his time by many musicians and critics (*), because they were a radical departure from what people expected to be played in a concert of chamber music. It took another fifty years for the then musical innovators, the avant-garde of that day, to realize that they had been scooped by someone long dead, half a century before.

Here is maybe the greatest and best loved — although any difference in quality between them is a matter of personal preference: they are all very great works of art. Here in two different, but, in my opinion, both excellent interpretations, one quite recent, one much older.

The new one, by (I believe) students or recent graduates of the New England School of Music (or maybe of the NE Conservatory of Music) Shame the notes provided when it was posted in YT say nothing about this group:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyDs0wb3FAE

And the older one, by the great Quartetto Italiano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bfOc9z8b5E

(*) But not by all: “Upon listening to a performance of the Op. 131 quartet, Schubert remarked, “After this, what is left for us to write?”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_string_quartets_(Beethoven)

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Fred

Bloch Prayer from Jewish life – Camille Thomas, violoncelle Beatrice Berrut, piano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxfg-6Mkh_0&feature=youtu.be

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OscarCP, Fred

Thanks for this clip. It gives a hint as to where “clesma” (‘klezmer’) music comes from, does it not?

Ernest Bloch, a composer that deserves to be remembered better, in his day was regarded “as one of the best Swiss composers in history”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Bloch

(In case anyone is wondering: I have some good old friends that are Jews and am curious, so I ask.)

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https://youtu.be/2bfOc9z8b5E

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

[OscarCP]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13ygvpIg-S0

And, with apologies to Wavy, I am posting now one more sample of late Beethoven, one that he had meant to be the final part of the quartet I posted above, yesterday as of this writing.
It is the “Große Fuge”, the Great Fugue — the most “out there” thing he ever wrote (as far as I know) and one of the justly most famous works in his late output and a landmark in the development of the string quartet as a musical form (or so I am told). He was totally deaf, as already noted, and his agent, somehow, persuaded him to replace it with the “Andante alla Marcia” (means. more or less, “moving at a fast marching-band pace”) last movement that is now there and so it is played in the two videos.

To cut the discussion short, before Ludwig’s short-fuse got to the powder, the agent suggested making the to-be-excised movement be made into a standalone, one-movement work for a quartet of string musicians, and maybe also the name to call it, as a fugue takes a a good part of this piece. Ludwig said: “OK, I’ll do that.”
The agent was right: people paid good money to listen to the quartet, but not so much to the GF. But not let those concert-goers of long ago poor sense of what is good music fool you. This one is a really great piece worth a good listening.

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by OscarCP.

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Alex5723, Fred

OK, I may be on a roll here. Got most of the Beethoven comment in, just maybe 25% missing!

So I am now adding this little something by J.S. Bach, played by Arthur Grumiaux, one of the maybe six or seven top violinists of the last hundred years. Also, for your greater pleasure, the video shows the score of the piece, turning its pages when the violin plays the last note of the one in view, so you can practice on-the-fly music reading while listening to the notes being played:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpe7thXd69E

 

 

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[PKCano]

And before the well runs dry and my luck comes to an end, here is some Smetana for you, played by the Slovak “Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra” with some unusual stage decoration and great patriotic enthusiasm, precisely what the musicians, writers, sculptors, etc. of the Romantic movement were big on. This is the composer’s most popular symphonic poem: “The Moldau”, and one can hear the great river being born quietly at his source, run as wild white water further down, slow down to flow on, at a mature pace, through villages, towns, cities and finally reach, broad and serene, the end of its course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6kqu2mk-Kw

And, when it comes to patriotism expressed in music and song, it does not get more patriotic than Sibelius “Finlandia”, played here with a very large brass section, a hard hitting percussion section, a vigorous strings section and sang, in Finnish, by a really big and enthusiastic chorus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE0RbPsC9uE

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by PKCano.

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J Sipin

And finally, at least for right now, one of the most popular choral works of the XX Century. Dedicated to Nathan Parker, that is an assiduous student of Latin (but somehow doubt he got to study the sort of Latin the singers are singing here):

“Carmina Burana”, the collection of songs put together by Benedictine monks in Bavaria, dating from the 11th or 12th through the 13th Century and set to music by Karl Orff a bit later than that:

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana

Here it is, played and sang by  a big bunch of, I would think, rather disreputable Dutch people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPjy55Y6hWU

And for the curious, here is the lyrics, in Latin and English:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana

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Nathan Parker, Fred

Simply beautiful;

a “bunch of disreputable Duch people” is a compliment, I reckon. After all it is in the Concertgebouw  🤣  LOL

* _ ... _ *

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Alex5723, woody

The Concertgebouw harbors MANY disreputable Dutch people.

This, I know firsthand.

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Fred

Well, that did not come out right. Second try: The lyrics, here:

http://www.austinsymphony.org/files/Carmina_Burana_translation.pdf

 

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I have discovered, some time ago, that the video of the beautiful performance of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”, one of the most popular of all classical compositions, that took place at the Royal Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam and was included here, in Part I of this thread, has been removed from YouTube.

I have looked for a replacement of comparable quality, also in YouTube, and I am not sure there is any equally good in all aspects: quality of performance, of sound recording and of video. But the performance I am including here is pretty good, considering it is the combination of excellent forces, under the direction of a very young Seiji Ozawa, in this recording of a concert that took place more than 30 years ago:

Carl Orff: Carmina Burana   Seiji Ozawa conductor, the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra, soloist singers, the Shin-yu Kai chorus and the City and Cathedral of Berlin Boy Chorus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5zDCaeU-pY.

I like particularly the way the soprano, Kathleen Battle, sings her last solo part. Very few I’ve heard sing it have got it right, let alone hit all the right notes.

Her “Dulcisime!” is well beyond the call of duty.

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And before I let this be (but, please, if you want to add your favorite pieces by your favorite artists, this place is, I wold hope, always open for that), one more thing.

Richard Strauss “Four Last Songs”, that were, really, not just called that, but the last music he ever composed. It is, like Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”, a work inspired by the realization that life is coming to an end for the artist. Sang by the marvelous Gundula Janowitz, this is a work performed in a way that the world “sublime” fits perfectly. ‘Sublime’ means ‘terrible beauty’, and these are songs to the sublime magnificence of life and the majesty of its end, when seen in calm acceptance, as in the name and theme of the last Song: “At Sunset.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANdPoigJ_qw

Herbert von Karajan conducts here the Berlin Philharmonic.

 

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But not to leave everyone overly meditative, even sedated, contemplating their own mortality, here are a few high F’s for you from someone quite actively and vigorously contemplating death — for someone else:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuBeBjqKSGQ

 

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Fred

Regarding the ‘Magic Flute’ I really loved Kenneth Branagh’s 2006 fantastic interpretation movie :

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2769814297?playlistId=tt0475331&ref_=tt_ov_vi

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OscarCP, Fred

Alex573: Missed this one earlier; I’ll see if Amazon has it on DVD or available for streaming. It looks wonderfully weird, and this work deserves no less. And Kenneth Branagh is really an amazing guy. And a tremendously gifted actor: I have the DVD of his performance in “Henry V” side by side with Olivier’s, and it manages to look good even in such company.

Also Ingmar Bergman made a movie of a whole live performance of TMF, and it is available on YT, but am not posting here the link, because I am not sure if it is even legally there. But if one searches “Magic Flute”, Bergman…

I must say, being one who likes “fantastic” and “entertaining” when they belong together in a movie or opera, or any kind of performance, this and Puccini’s “Turandot” are my favorite operas, along with Richard Strauss’ “The Rosenkavalier” and “Ariadne auf Naxos”.

Once, in Salzburg, I even saw excerpts of TMF shown as a puppet show, with orchestral music and singing played from a recording — so no, the puppeteers were not singing, just moving those puppets. (And the people of Salzbug will not let you ever forget theirs is Mozart’s town… just walk along the main drag and every other shop is called “Mozart this”, “Mozart that”…)

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Here is YT of The Magic Flute from Salzburg Festival 2006 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02u4Jf_aNPI

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OscarCP

This is just wonderful. And with English subtitles!, although the crystal clear, crisp, very good elocution of the singers makes it feel almost unnecessary… And with the Vienna Philharmonic under Ricardo Muti! But also with the reigning Queen of the “Queen of the Night” singing that showstopper to end all showstoppers!

And the strange fact about this work, meant mostly to entertain both children and grownups, a family-friendly opera, as it were, is that it was to be followed, as the composer’s next major work, by the incomplete “Requiem” mass that was to be poor Wolfgang’s very last thing he ever wrote and that turned out to be his own!

But let’s leave aside such gloomy thoughts and listen to this marvelous work marvelously performed. And don’t forget: listening to Mozart’s music is assured to make you smart!

As of right now, I am posting a little something Mozart right after the two Argerich posts — more remedy for limited intelligence. Have a listen there, you can thank me later… Always tying to help!

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Alex5723

RE Carmina Burana one must not forget the album by ray manzarek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94P8Y_etFN4

Funny thing I wanted to take a closer look at the cover art and went downstairs to dig out my vinyl copy, spent a 1/2 hour looking w/o success 🙁 . Found a lot of stuff I couldn’t have told you I had but not the thing I KNEW I had/have .

🤬
� 😄

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Fred, OscarCP, Myst, Alex5723

Ray Manzarek was such a fine musician, the one performance that stands out for me was Paradise, California with guitarist Roy Rogers in 2012. https://pbase.com/alansheckter/image/141740832 And of course the days with Morrison and the Doors taking a front row seat.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

This is “Classical”, so I was resisting the temptation of doing something that could bring in a serious off-topic drift here, but cannot keep quiet any more. I got to say this: listening to a video of one of the Doors concerts just now, with him on guitar, first the others open with their usual good doorsy things, then comes him, gets the audience to quiet down enough and starts with a clear, crystalline trickle of sound, then a bit louder. He riffs on the Beetle’s “Eleanor Rigby” And it was as if a force field gathered around him and started expanding and expanding, sweeping away everything else on stage and leaving just him there, under a light of electric or — perhaps — divine light eternal, riffing and getting now rivulets, now thunderous rainstorms of sheer beauty out of the guitar. Nothing else that night, however good that was, could equal it. It was the pure magic of art. We are more the poorer when those such as him play for us for the last time. So, in the short time they are still with us, and us with them, let’s make the most of it. And let’s take a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of_I1F8vQg4

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Word of warning to the unwary and the easily surprised: the part that follows the original recording of a segment of a Doors’ concert is by a Mexican group (I think) doing a street concert as a tribute to the Doors. They are very, very good, they truly are, but theirs is not an actual Doors performance. It should not matter, but you need to know this so you don’t start wondering: what, was that them back in the early 70’s or something? What did Ray do to his hair? And so on.

And my next posted comment, in its position in the thread, not in strict chronological order, is about Roy and friends’ “Carmina Burana”, the complete recording, so this comment right here is unrelated to that one down there.

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And here is the whole thing in one continuous 40-minute track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYlythICYqY

Listen to these riffs and how they blend in with such a well-known composition that any misstep can be very, very embarrassing.

Listen, I say, and weep, you philistines, you adorers of Pink Floyd out there!

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

And here is the whole thing in one continuous 40-minute track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYlythICYqY

Listen to these riffs and how they blend in with such a well-known composition that any misstep can be very, very embarrassing.

Listen, I say, and weep, you philistines, you adorers of Pink Floyd out there!

What a joy and pleasure to listen to this. It is almost sacrilege to listen to this with a smartphone and normal earplugs, because the quality (as Alex has it) I don’t have.
A Philistijn, yes that’s right, haha. But a good one, I hope). Coincidentally, I called/call Pink Floyd the classical music of modern times, of today. Although it has been like ages since I was at their performance, playing in the woods near a house I lived in at a three-day music festival. That was in “Kralingen 1970” in (Europe, The Netherlands, city of Rotterdam, 3 days in the month of June 1970 – half an hour’s walk from where I lived at the time)
Yes, that was a music festival a year after you Americans set a good example in Woodstock, and that was shown here as a 3.5-hour movie in the cinema.

Thank you all for sharing such, very often real, moving music!
((But very bad for the nights sleep when started to listen late in the evening, like I did. Haha))

Fred

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

Oh, my Goodness! I forgot about the Mazarek version for choir (separate channel?) and electric guitar (solo?). Such a fantastic invention, such pure, enormous talent on display!

Usually,I am not keen on ‘crossover’: I like my Jazz to be Jazz, Rock to be Rock, Classical to be Classical, but there are exceptions I am prepared to make, and this is one of those.

And, now that I am here and I fear it might be getting lost among the remains of yesterday’s big and painful to do, here is the Latin original and the translation of the lyrics of “Carmina Burana” that I make here available for the enlightenment of those with prurient inclinations (you know who you are.)

http://www.austinsymphony.org/files/Carmina_Burana_translation.pdf

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Fred

Considered, by those who consider such things, as the preeminent amongst all successful and famous pianists of the last 50 years, has lived a long and best described as very colorful life, survived three marriages and two bouts of malignant melanoma — and is still going strong.

I have thought, in view of recent developments, to close the Doors of Classic Rock and reopen the Doors of Perception to return to full “Classic” with an appropriately classy sampler of this classiest of artist’s accomplishments — and looks — through these many years. Fell free to let me know how successful I have been in achieving this goal.

I know someone here will be happy that I’ve done this. I, for one. Also Alex5723. And possibly more and even many more.

So here she is, still great and at the top of her game: Martha Argerich, her life, in four performances:

At 11, in 1956

Bach Tocatta in G Major (Excerpt)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6QVY9MCvkg

At 27  –  1969

Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 (Wished, but could not find a video of her playing Liszt piano-busting “Transcendental Studies”, but the last part of this one should be a good replacement.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhInwkq4nAw

At 73 – 2014

Bach Partita No. 2 in C minor BWV 826 (See Martha making a piano sing.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNG8Jmz5zqI

At 78 – 2019

Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqQcWoTPaU  (Some years after she did the one in the Albert Hall with Baremboin, but look at her! In particular, look at her hands and what she is doing with them!)

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Fred

Hmmm… I left a big gap in there, between young-thing Martha and not-so-young-anymore Martha: so here is one from her middle years — hair no longer quite so black — with a pretty decent summary story of her life and work in the “Show More” part, to boot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwcIX-kw2jU

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Alex5723

So, as Mozart definitely makes people smart(er) and there has not been enough Mozart here, so far, besides for that whole opera, I am making this additional entry as a public service.

Here is, once more, the lovely and so very gifted Ms. Hahn (two characteristics that seem to be a standard package when it comes to younger and talented musicians), accompanied on the piano by Ms. Zhu, playing a little something by Wolfgang Amadeus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7xPIyePmNk

 

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[Alex5723]

OscarCP wrote:

But let’s leave aside such gloomy thoughts and listen to this marvelous work marvelously performed. And don’t forget: listening to Mozart’s music is assured to make you smart!

Best of all, you can download the TY video (I use 4K Video Downloader) and enjoy the full glory of the Mozart’s opera on your home theater system with 4K big smart TV 🙂

Mozart Requiem :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPlhKP0nZII

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp2SJN4UiE4

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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OscarCP, Fred

Thanks, this is an unexpected gift and most welcome: not one, but two performances of Mozart’s Requiem!

Can’t imagine how Mozart, very sick and chased by bill collectors, might have felt composing music for accompanying the mostly seriously gloomy and, or forbidding (*) verses of the Requiem Mass! But the rent had to be paid, the family fed! He did not live to complete it. Others touched up the truncated score. But, finally, “all his work was done and all his debts were paid.”

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Requiem/lyrics.htm

I have both the Karl Bohm (my favorite) and the Herbert von Karajan recordings of this work.

But the one by Sir Neville Marriner conducting the orchestra of San Martins in the Fields and assembled soloist singers and chorus, is one that I had not come across before when searching in YouTube’s fabled “Musical Cave of Ali Baba and his Forty Thieves.” I am listening to it as I write this comment, and it sounds as wonderful as could be expected from such combined forces.

(*) “Dies Irae

This day, this day of wrath
shall consume the world in ashes,
as foretold by David and the Sibyl.

What trembling there will be
When the judge shall come
to weigh everything strictly!

Turba Mirum

The trumpet, scattering its awful sound
Across the graves of all lands
Summons all before the throne.

Death and nature shall be stunned
When mankind arises
To render account before the judge.”

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Thank you Alex, the Cathedral of Saint Denis, just north of Paris France, where so many kings are burried; a tremendous historical place for Mozarts Requiem.
I will try to get it on my mediaplayer

* _ ... _ *

[Alex5723]

OscarCP wrote:

I have both the Karl Bohm (my favorite) and the Herbert von Karajan recordings of this work.

I have Claudio Abbado’s Herbert Von Karajan’s Memorial Concert and Live performance of Teodor Currentzis Salzburger Festspielen 2017

Mozart, Requiem, Neville Marriner
Sylvia McNair, Carolyn Watkinson, Francisco Araiza, Robert Lloyd
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaH3zI0bYkM

Mozart Requiem Sir Neville Marriner Cadaques & Amici Musicae

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuNdZFVZmUA

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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Fred

Modern day theme score to the movie ‘american beauty’ by thomas newman.
Great relaxing drift off to sleep classical composition that refreshes the mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqUwDI_bV-U

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Fred

Make “Brown Links” – use “Visual” Tab. See #2136519 above
Before

Enter link as text

Highlight link, click on Link Editor, click on gear

In popup box, be sure the link is in both boxes, click update

Link should be hyperlink

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AJNorth, wavy, Fred, OscarCP

Inaugurating the new, All-Brown Links Era, here is something that is good to listen for relaxation, for going to sleep with a big satisfied smile on one’s face, and for when, by other means, attempting to achieve a relaxed state of bliss. Not because it is boring music, not that at all, but because it is relaxing.

Now, this is a set of sonatas and partitas for the lute, a stringed instrument with lots of strings, played like a guitar, but with the extra strings acting as resonators to create interesting chords and reinforce the sound of those actually played.

In modern times, up to twelve-string concert acoustic guitars have been built to have something of this effect, and played by some of the top guitar players of the last one hundred years: Narciso Yepes, most famously. But the two hours and change of pinging sounds to be found in here are interesting also as an illustration of the way in which people like J.S. Bach or W.A. Mozart, amongst the most prolific classical composers ever, managed to actually have time for other things. In the case of J.S.B., for example, to have all those children and, I suppose, to keep counting them to make sure not to loose some when the family went out shopping together, or to see a show, or something like that.

Their secret?  They copied themselves with abandonment; they plagiarized themselves a lot. So, if when listening at what is in this video you say to yourself: “hmmm that sounds almost like…”, have no doubt, that sounds exactly like some piece by the same composer for some other solo instrument you’ve heard before. For example, at around one hour and 17 minutes, if you happened to find the melody familiar, well yes, it better be: it is Bach’s monumental “Chaconne” for solo violin, that you already have heard in the second YT video with the other “picture” link allowed here (see PKCano’s tutorial on how to post a brown link just above this posting), in the top comment at the very beginning of this thread, played there by my favorite violinist of the last two decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTBooio3h9U

So click on this link, take a deep breath, or two, or three, and prepare to relax.

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Here is my other favorite relaxing, listen-just-to-listen YT video, as well as one that can be listen paying full attention to the music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZbcIVTuHKQ

There is in there a complete recording of all of Bocherini’s concerts for the cello; they are not very long concerts, because Boccherini lived and worked at a time, in the artistic period known as the Late Baroque, when, usually, they were still not very long. He was a cello-player himself, and the works in the video are a delight to listen to, probably because their composer new what it takes to play a particular series of notes in a certain way on a cello and had that in mind when selecting the notes to make sure they was something human cellists could play well if they were any good.

One interesting thing about the YT video is its accompanying picture: the partial portrait of a well-dressed and fine-looking young lady sitting down in a pensive attitude and surrounded by different string instruments while holding a lute herself.

The lady was Ann Ford, who was equally highly-regarded as a player of string instruments, as an actress and as a singer. The portrait is by one of the top English painters of her day, Thomas Gainsborough and, judging by this fact and by what she is wearing, it is clear that she was doing pretty well for herself. There is, as I have discovered, because I was curious about this painting, something of an artistic controversy about her portrait that had people saying things like; ‘nice painting, but I would never let one of my daughters be painted like that”

So what was wrong? Well, and this to people of our times might sound pretty strange, it was the fact that she has her legs crossed. These days, that is considered ladylike, in Ms. Ford time, it seems, it was quite the opposite. Go figure. Her dress was fashionable for her time, but also conventionally modest. And is not that her legs, or anything from much below her neck down is visible of her that is not wrapped in some opaque material. But Gansborough thought — and obviously she agreed —  that painting her in this “provocative” posture would express best her rebellious, unconventional views and life-style.

L-P Hartley wrote in “The Go-between”, in the very first sentence: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” I won’t argue with that.

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And is not that her legs, or anything from much below her neck down is visible of her that is not wrapped in some opaque material

Quite different these days, not a complaint, maybe in those days it was verboten to even acknowledge that there was any thing really human down there ?

Rather like the cello recordings thanks!!

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

Wavy: good point. I remember that someone who grew up in Victorian England, maybe Bernard Shaw, maybe Bertrand Russell, in a book or a play that I read years ago, wrote that, as a small child, he thought that women did not have legs, but “were solid underneath their voluminous skirts.” But, for obvious reasons, she might have been wearing something less voluminous and more practical when on stage and playing her cello (or viola da gamba, as the old-style cello was called in her day).

And now that I am here and leaving the fashion subject aside, there is something I would like you to hear. Of Vivaldi has often been said that he wrote just one concert and all the other many hundreds to his name were merely slight variations of this Ur-Concert. Not true, and so very unfair!

Vivaldi, a priest and music teacher at the local orphanage for girls, grew up and worked for many, many years in Venice, where he become famous and his music was very much appreciated (until it stated to be seen as too old fashioned) — but did not die there. No, he died in Vienna, of a serious case of historical bad luck. When his music’s popularity was already fading in Venice, he got an invitation of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor (the titular head of of the “Holy Roman Empire”, as the official name of his domain was) to go and work at his court. So he packed up and went. Unfortunately, soon after he got there, his would-be host died, was succeeded by his daughter and (I think) only child, something that riled the Electors, the heads of the kingdoms and principalities that made up the Empire and were the ones that chose the Emperors. Particularly upset was the the King of Prussia, who immediately went on the war path. That meant that the fledgling Empress and the people helping her run things now had their hands full and no time for old Vivaldi, who was reduced to live in penury, endure the cold central European winter in a garret with little or no heating and was dead within the year of his arrival.

But that did not stop him from continuing to compose music, until that unfortunate final outcome, partly because he was hoping to sell the product of his efforts to some rich person and make some money; partly I suppose, because he was Vivaldi.

The result was six concerts for strings that, together, have became known as “I Concerti dell’Addio”, or “The Farewell Concerts”, for obvious reasons. And these very last concerts were something new and definitely not a rehashing of some old piece he once wrote. They are stunning and are stunningly performed here by  Fabio Biondi, a violinist that specializes in Baroque music, and his “Europa Galante” strings orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ssh_B0-WB8

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[Nibbled To Death By Ducks]

OK…here’s one form I don’t think was mentioned; The renowned organist Nicholas Kynaston on the Royal Albert Hall 1o,ooo pipe organ* with Mendelssohn’s “War March of the Priests” (use a good set of earphones and turn it up!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB3hU8kqbgo

…and if you’re still capable of cognition after this, here’s “Summer” by Vivaldi directed by the great Von K.**; watch the 1st violinist NOT wilt under the punishment! Incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOZIGGV55Pg

*I grew up in the company of another 10,000 pipe behemoth that eventually destroyed the Cathedral it was in from 60 years of pounding. Good days of incredible music.

**Von Karajan was rumored to have rehearsed an orchestra for 12 hours, and said at the end, when the musicians were near hypoxia, “Well! That was almost good!“

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Nibbled To Death By Ducks.

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Fred

Well, Nibbled … He has mentioned that the organ music form has been neglected here and, regretfully, I must admit that he is right.

… the old cathedral, the Thomaskirche, where you will be attending the concert, the all-Bach concert, given by someone called E Power Biggs (and what kind of a name is “E” anyway?) in the same cathedral and (mostly) on the same organ where J.S. used to play during his days working and living thereabouts with his wife and with all their many children (so far, there were more still coming and more to come; also another wife?) in the very handsome and very historical city of Leipzig.

So, now, here is Mr. Biggs doing something with, or to a (mostly) old organ:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9z0cpkmXlY

And Nibbled also has written that he used to live near a cathedral that had a 10,000-pipes organ and, one day, got demolished (the cathedral), or blown down, by the sheer force of all those dB poured on its structural members over the years? Hmmm…

EDITED content re posting rules

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Nibbled To Death By Ducks wrote:

Good days of incredible music

[at] Nibbled_To_Death_By_Ducks:
Thank you very much, thanks to you I found it:  “J.S. Bach – The Four Great Toccatas & Fugues – Edward George Power Biggs – Organ in the Freiburg Cathedral” ;
Edward George Power Biggs was the great organplayer that my father brought me to in a concert in the late 1950’s in the “Sint Laurens Kerk” in Rotterdam, Holland (that was miraculously mostly-saved during the may-bombardment in 1940, when most of the city center was destroyd) . Great and dear memories to me!
regards Fred

* _ ... _ *

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[Alex5723]

Back : Bach – Piano concerti 1 – 7, PERAHIA, St. Martin in the Fields

I have these recordings in my library of classical Music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrZhqwuh2g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVJddiVqtac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I643hhVCtUQ

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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migongo, Fred, OscarCP

Alex5327: Thank you so much for these very fine performances by such a gifted pianist accompanied by the great St Martin in the Fields orchestra. (Those were the days!)

One of the works included there is the Brandenburg No. 5. So here is the whole set of 6 Brandenburg concerts, one of J.S. Bach more famous, best-liked and among his more popular works, played under the direction of the admirable Claudio Abbado, here conducting the Bologna, Italy, “Mozart” chamber music ensemble. Because he was its conductor in the last decade of his life, this is late Abbado in all its glory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbQORqkStpk

 

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Contemporary Estonian minimalist composer Arvo Pärt “Spiegel im Spiegel”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6Mzvh3XCc

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OscarCP, Fred

Thanks! I am not a fan of “minimalism”, but this particular piece is something else. And it has more than five million views in that YT video! (I wonder how many Estonians are there in Estonia and elsewhere?) Lovely recording!

It puts me in mind of another one by Bach that his friend, the harpsichordist Goldberg, who had problems going to sleep, asked him for something to listen in bed that would help him to relax enough to drop off.

Unfortunately for Goldberg, J.S. obliged with what has become known as the “Goldberg Variations”, that are something that was bound to keep the actual Goldberg, instead of going to sleep, trying to listen to the very last note and asking for more.

You might be the judge of my previous assertion, by listening to this recording by the extraordinary Wanda Landowska, who was one the great harpsichordists virtuosos of the past century and did much to help start the interest in Baroque music, as well as in the harpsichord repertoire. And my gateway, at age 14, to classical music, when I heard her playing, in a vinyl longplay recording with an assortment of Baroque works.

I believe that she  is playing here in an instrument that was custom made for her, with three keyboards and a large and strongly built sound-box, so it sounds louder than an old-time harpsichord, although she owned a collection of antique ones and often played on them as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jS873pDWNs

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Here, a YT video of a performance in the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam by the violinist Ray Chen with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta strings’ ensemble, playing Giuseppe Tartini “The Devil’s Thrill” sonata.

It is called that because of some pretty lively passages and, in particular, the final cadenza, where the solo violinist’s energetic plying is starting to break strands of the horse hair of his bow. All the musicians, except the cellists, are playing standing, which I believe was the way string orchestras used to play, in Italy at least, during the Baroque period. The composer was inspired by a dream he had, where the Devil asked Tartini to teach him to play the violin. At the end of the lesson, he handed the Devil his violin and the Dark One played on it music as never heard before of such beauty, perfection and complexity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkX8YyA4Wp4

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migongo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM

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OscarCP

Here, for the weary and irritated Windows patcher: “Gymnopedies”, a series of six pieces of very soothing and delicately playful piano music by the early 20th century French composer Erik Sati.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7kvGqiJC4g

According to Encyclopedia Britannica:

“The word gymnopédies was derived from a festival of ancient Sparta at which young men danced and competed against each other unencumbered by clothing, and the name was a (presumably) droll reference to Satie’s gentle, dreamy, and far-from-strenuous piano exercises.”

Poor good old Sati: his music so simple, elegant, and playful, his life more complicated:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Satie

And, on top of Sati’s relaxing music, even more relaxation: here is Claude Debussy playing his own piano music, recorded on pianola rolls.

Back in his day, there were roll-playing pianos and recording pianos for creating the rolls. In the latter, the pianist played as on a regular piano, except that the keys pressed resulted in corresponding perforations being made on paper being fed mechanically from a roll, these perforations being each of a size and shape corresponding to the note played, its intensity, whether it was allowed to resonate or not, and if so for how long, etc.

So here again and by the magic of this very old recording technique, is Debussy himself playing Debussy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2fgqT8wtcY

There is also mention in YT’s the accompanying blurb, of “Accoustic” recordings, besides the pianola rolls already described. I am not sure, maybe is music recorded on wax cylinders? If so, those are of a pretty amazing quality for that kind of recordings.

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

Here, for the weary and irritated Windows patcher: “Gymnopedies”, a series of six pieces of very soothing and delicately playful piano music by the early 20th century French composer Erik Satie.

Poor good old Satie: his music so simple, elegant, and playful, his life more complicated

[at]OscarCP
thank you, this is an excellent choice, and I answer you here again to tell that more than simple headphones are needed. The beautiful low tones were lost, so I played it again over the the good music speakers. Just great

* _ ... _ *

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migongo

Hmm… It looks I got my Satie wires crossed: somehow the link I copied in the immediately preceding comment was for the Gossiénnes, also by Satie. Not that there is anything bad or regrettable about my confusion, as the Gossiénnes are quite lovely in their own poignant, nostalgic way.

So here is the recording of the Gymnopédies (also called “Gymnopodies, depending on whom one asks), as well as other pieces from (again) Gnossiénes and also from Sarabandes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pyhBJzuixM

So: relax and listen, listen and relax some more.

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Angela Hewitt loses her one of a kind ‘best friend’ as movers drop $200,000 piano

..Canadian Angela Hewitt is acclaimed as one of the world’s leading classical pianists.

All of her European recordings since 2003 were performed on her Fazioli F278 concert grand piano, which was the only one in the world to have four pedals.

She says two weeks ago movers came into her recording studio to tell her they had “dropped” it.

The piano was kept at her home in Italy, and pianopricepoint.com estimates it is worth over $200,000 (£155,000).
“The iron frame is broken, as well as much else in the structure and action (not to mention the lid and other parts of the case),” she wrote on Facebook. “It’s kaput.”..

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51452218

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt6r5LkBXhI

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Fred

Alex5327 writes here ( #2139325  ) “Angela Hewitt loses her one of a kind ‘best friend’ as movers drop $200,000 piano”

Great! So she and her piano now are all set to play a little something from Olivier Messiaen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYpBHc8px_U

(Actually, this is a major work amongst those that influenced the way Western-style classical music evolved during last century.)

Messiaen, who lived and composed during a good part of last century (1908 – 1992), dying at the ripe old age of 84 — according to Wikipedia — “was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist [as well as] one of the major composers of the 20th century.”

So far, with only one or two exceptions, all the music videos with links here have been to performances of works from somewhere between the mid-seventeenth century through the first decade or two of the twentieth. So Ms. Hewitt’s piano problems are not only enabling her to play this piece better than ever before, but it also gives me the opportunity to include here something of a less than venerable age and even as close to being called “avant garde” as music from an established, long-lived and long-active, already dead composer can be said to be.

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I am making this addition to this thread to make up for two big omissions in the videos chosen ti have their links posted here, so far.

Omission No 1 : No music, so far, from the Americas (you know, that land out there, made up of bits and pieces called North America, Central America and South America (with the Caribbean islands thrown in).

So here, from the North, a composition by Aaron Copland called “Salón México”, in celebration of his birthday by the New York Philharmonic. The date of the concert:  November 20,  1960.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj-98yBfEI0

And from the South, Heitor Villalobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras”, by a Youth Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski with the great Anna Moffo singing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anxdAcilnsM

Omission No.  2 : No music, so far, from one of the greatest of musical countries: Russia.

So here, two works. The first, Rachmaninoff’s piano concert No. 1, played by Rachmaninof (as far as anybody knows)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBx-tr1FDvY

The second, Dimitri Shostakovich’s Violin concert No, 1, played by my favorite violinist on her famous, historical and storied violin.  With Riccardo Chailli conducting the Royal Concertgebow Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J_kyHTbQcM

 

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Alex5723

Back now to the early Nineteen Century, this time with a remarkable performance of the early-romantic French composer Hector Berlioz “Symponie Fantastique” that he famously wrote based on an opium-induced hallucinatory dream he had. In its surrealistic musical program composition, one that tells a story with music: the Artist goes through a series of surreal and mostly not good experiences, ending with his untimely demise by way of being dragged to a place of execution, there to hang by the neck (or, in France, probably to have it neck scientifically cut off with a guillotine) until dead. As Leonard Bernstein put it: “Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral.“

This item is remarkable both for the large scale of the work being performed, the way it is performed and, last but no least, by how the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, here in full-force, with a large and appropriately loud brass section, is conducted by Mr. Stephane Denev.

What is remarkable about the video: the remarkable quality of the sound and how remarkably well filmed it is, showing in detail how the various instruments are being played, something that always has interested me to see.

And above all, the super-remarkable fact that the conductor, Mr. Denev, is actually seen to be doing the job he is supposed to do: of giving entrance to the instruments, signalling the players when to play soft, when to increase the volume and when to go with all stops pulled out, so to speak. And to see the members of the orchestra following, for once, their conductor’s instructions, or at least bothering to look at him, now and then, and definitely managing to follow his hand movements one half-beat behind, as it should be.

So here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1AvexPDTnw

(Sorry, MVPs, but I have done all I can to get a brown YT link and just keep getting this  “picture” link instead. I can’t think of what else to do. This is really very odd. Never happened before}

 

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[migongo]

Hope you like this superb interpretation (best “Elvira Madigan” I’ve heard):

Mozart: Piano Concerto N° 21 in C Major, K467

Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala (Milano, Italy)

Director: Riccardo Muti

Piano: Marizio Pollini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2uYb6bMKyI

And this one, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto N° 2 op. 18 Personally I preffer Martha Argerich’s style but seems, based on viewers numbers, like youtubers disagree

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGOihjqO9w

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by migongo.

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Fred

mgongo: Thanks! That is a fine combination of forces: the orchestra of La Scala, conducted by Ricardo Muti and with Pollini at the piano, performing Mozart’s piano concerto No. 21. I wonder how many saw — or saw and remember much of that 1970’s movie. But those of us who saw it I doubt can ever forget that last scene, where everything stops, frozen for ever in that last, perfect, timeless instant before the end.

Now you have brought this other thing to my memory: here is an all-Ravel concert that begins with Martha Argerich at the piano playing Ravel’s Concerto in G, performed by a certain orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailli playing in the open air, in a particular square of a much storied city, guess where:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXqOhLUvT7w

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migongo

Pachelbel: Canon & Gigue; Bach, Handel, Vivaldi (Musica Antiqua Koln, Reinhard Goebel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQnS2gPdDAo

 

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migongo, OscarCP

[Alex5723]

OscarCP wrote:

wonder how many saw — or saw and remember much of that 1970’s movie.

I have the movie in my collection as well some of Mozart’s work.

And here is piano solo performance : ‘Elvira Madigan’ theme performed by Werner Elmker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ9zpoJcYGY

 

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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Fred, migongo

First of all, thank you, Alex5723 for posting all those links to performances that are big crowd pleasers.
And also some apologies for some erratic spelling in a couple of recent comments. One of them I could not edit, because it was immediately abducted by the system running AskWoody and taken away to be moderated. I think that I triggered some automatic action of the system, perhaps by posting four links in the same page.

Now here are three links to an equal number of YT videos (and we’ll see how that goes — latest news: it went just fine). The links are to three performances of works by American composers, meaning not those of any particular country, but those of the continental mass known as ‘America’, that nearly reaches from pole to pole.

First, from North America, a truly great performance, with equally great audio engineers recording it, of the “Grand Canyon Suite” of Ferde Grofé. This is a late fifties, monoaural recording made by the extraordinary combination of Eugene Ormandy (one of the maybe five conductors of last century that I can honestly call “Great”) and the Philadelphia Orchestra he directed for many years. Don’t be stopped by the early date or the mono recording. Just go ahead and listen to it – and then you can thank me. OK, you are welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe7wC-HG6RQ

Here, again from North America, something by Aaron Copland, with Aaron himself conducting the National Symphonic Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, in Washington DC: “Appalachia Spring”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxd1cmenki8

And here, last, but not list, something from South America, from Argentina to be more precise: a short piece for the piano by Alberto Ginastera (from “Danzas Argentinas”, or “Argentine Dances) played by Argentine pianist Martha Argerich in her true, signature piano-busting mode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U2CrKkFvww&list=RDZlR0xCIF7sQ&index=3

The name of this short piece is “Danza del Gaucho Matrero”, that means something like “Dance of the Gaucho Fugitive from Justice and Gone Feral”)
Not all of Ginastera’s pieces are this energetic, so if you use the link and find some more of his works played by Argerich or her fellow Argentinian-born (an also Israeli citizen) Daniel Barenboim, consider taking a listen to some of those as well.

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migongo

R.I.P.. “Reinbert de Leeuw (8 September 1938 – 14 February 2020)”, Director & composer, and honored.

One may call him a putist and non-pleaser ::
Opposite to only fame, and the greatest, and the best etc as some cultures and classes pursue :: there are others working more originally …

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinbert_de_Leeuw
Playing early works::
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rbQQkmPv0uE

It is a pity that “Reinbert de Leeuw” has passed away.

Fred

* _ ... _ *

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migongo, Alex5723

What an intelligent and lovely performance! The “Gossiénnes” are such a balm for the irritated, distressed or plain angry soul; it is music that says: “Sshshh! There are better things worth caring for; take a break, listen to me and forget about those things you are upset about. Those are, ultimately, trivial things. Here, from me, you may relearn the beauty of what truly matters, because here and in me there is true beauty, besides which little else matters.”

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Alex5723

I have stated in a commentary on Ray Manzarek and his very fine and original rendition of “Carmina Burana” that I am not keen on “crossover” music (blending classical and rock styles, in this case), but that I make exceptions and that was one. Here is another example where I definitely have no problem with a “crossover”, in this case the blending of traditional Catholic religious music with folkloric music. I am making an exception because the “Misa Criolla”  (“Creole Mass”, ‘Creole’ here meaning ‘of the sons of the land’) by the Argentinian folklorist and distinguished musician Ariel Ramirez, is truly exceptional.

When back in the 60’s, the Vatican Council II agreed and Pope John XXIII promulgated a wide-ranging series of reforms to the traditions and practices of their millenary institution, the reforms included the permission to celebrate the Mass in the language of the people, in every nation. This brought about a tremendous flourishing of religious music in the vernacular and, in Argentina, Ariel Ramirez took part of it by producing the remarkable work I am providing a YT link here  to a performance by a choral group and musicians of the University of California Los Angeles. The result is both impressive sounding, while keeping faithfully to the idea of Ramirez of it being very moving, but also faithful to the forms and spirit of Argentinian folk music

Argentina covers a very large portion of South America, made to look smaller in most maps by the same distortion that makes Greenland look almost as large as Africa. But in reality, because of its size, it contains many different regions with quite different landscapes, climates and diverse mixes of Native American and European cultures. From all of which fairly diverse musical styles arouse and are represented here in the various parts of the mass, each of which belongs to a different traditional form typical of a different part of Argentina. Some of it shows mainly an European influence, others that of the native people, particularly in the northwest of the country, that once was part of the Incas’ Empire and, before that, of other powerful nations that had preceded the Incas. So music from there is mostly built on the pentatonic scale. This region is also part of a continuous of culture and traditions that extends from central Chile and NW Argentina, through the uplands of Bolivia and the mountains, deserts and jungles of Peru, all the way north to Ecuador.

Now, here, performed by the UCLA University Chorus, Chamber Singers & Guitar Ensemble, conducted by Rebecca Lord, is Ariel Rodriguez’s “Misa Criolla”:

https://www.youtube.com

The mass is sang in Spanish and is divided in the five canonical parts, each sang to music in a different traditional Argentinian style: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei

 

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migongo, Alex5723

Now here …. is Ariel Ramirez‘s “Misa Criolla” of course, but not ‘.. Ariel Rodríguez…’ as I wrote in the last sentence before the link. What was I thinking? Miserere mei!

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migongo

[migongo]

Talking about Argentinians:

As part of the series of celebrations of the 2009 edition of the Nobel Prize, Martha Argerich performed this concert (see Report #2140409 above), captivating an audience chaired by the kings of Sweden, the laureates, the jury and a select minority of guests.

It will not be casual that, seven years later, she chose to interpret the same piece. This time in Milano, in the Piaza del Domo, in the open air, with the maximum philharmonic orchestra of Italy (the La Scala orchestra), and for a heterogeneous audience with free assistance.

Stresses, in this interpretation, the emotion to the skin of Martha: smile, gesture, “dance”, swinging on the keys to the rhythm of the piece, enjoy, have fun … All without taking into account that he suffered a wound in the left thumb, which is bandaged and that, only a thousandth fraction of a second, as fearful when hitting the keyboard.

That fame of cold, sharp, haughty and distant … Even the qualification of despot (poured by his daughter), may well be paid to the benefit of the doubt (or the idiosyncratic “savoir faire” Argentine).

I do it personally. I already admired her, now, after seeing her and listening carefully to this concert, even more. Not to doubt it, the best I have attended from Martha Argerich. Thanks again for sharing.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by migongo.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by migongo.

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OscarCP, Fred

[Alex5723]

OscarCP wrote:

“crossover” music

I love “crossmusic” when Classic music meets Jazz like in Jacques Loussier – The Best Of Bach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zO_v3HP7Wc

Or his Goldberg Variations – Jacques Loussier Trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL5_DIPpNvg

 

 

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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migongo, OscarCP

Beethoven Triple Concerto & Choral Fantasy – Yo Yo Ma, Perlman, Barenboim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI27Os7H3_k

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migongo, OscarCP, Fred

[Fred]

Fred wrote:

R.I.P.. “Reinbert de Leeuw (8 September 1938 – 14 February 2020)”, Director & composer, and honored.

One may call him a putist and non-pleaser ::
Opposite to only fame, and the greatest, and the best etc as some cultures and classes pursue :: there are others working more originally …

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinbert_de_Leeuw
Playing early works::
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rbQQkmPv0uE

It is a pity that “Reinbert de Leeuw” has passed away.

Fred

To indicate: even this picture is part of the tekst, to indicate the atmosphere;  the text in this picture is in German and French,  and not in Queens_English

* _ ... _ *

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Fred.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Fred.

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migongo, OscarCP

For those musichistorians and musiclovers who are interested (and are willing to use Google_Translate), they will understand;
this is a hommage and grand salut ….
https://www.willempekelder.nl/home/muziek-als-reden-van-bestaan/

* _ ... _ *

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migongo, OscarCP

Using Google Translate: “Until then, modern music hardly had a place of its own in the Netherlands. In November 1969, young Reinbert de Leeuw (anno 1938) went along with a group of fellow composers – called De Notenkrakers – to the Concertgebouw, ‘the bastion of bourgeois culture’, armed with squeeze frogs and a performance by Bernard Haitink. to disturb. The same group, supplemented by writers Harry Mulisch and Hugo Claus, had already premiered six months earlier in Carré the radical-left opera “Reconstruction”, dedicated to freedom fighter Che Guevara.”

I may not be a great fan of “el Ché” for many different good reasons, but, oh yes, there are ‘Lions’ in Holland! Thanks Fred for this comment and link. My Dutch is rudimentary, but I’ve got the gist of it (without help from GT).

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migongo, Fred

Here is a historical recording of Schubert “The Trout” quintet. An unusual work for its time, written with a double bass replacing the second violin in the string quartet that, along with the piano. had always formed the classic piano and strings quintet. Schubert, at 22, back in the 1810s and already popular for his songs but just starting his career as a composer of larger instrumental works, arranged it this way to satisfy the fanciful request of a rich would-be sponsor that he really needed to please.

The video starts with a documentary section where first the players careers so far are summarized in voice over, as they are seen going about their everyday lives; then they are seen arriving by jet plane at a London (Heathrow?), where they will perform together. Then they can be seen, an heard!, practicing (and horsing around) for their concert that will take place soon after; one of them is filmed buying a viola for his wife, and so on. There is more laughing and fooling around just before the beginning of the concert, then the artists file into the concert hall and their performance begins (at about 14:00 minutes into the video — if you wanted to skip those preliminaries, there is where you click to hear — and see — the music begin.

And now here they are, as they once were, in the now so distant late 1960’s, in the full vigor of their youth: Jacqueline duPre and her cello, Daniel Barenboim, playing the piano, Pinchas Zukerman, the viola and Itzhak Perlman the violin, and Zubin Mehta, the double bass, in this one-for-the-ages performance of Schubert’s “The Trout”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZdXoER96is

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AJNorth, migongo, Alex5723

Here is a later recording by three of the same artists that played in the “Trout”, Barenboim, du Pré and Zukerman, of a work from Beethoven’s “middle period”, when he was having a tremendous creative outpouring with little to compare with in the history of music. Among some of his landmark works, he wrote two trios, of which the one in the YT video linked here (No. 1, Opus 70, in D major) got to be known as “The Ghost” for its eerie sounding slow middle movement.

The music was recorded in what seems to have been a large and, at the time, empty church. The sound quality of this video is superior to the one of “The Trout”, so one can appreciate better that of the sounds each player gets out of his or her instrument. The mood of the players, in contrast with their playfulness in the “Trout” video, here is a serious, at times even solemn one.

Two of the performers are still active and playing as well as ever. The other one, Jacqueline du Pré, was at the time of that performance just a few short years away from experiencing the first symptoms of the devastating illness that progressively destroyed her central nervous system, depriving her first of that delicate an subtle touch that characterized her playing, then of her ability to play at all, then of that of teaching, then of that of taking care of herself and, at the very end, of that which is the last thing that is left to anyone: the light of her eyes.

So here, to be evoked once more by using this link to bring it back, is the ghost of that moment in a day, more than forty years ago (as I write this) when the three, who were all still alive, fit and young, performed Beethoven’s “Ghost”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReZeyI8Z5wk

 

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AJNorth, migongo

And to end this little series remembering the great performances by du Pré and her fellow eminent artists, here there are two more videos.  I could not find in YT her recording of two of Bach’s Suites for solo violoncello, some of the most profound works written for that repertoire and interpreted by her with her usual sure touch and authority in every note, she played, because once it was there and now it’s gone, as often happens.

So, instead, here is her monumental?; towering?; epoch-making?; all of the above? performance of Elgart’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, her then husband Daniel Barenboim conducting I’m not sure what orchestra, but it hardly matters here.

Because if Helena of Troy had a face that launched a thousand ships, if the sight, in real time, on TV of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon and flubbing his  famous one liner launched the careers of tens of thousands of engineers, scientists (YT’s included) and even of scores of astronauts, then du Pré’s early performances of this old concert hall workhorse, a broody work by Elgart who, at the time was both mourning the death of his wife and the slow-moving disaster that was World War I, this one performance, then, is the concert that launched a thousand careers of cello players.

I have heard, since then, many good cellists perform this work, but no one has got even near her level when playing, even when some did extremely well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPhkZW_jwc0

And here, the same trio of du Pré (cello), Bernboim (piano) and Zukerman (violin) that did Beethoven “Ghost” are back, in memory still green, to play another of his trios, No.7 Op.97, known as the “Archduke”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUwTwQTXG8E

Finally, du Pré (an English lady with a French name she got due to her father family’s origins in the Channel Islands) with her cello and Barenboim conducting, I think that at the Albert Hall in London, some time back  in the sixties — play Antonín Dvořák’s Concerto in B minor, Op. 104. She does it with her usual passionate enthusiasm, and breaks a string. But, unfazed, walks out, puts a new string in her cello, comes back and Barenboim gets he orchestra to start to play the same, interrupted movement again, from the beginning. And she plays as usual, as if nothing, in absolute, had ever interrupted her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_yxtaeFuEQ

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migongo

Oh, well, I can’t help adding this one example of very fine cello playing, not by du Pré this time, but by a most excellent cellist still very much alive and that by way of the included YT link can be seen and heard in concert with her lucky husband, Pinchas Zukerman, who is also still very much with us, along with Yoel Levi conducting the Korean Broadcasting System Orchestra. So here is the Canadian Amanda Forsyth in Brahms Double Concert for Violin and Cello in A minor, Opus 102. (And based on the two outstanding cellists — counting this one in — that I have commented on so far, for me this brings to mind the interesting question of whether for women to be great cellists, they are required by Nature to be stunningly gorgeous blondes with long hair? If you know of any who are also fine looking redheads or brunettes, with long, short hair, or dreadlocks, please let me know 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eO6Hcx_2c8

 

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migongo, Alex5723

Another “crossmusic” : Dave Brubeck Quartet – Brubeck Meets Bach (2007)

CD1

Concerto For Two Pianos And Orchestra, c-minor BWV 1060 (J.S.Bach)
01. Allegro 5:21
02. Adagio 5:04
03. Allegro 4:00
Points On Jazz For Two Pianos And Chamber Orchestra (Brubeck; arr. Kaska)
04. Prelude 4:17
05. Scherzo 1:58
06. Blues 4:57
07. Fugue 3:13
08. Rag 2:42
09. Chorale 2:09
10. Waltz 2:08
11. A La Turk 7:23

CD2

01. Jazz Selection (W.C.Handy) 11:53
02. Unsquare Dance (Brubeck) 5:42
03. Lullaby (Brubeck) 6:17
04. Brandenburg Gate (Brubeck) 14:22
05. Regret (Btubeck) 10:10
06. Blue Rondo A La Turk (Brubeck) 10:56
07. Take Five (Desmond) 10:30
08. Guten Abend, Gut’ Nacht (J.Brahms) 2:07

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQO90Q_E4rg

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migongo, OscarCP, Myst

OK: all the crossover enthusiasm around here is starting to get to me, but in a certain way that some might not expect.

Let’s first consider the most frequently encountered kind of crossover, also referred to as  ‘Fusion’: Classical, mostly Bach and, now and then, a few others, fused with Jazz: ‘Cool’ Jazz, to be more exact. So what the “fusionists” mostly do? Here  is the recipe:

(1) Take a few measures of, probably, something by J.S. Bach.

(2) Add a dash of jazzy improvisation,  and riff it wonderfully well.

(3) Chill and serve with a dash of whisky (or vodka) and a corkscrew of lemon peel.

In other words, take some Bach, play it a straight for a few bars easily recognizable by many, then improvise, very loosely, on that foundation borrowed from J.S.B.

But how about going the opposite way: Create a completely original structure of sound and rhythm and color it with the right mix of instruments, then infuse it with something else from what then becomes the other half of the ‘fusion’? Why not do that as well? Well, truth be told, that it is much, much harder, because it takes not just a top instrumentalist with a knack for riffing on any giving theme, but it requires a higher level of skill both as a composer as well as a performer.

Now, let me be very clear: Brubeck, Muddy Waters, and other greats were truly great. But there is always a higher level to be aspired, and when it is reached, then we have something else altogether.

So, how about the fusion of Tango and Jazz? What happens when one innovator in one musical form joins up with one in quite another?

Well, this is what happened when Astor Piazzolla (Tango) and Greg Mulligan (Jazz) joined forces to make this recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLiJwjc6F1A

Or when Piazzolla put together his own orchestra (one of several) and ‘fused’ Tango and Jazz acting both as original composer creating the musical foundation, not by borrowing it from J.S.B, for example, but entirely “from scratch” and then perform it along with the brilliant colleagues he had chosen to form his orchestra? Well this is what happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urou6jIXbJ8

Or when Yo Yo Ma decided to put together a number of compositions from Piazzolla, and made this recording of the result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI_aQvy1i8I

So who was Astor Piazzolla again?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Piazzolla

And, say, who was Greg Mulligan?

Oh, really?

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migongo

OscarCP wrote:

Brahms Double Concert for Violin and Cello in A minor, Opus 102.

With Jascha Heifetz · Gregor Piatigorsky : 1 – Allegro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQgWKVWJMeY&list=OLAK5uy_kgr_FjmFuXZk0jUnTRM_zhoAPcOhdNSMQ

A whole different atmosphere to the music. More mature in my eyes.

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migongo, AJNorth, OscarCP

For myself, Brahms is the autumn composer; to my ears, his music captures the colors, textures and overall ambiance of fall.

The double concerto was composed, in part, as a reconciliatory piece by Brahms for “his violinist,” Joseph Joachim, with whom he had had a falling out; one can hear the dialog between the two solo instruments representing the two (particularly in the first movement).

This recording is my hands-down “desert island” recording of the Op. 102; I am fortunate to have a copy of the original stereo LP issued in RCA’s Soria Series, with the included booklet (LDS-2513) in 1961.

 

As a side note, my mother knew many of the RCA Victor musicians from her days in the 1940s and 50s working for Don Gillis (Toscanini’s assistant and producer), and later John Pfeiffer (the father of Living Stereo).

See: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://metager.org/&httpsredir=1&article=1027&context=ul_pub

The anecdotes she used to share would fill a book.  On a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada while visiting California in 1956, she saw Gregor Piatigorsky in a casino playing a slot machine.  She walked over to him in mild astonishment and exclaimed, “Grecia, what are you doing?”  Piatigorsky turned to her and with an absolute deadpan expression replied, “I am exercising my bowing arm.”

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migongo, OscarCP

AJNorth wrote: “For myself, Brahms is the autumn composer; to my ears, his music captures the colors, textures and overall ambiance of fall.”

While Richard Strauss’ “Last Four Songs” (1), or Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”, or Vivaldi’s “Concerti dell’Adio” (2) capture the late, inevitable autumn of life itself.

All three were created when their composers knew themselves to be already in it and near the end.

 

(1) and (2) have been included elsewhere in this thread.

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migongo

OscarCP wrote:

But how about going the opposite way

This type of fusion doesn’t get to me. I stay on Classic > Jazz 🙂

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migongo

Alex, for my part, I think I get both. And while Classical+Jazz is very interesting and even great on occasion, the fact remains that those on the ‘Classical’ side, old J.S.B., for example, while great innovators in their day, are not around now to actively collaborate, like Piazzolla and Mulligan, to create a totally new, from scratch, original kind of fusion music — or just a plain new kind of music never before heard. And that I find even more interesting — and also quite rare and not easy to find, for obvious reasons.

So if someone here can give other examples of this second kind of fusion (and there has to be more around), perhaps of Swahili choral music from southern Africa with Brazil’s Bossa Nova? Why not? To those truly creative, the world is their oyster.

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migongo

And to close with a golden brooch, I expect, my own little excursion into ‘Fusion’ or ‘Crossover’, here is another example of a different mix: Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto with a little something they whipped up together to get this 50 – 50 Jazz and Bossa Nova treat that is a bit like both and a lot like neither, but when they came up with it, was something quite new in the world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckmcdcQ2mEg

 

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migongo

Now, back from my ‘Fusion’ hike, here I am also back in full-classic mode with something that more classic that it simply does not exist:

The six suites for unaccompanied cello, played in their totality by two of the greatest interpreters of these remarkable and very difficult works, with significant, and audible, differences in their interpretation of them: Paul Tortelier, French, and Pau Casals, a patriotic Catalán and the most principled of men.

He famously chose to live in a permanently self-imposed exile from his beloved Catalonia, now a semi-autonomous region of North-East Spain, rather than to live there and be, even by implication, in complicity with the tyranny of Franco. But not as a passive exile, as he in every possible way kept reminding both the powerful and the common citizens of the kind of wrong that should never be forgotten nor forgiven. He was acting in the best tradition of the great romantic composers, such as Chopin, or Verdi, that made of their music subtle but unforgiving weapons against the oppressors of their people.

Also, and very interestingly, he was wont to play the whole six suites in one sitting (with “convenience” breaks? History is irritatingly mute on this very important point). He played them, in fact, or so we are told, every single day and, towards the end of his life, he said that he had started to notice “some improvement”, So here is he playing the six suites for unaccompanied cello, by J.S. Bach:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePPMrX4YtkM Casals I

And here are Tortelier’s two parts of three suites each:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eJn0hgLyKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUPkSMlcV9A

OK, I have this also by Mischa Maisky, as well as two of the Suites by du Pré (now not available in YT), but I don’t believe in piling it up. So enjoy.

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migongo, Alex5723

The “Musical Offering” by J.S. Bach consists of a series of different types of counterpunctual music, from canon to sonata, composed by J.S.B. at the strong suggestion from King Frederick II (called “The Great”) of Prussia, who was also a respectable musician: flute player and composer whose works are still played at concerts. The king, at Bach’s request, then played a rather long theme of, presumably, his own invention, on his flute, and Bach promised to make something of it. The result is the topic of this comment.

One of the most famous parts of the “Offering”, and of the whole Bach repertoire, is the “Ricercar a 6” a composition for six voices that play both with and against each other in a most fantastic cascade of sound. Bach also wrote a version adapted for keyboard instruments, because  human piano, organ, or harpsichord players only have four extremities (and only organ players can really use all four).

Here is an interesting looking animation of the Ricercar a 6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYouXtuk0T8

And here is an episode from a German/Hungarian TV program (in German, with English subtitles) chronicling Bach’s life, with a reenactment of the meeting between the king and Bach where he got his invitation to compose a little something based on the what right away became known as the  “Thema Regium” or “King’s Theme”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdmcabpiGYU

And here is the actual thing, all of it — to me one of the most delightful stimulant and beautiful things I have ever heard and I often listen to. (And listening to it also does make people cleverer, take it from me  — although, full disclosure, I started being clever, or so my mother and some of my better girlfriends have informed me, which always helps.) The music begins with the king’s theme without any ornamentation or harmonization, just the same plain sequence of notes Frederick played in his flute, and then Bach takes it from there…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooqdCeswX9k

Finally, from “Gödel, Escher Bach: an Eternal Golden Thread” by Duglas R. Hoftstadter (the book many bought because Martin Gardener so much recommended it, but never got past page 20) is this excerpt, where the actual meeting between Frederick and Bach is recounted as told by Bach’s biographers, near the beginning of Chapter 1:

“One May evening in 1747, an unexpected guest showed up. Johann Nikolaus Forkel, one of Bach’s earliest biographers, tells the story as follows:
‘One evening, just as he [Frederick] was getting his flute ready, and his musicians were assembled, an officer brought him a list of the strangers who had arrived. With his flute in his hand he ran over the list, but immediately turned to the assembled musicians, and said, with a kind of agitation, “Gentlemen, old Bach is come.” The flute was now laid aside, and old Bach, who had alighted at his son’s lodgings [the son was emplyed as a King’s musician], was immediately summoned to the Palace. Wilhelm Friedemann [Bach’s son], who accompanied his father, told me this story, and I must say that 1 still think with pleasure on the manner in which he related it. At that time it was the fashion to make rather prolix compliments. The first appearance of J. S. Bach before se great a King, who did not even give him time to change his traveling dress for a black chanter’s gown, must necessarily be attended with many apologies. I will not here dwell en these apologies, but merely observe, that in Wilhelm Friedemann’s mouth they made a formal Dialogue between the King and the Apologist.
But what is mere important than this is that the King gave up his Concert for this evening, and invited Bach, then already called the Old Bach, to try his fortepianos, made by Silbermann, which he kept in several rooms of the palace. [Forkel here inserts this footnote: “The pianofortes manufactured by Silbermann, of Frevberg, pleased the King se much, that he resolved to buy them all up. He collected fifteen. I hear that they all now stand unfit for use in various corners of the Royal Palace.’ ”

 

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migongo

This collection of J.S. Bach concerts for oboe and oboe d’amore (an early form of the oboe) is a collection of works from the lighter side of his huge production. The video has a good execution of the works, but it is illustrated with a tragic and depressing “cautionary tale” that has nothing at all to do with the music, particularly with its warm and bright style. The background illustration is in the form of a sequence of Hogarth’s prints called “The Rake’s Progress” (a sarcastic pun on John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrims’ Progress”). Being by Hogarth, the prints are both gorgeous and very, very realistic. This sequence is definitely OK to look at once, but I would minimize the screen after that and just listen to the music again, instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOc6I7rxAO8

And to complement the above video, here is one where my favorite fiddler plays J.S. Bach’s violin concert BWV 1060 in C minor, that is really a double concert for violin and oboe, here with both violinist and oboist pretty evenly matched in the quality of their interpretations and playing some truly lovely duets, particularly in the second, slow movement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erwt9IexcCA

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migongo

@OscarCP, you asked something about Bossa Nova. In fact Bossa Nova is a fusion of brazilian “samba” –wich, in turn, is a fusion of african, portuguese and brazilian tribal rythms– and jazz (Carlos Lyra, Bossa Nova composer, has a piece titled “Jazz Influence”).

I hope you enjoy this superb interpretation of a classical, the most known Bossa Nova theme: “The Girl from Ipanema”, composed by Tom Jobim, who recorded an album with Frank Sinatra singing his music.

I’m son of brazilians, lived in Brazil for many years, love his musical weath and, believe me, I think this is the most awesome interpretation I’ve herad about this classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwVX2FHwZEk

Here is the full concert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct41WfutDBA

Best regards!

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OscarCP

migongo: Thanks! That is a real classic.

To attempt repay such a favor, here is the famous recording of Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s trumpet and guitar with a group of good musicians they put together, that in the late 60’s started the explosion of Bossa Nova in popularity here in the USA and other places as well. I first heard this when I was living in Australia and still remember the big impression it made on me and my friends then:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7VGpKdX3f8

And is this a sort of re-fusion, because Gilberto invented Bossa Nova as a fusion of Samba and Jazz?

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migongo

Oh Dear! I have really been going on about Getz and his ‘trumpet’?!

And, er, where is my  head now? It’s always getting lost somewhere.

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migongo

To atone for my mistake, here is my offering of an album by Toquinho and Paulinho Moreira of music by several composers of Bossa Nova and of other things, such as J.S.B. (track no. 2):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81DjBm0GZHY

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migongo

Bossa Nova is the result of the integration of three people (known as the “Holy Trinity of Bossa Nova”). A poet, Vinicius de Moraes, who decides to integrate Brazilian rhythms into prose and verse compositions. That concern was joined by Tom Jobim, musician, composer and performer of classical and jazz music. Who revolutionized their initiative was João Gilberto, a musician (not a composer: he only composed a dozen songs, none of which achieved success, as he himself recognized). That revolution was of a musical nature: with a very personal style of playing the guitar, a very soft rhythmic cadence (in contrast to the very moved of the Brazilian “samba”), and a quiet song, almost in whisper and similar to “Lullaby” result was astonishing and acceptance too.

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OscarCP

Science and Music : https://bgr.com/2020/02/21/violin-surgery-brain-tumor-kings-college/

The brain is a complicated organ, and when surgeons are tasked with removing dangerous brain tumors they have to be incredibly careful not to cause unintended damage. For Dagmar Turner, a 53-year-old tumor patient at King’s College Hospital in London, ensuring that she could continue to enjoy her passion for playing the violin, that meant demonstrating her musical talents for the surgical team as they were performing their operation.

In Turner’s case, the tumor the doctors were targeting happened to be near her right frontal lobe. That’s a tricky area to operate on, as removal or damage to certain brain structures could cause a loss of fine motor skills. That’s where the violin came in.

By allowing Turner to remain awake and alert enough to play her violin during the operation, the surgeons could be certain that they weren’t impacting any areas of her brain that were being actively used. It’s a technique that has been used before, and it proved to be useful in this case as well.

….

https://bgr.com/2020/02/21/violin-surgery-brain-tumor-kings-college/

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Fred, migongo, OscarCP

Years ago we were driving back from a picnic, an uncle, his son, a cousin of mine who was the driver and myself in the front seat, and my cousing’s wife and her father in the rear one.

My cousin put on a CD with a collection of old popular music. It was a good one, the tracks were mostly old numbers played by top of the line musicians and singers from the past.

My cousin’s father in law, a retired medical doctor, was suffering from advanced dementia, perhaps Alzheimer’s disease, and was already fairly unresponsive in conversation or any other form of normal interaction. However, when he heard the music, after a short while, he started to look more animated and to hum along with the music, looked pleased and smiled, while he had been quite inexpressive until then.

To me this was a revelation of the close interaction between music and the living brain, even one seriously damaged by illness. Music, I concluded, is much more than something we listen for relaxation, or because we like the tunes, or to dance along, or for many of what may seem as mundane reasons, but all that and more might instead respond to some very profound need of the human mind.

Here is a research article that I have found and seems well and clearly written, on something that has been known for some time and is the focus of neurological inquire that has already yielded some helpful therapies meant to mitigate and even slow down the progression of the symptoms of some common forms of dementia:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5267457/

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migongo

And for this number, I think that the following is enough introduction:

Vaughan Williams “The Lark Ascending”; Hilary Hahn, violin, with the Camerata Salzburg, Louis Langrée conducting, performed in front of a live audience. A Rumanian TV 2 production:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOWN5fQnzGk

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migongo

And this performance where every one on stage seems to be having a good time, took place in poor old Detroit, where chances to have a good time were and still are, for all I know, things to be specially cherished and treasured. The performers even enjoy when the audience applauds in the wrong place following the wrong cue.

So here is Ms. Hilary Hahn in violin, with Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, playing  Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Opus 61. And check out those cadenzas! And also those ever intriguing violin bracing accessories of which Ms. Hahn seems to have a large collection of all shapes and sizes. She finishes with an encore, playing “a jig by Bach” (from one of the partitas for solo violin) She has declared elsewhere that she plays Bach nearly every day when practicing “because Bach keeps you honest.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cg_0jepxow

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migongo

Vivaldi’s “The Fours Season” are the first four of twelve concerts collectively named as “Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione”, or “The Dialog Between Harmony and Invention”. Probably anyone with the slighest interest in Western classical music has already heard these four concerts played together and separately many times and by many different musicians. It is, after all, the most popular of Vivaldi’s works and, possibly, the most popular of all music from the Baroque period (17th – 18th Centuries).

But this thread being about the best performances ever, here I present you with two complete performances of the four and with an excerpt of “Summer”, all three by, possibly, the most outstanding of string chamber orchestras specializing in Italian baroque of all times: “I Musici”, recorded at three different epochs in their illustrious history, with a different first violin player (who was also the lead musician) in each.

First, this 1959 version, with Félix Ayo, first violin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdyHhddZy5k

Second, this excerpt from “Summer” under the leadership of Federico Agostini, in a venue not usual for this kind of performance, in an amazing, strings-setting-on-fire 1988 performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-MIDDfckw

Finally, a 1995 recording with Mariana Sirbu as 1st violin, playing in Tokyo, during a tour of Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-MIDDfckw

Are these really the best performances ever of “The Four Seasons? You tell me.

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migongo

[OscarCP]

And I have just found the complete 1988 performance of the “Summer” concerto by I Musici, again with Federico Agostini as 1st violin, but with a better video picture, that includes a trip along Venice’s canals and shows also some people doing restoration work of priceless works of art, some (sculptures) damaged by air pollution, others (paintings), by the dramatic episodes of “acqua alta”, the storm tide floodings that have repeatedly in recent times filled with dirty water the first floors of palaces and the naves of the magnificent medieval and Baroque churches, where some of those paintings were located.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dauL0Uu7G3A

 

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by OscarCP.

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migongo

For the pleasure of sharing the ever joyful rediscovery of Verdi. Highlights deserve the incorporation of the anvil as a symphonic instrument, in the interpretation conducted by Riccardo Muti and, in another, the friendly driving style of Valery Gergiev. Best regards!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSJQ1KKOQr4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHk1RmPzA5E&list=RDGHk1RmPzA5E&start_radio=1

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Fred, OscarCP

mgongo: Thanks for bringing not just Verdi, but Opera into this thread. So far, the major choral work by Karl Orff “Carmina Burana”, the brief but beautiful and beautifully sang by Anna Moffo, Bahiana No. 5  by Villa Lobos, and Sibelius rousing “Finlandia” are all that represents here the singing side of classical music.

Opera is a fascinating topic, because it still draws big crowds to listen, performed by orchestras and singers, ranging from OK to great, works that range from three hundred to a few decades old. As still new operas are being composed and produced, and it is the desiderata of many budding and even seasoned composers to write at least one opera in their whole careers.

Since you have started this again with Verdi, here I am adding more of that, with several arias sang by the “La Divina” at the top of her singing form and of her extraordinarily beautiful looks:

First, a selection from “La Traviata”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4cSVnqGmOc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBFVfzx1rE

Love is the very breath of the Universe entire
Mysterious and noble, and a delight to the heart.

And here, “Casta Diva”, from “Norma”: a Chaste Goddess sang to beautifully by that most beautiful “Goddess”– una Casta Diva cantata da quella bellissima “Diva”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ThntJOE5g

In memoriam Maria Callas.

 

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migongo

I should have mentioned above Alex5723 contribution of the link to the whole of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” as well as of the link to Kenneth Branagh wonderfully weird cinematographic production of this opera (an my little one, the excerpt with the “Rache” Aria of the Queen of the Night from the same opera).

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migongo

[OscarCP]

Perhaps to make up for my previous omissions (above), probably because I like this work very much, here is a performance of the Berlin Philharmonic, Conducted by Claudio Abbado, with the Swedish Radio Choir, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and soloists Barbara Booney and Bryn Terfel, in a performance of Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem”, a work inspired by this passage in Isaiah 40:6, (echoed by another in Peter 1) :

“ The voice [crying in the wilderness] said, “Cry out!”
And he said, “What shall I cry?”

“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOoWUIyBn0Y

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migongo

And I have just found this YT video of the full opera “Norma”, by Vincenzo Bellini, with a superb late ninety seventies’ performance by a stellar cast of singers, chorus, conductor and orchestra, that I think is fit to add to my previous entry dedicated to this most exquisite of singers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGy0ZDoVIR0

With:

Maria Callas, soprano, Franco Corelli, tenor, Christa Ludwig, mezzo soprano, Nicola Zaccaria, bass, Edda Vincnzi, soprano and Piero de Palma, tenor.
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Opera House, Milan.

Tullio Serafin, conductor.
Chorus master, Norberto Mola.

This is the story of a druid priestess, her heresy and star-crossed love, fated for a truly fiery, but not lonely, ending.

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migongo

I must clarify that this recording of Norma is a copy, released in 1977, of the original, probably made during a 1954 performance with Tullio Serafin as the orchestra conductor, at La Scala — there is no mention of the actual date in the YT notes on the video. 1977 was the year of her death, in September, at the relatively early age of 53. She did live a short life, but what a life! One that burned brightly and left a very long shadow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Callas

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migongo, Fred

[OscarCP]

Added here later, for further information:

The full recording of “Norma” available from YouTube of the link in the preceding entry (  #2173366 ), with Callas in the title role, is from her earlier period, before she lost weight and got to look so strangely and strikingly beautiful as most people who saw her picture as repeatedly as it was being shown at the time, might still remember her — but the general opinion is now that her drop in weight might also have caused her to loose some fine control of her voice. The human body is a very complicated thing.

So this is from the time when her voice was even stronger, fuller, better controlled. But always with that slight harshness that made it immediately recognizable and was really, in my opinion, a plus, the way she used it, although she herself never liked it. She was a ferocious perfectionist, driving herself very hard to always deliver a superb performance. An obsession that might had been one cause contributing to her relatively early death at 53.

By streaming the video, with only static pictures of her in the background, while the viewer might not be able to see her great acting skills in action, will still be able to appreciate fully how even more amazing her singing was in that earlier period. Made even easier, for those that would like to make the comparison, but do not want to sit and listen to the whole opera, by the fact that the aria “Casta Diva” is the very first thing that is sang in the opera and it begins just a few bars after the orchestra starts to play. And it is followed, immediately, by the second aria, and that is a bonus worth the few more minutes spent listening to it as well.

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migongo

Here is an article with a commentary about “Norma”, including a summary of the story, by Lisa Simeone, back when National Public Radio was still distributing her “World of Opera”, with a link in it to her speaking about this opera and also some more “Casta Diva”:

https://www.npr.org/2008/05/16/90495326/love-among-the-druids-bellinis-norma

Also, according to the article, in her opinion, not only is “Norma” one of the most difficult operas of all the classical repertoire for a dramatic soprano, both to sing and to act, but Callas was the best in the role. Maybe Ms. Simeone was unduly biased? I don’t think so and completely agree with her!

 

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And to finish my detour into Opera, here is some more “Casta Diva”, the first Aria of the First Act  of Bellini’s “Norma”.

Now the Chaste Goddess of the Moon is sang at, first, by the sometimes called “La Superba”, soprano Renata Tebaldi (a.k.a. the anti-Callas, although much of that was made up for propaganda purposes — a very old trick that still gets people’s ears, perhaps not that surprisingly, as gossip, whether made up or not, is for ever popular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jih8458MRI8

From the YT notes: Renata Tebaldi, Alfredo Mariotti, Coro Lirico di Torino, Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Fausto Cleva, chorus master. Circa ? I would guess back in the 70’s.

And here is the one and only, “La Stupenda” (and guaranteed 100% Aussie), Joan Sutherland herself as a Druid priestess, singing at the Moon (that looks a lot like Jupiter, quite frankly) and doing some Druidy thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ2L_B7VOWs

Again according to the YT notes: Joan Sutherland with The Elizabethan Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge, from Sydney Opera House — in the early 1970’s, perhaps?

But are they, great singers as they were, better “Normas” than Callas? I really don’t think so. Listen, if you care to make the comparison, to the video I posted a bit further up, of her singing this same aria — a video of a film made during a concert, not an opera performance — at the time when she had lost weight and was looking eerily beautiful, but had lost into the bargain also some of the fine control of her, nevertheless, still splendid voice, and even with that as a handicap, listen to her and see if I am not right!

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migongo

And one more…  Also known as “La Superba”, Moserrat Caballé, one of the top opera singers of last century and the last of the great old-style Divas, singing “Casta Diva” in a superb performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNsgywuMqHI

But, while she has a better voice control than Callas, whose voice fails her for maybe two seconds, in the video, during a descending passage, but that she then recuperates from very quickly and nicely, faking the very brief flawed part into one plausibly belonging to that song, I still think Callas’ Norma  is better. Because she was, not just a singer of total honesty tin how she sang the works of her repertoire, of deeply moving passion that managed to convey to the audience and had them share with her, but also a great actress of tremendous physical eloquence as well as grace. And a crystal clear elocution, that even I, with my rusty knowledge of Italian, can follow her words and their meaning even when she sings will all the required decorations and grace notes, moving and even jumping, up and down her remarkable range — from the lower part of mezzo to the higher part of Alto — a range within which she could sing either as dramatic, or as coloratura soprano, depending on what the work being performed called for.

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migongo

Finally: to end of this series of entries on Callas:

One who, once upon a time, made the air vibrate with tremendous fire and passion under the adoring eyes of thousands, now has an asteroid named after her, out there, forever circling the Sun in the eternal vacuum of space, between Jupiter and Mars, under the unblinking stares of the countless stars:

Asteroid 29834 Mariacallas was named in her memory. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 31 January 2018 (M.P.C. 108697)   “Wikipedia.”

And here what, is suppossed to have been her last appearance in an opera performance, singing the aria “Vissi d’Arte“ from Puccini’s “Tosca”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk5KrlxePzI

According to the YT notes:

“Maria Callas’ final appearance on the operatic stage was in Tosca ​at Covent Garden’s 1965 Royal Gala. ​​​For many opera lovers, Maria Callas and Tosca’s Vissi d’Arte ​are inseparable. “I lived for art; I lived for love” became La Divina’s cri de coeur, ​​​​her swansong, the perfect expression of her own triumphs and tragedies.”

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migongo

Now, some great fiddling, for all those that are Irish, or carry and feel a certain Irishness in their hearts. By my favorite fiddler, from the early days in a great career, playing at the auditorium of (possibly) a Catholic church, somewhere up in one of the Mountain states — now, in the waning days of the not very wintery winter of 2020, here is, once more, a distilled fragrance of the “Last Rose of Summer”, in the variations for violin by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, based on the traditional song of the same name with lyrics that Thomas Moore, poet and Irishman, wrote in the Year of Our Lord of 1805:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0t7oms2kyM

’tis the Last Rose of Summer left blooming alone
all her lovely companions are faded and gone
No no flower of her kindred no rose bud is neigh
to reflect back her blushes or give sigh for sigh

I’ll leave thee thou lone one to pine on the stem
Since the lovely are sleeping go sleep now with them
Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o’er the bed
where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead

So soon may I follow when friendships decay
and from love’s shining circle the gems drop away
when true hearts lie withered and fond one’s are flown
Oh who would inhabit this bleak world alone?

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Pierre77, migongo, Alex5723

Now spring is getting near.

Here, in the USA, as an early warning of what is soon coming and we better get ready for it, this last Sunday, very early in the morning, the hour got switched from Winter (EDT) to “summer” time (EST) moving forward by 60 minutes.

Soon the usual activities of springtime will be upon us, in the Northern Hemisphere: spring cleaning, finding virgin, doing our taxes for the previous year, sacrificing virgin to gods, buying the local seasonal and still fresh fish at the supermarket, as well as fresh veggies at the nearby farmers’ market, and so on. The usual, as I just said.

These are all rites of spring that have been rigorously observed and repeated year after year since time immemorial. Now, to help make it easier to carry them out, and particularly appropriate for accompanying those virgin-related activities, here is something from Stravinsky, Igor Fyodorovich, to listen to while performing them. And useful for covering those unnerving screams (that then have the neighbors complaining) with even louder noises from the orchestra.

Stravinsky “The Rite of Spring”: the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle conducting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkwqPJZe8ms

 

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migongo

Some twenty years after last seen here playing “The Last Rose of Summer”, here is favorite fiddler once more, this time doing some vigorous Bach gymnastics to keep in shape.

(1) “Presto” from the Sonata No. 1 for violin solo, played somewhere in outer space and wearing not very practical shoes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZoaEmxrsZQ

(2)  When “Presto” won’t do, it has to be “Double Presto”, from Partita No. 1 for, yes, violin solo, this time in fiddler’s living room, during the daily practice and, naturally only informally dressed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEBX_ouEw1I

 

 

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migongo, Alex5723

I have, by pure chance, heard just now four young musicians playing Beethoven’s Quartet No. 1, the first of the three Razumovsky string quartets, so named after the Russian aristocrat that was ambassador to the court in Vienna at the time and had commissioned them.

These four musicians are either senior students, or recent graduates of the New England Conservatory, playing this great work and, in so doing, giving a remarkably fine account of themselves.

Listen to them. I have found their performance not just very good, but also profound and profoundly moving. This recording was made on 2012, eight years ago as of this writing. I do not know what has become of them. For their own good and the good of audiences, I hope they are still active and pursuing successful careers. And delighting, enlightening and deeply moving the hearts of those who are lucky to see and listen them perform.

Beethoven String Quartet Op.59 No.1 “Razumovsky”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXLKu-HglnM

Matthew Vera and Michael Rau, violins David Mason, viola Marza Wilks, cello
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, December 11th 2012

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migongo, Alex5723

Great gusts of wind blowing long, curving waves of grass across meadows; deep memories of centuries, deep dreams of generations fading, of generations surging, like the wind in the grass. Like the grass in the wind.

The call of ancient things, deep in the ancestral memories of the blood and the bones.

The music of the heart that meditates on the old, that contemplates the new turn into the old, and then is gone. Things once familiar that changed, as all changes. Like the wind, like the grass, like the wind in the grass:

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for Double Stringed Orchestra: David Nolan, Leader London Philharmonic Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6sWqfrnTs

 

And here, a selection of other William’s works (including a repeat of “Tallis” by another orchestra):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6sWqfrnTs

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migongo

Well, today might not be a bad one to add some Mozart music, that makes peopple smarter, and I have chosen two works:

(1) Mozart’s Symphony 41 in C Major, K 55, called “Jupiter”, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YO7BGQ2h6A

(2) Mozart’s concert for flute and harp in C Major, K 299, with Neville Marriner conducting the RTSI — the orchestra of the Swiss Italian Radio and Television:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLFTGanol7w

Notice that the flute has square wholes and that the harpist, while perhaps not the prettiest one ever, can be heard playing every note with great clarity: this is a very good recording and the best I have found on YouTube, so I decided to bring it here for the enjoyment of  both the eager Mozart’s fan and of the casual passer by.

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migongo

Of the stringed instruments the classical guitar is probably the least common in symphonic orchestration. Spanish composers take it up and honor it with these masterful pieces that are also a fusion of the Spanish flamento with classical music: 1.-) “El Concierto de Aranjuez”, by Joaquín Rodrigo, here performed by the most important guitarist of the 20th century, Paco de Lucía, and
2.-) “Asturias”, by Isaac Albeniz, performed by the Croatian guitarist Aba Vidovic.
Best regards.

1.- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhO5OSLZjl8

2.- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inBKFMB-yPg

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OscarCP

Wavy: “what??”

Care to elaborate?

And to migongo: I would go for Segovia as the best guitar player of the XX Century, closely followed byNarciso Yepes and then by de Lucía, Manitas de Plata…

To rest my case, here is Yepes playing a little something by J.S..Bach. Originally for the lute, but Yepes, with his twelve strings guitar is not too far off when playing something meant to be played on the lute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F38_0L_NCFk

And here, Segovia, also on a little something by J.S.B. transcribed from the solo violin to the solo guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcGt9AFlIPY

And here is another little something, this one by Wallace Stevens, commenting on how things are, and about a certain blue guitar:

The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.

They said, “You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.”

The man replied, “Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.”

And they said then, “But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,

A tune upon the blue guitar
Of things exactly as they are.”

First stanza of “The Man with the Blue Guitar.”

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migongo

And John Feely is no slouch either:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGipFrts650

And more Yepes, with a selection of works by Francisco Tárrega:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibIsfS3hP-Q

(With the always  big crowd-pleaser: “Recuerdos de la Alhambra.” — and much more.)

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migongo

And here, even more Narciso Yepes, playing a pretty varied set of compositions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRz3AQx21y8

Minutes from start      Author            Title

0:01 Castelnuovo-Tedesco Capriccio Diabolico
9:11 Sor Minuet in C
12:21 Sor Andantino Op241
15:30 Sor Minuet in D
17:34 J S Bach Prelude No 3 in C minor BWV999
18:48 J S Bach Gavotte (from Sonata No 6 in E major for unaccompanied violin BWV 1006)
21:41 J S Bach Chaconne (from Sonata No 4 in D minor for unaccompanied Violin BWV1004)
35:39 J S Bach Loure (from Suite No 3 in C major for unaccompanied cello BWV 1009)
39:18 Torroba Nocturno
42:46 Ponce Six Preludes Op Posth
49:50 Villa-Lobos Prelude in E minor
54:56 Rodrigo Sarabanda lejana
59:55 Torroba Madronos
1:02:42 Villa-Lobos Prelude No 4 in E minor
1:06:55 Milan Pavana
1:08:21 Sor Minuet in D Op115

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migongo

[OscarCP]

And one more, of particular personal significance : Ana Vidova plays Astor Piazzola’s compositions transcribed for the guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoN9axWAoPU

Years ago, I went to Japan to collaborate with colleagues at the Hydrographic Institute of Japan in a project using a combination of GPS to position one of its ships and then a kind of sonar from sending pings from this ship to repeater equipment on the ocean floor that would send back the pings. The purpose was to use a combination of this two types of signals to find the position of the equipment on the seabed, with enough precision that, repeating the observations at intervals, one could determine how the Earth’s crust was deforming there and building up stresses that, eventually, would be released in a powerful earthquake, something that Japan is always at great risk.

When we were done and I was on the eve of coming back to the USA, the man in charge of the operation invited a Japanese colleague and me to his house in suburban Tokyo for dinner. There, his wife had prepared a fabulous meal. When we were all full and happy, he went inside and came back with her cello: she is a cellist of the Tokyo Symphony orchestra. And she told me: “I am going to play something for you that I think you might like to hear”. Then she sat down, grab hold of the cello firmly between her knees, put bow to strings, and played “Oblivion” by Piazzola, transcribed for the cello.

So, you see: life has a way of giving one the most extraordinary surprises at the least expected moments.

 

 

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migongo

Hmmm… Vidovic, not Vidova. Piazzolla, not Piazzola.. The years are catching up, you know?

Just wait until that virus hears about this…

To compensate, here is “Oblivion”, this time transcribed for the guitar and played by Nadja Kossinskaja:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez62cQPYyI8

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migongo

[migongo]

Not properly classical, but a remarkable strings performances and “ludens divertimento”. Hope you enjoy.

https://www.facebook.com/UnknownFactsByGenmice/videos/1939854639367345/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0wv74f1zr60W7mBQmdJcqV5je8IvzGO1SfVTVZuGTbo2PUMW1f8itB0QU

 

 

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by migongo.

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OscarCP

The cartoon is one example of “Animusic”, a series of animated videos by that name, such as the one linked by migongo, a big hit on Public TV in the USA, maybe ten years ago. I had not seen until just now another one of those in a long time. So: thanks, migongo!

The marble machine: I saw a demonstration in a shorter video, I think on the BBC Web site, some years ago. This one in YouTube is a complete performance, so once more: thanks again, for making it possible to see that (second) video.

(Those ‘marbles’ used to hit and make various items make sounds look more like ball-bearings than marbles, but seem too light to be that. So, metal-coated marbles?)

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I made a mistake earlier on, and posted a link to a selection of works played by Segovia, instead of to the intended one with Narciso Yepes as the performer. To make up for that, here is Yepes playing 24 guitar etudes by Fernando Sor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gCLpbaaRRA

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This little section dedicated to the art of guitar playing cannot be complete without a set of Paganini’s compositions for the guitar. He was very good at playing this instrument, although he was much more famous as a violinist. He composed a number of works for it, but was very cagey about playing them in public, keeping his performances to small audiences of people he was close to, and playing behind closed doors. In his own work as a composer for the violin, he tried out themes and certain melodies on the guitar before including them into his works for the violin.

So here you have Paganini’s 37 Guitar Sonatas played by Guido Fichtner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVbA70FCpgA

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Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)

(IMDB) “As the title suggests, this dramatized documentary about the eccentric Canadian pianist Glenn Gould is broken up into thirty-two short films (mirroring the thirty-two part structure of Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’, the recording that Gould made famous), each giving us an insight into some aspect of Gould’s life and career. Out of respect for the music lead actor Colm Feore is never seen playing the piano, merely reacting to Gould’s own recordings, which are extensively featured”

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OscarCP

Thanks Alex for the link to this remarkable film about this remarkable artist, as well as a remarkably unusual man.

Glenn Gould was unusual not only in being one of the most gifted pianists of the last century and perhaps the greatest interpreter in living memory of J.S. Bach’s works transcribed for the piano, but also because of a number of peculiarities of behavior, some of which are mentioned here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Gould

His best known oddity was his habit of humming along as he was playing, something that drove sound engineers nuts trying, often without completely succeeding, to scrub it off his recordings. I found those little sounds he made rather endearing, others found them plain annoying. Another one of his oddities was his choice of diet, consisting mainly of scrambled eggs. Not exactly what nine out of ten doctors recommend for keeping blood cholesterol within safe levels. He died at age 50 of a stroke that has been attributed mainly to his choice of diet.

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Here is a performance of Schubert “Fantasy” for piano at four hands in an interpretation by María João Pires and a young gentleman that provides the other two hands. This is a very good and sensitive performance, that opens with Pires playing the notes of the work’s moving and noble theme.  The performers, in contrast to the performance, are an odd couple.

Pires plays on, seemingly with nothing but the music in her mind, with total concentration on her task. A concentration that ignores her large blond companion leaning on her and, to a lesser pianist, cramping his or her style. But not Pires’. Or a lady seated in the row behind the stage, taking notes on a piece of paper, perhaps for her forthcoming critical column in some newspaper. She is here to play and she does that. Very, very well.

Also one might notice the peculiar hole in the back or her jacket. Is she wearing that particular jacket out of some performer’s superstition? Is it her good luck jacket? Does it matter?

No, it does not matter. So just click on the link ad start listening. You’ll be much the better for doing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UruWMxY2OF4

 

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

Also one might notice the peculiar hole in the back or her jacket. Is she wearing that particular jacket out of some performer’s superstition? Is it her good luck jacket? Does it matter?

Yes, a fascinating and extreme well piano player.
Perhaps this story of her tells more of her red-round spot in the back of her blouse. Buddhism playing a role? Who can tell?
https://www.artsjournal.com/condemned/2012/05/maria-joao-pires-why-the-pianisthumanitarian-is-eternally-angry-at-chopin/

* _ ... _ *

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migongo, OscarCP

Fred, Thanks for including the link of that quite frank and revealing interview of María Pires, although the wording of the link seems wrong. In the interview she is not “eternally angry at Chopin.” She gets to talk about playing Chopin and then says that his music is often misunderstood, that he was not composing music for virtuosi to show off, but that he was a poet that used music as a medium to express very deep feelings (for what it’s worth, I entirely agree with her, although it takes a virtuoso to play some of his compositions). The thing she said she is “uncomfortable” with, where music is concerned, has nothing to do with Chopin: she does not like to perform with audiences, particularly when playing solo in recitals. She much prefers to play in recording sessions (with just herself, the technicians, their equipment and the piano.) Another thing she dislikes is piano competitions, because they force young players to prepare to beat the others (“kill” is the word she used) when (and I paraphrase here), instead, they should playing to perfect their art and live it fully and disinterestedly while they still have a chance. She mentioned studying Buddhism (and that it runs in her family.) But said nothing about holes in her clothes.

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

She mentioned studying Buddhism (and that it runs in her family.) But said nothing about holes in her clothes.

No, you are right; I thought for a change putting the red spot in the clothes at the back of the blouse instead between the eyes…..   Just couldn’t find anything about that (keeping the mind of politics, religion and illnesses 😀 )
Perhaps the P R and I words are not deleted being too dangerous this time

* _ ... _ *

Although today has not been exactly a very slow day for me, quite the contrary, here I am to add a jewel of a performance by my favorite fiddler of Paganini’s No. 1 violin concert.

She is playing here, as she has been for years now, a replica of Paganini’s Stradivarius violin nicknamed by him “il cannone” (“the cannon”), because of the power of the sound that can be produced with it. This replica was made by the French violin-maker Vuillaume, who was the man Paganini will trust with his violin when it needed to be repaired.

So, without further introduction, here is a recording of Paganini’s concert No. 1, with Hilary Hahn in violin and the Swedish Radio Orchestra, Eije Oue the conductor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MenIhT7umeM

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migongo, Alex5723, Fred

Zender’s Wintereisse is a beautiful textured contemporary work based on Schubert’s work. I really love listening to it. It opens up a whole world of sounds while keeping the soul of the original work. This is a work of art that should not be forgotten.

And one more:

Hilary Hahn, her famous violin and the German Chamber Orchestra of Bremen, during last year’s Menuhin Festival in Bern, Switzerland, here playing Bach’s violin concerts No. 1 and 2 like no one I have heard play it before. Finishing with a mouth-opening rendition of Astor Piazzolla’s “Oblivion”, so good it makes my spine tingle while listening to her interpretation of this composition, here perfectly accompanied on the accordion by the obviously multi-talented and, by turns, conductor, harpsichordist and accordionist whose name, unfortunately is not in the accompanying notes.

This is the best interpretation I have ever heard of any of these three works and you might at least agree that they are very, very well played indeed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGwDSNEikFw

Moderator note: This link reports “Video not available.”

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migongo

Video has been moved to another place, still in YouTube. Please, find it in Part II, search for “Hahn”.

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Anonymous, I aim to please:

The Winterreise (“Winter Journey”) is a cycle of songs by Franz Schubert. It was later rearranged by Hans Zender, in the 1930’s, with a reworking of the instrumental parts.

Here are both the original by Schubert and the later version by Zender. The one by Schibert is sang by the perhaps best interpreter ever of Schuman’s marvelous “lieder” (songs), accompanied by the great Alfred Brendel in the piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PQtpc_5QHI

Zender’s Version is sang by Cristoph Pregardien and a small orchestra that replaces the piano part in the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ryOYCzpJu0

 

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migongo

Oh Dear! As soon as I wrote this and before I could check it for mistakes, the trigger-happy Spam Filer took it away. So the following came back still badly garbled where it should have read:

“The one by Schubert is sang by the perhaps best interpreter ever of Schubert’s marvelous “lieder” (songs).”

But came out quite otherwise: “Schibert” for “Schubert” and “Schuman’s” for “Schubert’s”….

Perhaps some MVP with the power to edited posted comments could fixed those two mistakes? Thanks.

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May I offer my ha’porth?

Whilst I am by no means religious, Barbara Bonney’s version of Schubert’s Ave Maria never fails to relax and move me in equal proportions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDyiYEdTp-U

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migongo, OscarCP, Fred

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ypty2fEeXJw&feature=youtu.be#

Robert, thanks; Same to me,  whilst I am by no means religious too, though:

G.F.Händel , Aafje Heynis singing “Dank sei Dir, Herr” , makes me silent, every time.

 

* _ ... _ *

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migongo, OscarCP

Robert, Barbara Boney, of whom I had nor heard before, is clearly a gifted singer and her rendition of “Ave Maria” is beautiful. And thanks also to Fred for letting me hear the voice of Aafje Heynis, which is not only quite lovely to hear, but also has the same first name as a very lovey girlfriend I had when I was living in the Netherlands.

The song Robert has commented on, it is sang to music composed by Franz Schubert, but he did not called it “Ave Maria”, nor intended it to have for its lyrics the Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary, but to accompany quite a different and considerably more earthly song called ‘Ellens dritter Gesang’, which translates as ‘Ellen’s Third Song’.

Because of where I come from, I much prefer the song sung in the original Latin of the prayer, as it was said and sung when I was a boy and went to church to learn the catechism in preparation for my first communion (not that it made much good in the long term, given where I stand now on religion, but that was the way things were then) And it does not hurt if the the singer is not hard on the eyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d4xXvF2ukY

The Latin canonical lyrics (the repetitions are not part of the actual prayer, that goes by pretty quickly when it is said), as follows:

Ave Maria
/ Gratia plena
/ Maria, gratia plena
/ Maria, gratia plena
/ Ave, ave dominus
/ Dominus tecum
/ Benedicta tu in mulieribus
/ Et benedictus
/ Et benedictus fructus ventris
/ Ventris tuae, Jesus.
/ Ave Maria

Ave Maria
/ Mater Dei
/ Ora pro nobis peccatoribus
/ Ora pro nobis
/ Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus
/ Nunc et in hora mortis
/ Et in hora mortis nostrae
/ Et in hora mortis nostrae
/ Et in hora mortis nostrae
/ Ave Maria

English translation:

Hail Mary, full of grace,
/ Mary, full of grace,
/ Mary, full of grace,
/ Hail, Hail, the Lord.
/ The Lord is with thee. / Blessed art thou among women, and blessed,
/ Blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
/ Thy womb, Jesus.
/ Hail Mary!

Hail Mary, Mother of God,
/ Pray for us sinners,
/ Pray, pray for us;
/ Pray, pray for us sinners,
/ Now and at the hour of our death,
/ The hour of our death / The hour of our death,
/ The hour of our death / Hail Mary.

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migongo, Fred

Hope you like this interesting instrumental arrange, incorporating afro american rhythms to te original classical piece. Jorge Aragão is a brazilian arranger and composer. Best regards!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmTYEI6ZiKE&app=desktop

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Fred, OscarCP

Thank you, migongo, for pointing me to this Brazilian-style interpretation of “Ave Maria.” There is a lot going on there; simple as it seems at first hearing, it needs a second one to get more out of it, maybe even a third. There is a second interpretation of Schubert’s “Ave Maria” music, also by Aragão, where he plays the melody, as soloist and people clap along to mark the rhythm, instead of he playing the banjo mostly obbligato, with a string quartet carrying the melody as in the first one. It is also another remarkable performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQNtYJ14A60

In these trying times of the pandemia, as several of the listener comments (in Portuguese) on this second performance make it clear, for many, listening to this music is a welcome source of spiritual solace.

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migongo

Thank you, Oscar for the backround to one of my all time favourites.

OscarCP wrote:

(not that it made much good in the long term, given where I stand now on religion, but that was the way things were then)

Thanks [@]OscarCP
I think life has correctly estimated you, and made you understand that religion, or the sense of a god, is much more than just holding up with the “Holy Book” of comrade Mao Zedong. Just living and doing unconditionally good for others seems to me to come closer to the source of spiritual life
Well, this is almighty dangerous to write these days; perhaps the almighty imperial correctors have had enough education to understand a little of the meaning intended, and fall asleep reading…. Or will grimly Paint it Black , and that was a song by The Rolling Stones by the way (for the younger)

* _ ... _ *

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migongo

Roger, you are most welcome. Fred, thanks for your comment and I hope you are keeping well. Living as you describe is to be fully human and, for me, there is no higher ideal; I wish life were long enough to fully realize it, to fully grow up.

When preparing for my previous entry, I was in a hurry, so I found an interpretation of “Ave Maria” with the Latin lyrics, but with only half the song. Now, with more time at my disposal, I have dug deeper and come up with the full Latin song sang by someone you might have heard about: Renata Tebaldi, whom Arturo Toscanini gave the stage nickname she kept for the rest of her days: ‘La Voce d’Angelo’ (‘The Voice of an Angel.’)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C2TNOzZf-c

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Fred, migongo

Some of Mozart’s last works, composed in the final years of his life: the last symphonies (35 – 41 (*)), the unfinished Requiem Mass, the operas “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute”, are regarded as some of the highest achievements in the history of Western classical music.

Of the symphonies, my favorite one (by just a tad) is No. 35, called “Haffner” after the Salzburg family that commissioned it for a special occasion. One interpretation I really like is that by Karl Böhm conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. There are other very good interpretations, of course. Some have criticized Böhms approach to these symphonies, because his tempo is “too slow.” Personally, I like it because, directed this way, the sound of the strings and winds in the crescendos gradually rises and rises and fills the air all around the listener, exactly as if the orchestra were a fountain streaming out this sublime music.

Now, here is Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 in D major, called “Haffner”, with Karl Böhm conducting the Berlin Philarmonic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXk2te8m2-k

(*) No. 37 is usually not counted, because Mozart did not quite wrote it himself: being pressured for time, and faced with the imminent deadline for submitting it to the orchestra that was going to rehearse it and soon after present its premiere in concert, he took one of Haydn’s works, added some opening bars, made some touches here and there, and send it off like that to those waiting for it. People did not realized the trick for quite some time, and Haydn did not seem to mind too much.

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migongo

Well it looks like the YouTube video of the Heffner ended before I copied the link, and what got posted was No. 36, called “Linz” after a town in Upper (Northern) Austria. That one is certainly also a treat.

OK, so here is the Haffner, played by the same musicians as the misplaced “Linz” above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up4_6UKrcxE

And while at it, here I am adding a very, very nice “serenade”, also by Mozart. This kind of “serenade” was like a half-way house between an earlier lighter form called a “serenade” and a symphony; they were popular in Mozart’s day, and this one, the “Posthorn” serenade, is a particularly lovely one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS5YCVdPxCk

The name comes after a “posthorn” (played in concert, I believe, with a French horn) that sounded the notes announcing the arrival of the mail in those days, heard here mainly towards the end of this composition.

So go ahead and listen to this bonus serenade, keeping in mind the proven fact that listening to Mozart makes people smarter.

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migongo

Now here is the last from Mozart I’ll be posting here, for a while.

This particular composition opened to me the door wide to begin appreciating Mozart’s work, that I had thought of, until I heard this for the first time, as being mostly some kind of lightweight, fru-fru kind of music, not really serious stuff. Except for the last symphonies, and those sounded too much like young Beethoven’s, so who needed that?

Besides opening for me the grandest vistas of classical music, playing this work in the common-room hi-fi stereo also got me several interesting get-togethers with some of the finest-looking young ladies and unexpected music lovers staying at the same college at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia, where I was living while working on my PhD. It was the first co-ed institution of its kind in the country, and everyone there made the best of it. And Mozart really helped, I can tell you. Who knows, it might even work for you. (The second movement, marked “andante” is not only very, very beautiful and moving, but also can be a strong inducement to romantic thoughts.)

The introduction being over and done, here is the Symphony Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra in E minor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1F_SvJ_5xQ

From the notes accompanying the video, one can see that for this excellent performance joined forces some some of the most talented musicians of the day:

“Celebrating the 60th birthday of Isaac Stern, he is joined in this gala event by violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, with the New York Philharmonic, directed by Zubin Mehta.“

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Alex5723, Fred

[Fred]

OscarCP wrote:

posting here, for a while

Hi Oscar, thanks for the many links; You are heard, and so is this timeless music.
Go ahead and give us/me a kick here to do more with these arts, as long as it is permitted by the divine digital forces here.
Sometime I wonder what kind of a clock do you use, perhaps you have a timeframe of about 60 hours/day in my world of 24/day?    😀

“” Quote . . . .

Whenever you embark on a new life phase, a creative project, or personal ritual, you are further awakening to your destiny.

https://yourmagicalhome.blogspot.com/2018/08/summoning-muses-spell-for-inspiration.html

The nine muses, daughters of Memory and rulers of creative endeavors, can help you find your true path. Here is a “field guide” to the muses to help you determine which one you should invoke for aid.

• Calliope, “The Fair Voiced,” is the eldest of the muses and presides over epic poetry.
• Clio, “The Proclaimer,” is the muse of history. She carries a scroll of knowledge.
• Erato, “The Lovely,” has domain over the poetics of love and mimicry. She carries a lyre.
• Euterpe, “The Giver of Pleasure,” plays a flute. Her sphere of influence is music.
• Melpomene, “The Songstress,” wears the mask of tragedy, over which she presides.
• Polyhymnia, “She of Many Hymns,” is the muse of sacred poetry. She wears a veil.
• Terpsichore, “The Whirler,” had dominion over dance.
• Thalia, “The Festive,” wears the mask of comedy.
• Urania, “The Heavenly,” presides over both astronomy and astrology.

<p style=”text-align: center;”>*  *  *</p>

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• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Fred.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Fred.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Fred.

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OscarCP

Fred,

I definitely hope that you and anyone else who would have in mind some YouTube video they would like to see made available here might contribute the links to them, along with their comments on them and on this thread in general. Promoting that kind of participation is one the two reasons I have started and kept going with this little project of mine. The other is to give access to people to something they might enjoy listening to. Besides, some of those videos carry plenty of information on what actually happens during concerts and the members of the audience often do not get to see well enough from where they seat: how the musicians play their instruments, both individually and together, what conductors do, how and when they do it, etc.

And no, my days are just 24 hours long. I’m quick at doing things, so I might be getting more done in the same length of time than some other people would. Also, right now, I am in the process of figuring out how to do something tricky in a way that is reasonably easier and less time consuming for me to do it —  as part of my work — and I find the opportunity of doing something totally unrelated, as writing this comment, right now, helps me get things figured out quicker and better.

Finally, those Muses in the picture: they all look quite fetching, so I would not be too particular as to which one I would like to get to know really well. But as a matter of fact, except for the bit about astrology that is one part of Urania’s job, everything about their specialties is just fine with me and I have, in fact, been consorting with all of them now and then, usually one at a time, in the course of my life, since the age of eight, when I read something by Homer.

And while on the subject of the Muses — from the late, “classical” period of the composer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkYlas1hBrY

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

get things figured out quicker and better

nice piece of mythology
La Naissance de Vénus, Op. 29, Gabriel Fauré

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggonApB8zp8

Happy and fruiful thinking

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OscarCP

Fred, Thanks! Fauré has had been absent for too long here.

Here is a little Scarlatti, since we are at it, played by a compatriot of yours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRN5JpT2gxs

Also thanks for including my favorite laptop wallpaper, I have it in all the machines I use (two Macs and one PC with Win 7 and Linux Mint). So it is fair to say that I am quite fond of this spectacular painting by Botticelli. Some art scholars have pointed out to a cryptic Christian allegory in it, which escapes me. What is clear is that the figures of the mythological personages (Zephir, the wind and Chloris, a nymph of the flowers married to him, flying together on the left and the newly born Venus coming on her shell for a landing in the middle, are not anatomically correct, when one looks at them carefully and with a critical eye. They have distortions deliberately made for the creation of this marvelous static image, that is like a view of Eternity. In its time it was considered an inferior, old-fashioned work that ignored the advances in anatomy and perspective that made the works of his contemporaries in Renaissance Italy so much more realistic. That, of course, badly missed the point: Botticelli was aiming here at imitating the style of the great ancient Greek and Roman painters. Those being, after all, the days of the Renaissance, when artists and scientists were hard at work climbing back to the heights of the ancient Western world’s civilization and then superating them. Catching up for the lost time during the Dark and Middle Ages, one could say.

And Venus is shown in a classical pose known as “Venus pudica”, or “Chaste Venus.”

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

So it is fair to say that I am quite fond of this spectacular painting by Botticelli.

A long time ago I saw the Birth of Venus for the first time in the Ufizi Museum in Firenze / Florence it stole my heart; years after that I went back to see the amazing painting again, a reproduction cannot beat the magic by far. Nor the very many tourists could spoil my mood that day.

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OscarCP

And the painting has been given a really good cleaning in recent years. It used to have a murkier green cast and now it is brighter and showing its gorgeous colors, once more.

We are very lucky to see it at all, as many works of art, including several by Botticelli, were burnt in the frenzied “bonfire of vanities” spurred on by the fanatical friar Savonarola and his followers in Florence in 1497, when Botticelli was still very much alive and painting.

And here is another work by Fauré:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJIvffQYPA

 

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Here is a remarkable performance of Beethoven’s Piano concert No.2 by Martha Argerich at the piano and Daniel Baremboim conducting what I believe is the Stable Orchestra of the Colón Theater, in Buenos, Argentina (The accompanying notes mistakenly make reference to a different, partial performance of this composition, also in YT.)

Both Argerich and Baremboim were born, grew up and got to know each other in Buenos Aires. The “Teatro Colón” was ambitiously built early last century, at a time of great national affluence, to be one of the grand concert halls of the world, and so it remains to this day.

After this concert there is what is either an encore, or an already programmed composition, in this case by the Argentinian composer Carlos Guastavino, for two pianos played here by Argerich and Baremboim, respectively. Before they start, Baremboim, in Spanish, tells the audience that Argerich and himself wish to dedicate this piece to the memory of a recently deceased Argentinian composer and performer, Pía Sebastián, who liked this short work very much. He also asks the audience not to applaud at the end. The concert ends in silence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_5FQh2bXo8

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Hilary Hahn, her storied violin and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Mikko Franck conducting, in an impassioned and stunning virtuosistic performance of Jean Sibelius powefully romantic violin concert in D minor, opus 47.

Here the once prodigy child and by now forty-something soloist uses all the tricks of her very large bag of same, particularly in the show-stopping, mouth-opening cadenza in the first movement: Double stops? No problem. Triple stops? Easy peasy. Quadruple stops? Seriously? How does she do that????

And the looks in the faces of the silent members of the orchestra while she plays on speak volumes.

So here, for your enjoyment of a truly memorable experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0w0t4Qn6LY

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This is a departure of the kind that has happened now and then in this thread and have made it richer and for my taste, more interesting, including luminous samples of Bossa Nova and of the fusion of it and other popular forms of music with Jazz.

Here is a transcendental poem by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats about fascination, obsession, the passing of time, the rising and falling of human life and the feeling of eternity sang by the Scottish singer Donovan accompanying himself in guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQUT6mS0eY8

The Song of Wandering Aengus
By William Butler Yeats

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

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Elly

The shutdown, because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, of commercial activity and of activities that require the gathering of people in close proximity in enclosed spaces, such as during concerts, is hitting hard the instrument makers and related industries (string makers, for example), as well as the musicians, regardless of which instruments they play; not only the soloists but particularly the orchestras , whose managers have to decide whether to try to keep paying all of their many musicians, or furlough some of them without pay, with all concerts cancelled sine die, when much of their revenues depend on those.

The situation is such, with no assured changes back to something like what used to be normal, any time soon, that what the music world will be like after this crisis is over might be very different of what it has been, not only until recently, but for several centuries.

This article presents a fairly good coverage of the situation, taking that of the renowned stringed-instrument makers of Cremona as its starting point:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200707-the-dark-future-for-the-worlds-greatest-violin-makers

We are lucky that Web sites such as YouTube make available the recordings of so many excellent performances, some from nearly a century ago, others as recent as just before the beginning of the current shut down and postponement of live musical events.

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And speaking on “departures”, here is another one.

What I have in mind is something that is truly a classic performance of…an operetta? A musical?

Well, it is a classic of TV, an episode out of a seven-year series where the theme is witches, magic, black, green, red and and white, demons, vampires, the living and the undead. And this episode has them too: a curly-haired handsome vampire, a superhero that can’t accept the unnatural fact that she and he love madly at each other, a demon that someone unknowingly summons to town and, once there, makes people burst into song and dance (so fast, they may burst in flames), love songs, happy dances… at first. Then it gets darker, darker, and darkest. Before a final flare of light, in the very last few seconds of the show. With some good singing, some great dancing and a spectacular tap-dancing number.

One of the most creative scripts in American TV history brought to life by a crew of young artists acting their hearts out, in what, in retrospect, was probably the show of their lives at the very top of their careers. So fickle is the success of many talented actors in the small screen as it is fickle in the big one

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5vbdyh

This (nearly) all-song and all-dance episode is totally unlike the rest of the series, but then again, quite a few episodes of it were also unlike the rest. Or anything that came before, or much that went after in the fifteen years since both this show and the arc of it’s story come to an end. But, for many, in memory still green.

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I keep promising myself to let this thread breeze by not adding more comments to it for a few weeks, but recently things have been coming up to my attention, one after another, all so remarkable that I just cannot resist adding something about each here.

In this case, it is the sonata for piano and cello by Frédéric Chopin, interpreted by two great musicians still very much active: Emanuel Ax, piano, and YoYo Ma, cello.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAaGrczZ2h0

Several works by Chopin have been included previously here, but they are a selection of his best known works: those for piano solo, the two concerts for piano and orchestra and the orchestral suite of his ballet “Sylphides.” This sonata I am adding now is one beautiful example of his work for chamber music, consisting altogether of some six or seven pieces.

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

We are lucky that Web sites such as YouTube make available the recordings of so many excellent performances, some from nearly a century ago, others as recent as just before the beginning of the current shut down and postponement of live musical events.

It is so sad that the cultural arts and the great orchestra’s are left on their own. The Concertgebouworkest has the most difficult times; musicians have to eat too. To me arts are a comodity that is crucial to society, where civilisation is forgotten nowadays

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OscarCP

[Alex5723]

Stumbled just now on BBC : Great Composers. Arts Documentary hosted by Kenneth Branagh, published by BBC in 1997

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Puccini

A landmark series that goes beyond the famous melodies and magnificent musical landscapes to explore the men and myths.
Great Composers presents the lives and works of seven musical giants from the Baroque era to the twentieth century.
It examines the backgrounds, influences and relationships that make these seven composers part of the very fabric of the history of western music.
Each composer’s life and work is presented through extensive performance sequences, and through interviews and comment from some of today’s greatest artists and most respected authorities.
Further insights are gained through the use of dramatization and specially-staged set pieces.
Contributors to the series include Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Valery Gergiev, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Colin Davis, Cecilia Bartoli, Ton Koopman, Michael Tilson Thomas, Maxim Vengerov, Andras Schiff, Thomas Hampson, Vladimir Ahskenazy, Yevgeny Kissin, Jonathan Miller, The Lindsays, Simon Callow and many more.

https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Great_Composers

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Alex5723.

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Fred, OscarCP

Alex, this is a really interesting contribution.

To see the videos linked at the Web page of the URL link, however, one needs something called “emule”. Clicking on the links to the videos in that page without using it results in an error message.

Fortunately, I have found this other link that connects to a regular YouTube Web page with all seven of these “BBC Great Composers” videos listed at the top, plus, as usual, a whole bunch of more or less related videos further down:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bbc+great+compoers

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Fred, Alex5723

OscarCP wrote:

“emule”

eMule is a pre-torrent P2P app. Still in use.

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OscarCP

Alex5723 wrote:

OscarCP wrote:

“emule”

eMule is a pre-torrent P2P app. Still in use.

Please beware this is not a safe one, if I recall well anough.

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OscarCP, Elly

Months ago, I made a comment on Beethoven’s string quartet movement that was originally the last one of his string quartet No. 13, but he later replaced it with a more conventional movement at the sensible advice of his agent, who realized this piece was going to confuse and, consequently, be seriously disliked by many in the contemporary concert-going audiences who would not like surprises.

This discarded movement, afterwards interpreted as a separate piece for string quartet known as the “Große Fuge” or “Great Fugue” is, indeed, great. And (mostly) a fugue. But that is like saying that the Mona Lisa is “someone’s portrait.” In fact, this is one of the greatest Western classical compositions, part of Beethoven’s extraordinary late output, along with the last four quartets and the 9th Symphony. In that earlier comment, I posted a link to a YouTube video of a performance of this work by the highly regarded Alan Berg quartet.

Written at a time when the composer was completely deaf and suffering from a combination of illnesses that would eventually kill him some two years later, at the age of 56, this was a revolutionary work in its day, and therefore underappreciated, because it was so different from what audiences were used to in the first half of the 19t Century. And more than 100 years later was still a matter of serious controversy. But, with the coming of modern 20th century music and the works of Schoenberg, Stravinsky and others gaining due acceptance, this piece finally came to be appreciated properly.

Today I have found another performance, this one by one of the great quartets of last century, the Borodin quartet, that recorded a good deal of Beethoven’s chamber music. I think this one is so good that I am now posting here this link to its YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aD1fFz7zEY

There is also a very good review article on this composition in Wikipedia, to be found under “Grosse Fuge.”

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Fred

Here, for a change of pace, twenty sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti transcribed for the modern piano and played in a crisp and crystalline style by Alice Ader:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeeXab_N39s

One never can have too much Scarlatti: it tunes up the mind.

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Fred

Beethoven at 250.

He was born 250 years ago, and he and his life’s work has been and remains still present in the minds of so many, worldwide, almost two centuries after his death. From an early age, he was the equivalent of a modern rock star, Nineteenth Century style. With all the drama and contradictions and excesses and eccentricities that go along with that.

Among all great works of classical musical, his last quartets are some of the most profound ever created. In particular, the penultimate one, number 15 is, as described in this article, a truly transcendental work of art:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200720-beethoven-250-the-ultimate-song-of-health-after-illness

Beethoven composed it during his convalescence for a serious health problem (that will recur two years later and end his life). Its extraordinary third movement is known as the “Heiliger Dankgesang” or “Holy Song of Thanks.” The following excerpt gives an idea of its effect on the listener and also of the general tone of the article:

“Start listening to the Heiliger Dankgesang and reality seems to hold its breath and wait. For about three heartrending minutes, the notes come glacially – so glacially, says Michiko Theurer, a violinist who has played and studied the piece, that it almost feels like a meditation exercise. This is exactly the point. Beethoven wrote this first section of the Heiliger Dankgesang in the ‘F Lydian’ mode, a scale without sharps or flats. Combined with the molto adagio pacing, the music feels stuck in an unending desert or an infinite sea – similar, Kapilow has described, to the feeling you get trapped in hospital for days without end. This reverential atmosphere is heightened by the tune itself. ” (*)

There is already, in an earlier comment here ( #2124498 ), a link to an YouTube video of an inspired and inspiring performance by four young musicians at the New England Conservatory of Music and a second link to another by the great Quartetto Italiano.

(*) Lydian mode: The modern Lydian mode is a seven-tone musical scale formed from a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone. (Wikipedia)

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Fred

Also see the celebration, Beethoven 250, from ABC Classic:

A journey through every note that Beethoven composed, in celebration of his 250th birthday.

https://www.abc.net.au/classic/programs/beethoven-250/

 

4 users thanked author for this post.

Myst, OscarCP, Alex5723, Fred

I am just enjoying the contributions from you all, thanks!

Keeps floating the mind away from dayly bias

greetings Fred

 

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There is also in an earlier entry here ( #2189999 ) a link to a superb interpretation of Beethoven’s first Razumovsky quartet by four young people at the New England Conservatory that definitely deserves a listening. An experience most appropriate and worth having now, more than two centuries after this quartet’s first hearing.

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[OscarCP]

Today, rereading Wilfred Owen’s World War I poem “Dulce et decorum”, that is a partial quote of an old Roman cliche about war: “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”, o “Sweet and fitting is to die for the Fatherland” I realized that the topic of “war” has been absent from this thread, so here is something to remedy this omission:

During the French – Austria war that took place four years after the French Revolution, and at a time when the Austrians and their allies were doing poorly, Joseph Haydn composed his “Missa in tempori belli” or “Mass in Wartime.”

Here is the “Agnus Dei” or “Lamb of God” segment of this mass, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The occasion and the orchestra and chorus are not mentioned in the Notes, but this could be a live recording in Washington’s Cathedral, in 1973, with members of the National Orchestra chorus and musicians, one of the many events staged in those days in opposition to the Vietnam War:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-rBhzHfItg

This particular composition has been interpreted by some as expressing, if not an outright anti-war sentiment, a certain lack of enthusiasm for the business of war. After a gloomy first and middle parts, the bright end, with the cathedral bells peeling in full flight, follows the closing words of the “Agnus”: “give as peace.”

As to Owen’s: “Wilfred Owen, who wrote some of the best British poetry on World War I, composed nearly all of his poems in slightly over a year, from August 1917 to September 1918. In November 1918 he was killed in action at the age of 25, one week before the Armistice.” (Wikipedia.)

And the poem I mentioned above, uncompromisingly written by someone who was there (warning, this is not exactly sweet and lyrical; it was not meant to be):

“Dulce et Decorum Est”
By Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

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• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by OscarCP.

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Fred

Well, this recording of Hayden’s Mass was definitely not of the one performed in the Cathedral of Washington DC. The interior looked unfamiliar to me, but it’s been many years since I was last there and, besides, I was in a bit of a hurry and did not check the facts thoroughly enough, missing also the last few seconds, where the church is shown from outside, making my mistake clear. The lack of information in a video’s notes is really frustrating in cases such as this.

Be all that as it may, there are other parts of the same performance of the mass in YouTube. The “Agnus Dei” is usually the last part sang in a Solemn Mass such as this one, just before the Eucharist and the act of Communion. Here is another equally famous part of this work: The “Gloria”, which is the second half of the Introito (or Introduction) consisting of the “Kyrie” and the “Gloria”, so it is sang at the beginning of the Mass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-HKWbBI14

If interested, you most likely will find links to other parts of this performance of Hayden’s Mass in YT on the right-hand sidebar next to this video.

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Fred

And here is the whole of this truly glorious performance, with Bernstein being interviewed just before the performance. This and the scant notes gives the missing context on where this performance took place (Bavaria) and the forces that he conducted in that occasion (the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Orchestra):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1EkPFYlYeU

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

“Wilfred Owen, who wrote some of the best British poetry on World War I, composed nearly all of his poems in slightly over a year, from August 1917 to September 1918. In November 1918 he was killed in action at the age of 25, one week before the Armistice.”

These poems are so sadmaking true; And now civilisation, what was left of it, is falling apart, and communication seems to have stopped.

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OscarCP

Today, after worrying about the vulnerability of my router to malicious nation-state hacker operatives and how, if at all possible, to hacker-proof it, I am using the same router to reach here and write abut two great performances of two very different works: one tragic, the other pretty lively at times and bubbling throughout with the enchantment of magical adventures in far away and long ago places of legend.

When Franz Schubert, still young, learned that his life was winding down and death was soon to take him away, he composed his last string quartet, “Death and the Maiden”, as a dialogue between Death and a maiden whose life was, as his, fated soon to end. Death is, at times, blunt and harsh in his demand of the maiden’s surrender, as time consoling and kind. The maiden is, at times, terrified and, at times, resigned. It is based on a song by the same name by Schubert that was, in turn, derived from this poem by Matthias Claudius (English translation):

<i>The Maiden</i>:
Pass me by! Oh, pass me by!
Go, fierce man of bones!
I am still young! Go, dear,
And do not touch me.
And do not touch me.

<i>Death</i>:
Give me your hand, you beautiful and tender form!
I am a friend, and come not to punish.
Be of good cheer! I am not fierce,
Softly shall you sleep in my arms!

This is a performance by the Amadeus Quartet, one ensemble that I particularly like, but there are several worthy interpretations available from YouTube by other famous ensembles. It is transferred directly from a vinyl long-play, so it comes with the occasional pop and scratch, but not enough to really matter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmPos393bRo

 

The second work is Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” with a symphonic-poem type interpretation of famous episodes of the Arab “One Thousand and One Nights” collection of ancient Middle East, Persian and Indian stories, memorably performed by the Philadelphia  Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, during what, I believe, was the Golden Age of this orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87VQMzN004k

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Fred

So being reassured in home-routing there are “1001” fairytails to listen and read.

Have you seen the Gutenberg’s Project in this matter?

“Sheherezade” is heartbreaking so very beautiful and performed by many. I will look up today which version I have got here. Thanks for rerouting my thoughts.

 

 

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Fred, From the Gutenberg Project I read the first one of the 16 volumes of the Burton translation, then I bought the Penguin’s three volume edition. This is an immense work that, like a just discovered continent, one not so much reads as explores. The episodes set to music in Rimski-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” (YT video linked in my previous comment) are known not from translations of Arabic sources, but from those made from now lost originals by the 18th Century French writer Galland. Because of their more modern style, they have become the most popular and better known: “Aladdin”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “The Adventures of Sinbad.”

And while in the theme of sailing, here is the Adagio of Khachaturian’s ballet “Spartacus” and the theme of BBC TV’s drama of the owners of a sailing ships’ company “The Onedin Line”, as played at the Baldbühne Festival 2010, in Berlin (the orchestra and the conductor are not mention in the notes) This video is really interesting to watch as well as to listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXsDsLHasWo

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In Italy, in the Thirteen Century, Francesca Polenta, married, not for love but for political reasons, to an older man, Giovanni Malatesta, then fell in love with his younger brother, Paolo, and they had a secret affair for the next ten years. Finally discovered by the husband, he murdered both, causing a tremendous scandal, because of the shocking manner of their deaths and because both spouses’ families were very prominent in the Italian city of Rimini. The protagonists were contemporaries of the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, so he was familiar with their story.
In his theological epic, the “Comedia”, later changed to “Divina Commedia” in more modern Italian, Dante, writing for the very first time ever in the language of the people of Fourteenth Century Tuscany and not, as was then customary, in Latin, tells he story of how he followed his guide, the spirit of the Roman poet Virgil, through the three destinations of souls in the Roman Catholic afterlife: Hell (Inferno), Purgatory and Paradise, in that order, searching for his dead love Beatrice. (Purgatory was finally eliminated by the Church from this list last century.)

It is in the first section of the poem, called “Inferno”, at the beginning of the journey, that he and Virgil find themselves in the second of nine concentric “circles”: ring-shaped ledges, progressively deeper and separated by steep circular cliffs, so the whole would have looked like a bull’s eye when seen directly from above. The lower the circle, the worse the sins and punishments of those being kept in eternal torment there. At the very bottom of it all, the center of the Earth (Dante, as all his learned contemporaries, already knew our world was shaped as a sphere) stood Satan, the Fallen Angel, with three heads for ever devouring the three worst traitors: Judas Iscariot, along with Cassius and Brutus, conspirators, betrayers and killers of Julius Cesar.
In this second circle were the souls of those who broke some sexual taboo of the day, and their torment was to gyrate inside a sort of tornado or furious wind vortex that dragged, battered and hurt them for all eternity. There they saw, among others, Queen Semiramis, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy and, holding themselves in close embrace, Francesca and Paulo. He asked for them to approach so he could hear their story. Listening to them, he is overcome with such great pity that finally faints. The two lovers, who by getting close were momentarily outside the worst of the wind, so their voices could be heard, are swept, once more, into the fury of the eternal vortex. This is one of the most famous episodes in the poem (Canto V), although it is only some seventy lines long out of the total of around ten thousand.

There have been many versions of this story inspired by Dante’s, and the one that concerns us now is musical: Peter Tchaikovsky’s symphonic poem “Francesca da Rimini”, interpreted here by the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazi conducting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIW4myGhEd8

The music begins with an ominous melody played by the orchestra’s counter-bass and winds sections that, gradually as other instruments join in, turns into a harsh, whirling evocation of the wind vortex; then the music quiets down during the dialog between Francesca and Dante, finally coming back to the initial “vortex” theme and gradually gaining in strength to culminate in a tragic sounding full orchestral tutti in the last bars of the composition.

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migongo, GarthP, Fred

This story is making me thinking back very sadly to the so very recent times we just wondered of to Paris for a couple of days, visiting parks and musea. Musee Rodin is one of mine grand and favourites, with his magical sculptures. Including Dante’s Hell.

http://www.rodinmuseum.org/collections/collectiontheme/4.html

In this Corona era this all seems history for good for the elderly people with the city of Paris practically closed or too dangerous because of the killing virus.
So, the Internet and the fruitful contacts giving some cultural based enlightment in these dark two colored times with too many “shades of dark-black” with the so-called new mores of shouting and lying.

Thank you for giving and passing through some of this good cultural and positive heritage. Figurative arts and music can be heaven then.

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migongo, OscarCP

Fred, Thanks for those photos of Rodin’s sculptures. Once seen, they are hard to forget. As a child I was very impressed by a photograph of the “Burghers of Calais”, now erected in front of the Calais Town Hall. In Paris there is a copy in the garden of the Musée Rodin, so you might have seen it there, another copy can be admired in Washington DC, in the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, near the Mall. There are several others in different countries.

As to the “Gates of Hell” by Rodin: as you know, having been also there, Florence is another place where one can see some of the noblest and most beautiful creations ever made in painting and sculpture. And there one finds the amazing “Gates of Paradise” at the entrance of the famous Baptistery of the cathedral. Here is a video that shows them in detail and gives a very good explanation of what they represent and how they came to be in the first place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWkewBPMKEk

One thing you might have seen, if you visited the “Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo”, Florence Cathedral’s museum, is the “Penitent Mary Magdalena”, a wood sculpture by Donatello. After Jesus’ death, the story goes, she left Jerusalem and went to live as a hermit in a desert and stayed there for many years making penance for her sins. When she came back into civilized life, she showed all the signs of her very hard life in the desert and that is how Donatello imagined the returning Magdalena. What he created is dramatic, shocking and amazing and I’ll never ever forget my first encounter: I was passing by, turned my head and, there, suddenly, stood in front of me a piece of wood turned into the shape of a small, wizened woman dressed in rags, with a deeply haunted look in her face; a very moving image that was also almost painfully hard to watch; a work of genius:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitent_Magdalene_(Donatello)

There is more to see in that museum; Florence, during the Renaissance, was home to many of the greatest artists of those days.

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migongo, Fred

Superb OscarCP, all this beautiful art. A few years ago I was back in Italy and visited these musea again. Maria Magdalena and De Burgers van Calais are images that you will never lose (thankfully). There is quite a lot of this type of sculpture in the larger musea, but these pieces are second to none!
Unfortunately I haven’t been to Washinton DC yet.
Hopefully times will change again and the virus threat will disappear. [Fingers crossed, but the prospects are very bad; despite what some claim]. So until then I will limit myself to the larger museums in The Netherlands. And fortunately Amsterdam is now possible due to the lack of the hordes of tourists (and so very close), and if you are Corona careful.
Stay healthy out there!

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migongo, OscarCP

This sad day that has brought us, along with her death, so much uncertainty and searching for hope in the sudden shadows, it seems appropriate to mourn her passing and honor her life with this rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica”, the heroic one.

The Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbGV-MVfgec

In Memoriam RBG.

Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court and one of America’s Just Women.

 

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migongo, Fred

Mourning is allowed?  The item was closed at arbitrariness, so it appears.
What has become of freedom of speech and thoughts there at your side of the Atlantic? The Founding Fathers are setting the rules all over again.
I am giving up the hopes for the better; where are the brave?
waiting to be killed and wiped out

This music comes to my mind:
Beethovens:  “Alle Menschen werden Brüder”, https://youtu.be/QSAffhWl2MU .
and
Wagner: “Der Fliegende Holländer”, https://youtu.be/CvIIajk4M2k

 

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migongo

Fred,

The discussion seemed likely to start drifting towards the consideration of the consequences of RBG’s death and away from registering expressions of grief for such loss and of celebration of her life, which was, I believe, the subject of the thread.

She was brilliant, wise, steadfast in her fight for justice as well as very brave, and “In Memoriam” was a place for honoring and remembering her. What may come next is important, worth considering and best discussed in the “rants” section. I fear that such a thread may attract some disgusting trolls, so I am not going to start one there, giving them another chance to inflict themselves. But if someone else does, I’ll be there to offer my own points of view.

In case someone reading this that is not from the USA and is wondering about “RBG”: to refer to a prominent public figure by the initials, the assumption being that everyone here knows who this person is, or was, is a custom here and a sign of both respect and affection. Few are given this high accolade and keep it for long. She was one of those few.

She was born into a poor Jewish New York family during the Great Depression. I do not know what her religious beliefs were. But I think that she might have liked this beautiful and moving rendition of a traditional melody meant to accompany the singing of the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5dUVhQxLDM

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migongo

Well, that was the actual prayer: interesting, but not quite what I had in mind. Hope you enjoyed it.

Here is the actual performance of that Kaddish melody I was referring to:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmDcliAQQKA

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migongo

Having just read through this long but most interesting thread, to the sound of Debussy playing his own music on piano roll (grateful thanks), I can’t help thinking there is a slight imbalance in the recommendations, to my ear at least. You have had the human voice, to some extent, in opera and song, and I did enjoy the Four last Songs greatly – one of my true favourites – but there is a genre which deserves wider coverage.

I therefore bring to your attention Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music, that most beautiful and noble arrangement of Shakespearean text. The original (1938) version is sublime, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq8sczVU5o8
and whilst there are no doubt technically better modern performances, my preference is still for the original.

The second choice is from Elgar, that 19th century Englishman who composed some of the best English music – The Dream of Gerontius, with Janet Baker, Richard Lewis and “Glorious John” Barbirolli. I count myself lucky to have heard him live with the Halle orchestra once in Sheffield, not the Gerontius but some lesser (?) Elgar and Delius (a Yorkshireman by birth but a Frenchman by adoption, I think).
Anyway, the YT recording is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eJmnemMWfY.

Thanks for all the performance links.

Garth

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migongo, Fred, OscarCP

GarthP: Thanks for the kind words. Point taken: I hear you and to satisfy, in however small a way, your justified wish for more vocal music, here is an interpretation of one of the most justly famous of J.S. Bach’s Cantatas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Ocydot-vA

In case you might have missed them, there are previous comments in this thread with YouTube links to performances of Hayden’s “Mass in Time of War”, Mozart’s “Requiem”, Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”, several short excerpts of opera: Mozart, Verdi, Bellini’s, one complete version of “Norma” and several of “The Magic Flute”, one of Villa Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras”, as well as various interpretations of Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, including one in Bossa Nova style.

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GarthP

And here is another performance of the same Bach’s Cantata, with English subtitles, a more elaborate stage setting as well as a more operatic acting style suitable to the work performed (and with actual coffee):

Conductor: Ton Koopman, Amsterdam baroque Orchestra and Choir Schlendrian: Klaus Mertens (Bass) Liesgen: Anne Grimm (Soprano) Narrator: Lothar Odinus (Tenor)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nifUBDgPhl4

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migongo

Thanks. I did see most of these items in my quick reading, but missed the Mass in time of War. I tend to find choral works as more rewarding than soloists, with Haydn’s late works most satisfying. My favourite Haydn oratorio is The Seasons, so here is a great performance by the Berlin Philharmonic under Rattle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ezhcLfv94
I suppose I have been influenced by the English taste for oratorio, for which we have initially to thank Papa Haydn of course! That led on in turn to my liking for his string quartets, and thus to the Mozart quartets and quintets. (In the end, everything leads to Mozart!)

Garth

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OscarCP, Myst

Other choral music also linked somewhere else here: Ariel Ramirez “Misa Criolla”, Sibelius “Finlandia”; Brahms “A German Requiem”, some original Bossa Nova songs posted by migongo.

And, in case you like more Richard Strauss, here is the complete opera “Der Rosenkavalier” with a cast headed by Kiri Te Kanawa as the Marschallin, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera, Georg Solti conducting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D7abQTy71I

From the accompanying Notes in YouTube: “This production of Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” by Oscar-winning film director John Schlesinger, marked the 25th anniversary of Sir Georg Solti’s spectacular debut at Covent Garden. Featuring Kiri Te Kanawa’s first performance in London in the role of Marschallin.”

The story of this opera creation and performances, plus a summary of the script can be read here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Rosenkavalier

 

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migongo, GarthP

Here is another performance of Mozart’s beloved piano concerto No. 20, but this is not like any interpretation many may have listen, or seen before: with the pianist conducting from the keyboard, as Mozart himself used to, but it is rarely done these days.

Beyond that, this is a passionate and dramatic performance by one of the most distinguished pianists of our times. Japanese by birth and British by option, she has accumulated honors and prizes through a career spanning almost six decades, including the title of Dame Commander of the British Empire for her contributions to music (*)

So here is Mitsuko Uchida conducting from the piano the Salzburg Camerata in Mozart’s Piano concerto No. 20 in D Minor, Opus K466:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwOt9XOg-n0

(*) She is entitled to call herself “Dame Mitsuko Uchida” and, in writing, to append the letters “DCOBE” to her name, but she doesn’t. Not because she does not appreciate the honor, but whatever her other reasons, also, perhaps, because she has nothing left to prove.

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migongo, Myst

Mozart – Metallica, Symphony No. 40
https://youtu.be/UBfsS1EGyWc

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OscarCP, Lars220, Fred

Metallica: Outstanding short take on Mozart’s 40 and impressive Jazz-improvisation coda. When you are good, you are good.

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Myst

Two more you may like. Incredible talent. I could listen to this all day.
Mozart heroes
Mozart heroes

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migongo, OscarCP

And to indulge further those with tastes for vocal music, here I am including the classic to end all classics: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing “Der Winterreiser”, “The Winter’s Journey”, Schubert’s beautiful songs’ cycle about someone gone hiking in winter. And in a mid-September already and prematurely feeling like Autumn, with days shortening quickly and Winter waiting in the wings, it seems like a fitting thing to include here now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8UDOmUcxCk

According to a Wikipedia article:

” The cycle consists of a “Monodrama”from the point of view of the wandering protagonist, in which concrete plot is somewhat ambiguous. After his beloved falls for another, the grief-stricken young man steals away from town at night and follows the river and steep ways to a coal burner’s hut, where he rests before moving on. He comes across a village, passes a crossroads, and arrives at a cemetery. Here being denied even the death on which he has become fixated, he defiantly renounces faith before reaching a point of resignation. Finally he encounters a derelict street musician, the first and only instance in the cycle in which another character is present. The mysterious and ominous nature of the musician, along with the question posed in the last lines, leave the fate of the wanderer open to interpretation.”

” The two Schubert cycles (*)  (primarily for male voice), of which “Winterreise” is the more mature, are absolute fundamentals of the German and have strongly influenced not only the style but also the vocal method and technique in German classical music as a whole. The resources of intellect and interpretative power required to deliver them, in the chamber or concert hall, challenge the greatest singers. ”

(*) The other is “Die Schöne Müllerin” or “The Beautiful Miller/’s Woman.”

 

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GarthP

In furtherance of my wish for more vocal music, I offer Wagner and his Meistersinger von Nürnberg. I know Wagner is not everyone’s choice, partly because of his political beliefs, but let that be, great music should transcend that. Meistersinger is possibly the most approachable of his operas, and definitely my favourite. Several choices then
– for the best music, but no video – Staatskapelle Dresden and Karajan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKG8ZxEOdwE

– ditto, but with score – Vienna Philharmonic and Solti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k087xPVBMA8

– for an overall appreciation, music and visual appeal – Netherlands Philharmonic and Albrecht
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tG9lOL_1Xk
slight downside is Dutch subtitling, upside is a rather faster take

and finally the rather controversial Wieland Wagner version from Bayreuth in 1963, Act 3 only. Music and visual quality are certainly not the best, but with English sub-titles and Josef Greindl as Hans Sachs, this is nevertheless most rewarding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsHtqVTJ_6k

Garth

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migongo, OscarCP

@GarthP

Please see this post #2136554 for instructions on how to link YouTube videos on this thread.

Wagner is not my favorite composer for a number of different reasons unrelated to the beauty of his music (*), which is obvious and undeniable. But my opinions aside, his compositions mark undoubtedly a major milestone in the evolution of classical music. His is one of a handful of names in the long roll of great musicians, those of the few that have determined the course of this evolution in the West in the modern era. In my opinion, these are: Palestrina, Vivaldi, Hayden, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. What I’d like to think of as the  “six sigma” composers, because that is the statistical equivalent of “one in five hundred million”, and I strongly suspect that there has been not nearly as many great composers in the whole of human existence.

As a sample, here is “Siegfrid’s Idyll”, a symphonic poem he composed on the occasion of the birthday of his second wife, and previous long-time lover while she was married to a friend, Cosima, played, as a surprise for her, by musician friends positioned along their house main staircase as she was coming down, having been awakened by their sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=891JUSQplzU

As explained in Wikipedia:

“Wagner composed the Siegfried Idyll as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870, by a small ensemble of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen (today part of Lucerne), Switzerland. Cosima awoke to its opening melody. Conductor Hans Richter learned the trumpet in order to play the brief trumpet part, which lasts only 13 measures, in that private performance, reportedly having sailed out to the center of Lake Lucerne to practice, so as not to be heard.”

(*) Besides giving horns, to emphasize the dramatic looks of his opera productions, to the helmets of Vikings and other Northern Germanic warriors that these never used in real life, as that would have made it too likely for them to get their heads entangled with other gear in the middle of a combat, I would include among my reasons: his ruthless pursuit of a dominant position amongst musicians, so as to control entirely the production of his operas, his adherence to late-Romantic German nationalism, of long and regrettable historical influence, and the unhealthy personal one he had on the unfortunate “Mad King” of Bavaria, Ludwig II:

Wikipedia again: King Ludwig “commissioned the construction of two lavish palaces and Neuschwanstein Castle, and he was a devoted patron of the composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig spent all his royal revenues (although not state funds as is commonly thought) on these projects, borrowed extensively, and defied all attempts by his ministers to restrain him. This extravagance was used against him to declare him insane, an accusation that has since come under scrutiny. Today, his architectural and artistic legacy includes many of Bavaria’s most important tourist attractions.”

I visited once Neuschwanstein and observed with considerable dismay the kitschy interior, with pieces of colored glass simulating precious stones embedded in the columns and other poor-taste decorations, all meant to evoke the palaces of the knights and kings in Wagner’s operas. I found this experience really depressing.

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migongo, GarthP

Agree on many counts. Siegfried Idyll would easily make my top 10 list. For classic German music though, I prefer Richard Strauss, because of his ability to retain clarity and apparent simplicity, whereas Wagner can be heavy and ‘over-the-top’.

Neuschwanstein is very popular, in spite of (or even because of) its kitsch. Queues are regular, as with the other Bavarian castles, whether Ludwig-inspired or otherwise, so good taste is in the eye of the beholder!

Of your roll of great musicians, not much to disagree on, although I must confess Vivaldi leaves me cold. For example, Glazunov’s Seasons is infinitely to be preferred over the Vivaldi version, in my view. I suspect many will not agree, so we’ll have to agree to differ.

One I would add to your list is Korngold, who influenced (and arguably led) classical music into the film era. Try this (Schauspiel Overture) for quality, written in 1911 when he was only 14! Apparently based on Shakespearean subjects, it was supposedly composed straight into full score with no preliminary sketch, and was good enough to get into the 1912 London Proms season, where he still holds the record of the youngest composer to be performed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oo8MI3LDiQ

Garth

Moderator note: Please see this post #2136554 for instructions on how to link YouTube videos on this thread. Videos not linked in this manner will be removed.

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GarthP: Here is a link to a performance of the Korngold violin concerto in D major Opus 35, where the soloist is my favorite fiddler and one-time neighbor, relatively speaking, here seen in action at twenty-something, back in the late 90’s or early 00’s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcGEGl5bdbk

Korngold was regularly and sniffily dismissed because “He composes movies’ music, and we can’t have that, or there goes the neighborhood!”

Another composer that was also “in the movies” was Ferde Grofé, author of the much loved “Grand Canyon Suite”; there is a link elsewhere in this thread to an unforgettable performance with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra during the best years of that orchestra.

My choice of Vivaldi and the rest has been dictated by how much each of them, as I see it, influenced the development of Western classical music. For example “Il Prete Rosso” was much admired by J.S. Bach who picked up a trick or two from him. Then Mozart, friend and some times protegé of Hayden, found out about Bach father going over moldy old music sheets found in attics and cellars, and then Beethoven… Vivaldi was a very important figure in the development of contrapunctual music. I believe that there is a “before and an “after” when it comes to Antonio’s technical influence on later musicians, both as performers and composers, same as any of the the others included in my list. Of course, my choice is quite subjective and not at all authoritative, since I am not a music historian.

As you might have noticed, I do not include any 100% romantic composer, meaning those who were active mainly in the first half of the 19th Century. Beethoven is not one of them, because (and that is why I have him, the same as the others, in my list) he was someone that transcended schools and whose work cannot be put in a neatly labelled box. You might also notice I have not included Brahms, such a great composer as he was. Others might make a different call.

Fred: Thanks for the suggestion. Should Palestrina trump Pergolesi, or the other way around, or do both belong in the list? Your choice, your list.

 

 

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GarthP

You really should follow PK’s advice. You won’t be told again. Better learn how to make boring and ordinary-looking brown YouTube URL links, or else!

Tip: On the bar on top the comment-writing field, the one with “B“,”I“, etc. there is a hamburger-shaped thing (it is supposed to be a chain link, believe it or not). Click on the burger, then click again where you want to insert the comment. Paste the YouTube video’s URL in the white field that this action opens then click on the blue square at the right end of this field to close the thing, and then you’ll have the URL pasted in the chosen field in glorious phosphorescent magenta-blue. Don’t worry about that. After the comment has been submitted it will turn as brown and as boring as desired. The reason for doing all this is that, once upon a time, all the links to YT videos in this thread were nice, big square pictures, but loading them slowed down the servers taking care of “AskWoody” to a glacial crawl. And nobody was happy. So now only the very first comment still has those picture links, as an advertisement of sorts for the thread; the rest is all brown.

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migongo, GarthP

GarthP wrote:

Glazunov’s Seasons is infinitely to be preferred over the Vivaldi version, in my view. I suspect many will not agree, so we’ll have to agree to differ.

For me, Glazunov’s “Seasons” has a much different approach than Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. I’ve played Vivaldi’s version of Seasons so many times over the years it sometimes pops into the brain randomly, but his composition still gets me in the mood to conduct a fantasy orchestra. Glazunov is unpredictable and dramatic, which makes his piece interesting and somewhat heart pounding. But as to melody in general, I like Vivaldi, equally they are both superb.

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OscarCP, GarthP

I understand that Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” is one of the most popular classical works ever. That does not mean that it is better than Glazunov’s, but there must be a reason for that popularity: probably because it is so effective at getting you in a good mood right away and so evocative of the feeling of each of the seasons. It was my discovery of this work at age thirteen that started my wider appreciation of classical music. Probably I’m not the only one who can say that.

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Fred, GarthP

I know what you mean! My moment of discovery came when slightly older, on walking into a record shop and hearing the Pearl Fishers duet with Robert Merrill and Jussi Björling playing, and thinking “whatever is that”. About the only time I recollect ever having that feeling of the hairs on my neck stand up!

I have always liked Glazunov as a composer because of his melodic gifts, possibly because he is one of the late romantics, and I understand that may not be your favourite approach to music.  At the moment I have the same ‘problem’ mentioned by Myst, that of a melody popping into my head – and staying there! I replayed some of Meistersingers Act3 recently, the Wieland Wagner version I mentioned earlier, and now simply cannot get the Prize Song out of my head! Don’t know whether that’s romantic or just overkill, labels are sometimes superfluous, but I’ll have to listen again now.

Garth

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Fred

Here is the famous duet of Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” (English subtitles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHec1ymDmsE

And also some impressive performance of, as far as I know, the most dramatic of show-stoppers in all of the operatic repertoire,:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuBeBjqKSGQ

(There is an entry about this video early on, but the link to it does not work.)

She might drop a couple of notes at one point, but still her acting and delivery are truly hair-raising good.

 

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GarthP

Thanks, that’s good, but it is not THE version! Couldn’t find it before, never needed to as it is a treasured recording, but here are Merrill and Björling in supreme voice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYt2HlBuyI

Around 2 million views I see, and the reviews are wonderful. “If I have ever in my life heard perfection, this was it.”

Garth

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OscarCP

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Jesi, 4 january 1710 – Pozzuoli, 16 march 1736) ?

* _ ... _ *

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migongo, OscarCP

[migongo]

Invariably, year after year, since its emergence in 1927, at the Frederick Chopin International Piano Festival in Warsaw, performers choose to play Chopin’s “Heroic Polonaise”.

It is the emblematic piece of Poland, a kind of “national anthem”, such as Verdi’s “Va Pensiero” for Italy, Moncayo’s “Huapango” for Mexicans, Strauss’s “An der schönen blauen Donau” for Austrians, and so on.

However, no previous or subsequent interpretation of the “Heroic” has managed to overcome the execution of Seong-Jin Cho (Seoul, South Korea. 1994 -), winner of the first prize of said contest in 2015.

There is no doubt that not everything is in the domain of technique: the emotionality linked to it will always play a fundamental role. A concert attendee notes in the comments: “This is by far the very best I’ve heard in my 85 years of listening to piano music.” Impossible not to agree: the immediate response of the public, standing up and bursting into applause; the look, the smile, the admiration and the uncontrolled “Bravo!” of the concertino violin (behind the performer) corroborates this.</span>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZYYoDDmg8M&list=FLtADHuuaW7CR_C6xPPWGdlg&index=1

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by migongo.

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OscarCP, Fred

I am glad this one still lives;  and a sublime performance this is

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP, migongo

@migongo ‘s post was caught by the spam filter on edit, an unfortunate occurrence that happens too often and over which neither the moderators nor the posters have control. Unsubstantiated implications as to the reason do not fix the problem.

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migongo, Kirsty, woody, Fred

migongo: Your comment brought back a memory from long ago, when I was a little boy and, in an old house that probably no longer exists, my much loved aunt “Lela”, then young and pretty and now years gone, is, first, practicing it at her upright piano and, then, we are both listening to a recording (78 RPM shellac disk played in an, even then, very old wind-up Victrola) of the “Heroic”; the player, quite probably: Arturo Rubinstein.

So, in thanks for bringing on that remembrance, here is a collection of Chopin’s polonaises performed by Rubinstein in a recording even older than that early memory of mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4v5fNZVtuU

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migongo

And now for something completely different and totally fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0aMMn1XSVA&list=FLtADHuuaW7CR_C6xPPWGdlg&index=2

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts, as vigorously as usual, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony — and many members of a large audience, in an open-air performance of “America Salvage” which, it would seem, is attributed to “López.”

For all it being thought of as a town of buttoned-up bankers, Frankfurt is also a surprisingly wacky one.

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migongo

There is something I wanted to put here but kept forgetting:

There were several works by Vaughan Williams somewhere in this thread already besides the ones recently included by GarthP, namely: “A Serenade to Music”, “The Lark Ascending”, “Fantasy on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” and a video with selection of several other of his works. I cannot find the later, so here I am pasting the URL link, just in case:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=God7bXyKkdA

Also I believe that there is something also here from another British Edwardian composer, Frederick Delius, but I am including now, also just in case, “On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring”. Neville Marriner conducting the orchestra of the Academy of San Marcos in the Fields:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xHIhcstxUM

 

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migongo, Myst, GarthP

OscarCP wrote:

Academy of San Marcos in the Fields:

There’s an Academy of San Marcos Baseball Field located in Texas, but unless they play the outfield in orchestral form, I would guess you mean “The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields?” as Paul T commented. It’s Ok Oscar. Your posts are informative and entertaining. Actually I’ve enjoyed your comments on this topic, as well as others who have contributed.

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OscarCP wrote:

Neville Marriner conducting the orchestra of the Academy of San Marcos in the Fields

You mean “The Academy of St Martin in the Fields”?

cheers, Paul

Yes, yes, yes: I meant “Martin.” How did that ended up as “Marcos” is one of those mysteries of the aging human brain not worth getting into.

Since I am here, I would like to point out that there is in this thread a link to a YouTube video of a performance of the work of another Edwardian: Elgar. His cello concerto from the 1919, as played by Jacqueline du Pré, cello (*), with Daniel Barenboin conducting … an undisclosed orchestra ( #2141655 )

And here and now, I am adding Elgar’s “Enigma Variations”, Leonard Bernstein conducting the BBC Symphonic Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GbD20h8-_4

They are called “Enigma”, because (according to Elgar himself) the theme and its several variations are supposed to mean something and there is also a “dark”, sort of invisible second theme, but nobody else was, or still is, sure of what that “something” is — or what is the “dark” theme. Whatever these might be, this is one of the great works of English classical music.

(*) Her dramatic and beautiful recording of this work with John Barbirolli conducting the London Symphony Orchestra was epoch making: lots of women took up the cello after they heard this recording and some turned out to be pretty good at it.

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Myst, migongo

Before some AskWoody loungers from the British Isles get too irritated by my calling Elgar’s “English classical music”:

Yes, “British” also applies, but I have noticed and so have underscored what is best described as an “English” temperament, style, way or doing things in Elgar’s best known works akin to that of other English composers (Delius, for example). A certain poetic feeling in them of open fields, spaciousness and the slow passing of time that, to me a least, makes it somewhat different from “Scottish,” “Welsh”, etc. So there is that.

See for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music_in_Scotland

Feel free from disagree, but even better, post here your dissenting comments with links to performances of music by  Scottish, Welsh, etc. composers and make this thread a better place.

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GarthP

You were definitely right first time. In the UK, both Elgar and Delius would be referred to as English, it somehow feels contrary to see them described as British although that is their ‘nationality’; I think probably that’s because British (in relation to music) might be considered non-British usage, if that makes sense. There is a definite genre of English music, which includes as well such composers as Finzey, Butterworth and John Field.

The whole question of nationality in the UK is complicated. I was born an Englishman, now live in Scotland, am a citizen of the country known formally as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK for short), and if I wanted to be more-or-less inclusive would refer to myself as British! Hope that’s comprehensible and not a hostage to fortune!

Garth

Hi Guys,

just stumbled across this thread and I love it. Will work myself slowly through from the top and listen to all these suggestions over time – who knows I might find something I composed a long time ago.

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beethoven wrote:

Will work myself slowly through from the top and listen to all these suggestions over time – who knows I might find something I composed a long time ago.

Hi Beethoven. Wow you’re about 218 years old eh? I’m sure there’s a piece of your work bundled into a post or two. You’ll be 219 by the time you’re done scrolling through this topic. 🙃

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Fred, OscarCP

Guitar ensemble via Bach. https://youtu.be/wqgQ7IYhvRg

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Microfix, OscarCP, Fred

This is the best guitar ensemble I never heard of! Who are they? Where they come from? What else they do?

It is really interesting that, while this really sounds like Bach being played on an organ, a big one, by a master organist that can find the way without getting lost in such a tricky countrapuntual forest, the sound actually comes from fifteen electric guitars played with nearly perfect synchronicity by fifteen guitarists and without a conductor to keep them playing together!

Some of the comments in YT mention “metal”. So is this how really good rock musicians that can play more than just chords and actually have studied music theory and really learned to play a guitar, mastering their instrument with a lot of practice, get to show this side of themselves? Good for them! I want more.

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Myst

OscarCP wrote:

This is the best guitar ensemble I never heard of! Who are they?

They’re from Spain http://lpatemudasfest.com/en/programa2019/118-music/684-sinfonity-the-first-electric-guitar-orchestra
Some of the comments on YT use Metal bands like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath as examples to compare with these Spanish guitarists.

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Sinfonity – The world’s first electric guitar symphony orchestra

Sinfonity…The First Electric Guitar Orchestra in the World

Sinfonity Electric Guitar Orchestra 2019

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OscarCP

I posted a link to Sinfonity above.

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GarthP has given a link to his favorite performance of the duet in Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers”, where, in a far away and exotic Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) of the imagination, it is sang by two close friends, pearl fishers both (listen to GarthP’s clip here  #2299250 ) that soon after are going to get a lot less friendly when one of them has a night of love with the other’s (ex?) girlfriend who has just arrived, sort of incognito, to take up a position with the local clergy; this means trouble and is something that did happen already in another town with the same woman and they just have got over that one. It does not help that this shared girlfriend (ex, for now) is now in her new job, as an (allegedly) Virgin Priestess consecrated to the god of the local temple and cannot have boyfriends. Pretty much the same problem as in “Norma” (e.g. the aria “Casta Diva” #2173326  that, along with the whole opera, is linked in this thread’s earlier comments, both with Maria Callas in the title role.)

So the bad friend, recollecting how bad he is being to his best friend (again) begins a short dramatic recitative that precedes the aria, then looks at it on the bright side and reminisces on his just concluded night of love. He does so by singing the aria this comment is all about. (For more about this opera, Wikipedia has a complete summary of the libretto, among other things.)

Well, in my own life this particular bit of “The Pearl Fishers” has played a memorable role. Memorable because the first time I heard the aria “Je Crois Entendre Encoire” (“I believe I still hear”) this got a great hold on my brain and has not let go of it since. And that was many years ago. The melody and the song are not just supremely beautiful but also spellbinding —  literally in my case: as in casting a binding spell. Because I believe I still hear it.

Here is this aria sang by the great tenor Nicolai Gedda accompanied by a Russian orchestral group, the B. Andreeva’s Russian Folk Orchestra, circa 1980:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzIsP4HDcRc&list=PL80B59668FEC28555

And here is the letter of that song, translated from French to English:

I think I still hear,
hidden under palm trees,
her voice soft and sweet
like a song of wood doves.

Oh, night of enchantment,
divine bliss,
oh, sweet memory,
insane intoxication, sweet dream!

In the clear starlight,
I think I still see her,
Removing her long veil
in the soft night breeze.

Oh, night of enchantment,
divine bliss,
oh, sweet memory,
insane intoxication, sweet dream!

sweet memory

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GarthP

Clarification: the same aria “I believe I still hear” is also known as “Nadir’s Romance”, as called in the YT video linked in my comment above, with Nicolai Gedda as the singer.

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In listening to opera, a prime requirement is mostly to disregard the actual plot as much as possible. This was borne home to me many years ago by a critic commenting that her tiny frozen hand was large and sweaty, but that she sang like an angel! (I forget both now BTW.) Some plots are ridiculous, a few sublime, and the majority can be accepted as necessary for the sake of the music.

The link you gave to Gedda’s performance is fascinating, and whilst he is a little slow for my taste, it does show his remarkable artistry, and breath control second to none.

Garth

 

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migongo, OscarCP

Just found that “Casta Diva” from Bellini’s “Norma” sang by Maria Callas has been pulled out of YT from her previous channel and it is now in a different one. So the old link does not work anymore. I must have Calla’s “Casta Diva” somewhere here, so I am pasting now a link to its new address in YT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYl8GRJGnBY

Watching as well as listening to this thin, tall, strangely beautiful woman sing her heart out (she really did) to produce such a magical, sublime, impassioned string of sounds, and feeling profoundly moved is only natural, because, in passages such as this, she touched the human heart with her singing like few others ever did.

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migongo

To top off this little interlude of  great Opera classics sung by some extraordinary singers, here  is a collection of best-loved Italian opera arias sung by perhaps the greatest of tenors, Enrico Caruso, of whom Pavarotti once said: “in opera, there is Caruso … and then the rest of us”

Some of these recordings are more than a century old, so sound quality varies considerably among them, but even so, those in this collection are, in my opinion, along with the videos of Calla’s performances and a few others included in this thread, some of the best Bel Canto singing ever recorded in this technically most difficult of operatic styles, demanding the very best of great singers to come off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zlfVc4sEdI

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migongo

Today sad news came out of Argentina: the graphic artist and cartoonist Joaqín Salvador Lavado Tejon, better known to the world by his artistic nickname “Quino”, the creator of “Mafalda”, is dead at 88.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quino

“Mafalda” was a comic strip that brought to the funnies page of newspapers around the world in translation and was also collected in many anthologies published in book form, some serious reflection on life in modern times, a look of unusual depth along with a light and often comical touch, something that has been appreciated everywhere, regardless of the country where someone chanced to see this cartoon for the first time. Mafalda, the protagonist is a six-year old girl who ask questions and makes statements that, in their apparent direct simplicity, pose some of the great questions and touch on some of the great issues of this and of all times.

Vale, Quino.

To bid him farewell, I am including here a 1967 German Television recording of a performance of the Argentine Folkloric composer Ariel Ramírez’s “Navidad Nuestra” (“Our Christmas.”) sang by a chorus accompanying soloists of one of the most renowned Argentinian Folk groups of all time, “Los Fronterizos.” A link to a YouTube video of another remarkable recording of a work by this composer, “Misa Criolla”, sang by a chorus and soloists from the UCLA University Chorus, Chamber Singers & Guitar Ensemble, conducted by Rebecca Lord, can be found in a previous comment in this same thread at #2140944  .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx9gA_yonZo

And here is Mafalda: A traveling salesman has called at the door of her home and she has been sent to answer. The caller has asked for “The Head of the family” to talk to him and convince him of buying whatever it is he is selling, as his decision is often enough to close the deal (those were the days!) And Mafalda tells him “In this family we do not have a “Head”. We are a cooperative.”

 

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migongo, Alex5723, Fred

Dario Marianelli (Anna Karenina, Ouverture) Mannheimer Philharmoniker
Dario Marianelli – Overture, Anna Karenina

Well done ! Best version of this piece in my opinion. These folks deserve attention.

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migongo, OscarCP

Myst: Thanks for letting us all enjoy this surprising performance.

I believe that it is from a series of passages from the soundtrack of “Anna Karenina”, a 2012 movie very well-received by the public and even by critics, that has won a bunch of important prizes. The music was composed by Dario Marianelli.

(I did not see it, but I read the book. Also, it has been quite a while since the last time I was in Mannheim. Interesting and rather vivid memories, though.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina_(2012_film)

Three things come to mind:

(1) “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (*)

(2) The young lady mandolin-player in the orchestra, with all this long-flowing hair, looks exactly like someone who has walked right out of a pre-raphaelite painting by Rossetti.

(3) Watch out for incoming trains.

(*) First and best known sentence in the whole book. Old Leo knew a thing or two about choosing a great opening to get the reader pulled right into his novels.

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migongo, Myst

October 1st, 2020. I’ve just noticed that the link to the performance of Bach’s Chaconne by the then teenage Hillary Hahn is no longer functional. But the same video is still available in YouTube, only in a different place. So here is her wonderful performance of this composition that has been transcribed to all manner of instruments and whose best players have taken up the challenge of performing at their very best to produce acceptable renditions and that she plays it here with full authority in every note and deep understanding of this most magnificent of compositions to produce a result of breathtaking and transcendental beauty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngjEVKxQCWs

MVPs please note: I cannot remove the old and no longer functional “picture” link above and replace it with this new one. But the idea has been to have two “picture links” in the original comment of this thread, brown links every where else, so I would appreciate it if someone would remove the old one and leave this new one in its place., or leave it here if that is not possible

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migongo

This previous comment of mine was supposed to be a “REPLY” to the very first comment in this thread on Hilary Hahn playing Bach’s Chaconne, in order to have both together so this makes sense. But instead it has ended here, at the end of the thread. Very odd.

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Months ago I added here a comment with a link to a performance by Hilary Hahn, playing her, in this case, appropriately storied violin (*), of Paganini’s Concert No. 1. Now I realize that the most famous of the several violin concerts of Paganini is not here yet, so I am putting in the corresponding YouTube link. This is No.2, often known by the nickname of its last movement, a rondo called “La Campanella”, meaning “the little bell”, where the violin is played “pizzicato”, i.e. by plucking its strings, the effect reinforced by the accompanying sound of a little bell.

Here is Salvatore Accardo, violin, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Dutoit conductor, in Paganini’s Violin Concert No. 2 in B minor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur3RqbvWotk

And now here is what Liszt made of Paganini’s work in his six “Grandes Études de Paganini”, or “Great Studies of Paganini” for the piano, here played by Daniil Trifonov releasing some pretty impressive cascades of sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJqQ3CCl5jQ

For those seriously into music, the video consists of the sheet music shown always at the page corresponding to the part being played. It makes for an interesting way to follow what is going on at the piano and also can be used for mumbling along the melody one reads right off the score. But it’s better to keep quiet and listen. Trust me.

(*) A replica of Paganini’s famous Guarnerius violin known as “Cannone” or “Cannon” (as in  Bang! Boom!!, not the type of musical movement) made long ago by the same man who took care of Paganini’s.

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Fred

Thanks for putting Paganini in the center here. In the previous parts I told of the inheritance of LP’s from miss Van Eeghen. There were some very old and younger Paganini performances/recordings of the Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam.

To me it’s very hard, if not impossible, to speak in superlatives like the best ever etc. But one of the earliest performances of the violinist ‘Herman Krebbers’ with the COA was one of a kind. Perhaps the not so perfect recordings and replay techniques had something to do with it?  I did give away the records, perhaps I can still find some on the internet; I will try.

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

I spoke about the violinist Krebbers in the late Willem Mengelberg (conductor) era. In these times Mengelberg was more or less banned from his country by the “good people, allies” shortly after the 2nd World War and he lived in Switzerland for the last few years.
I didn’t know I had offended anyone with my non-villainous and humble written words on the most-greatest sites ever. All the more reason to have this history erased by those who do not understand. However, everything can be proven.

 

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

Patricia Janakova is an up-and-coming soprano who is quite good.

Have any of you heard her You Tube performances?

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Fred

Kenneth Stephens wrote:

Patricia Janakova is an up-and-coming soprano who is quite good.

Have any of you heard her You Tube performances?

sorry , no

* _ ... _ *

kstephens43: ” Patricia Janakova is an up-and-coming soprano who is quite good.

Have any of you heard her You Tube performances? ”

I haven’t. You are welcome to post another comment here with one or two links to YouTube videos of her work you particularly like.

(Make sure to include only brown links, not the full picture ones from YouTube one gets if one just copies and pastes here the URL in the address bar of the browser while connected to the YT video Web Page.  See the instructions here: #2136554 and here #2298508 .)

“

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migongo

Paganini, again:

I don’t know how it’s like in other countries, but here in the USA, at the entrance to some thrilling ride in any amusement park, there is a gate and a sign by it that reads: “You have to be THIS TALL to get on this ride”, and there is a mark at the correct height. Anyone lower than that is not allowed in, the assumption being that, if a child, he or she will not be yet well-coordinated and strong enough to hang on for dear life to whatever is there to hang on to in order not to be thrown out.

Well, there is just something like that sign for would-be virtuoso violinists to be acknowledged as such: playing without serious mistakes all of “Paganini’s 24 Caprices for the Violin”, played here by the already measured and shown to be a great violinist, Itzhak Perlman :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8j1x3pTOyo

These are totally show-off pieces by the greatest showman of the concert halls of Europe in the first half of the 19th Century: Niccolo Paganini himself.

As it is explained in this readworthy essay on this master player of stringed instruments (he did quite a bit of playing and composing for the guitar as well), one of his tricks was to have a tiny bit of razor blade attached to one of his fingernails that he used, during some of his performances, to cut, one by one, the strings of his violin, to end up playing with a single one.

https://blog.sharmusic.com/blog/bid/112961/Happy-Birthday-Niccolo-Paganini

“We have all heard the tales behind Paganini. You know, the ones about selling his soul to the devil, making women all over cry and faint, hands made of rubber, losing his violin at a game of cards. But who exactly was the man behind the legends?”

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migongo

And here is some  good Mozart to have with high tea:

Patrick Gallois in flute, Fabriece Pierre in harp, with Neville Marriner conducting the Orchestra of the Radio e Televizione Svizzera di Lingua Italiana (RTSI, for short) in the Flute and Harp Concerto in C Major:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLFTGanol7w

Now, be a good chap and pass the creme. please.

Aren’t these pastries truly scrumptious?

The scones are a tad soggy, I’d fancy.

 

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migongo, GarthP

Definitely a Mozart favourite of mine, but I didn’t know this performance. Soggy,(?) not a chance!
Garth

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migongo, OscarCP

GarthP: In a manner of speaking. And, as have accidentally discovered just now when browsing for something else, much more palatable if it is a scone, or even a crumpet, than a biscuit.

Be that as it may, here is some Bach to accompany the after prandial sherry after the ladies have retired. Jean Rondeau and his always much commented hair styling (or lack thereof) at the harpsichord with some other people not mentioned in the YT Notes playing J.S. Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 in D minor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcsfDxojdV8

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migongo, GarthP

I want to bring to notice the rather rare genre of piano quintet, which has nevertheless produced some fine music. A choice of three, then, with a wide range of style and subject.

First, the Arensky D major quintet. The scherzo is the section most usually played, and with good reason because it’s delightful, but the whole piece is well worth the time to listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd9JRnolB3M&list=RDHd9JRnolB3M&index=1

Second, the Franck Piano Quintet, with no less than Sviatoslav Richter and the Borodin Quartet live in 1986.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLb01zNDNIk

Finally, in considerable contrast, the Korngold Piano Quintet, with Maxim Rysanov on viola.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX-3DWxS8t4&list=RDWX-3DWxS8t4&start_radio=1&t=60
I have a liking for the music of Korngold, and this is recognisably him, although a fairly new discovery for me.
Garth

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migongo, OscarCP

In all fairness, I have to admit that I have live with “classical music” all of my life.

In middle school Leonard Bernstein would visit our music class from time to time and we had unrestricted access to the New York Philharmonic’s rehearsals and performances.

As an undergraduate, I lived with music students – many of whom went on to become internationally recognized for their work with the Vienna Boys Choir, cathedral organists, members of internationally recognized sympathy orchestras, and soloists.

But in all fairness, I think we need to step beyond the mystique of classical music and recognize some of the great performers who have influenced 20th and now 21st  centuries culture  including Hellen Reddy’s and her performances of I am Woman.

Follow the link    https://youtu.be/rptW7zOPX2E

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migongo, OscarCP

Kathy Stevens wrote: “But in all fairness, I think we need to step beyond the mystique of classical music and recognize some of the great performers who have influenced 20th and now 21st centuries culture”

Bossa Nova, Progressive Tango, Jazz and etc. fusion, classical/folkloric fusion, classical music compositions interpreted by most gifted Jazz musicians, have a considerable number of entries in this thread.

I have chosen to concentrate on Western “classical” music, as that played in concert halls and opera houses around the world (except, of course, nowadays, with the pandemic) , because I know a bit more about it than about than other forms of musical expression.

Also there is a real uncertainty on how is “classical” best defined. For example, the performance by her author of “Five to Nine“, is in my opinion a true classical of US country music, as are so many of her other hits (e.g. “The salt of My Tears”; “Coat of Many Colors”, …) and that is why I am an admirer of her author, the amazingly gifted (in her musical talent, OK?) and fiendishly clever Dolly Parton, who has managed, with her wit and determination, to rise from poverty to being an important contemporaneous personality that, among other good things she does (*), gives practical help to gifted daughters of poor families like the one she was born into, in her native Appalachia.

This video has her singing in the sound track, while , in the background, it shows silent excerpts of the justly iconic 1980 movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJOhnuy53AM

(From the days, now it seems so long ago, when many had the privilege of having nine to five jobs to complain about…)

(*) For example, she partly funded and co-produced, through “Sandollar”, a company of hers, that much loved TV show, the ground-breaking “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, consequently winning my eternal gratitude: https://www.cbr.com/tv-legends-revealed-was-dolly-parton-a-producer-on-buffy-the-vampire-slayer/

Bat that is not all:

Excerpt:

“The successful singer and actress grew up very poor (she was the fourth of 12 children of a tobacco farmer; her classic hit “Coat of Many Colors” gives a strong description of what her life was like growing up) and she has always spoken about using the same approach her father had in managing his finances, which was basically, “Don’t trust anyone else with your money.” … “One way that Parton spent her money was on a production company, and sure enough, that production company played a major role in the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.“

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migongo

We cannot (and must not) forget one of the greatest performers who have influenced 20th and 21st centuries culture, inside and beyond the mystic of classical music: Ennio Morricone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj5Xczethmw

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OscarCP, Myst

Ennio Morricone lived a good long life, creative genius. Film scores to his credit, “A Fistful of Dollars”, https://youtu.be/CpZjvbSC9_M and who can forget the theme song from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” https://youtu.be/1AyxDVBX2o0

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migongo, OscarCP

And here is the final three-way standoff scene in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (*), with Morricone’s unforgettable music, both tense and soaring in the soundtrack, punctuating the superb acting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXldafIl5DQ

(*) None other than Quentin Tarantino has called it “the best action movie ever made.” He knows a thing or two about that, and that is also an opinion that I have had since I first saw this movie and held ever since.

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migongo, Myst

And here is more  classical DP for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1zTt9oaRqE

 

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migongo

And while I am here, this is another set of great classic performances by a great performer, in this case of rhythm and blues:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gppHFr0_lDk

I first heard and saw Ray Charles performing live one evening, in a park next to the hotel I was staying in hot and humid coastal Palermo, in Sicily, after attending a conference in cool, high-elevation Erice. Attendance was free: simply walk into the park and find a good spot to watch the show. He was performing in his signature way of playing, swaying from left to right to the rhythm of the music he was letting fly with his fingers. Behind him, several young women, the “Rayettes”, were giving backup.

He was blind, but never hit a wrong note; same as Arthur Rubinstein told an interviewer when he was already pushing ninety: “I almost can no longer see, but I still know where all the keys are in the keyboard.” Ray Charles certainly new. And how!

 

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migongo, Fred

And more RC, mostly playing solo piano, in a series of recordings that lets one appreciate more fully his superb skill as a piano player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fld1-tT4VFs

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migongo, Fred

And speaking of superb keyboard players, here is a notable performance of J.S. Bach’s Concerto Italiano for harpsichord by the lady whose recordings of Bach opened my heart and mind, as a teenager not particularly interested in classical music, to the beauty of Bach’s towering creations. And whose influence was decisive in bringing forth the Twentieth Century’s revival of public interest in Baroque music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgD7Gf0q7g

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migongo, Alex5723

I have a suggestion if the MVPs and Bosses let it through … start a new topic for classical music specific to one composer or style and when the thread approaches the long winded mile mark just close it and start fresh with another selection that branches out from one or more of the above. Classical music covers a wide range of talent – composers, on stage performances and instruments all inclusive, as well as contributions to film scores.

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Myst, Thanks for your suggestion.

I also have considered that possibility. So far the number of divergences from “classical” classical here have not been those many and those who want to add comments and video links on other musical forms are always welcome to do it here, if they prefer doing that, specially if the music in question is of exceptional quality and, or a real trend-setter that has greatly influenced an important musical form’s subsequent development. I am not sure than a thread dedicated to Mahler, or to Progressive Tango, for example, will get those many comments in their own threads, while that would not be an issue here. On the other hand, a thread dedicated to jazz might be a good idea. Rock already has some, so that is a different situation. Perhaps there could be a new (sub) Forum called “Music” or something like that in this “Fun Stuff” forum? I believe that Myst comment is worth discussing, because as this tread gets longer, it also gets harder to find out if something has been considered or not here already.

The real question for me would be: what is the best practical thing to do this differently, assuming there is any?

I am not keen on threads being closed when there is no obviously overwhelming need to do it. So far, as I have seen it happen, has been because the discussion was moving on to some topics that either Woody or some MVP considered should not be discussed in AskWoody, or in the particular forum where they were taking place. I am all for new threads opening on sub-topics, but not so much on shutting down those threads that are not doing any harm. Having more threads would not necessarily save any space, either, so the reasons for being allowed or being stopped has to be especific to each thread. Moreover, closing a thread precludes people from commenting further on the topic of that thread, unless a new thread is then open on the same topic.

Anyhow, I think this suggestion of Myst is something definitely worth discussing.

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This topic has become so full, comments are getting lost in the shuffle. You can start a new chapter connected to this topic and provide links. Whatever works for you.

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To get lost in the shuffle there has to be something that can get lost in the shuffle. That applies to discussions like this one we are having right now, where one comment has a reply and then that comment has a reply and one needs to follow the series of comments to make sense of them. But there have been very few discussions like the one we are having now in this thread, which is understandable as this is a place to comment on personal likings, but not really to discuss if what someone likes is good or bad.

On the other hand, there is plenty for anyone to browse here, as in an old fashioned bookstore full of books, for example, and maybe find things that might interest the browsing visitor. Splitting it into sections might be a convenient way to arrange this, but I have no idea of how to do it in a way that either I, or someone else, may have the time or interest in managing and keeping it organized. I am therefore for letting things just happen, as has been so far the case, and hope that a visitor will find something to enjoy here, if prepared to take the time to browse through some of the accumulated material. This is not a technical thread where people pose questions they would like to have answered quickly and to the point. More like a “chill out, man” sort of place. Or I would like to think it is.

What would be helpful, I think, is if someone with a particular interest in Jazz, for example, started a thread dedicated to the topic. Or whatever else they might be particularly keen on, as long as there is no obstacle put in the way to those who still want to make their Jazz postings here, something that I somewhat doubt will happen if there is already a thread specialized in Jazz. That way I hope things will find their proper level and develop naturally in a way we all can find useful.

In last analysis, people can do what I do: pres control+F or Command plus F, enter the name of a composer or a title and hit return.

Other voices that would like to join this conversation, please come in.

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migongo, Fred, Kathy Stevens

Thank to you all for every contribution here. To me it is very precious to learn so many opinions about something so valuable like music. For those who keep up this culture exponent I would say three times hurray. Broaden my vision makes me happy. 😃

* _ ... _ *

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migongo, GarthP, OscarCP, Myst

@oscarcp You seem to be making a big deal out of nothing. We are on the same page for sharing interests in classical music. I was only making a comment about expanding the topic by breaking it up into bits and pieces of the various aspects pertaining to this genre, starting a new topic when it varies from the current. I’m done with my suggestions. I’ve already made my point. It ain’t no big deal. Carry on. 🙃

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OscarCP

Myst, we are on the same page as far as rearranging the material to make it easier to access, so people can find quickly what they might be most interested in, except that neither of us has a practical solution that does not require having some MVPs doing a lot of work we cannot expect them to be prepared to do, as neither of us can move things around in a thread or out of it to another thread.

We are not in the same page when it comes to closing threads.

I wish there was a practical way to do the former, but I don’t think there is one. If someone here has a better idea, I would like to hear about it.

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OscarCP wrote:

as in an old fashioned bookstore full of books, for example, and maybe find things that might interest the browsing visitor.

To the analogy of this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_of_the_Wind   

* _ ... _ *

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migongo

For (horror) stories within stories within stories within… , there is also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manuscript_Found_in_Saragossa

Not to mention “The Thousand and One Nights” (a.k.a “Arabian Nights”, although they are mainly Persian and also Indian):

http://www.reorientmag.com/2014/12/thousand-and-one-nights/

And, if further interested, in this thread there is a superb performance of “Sheherazade”, right here: #2288922

 

 

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migongo, GarthP

And as I have noticed that there is not enough Prokofiev and can never be enough of Eugene Ormandy in this thread, here are two delectable renditions by Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra of:

(1) The Lieutenant Kijé Suite:

Where a bureaucratic error creates a non-existing Lieutenant in the records of the Imperial Army who then goes to rise and rise in a splendid career, until the Emperor asks for his help and he is no where to be found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJrhu9LgcAY

(2) Prokofiev’s soundtrack of the 1934 Russian movie “The Love for Three Oranges”, where, among other things, a Magician and Super-Witch Fata Morgana play cards to decide who will restore a depressed crown prince to cheerfulness by making him laugh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DF0VR7gLx4

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migongo, GarthP

Rhapsody in Blue — George Gershwin

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migongo, OscarCP

Geekdom, I appreciate the suggestion. But why don’t you provide a YT link to some great performance of this most classic of classical Gershwin?

To do that, I would suggest googling with keywords: “Rhapsody in Blue” and that will result in hits at the top of the page of several YT links to corresponding videos of performances of RiB. If not sure of which one to pick, then go for the one with the most “views.” Something like RiB should have top popular renditions with views numbering in the hundreds of thousands and even in the millions, so it is hard to miss that. And those are more or less guaranteed to be good performances.

Whenever posting a comment with a YT link, please make sure that it is a brown link, not a big “picture” YT link (they take a lot of space and slow down the servers when these pages are loaded for smeone to read). How to do that is explained here by PK: #2136554

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migongo

[geekdom]

Perhaps someone has a YouTube link. I first heard this piece many years past in the film by the same name — on television, not in the theatre.

Rhapsody in Blue is memorable; it resonates.

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migongo, Fred

Well, this is the one I have in my collection. I just googled it, found it and has 2,400,110 views in YT, so as I’ve said: one can’t go wrong with it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-MJZJjJs4A

 

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migongo

Master Marco Aurelio Xavier (1940? – ) is a renowed brazilian coreographer. He created and directed some of the most famous children’s choral institutions in the world: Montserrat Abbey Children’s Choir (Barcelona, and of which the soprano Montserrat Caballé was part, in her childhood); Vienna Boys’ Choir; Children’s Choir of the Regensburg Cathedral (under the auspices of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI); Tölz (Bavaria) Boy’s Choir; and The Pontifical Choir of the Sistine Chapel (Rome), where he had Georg Ratzinger as his teacher.

Back in Brazil, he created and directed, for decades, the female children’s choir “Petrópolis Girls’ Choir”, The most important choir in Brazil and next to which the tenor Luciano Pavarotti sang in the celebrations of the fifth centenary of the founding of Brazil.

This would explain the quality of its origin and why, out of hundreds of videos on the web, I consider this the most brilliant interpretation of the aria “Sentimental Melody”, by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.

The singer, Mariana de Araujo Gomes –then a child also called “María Comprida” (Tall Mary)– becomes one of the most promisory brazilian sopranos. So feel free to listen, compare the vocal freshness of the diverse performers, and then tell me if I exaggerete or I am wrong in my assessment. Best regards!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_I40lk5X6s

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OscarCP, Alex5723, Fred

migongo, Do you know how old she was in that video?

As one grows and the body changes, the voice does too. Right now she shows a good command of her high registry and control of breathing that, if retained in later life and with the natural further voice development, can take her on a very bright career. Assuming all that has not already happened from the date of the video till the present day.

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migongo

Here is something that migongo might like:

Martha Argerich pays Schumann piano concerto in A minor, Opus 54, accompanied by the NEOJIBA youth orchestra of Bahia, Brazil conducted by Ricardo Castro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zATaO8JRHx4

And what is NEOJIBA?

https://www.neojiba.org/neojiba.php?lang=en

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GarthP, migongo

Beethoven is 250 this year, all year; he is still going strong and now is here to give us a delightful musical moment with some help from:

Martha Argerich, piano, Herbert Blomstedt (at a youthful 93 years and change) conducting the Lucerne Festival Orchestra at the Culture and Convention Center of Lucerne (KKL) during the Biannual Lucerne Summer Festival of 2020, where in this video they are playing his Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUJt-HQRJhw

Ludwig says: enjoy!

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And here is Martha Argerich again, this year, at an age that would be indelicate to reveal, playing Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 Opus 58 — and how!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wPOUbjb8nw

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OscarCP wrote:

Beethoven is 250 this year

Really?!

cheers, Paul

Indeed! No kidding. People do have posthumous birthdays. Besides, for the likes of LvB — and unlike for most of us–death is not quite the end for as long as there are still those who remember him and love his music.

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It’s the culture and joy that counts these days;

Factcheck with some link please  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven   and a piece of music to make this right, some 9th perhaps?

Thanks @OscarCP for the great and splended  links!

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

Fred: You asked for it and now here is Beethoven 9th:

In one of its best performances I can imagine as ever being recorded. Just look at who the lead singers are!

(Unfortunately the massive chorus in the last movement is not identified in the YT accompanying notes.)

Beethoven Symphony No 9 Herbert von Karajan
Gundula Janowitz, Soprano, Christa Ludwig, Alto, Jess Thomas, Tenor, Walter Berry, Bass Berliner Philharmoniker — and chorus. Berlin, 1968:

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCZeSmY62Sk

And here, of one of Ludwig’s and of the whole classical repertoire at times most arresting, solemn and uplifting works, a hard to top interpretation by one of the great conductors of the 20th Century with one of the great orchestras of the world, working in the very strange, now and then tragic and often amazing  place that was West Berlin during the Cold War:

Beethoven 5th Symphony. Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-_wqx76mpc&list=RDoCZeSmY62Sk&start_radio=1

Finally, here is one video of an orchestra playing the 7th a bit closer to home for you:

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Iván Fischer Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, 9 & 10 January 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4788Tmz9Zo&list=RDoCZeSmY62Sk&index=2

Ludwig says: Let’s have more Freude!

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Fred

I almost missed it: the massive choir singing in the last movement of the 9th is mentioned in the titles at the very beginning of the video: Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Choir Master Walter Hagen.

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Fred

[Fred]

♥   fortunately there is still some room for culture and dignity, which music can achieve; it conquers oceans

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• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Fred.

OscarCP wrote:

I almost missed it: the massive choir singing in the last movement of the 9th is mentioned in the titles at the very beginning of the video: Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Choir Master Walter Hagen.

♥ Right you are, though experience (notice the modern language !) the performances of Bernard Haitink and Het Concertgebouworkest, it may be enlightning

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OscarCP

Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Turandot: I have been and am a fan of Puccini and those three are my favorite operas. “Turandot” was, if I remember correctly, the first opera I heard and then was forever hooked. Now, the plot (based on an ancient Persian tale) is nonsense, but this is Grand Opera, so that’s par for the course. However, looking around I found today two renditions, one with some of the greatest voices ever to resonate inside an opera house. The other one, with very good if less illustrious singers, but what a setting!!! Atop the impressive royal stairs, in front of the entrance to a grand pavilion in the Forbidden City! (I think it is the Hall of Supreme Harmony.)

Giaccomo Puccini died when already close to finishing the opera, at a point just after where Liù kills herself rather than to reveal the Prince’s name, and the work was concluded by a pianist and composer of considerable merit, Franco Alfano, under the strict supervision from Arturo Toscanini and Puccini’s publisher Tito Ricordi, who wanted to make sure that the added part (based on sketches made by Puccini) blended seamlessly with the rest of the opera.

The first performance was conducted by Toscanini. When they got to the funeral cortège of Liù, Toscanini put down the baton, ending the performance with the statement: “Here ends the opera, because at this point the Maestro died.” A full performance, including Alfano’s ending, took place the next evening, but with someone else as conductor.

So here is the first recording, with no live video, only static portraits of singers and scenes of the opera. Joan Sutherland in the title role as the cruel and icy cold princess Turandot, Luciano Pavarotti as the Prince of Tartary that defies death to solve her three puzzles and gain her heart and hand, Monsterrat Caballé as the faithful unto death slave Liù and Nicolai Ghiaurov as Timur, the prince’s father and deposed King of Tartary. Zubin Mehta Conducting the London Symphonic Orchestra and Chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3_yb1xAH58

And now, the amazing performance in the Forbidden City:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyZHi-yVESQFeast your ears and eyes!

Zubin Metha conducting the Festivale Maggio Fiorentino Orchestra and Chorus.

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Fred, GarthP

[Fred]

@kathy-stevens Thank you for pointing out the Digital Concerts. All the great concerthalls are going to perform digital on the internet, to survive and sharing great music.

I lost your links, is this one you mentioned?

https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/titelgeschichten/20202021/musikfest-berlin-digital/

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• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Fred.

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OscarCP

See https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/how-are-the-arts-doing-in-your-area-during-this-time-of-covid-19/ for link.

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OscarCP

OscarCP wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyZHi-yVESQFeast your ears and eyes! Zubin Metha conducting the Festivale Maggio Fiorentino Orchestra and Chorus.

Even this Pucini Opera can be subtitled in English, leading by

https://youtu.be/dyZHi-yVESQ 

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Fred, I am sure you are making a point, but I am not sure what it is: you have provided a link to the same video I put in my own posting on the “Turandot” performance in the Forbidden City, and being the same video, is subtitled in English… Do you mind elaborating further, so I understand?

By the way, I got a problem when submitting my comment (it got kidnapped right away by the notorious Spam Filter), so when it came back I noticed an error it was by then too late to correct, in the accreditation: The Orchestra and chorus are those of the “Maggio Musicale Fiorentino”, a musical festival that has been taking place in May of every year (except for this one, because of the pandemic, although the concerts have restarted recently) in Florence, Italy. (“Italy”, in case there is another Florence in, I don’t know, Delaware?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggio_Musicale_Fiorentino

 

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Yes OscarCP, I know that by Florence is meant the City of Firenze, found not in Timbuktu but in the country Italy. And that “Fiorentino” from “Maggio Musicale Fiorentino” is not in the state of “San Marino” (where Fiorentino is originally located), but belongs to the “Teatro Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino” at the “Piazza della Signoria”

in Firenze (GPS N43.46′.11″ – E11.15′.19″), where I was some pre-corona time ago).

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Fred, Actually it turns out, as I have found out by researching this a bit, that there are at least three “Florences” here in the USA!

So, as always, it pays to be cautious.

As to Florence/Firenze itself: while it has been visited by many great figures of the musical world, and some made the city their own for life (such as Hans von Bülow once his wife Cosima decided, after years of cheating on him, to move in with Wagner for good), nevertheless it does not seem to have had a large number of famous Italian musicians who were either from, or lived there. But there is always Cherubini, so here there is some ” cherubs’ ” heavenly music for you — that it’s not opera:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QntyF-2ZNUo

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Just now I was letting YouTube continuously stream music when I heard something remarkable that did not remember hearing ever before.

It was the little known “Requiem” by an even less known Russian composer called Osip Kozlovsky who, according to the accompanying YT notes “was born 1757 in Propoysk (*) – died March 11 [OS February 27] 1831, and was a Russian composer of Polish or Belarusian origin.”

(*) A mostly, or totally Jewish settlement in then Russia.)

So have a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik8ktuRwIRo

Having Listened to it, I find it truly grand and comparable to the Mozart’s or Verdi’s Requiem. In particular, the”Turba mirum” part, dramatically sang here by a great Basso Profondo:

Turba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulcra regionum
coget omnes ante thronum.

The trumpet will send its wondrous sound
throughout earth’s sepulchres and gather all before
the throne …

[i.e. according to Christian eschatology, the sound of the Archangel Gabriel’s trumpet ordering the gathering of all who ever lived before the throne of God, at the end of time, in the day of the Final Judgement of the living and the dead.]

Some of the comments following the YT video give a plausible reason for this composer being little known: the politics of his country at the time when he was creating his music did not give him the opportunities he needed to develop and showcase his work to the full.

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GarthP

Wow, absolutely. Just been listening to this composer for the very first time! Indeed, never heard of him previously. Oscar, thanks so much for giving this link.

Garth

According to Wikipedia, Osip Kozlovsky was born in Propoysk, that was in then Poland, not Russia and not as a commoner but into an aristocratic family. He had a fairly good and even prominent career mostly in Russia and also in Poland, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He composed songs that were very popular in Russia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osip_Kozlovsky

The reason he is not well-known today could well be that he was never a part of the scene in the then main European musical centers further to the west, in Austria, Germany and France.

As a young man he had a rather adventurous life that led him to join the Russian army during a war with Turkey, where he became known by and got the powerful patronage of Prince Potemkin in the days of Catherine the Great. While living in St. Petersburg, the seat of the Imperial Court, among other things he also composed what was for a while the Russian National Anthem. And a rather cheerful National Anthem it was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeXDrQCkRIs&list=PL7vlJ7DMkL-GFZ6NFLKXme23snZ_3TqB7&index=5

 

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Some time ago I mentioned Palestrina as one of the key figures in the development of classical music, the kind of composer that divides musical history in a before and after this composer’s work.

Fred suggested that maybe Pergolesi could be the one, although they lived in quite different epochs, I should add, instead of Palestrina. Well, I just realized that there is no Pergolesi here, anyhow, so having found one of his most important works in YT: his “Stabat Mater”, I am now linking this comment to video of a performance that has, as of now, over three million views — and hearings too, I would imagine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHQVtYzjLao

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 – 1736) “Stabat Mater”, With Margaret Marshall (soprano), Lucia Valentini Terrani (contralto),
Leslie Pearson (organ), the London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado (conductor)
(Recorded in 1985)

As to what is a “Stabat Mater”? In essence, it is a choral work about Mary grieving at the foot of the cross where Jesus, her son, is dying.

Those who want to know more about this can look it up here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabat_Mater

Whatever this composition might be about, thanks to the genius of Pergolesi this is a thing of great and rare beauty, given a deeply moving interpretation here by the excellent singers, orchestra and conductor that together have brought it off.

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I have listened now several times to the performance of the “Stabat Mater” of Palestrina I have commented about already and that, more and more each time, find to be not just very good, but one that the combined work of the conductor, the orchestra, the chorus, and the two sopranos in particular, has made into a thing of such rare beauty that its fair to say its sounds transfix the soul with feelings so beyond words as to silence thought.

I hope others come along, find these comments persuasive and, as a result, decide to listen to this wonderful thing. Depending on the listeners, religion may or may not have to do with how they experience it, but I’m sure that all listeners will admire and enjoy what the genius of the composer, the art of the performers and the skill of the sound technicians have wrought together, from the quiet opening notes to the very last “amen.”

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A month ago I added a comment with a link to a YT video of Matsuko Uchida performing a Mozart Piano concerto here #2297935 , where she conducted the orchestra from the piano.

She is also recognized as a great Schubert interpreter, so here is a sample:

Matsuko Uchida plays Schubert’s Impromptus No. 1 and 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3EOkSNAodk

 

 

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I don’t recall anything by Mendelssohn being commented and linked in this thread to a YT video, so to remedy this omission, here is the  link to a remarkable performance his “Ein Sommernachtstraum (A Summer’s Night Dream)” — consisting of an Overture and a series of pieces of incidental music (including the “Nuptial March”) to accompany Shakespeare’s play of the same name:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njdTB6HxTj8

Paavo Järvi conducted the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, with the Estnischer Philharmonic Choir and soloists Miah Persson, Soprano and Golda Schultz, Soprano.

Also more Uchida, in this case her 2006 performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 5 (“Emperor”), with Seiji Ozawa conducting the international Saito Kinen Orchestra :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQHrNdjUPDc

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Myst

Unforgetable, it still is. Ray Charles “when Georgia is on my mind”  <3

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-DFhuE_XeT8

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Myst

Saw Ray Charles here in Lake Tahoe around 1995. It was unbelievable. Love that man, and orange socks added a little pizazz to his onstage performance that night.

A bit of Ray Charles trivia … https://music.si.edu/story/five-things-know-about-ray-charles

Charles had an interest in flying and was determined to buy his own airplane. During the early 1960s, he bought a five-passenger Cessna 310, which was piloted by Tom McGarrity, one of the very few black Air Force veterans.

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OscarCP, Fred

A song for any and all times, in a classic within a classic:

Aretha Franklin sings “Think” in “The Blues Brothers”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTXszRHc0qs

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Myst

As the train comes nearer, long structures made of brick and stone, like the mysteriously self-standing, detached colonnades of interminable commercial arcades, snake from horizon to horizon. Those are ancient aqueducts, some still working, built to carry water to a city that, for nearly 3000 years, has been close or at the center of Western civilization and for more than 2000 of those years has determined much of what this civilization has been and has become.

Rome, the Eternal City, is indeed one of those few places that for tens of centuries have been really big deals — and still are. On approach one can sense that by first  seeing those aqueducts and, once in the city, this feeling is reinforced by the spectacle of Rome’s streets, vibrant with the energy of those out and about that has left me with the unforgettable impression of a place at once full of life and purposeful activity.

This city has been celebrated in music, notably in these two tone poems by Ottorino Respighi: The Pines of Rome and The Fountains of Rome, here recorded in the golden epoch of the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by the great Eugene Ormandi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAbPHJlNZ9s

 

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migongo, GarthP, Fred

Now, for something both truly classical and also cheerful in a not-so-cheerful day:

Myself and others here have, over time, dedicated comments to the great performances of non concert-hall music classics by the likes of  Ray Charles, Ennio Morricone, Aretha Franklin, Joao Gilberto, Astor Piazzolla, among others. And to one who, for me, is the Goddess of Country Music: Dolly Parton. As well as the Fairy Godmother of my most beloved of TV shows and generally acknowledged as one of the greatest among the fantasy, horror (with rarely encountered wacky humor) great ones of all times: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

But there is a lot more to this so very gifted and smart person: her various charities helping young talented girls of poor families to get and education and a start in their careers, providing more than a million books for poor children to read, and more:

https://theboot.com/dolly-parton-charity-work/

And now, as it turns out, having, back in April, helped fund with a one million dollars donation the development of one of the COVID-19 vaccines and other promising treatments, where the vaccine has proven to be more than 90% effective and is likely to become available for those at highest risk: medical personnel, other care givers and older people probably by, or soon after the end of this year, once the FDA gives its official approval:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/18/dolly-parton-moderna-vaccine-abumrad-covid/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F2cd2fdc%2F5fb54fcc9d2fda0efb6c21a5%2F5eebc991ade4e276b3877600%2F56%2F69%2Fcf48bbb5a8ebf1cb47d981ad987986cc

In times when it is often hard to feel very cheerful, here is she at the Glastonbury Festival in Lancaster, UK, in 2014, singing while radiating her signature warm smile what is probably her most popular song, “Joleen” to a very large and enthusiastic audience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwBNBcFAFso

Keep in mind that she was already seventy when staging this great and truly classical performance.

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Fred

Today, Saturday, I was listening to opera on National Public Radio (NPR), as I usually do this time of the week. This time it was Giaccomo Puccini’s “Tosca”, one of the most dramatic operas that also have a plot that actually makes some sense. During one of the most turbulent epochs in European history, Napoleon has left Italy after removing the monarchy and installing a republic in the province of Rome, then ruled in the first instance by the Pope as part of his States. Some time afterwards the monarchists take power and subject the population to a harsh dictatorial regime. Napoleon invades Italy for a second time and after defeating an Austrian army sent to block his advance, he is on his way to Rome. This is the time when the events in the opera take place. The underlying theme of Puccini’s work is the upholding of personal dignity to its ultimate consequences in the presence of overbearing power:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosca

The performance recorded by EMI in 1954 with Maria Callas in the title role is considered the best recording of “Tosca” and I have found it in YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkMx0CLWeRQ

Something else that I have learned today when listening to the commentary between Tosca’s acts on NPR, is that the Philadelphia Orchestra has put is current session online at a reduced subscription rate:

https://www.operaphila.org/festival/opera-philadelphia-channel/

Opera lovers here might consider taking advantage of this opportunity to attend some good performances while staying at home.

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migongo, Fred

[GarthP]

I’m a supporter of an orchestra here in Scotland, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and recently received something electronic from them about their local learning and engagement programme during the pandemic, visits to school playgrounds and so on. Nothing unusual about that, probably, but looking casually through other adjacent items on Youtube I saw this performance of Fingal’s Cave and decided to listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcogD-hHEYs

Ten minutes of bliss, so I thought I would pass it on, as there hasn’t been much Mendelssohn featured, or at least I haven’t seen it. Performance details:

Felix Mendelssohn – Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave), Op. 26 London Symphony Orchestra – Claudio Abbado

Many views, many plaudits, so I’m obviously not alone in thinking this is a great performance.

Garth

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by GarthP.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by GarthP. Reason: remove mistake

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migongo, OscarCP, Alex5723

GarthP: “Ten minutes of bliss, so I thought I would pass it on, as there hasn’t been much Mendelssohn featured, or at least I haven’t seen it.” Thanks for that.

In case you missed it, here ( #2306371  ) is a recent comment with a link to a YouTube complete performance of Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with Paavo Järvi conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, with the Estnischer Philharmonic Choir and soloists Miah Persson, Soprano and Golda Schultz, Soprano. Also here ( #2137283 ) is a piece by Mendelssohn contributed by Nibbled to Death by Ducks.

I put “Midsummer” there because, as you wrote, I also realized that not much from Mendelssohn has been included in this thread so far.

Now, to add a bit more Mendelssohn here:

Symphony No. 3 “Scottish.” The Leizig Gewandhaus Orchestra with Kurt Masur – conductor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-zoNEO55yU

Symphony No. 4 “Italian.”  Kurt Masur with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pO7_IxbDsU

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migongo, GarthP

I do enjoy these Mendelssohn works, indeed he is an under-rated composer in comparison to Beethoven, Brahms etc, but IMV one of the most approachable classical composers.  I hardly think there was anything he composed which was not tuneful, and as that is an important factor for me in appreciating music, that is why he has always been, and remains, one of my absolute favourites. The Italian symphony in particular is so rewarding, right from the first notes.

Many thanks.

Garth

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migongo

Mendelssohn’s “Song Without Words” played on the cello by a young Jacqueline du Pré accompanied on the piano by her mother Iris du Pré:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7P6YBc9KFA

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Mendelssohn Violin Concerto OP 64 – Hilary Hahn, violin, Paavo Järvi conducting the Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra performing in Korea (or at least this is a recording made by KBS, the Korean Broadcasting System):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDwKJ6bBXEA

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migongo, GarthP, Alex5723

A composer not mentioned here before, now trying to make up for this omission:

Camille Saint-Saëns: “Introduction and Rondo Capricioso”

Violin: Itzhak Perlman, Sadler’s Wells Orchestra – Charles Mackerras conductor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnsPnyiLdrw

“The Carnival of the animals”

The YT Notes do not mention the pianist or the conductor responsible for this excellent performance. The orchestra is the Seattle Youth Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2RPKMJmSp0

“Danse Macabre”

National Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor: Leopold Stokowski.
A truly classic performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM

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migongo

Manuel de Falla was one of the great composers ever to came out of Spain. Literally: as many other Spanish artists and intellectuals, he was forced into exile abroad after the defeat, in the late 1930’s, of the Republican forces at the end of the Spanish Civil War and the start of the long dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Here are two of his compositions interpreted by some of the best musicians and one the great singers of last century:

Night in the Gardens of Spain (Noche en los jardines de España)

Arthur Rubinstein, piano, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra – Enrique Jorda Conductor; a 1957 recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ox1bjer9mQ

 

Love the Magician (El Amor Brujo)

A story set to music that includes three famous short songs and featuring: gypsies, frustrated love, a widow haunted by her late husband’s ghost, attempted witchcraft, and the widow’s final liberation and romantic fulfillment with her true love, through trickery.

There are several versions by the same composer, including a ballet one.
The singing here is by the great Victoria de los Ángeles, who was first a dramatic soprano and later a mezzo soprano, the type of voice required for this work:

Victoria de los Ángeles, the (London) Philharmonia Orchestra Conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, London; a 1961 recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8od494KTh4

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migongo

This is going to be a busy month for yours truly. Anticipating that, I am now posting here YT links to the videos of  three performances of works related to this month traditional celebrations: two for Christmas and one on account of Hanukkah, although there may be others also relevant and if any of you knows of them and are available in YouTube, please, post their links with your comments in this thread.

See you next year.

 

Christmas:

Handel’s Messiah:

A great, rousing performance of this work that is invariably heard pretty much everywhere at Christmas time, sometimes just the most popular parts (e.g., “For unto us a child is born”, “Hallelujah”) or, as here, the complete work:

Sir Colin Davis conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, the solists Susan Gritton, Sara Mingardo, Mark Padmore, Alastair Miles and the Tenebrae choir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuGSOkYWfDQ

 

Hanukkah:

Not strictly Hanukkah music, but apparently some people listen to this during these festivities: Leon Bernstein “Chichester Psalms”, conducted by Leonard Bernstein himself with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra and its and men’s choir. This composition is in three parts, with six biblical Psalms sang in Hebrew, two in each part:

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yhnml4DW9g

The Nutcracker Ballet:

By Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovski, performed by Soloist Dancers, the Corps de Ballet and the orchestra of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia.

This is a stunning Russo-French HD movie of the complete ballet and a guaranteed joy to the eyes of anyone who ever went or wanted to go see the Nutcracker performed on an actual and most beautifully decorated stage by people who really know what they are doing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l0AMuDBv2Q

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GarthP

The “Nutcracker” video glitches a few times, mostly between changes in scene. Bear with it: the glitches do clear up by themselves. This is a problem in the transcription from movie to YT video, I think.

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There is a tradition in the UK, like some other places, of the Messiah being performed on the approach to Christmas. However, there is also a tradition here of a particular choir performing this every year, so much so that their name comes almost automatically to mind when the Messiah is mentioned. The choir is the Huddersfield Choral Society from West Yorkshire, originally formed in 1836 and still going strong. Considering they perform this every year, there are very few Youtube performances, but there is one famous old recording available, in three parts.

It dates from 1946, performed in a particular style that may not be common nowadays, and it was originally issued on long playing records, so the quality is clearly not as good as current recordings. However, apart from the Choral Society, anything that features soprano Isobel Baillie as this does gets my vote – although in her 50s when this was recorded, she sounds so ethereal and sweet-toned it is hard to believe.

 

Huddersfield Choral Society and Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Conducted by Malcolm Sargent

Isobel Baillie, soprano

Gladys Ripley, contralto

James Johnston, tenor

Norman Walker, bass

 

Part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdNrwUx2pIw

Part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgtVrhC25gs

Part 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyS8wXMj1zw

 

For a detailed review of this performance, see:

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/handel-messiah-10

 

Garth

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OscarCP

I had intended that my previous posting in this thread were to be my last for this year, but then I realized that one more thing had to be included here:

Already near the end of the “Beethoven at 250” year, with the 250th anniversary of his birth on the coming 17th of this month, to finish off 2020 with an appropriate work of his, here is “Fidelio”, his only opera, a work of great musical power that, as usual, shows Beethoven as an uncompromising innovator that was also not shy to present in dramatic fashion his own political ideals on the concert hall. The plot is, as usual in Ludwig’s work, about the struggle for freedom against great odds and also about the hope given to an imprisoned husband and the strength and courage given to his wife by their mutual love, that they need to overcome a powerful and sinister enemy.

According to Wikipedia:
“With its underlying struggle for liberty and justice mirroring contemporary political movements in Europe, such topics are typical of Beethoven’s “middle period”. Notable moments in the opera include the “Prisoners’ Chorus” (O welche Lust—”O what a joy”), an ode to freedom sung by a chorus of political prisoners, Florestan’s vision of Leonore come as an angel to rescue him, and the scene in which the rescue finally takes place. The finale celebrates Leonore’s bravery with alternating contributions of soloists and chorus. ”

Among the lead singers in this 1972 production, the glorious voice of Gundula Janowitz as Leonora, alias “Fidelio”, with Lucia Popp as his daughter, Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna State Orchestra, Choirmaster Norbert Blatsch, production director Otto Schenk.

With an onscreen summary of the plot and with English subtitles color-coded to show who is singing which words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI-CF_rOApI

And now, for real: see you all next year.

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Fred

The violinist Ivry Gitlis has dies today at the age of 98.

Ivry Gitlis – Franck: Violin Sonata in A major – Vahan Mardirossian

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Fred

Thanks Alex. Ivri Gitlis: a life well lived.

Here is he with Martha Argerich, two of the great ones.

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Alex5723, Fred

[Fred]

Alex5723 wrote:

The violinist Ivry Gitlis has dies today at the age of 98.

Ivry Gitlis – Franck: Violin Sonata in A major – Vahan Mardirossian

Thank you both for pointing out. Another great player for me to listen to.  Three years ago he was in Holland for a short special on tv.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fCIh4hqYJAM

* _ ... _ *

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Fred.

[Alex5723]

Ivry GITLIS :The 19 GREATEST MASTERPIECES for VIOLIN & PIANO EVER COMPOSED !

FAMOUS & RARE CLASSICAL PIECES performed by the INSPIRED Ivry GITLIS, Violin and Shigeo NERIKI, Piano. Recorded in Japan, Tokyo, ARAKAWA PUBLIC HALL, (July 1985)
FULL ALBUM, Total Time : 74.33 mn. [HD]
[ CD – DDD – EMI-Classics – 1985 ]

HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS WORK OF GENIUS ; INCREDIBLE GITLIS !
TRACKS : ( Titles in French) in English in the video.

00:00 1- POLDINI : Poupée valsante
02:32 2- Claude DEBUSSY : La fille aux cheveux de lin
05:02 3- Anton DVORAK : Humoresque
08:38 4- Sergueï RACHMANINOV : Marguerite
11:50 5- KREISLER : Caprice viennois
15:55 6- Ernest BLOCH : Nigun, Improvisation ( “Baal Shem”)
21:56 7- DVORAK : Les chansons que ma mère m’apprenait Op.55
24:50 8- Piotr Ilitch TCHAÏKOVSKI : Mélodie Op.42
28:29 9- WIENIAWSKI : Capriccio-valse Op.7
35:32 10- KREISLER : Liebesleid
39:49 11- Trad. : Londonderry Air
44:08 12- DINICU : Hora Staccato
46:28 13- Jules MASSENET : Méditation de Thaïs
51:00 14- PAGANINI : Cantabile
54:55 15- TCHAÏKOVSKI : Valse sentimentale Op.51 N°6
57:28 16- KREISLER : Schön Rosmarin (2.00)
59:32 17- Felix MENDELSSOHN : Sur les ailes du chant Op.34 1:03:12 18- RAVEL : Pièce en forme de Habanera
1:06:05 19-SARASATE : Airs bohémiens Op.20

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Alex5723.

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Fred, OscarCP

If this were a contest, I think his interpretation of Debussy”s “The girl of the flaxen hair”, but I just happen to know that piece better than some of the others, so … anyhow, it’s all good.

Now here is something more, probably from the 1970s:

Gitlis plays Paganini – Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 7 “La campanella”
Conductor: Stanislaw Wislocki
Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scOYnUf9gJo

 

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Alex5723

Watch, listen to and be blown away by:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww_F4IPUyYY

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OscarCP

Oh Paganini Paganini.

Paganini: Complete Violin Concertos (3h34m)

Artist:
Alexandre Dubach (violin)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Michel Sasson (conductor)
Lawrence Foster (conductor)

00:00:00 Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Minor: I. Allegro maestoso
00:16:44 Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Minor: II. Adagio flebile con sentimento
00:23:25 Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Minor: III. Rondo galante. Andantino gaio
00:34:10 Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6: I. Allegro maestoso
00:54:15 Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6: II. Adagio espressivo
00:59:28 Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6: III. Rondo: allegro spirituoso
01:09:08 Violin Concerto No. 3 in E Major: I. Introduzione. Andantino – Allegro marziale
01:26:57 Violin Concerto No. 3 in E Major: II. Adagio. Cantabile spianato
01:34:13 Violin Concerto No. 3 in E Major: III. Polacca. Andantino vivace
01:46:22 Violin Concerto No. 6 in E Minor: I. Risoluto
02:07:04 Violin Concerto No. 6 in E Minor: II. Adagio
02:13:59 Violin Concerto No. 6 in E Minor: III. Rondo ossia polonese
02:25:27 Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Minor: I. Allegro maestoso
02:44:27 Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Minor: II. Andante un poco sostenuto
02:53:03 Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Minor: III. Rondo
03:03:37 Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 7: I. Allegro maestoso
03:19:05 Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 7: II. Adagio
03:26:05 Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 7: III. Ronde à la clochette

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Fred, OscarCP

I can’t resist this occasion made possible by Alex to put here this selection of works played by, to me, one of the best of all the violinists I have had the high privilege to be able to hear play.

According to the article in Wikipedia:

” Violinist. Baron Arthur Grumiaux (French: [gʁy’mjo]; 21 March 1921 – 16 October 1986) was a Belgian violinist, considered by some to have been “one of the few truly great violin virtuosi of the twentieth century”. He has been noted for having a “consistently beautiful tone and flawless intonation”. ”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmxPvtvgtYo

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Alex5723

Ivry Gitlis: the obituary of a most remarkable artist and man.

From the Associated Press December 25th 2020:

Ivry Gitlis, a violinist who spanned genres, dies at 98

PARIS (AP) — Ivry Gitlis, an acclaimed violinist who played with famed conductors, rock stars and jazz bands around the world and worked to make classical music accessible to the masses, has died in Paris at 98.

France’s culture minister announced his death Thursday, hailing him as “a magnificent performer, a generous musician” who dedicated his life “to serving all kinds of music.” The cause of death and plans for funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.

Recognizable in recent decades by his long white hair and distinctive caps and scarves, Gitlis began playing in the 1920s and performed into the 2010s. The Paris Philharmonic celebrated “one of the longest and most prolific careers in the history of music.”

Gitlis was born in Haifa in 1922, and sent to the Paris Conservatory at age 10 under the guidance of violinist Bronislaw Huberman, the ministry said. He continued training in Europe and the U.S., where he performed with leading conductors starting in the 1950s.

Gitlis performed with the Rolling Stones and jazz stars, appeared on French television shows and founded a French music festival in the 1970s where listeners ate and slept in a field while listening to music.

Among his many worldwide appearances, Gitlis was the first Israeli musician to perform in Soviet Russia, in 1963, according to Le Monde.

He held charity concerts in Japan after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami while many other performers canceled shows, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported, and played a violin made from wooden debris from the disaster.

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migongo, Alex5723

This is the Second Day of Christmas, also known in some countries as Boxing Day (because of the boxes with gifts rich people there used to give their servants and the poor on this day). So it is not too late to put here this link to a YT video of a performance o some music dealing with the occasion:

J.S.Bach –  Christmas Oratorio – BWV 248

Nikolaus Harnoncourt  with the Concentus Musicus Wien

Peter Schreier – Tenor – Robert Holl – Bass – Soloists of the Tölzer Knabenchor Chorusmaster: Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJts7bpW2VE

As a way of saying: Merry Christmas and all the best to you and yours on this day, on the remaining Ten Days, the final days of this year and earlier ones of next, and to us all in the rest of the new year to come.

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3:40 of sheer joy (just what’s needed in a time like this):

https://slippedisc.com/2020/10/leonard-bernstein-it-was-30-years-ago-today/

This is an encore of the just-played 4th movement, and by the Vienna Philharmonic, so there was no need for serious conducting.

“Papa Haydn’s dead and gone/But his mem’ry lingers on/When his mood was one of bliss/He wrote jolly tunes like this”

EDITED: html to text (only Simple BBCodes used here)

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migongo, OscarCP

Thanks fipb: in the same site there is another video put there in remembrance of the violinist Ivry Gitlis, who died this week, where in a few minutes he explains what is most necessary to make music and whether there really is a correct way of doing it. And then he plays.

https://slippedisc.com/2020/12/take-a-second-said-ivry/

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migongo

This is the first day of 2021 and, after refraining from adding new links with a few exceptions prompted by the loss of the esteemed violinist Ivry Gittlis just over a week ago, I want now to begin the new year with a classic and the video of a superb performance of it that is also a classic demonstration of how to film, in better times, an orchestra of 100 musicians and a chorus of 200 voices while playing to an audience of 6000 packed inside a huge music hall. And this seems to me a choice that is in harmony with the hopes many of us have for the coming of better times after a most trying old year.

So here is the last movement of Beethoven’s 9th “Choral” Symphony during the 2012 BBC Proms at London’s Albert Hall, with David Barenboim conducting the West-Estern Divan Orchestra and soloist singers Anna Samuil (soprano) Waltraud Meier (mezzo-soprano) Michael König (tenor) René Pape (bass), with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. A performance also noticeable for the youth of the musicians and members of the chorus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChygZLpJDNE

In it, the words of the “Ode to Joy” by the poet Friedrich Schiller, sang by the huge choir and the four soloists, is also translated from German to English in the subtitles. After the year we have been through, it seems worthwhile to pay special attention to these lyrics. In them is the message that Beethoven, by then completely deaf and chronically in poor health, wanted all who would listen to receive: the words of this great poem expressing his idea of what is that heals, unites, uplifts and moves us to pursue, together, the highest ends, particularly in dark times.

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GarthP, Alex5723, migongo

Adding to the previous comment: in the last minutes of the video, the huge audience’s rousing standing ovation at the end of the performance is truly a sight to behold.

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migongo

[migongo]

We can’t forget the main musical tradition of every New Year’s Eve: The Vienna New Year Concert. This year program includes Franz Von Suppè, Carl Zeller, Carl Millöcker, Karl Komzák and, but of course, Strauss. All with the superb conduction of Riccardo Muti. I hope you enjoy it, with my sincere wishes that all the hopes placed on this year that is just beginning will be realized. Best regards!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apUtLa5bOtQ

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by migongo.

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OscarCP, GarthP, Fred, Alex5723

Unfortunately this video is not available from YouTube in the USA for “copyright reasons.”

On the other hand, again in the USA, it is available from the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS:

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/from-vienna-the-new-years-celebration-2021-rgvzrs/12262/

When you are asked, before starting this video, what is you PBS radio, click “WETA.” I you get a pop-up instead asking you to subscribe, just look for the button to ignore it and click there. That should work.

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OscarCP wrote:

the words of the “Ode to Joy” by the poet Friedrich Schiller

Amazing, can you spare a minute?

https://youtu.be/a23945btJYw

Philharmonie Nürnberg, und Hans-Sachs-Chor Nürnberg
Flashmob Nürnberg 2014 – Ode an die Freude

* _ ... _ *

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Alex5723, OscarCP

Frank, How wonderful! Thank you so much for reminding me why is that I love Bavaria so much and of the many good times I’ve had, and of the good friends I still have there! Best of everything to you and all those who love music, whatever its kind may be. In hopes that we might soon be able to have fun together here as those people in the video had six years ago!

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Fred

I will try to send it to you, the YouTube footage, because you are not allowed to see it. And that was just the whole meaning of all. Dear oh dear, even the very simple “Ode an die Freude” (sorry, love-to-joy) is not good anough.

* _ ... _ *

Fred, If you are referring to the Vienna 2021 concert, the link to the PBS Website I have provided in a previous comment should work for us in the USA, It did for me: I have already used it to watch the concert, where the orchestra performed in a huge empty auditorium. The program, as shown there, includes only Strauss father and son’s waltzes and polkas, some used as background music to ballet performances with dancers in period costumes twirling around  in parks around Vienna, the whole show ending with the Radetzki March. Plus some words from conductor Riccardo Muti himself that confirmed to me that this was indeed the Vienna 2021 concert. (I would have preferred the show to end with “Vienna Woods” or “Viennese Blood”instead of the RM, but nobody asked me, so it didn’t.) Is anyone in this country having trouble using the PBS link?

As to those elsewhere in the world, I suppose that migongo’s YouTube link would be the one for them to use. The YT video, according to migongo, includes several compositions by other musicians besides those of the two Strauss one gets with the PBS link, which gets one a video of the concert made in the UK, presented from one of the great houses there rather than in Vienna. Because of present travel restrictions, I would imagine.

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Now, although Beethoven’s 250 celebrations are over, here I want you to hear these great performances of two of his late works that, along with his last quartets and the 9th Symphony, are in my opinion his greatest creations:

To me, this one of the best interpretation of the “Great Fugue” available on YouTube, as performed by the illustrious Borodin Quartet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aD1fFz7zEY

And this 1958 performance, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Philarmonia Orchestra and the Wiener Singverein chorus, as well as some of the very best singers of last century, in a truly glorious rendition of the monumental “Missa Solemnis”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bI9-DTloKU

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano)
Christa Ludwig (mezzosoprano)
Nicolai Gedda (tenor)
Nicola Zaccaria (bass)

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Alex5723

[migongo]

migongo wrote:

We can’t forget the main musical tradition of every New Year’s Eve: The Vienna New Year Concert. This year program includes Franz Von Suppè, Carl Zeller, Carl Millöcker, Karl Komzák and, but of course, Strauss. All with the superb conduction of Riccardo Muti. I hope you enjoy it, with my sincere wishes that all the hopes placed on this year that is just beginning will be realized. Best regards!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apUtLa5bOtQ

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by migongo.

2021 New Year Concert Vienna Philharmonic

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OscarCP

OscarCP wrote:

If you are referring to the Vienna 2021 concert, the link to the PBS Website I have provided in a previous comment should work for us in the USA,

No OscarCP, this is absolutely not what I wrote or ment.
The kind of culture I ment is not about being the best or greatest in lifetime, what ever. Just how it touches common people to tears in ordinary life. That too is one of the strong values of ordinary life in Germen Bavaria that you have experienced. The great Strauss in his time composed for the ordinary, and was maligned by the elite.

https://youtu.be/pdrzg3fZ1xo

That is what I wanted te share, that there are more values, that people in general tend to forget. Thát is what Andé Rieu is driving to perform for the crowd.

https://youtu.be/EHYxkkzS35Q

Enjoy the sunday

 

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

Fred, I was answering this message of yours: #2325028

Thanks again for those two video links.

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Alex, thanks for finding the video of the whole New Year Concert 2021 that can be watched also in the USA and posting the link here. This is great!

And also thanks to Fred for the two YT links, one to a large selection of Viennese Waltzes and the other to André Rieu’s performing of one composed by himself and Stejns’: the Grande Valse Viennoise. (I had always thought he was either French or Catalán, but he is actually a compatriot of yours!)

As to your other observations there: I agree, but also must add the following: what art can do for us includes moving us to tears, as you say, but also can do more that: it can make us smile, feel more centered, more connected with each other, spiritually stronger and, I believe, at its very best, more determined to do what’s right.

And here is another waltz,  my favorite one (the video is an excerpt of Disney’s “Fantasia”, the very last and probably best of this studio’s earlier days “experimental” animation movies). With Leopoldo Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uss3NHf0l6U

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[Fred]

Tonight there was a great replay of

Ray Charles “when Georgia is on my mind”, Ray wrote history:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-DFhuE_XeT8

Great Music to remember

* _ ... _ *

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Fred.

This is going to be one of those loong nights, so I am taking a break to add these two YT links to more Beethoven:

First, what might be called “Ludwig’s warmup for the 9th “: the Choral Fantasy for piano, orchestra, soloists and chorus, performed in Japan on March of 2016:

The Saito Kinen Orchestra Conductor: Seiji Ozawa Piano: Martha Argerich Soprano: Lydia Teuscher, Rie Miyake Alto: Nathalie Stutzmann Tenor: Kei Fukui, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt Baritone: Matthias Goerne and the Ozawa Matsumoto Festival Chorus.

Point of some very slightly minor interest: the repeated, four-bar long melodic theme is exactly the same as the theme of a totally unrelated Catholic hymn to the Virgin  Mary. So who copied whom, huh? (And that is oddest looking piano music score I’ve ever seen.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjXBKR4iDS8

Second, his great but less often heard 2nd Symphony, performed here by David Barenboim, conductor and the West-Easter Divan Orchestra at the 2012 BBC Proms, same players, place and concert series where the performance of the last movement of the 9th, recorded in the video I posted here on New Year’s Day, took place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEiYmeeV6sI

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

This is going to be one of those loong nights, so I am taking a break

After having work done, and overthinking the given results,
than there is time for relaxation
enjoy some of Chopin’s nocturnes

https://youtu.be/Fnzn-3oXEUI

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

This week has turned out to be one for having really loong nights and this one is no exception.

So here I am incorporating not just a really long, but also one of the most amazing of all musical creations ever to be conceived in a human head: J.S. Bach’s very last work, many years in writing and still incomplete at the time of his death. Although there is disagreement on whether its creation was terminated by his death, or by Bach’s intention to have others continue it by writing their own contributions, so the whole thing might have been meant to be something for people to learn, practice playing and write contrapuntal music.

The music was written in “open score”, meaning that every voice in the 12 fugues and 2 cannons was written with the voices in separate, or “open” staves, as if every voice corresponded to a different instrument, although several could be played simultaneously on the same instrument, in particular one with a keyboard.

The very last fugue, for four voices, ends abruptly in the middle of a measure  with the series of four notes (in German notation) BACH.

Whenever, precisely did Bach stop writing this work, whether deliberately, or because of dying, he actually did die in 1750, and the next year the whole work was tidied up by other musicians, because it had been left in obvious need of cleaning up and editing. And that is how it has come to us.

There are, as allowed by the open staves notation, many different interpretations, some for solo harpsichord, organ, or piano, and others for different kinds of musical ensembles.

This one is by the Academy Of St Martin In The Fields, with Sir Neville Marriner conducting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FPC3nSn1E

On world history and listening to the “The Art of the Fugue”:

I remember, back in ’91, listening in the audience to an interpretation of this work by a small orchestra in the Matthias Church in the Buda side of Budapest, in Hungary. Towards the very end, the instruments went silent, one by one, and only the oboe continued, eerily alone and then stopped suddenly on the last note of that BACH sequence.

It was a time of heightened worries, of potential great danger, and also of great hope: it was a time when it was impossible not to be very emotional. And, perhaps because of this, that ending left many of us dabbing tears from our eyes. A moment in time, at a time of tremendous changes in the world around us with some of them very uncomfortably near us.

I had gone to visit Budapest in 1991 by ferry, along the Danube, after attending a large meeting on my specialty in Vienna, during the early days of Hungary’s newly gained independence from the Soviet Union and, while being there, occurred the coup by hard-line Cold-War throwback politicians and military officers that deposed the liberalizing “General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR”, Mikhail Gorbachev, carting away him and his wife Raisa to be imprisoned somewhere, it was rumored that in a dacha on the shores of the Black Sea.

I could follow the events happening in Moscow on the TV in my hotel room, because there was CNN there and in Hungary! And there was a McDonald’s in the very center of the city! And the former “Bookshop of the Friendship of the Marxist-Leninist Peoples” (this name written in German), also in the center of town, now had in its display no longer books on Dialectic Materialism, Social Revolution, or the Contradictions of Capitalism, but books on computers, on how to start your own business, on how to invest on stock and bonds and make money. So, while life was, on the surface, seemingly as it had been for a long time there, change was becoming obvious everywhere one looked. But also, deep down, there was a shared sinking feeling that any time now Soviet tanks might come, rumbling along the beautiful signature boulevards of the city, as they did in 1957, in early November, to squash flat the patriotic Hungarian Revolution that had started in June of that distant year.

And one day, when my stay was coming to its end in that beautiful city now so haunted by the tragic past, also at my hotel and on CNN, I saw the moment when the coup began to fail, followed no long after by the return of a haggard-looking Gorbachev with a shaken-looking Raisa by his side, he to be reinstated to his former position and, not much later, finding himself, again (but this time peacefully) out of power, be able to contemplate the final unraveling of the Soviet Union. This was the moment I witness thanks to CNN, as it happened:  Boris Yeltsin, then the Major of Moscow, climbing on top of a tank that had been stopped by a civilian crowd when on its way to attack the Duma, the national Parliament, and so I saw Boris telling its crew and so letting it be known by the Soviet armed forces, the coup leaders now illegally commanding them, and the world at large, that the coup was doomed, it was all over, because the people were dead against it.

What he told the crew was: “Are you going to shoot at us? Or maybe you’d rather come over to our side and start defending the parliament?” And so they did and so it was. And the rest is history. So you probably already know what happened after that.

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After weeks and days that, in various ways, turned out to be hard to take, I have decreed, just for myself, that today be “Bach Day” and, therefore, I have been listening for the last ten hours non-stop to his music, by repeatedly looking for it on YT. Because, for whatever reason, listening to Bach’s music picks me up right away when I am feeling low. And also because, for me J.S. Bach’s music never gets old.

In the process of searching for appropriately long recordings, I have discovered one excellent performance played by an harpsichordist and organist I had not heard of before but, as it turns out, was very well regarded for his work in his day (he died in 1991, aged 84).

This remarkable man was Helmut Walcha, who, according to the article dedicated to him in Wikipedia, was a performer, composer and teacher of distinction, in spite of the fact that since his early adulthood he was also blind. Nevertheless he managed to play, and extremely well, as one realizes by hearing him at the organ, an instrument that has several keyboards above, one or more rows of pedals below and numerous buttons for setting the stops at each side of the wide console of the instrument. Among many other things, he recorded twice (first in mono, then in stereo) all of Bach’s keyboard works and composed an ending for the interrupted last fugue in “The Art of the Fugue.”

Here he can be heard playing a selection of 18 of Bach’s compositions on what, on further research, turned out to be the 4000-pipes, 17th Century Schnitger organ of the St. Jacobi Church in Hamburg, Germany:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbX3xado_V4

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https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach

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OscarCP, Fred

Thank you Alex. This is most famous in Holland and Europe. I am looking forward to the various Passions in the old churches of Haarlem and Alkmaar!

* _ ... _ *

Some more Beethoven:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhzOmL8EX0E

Beethoven’s “The Consecration of the House” Overture

Orchestra of Venice’s opera Theater “La Fenice” conducted by Riccardo Muti.

The video shows this work being performed at the start of the re-inauguration concert when this opera house, one of most famous in the history of opera, reopened after the 1996 fire that partially destroyed it, earning its nickname that means “The Phoenix Bird” in Italian. (Or, rather, earning it again, as it was already known in this way, having burned down twice before to be rebuilt each time “from its ashes”, in its centuries-long existence.)

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A selection of famous opera arias, sang during a festival in Lugano, in 1986, by US mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (enough said!)
She is accompanied here by members of the Swiss Radio and Television Orchestra, Martin Katz conducting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6tv6fCa3gg

The first track is an overture and, therefore, without lyrics. Ms. Horne starts singing right after that.

She studied voice at the University of California.

Being “colored”, after graduation she struggled, getting only a number of minor parts as the singing voice of movie actresses and in some TV sitcoms, until she was “discovered” by Igor Stravinsky and started to get important singing opera roles. Thanks to that stroke of good luck, her most distinguished career took off and she went on to win the highest of distinctions as an artist as well as universal fame.

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In relation to my previous comment on Ms. Horne, after posting it I remembered something I once read in a story by the American-Polish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer:

One character asks: “What is the highest, most noble thing a singer does?”

And he answers himself:

“To uphold Human Dignity.”

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

In relation to my previous comment on Ms. Horne, after posting it I remembered something I once read in a story by the American-Polish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer:

One character asks: “What is the highest, most noble thing a singer does?”

And he answers himself:

“To uphold Human Dignity.”

Most interesting and will try to find his writings…. He is most certainly right!

” Isaac Bashevis Singer (Yiddish: יצחק באַשעוויס זינגער) (Leoncin [1] near Warsaw, November 21, 1904 – Miami, Florida, July 24, 1991) was a Polish writer who became a US citizen in 1943. He wrote in Yiddish. In 1978 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. “

* _ ... _ *

Fred has asked me if I knew of any music on the theme of “Armageddon”, because he would like to see some here but could not find any.
Well, as always, one only aims to please.

So here are not one, not two, but three compositions performed by good musicians on the topic of the End of Times that, according to Christian eschatology, is the same as the series of events that include the battle of Armageddon between the forces of good and evil and lead to the “Day of the Final Judgement of the Living and the Dead”, also known for short as the “Dies Irae” for “Day of Wrath”, that has a corresponding part by the same name in the Mass of Requiem, of which there are also a few fine examples elsewhere in this thread.
So here are those three “Armageddon” pieces:

(1) “Armageddon”: A brief excerpt from the music of the “Touchstone Pictures” movie of that name with Bruce Willis (I saw it and thought it was a good science-fiction movie.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yM4cswTgy0

(2) Gian Carlo Menotti “Apocalypse”

Conductor – Thomas Schippers New York Philharmonic, 1966
1. Improperia 2. La Citta Celeste 3. Gli Angeli Militanti
(The picture in the video is a fresco by the 16th Century Renaissance Tuscan painter Luca Signorelli, known for his large-size masterful depictions of the Final Judgement)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Qd9jahjdw

(3) Messiaen “Quartet for the End of Time” has been commented and linked to a YT video here before, but here is a link to a video of another performance by a different ensemble (and I like this one better):

The Israeli Chamber Project, Daniel Bard, Violin; Tibi Cziger, Clarinet; Michal Korman, Cello; Yael Kareth, Piano.
Live Performance at Elma Arts Center, Israel. March, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FvEWsIVRRM

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Fred

[Fred]

OscarCP wrote:

Conductor – Thomas Sc 2. La Citta Celeste 3. Gli Angeli Militanti (The picture in the video is a fresco by the 16th Century Renaissance Tuscan painter Luca Signorelli, known for his large-size masterful depictions of the Final Judgement) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Qd9jahjdw

Simply beautiful 🌞

Thank you

* _ ... _ *

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Fred.

Leontyne Price

This exceptional woman and singer, from very humble origins nevertheless impressed a series of influential people from an early age with her great natural gifts for music and for singing and got helped along by them to study and perform at increasingly more important venues, all the way to her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera, and then the world was her oyster:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leontyne_Price

Schubert Ave Maria
Leontyne Price Soprano, Herbert von Karajan–conductor with the Wiener Philharmoniker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0M4vmtCdWI

Leontyne Price at the Met, the great American soprano sings “Vissi d’arte” from Act II of Puccini’s Tosca, conducted by Kurt Adler. Recorded live on April 7, 1962.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9H5HcajFJU

“É strano … é strano” from Verdi “La Traviata” Act I.

(Hitting some remarkably high notes, but with no YT notes on who was the conductor of which orchestra on when this was recorded … )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOWCa1HkfBM

 

Excerpts from her debut at the New York Mtropolitan Opera:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oODCrsatNPY

According to the YT notes:

Verdi: Il Trovatore) Metropolitan Opera, January 27, 1961
2:30 – “Tacea la notte placida…Di tale amor”
9:05 – “D’amor sull’ali rosee”

Manrico…………………………. Franco Corelli
Leonora………………………… Leontyne Price
Il conte di Luna……………… Robert Merrill
Azucena………………………… Irene Dalis
Ferrando………………………… William Wildermann
Ines………………………………… Helen Vanni
Ruiz………………………………… Charles Anthony
Un vecchio zingaro…………. Carlo Tomanelli
Un messaggero………………. Robert Nagy
maestro direttore…………….. Fausto Cleva
maestro del coro……………… Kurt Adler

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Fred

Jessye Norman

She was a world famous American soprano with a very distinguished career. Born to a middle-class family that, recognizing the talent, supported her in pursuing studies in music and singing, she graduated from Howard University, then from the Peabody Institute and, finally, from the University of Michigan. Started her international career by winning an international singing competition in Munich in 1968 that got her first contract, one with the Deutsche Berlin Oper (Berlin German Opera):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessye_Norman

Here is her rendition of several traditional Christmas carols and songs:

A Christmas Concert at Ely Cathedral, England.
December of 1988.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS4Pbeq7zEY

Jessye Norman, soprno,  with the American Boy Choir, the Ely Cathedral Choristers, Vocal Arts Chorus, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Robert de Cormier conductor.

I Introitus
00:00 1. Oh Come, Immanuel | Anonymous
04:21 2. Once in Royal David’s city | Anonymous
06:00 3. Unto us a Child is born | Anonymous
07:04 4. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing | Felix Mendelssohn
9:40 5. Good Christian men rejoice | Anonymous
11:08 6. O Holy Night (Minuit chrétien) | Adolphe Charles Adam
II Movement
13:27 7. The Holly and the Ivy | Traditional
15:56 8. See amid the winter’s snow | Sir John Goss
19:35 9. I Saw Three Ships | Anonymous
21:56 10. This Christmastide (Jessye’s Carol) | Anonymous
III Movement
27:45 11. Coventry Carol | Anonymous
31:01 12. In the Bleak Mid-winter | Gustav Holst
35:47 13. Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht | Franz Gruber
IV Finale
40:13 14. Angels we have heard on high | Anonymous
42:03 15. We Three Kings of Orient are | John Henry Hopkins
42:53 16. Joy to the World | George Frideric Hande
44:28 17. Adeste Fideles (O Come, All ye Faithful) | John Francis Wade
47:41 18. Amen | Traditional

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Fred

In this mixed up world and times we live in, still there are, all the same, some good reasons to be proud in being human and to feel pride of country:

Spirituals in Concert – Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Battle )

Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman sopranos, James Levine conductor, Robert de Cormier chorus master, Members of Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Members Of The New York Philharmonic, Members of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl90ujfO1vw

March 18, 1990. Carnegie Hall.
0:00 In That Great Getting Up Morning
4:34 Great Day
7:25 Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass
11:56 Over My Head / Lil’ David
19:12 Oh, What A Beautiful City
22:06 Lord, How Come Me Here
27:12 I Believe I’ll Go Back Home / Lordy, Won’t You Help Me
32:08 Witness
35:27 Give me Jesus
40:22 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot / Ride Up in the Chariot
45:36 Deep River
50:20 Certainly, Lord
52:50 Ride on, King Jesus
55:56 Oh, Glory
1:00:20 Scandalize My Name
1:04:43 Talk About a Child
1:07:25 Ain’-a That Good News
1:09:11 You Can Tell the World (‘Joy To My Soul’)
1:11:45 Calvary / They Crucified My Lord
1:17:30 My God Is So High
1:19:58 There Is A Balm In Gilead
1:24:48 He’s Got Whole World In His Hand (Bonds)

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Fred

[Fred]

OscarCP wrote:

In this mixed up world and times we live in, still there are, all the same, some good reasons to be proud in being human and to feel pride of country

Thank you Oscar, it’s good to be reminded, and have a time to reflect feelings and thoughts of times passed by. Histories that happened a long time ago, and very recent too.
When I was very young my father took me to the St. Laurenskerk in Rotterdam (Netherlands, EU) where Feike Asma performed organ concerts in the great church that fortunately was largely spaired from total destruction in the Rotterdam-bombardement a few years ago in the 2nd World War, this in memory and to raise money for restoration and rebuilding society after a long period of despair. Moments never to forget….
For an impression of the church now: https://laurenskerkrotterdam.nl/en/

* _ ... _ *

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Fred.

Feike Asma (1912 – 1984)

There is a full article in the Dutch version of Wikipedia, but I think it won’t be accessible to many in the international membership of AskWoody, so I am linking here this other article summing up his life and work:

http://www.orgues-chartres.org/feike-asma/?lang=en

Excerpt:

” Asma was a pupil of the legendary organist and historian Jan Zwart. He was a very remarkable person, also due to his very virtuous style of playing. He had many admirers, but he was also received harshly by some critics. Asma, bound to the organ with a deep love for the symphonic orchestra, was the organist who always gave much attention to the large-scale works of the Romantic organ literature. Reger, Liszt, Widor and Franck figured frequently in his programmes, and he also often included some of his own choral music and those of Zwart. As Asma himself once put it: “I’m a man who has the God-given ability of making music, and so I’m glad that I am able to play [for others].” Indeed, this was the foundation of his passion for music and organ playing.

Entirely apart from his achievements as an organist, his choral music stands solidly on its own, and is a touching listening experience – especially when attention is given to how finely the music is crafted to the lyrics in his chorales. ”

 

César Franck (1822-1890) Choral III

Feike Asma, Organist, playing the Grandes Orgues of the Basilica of Saint Clotilde, Paris, November 1964:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKvP_wnuE-E

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Fred

OscarCP wrote:

Entirely apart from his achievements as an organist, his choral music stands solidly on its own, and is a touching listening experience – especially when attention is given to how finely the music is crafted to the lyrics in his chorales. ”

This is so right. Thanks the lord, music doesn’t speak in tongues but in feelings. In the years just after the WW2 and the “Hunger Winter” (when so many starved of hunger) mind-disturbing times. Imagine the center of the city bombed away, and a great church (most of it) still standind. Children growing up in a war-mentality, and then the flower-power movement started in the late ’50s…. Continents drifting and they still are.

* _ ... _ *

This is something I’ve been wanting to post here for a while, but every time I was going to do it, something or other would come up and make me move on to do, or take care of something else.

Yehudi Menuhin was one of the most celebrated violinists of the 20th Century.
The music in the following video comprises the whole of J.S.Bach’s compositions for solo violin. These are among the most profound, moving and structurally complex solo works for this instrument ever written. Menuhin’s performance of them is simply spellbinding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehudi_Menuhin

 

J.S. Bach Violin Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001-1006 Menuhin; 1973-1975 recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkZvyA69wCo&ab_channel=KapellChang

As the YT notes give no information on the compositions performed, this Wikipedia article lists them, although in a different order, and provides additional information on them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonatas_and_Partitas_for_Solo_Violin_(Bach)

J.S. Bach’s autograph of the Prelude of the Partita No. 3 for solo violin.

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Alex5723, Fred

One of the people commenting on the video in YT, made available the list of works in Yehudi Menuhin’s recording of the complete J.S. Bach Sonatas and Partitas, with the times when each one of the first four starts to be performed:

Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001

I. Adagio – 0:00
II. Fugue – 4:38
III. Siciliano – 10:05
IV. Presto – 13:21

Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002

I. Allemande – 16:54
II. Double – 22:34
III. Courante – 27:36
IV. Double – 30:35
V. Sarabande – 33:41
VI. Double – 37:39
VII. Bourée – 40:34
VIII. Double – 43:51

Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003

I. Grave – 47:10
II. Fugue – 51:30
III. Andante – 58:54
IV. Allegro – 1:04:25

TRACK LISTING — DISC 2

Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

I. Allemande – 1:08:25
II. Courante – 1:13:38
III. Sarabande – 1:16:31
IV. Gigue – 1:21:23
V. Chaconne – 1:25:17

6. Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005

I. Adagio – 1:39:12
II. Fuga –
III. Largo –
IV. Allegro assai –

Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006

I. Preludio –
II. Louré –
III. Gavotte en rondeau –
IV. Menuets 1 & 2 –
V. Bourrée –
VI. Gigue –

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Fred

Kandinsky’s “most famous” view on a partiture.

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

Fred: Good choice of an abstract painting that captures the dynamic shape of music. Kandisky said that painting was much the same as composing music. This painting could be of one of Bach’s compositions, that often were as abstract as they come.

Take these for example:

J.S. Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello

Marc Coppey cellist. Recorded in June 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l5Ef8hMXEg&ab_channel=Jean-YvesPouyat

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Some things are good no matter whom does them (as long is someone who is good at it), or how they are done:

The  Chaconne from the Partita for solo violin No. 2 in D minor by J.S. Bach has been, for nearly two and a half centuries, one of the ultimate challenges to any performer trying to achieve and demonstrate complete mastery of their instrument, even if this is not the violin it was originally written for. It has described as “the Himalaya of compositions” to be surmounted for anyone aspiring to prove to him or herself (as in the example below) and to others to be a true virtuoso. It is, at times, a moving, at times a deep,  a dramatic and a meditative piece of music written when J.S. was mourning the recent death of his first wife.

Violin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngjEVKxQCWs

Guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcGt9AFlIPY

Piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wga8RpwMPMo

Flute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SIF1CuNOVE

Lute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtjtuljFPa8

Cello:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN6aZZofO0M

Clarinet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0_B1GydZpo

Marimba:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzQi4mG__Tg

These are good transcriptions, but I like best the original, for the violin, especially the way it is played in th chose YT video.
I also like the violinist, who has made a great career for herself since she was the teenager who recorded it.

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migongo

This is the complete Chaconne for piano left hand arranged by Brahms. The previous link was only to a short snippet of the same performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljb5MvKv0Hw

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migongo

The previous piano transcription of Bach’s Chaconne, by Brahms, was written for the left hand to play much the same notes as on the violin, where the notes are chosen with the left hand by pressing its fingers on the strings against the fingerboard at a point where the free portion of each, between finger and bridge, will vibrate and make a sound with the required pitch. The right hand determines the intensity of the sound by the way the bow is passed with more or less pressure on the strings, faster or slowly, etc. On a piano, the same effects can be achieved simultaneously by striking softer or harder one key to produce a note and using the pedals to give it a dry, muffled, or lingering sound.

A very well-known piano transcription where both hands are used is the 1893 one by Ferruccio Busoni, where the instrument is used fully, to a very rich and profoundly moving effect, as in this dazzling performance by Helene Grimaud:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw9DlMNnpPM

” On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and the earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind. If one doesn’t have the greatest violinist around, then it is well the most beautiful pleasure to simply listen to its sound in one’s mind.” – Johannes Brahms

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migongo

George Gershwin ( September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937), born and brought up in poverty in a Brooklyn tenement to a Russian and Lithuanian Jewish immigrant couple, was to rise himself, in the course of his rather short life, by the sheer force of his extraordinary musical gift and steadfast determination, to rub shoulders with the most eminent composers and musicians of America and Europe of the 1920s and 30s and to became, in his own time, one of the most famous and best-loved of all composers and performers of the 20th Century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gershwin

He composed songs, rhapsodies, one opera that is an American classic as are some of his Broadway musicals, often created in collaboration with his brother Ira, and in order to fulfill his own long-time aspiration of being thought of also as a serious classical music composer, his Concerto in F for piano and orchestra.

This is a 1960 performance of this concert by Andre Previn at the piano, Uan Rasey in trumpet and Andre Kostelanetz conducting his orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWtXcjYJYEQ

 

From slightly edited YT notes: There are also recordings of two 1930’s radio broadcasts featuring Gershwin at the piano, where Gershwin plays part of the slow movement of his Concerto in F (recorded in a broadcast on 7 April 1935, just two years before his death) and an abridged version of the last movement (recorded in a “Music by Gershwin” broadcast on 9 April 1934), the latter recording being rediscovered in the 1990s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmaZmbA6uy0

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migongo

His piano is closed and silent. His music lives on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XZu8DBLSshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XZu8DBLSs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_Corea

<b>”Armando Anthony</b> “<b>Chick</b>” <b>Corea</b> (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, keyboardist, bandleader and occasional percussionist.<sup id=”cite_ref-ALLMUSIC_3-0″ class=”reference”></sup> His compositions “Spain“, “500 Miles High“, “La Fiesta”, “Armando’s Rhumba” and “Windows” are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis‘s band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans, he is considered one of the major piano players to emerge in jazz during the post-John Coltrane era.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/chick-corea-dead/2021/02/11/b2e9ae0c-6cae-11eb-9f80-3d7646ce1bc0_story.html

“Chick Corea, one of the most versatile and influential jazz pianists of his generation, who helped develop the electronic fusion style of music in the 1970s with Miles Davis and his groups Return to Forever and the Elektric Band, while remaining true to the classic repertoire of jazz piano, died Feb. 9 in Florida’s Tampa Bay area. He was 79.”

 

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migongo

Here is a striking performance (literally so, but beautifully done) by a gifted pianist of the French 19th Century modernist composer Emmanuel Chabrier’s suite “España” (Spain), of his ten “Pièces Pittoresques” and the “March des Cipayes”).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Chabrier

The link to the performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Vq-oD9R_4

From the YT accompanying Notes:

Alexandre Tharaud plays Emmanuel Chabrier, Volume I/III

Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)

1. España (1883, Transcription: Alexandre Tharaud)

2. Pièces Pittoresques (1881)
i. Paysage
ii. Mélancolie
iii. Tourbillon
iv. Sous-bois
v. Mauresque
vi. Idylle
vii. Danse Villageoise
viii. Improvisation
ix. Menuet Pompeux
x. Scherzo-valse

3. Marche Des Cipayes (1863)

Alexandre Tharaud, piano

Recorded at Théâtre Adyar, Paris, March 1998 .

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migongo

[migongo]

If the acquisition of experience, forged by years of study and practice, and the mastery of technique are the strongest argument, it might sound crazy to think that a youth symphony orchestra can surpass the most reputable symphony orchestras in the world in performance quality. It is not like this?

Well, popular taste on YouTube seems to think otherwise. Furthermore, he has the opposite opinion regarding one of the most famous and celebrated piece of classical music in the world.

It is enough to filter a search for Ravel’s “Bolero” on YouTube by count of views to run into the surprise that after André Rieu (questionable in some cases, unavoidable in others, IMHO), this masterful Spanish youth orchestra ranks, above the most recognized, the second site. Deserved or not? You will already have an opinion. In any case, I would like to know if you know of any other case in which the performance of a youth orchestra exceeds, in your opinion, that of a more “experienced” one. Kind regards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KsXPq3nedY

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by migongo.

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Fred, OscarCP

I would like to begin this note by mentioning here another youth orchestra also of considerable merit:

https://neojiba.org/neojiba.php?lang=en

” The State Centers for Child and Youth Orchestras of Bahia are an example of innovation in public policy, linking up, in a pioneering fashion, the areas of culture, education and social development in Bahia. The program was founded in 2007 by Ricardo Castro, pianist, educator, conductor and cultural manager. The program is maintained by the Secretary of Justice, Human Rights, and Social Development of the State of Bahia, while the management of the initiative is carried out by the Institute for Social Development through Music (IDSM, in Portuguese). ”

Now here is the NEOJIBA Orchestra, with Martha Argerich at the piano and Ricardo Castro as conductor, in Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in a minor Op. 54, followed by Maurice Ravel’s “Le Jardin Féerique” as encore, with Argerich and Castro playing piano duet. Paris, September 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zATaO8JRHx4

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migongo

[migongo]

I know that it is not properly classical music, however, and given the well-deserved recognition that @OscarCP makes of Chick’s decease, I wanted for my time to launch another well-deserved one to this great composer, who died in New York three days ago.

Johnny Pacheco (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Pacheco), is one of the world’s greatest musical composers of the “Salsa” (Afro-Antillean) music genre. I wanted to share with you this video that is, this yes, a classic of this musical genre and that constitutes, also, already a documentary jewel of the same. Something “ad hoc”, by the way, these days without Carnival due to pandemic reasons. Kind regards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4fH5vUTGk

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by migongo.

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Fred

migongo: I thank you for bringing this to the attention of everyone here interested in the best of music. However, you have not mentioned that the singer is none other than Celia Cruz that, according to the article on her in Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Cruz

” Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. ”

She sings, admirably as always, at the very start, to be followed in due course by many other beautiful things: “Guantanamera” in the original Spanish lyrics, the lines taken from a famous poem by the great Cuban poet and hero of the Cuban independence, José Marti, with the added line: “Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera” at the end of each stanza of this most patriotic song:

Original Spanish lyrics:

“Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Mi verso es de un verde claro
Y de un carmi­n encendido
Mi verso es un ciervo herido
Que busca en el monte amparo
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Cultivo una rosa blanca
En julio como en enero
Para el amigo sincero
Que me da su mano franca
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Con los pobres de la tierra
Quiero yo mi suerte echar
El arroyo de la sierra
Me complace mas que el mar
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera ”

======

English translation of Martí’s poem and also of the full lyrics, except for the added one-line sort of chorus at the end of each stanza:

“I am a truthful man
From where the palm tree grows
And before dying I want
To let out the verses of my soul

My verse is light green
And it is flaming red
My verse is a wounded stag
Who seeks refuge on the mountain

I grow a white rose
In July just as in January
For the honest friend
Who gives me his open hand

With the poor people of the earth
I want to cast my lot
The brook of the mountains
Gives me more pleasure than the sea”

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Fred, migongo

[migongo]

Oscar, I didn’t really want to make the contribution post too long. So, for example, I forgot to mention not only Celia Cruz, but all the members in the video (including the choirs) are the greatest exponents of Salsa. Johnny Pachecho is the creator of the record company “Fania”, which was in charge of spreading this musical genre, and with these members he formed the group called “Fania All Stars”. Among them, after Celia Cruz, Hector Lavoe is possibly the best known, as it influenced the music of Marc Anthony (ex husband of Jennifer López, “JLO”) and his films. If in the forum we have members from Miami, they could mention, with better knowledge of the facts, the famous festivals of Calle Ocho (8th Street) in that city, in which all these great stars shone (and still shine). Greetings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNo0vkEYWRc

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by migongo.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by migongo.

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Fred

February 28, 2021, some hours after coming back after the for ever memorable AskWoody’s Near-Death Experience:

After thinking what could be a most suitable music for the occasion, I decided that possible this one might be a proper choice:

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHsFIv8VA7w

Performed by the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariss Jansons chief-conductor, with Ricarda Merbeth, soprano, Bernarda Fink, mezzo soprano and the Netherlands Radio Choir, chief-conductor Celso Antunes.

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Fred

Memories of many now old, of hard things they learned in blood and fire when young; unlearned, as new generations come and others go.
Has it always been so? Has to be always so?

Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings

Sir Simon Rattle, conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie hall, 31 December 2008.
(Left uncredited in the YT notes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV37qZki31U

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Fred

Here is the same composition, performed this time with Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. I did not see it in YouTube until just now and, to me, because where and by whom it was performed, it seems perhaps even more appropriate to link here than the equally beautiful rendition by Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3MHeNt6Yjs

Barber first composed it as the slow movement of a string quarter, then adapted it for orchestra (as played here), then adapted it, once more, as a piece for orchestra and chorus with the lyrics taken from the “Agnus Dei” of the Latin Mass. The wistfully hopeful last stanza of which is, I think, most appropriate to quote here, given the present topic:

“Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi /  Dona nobis pacem. ”

(Lamb of god, who takes away the sins of the world /  Give us peace.)

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Fred

The concert acoustic guitar was brought to popularity in concert hall performances through the work of the great guitar players of last century, Andrés Segovia and Narciso Yepes among others, as well as by compositions for this instrument by the likes of Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco and Heitor Villalobos.
All of them are gone now to everyone’s ultimate destination, but the guitar, be it in concert halls or in rock festivals, be it acoustic or electric, is one of the most played instruments in the world. One reason for this could be that they are easy to carry around and another, that good ones tend to be less expensive than high quality violins, for example. And having frets in the neck is definitely a plus.

Now days there is a new group of highly talented virtuoso performers, some of whom might rise to equal or even surpass those great masters of fifty and more years ago. They also bring a different, 21st century sensitivity to their playing.

Here, two of these first-line guitar players of today (and good looking ones too) can be seen and heard in classical compositions, of course, but also in a Bossa Nova piece, in a Paraguayan Polka-Galopa, and an Argentinian tango, the latter in its “progressive” style created by its composer, who was classically trained (*), and that is, in its own genre, comparable to the jazz of a John Coltrane or a Thelonius Monk:

Ana Vidovic

Classical guitar recital, Baden-Baden, Germany, 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IEezGQwgZk

00:00​ Cello Suite No 1 BWV 1007 by Johann Sebastian Bach
0:11​ Prelude
2:57​ Allemande
7:04​ Courante
09:35​ Sarabande
12:26​ Menuet I / II
15:04​ Gigue
16:47​ Grande Ouverture Op. 61 by Mauro Giuliani
25:16​ Sonata in A major K 322 by Domenico Scarlatti
28:22​ Sonata in E major K 380 by Domenico Scarlatti
33:49​ Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega
38:00​ Coughing by an anonymous fan in the public
38:11​ La Catedral by Agustín Barrios Mangoré
45:39​ Una Limosna Por el Amor de Dios by Agustin Barrios Mangoré
49:35​ Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart Op 9 by Fernando Sor
58:09​ Asturias by Isaac Albéniz

 

Nadia Kossinskaya

Here at the Concert Hall De Vereeniging in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, the 27th of September 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thikvNox65g

(*) Ástor Piazzolla “Oblivion” (played by Kossinskaya.)

This is a composition written originally for Piazzolla’s favorite instrument, a form of evolved concertina known as “bandoneon” (having been invented by a German whose last name was ‘Ban’) and a piece that has been transcribed to a hard-to-believe number of different instruments and combinations of instruments, for example one recorded by Yo-Yo Ma on the cello.

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Fred

[GarthP]

From time to time I have supported choral music on here. I know both Oscar and Fred appreciate the genre, and have given examples, but I want to put forward the very English composer John Rutter. My personal view is that he has written (and continues to write) the most sublime, inspiring and moving music in the genre; this particular example has rightly been described as “gorgeous music”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnZYe9ZwXrY

Often popular at Christmas, I think it is eminently suitable for all year round listening.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by GarthP.

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OscarCP, Alex5723

[OscarCP]

Just over one year and one month ago I started this thread with a first comment about it being a really slow day for me, so I had thought that by posting on classical music, with links to YouTube videos with two examples of outstanding performances, could be a way to enliven things for me and, perhaps, also bring enjoyment to anyone that chanced to see this thread and might be interested in “classical.”

Now, in a rather hectic day, I think the following performance of this one of Beethoven’s piano sonata is a fitting one to include here a link to its YouTube video:

Maurizio Pollini plays Beethoven’s Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major Opus 81a, called “Les Adieux”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TXQSz_4AMY

 

 

 

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• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by OscarCP.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by OscarCP.

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migongo, Alex5723, Fred

OscarCP wrote:

could be a way to enliven things for me and, perhaps, also bring enjoyment to anyone that chanced to see this thread and might be interested in “classical.”

Right you are OscarCP. With many issues of life or history Classical Music gives an extra dimension to contemplation.

So are the Sonata’s by Beethoven.

* _ ... _ *

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migongo

Here is a selection of popular and classical works by Spanish and Latin American composers, and also from other places, played on her concert guitar by the very talented Ana Vidovic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlQuF2jmWhE

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migongo

Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata is one that has a history of acquiring some really seriously devoted fans.

When a Japanese old friend of mine and I were both a lot younger and he just had finished his PhD in Economics at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, while I was well on my way to my own in Electrical Engineering there, he got a place teaching and doing research at another university, in the northeastern state of Queensland. That university arranged for him to get a rental apartment that had been previously occupied by another Japanese, a lady one, that had left for parts unknown.
When I went to visit him there, he showed me the many records the previous occupant had left behind: they were maybe thirty different recordings of the “moonlight” sonata.

So to contribute to the further incurable addiction of susceptible people here:

Moonlight piano sonata with 164,462,030 views at YT in ten years, very nicely played at the piano by (?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr0otuiQuU

 

And 35 Million views say that with electric guitar it’s something else — and OK too?

Moonlight Sonata (3rd Movement, Presto Agitato) by Ludwig van Beethoven, arranged for electric guitar by Dr.Viossy, played by Tina S:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rBK0BqL2w

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migongo

And two more for the piano:

According to the YT notes:
This piece is also known as Mariage D’amour by Paul de Senneville. ”Chopin – Spring Waltz” is just a pseudonym.

I’ve never heard of it or of Paul de Senneville before, but having listened to it now, I must say that I like it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJ7kDva7JE&list=RD4Tr0otuiQuU&index=5

Performed at the piano by Toms Mucenieks, with 124,858,583 views since Feb 28, 2017, cannot have been all that disappointing.

And now that I am into ‘YT million-views piano performances I’ve never heard of before but now that I have, I like’, here is one called “Beethoven’s Silence,” composed and performed by its author Ernesto Cortazar, with 9,157,507 views since January 27, 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=681HOA2IamY&list=RD4Tr0otuiQuU&index=6

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migongo

Let’s giving a (superb) touch of sensuality to this (also superb) performance of Tchaikovsky piano concerto number one. A (seems it’s very superb) birthday celebration for master Metha!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBsl7D9i6aM

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OscarCP

Perhaps @fred would like to share some videos with us or give us more information about this delightful way to enjoy Amsterdam’s Sunday mornings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrVtO7w4Qk0

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Fred, OscarCP

[Fred]

@migongo
so, I may not post directy anymore, too dangerous to pass on cultural info;
Makes me sad;
maybe some one needs to correct this ultimate dangerous information

* _ ... _ *

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Fred.

Fred,

did you forget to login, I wonder? I just did that, and saw my message moderated!

Garth

migongo wrote:

Perhaps @fred would like to share some videos with us or give us more information about this delightful way to enjoy Amsterdam’s Sunday mornings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrVtO7w4Qk0

@migongo:
Unfortunately, The Netherlands and so Amsterdam is still bending under the pressure of the Corona virus. Museums and concert halls can now mostly/only be visited virtually; unfortunately.
For orientation you can quickly find general art information on these websites.

https://www.concertgebouw.nl/en/

https://www.concertgebouw.nl/het-zondagochtend-concert

https://www.museumgidsnederland.nl/en/amsterdam

https://www.iamsterdam.com/en

https://www.operaballet.nl/en

(Perhaps you will find some words not only in Kings-English, hopefully that will not not be a problem I recon)
Regards, Fred

* _ ... _ *

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migongo, OscarCP, GarthP

Fred, This is wonderful! Thanks!

For example:

https://www.concertgebouw.nl/het-zondagochtend-concert

And there, besides the funny intro to the site, there are links to various YT videos of local performances, such as this great one at the Concertgebouw of Mendelssohn “Italian” Symphony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj30-qklx6M

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migongo, Fred

I recently heard, on UK radio, a short excerpt from a violin concerto new to me. I was immediately attracted to the music, and decided to find out more details.

As it turns out, not only new to me, but to nearly everyone! It is also by a composer I didn’t know, and one who has been dead for nearly 70 years. Furthermore,  it has been brought back from the dead, so to speak, as for many years it lay lost, buried, in a Warsaw garden!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORGtkbU9yI

The composer is Ludomir Różycki (1883-1953) and the concerto dates originally from 1944. The story behind it is remarkable, as I discovered from a 2020 newspaper article.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/01/polish-composer-ludomir-rozycki-lost-wartime-concerto-brought-back-to-life

A remarkable addition to the repertoire, and some beautiful music as well.

Garth

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AJNorth, migongo, Fred, OscarCP

Now that we are on the topic of Polish musicians and, by implication, of Poland-related music, here is one that used to be played often on the radio when I was little, this time in a piano solo version played with both zest and some dramatic swishing and flying long hair:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkdjPA6y9oo

YT Notes: The Warsaw Concerto was composed by Richard Addinsell for the 1941 British film “Dangerous Moonlight”. Olga Jegunova plays a piano solo version arranged by Henry Geehl.

(Is that her living room and does she own a Steinway?)

Here, the original version for piano and orchestra, performed by the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, played by Miskolc and directed by Laszlo Kovacs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbb-jozEdUQ

As to the concerto itself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Concerto

” The Warsaw Concerto is a short work for piano and orchestra by Richard Addinsell, written for the 1941 British film Dangerous Moonlight, which is about the Polish struggle against the 1939 invasion by Nazi Germany. In performance it normally lasts just under ten minutes. The concerto is an example of programme music, representing both the struggle for Warsaw and the romance of the leading characters in the film. It became very popular in Britain during World War II. ”

Popular not just in Britain, I must add, and also both during and after the war.

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migongo, GarthP

Thanks Oscar. Indeed it is very popular in the UK, and deservedly so, full of good tunes. That’s sometimes not so popular with some critics, as indeed the piece itself is not. Some of these critics do not know what makes good music, I think!

One minor point about the orchestral performance, it seems unusually slow in parts for me, I prefer a slightly faster performance. Maybe a bit more ‘flying long hair’ and zest perhaps?

Garth

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migongo, OscarCP

Garth: “That’s sometimes not so popular with some critics, as indeed the piece itself is not. Some of these critics do not know what makes good music, I think!”

The arts, both plastic, dramatic and musical have had their star critics and commentators, such as John Ruskin, George Bernard Shaw, André Malraux, for example. It also has had, and still have, a combination of the young and difficult to employ relatives of chief editors and proprietors of newspapers and of those belonging to wealthy families that make big donations to museums and large art galleries — the latter being mostly in charge of deciding what to put on display that is “good art” (according to their own and less than dazzling ligths.) Not to mention those newspaper strivers that are not temperamentally fit to write for the police blotter section and are put to work as critics in the “Culture” section, where they strive to perfect their skill at the ironically devastating put down.

So I just make my own mind. At the risk of alienating someone here, I must say that between “Dogs Playing Poker” and Rothko’s Dark Square series of paintings of … full-canvas size black squares, I’ll go for “The Birth of Venus.”

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migongo, GarthP

Garth, commenting on a performance of “The Warsaw Concerto”: “One minor point about the orchestral performance, it seems unusually slow in parts for me, I prefer a slightly faster performance. Maybe a bit more ‘flying long hair’ and zest perhaps?”

How about this one? It takes one minute less from start to finish, even if the hair is short and stays put:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg0QEpXYmUw

Or this earlier one, at the Proms?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=832ZLtQX3is

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migongo, GarthP

Yes, both of these seem better to my ears, with the version by Chris Hill marginally preferable, even though there are a few wrong notes. Looking at what is available, there are five or six other versions easily found, and the quality is quite mixed. There are faster and slower versions, the actual performance (as distinct from speed/time) can vary such a lot, that there is no real answer except trying to see which suits the individual listener.

That’s easily do-able in this case, given the comparatively short piece, so it has been most instructive to compare the versions. Thanks for the opportunity.

Garth

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migongo, OscarCP

[Alex5723]

Stingray Classica brings the very best in ballet, classical concerts, and opera to your iPhone, iPad, TV or simply online on your tablet or computer.
With more than 50 world premieres a year and a catalog featuring more than 2,000 hours of video—ranging from timeless classics to the newest releases—it’s an incredible resource for music fans.
The performances are from some of the classical world’s biggest hitters, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Paris Opera Chorus, and soloists such as Lesley Garrett.

Subscription: $4.99/Month

[Moderator edit] removed links from what is essentially an advert.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Alex5723.

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migongo, OscarCP

Alex: Great to hear about Stingray. Thanks!

But you left out the most important thing: Stingray Karaoke.

Also, the, of course, less important: Stingray Jazz.

And, since I am here already, and for no particular reason, here is one of those piano roll recordings of Debussy playing things by Debussy, in this case his “Clair de Lune” :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yri2JNhyG4k

With 32,174,134 views in YouTube, since January 5, 2014.

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migongo

The titles might be in Japanese, but the concert took place in the Theater Colón of Buenos Aires, where Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich, both Argentinian-born performers, got together, in August of 2014, and played Mozart’s Sonata for two pianos,   K.448 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iePyP2HOr8

I happen to like this very much, and that also goes for Barenboim’s page-turner.

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migongo, Alex5723

I have the Stingray Classica channel as part of my cable TV subscription.

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migongo, OscarCP

OscarCP wrote:

Rothko’s Dark Square series of paintings of … full-canvas size black squares, and “The Birth of Venus.”

I have seen both several times in reality; Guess what, all the time I got tears in my eyes and a diffused mind.

* _ ... _ *

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migongo

And more from the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, this time an all Tchaikovsky concert, recorded long, long ago, as far back as 2017. When people still had the odd custom in Holland to go to concert halls and seat around inside, in close proximity with each other, without even covering their faces — like we all do now, in more modern times, looking like a highwaymen’s convention, or like Caribbean pirates running under full sail, to carry out some arrrctivity against ships leaving the Spanish Main for Cadiz across the ocean, loaded with bars and coins of silver and gold:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ckqOukGKK8

Violinist Alena Baeve and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker Orchestra conducted by Alexandre Bloch perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto op.35 and Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.

Please, enjoy this wonderful concert.

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migongo, Fred

Right! Covid seems to kill culture, the stonecold-money-thinking is taking over. Give the concerthalls and musea and libraries a chance to survive and educate (again).

* _ ... _ *

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migongo

For all those out there who are having sleepless nights thinking about covid-19, pondering “the Cloud”, and also those now struggling to do their taxes in the US of A about such things as to where did they put that all-important form FG651!@3, here is a little something that  might help you all get some sleep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uJqgiTiq7s

“Lullaby” by George Gershwin, performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leo Slatkin.

And if that does not do the trick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXQzv_NJNgU

And somewhere here, in this thread, you’ll find, if you look for it, “The Goldberg Variations”, long version, with repetitions! Bach composed that for a colleague that had trouble getting to sleep.

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Fred, migongo

And continuing with the theme of music that might help you go to sleep, here is a selection of slow movements of concerts and symphonies by some of the great composers of (almost 100%) pre-romantic, romantic and late-romantic music, among others: Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schubert,Fauré, Grieg, Ravel, Mahler and Rachmaninoff. These are all big crowd pleasers, performed by some of the greatest orchestras of the last one hundred years.

And with 5,345,591 views since 2017, this cannot be that bad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IKqmLG7v1w

So: sweet dreams, I guess.

Tracklist:
00:00:00​ J.S. Bach – Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068: II. Air
00:04:17​ Brahms – Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90: III. Poco allegretto
00:10:17​ Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor “Pathétique”: II Agagio cantabile
00:15:04​ Marcello – Oboe Concerto in D Minor: II. Adagio
00:18:56​ Ravel – Piano Concerto in G Major: II. Adagio Assai
00:28:15​ Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 “Pastoral”: II Andante molto mosso (Szene am Bach)
00:40:56​ Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37: II. Largo
00:53:40​ Brahms – Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77: II. Adagio
01:03:23​ Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 12 in C-Sharp Minor “Moonlight”: I. Adagio sostenuto
01:09:06​ Grieg – Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: I. Morning Mood
01:13:18​ Chopin – Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor Op.11: II. Romance. Larghetto
01:24:05​ Fauré – Élégie, Op. 24
01:30:34​ Mahler – Symphony No. 5: IV. Adagietto. sehr langsam
01:38:51​ Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467: II. Andante “Elvira Madigan”
01:44:54​ Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18: II. Adagio sostenuto
01:56:01​ Mozart- Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A Major, K. 622: II. Adagio
02:03:21​ Schubert – Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, D. 485: II. Andante con moto
02:14:10​ Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major K. 488: II. Andante
02:20:30​ Tchaikovsky – Serenade for Strings, Op. 48: III. Élégie. Larghetto elegiac

 

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doriel, Alex5723, Fred

Indeed these beautiful peaces of art help to forget for a tiny bit the covid stress

* _ ... _ *

[Alex5723]

Thanks.

Downloaded using 4KVideo Downloader (720p MP4 AAC)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Alex5723.

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Fred

There are MKV -VP9-Opus versions.

[Alex5723]

Alex5723 wrote:

Thanks.

Downloaded using 4KVideo Downloader (720p MP4 AAC)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Alex5723.

Reminds me telling that I have Stingray – Classical to at the tv…. Nice to have musical wall
paper… Lots of good ideas

* _ ... _ *

I use the Mac version of “ClickGrab”, an application also for Windows, I believe, that is only for downloading freely available YouTube videos.

Are the ones the two of you, Alex, Fred, have mentioned, also for grabbing any videos?

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Fred

In years gone by, I have used a Firefox extension that worked very well:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

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Fred, OscarCP

Ooops, will look it up (shortly I hope)

When using once in a while, I have to upgrade the app regularly, but seldom I keep a youtube video on my media-disks-player.

* _ ... _ *

OscarCP wrote:

Are the ones the two of you, Alex, Fred, have mentioned, also for grabbing any videos?

4K Video downloader will download Video, audio, playlists, subtitles.. from other sites not just YouTube.

The software isn’t free ($15) and is available for macOS, Windows and Linux.

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OscarCP

For music lovers’ delight and also as a point of interest:

Dvořák Cello Concerto – Jacqueline du Pré at the cello, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. (Who I believe, at the time, was also already  her husband.)  And this is the one where she breaks a string at mid-performance and goes out and comes back, all in a matter of a few short minutes, with the cello in proper order and showing throughout an absolute self-control, acting as if this was nothing worth noticing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_yxtaeFuEQ

The delight comes from listening to this beautiful work performed by a great orchestra with a talented conductor and with the soloist part played by possibly the most gifted and greatest cellist of the 20th Century, or perhaps of all times, full stop.

The point of interest is that, without taking anything away from its excellent performance, the orchestra is made completely of men, and only Eurasian men at that. The soloist was the only woman on the Albert Hall stage on that now far away day, back in the 70’s. Looking at recent videos of orchestral music, such as any of the many linked in this thread, with great contemporary orchestras giving equally excellent performances, the contrast cannot be more remarkable, in my opinion. And this is always the case when comparing orchestras of forty or fifty years ago with present day ones. And it always this strikes me with the feeling that I am listening to an old recording from some parallel universe. Even when I was around and listening to some of these orchestras, back in the day, and then, to me, there seemed to be nothing remarkable about their composition. Time, that changes all, has changed both orchestras and me.

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Today is the 336th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, and this day is also a reminder that, when one listens to his music in a contemporary interpretation, one is hearing something that has come to us through the, for us short-lived mortals, deep gulf of some three centuries, but for all that, to those who really listen, it still stirs mind and soul as the most moving performance of Jazz, or of any current form of good popular music can do.

So here, to commemorate the occasion, is my beloved 2nd Partita for solo violin, masterfully performed, many years ago, by a then quite young Itzhak Perlman, in a moving performance of this deeply spiritual work, composed by Bach after the death of his first wife:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtyTaE7LvVs

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Alex5723, Fred

For many the comparison with modern music(?) is some torture to the ears.

Happily anough there were no grammy awards in Bach’s times.

* _ ... _ *

Frank: “For many the comparison [of Bach?] with modern music(?) is some torture to the ears.”

Depends on what one means by “modern music”. Is it Stockhausen’s? I might agree there. Is the kind of modern avant-garde music where the musicians throw their instruments around and then kick them all over the stage, then shoot at each other with paintball guns? Certainly I would agree there. Is it Ray Charles and is Rhythm and Blues in general? We are going to have a real disagreement on that one.

Well, my ears must be unusually strong to listen so painlessly and even with considerable pleasure to certain music that is not the “classical” one that is usually played in concert halls, because I like Paul Coltrane, Joao Gilberto, Astor Piazzolla, Dolly Parton and Ray Charles, among others, so that, right there, is Jazz, Bossa Nova, Tango, Country music and Rhythm and Blues. That, for me, at least, are all popular music. I am also quite fond of the Beatles, Metallica and Frank Zappa, by the way. Not the latest or most fashionable yellers and hip-shakers, perhaps, but I am an old and unfashionable man.

The difference between all those mentioned above and J.S. Bach, is this: in everything people do, there is always someone who is the best of them. Of music makers, J.S. Bach was, I believe, that one, for all times.

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Oh Dear! I keep calling Fred “Frank.” Sorry Fred.

To try to make up for my awful mistake, here is something that might take Fred’s mind away from thinking dark thoughts about me and, who knows?, even incline him to forgive me:

Debussy’s ‘La Mer’ by Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe1pB9KqHRg

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OscarCP wrote:

Oh Dear! I keep calling Fred “Frank.” Sorry Fred.

To try to make up for my awful mistake, here is something that might take Fred’s mind away from thinking dark thoughts about me and, who knows?, even incline him to forgive me:

Debussy’s ‘La Mer’ by Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe1pB9KqHRg

;-D
No problem, there is a expression that:
“Anything played in Het Concertgebouw sounds well”.
Morricone must be nice I recon, so hurry
https://www.concertgebouw.nl/concerten/the-legend-of-morricone/17-05-2022

* _ ... _ *

About that concert of Morricone’s music, the program says: “Drankjes zijn bij de prijs inbegrepen”

I don’t think I’ll be getting those from here. They’ll have to make me a discount. Otherwise, good luck with those concerts in May, Concertgebouw people, wishing you a good paying audience!  Do enjoy your included-in-the-price drankjes, you paying audience! Would each of you be dropping a shot glass of genever in your beer mug? Or would that not be refined enough for the Concertgebouw?

As to Mr. Morricone himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1PfrmCGFnk

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OscarCP wrote:

About that concert of Morricone’s music, the program says: “Drankjes zijn bij de prijs inbegrepen”

I don’t think I’ll be getting those from here. They’ll have to make me a discount. Otherwise, good luck with those concerts in May, Concertgebouw people, wishing you a good paying audience!  Do enjoy your included-in-the-price drankjes, you paying audience! Would each of you be dropping a shot glass of genever in your beer mug? Or would that not be refined enough for the Concertgebouw?

As to Mr. Morricone himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1PfrmCGFnk

“Jacob Van Maerlant” in the year 1266 already wrote down some really old jenever recepies, made with the jeneverberries. But of course you knew that already for a long time with the all overshadowing google wisdom.
Is there any reason to become villainous, while the cultural life in Het Concertgebouw is being restarted here during the heavy Covidpandemic?
Quite derogatory if I may be so bold. Or is this the general new way of behavior after the last 4 years?

* _ ... _ *

Fred: “Is there any reason to become villainous, while the cultural life in Het Concertgebouw is being restarted here during the heavy Covidpandemic?”

If you are referring to having a public concert in coming months this year, while the third wave is still likely going on and perhaps worse than a the moment, I don’t think it is villainous, merely not the greatest idea ever. And something that can be reversed if things do not improve enough by then, I imagine and hope. Also it depends on what measures are taken to prevent the spread of the disease among the audience. I assume here that the Concertgebouw is managed by intelligent people, as it would be really amazing if it were not so. Also the second concert announced is next year, so plenty of time for things to get better by then.

As to what I believe is called a “depth charge”, with jenever and beer mixed as mentioned, I was given practical demonstrations of it more than once in my years in the Netherlands, so I thought it would lighten up things a bit if I mentioned this drink. Enjoy yours!

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[OscarCP]

Today I was listening on National Public Radio to a recorded 2017 performance of Antonin Dvořák’s opera “Rusalka” at the New York’s Metropolitan Opera (*) (normally it would have been today’s performance, but the current misery upon us has the great concert halls and opera houses, along with so much more, still closed “sine die .” And while listening I realized that there is little Dvořák in this thread and certainly none of his operas. These were less famous than they deserved, because of the language barrier, but this has changed over time and now days “Rusalka”, “Vanda”, etc. are staples of the international repertoire.

The story in “Rusalka” is based on a fairy tale and is similar in general terms to Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”, only that ends in reverse.
A rusalka is a water nymph, or sprite, in Czech mythology.
Same as the little mermaid of the Dane’s tale, she falls in love with a prince he sees one day passing by and desperately wants to be able to become his lover. To do that she first must become human. But if the prince does not love her in return, and here is the reversal, she will become a death demon and her kiss will be his death.
Well, as a human, things work rather well, but not well enough, between her and the prince, so she becomes the demon and the opera ends soon after she kisses the prince, who is not deterred by the fact that her kiss must kill him, because he finds no point in living on without her.
(I am not like that; I have never been happy to break up with someone, even if she was a demon; very sad, very painful indeed. But there are more fish in the water, you know? Lighten up! I say.)

Of the whole opera, perhaps the most famous part and a truly beautiful passage, is when Rusalka (a ‘rusalka’, a water-spirit, but here also called like that as if it was her given name) sings the “Song of the Moon”, where she pleads with a powerful witch to turn her into a human.

Dvorak Rusalka Song of the Moon: Three performances by three great singers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzgQPjbDTMM

(*) Kristine Opolais sings the title character’s “Song to the Moon” from Act I of “Rusalka” at the final dress rehearsal, March of 2017, Metropolitan Opera; Conductor: Sir Mark Elder; Production: Mary Zimmerman.  — This is one has an English translation in subtitles.

 

Frederika von Stade ; Seiji Ozawa Conductor Orchestra ? :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwVYFpY3VL4

 

Leontine Price:

With no mention of conductor or orchestra, an extraordinary rendition of this moving song of painful longing, with, in the background of the video, a series of portraits of the most famous, and some less so, singers of the past century:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdgKA_gfz7Y

 

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• This reply was modified 4 years ago by OscarCP.

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GarthP

Actually the video of Kristine Opolais got cut short, I realize now. But here is a complete version, also with the English translation of the lyrics of Rusalka’s pleading in “Song to the Moon” by Renee Fleming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trfLkYpOglA

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GarthP

[GarthP]

Oscar,

Rusalka has always been my absolute favourite aria, and without doubt for me Rita Streich has been the best artist to perform it. A beautiful pure tone, great diction and perfect musicality.

Here are two selections, the first a great studio recording with Deutsche Grammophon, the second a live performance from a selection of arias sung by her. This latter in itself is a most rewarding and recommended recording (47m) of different pieces from Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Puccini and others, but the Dvorak Rusalka piece starts at 17:02.  Wonderful music!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOuKYGJPb6I

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKtrNiSGlJc

Garth

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by GarthP.

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OscarCP

Garth, I wouldn’t know about her diction, because I do not know a word of Czech, but I’ll go along with the rest.

And this rendition of the Song to the Moon by Rita Streich is not just beautiful: it is magical. I close my eyes and I am a little boy in the old house where I grew up and my mother is singing to me. A moment later, a young woman trembling with love is calling her lover, to me? Those slow cadences with the vibrato notes rising and falling get inside and stir visions and touch something very deep and almost forgotten in the heart of my heart. In the end, I have no words. It is perfect. It is enough.

Now, listening to her in the selection of arias you have contributed, I must agree that her diction, at least in German, where it is easier to notice, is crystal clear.

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GarthP

The Romantic movement that started in the late eighteenth century and continued throughout the nineteenth into the earliest part of the twentieth, was a mix of frustrated patriotism, nationalist pride, a reaction against how Reason had been enthroned by the Enlightenment, the exaltation of the individual’s freedom to make his or hers own moral rules and live by them and, particularly, of its own form of admiring Nature, that brought its Romantic meaning to the word “sublime”, capitalized and preceded by the definite article: “The Sublime.” (*)

The Sublime, as understood by the Romantics, was the feeling experienced by those fully receptive to great beauty, at the sight of the immensity and grandeur of the natural world: what those with such receptive minds might feel in the presence of the highest mountains, specially those with the most cragged peaks and majestic snow covered slopes; of the fury of storms, of the peace and fertility-redolent days of late spring; of the vastness of the Cosmos, and the divine indifference (as they understood it) of its immortal stars that, along with mountains and ever-flowing rivers, signified eternity.

One of the various descriptions of The Sublime I particularly like is: “Terrible Beauty.”

In music that reflects memorably and beautifully the intimate reactions of a human soul in the presence of Nature, evoking the feel of the thoughts, dreams and nightmares it excites, one can find sound landscapes of  The Sublime, more in some compositions than in others:

http://themusicsalon.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-musical-sublime.html

Music is an abstract art, in that its sounds are not, usually, meant to imitate more or less faithfully actual sounds one can hear, such as that of a motorbike with an open exhaust. It could be done for some sounds, but is never more than in a few, occasional bars. There are exceptions, such as in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Flight of the Bumblebee”, but even there the real sound has been reinterpreted by the artist and made into much more than a faithful imitation of how bumblebees sound when they fly.

When it comes to examples of Romantic idea of The Sublime expressed in music, I am hard press to find one that particularly stands out as an example, but I might have found it here; you will be the judge of how close to the mark my choice is. You are also encouraged to include in your own comments other examples you think may be even better:

Beethoven 6th Symphony: The West-East Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the BBC Proms 2010.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW-7CqxhnAQ

(*) The late Sir Isaiah Berlin’s writings on this subject are probably the closest to the definite work on European Romanticism and its more significant effects through time, both good and bad; for example, how it resonated among the university students and the more liberal thinkers that were their intellectual leading lights, in the 1960’s and early to mid 70’s.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/berlin/

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Myst, Fred

Now for some music education:

“  Sheila Blanco, a vocalist and journalist living in Madrid, has become a social media star with a series of pitch-perfect vocal tributes to great composers.  “

You very well may find here the most enjoyable and entertaining singing, plus music education to boot.  I’m captivated by her pitch control and expressive face/hands, and I’m told that her diction is superb.  If you don’t see English captions, click on “CC” for them.
Bach is God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB3yA_wvDAM
Händel the influencer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv_duawa8hg

Mozart, a genius child 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck2SnXmD6nE
´Tis Beethoven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8EDmXJT9QQ

and more, leading up to
Ravel, Master of orchestration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcIn9B26H4
Debussy the modern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvylvC4XDQs

— 30 —

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Fred, OscarCP

fjpb: “I’m captivated by her pitch control and expressive face/hands, and I’m told that her diction is superb.”

I entirely agree and I am quite certain that her diction is superb, because I am a Spanish speaker, so I can tell. Also a very fine voice and impressive coordination of the words with the music. I think that whatever she does for a living now, if she ever wanted to make a change, there can be a bright future for her as voice artist in animated movies and in foreign-movies dubbing, where spoken words have to be coordinated very well with the movement of a character’s lips. But I would prefer that she keeps singing. Also there are very few European languages where something like what she does is possible, because only in these the pronunciation of the vowels is crisp and distinct enough: Spanish: Greek, German, Italian, and if I missing another one, do let me know.

And not to be tedious, but I still would like to hear about what people might like better as examples of The Sublime in Romantic music (see my previous comment just above fjpb’s).

As an encouragement, here is another possible candidate for a good example of this central idea of Romanticism, that owed a great deal to some of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s ideas that he started developing around 1760, of a return to nature and to a more humane and natural form of life. (Rousseau had fights with just about everybody that knew him and was into just about everything, from writing philosophical and political books of great consequence to political developments in the century and a half to follow and even in recent times, to composing and playing music with distinction, to proposing a better way to educate children, to making important contributions to the writing of the French Encyclopedia, to inventing a novel system of musical notation.)

My new example of the feeling of The Sublime expressed in music is the late Romantic composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C major that just happens to be played, in this video, by another Spanish lady — or Catalán lady, depending on whom you ask:

The amazing Alicia de La Rocha, piano, with the Great Symphonic Orchestra of the Radio and Television of the URSS, Conductor: Vladimir Fedoseyev, live recording at the 1983 Festival of Santander, Spain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hWyApq77_g

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GarthP

Oscar, I don’t like to over-analyse my musical listening, preferring to keep it simple. However, my own feeling of the sublime in romantic music would start with something like a Haydn or Mozart quartet (or better, quintet) and move on to Mendelssohn (Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Berlioz (Symphonique Fantastic). Then, progress to Wagner and Mahler, and then Richard Strauss, and who better to finish with (his Four Last Songs are a great favourite, as is Morgen) but for me his Wiegenlied takes first prize every time. Especially when sung by Jessye Norman, as in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8G27O69ZWY&list=RDa8G27O69ZWY&start_radio=1&t=15

I’m content to leave matters there, in tears as ever when listening to this!

Garth

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Myst, OscarCP

And here is my favourite ‘Four Last Songs’ with that most superlative of lieder singers, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs0vSC9DUhU

Garth

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Fred, OscarCP

Garth,

The  Gundula Janowitz, Elizabeth Shwarzkopf, and this interpretation, hard to know which of the three to place above the other two, such magnificent voices singing such profound and deeply moving songs, where in the last one of the four the artist looks back to the long life now leaving him with nostalgia and, perhaps, satisfaction, and looks ahead to his approaching death, not with fear, but with final acceptance, as the music gently dissolves into silence:

Jessye Norman, singer, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Kurt Masur, Conductor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaAorqR0ICk

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GarthP

And just a very quick one: More Alicia de La Rocha, in a better recording of another live concert, this time playing Mozart’s piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, with the Mostly Mozart Orchestra she performed with for several seasons and Gerard Schwarz as conductor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SekAIz8jQI

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[Fred]

fjpajerski wrote:

Now for some music education:

“  Sheila Blanco, a vocalist and journalist living in Madrid, has become a social media star with a series of pitch-perfect vocal tributes to great composers.  “

You very well may find here the most enjoyable and entertaining singing, plus music education to boot.  I’m captivated by her pitch control and expressive face/hands, and I’m told that her diction is superb.  If you don’t see English captions, click on “CC” for them.
Bach is God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB3yA_wvDAM
Händel the influencer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv_duawa8hg

Mozart, a genius child 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck2SnXmD6nE
´Tis Beethoven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8EDmXJT9QQ

and more, leading up to
Ravel, Master of orchestration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcIn9B26H4
Debussy the modern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvylvC4XDQs

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Thank you “OscarCP” and “fjpb”,
to me this is a complete new approach to an era that is or has been so important.
Romanticism in music as succession to the great reforms of the English American French societies.
Beautiful. You give this barbarian from the low countries a different view of the succession of medieval feudalism to later times.
Nice, to figure out some different perspectives.
Right now one might say that the former and ancient societies are in need of new reforms; will this bring a new era of musical romanticism?

Marie-Antoinette

* _ ... _ *

• This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by Fred.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by Fred.

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OscarCP

Beethoven’s Sixth was my first choice, because this symphony, that is more of a descriptive tone poem than any of the others that he wrote, was deliberately written to evoke the feelings experienced in the presence of Nature, with it’s apparent gentleness (running brook, with the traveller laying down in the soft grass by its banks, in a warm and luminous day) and with its raw, wild and superhuman power, first unleashed and then restrained (the tempest and its aftermath). So it is all about the Romantic idea, already fully developed at the time, of being face to face with The Sublime in Nature.

As to what else in the Romantic repertoire could fit explicitly with this idea?

Maybe this one?

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Fabien Gabel conducting “La Mer” by Claude Debussy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-kZN97ir_4

Or maybe Mendelssohn’s “Las Hebrides”, the Overture in particular (already linked to an excellent performance in this thread: search for “Mendelssohn.”)

Garth suggestion:

“Wagenlied” or “Lullaby” is a song of great power and beauty, and Richard Strauss was one of the finest writers of both gentle and very deeply moving songs. And great operas.
For those who would like to listen to another example, search in this page with your browser for “Last Four Songs.”
My own favorite is the last of the four, “Im Abendrot” or “At Evening’s Twilight.” A beautiful and soothing song about approaching one’s death with a resigned calm and even with relief. And the last thing that Strauss wrote, being already mortally ill.

As to Wagenlied:

German:
Träume, träume, du mein süßes Leben,
Von dem Himmel, der die Blumen bringt.
Blüten schimmern da, die
Von dem Lied, das deine Mutter singt.

Träume, träume, Knospe meiner Sorgen,
Von dem Tage, da die Blume
Von dem hellen Blütenmorgen,
Da dein Seelchen sich der Welt

Träume, träume, Blüte meiner Liebe,
Von der stillen, von der heilgen Nacht,
Da die Blume seiner Liebe
Diese Welt zum Himmel mir gemacht.

English:
Dream, dream, my sweet life,
of the heaven that brings flowers.
Shimmering there are blossoms from
the song that your mother is singing.

Dream, dream, bud of my worries,
of the day the flower bloomed;
of the bright morning of blossoming,
when your little soul opened up to the world.

Dream, dream, blossom of my love,
of the quiet, of the holy night
when the flower of his love
made this world a heaven for me.

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GarthP

Now, when it comes to music that portrays, in a deeply meditative way, the grandeur of Nature, in this case that of the Northern woods, hills and glens of Scandinavia, one has to bring in the great symphonies and tone poems of Jean Sibelius.
In particular, his Fifth:

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius Symphony No. 5 in E flat major:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIIfMjRMqRs

And, of course, “Tapiola”:

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Neeme Järvi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JPIgLMtKw4

Sibelius may not have been a proper a Romantic. He was certainly not one in the conventional sense. Glenn Gould said that Sibelius’s music was “passionate but anti-sensuous.” Sibelius was trying to reflect the grandeur of Nature: his music was not about an artist’s impressions when contemplating Nature, but about Nature itself: when composing his works, he was painting a musical portrait of it.

So maybe not his impressions when facing The Sublime, but its portrait as he found it in the wilderness he knew so well in the land he loved so much.

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GarthP

Oscar, Tapiola is an amazing piece of nature captured in music, and by Neeme Järvi, a master conductor. Not surprisingly, given Sibelius’ fascination with Finnish mythology, it originated like quite a lot of his music from the Kalevala epic poem. Also, how right of you to associate Sibelius with the grandeur of Nature.

Another composition of his, which I greatly enjoy, is Kullervo, sometimes described as a choral symphony, which isn’t quite true, being a suite of five tone poems. Judge for yourself, but I think it better than his symphonies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPtfhMpiFfQ

Living in Scotland, I got to know a former leader of the Scottish National Orchestra, Hugh Bradley, now sadly passed on, and he had the utmost respect for Neeme Järvi, then the Principal Conductor of the orchestra. Indeed, Järvi followed on from Sir Alexander Gibson, who was particularly noted for his interpretations of Scandinavian composers, notably Sibelius, during his 25 years as SNO conductor.

Now the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, there has been a Nordic tradition for a long time, and the current principal conductor, Thomas Søndergård, follows in that tradition, his term now extended to 2024. I hope that soon we can enjoy his music in person again!

Garth

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migongo, OscarCP

And now, on with the old!

As mentioned earlier, patter singing, the very fast and yet intelligible singing of, for example, Sheila Blanco in Spanish (see here #2361228 fjpb’s comment) is very hard to do in English.
English, unlike Spanish, German, Greek or Italian, is non-phonetic, because, among other reasons, it has a good many more vowel sounds than those, but these sounds are written as plain “a”, “e”, “i”, or “u”, or combinations of two of these in diphthongs , or else modified by repetition as in “Banshee”, by additional letters, such as a following “h”, as in “heh”, etc. There are also a few more or less helpful rules. Or the vowels are just left there for people, whether native English speakers or not, to guess how they are supposed to sound when spoken in, to them, unfamiliar words. Also English is a language usually spoken more slowly than those others, with the exception of German.

But English patter singing, hard as it might be, is not quite impossible, at least as long as the singer’s diction is that of “Proper” or “the King’s/Queen’s English”, or “Standard English” speech, as spoken, until not so long ago at least, in the UK.
There are examples of this, most notably “The Pirates of Penzance’s” patter song “I am the very model of a modern Major-General”, also known as “The Major-General’s Song”.
A very skilled performer could do it, achieving a truly amazing speed in the full recap at the end of the song.

This is a video of this very song as sang during a filmed performance produced in 1983, the year after the company finally closed down after 112 years of staging Gilbert and Sullivan’s creations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVFiRXch7Pk

From the Y.T. Notes: “Wiki says: I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General (often referred to as the Major-General’s Song or Modern Major-General’s Song) is a patter song from Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. It is perhaps the most famous song in all of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas. It is sang by Major-General Stanley at his first entrance, towards the end of Act I. The song satirizes the idea of the “modern” educated British Army officer of the latter 19th century. It is one of the most difficult patter songs to perform, due to the fast pace and tongue-twisting nature of the lyrics. “

The D’Oyly Carte Company and the Gilbert and Sullivan Comic Operas:
D’Oyly Carte was a British comic opera company. Extremely successful on account of the popularity of the Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas, that it was formed in 1875 by the theatrical entrepreneur Richard D’Oyly to produce them, it eventually became a famous international touring company. London-based, it had the Savoy Theatre built there for the production of the G&S repertoire. Eventually it performed to great success, mainly in the UK, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand, where there were also many local professional and amateur productions of these works staged until at least the late 80’s.

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migongo, GarthP

I can attest to the continuing success of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, having grown up with them, seen them numerous times on TV in the UK, plus many amateur performances up and down the country, as well as the professional performances. When I lived in New Zealand for a few years, they were also very popular there. I think what made them so popular was the mix of often barbed wit from Gilbert, and great music from Sullivan, because the latter was an under-rated but very able composer.

Probably the best and last patter song performer was John Read, who was a master of timing. He was certainly the one who came to mind when I read the post. This is just an audio recording (below) but still the best IMV!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl76hvfncnM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reed_(actor)

Garth

 

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migongo, OscarCP

Garth, I attended several performances of G&S performances by both local professional companies and amateur ones during my years in Sydney, Australia. In those days, not to know what “a coming performance of Mikado” meant was considered glaring evidence of being an irredeemable rube. When I say “I attended” I mean that I was facing the stage from the audience side. I was invited to join some performances as a sort of singing and dancing spare-carrier, but I can’t sing to save my life and suffer from severe and incurable stage-fright. Oddly enough, I can address live audiences, even quite large ones, when making a presentation at a conference, giving a lecture, or (in my days as a university student) even at agitated political assemblies and demonstrations. But put me behind a curtain that is soon to be drawn to let me into the stage, facing the audience, and I turn to useless trembling jelly.

Here, for further information, is a performance of Mikado by the actors of the D’Oyly Carte Company of Comic Opera, filmed in 1966:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AtEIuagK-k

N.B.: This is a mix of amusing nonsense and a sly satire aimed at the British society and customs of the day, not an insensitive and slanderous attack against Japan’s high society and Imperial court of the day. You have been warned.

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migongo, GarthP

Thank you indeed! Not the highest form of opera, to be sure, but the combination of good music, high humour and traditional costumes makes for a most enjoyable experience. The quality of the performance is exceptional – sharp and exact, a great parody of stuffy British society – all that one remembers from the D’Oyly Carte company. The Mikado is undoubtedly the best of the G&S comic operas.

Garth

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migongo

This entry is about music inspired by one who was a ruler of Russia, among other things, in the 13th century:
Alexander (known as Nevsky after defeating an invading enemy in the battle of the Neva River), Rus Prince, Successful General, Politician, Diplomat, Russian National Hero, Saint:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Nevsky

Prokofiev composed the score of the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s classic 1938 movie “Alexander Nevsky”, that he later made into this cantata:

Alexander Nevsky, with Ketevan Kemoklidze, Mezzo-soprano, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Choir of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, Yuri Temirkanov, conductor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGqVogrLEE4

And from the movie, the famous scene of The Battle of the Ice, where Nievsky’s forces, mostly infantry, decisively defeated a large contingent of heavily-armored cavalry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcPixaWL2Pg

The invading force, the Teutonic Knights, were led by a Catholic Bishop and that is why those white clad priests and nuns are there, lifting crosses as a sort of religious cheerleading.

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migongo

Interesting what this pianist from Iceland does with this composition by Bach, the “Aria Variata.” I supposed it’s called that because it is an aria (meaning that one could sing something to its tune) that sometimes goes fast and sometimes goes slow, etc., etc., as you’ll appreciate by listening to this:

Víkingur Ólafsson – Bach: Aria variata (alla maniera italiana) in A Minor, BWV 989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUWqJqC2brU

These Vikings, they are really something, aren’t they?

If anyone here doubts that, just listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0MD6IMyJIg

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migongo

Maybe you have wondered, as now and then have I, what might be like to listen to all of the “Bachianas Brasileiras” of Heitor Villa-Lobos, the masterpiece of the great Brazilian composer, after listening to just No. 5, the most popular, in different interpretations, including those by some of the greatest female singers?

Well, wonder no more, because here is a fine rendition of the complete work, meant by the composer to be played by “an orchestra of cellos” with the occasional piano player and singer joining in, as in No.5 does a soprano.

And so I have been able to confirm what, a long time ago and also a long way ago I was told by a house mate when we were both attending university and sharing to save money: “It is popular Brazilian music and it is Bach!”

By the way, who the interpreters of the recording might be is a mystery, because none are mentioned in the YT Notes that accompany the video. But whoever they might be, they have done a very fine job, indeed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqCj0gkbBMs

 

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migongo

And this too:

Heitor Villa-Lobos: 5 Preludes, 12 Studies & Modinha, for solo guitar, José Antonio Escobar in guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSyGfON0oq4

Villa-Lobos was one of the pre-eminent composers for acoustic guitar of last century.

 

 

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migongo

Oscar: after Bachianas n ° 5, n ° 2 (specifically the final part, tocatta known as “The Peasant’s Little Train”) is the best known and most celebrated work by Villa-Lobos. This piece is characterized by imitating the movement and sounds of a locomotive with the instruments of the orchestra. Although the intention proposed by Villa-Lobos for Bachianas n ° 2 is to musically reveal scenes of Brazilian rural life – in the case of the tocatta, it refers to the emigration from the countryside to the city – the piece derived in homage to the oldest –and still in use– locomotive in Brazil, featured in the video.

In 1975, the Brazilian poet Ferreira Gullar composed a letter for the tocatta and invited one of the most renowned Brazilian popular music singers, Edu Lobo, to make it known. The result, which I share, does not detract from but rather confirms the original quality of Villa-Lobos.
Note: if anyone want to skip the explanatory intoduction in te video, music begins at 0:50 seconds. Greetings.

Lyrics:
There goes the train with the boy
There goes life spinning
There goes ciranda (*) and destiny
Spinning night city
There goes the train with no destination
Find new day
Running goes by land, goes by mountains, goes by sea
Singing through the moonlight hills
Running among the flying stars
In the air, in the air, in the air … (…)
(*) = children’s round games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R6l86DbYag

And here is the original one, in a masterful interprtation of the Neojiba Orchestra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIG4h7lvj4Y

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OscarCP

migongo: I forgot about “O Trenzinho” and do agree completely. Of course, when singing the lyrics of Gullar, the music cannot be in the same scale as in the original, it has to be simpler and the orchestra smaller, not to drown the voice of the singer. So two different interpretations of the same idea, each right in its own way. I have heard only the one with the lyrics before, except for yesterday, when finding and listening in YT to the complete “Bachianas” then I added to this thread.

Also, although I am not quite sure why it was there, I liked very much in the singing version’s video a quotation of Bertold Bretch, shown among others (with one of Villa-Lobos about intending with his music to celebrate the beauty and grandeur of nature in Brazil) and one that not only rings true, but also probably sounds much nicer in Brazilian Portuguese than in the original German:

“Há Homens que lutam um dia e são bons. Há outros que lutam un ano e são melhores. Há os que lutam muitos anos e são muito bons. Porém há os que lutam toda uma vida. Esses são os imprescindíveis.” (Bertold Brecht)

“There are men that fight for one day [in a good cause] and are good. There are others that fight for one year, and those are better. There are those that fight for many years and are very good. But then there are those that fight a whole life. Those are the necessary ones.” (Bertold Bretch)

And then there is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvrUuZwzhLc&ab_channel=AlexandraWhittingham

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migongo

And, Heavens above! Also this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRjl3qm2KpM&ab_channel=AlexandraWhittingham

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migongo

OK, now that I am into guitar playing and the people who know how to do it, beyond playing chords, not like some people I know, here is my latest day (and remarkably late in the day) discovery that I’ve heard on the grapevine is one of the best guitar players of today. So here is this artist doing Sor, Villa-Lobos, Mozart (kind of) and more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c604vm4pAAU&ab_channel=SiccasGuitars

The artist is also English, old stock. With that face, could not be anything else, really.
Of course, this artist could have been born and bred in Bangladesh and be big on samosas dipped on mango chutney and fish curry, maybe be even in that order, or all at the same tine. But even so.

If anyone around here likes to hear someone who knows what to do with a guitar: have a seat and have a treat.

By the way: what kind of guitar is that? It has such a good sound.

And here is another good guitar player, with already two or three videos earlier in this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1UrY_tRADk&ab

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migongo, GarthP

John Williams, classical, Jazz, fusion, Rock guitar player:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_(guitarist)

One of the great guitarists of the last fifty years, and possibly the best one after Segovia and Yepes.

This is a video of a BBC documentary from the 1970’s, a fondly remembered time, when I was one of the then fashionably long-haired young men wearing paisley patterned shirts and bell bottoms, then living in Sydney, and first heard of John Williams and, more importantly, heard him play. It is a mix of guitar playing and commentary, including excerpts of his famous concert with Julian Bream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VctU0oBUoX8

And here is him playing several compositions by the Paraguayan classical guitar player and composer Agustin Barrios Mangoré (*), opening with the beautiful “La Catedral”, a favorite of mine often played by classical guitarists in concerts.  A great recording of remarkably both sweet and vibrant sound quality, still very worth listening, in spite of the background hiss left on it by the decades that have passed by and flown away since it was made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjuKhkkFoNA

 

(*) According to the article in Wikipedia dedicated to Mangoré:

” Agustín Pío Barrios (also known as Agustín Barrios Mangoré [after a legenday Guaraní cacique, i.e. a tribal chief] and Nitsuga—Agustin spelled backward; May 5, 1885 – August 7, 1944) was a Paraguayan virtuoso classical guitarist and composer, largely regarded as one of the greatest performers and most prolific composers for the guitar. “

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migongo

Perhaps the most know classical piece of the paraguayan folklore performed in classical guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WWqXPTrigQ

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OscarCP

Ooops! I meant to say that, in the BBC documentary, there are clips of Williams playing in the 70’s, when he became famous not just as a classical guitar player but on the strength of his great opular hit, the short piece first by Stanley Meirs called “Cavatina” and then, with added lyrics.”Beautiful”, made famous when chosen as the theme of “The Deer Hunter”. that in one of the clips shown the documentary is sung by Nina Mouskouri accompanied by him on guitar. Then I got lost in reminiscence and wrote something that came out as stating the documentary was from the 70’s too. It was actually made in 2016.

Here is Williams playing the “Cavatina”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGycDDqBuX8

And here is his 1996 recording by John Williams with Eugene Ormandi and the Philadelphia Orchestra of Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez”, Williams being a famous performer of this, at times an intimate and nostalgic meditation on a guitar, the most intimate of instruments, at other times more like like a passionate and deeply felt Andalusian Gypsy cante jondo sguiriya:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP0DoFyo0Cg

And when it comes to this concert, here is a quite different interpretation and also a brilliant take on it, as played by another great of the guitar: Pepe Romero, beautifully accompanied by the Danish National Symphonic Orchestra conducted by <span class=”style-scope yt-formatted-string” dir=”auto”>Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos</span>:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oxH-7VklBI

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migongo, GarthP

It’s Nana Mouskouri, not Nina!  I think Williams appeared with her on her BBC show in 1968 (though he might have returned as a guest in the early 70s — not sure).

Sorry! Yes, of course. It happens …

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When I was barely a teenager, my musical world was expanding apace, as was my mind. The music of those days that formed some part of me, of who I am, was inseparable from the names of such conductors as Toscanini and Stokowsky and of the orchestras they conducted, and of such singers as Anna Moffo, whose voice I loved dearly then and I still do now, and the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska. All gone now; slow and broad runs the river of my life and the silences of the great singers and musicians that are no longer with us crowd its banks.

The great songs of Western civilization are for ever ours and the great voices of the past are still available through recordings. So we can listen and be moved by sounds made by the electronic ghosts of those marvelously gifted that can make sounds no more.

One of those great songs are the aria, a song without words, followed by a sensual song to the Moon, and ending with a lively dance tune accompanying a song of loss and even mourning that concludes the Bahiana Brasileira No 5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos:

Anna Moffo 1963 Villa Lobos Bachiana No. 5 Leopold Stokowsky and the American Symphony Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exPViJJuYiU

Another excellent interpretation:

Natania Davrath (soprano) Leonard Bernstein (conductor) New York Philharmonic Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0d9SrUeOwI

And this one, with an immense audience gathered in a large open area, one evening, listening to a concert during a festival in Germany more than a decade ago, seems like an ideal combination of performance and setting for this work:

Festival de Waldbuhne 2008 – Berlim – Orquestra Filarmônica de Berlim. Regência Gustavo Dudanel, Soprano Ana Maria Martínez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maQ8t8mJkTM

Lyrics:

(Aria)
Tarde, uma nuve rósea lenta e transparente
Sobre o espaço, sonhadora e bela!
Surge no infinito a lua docemente
Enfeitando a tarde, qual meiga donzela
Que se apresta e a linda sonhadoramente
Em anseios d’alma para ficar bela
Grita ao céu e a terra, toda a Natureza!
Cala a passarada aos seus tristes queixumes
E reflete o mar toda a Sua riqueza
Suave a luz da lua desperta agora
A cruel saudade que ri e chora!
Tarde, uma nuvem rósea lenta e transparente
Sobre o espaço, sonhadora e bela!

(Dança)
Irerê, meu passarinho
Do sertão do cariri
Irerê, meu companheiro
Cade viola? Cadê meu bem? Cadê maria? Ai triste sorte a do violeiro cantadô! Sem a viola em que cantava o seu amô, Seu assobio é tua flauta de irerê: Que tua flauta do sertão quando assobia, A gente sofre sem querê! Teu canto chega lá do fundo do sertão Como uma brisa amolecendo o coração. Irerê, solta teu canto! Canta mais! Canta mais! Pra alembrá o cariri! Canta, cambaxirra! Canta, juriti! Canta, irerê! Canta, canta, sofrê! Patativa! Bem-te-vi! Maria-acorda-que-é-dia! Cantem, todos vocês, Passarinhos do sertão! Bem-te-vi! Eh sabiá! Lá! Liá! liá! liá! liá! liá! Eh sabiá da mata cantadô! Lá! Liá! liá! liá! Lá! Liá! liá! liá! liá! liá! Eh sabiá da mata sofredô! O vosso canto vem do fundo do sertão Como uma brisa amolecendo o coração

Lo, at midnight clouds are slowly passing,
rosy and lustrous,
o’er the spacious heav’n with lovliness laden.
From the boundless deep the moon arises wondrous,
glorifying the evening like a beauteous maiden.
Now she adorns herself in half unconscious duty,
eager, anxious that we recognize her beauty,
while sky and earth, yea, all nature with applause
salute her.
All the birds have ceased their sad and mournful complaining,
now appears on the sea in a silver reflection
moonlight softly waking the soul and constraining hearts
to cruel tears and bitter dejection.
Lo, at midnight clouds are slowly passing
rosy and lustrous o’er
the spacious heavens dreamily wondrous.

Irere, my little nestling from the wilds of Cariri,
Irere, my loved companion, my singing sweetheart!
Where goes my dear? Where goes Maria?
Ah, sorry is the lot of him who fain would sing!
Ah! without his lute on song of gladness can he bring,
Ah! his whistle shrill must be his flute for Irere.
But yours the flute that once in forest wilds was sounding,
Ah! with its message of grief and woe.
Ah! your song came forth from out the depths of forest wilds,
Ah, like summer winds that comfort ev’ry mournful heart,
Ah, Ah! Irere, Sing and enchant me!
Sing once more, sing once more!
Bring me songs of Carri!
Sing; my lovely song-bird, sing your song again,
sing; my Irere: sing of pain and sorrow,
As the birds of morning wake Maria in the dawning.
Sing with all your voices,
Birds of the woods and the wilds,
Sing your songs! ye forest Birds!
La! lia! lia! lia! lia! lia!
Ye nestlings of the singing forest wilds.
Lia! lia! lia! lia!
La! lia! lia! lia! lia! lia!
Ye nestlings of the mornful forest
Oh, yours the song that comes from the depths of forest wilds
like summer winds that comfort ev’ry mournful heart.
Irere, my little nestling from the wilds of Cariri,
Irere, my loved companion, my singing sweetheart,
where goes my dear? Where goes Maria?
Ah, sorry is the lot of him who fain would sing!
Ah! without his lute no song of gladness can he bring,
Ah! his whistle shrill must be his flute for Irere,
but yours the flute that once in forest wilds was sounding,
Ah! with its message of grief and woe.
Ah! your song came forth from out the depths of forest wilds!
Ah! like summer winds that comfort ev’ry mournful heart,
Ah! Ah! Irere, Sing and enchant me!
Sing once more, sing once more! Bring me songs of Cariri!
Ai!

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migongo, Alex5723

I am afraid that the translation of the lyrics of the song in Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 was, well, a bit too florid for my taste and also not very faithful to the original. So, absolutely for free, I am giving here my own translation, much closer to the spare and crystaline lines of the original, while taking a minimum of liberties, for clarity of meaning:

(Aria)
Evening, a rosy cloud slow and transparent,
Above, in space, dreamlike and beautiful,
Appears from the infinite the Moon, sweetly
Adorning the evening, same as a lovely maiden
That makes herself up, pretty and dreamlike,
In her soul anxious to be beautiful.
Shouts to sky and earth, to all of Nature!
Stilling in flocks of birds their sad laments
And reflecting on the sea all of Her riches.
Soft the light of the Moon wakes up now
A cruel nostalgia in me that laughs and cries.

(Dance)
Where is the guitar caipira? (*)
Where my beloved? Where María?
Ah, the sad lot of the guitarist singer!
Without a guitar on which to sing his love,
His lonely whistle is like your flute of the ireré: (**)
Your flute out in the bush when it whistles
And people suffer without wanting to!
Your song comes from the depths of the bush
As a breeze softening the heart.
Irerê, release your song!
Sing more! Sing more!
To light up the Cariri!
Sing, cambaxira! (**)
Sing, juiti!
Sing, sing, suffering Patativa!

…

Your song comes from the depths of the bush
As a breeze softening the heart.

Ay me!

(*) A type of guitar characteristic of Northern Brazil.

(**) This and following two lines name birds of the caipirî, the region covered by the sertaõ prickly thornbush of Northeast Brazilian region. The ireré, a pretty duck, is another bird of the same region.

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migongo

I’m afraid I mistranslated this line: “A gente sofre sem querê!”

as: “And people suffer without wanting to!”, when here “querê” was most likely written as a noun, not as a verb. A noun meaning “beloved” or “someone loved” or “the love of someone”, or “one’s love.” So perhaps a better translation would be:

“To one who suffers without his love!”, makes more sense as you’ll see in a moment.

So:

“Ah, the sad lot of the guitarist singer!
Without a guitar on which to sing his love,
His lonely whistle is like your flute of the ireré:
Your flute out in the bush when it whistles
To one who suffers without his love!
Your song comes from the depths of the bush
As a breeze softening the heart.

This way it makes more sense too. I also forgot the last two lines of the first part, that repeat the first two lines. But I guess that you, gentle reader, have already figured out this one without my help.

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I was convinced that I had introduced it already and put a link to this guitar concert given in San Francisco, in March of this year, by Ana Vidovic. But looking through this thread, it is definitely not here and that’s a shame, because it is a very good one.

Better late than never, so here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e26zZ83Oh6Y

PROGRAM:

Flute Partita in A minor, BWV 1013
by Johann Sebastian Bach
(Transcribed by Valter Despalj)
-Allemande (3:06)
-Corrente (8:40)

Violin Sonata No. 1, BWV 1001
by Johann Sebastian Bach
(arr. by Manuel Barrueco)
-Adagio (12:44)
-Fuga (16:38)
-Siciliana (21:19)
-Presto (24:25)

Un Dia de Noviembre (27:36)
by Leo Brouwer

Gran Sonata Eroica, Op. 150 (32:17)
by Mauro Giuliani

Sonata in E major, K. 380, L. 23 (41:39)
Sonata in D minor K.1, L. 366 (46:28)
by Domenico Scarlatti

Nocturno (48:55)
by Slavko Fumic

Encore –
Asturias (53:49)
by Isaac Albeniz

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(This may have been discussed elsewhere in this amazing thread but I searched on numerous words like speed, fast, and quick and didn’t find anything that matches my question . . .)

Is it just me or has there generally been a pretty dramatic increase in the speed (tempo) at which contemporary artists perform classical music today and in recent decades compared to, say, the way they performed in the 80s and earlier?

In recent years I returned to classical music after a long absence. I was quite shocked and seriously disappointed to find that so many of my favorite pieces, when listened to on the radio or streamed on services like Idagio (highly recommend) and Spotify (eww), now are performed much faster than when I listened to them back then. Sometimes they are performed so fast that it feels like the artist is in a speed contest, or rushing to catch a flight or something. The effect can be so dramatic that for me it completely changes the feel of the work.

I’ve gone back and listened to music on my old CDs and they generally are performed at noticeably slower tempo and (imho) are more expressive, less frantic and ‘athletic’.

A couple of years ago I did find one article about this phenomenon that compared play times on CDs for various pieces of classical music performed and recorded back in the day vs. more recently. The trend generally was that recent performances were shorter.

But I suppose this could also just be a combination of my taste, my aging, and everything generally speeding up these days . . .

 

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migongo, AJNorth, OscarCP, GarthP

Hi,

It isn’t anything I had noticed, to be honest, and I have been listening to classical music for more than 70 years. I must admit to not liking versions which are, in my mind, unduly slow, but as ever that depends on the performer(s). I was lucky enough to hear Otto Klemperer live once, and did notice the music was to a slightly slower tempo, but the way in which the music came over was tremendous – a feeling of majesty and control rather than being turgid. On the other hand, some performances are so slow and dispiriting I refuse to listen and switch off.

 

A particular piece that seems to attract this kind of performance is the Karelia Suite by Sibelius, where performances last as long as 18 minutes or as short as 14 minutes, whereas Wikipedia suggests it should be as little as 12 minutes. Certainly, the latter rather agrees with something I heard many years ago, which suggested the composer wanted it much quicker than most performances.

 

Nevertheless, here is a performance that is not unduly fast, yet seems to meet my feelings of how it should be played, and accords well with its rustic origins. Vladimir Fedoseyev with the USSR TV & Radio Orchestra from 1985.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IywxGV3_kk

 

That may of course dismay you if it is too fast, but provided one gets enjoyment, surely that is the real message of music.

 

Garth

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OscarCP

opti1: I can’t say I have noticed a general speeding up of tempo in more recent performers’ playing music from before they even existed, but then again, some people have a better sense of timing than others, and I have enough reason to suspect mine is not one of the best.

However I have noticed something like what you mention in some popular dancing music.

Garth, I must say that yours is better than the version of “Karelia” I have in my collection.

Now, since we are dealing with Jean Sibelius here, I’ll take advantage of this fact to add a few things for your consideration.

First, the much played “Valse Triste”, of which I offer two different interpretations:

The first might be fast enough for you, we’ll see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aihaQHzGZGQ

The second is definitely on the slow side, taken an extra 2 plus minutes compared to the one above, but, then again, this is a sad waltz, and fast and sad don’t agree too well, in my opinion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNuNRJF_Da8

Finally, here is some more Sibelius, that maybe is not too fast, not too slow, but just right? :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0w0t4Qn6LY

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GarthP

Oscar,

I prefer it slower I think, in this case. Indeed, for a Finnish conductor, I don’t think Jukka-Pekka Saraste does it justice; either that or the recording is flat and rather uninteresting. Ashkenazi in the second recording is better, and overall feels not that much slower; take off the full minute of applause at the end, there is not much time difference as one might suppose.

As an alternative, try this famous live recording by Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. Not quite as good technically, as it is older, but very satisfying nevertheless. I suspect opti might prefer this version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ls8-pk4IS4

Thanks for the Hilary Hahn / Mikko Franck version of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, I was not aware of it previously, and from first hearing it is impressive. And indeed just right for tempo!

Garth

Have you heard the Karelia Suite performed by Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting the VPO from 1963, HMV ASD 541 (EMI)?  This is my own “desert island” recording:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZYbTLzdLW0

(It was re-released in 1996 on CD as EMI – 7243 5 69134 2 4.)

 

(Incidentally, my two personal favorite Sibelius 5ths of the stereo era are those by Sir Alexander Gibson conducting the SNO from 1982 on Chandos and Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting the BBC S.O. from 1958, EMI.)

Cheers

 

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migongo, OscarCP, GarthP

The Sargent version is an old favourite, although it is on the borderline of being too fast for me in parts. It does have a real driving force behind it, giving it character. I’m not certain, but I think at one time I had a LP with this version, so good to hear it again.

Garth

Thanks, Garth and AJNorth.

The Karajan version of Sibelius’ “Sad Waltz” is more soulful than the other two I have posted, being also a little slower than these. There are three parts to this piece: a slow, sad, regretful beginning from the point of view of someone’s present lived without a hope of further happiness; it slowly brightens as the mind of the melancholic is taken over by a remembrance of happier times; but then the mood darkens again to deep sadness, because of the realization that that brief joy just felt, still tainted with regret, is nothing more than an evocation of ghosts of a past, and now irretrievable lost, happy and hopeful life.
Karajan’s version is a very good one, although it does not emphasize the “happier memories” part as much as I am used to hear it.

As to the Karelia suit: this Sargent version is the best I have heard posted in YouTube. A real treat, with the right Sibelian feeling for the natural world, the landscape and, in particular, the forests, of his native land.

Now here is one more from Sibelius, also a short one, based on one the many Finn legends that inspired him, this one not a really happy one, about a dead hero and his mother’s obsession with bringing him back to life by the shores of the River of Death, where he must live again to kill a swan that circles there round a fateful island, whose passing gliding by is evoked by the darker and haunting notes of a melody played on the English horn over muted strings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY_PE4TgRkM

And the 2nd Symphony, in a rousing performance by a German orchestra conducted by a definitely Finn lady, and one that I think might please Garth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXU8EXL7a_4

Plus some reading material on the Finn legend that inspired the first composition above:

https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/the-swan-of-tuonela/

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migongo, AJNorth, GarthP

Thanks, Oscar.

The 2nd symphony opening phrases always give me goose bumps in anticipation, and no difference this time. I must say though I have never seen anything before of this lady conductor, although I read she was an associate conductor in Los Angeles for a time. Incidentally, you are right, the performance suits my taste really well! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Swan of Tuonela is a little gem, and no matter about the sad story, that is essential Nordic! That story comes from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, which you mention albeit without naming it. That fits in exactly with something I want to pass on. One of Sibelius’ most treasured compositions I have is a box set of LPs with Kullervo, sometimes called a choral symphony. My version is the original recording with Paavo Berglund and dating from 1971. I have never needed to search on Youtube for it before, but I see it is there and well worth listening to. It is actually based on the Kalevala, so is closely connected to the Swan of Tuonela. It was the first successful composition of Sibelius, and contains a considerable amount of choral content, and being sung in Finnish, has a quite different sound to most European choral music, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pWnZrle_iM

Some of Sibelius’ best and most unusual music in my opinion.

Garth

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migongo, AJNorth, OscarCP

opti1, Garh, AJNorth:

I’ve found another performance of Kullervo, plus another two short compositions, with much the same forces, at least in the main title, as in the “Kullervo” one found and posted by Garth. It is not dated, but this “Kullervo” is not “Garth’s 1971 Kullervo”, as far as being the exact same recording he has, or had, in a box set of long-plays. I know it is not, because the names of the soprano and baritone are different, although the conductor is the same and the chorus is the Helsinki University Male Chorus, same as in the 1971 recording, although not necessarily the same singers. And it either includes a considerable number of strong male falsetto signers or of counter tenors, or perhaps a male children chorus. I think the sound of this recording is better. I wonder if opti1 might find the tempo is too fast.

I also think that this video has a better-looking background picture (the one in Garth’s makes me think too much of a double-scoop chocolate and Chantilly creme ice cream, and that is just not fair, since I cannot order this particular ice cream online — its delivery still frozen might be a problem):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ3vNr4EscQ

According to the story in the Kalevala, it looks like Kullervo had serious family issues:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kullervo

Good advice: be nicer to your kids, lest they grow up to have problems like Kullervo’s.

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migongo, AJNorth, GarthP

Now for a change of pace, here is something else.

Jacqueline du Pré, Cello, Daniel Barenboim, piano, Brahms’ Cello Sonata in E minor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XiYrzsgWto

She is one of the best cellists that have ever lived, certainly since the days, nearly a century ago, when reasonably good musical recordings became possible and widely available and perhaps since much earlier than that. This is my own opinion, but I am not alone in this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/arts/music/jacqueline-du-pre-cello-concert.html

She blazed in the musical heavens of our age and then, too soon, in the short span of thirteen years, went dark, stopped by a terrible illness that attacks women preferentially. But what she accomplished in those thirteen years is more than most fine musicians will ever get done if blessed with long performing careers.

 

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migongo, GarthP

The good violinist and her good violins.

If one listens to the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D Minor, with the American violinist Hilary Hahn as soloist and Mikko Franck conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (the a link to the YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0w0t4Qn6LY ), one thing that is truly remarkable is the very strong but also beautiful sound she can produce with her violin. In the hands of an accomplished violinist, to be sure, but it is obvious that while getting such a sound is in part a matter of skill, it is also in part a matter of the quality of the instrument itself. A quality that makes it possible to hear it always clearly, because its sound can be produced at the right volume whether in a soft and intimate passage, or in a virtuoso bravura one played while the whole orchestra is playing “fortissimo.”

So I got curious about this remarkable instrument and did a little research on it. And this is what came out:

Hahn has two Vuillaume violins: one made in 1864, a copy of a Guarneri “Cannone” (“Cannon”, because of the strong sound that could be produced with this model) that was the favorite of Paganini and so nearly identical to it that Paganini had trouble figuring out which was his violin and which the copy.
The other, made in 1865 and also by Vuillaume, is a copy of a Stradivarius and is the one she has been using in recent years and played the Sibelius with.

So who was this Vuillaume?

Vuillaume was a leading French violin maker and restorer as well as an inventor of musical instruments, active during much of the Nineteenth Century, who specialized in making nearly perfect copies of the violins from the best Italian luthiers, particularly those from Cremona:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Vuillaume

According to the Wikipedia article:

“Vuillaume was able to craft such a perfect replica of “Il Cannone”, that upon viewing them side by side, Paganini was unable to tell which was the original. He was able to recognize the master instrument only upon hearing subtle differences in tone during playing.

The copy was eventually passed on to Paganini’s only student, Camillo Sivori. Sivori owned great violins by Nicolò Amati, Stradivari, and Bergonzi, but the Vuillaume was his favourite. This instrument is now played by soloist Hilary Hahn.”

Hilary Hahn, in a 2019 interview at a big instrument’s dealer, told the story of her two Vuillaumes from her point o view as their user, her first being the 1864 replica of Paganini’s Cannone, that she has had since she was 14, and her second, a replica of a Stradivarius she acquired more recently and is the one she has been using in recent concerts although she still has the 1984 one.

https://tarisio.com/digital_exhibition/hilary-hahn-j-b-vuillaume-1865/

Now here is she playing the 1865 Vuillaume:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEBX_ouEw1I

And here, at an earlier stage in her career, with the 1864 replica of Paganini’s “Cannone”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzbC39utkTw

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migongo, GarthP

Thanks Oscar, there is some fascinating stuff in the links, including on the history of violin-making.

I was greatly taken by the data provided by the virtualmusic addition, never seen that before, and how it seems to emphasise the sheer technical expertise necessary for the top violin players.

The Bach Partita was an education as played by Hilary Hahn, and she so much appeared to be enjoying it. Rarely have I seen her without a ‘straight’ almost deadpan face. Tremendous!

As a Hilary encore, here she is playing a couple of famous and highly demanding pieces – and introducing them with a smile(!) and discussion. Fantastic.

Paganini Caprice #24 & Milstein’s Paganiniana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qOXw5ySxpQ

Garth

Garth,

Thank you so much for your comments on my rather belated little effort to bring some information here on instruments and not just on those who play them.

The YT video you have been kind enough to provide a link to is part of a concert when she was about twenty years old and was going around with a boyfriend that played guitar, both giving separate recitals at places like the one shown in the video, some church up in the hills near the Rockies, I believe. In the same recital she played the Ernst variations on “The Last Rose of Summer” that I put a link to the YT video earlier on in this thread and you could find, if you wanted to, by searching for “Rose.”

I discovered Hahn’s artistry watching this video, where at age 16 she is playing on her “Cannone” knock-off some little nothing by J.S.B.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngjEVKxQCWs

One thing I like particularly about her, and I am glad you have brought it up, is that she is mostly impassive while playing, with a look of serious concentration in the trickiest passages.
I have always found it frankly annoying in the YT videos of other performers when they make funny faces (often in close up) to show how deep they are into the feeling of the music.
That deep feeling is essential, but it has to be shown in the actual performance of the music using the instrument they are holding in their hands, because that is enough and should be all.

Or, in the case of some good-looking female violin players and pianists, in particular (Anne Sophie-Mutter, in earlier times, comes to mind), when they both mug it and play the sex kitten for the audience.
Something that Hahn could do, if she wanted, as she certainly has what is required for that, but she does not.
This woman’s job is to come up on stage on time, preferably sober, play and then, after some quick hugs with the conductor and a handshake with the first violin, a quick little applause to the colleagues in the orchestra and few bows of thanks for whatever appreciation the audience might demonstrate of her act, to turn around and leave.

She does that, she is all business, and I like this very much.

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GarthP

One of the great pianists of last century, Arthur Rubinstein, continued playing until he was in his nineties, and to do so as brilliantly as ever in spite the inevitable infirmities of old age, in his case progressive blindness above all:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rubinstein

Grieg wrote only one piano concerto, but it was a very great one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_(Grieg)

Old Rubinstein, sitting rod-straight on a perch stool in front of the piano and playing on it with his long and strong fingers that so impressed my paternal grandmother when she met him, can be seen here in the Grieg concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra and a young Andre Previn conducting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Yoyz6_Los

The video was filmed in 1975 and the picture is crisp enough, as is the sound. But the most remarkable thing to see here is the physical performance of this eighty eight years old pianist.

https://www.wfmt.com/2019/04/02/watch-arthur-rubinstein-perform-griegs-piano-concerto-at-age-88/

” Want proof that age is just a state of mind? Watch Arthur Rubinstein, one of the most acclaimed piano virtuosi of the 20th century, give an expert performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor with the London Symphony Orchestra and André Previn at the tender age of 88! ”

“ Rubinstein was half blind at the time of this performance — in an interview, he shared that he could no longer read or write. Despite that, Rubinstein assured that his love of life was “very unconditional.” What an inspiration! ”

In an interview, either this one or another, when he was asked how he could continue playing, and playing so very well, when he no longer could see the keyboard, he answered that he still knew where the keys were.

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GarthP, AJNorth

As a boy, I had the great privilege to hear this extraordinary human being perform the Grieg A-minor Concerto in early January of 1969 at Carnegie Hall, with Dr. Alfred Wallenstein conducting the Symphony of the Air (which had grown out of Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony Orchestra); the companion works were the Schumann Piano Concerto in A-minor and the Chopin Grand Fantasy on Polish Airs in A.

The following week at [the then] Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center I heard the same forces perform the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 in G-minor, the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in F-minor, and the Franck Symphonic Variations in F-minor; the encore was a repeat of the last movement of the Saint-Saëns.  Those two concerts-of-a-lifetime are as fresh in my memory as if they had occurred last week.

Posted on YouTube is a live recording of Rubinstein performing the Saint-Saëns 2nd, also with André Previn conducting the LSO (both the Grieg and the Saint-Saëns were part of a set filmed at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, London in 1975):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVCvJZtzkqQ

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OscarCP, GarthP, Alex5723

AJ, thanks indeed. What great performer Rubenstein was, and this performance at the age of 88! Complete mastery and such a light touch where it matters. I see from the comments following your original YT post that he had been playing the Saint-Saens for 75 years, and the first occasion in front of the composer himself (!) so his fingers would know the moves even if he had difficulty seeing the keys. I think there is not much doubt that he is one of the best piano players the world has ever seen, possibly only matched technically by Horowitz.

Garth

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AJNorth

You are more than welcome, Garth; thank you for your reply.

If the Saint-Saëns 2nd is a favorite work, then when the opportunity presents itself, my suspicion is that you will very much enjoy the 1958 Living Stereo recording mentioned in my YT comment, linked below (in an excellent transfer from the three-track master tape):

I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9egNdxFfg7A

II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph8b_3zjiu8

III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25l-XKl0FIk

 

There is also a later Rubinstein recording, made with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, recorded after the Philadelphia left Columbia Records and returned to RCA (their original label) recorded at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, 2 January 1969 (the time of the concert that I had attended) and released as LSC-3165 in 1970 (one of their unfortunate “Dynagroove” pressings).

Cheers, AJ

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GarthP

On a less serious note: the Saint-Saëns concert has been spoiled for me for life, because the theme in the opening and subsequently repeated through the piece was used, back in the Seventies, by a company, in Australia and perhaps elsewhere, selling toilet paper with the brand-name of “Lady Smith”, with TV and radio ads where a small group sang along with the Saint-Saëns theme in question a commercial ditty with the chorus: “It’s Lady Smith!/It’s Lady Smith!”

It turned out that there was an actual Lady Smith and that she sued the casually offending toilette-paper makers and that she won. But that commercial has got ever since on the way of my fully enjoying this masterpiece of composition for piano and orchestra. Sigh!

 

Among the other few greats of the piano of last century we are still fortunate to have with us, is the young-at-heart and still in great playing shape Martha Argerich, here playing with her childhood and life-long friend, also a musical prodigy, Daniel Barenboim conducting his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2And2thZDc0

Well, I didn’t realized that was just a short clip … To make up for that, here is Argerich and Barenboim playing Mozart’s Sonata for two pianos K448:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iePyP2HOr8

The YouTube notes say nothing about the date and place of this performance, but it was a few years ago and at the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they performed several times during a visit both made to their natal city and country.

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migongo, AJNorth, GarthP

I do not know if you have heard this one before: it is called something in French and probably you’ll find that listening to it is a waste of your time, but one never knows what some people might like. So I’ll put it here just in case:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yri2JNhyG4k

The pianist is someone called Claude. I don’t remember hearing of anyone called “Claude.”

Do you?

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Oscar,

I’m quite surprised that you don’t know this piece by Debussy, it is well-known, and very popular here in the UK. A beautiful, calming melody in my view, rather akin to Moonlight Sonata in its feel.

The name Claude is a quite regular French fore-name, with Debussy immediately coming to mind, so perhaps French music hasn’t surfaced much for you?

Garth

Garth, This thread is in “Fun Stuff.” This being so, and not necessarily for you benefit, as that might be unnecessary, I should point out that there are a few things that, in past months, I have put here and there about “Claude” and his works in this thread (e.g. #2138875 ). So there is more “Clair de Lune” here that meets the eye.

But it is gratifying to see that people still look for, and also quite encouraging that they can still find out what is going on in this thread, even when the “Recent Replies” section at the top of the side bar has gone the way of all things that Susan decides that have to go.

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From AJ North – just posting on his behalf:

Speaking of Debussy, an often-overlooked work is his “Petite Suite” (L 65), written in his early twenties (from 1886-89).  Originally composed for piano four hands, it was orchestrated by Debussy’s good friend Henri Büsser in 1907 (there have also since been numerous transcriptions for various instruments).

Of the many performances posted on YouTube, here is one that is especially pleasing to my ears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAUmXvspYTA.

An excellent essay on this work may be found in the program notes of the San Francisco Symphony: https://www.sfsymphony.org/Data/Event-Data/Program-Notes/D/Debussy-Petite-Suite.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Thanks! It is a lovely thing here performed beautifully by what I am guessing, going by its name “Tapiola Symphonieta”, is a Finn small orchestra.

The opening section (“En Bateau”), a sort of barcarole, always gives me goose pimples when I hear, in its orchestral version, the theme played by the two flutes right at the beginning. This composition is also easy to listen, maybe because it was intentionally written (originally for piano four hands) to be easy to play.

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migongo, GarthP, AJNorth

I’ll take Philip Glass’ classical minimalism over anything except maybe a good Mozart symphony.

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Phillip Glass is not a favorite of mine, although I have been known to enjoy listening to something from him, occasionally. Even if I don’t think he is a second Beethoven or a second J.S. Bach.

It will help to make a point on anything musical to provide some choice example(s), preferable with links to YouTube videos of  illustrative good performances.

I am always hoping for that, by the way.

Take this, for example:

Philip Glass’ “Einstein on the Beach” (a 7.5-minutes short segment excerpt), by an enthusiastic group that includes some nice-looking young ladies in the front row that seem to be doing nothing at the moment, besides letting themselves be looked at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtgpVDeP6Gk

It never fails to move me to tears that song “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol.”, as I have always been particularly susceptible to solfeo, solfège, sol-fa, or any other name you may prefer to call it).

(Also, please don’t forget that this thread  is in the “Fun Stuff” forum.)

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I seem to remember seeing that opera in the 70’s. Why? I do not know as I am not an opera fan. I also seem to remember a person named Ping or Pong associated with it. Maybe I am conflating thing here. 😁😵

OscarCP wrote:

Philip Glass’ “Einstein on the Beach”

PS I really hope my emojis don’t cause this post to be dumped by the emoji-phobe moderator.

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

Wavy: There is a Ping,  a Pang and a Pong, three courtiers of a Chinese Emperor, in Puccini’s opera “Turandot”, shown here in a performance that took place inside the Forbidden City of Beijing, no less, the video linked and the production discussed here earlier on. So maybe you are conflating things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turandot#/media

 

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Fred

As to “Einstein on the Beach” and such like: I don’t think that Philip Glass was founded by the CIA to compose it, as it did some American abstract impressionist painters during the Cold War, to promote an image abroad that we were not all a bunch of unsophisticated yahoos here. But he might as well have been:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html

And when it comes to American abstract impressionists, I do like the work of some of those CIA-sponsored ones, for example Jackson Pollock, and most heartily dislike that of others, such as Mark Rothko. In case anyone here wanted to know.

As to why was Wavy at a performance of “Einstein on the Beach”? I wouldn’t know, but if it had been me there, most likely it would have been because I was interested in some good-looking female that had shown signs of corresponding my feelings and happened also to be a culture vulture, thus my presence in the audience in a seat next to hers.

Jackson Pollock “Hot Stuff”

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Now, for a change of pace, and since there has been too little Bizet here so far (except for the theme in “The Pearl Fishers” that, as I have explained in an earlier comment, once heard one can’t ever get rid of hearing it in one’s head, I am putting here a link to this work of his:

“L’Arlesianne” Suites No 1 and No 2, with Nathalie Stutzmann, conducting the· Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and (according to the YT Notes) Recorded at Stockholm Concert Hall, October 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBlNa9_RCNw

And she sings, too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathalie_Stutzmann

In this thread, she can be heard singing here: #2326182

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migongo

As the great Martin Bookspan (who passed at 94 on 29 April) once quipped, “Who would you rather have conducting French orchestral music more than Sir Thomas Beecham?  I can think of no one.”  (With the greatest respect to Mr. Bookspan, I should add at least one: Dr. Charles Munch.)

In my experience, no one has conducted the L’Arlésienne Suites any better than Sir Thomas.  He dispatches every movement of these two suites with characteristic humor, refinement, and swagger, as the situation may demand.  The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plays with an assured air of authority, as though they knew that no one would ever match them in these performances. No one ever has, really (IMHO).

Recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 2, London in 1957, the recording quality is truly astonishing – particularly in this new transfer from analog to digital made a few months ago from the original master tapes by Reference Recordings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C8ioKL4rfQ.

Also not to be overlooked is Bizet’s splendid Symphony in C.  Once again, Sir Thomas takes pride of place in this recording with the French National Radio Orchestra, made at Salle Wagram, Paris in 1959 (this excellent A-to-D transfer was made in 2000): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAb5IIBcaLc.

(Moderator: Please delete the duplicate, posted as anonymous Guest. Thank you.)

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migongo, OscarCP, GarthP

AJNorth: These two performances by Beecham that you have linked in your comment are most beautiful. I have downloaded both and they are now in my collection.

There is a discrepancy between the YouTube notes that say Beecham was conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the text in the picture of what is supposed to be the cover of the long-play, that says is the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française.

Also “L’Arlesienne” had a bumpy story, from incidental music to a theater play that failed, to the two suites played sometimes together and composed in two separate instances, with the second being premiered after the death of Bizet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Arl%C3%A9sienne_(Bizet)

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AJNorth

TEST

Bach Double Violin Concerto – Yehudi Menuhin And David Oistrakh, violins. 1958 recording with the Orchestra of the Radio et Télévision Françoise conduced by Philippe Capdevielle, producer Philippe Truffaut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJh6i-t_I1Q

No introduction? Listen to find out why.

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migongo

More than half a century later:

J.S. Bach concerto for violin and oboe in C minor BWV 1060.

Hilary Hahn, Allan Vogel, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane conductor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erwt9IexcCA

The second movement is a favorite of mine.

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migongo, Lars220

I am a newcomer to classical music, and now OscarCP has sparked a new interest for me. I have just recently read that a multitude of health and well being benefits are available for those who listen to and appreciate classical music and its soothing effects. Over the years many medical researchers have come to this conclusion. I read the UK Sky News and came across this recent news article that discusses the ‘Mozart Effect’ to help prevent epileptic seizures. It seems there is a study and something medically special found with Wolfgang Mozart’s Sonata For Two Pianos:
‘Mozart effect’: Listening to composer’s Sonata For Two Pianos K448 can prevent epileptic seizures, study finds
By Amar Mehta – Saturday 19 June 2021 – Sky News UK
“Researchers say listening to Mozart can lead to a decrease in epileptiform discharges, the brain waves that can cause seizures.”
Because my curiosity overwhelmed me, I decided to hear this music, so off to YouTube website to hunt for this magical medical special music.
There are many videos of this Sonata for Two Pianos, with many lasting
around 24 minutes long, which is a little too long for this beginner, but I searched and found an introductory video with two talented students.
Here is a 2016 YouTube video that is 5:46 minutes, and features two young middle school students playing just beautifully. The piece was recorded live as part of the 21st Annual Young Ensembles Concert.
Our gifted students names are: Benjamin Rossen and Eugene Hong.
Mozart: Sonata in D major for Two Pianos, K 448: I. Allegro con spirito

Amazing Truths Revealed: Link to Simply Magnificent AskWoody Knowledge Bases

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Alex5723, migongo, OscarCP, GarthP

Thanks, an excellent performance. Those young kids looked very composed, if that’s the right word.

Garth

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Lars220

Thanks, Lars220 for this sample of the two pianos sonata.

The complete sonata, played by Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich, is here in this thread: #2351366

It is always a special pleasure and a reassurance to listen to good young players, such as these, as they are the promise of continuity in the performance of great music. Another great example of young people who are already serious artists in their own right is also here, playing one of Beethoven’s quartets with exceptional understanding of this profound and profoundly moving composition: #2189999

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Lars220, migongo

And there is another beautiful performance by another quartet of young players here: #2124498 interpreting Beethoven’s last of the Last Quartets, the No. 15, the “Song to Heaven”, that he wrote as an act of thanksgiving, when recuperating of an illness, and was one of the last of his major compositions, as Death was then just two years away from claiming him.

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migongo

This one performance of Mozart is remarkable:

Mozart’s Concerto for three pianos and orchestra in F major, No. 7, K. 242, known as ‘Lodron’, being performed at the 2015 Verbier Festival. The three piano soloists are Daniil Trifonov, Denis Matsuev, and Valery Gergiev, with Gergiev simultaneously conducting the Verbier Festival Orchestra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZXLoizK-7o

 

I hope you enjoy it. Best regards.

 

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Lars220

I just discovered something I want to share here.

Franz Schubert String Quintet in C Major, D. 956, played by the Borodin Quartet — augmented with a second, unnamed, cellist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3iX7x73JY

I refer those reading to the YoutTube Notes accompanying this particular interpretation by one of the great and also one of the longest in existence of all string quartets still taking to the stage:

“Played by The Borodin Quartet With Alexander Buzlov (cello) – The Quintet was to be Schubert’s last completed chamber work. Just a few weeks after having completed the Quintet, Schubert died at three o’clock in the afternoon on November 19, 1828. It is widely believed to be among the handful of greatest chamber works ever composed.”

“The Borodin Quartet was formed in 1945 by four students from the Moscow Conservatory. Calling itself the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet, the group changed its name to Borodin Quartet ten years later and remains one of the very few existing established chamber ensembles with uninterrupted longevity. The current members of the Quartet are Ruben Aharonian, Sergei Lomovsky, Igor Naidin and Vladimir Balshin.“

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migongo

I have found very interesting the message from @opti1 (https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/arent-these-the-greatest-performances-of-
classical-music/#post-2368227) and the debate that subsequent messages generated regarding the use and abuse of “tempo” in classical music. Notable is, in this case, the video that I share here. It is a rehearsal of the Concerto for Ravel’s piano, which is already an emblematic piece in the repertoire of the great Argentine pianist Martha Argerich, in which the conductor of the orchestra is the Swiss Charles Dutoit (who, by the way, is the ex husband of Martha Argerich).

The video is interesting not only because it reveals the implications of the orchestral conducting and the necessary relationship that must be established among this one, the performing soloist and the orchestra, but also for revealing how “tempo” is to be managed in that relationship. Here are some topics it contains, indicating, in parentheses, the corresponding time in the video:

1.- Trumpeter’s mistake (because of the “tempo”?) (1:05)

2.- “Do you want to regain the tempo?” (Director Dutoit’s comment to Martha Argerich) (2:25)

3.- … this concert is NEVER played the same way twice (Dutoit’s comment) (3:00)

4.- … Comment from a musician in the orchestra: “It runs a lot” –referring to Martha Argerich–. However, the director, without taking it into
account, says to Marta: “Go on, inspire us” (4:15)

5.- A musician’s complaint, which others echo, because the percussion is late (4:48)

6.- The director asks the phagot about the tempo he is using (5:14)

7.- Comment Dutoit, with an anecdote about Martha and a bassoon player, which occurred in a previous rehearsal: “Miss, will this be her
tempo”? (5:39)

8.- “IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING A MUSICIAN AND WORKING IN AN ART THAT LIVES IN CONTINUOUS RENEWAL” (Director’s comment) (11:45)

9.- “… painting is permanent, sculpture is permanent. But music must be transmitted through human beings, through musicians to be heard, so it is clear that in this system MAY HAVE MANY VARIATIONS AND A LOT OF PROGRESS TO MAKE “Ditto (12:02)

…etc. The rehersal holds many more revealing surprises, discover them by watching the video. DO NOT FORGET TO ACTIVATE YOUTUBE SUBTITLES.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hVbEDn5F4

Finally, my recognition and gratitude to @OscarCP for having started this topic that has already become the second most popular in this forum
(something unusual and an oasis on a site considered, mostly, for technical support purpuoses).

P.S .: Those “many variations and progress” to which Dutoit refers are what imprints a permanent dynamism in the music, making possible
“diversions” and improvisations that, in the in the case of the following video, they constitute masterful interpretations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOCqYVBEH5g

Best regards.

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OscarCP, GarthP

What an interesting rehearsal, albeit short and with the odd raw edge. What a performer is Martha Argerich! Quite a tempestuous life, which I hadn’t quite realised until I read this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/martha-argerich-is-a-legend-of-the-classical-music-world-but-she-doesnt-act-like-one/2016/12/01/117095b4-b104-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html

Garth

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migongo

If I were a concert soloist, I think every time I would go on stage with an orchestra I would be scare to make a big unfakable mistake, so bad that then the conductor would stop the music and all the musicians will give me their dirtiest looks, hating me already as they will for the rest of their lives for having embarrassed all of them in front of  paying audience and spoiled all their hard work rehearsing the piece, and writing letters to other musicians in other orchestras, with me ending black-listed from playing again other than as a busker shaking a cup at the end of my impromptu performances at subway stations and the like. Which would be really hard to do if my instrument were the piano.

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migongo

Martha? Yes, she likes it rapid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5J56WwIRPs

Someone observed, once upon a time that ” “I have a cerebellum the size of a melon, OK?” is her excuse.”

And yes, she has lived an interesting life and also has come down with melanoma, twice. And has a daughter that has had plenty to say about all that.

But she is still beating up the old ivories as nicely and as fast as ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuPr9m98XQQ

She, in her own way, is qualifying for being a second Rubinstein in a sort-of-Earth-mother-but-colorful peasant skirts ca. 1960s (see also some comments on Rubinstein earlier in this thread here #2370366 ).

I lament not to have found in YouTube a performance of her playing Liszt piano-busting “Transcendental Studies”, because that would be really something to see and hear.

But there is this, playing Beethoven’s No 2, with her old friend Daniel Barenboim conducting his West-Eastern Divan orchestra, as consolation prize:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_5FQh2bXo8

(The encore is a piece by the Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino, dedicated to the memory a favorite of a well-liked and talented local musician and mutual friend of him and Martha who had died some time before. Barenboim asks the audience not to applaud; the audience complies and the concert ends in silence.)

And that Scarlatti? She definitely killed it.

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migongo

Here, more Beethoven, performed by another grand lady of the piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lvBQJjxw4c

Mitsuko Uchida plays Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 4 in G major, Op 58
with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mariss Jansons, conductor, during the 2013 BBC Proms, in the Albert Hall.

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Fred, migongo

This is a place for the classic and also, and therefore, for the extraordinary, for the truly great.

Of movies’ music we already have had that of Ennio Morricone here.
And now I am going to indulge myself.

To get in the subject, nothing better than this introduction:

Roger Ebert on Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke”

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/princess-mononoke-1999

“I go to the movies for many reasons. Here is one of them. I want to see wondrous sights not available in the real world, in stories where myth and dreams are set free to play. Animation opens that possibility, because it is freed from gravity and the chains of the possible. Realistic films show the physical world; animation shows its essence.

Animated films are not copies of “real movies,” are not shadows of reality, but create a new existence in their own right. True, a lot of animation is insipid, and insulting even to the children it is made for. But great animation can make the mind sing.

Hayao Miyazaki is a great animator, and his “Princess Mononoke” is a great film. Do not allow conventional thoughts about animation to prevent you from seeing it. It tells an epic story set in medieval Japan, at the dawn of the Iron Age, when some men still lived in harmony with nature and others were trying to tame and defeat it. It is not a simplistic tale of good and evil, but the story of how humans, forest animals and nature gods all fight for their share of the new emerging order. It is one of the most visually inventive films I have ever seen.”

Japan is a great nation, the cradle of great art, and some great works of cinematography have been created there:

Yasujiro Ozu: Floating Weeds, Tokyo Story, the Noriko Trilogy

Akira Kurosawa: Seven Samurai, Ran, Throne of Blood

Hayao Miyasaki: Princes Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro

Isao Takahata: Grave of the Fireflies, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Only Yesterday.

Music is one key element in the movies of Miyasaki, Takahata and the other gifted creators of Studio Ghibli. The composer of the music of all the movies, Joe Hisaishi (artistic name), conducts a very large orchestra, a very large chorus and several excellent soloist singers in a concert presenting a selection of the music and songs of the movies by Miyasaki, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Studio, at the great arena of Tokyo, the Budokan, in the presence of a huge and appreciative audience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY1XtWyKlJA

This was also a celebration of the composer, pianist and conductor Hisaishi.  Miyasaki is seen in a video giving a short recorded speech, not translated. But he was actually in the hall and towards the end of the concert he presents Hisaishi with a bouquet of flowers.

For Ghibli fans, the movies from where the music has been excerpted are these:

0:44 – 10:55 : Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind
11:35 – 19:25 : Princess Mononoke
19:40 – 29:20 : Kiki’s Delivery Service
31:00 – 49:55 : Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
50:30 – 1:01:00 : Castle in the Sky
1:01:53 – 1:07:00 : Porco Rosso
1:08:42 – 1:20:58 : Howl’s moving Castle
1:22:05 – 1:30:27 : Spirited Away
1:31:02 – 1:41:10 : My Neighbor Totoro

“But great animation can make the mind sing.” Roger Ebert.

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migongo

Among the great works of chamber music of the XIX Century, perhaps few are most loved than Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata”, that he dedicated to a famous violinist of that day of that name. Who did not like the work in the least and never played it.

Also few of the classical music performers of last century were as gifted and admired as the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and the pianist Wilhelm Kempff. To make this recording of the Kreutzer, both came together one day in June of 1970 to perform this masterpiece and, in so doing, creating one of their own:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0HOLRiKZkE

 

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David Oistrakh, violin and Lev Oborin, piano in Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.5, Op.24,       “the Spring Sonata”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfm-zJLYWB8

This is my favorite of all of Beethoven sonatas, in a truly wonderful interpretation.

Thanks YouTube, for existing!

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Fred

I have recently commented here ( #2372761  ) on a 2-hour long concert that took place in August of 2008, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the creation of the signal animation company “Studio Ghibli” in Japan. The concert itself was huge in the numbers of the public, the musicians and the several choruses massed together in a huge arena in Tokyo.

Now I have a question of practical nature about something that deeply intrigues me:

“Altogether there were some 1160 musicians and singers on stage” (*)

How could such huge performing forces play together? It seems to me extraordinary that they managed to hit the right notes together most of the time. But, at least to my not the most critical of ears, they not only did that, but managed to do it very, very well. I liked the way they sounded and I enjoyed the long and multitudinous performance as I would any ordinarily well-performed concert by a good orchestra conducted by a very good Maestro.

How is this possible is a mystery maybe someone may be able to explain here?

Thanks

 

(*) For further information on the dimensions of the forces involved and the public in attendance:

Quoting from this article:

https://soundcloud.com/joe-hisaishi/budokan-studio-ghibli-25-years-concert-joe-hisaishi

” “Joe Hisaishi in Budokan” was a concert given on 4 and 5 (plus an added performance on 6) August 2008 at Tokyo’s 14,000-seat Nippon Budokan venue commemorating both the Japanese theatrical premiere of Ponyo and the 25 years of musical collaboration between composer Joe Hisaishi and film maker Hayao Miyazaki.

This massive concert featured performances of these signature Miyazaki film scores composed by Hisaishi, conducting from the piano, and the 200-member New Japan Philharmonic World Dream Orchestra, along with six featured vocalists, the 800 combined voices of the Ippan Koubo, Ritsuyuukai and Little Singers of Tokyo choirs, plus a 160-piece marching band. Altogether there were some 1160 musicians and singers on stage, backed by images from Miyazaki’s films projected on a giant screen.

These performances were recorded and broadcast by NHK in two versions – an edited 1-hour version aired on NHK on 31 August, and the full concert aired on the NHK satellite channel BS2 on 23 September 2008. “

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migongo

Somehow the announcements didn’t come through in my email. I hope this has chaned / will change.
Jaan van Zweden is conducting in the USA, but when will he perform again in these coronatimes ?

* _ ... _ *

Fred: Yes, Jaap van Zweden is conducting here, and has three concerts with the NY Philharmonic scheduled for next month; the first one is for July 8, 21, and 23.

This is his July program with New York Philharmonic; look for it, down the page, under “Featured Events”:

https://nyphil.org/

In the NY Philharmonic Web site there are videos of concerts one can watch as a subscriber or during a “free trial.” Maybe there will be one of these July van Sweden concerts?

There is a link there to a historical video of a concert with him conducting this orchestra in one of Wagner’s “Ring” operas (or some part of one).

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migongo, Fred

When Jaap van Zweden was playing the 1st violin in the ConcertgebouwOrkest I loved his toch of tones.
Now he is conducting it is much more difficult for me to have an opinion, just that the music he conducts is fantastic.

* _ ... _ *

Here is an interpretation of Schubert’s bewitching “Fantasy in F minor”, played at four hands by two gifted pianists that poured out the magic in it, as this composition demands, winning a deserved standing ovation at the end.

If you want to know why and how, please listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLAYqhxWiGk

Schubert “Fantasy in F minor” played by Martha Argerich and Eduardo Delgado at El Círculo Theater, in Rosario, Argentina on October 25, 2012.

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Fred

quite right, and the brothers Jussen are rising aswell
https://youtu.be/UyjzqPPXDcw 

* _ ... _ *

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AJNorth, OscarCP

Very clean and clearly played! Nicely done, the video, as well.

I did not know about the Jussen brothers. Looking at the video I thought maybe they are twins, but no: one, Lucas, is three and a half years older than the other:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_%26_Arthur_Jussen

Interesting that they did not need to look at a score, or even keep their eyes open, to remember the notes to play and also to keep in sync with each other, as Argerich and Delgado had to. While neither Argerich, nor Delgado, nor most concert pianists are likely to play often anything at four hands, and practicing each by himself, without the other, is not such a great idea, the two brothers most likely practice together when preparing for a concert with the two of them playing something like Schubert’s “Fantasy” in the program.

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Fred, AJNorth

Indeed.

To call the brothers Jussen extraordinary is an understatement — whether playing together or individually.

To my ears, Arthur takes pride of place with his reading of the late Brahms Intermezzo in A, Op. 118, No. 2 (completed just four years before his passing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wo4IPNMzWQ.  That he was sixteen years old in this performance is beyond words.

One could literally build the foundation of a basic repertoire of piano music (of the highest caliber) from the recordings the brothers have posted on YouTube.

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migongo, OscarCP, Fred

Another 16th year old played the three partitas for solo violin of J.S. Bach in her debut album and was an astonishing thing to hear, and still is. If you are curious, here is the Chaconne of Partita No. 2: #2300415 , a deeply expressive musical work that Bach composed while mourning the recent death of his first wife, and is a piece that to violinists (and to performers of about any of the many more or less suitable instruments it has been transcribed for, perhaps even the kazoo) is like a touchstone that reveals if a shiny bit of rock is gold or some baser stuff.

So mid to late teens might, perhaps, be the age when those truly musically gifted, that started as child prodigies, come into their own.

Here, for those interested, is a whole roster of musical prodigies, most of them with very familiar names:

https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/pictures/composer/classical-musics-child-prodigies/young-beethoven/

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migongo, Fred

Now and for a while, I have not placed, nor has someone else placed a comment with a link to an opera. So here is one to an excellently-recorded 1980 performance of Amilcare Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda”, or “The Joyful Woman”, whose main protagonist was neither joyful nor fortunate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Gioconda_(opera)

This is the recording of that performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI4sWZQv-24

And this, the stellar cast:

LA GIOCONDA: Montserrat Caballé

LAURA ADORNO: Agnes Baltsa

ALVISE BADOERO: Nicolai Ghiaurov

LA CIECA: Alfreda Hodgson

ENZO GRIMALDO: Luciano Pavarotti

BARNABA: Sherrill Milnes

ZUANE John Del Carlo

UN CANTORE: Stephen Varcoe

ISEPO: Regolo Romani

UN PILOTA Neil Jenkins

The LONDON OPERA CHORUS with the NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA – Bruno Bartoletti Conductor.

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migongo

And while I am at it, then why not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQCysbz2cVk

A 1976 performance of:

Giuseppe Verdi “Il Trovatore”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_trovatore

Manrico: Luciano Pavarotti
Leonora: Joan Sutherland
Il Conte di Luna: Ingvar Wixell
Azucena: Marilyn Horne
Ferrando: Nicolai Ghiaurov
Ruiz: Graham Clark
Ines: Norma Burrowes
vecchio zingaro: Peter Knapp
Un messo: Wynford Evans

London Opera Chorus; National Philharmonic Orchestra Richard Bonynge Conductor.

If “La Stupenda” was in it, in top form, as Leonora, one can’t go wrong, so why not listen?

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migongo

Opera? So let me contribute one of the most famous (and beautiful) Russian operas, performed by one of the most famous (and beautiful) orchestras and operatic company in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un1rtMjtYzMn

Alexander Borodin’s opera: “Prince Igor” Kirov Opera (St. Petersbrug, Russia) Conducting: Valery Gergiev.

“Polovetsian dances” (at 1:22:00 point of the video) is una of the most beauty opera arragement, combining chorus and ballet dances.

Here is the second part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys_4mIyktW0

Best regards!

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OscarCP, GarthP

Agreed! One of the best operas, and the overture is wonderful. Altogether a great performance.

Garth

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migongo

Music can do many good things to those who truly listen to it, but one of the most important has been to keep people anchored to their own humanity during very dark times in history.

One such episode was during the dark days of the siege of Sarajevo, during the bloody internecine war of Serbs against Bosnians, when a cello player performed in the rubble of such an attack, for 22 successive days, one day for each of those who were killed there, sitting on his stool in plain view of the attackers that occupied some of the surrounding hills and ruthlessly sniped with rifles and lobbed mortar shells against the people living in the surrounded city. His name was Vedram Smailovic.

Another example, more diffuse and much longer lasting, was that of the performances of the Borodin Quartet from the darkest days of Stalin purges trough the end of the Soviet Union. They collaborated with Dmitri Shostakovich, a great composer that expressed in his music something that resonated with the tormented Russian people of those days, while managing to remain free, protected by the reputation of is immense talent (and by Stalin declaring that Shostakovich was of some kind of magician and was best not to mess around with him), while less fortunate and less known intellectual friends were exiled, imprisoned, murdered.

Here is an example of their talent, in this heavenly interpretation of Beethoven’s string quartet No. 15, known also as the “Song of Thanks to Heaven” quartet after the name of the third movement, that was composed after he recovered from one of his several episodes of serious illness, in 1825, two years before his death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK75WCcUDkM

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Fred, migongo

A moving tribute, in rock opera, to the people of Sarajevo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWXQdw-YvVM

Lyrics:

Is there a time for keeping your distance
A time to turn your eyes away
Is there a time for keeping your head down
For getting on with your day
Is there a time for kohl and lipstick
A time for curling hair
Is there a time for high street shopping
To find the right dress to wear
Here she comes
Heads turn around
Here she comes
To take her crown
Is there a time to run for cover
A time for kiss and tell
Is there a time for different colours
Different names you find it hard to spell
Is there a time for first communion
A time for East Seventeen
Is there a time to turn to Mecca
Is there time to be a beauty queen
Here she comes
Beauty plays the clown
Here she comes
Surreal in her crown
Dici che il fiume
Trova la via al mare
E come il fiume
Giungerai a me
Oltre i confini
E le terre assetate
Dici che come il fiume
Come il fiume…
L’amore giungerà
L’amore…
E non so più pregare
E nell’amore non so più sperare
E quell’amore non so più aspettare
Is there a time for tying ribbons
A time for Christmas trees
Is there a time for laying tables
And the night is set to freeze

Info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Sarajevo

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OscarCP, Fred

I remember well the occasion that song was about; how could anyone forget it? While being encircled and gunned down from the hills, while all the European governments, to their eternal shame, were firmly looking the other way, careful nor to be involved in a genocidal war that was a brutal denial of European civilization, they attempted to bring a touch of civilized normal life to the infernal circle where they had been confined by their foes, by staging a beauty parade with women of the religious groups that had lived side by side in relative harmony in the days before the civil war, when there was only one country, Yugoslavia. It was a magnificent thing for them to do, even when their situation was most hopeless. It did not change it: the siege went on for years, but it was an honorable act of affirmation of the hope that beauty, love, generosity and mutual respect can prevail, in the end, over cynicism, hatred and murderous tribalism.

There was an earlier, and I think most remarkable concert in 1994, during the siege, not classical, but a classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpR2-_o4duU

And in this video, Yo-Yo Ma interprets Albinoni’s Adagio in C, that was famously played by the cellist Smailovic during the siege of Sarajevo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpTem6mWv3Y

Vedram Smailovic playing his cello in Sarajevo during the siege.

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migongo

Here is some organ music, a kind only sparsely represented so far in the comments in this thread.

This is the Sonata in C Minor “The 94th Psalm” for solo organ, by Julius Reubke – Nathan Laube is the organist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHCW4ZQI9us

It is described in Wickipedia as “The Sonata on the 94th Psalm in C minor is a sonata for solo organ by Julius Reubke, based on the text of Psalm 94. It is considered one of the pinnacles of the Romantic repertoire. ”

To my ears, it sounds surprisingly modern. For more information on this masterpiece:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonata_on_the_94th_Psalm

And for those curious about the biblical text reflected in this composition, this is a modern version of the Psalm in question, which is mostly about the divine punishment of the wicked and the divine avenging of the victims of their ill-deeds:

Psalm 94

1
The Lord is a God who avenges.
O God who avenges, shine forth.
2
Rise up, Judge of the earth;
pay back to the proud what they deserve.
3
How long, Lord, will the wicked,
how long will the wicked be jubilant?

4
They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.
5
They crush your people, Lord;
they oppress your inheritance.
6
They slay the widow and the foreigner;
they murder the fatherless.
7
They say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob takes no notice.”

8
Take notice, you senseless ones among the people;
you fools, when will you become wise?
9
Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?
Does he who formed the eye not see?
10
Does he who disciplines nations not punish?
Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?
11
The Lord knows all human plans;
he knows that they are futile.

12
Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord,
the one you teach from your law;
13
you grant them relief from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked.
14
For the Lord will not reject his people;
he will never forsake his inheritance.
15
Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.

16
Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
17
Unless the Lord had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
18
When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.
19
When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought me joy.

20
Can a corrupt throne be allied with you—
a throne that brings on misery by its decrees?
21
The wicked band together against the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
22
But the Lord has become my fortress,
and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.
23
He will repay them for their sins
and destroy them for their wickedness;
the Lord our God will destroy them.

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My compliments on your choice of music and musician. I am an organ lover from two standpoints: playing the instrument and listening to organists, and the technical side of the organ and how the technology and the organist are both key in producing a great work.

I have never played this sonata, but the recital on this instrument was masterful. The skill of the organist is much more than the technical skill with which the fingers and feet attack the notes. For wonderfully designed and constructed organs, such as this fine tracker organ, the selection of stops is the key to success–especially for a work such as this sonata with its dark yet meaningful passages. If the organist chooses a different combination of stops, the effect may lose a great deal, or may even evaporate.

The American Guild of Organists is well known for selecting masterful combinations of organs and organists for recitals at its conventions. This combination of the sonata, the organ, and the organist just might be the best I have ever seen.

Bravo, my friend.

Ken Stephens

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OscarCP

I am not a connoisseur of organs, so it has attracted my attention how in this modern instrument some preselected stop settings are “speed-dialed” by the organist pushing the corresponding button in a row just beneath the lower manual keyboard.

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Kenneth Stephens

Yes, for many pipe organs, it is possible (and quite necessary for rapid changes) to have the ability to push one button to make a change of many stops at once.  Thus, the organist can pre-select the changes well before the performance.  Virtually no pipe organs have pre-selected stop combinations for music styles.  The exception is certain electronic “pipe” organs that have tried to do that, but without much success.  After all, if you have an organ of 64 stops, think of the large number of possible combinations.

I have always been fascinated that some of the many stop combinations in a large organ will produce very disagreeable sounds.  The reason is that the frequencies combine to produce bad harmonics.  Some organ builders recognize this and in a subtle fashion make it more difficult for a less-than-master organist to produce such combinations accidentally.

One of my favorite organ stories is something that actually happened with Johann Sebastian Bach.  In his time, the tuning scheme for keyboard instruments was not as standardized as it is today.  The musical scale is actually quite mathematical for dividing the frequencies into 12 parts for an octave.  If the division is done purely mathematically, it is not completely consistent with how the human ear hears sounds.  If the tuner makes some of the frequencies higher and some lower, then it sounds better.  That is called “tempered.”

One of the most famous organ builders of his day believed in the old, more purely mathematical tuning.  Bach believed in tempered tuning.  Bach was asked by the church to play the inaugural concert on a new organ built by this famous builder.  Bach intentionally composed a piece, “The Well-Tempered Klavier (keyboard),” that would magnify tuning problems.

When Bach began playing, the organ builder instantly knew what Bach had done, and the builder is said to have run up to Bach, pulled his wig off his head, and stomped on it.

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wavy

Thanks, kstephens43 for your answer on the technical solutions to an organ player’s dilemma of having either to be a good gymnast, or have assistants to pull out or push in the stops.

I particularly like the bit of information you gave on the motivation behind the creation of such a monumental work as “The Well-Tempered Clavier”, that I always thought it was a series of examples and exercises on the use of a tempered scale Bach was promoting, which I am sure it was. But Bach writing it also to show in a most direct, practical and convincing way to the maker of the new organ (and to instrument makers in general) that the mathematical (Pythagorean) tuning was not the very best one from the listener’s point of view, as well as from that of the performer (as noted in the  article below), to me it is most interesting, because of what it says of J.S.B’s character and personality!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_temperament

And is also in line with what is shown in this reenactment of the meeting between the king of Prussia and J.S. Bach, who had come to visit one of his musician sons who was employed at the court, and was also when he got the invitation, and challenge, to compose something a little bit more complicated using as a theme a few notes the musician king then played on his flute and that became known as the “Thema Regium” or “King’s Theme”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdmcabpiGYU

(The result was “The Musical Offering.”)

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wavy, Kenneth Stephens

Great points!  Your research is superb.

Until I heard the story about Bach and the organ builder, I thought that Bach was stern and all business.  After hearing the story, I concluded that Bach probably had a great sense of humor.

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OscarCP

Minimalist music is not everybody’s cup of tea and neither is mine, generally speaking.

But I have discovered an exception – to me a huge exception – in the music of Arvo Pärt, an Estonian composer of both secular and religious music that, according to Wikipedia, “From 2011 to 2018, Pärt was the most performed living composer in the world, and the second most performed in 2019.” One might wonder about such statistics, but listening to his music, that spans a variety of styles, I think I can hear why this might be true.

Here is one of his works with the German title “Spiegel im Spiegel”, or “Mirror in the mirror”; at first hearing, this is a rather monotonous composition for piano, violin and cello. But keep listening and slowly, slowly, feel all worldly worries and concerns recede farther and farther away as a great calm fills the mind. Because this is meditative music in the fullest sense of the word as well as one of rare beauty. That might explain why this video has had nearly 800,000 views in some four years of it being up in YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4RmJaP683A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvo_P%C3%A4rt

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About six decades or so ago, The New York Times published a review of a concert performance of a then-current minimalist composer.  It began with this sentence:

“Two  things can be said of this man’s works: 1. They are sort; 2. They are not short enough.”

AJNorth: “About six decades or so ago, The New York Times published a review  [about a minimalist composer, that begun:] “Two things can be said of this man’s works: 1. They are short; 2. They are not short enough.”

Well, that cannot be said of Arvo Pärt’s work, because his works are not short. (Most of the videos in YT are short excerpts of his much longer compositions). The full video linked in my entry, to give a handy example, is close to one hour long. See?

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In answer to kstephens43, but also directed to anyone reading this, particularly those that are professional musicians with a working knowledge of the classical repertoire, I would very much appreciate your contributions to this thread on anything you feel is worth knowing about, as well as hearing — by providing, when appropriate, YouTube links to your favorite performances.

(Please, don’t forget to make the YT links into regular “word” links, not “picture” ones that overburden the servers here, by using the feature with the icon that (to me) looks like a skewed hamburger, on the bar about the entries field where one types one’s comments: click on it, then paste the link in the field that opens and click to apply, on the  blue square at left of the field.)

And “classic”, as anyone familiar with this thread knows, is a term used here in the very broad sense of “most excellent musical work” — meaning  something that stretches from the best performances of the works of J.S. Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, etc. to those of Aretha Franklin, John Williams (guitar), Ray Charles, Antonio Carlos Jovim, Ennio Morricone, Astor Piazzolla, Ray Manzarek, all the way to Dolly Parton and Metallica. Because what is musically truly interesting and very well performed by excellent artists, be they composers, performers, or both, regardless of genre, deserves being mentioned here. Keeping in mind only that this is about classical music in the Western tradition.

And since I am here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKfDA3zXZzQ

Husband and wife Pinchas Zukerman, violin, and Amanda Forsyth, cello, play Vivaldi’s concerto for violin and cello in B Flat Major with the Verbier chamber orchestra, Zukerman conducting:

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More by Vivaldi, this time one his major works:

“Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’invenzione” (“The Test (*) of Harmony and Invention”)- 12 Concerti Op. 8 – “I Musici”, with Felix Ayo first violin – 1959 – 1961.
(The first four are known as “Le Quattro Stagione”, or “The Four Seasons”; the fifth is known as “La Tempesta di Mare”, or “The Tempest at Sea.”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2CkiuuQK5M

Usually known as “I Musici” (“The Musicians”, full name: “I Musici di Roma”, or “The Musicians of Rome”) this 12-members’ strings and harpsichord ensemble has been, for seventy years, one of the best groups of performers dedicated to Baroque music, Italian in particular. The individual players have come and go over seven decades, but the performances have been consistently excellent; some think that those in their early days, when the leader, as in this recording, was violinist Felix Ayo, were among their best.

(*) “Cimento” means “Test”, “Ordeal”, “Trial”, but in this title it is often translated as “Argument.” What was it understood to mean in Vivaldi’s Venice? Good question.

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And to bookend this short series of Vivaldiana postings:

Vivldi’s “Spring” (the 4th of the “Cimento”) with Itzhak Perlan playing his violin while conducting the string players of the Israel Philhamonic Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKthRw4KjEg

And the last of Vivaldi’s works, written when, under strange circumstances, he was living and was soon to die in utter poverty in Vienna, a year after moving there from Venice at the invitation of the Austrian Emperor to take a good musician’s position at his court. When he got there, the Emperor died pretty much right away, one of his last actions was to name his daughter, Maria Theresa, as his successor, she ascended to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the princes (and kings) of the central-European nations of the Empire that formed the Imperial Electoral Council got upset at not being even consulted, this started a war (that killed many,  did much damage, but did no good to any of the princes — and Maria Theresa remained in the throne), so with that going on, nobody had any time to take care or worry about Vivaldi. He wrote the 6 concerti to sell them and make some much needed cash, but if he sold them, never got paid, or else could not sell them. Either way, he stayed a pauper and then died. Leaving behind a most remarkable testament to and example of the resilience, determination, creativity and greatness of the human spirit even under the most dire of circumstances.

This is a performance by Fabio Biondi and his “Europa Galante” Baroque strings orchestra. Not my favorite performers, but I think that they did an exceptionally good job here:

Vivaldi: the six Concerti dell’Addio, Fabio Biondi and the “Europa Galante” orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ssh_B0-WB8

(The still nature used as the background in the video, is an example of a “Vanitas” painting — in this case, by the 17th Century Dutch artist Pieter Claesz –, where the objects depicted symbolize the shortness of human life and the ephemeral nature and vanity of human ambitions.)

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Fred

Pieter_Claeszoon-_Vanitas_-_Still_Life_(1625,_29,5_x_34,5_cm)FransHals-museum-Haarlem.JP

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

Fred, Thanks for the correction; this particular “vanitas” painting is rather scary, which is the point.

So, now that we are definitely on the macabre side of things, I think it appropriate to include here, from  Disney’s 1941 movie “Fantasia” — that was a grand experiment of mixing hand-drawn animation with music — first the segment dedicated to Mussorgsky’s “Night in Bald Mountain”, where The Lord of the Flies himself, from the top of a mountain conjures the dead from the cemetery of a village in the valley below and has them dancing and racing across the dark night air until dawn begins to lighten the sky and ends the infernal scene, while the bell of a church tolls as religious procession carrying glowing lamps marches slowly along a road and over an arched bridge.

From Disney’s Fantasia, with Leopold Stokowsky conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra:

First, Mussorgsky’s Night in Bald Mountain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLCuL-K39eQ

Second, in a longer segment (with good picture quality), with Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” as the musical background, the story of the formation of the world and the apparition and evolution of life from the first unicellular beings, to the rise and extinction of the dinosaurs:

Stravinsky “The Rite of Spring”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4AU3V58gqY

When I was little, with my parents, I went to see this  movie several times, because in those days, where we lived, movies that proved popular were reprised several times in the course of successive years. My favorite part was the one with the dinosaurs.

The years and the decades passed, and today my parents are no more, or that movie theater, or any available edition of “Fantasia” (the original from 1941) unless one is prepared  to pay hundreds of dollars for a copy of a DVD issued years ago. The science behind the “Rite of Spring” segment, while, broadly speaking, is still correct, has been superseded in various important details, including a big one about what killed off the dinosaurs; but, even so, this segment, as well as the movie as a whole, remains a most remarkable and memorably dramatic work of imagination. That fewer and fewer remember, as the years go by.

And if much of what I wrote in the previous paragraph is not fit to be portrayed in a “Vanitas” painting, I don’t know what is.

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Fred

Antonio Vivaldi, Six Concertos for Anna Maria, I Musici, Mariana Sirbu, leader:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaIO91mwaWI

1. Concerto in D minor, RV 248 0:06
2. Concerto in D major, RV 229 12:19
3. in B flat major RV 363 “O Sia Il Corneto da Posta” 22:33
4. Concerto in E flat major, RV 260 30:33
5. Concerto in A major, RV 349 42:26
6. Concerto in E major, RV 267 54:42

Anna Maria della Pietá was the best pupil of Vivaldi when he taught music to talented girls at the Venetian Orphanage called the “Ospedale della Pietá” (“Orphanage of Mercy”) that was created to shelter and educate “orphaned children and abandoned girls likely to be useful to society”, where she was left as a baby by being passed through a tiny secret aperture in a wall from the street to the interior of the building.
She was a precocious musician of great talent that also composed music, eventually becoming the lead teacher at the Ospedale. She was very famous during her very long and productive career, dying at the ripe old age of 86, in 1782:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Maria_della_Piet%C3%A0

Excerpt:

“Many of the concertos written by Antonio Vivaldi were written especially for her. Anna Maria remained at the orphanage her whole life. Her music brought tourists to hear the orchestra and her play. An anonymous poet wrote that when she played countless angels dare to hover near. In 1720, at the age of 24, she was dubbed “Maestra”, by 1737 Anna Maria had attained the leadership posts of maestra di violino and maestra di coro. Anna Maria also played the cello, oboe, lute, mandolin, harpsichord, viola d’amore. Anna Maria composed music and performed publicly for more than 60 years. She died of a fever and cough in Venice on 10 August 1782.”

And a brief, and only, sample of her music I have found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6GH8ITZbqY&list=PLQt6ev5eI6q9m6iS8riRNDFwfa85cfTI_&t=279s

 

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Alex5723, Fred

By one of the greatest cellists, this is a magical and magistral performance of one of the loveliest works composed by, or attributed to, Luigi Boccherini. I admire, in particular, how this artist played the last cadenza and coda at the end of the third movement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtpPPG2WtZo

Boccherini, Cello Concerto In B Flat Major, Jacqueline duPré, Cello, with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. (1967 original, 1998 Remastered version.)

 

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Fred

And to roundup this little impromptu tribute to a great artist and her musically most gifted husband, both of whom excelled at performing works from the Romantic repertoire — and he still does:

Jacqueline duPré cello, Daniel Barenboim piano:

Brahms Cello and Piano Sonatas No. 1 and 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mdFVO1Nyv4

From the YT Notes:

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) The Cello Sonatas.
Cello Sonata No.1 in E minor Op.38
*Click to activate the English subtitles for the presentation* (00:00-01:10)
I. Allegro non troppo (00:00)
II. Allegretto quasi Menuetto & Trio (12:22)
III. Allegro (18:13)

Cello Sonata No.2 in F Op.99
*Click to activate the English subtitles for the presentation* (25:13-26:11)
I. Allegro vivace (25:13)
II. Adagio affetuoso (34:14)
III. Allegro passionato (41:45)
IV. Allegro molto (49:24)

Cello : Jacqueline Du Pré
Piano : Daniel Barenboim
Recorded in 1968, at London
New Mastering in 2020 by AB for CMRR

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Fred

Here are two interpretations of one of the great choral works of Western music.
I put both here as a choice for those who may dare enter this awesome cathedral of sound:

(1) J.S. Bach Mass in B minor BWV 232

Choir of the English Concert
The English Concert
Harry Bicket conductor

BBC Proms
Royal Albert Hall
2 August 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F7TVM8m95Y

Joélle Harvey soprano
Carolyn Sampson soprano
Iestyn Davies counter-tenor
Ed Lyon tenor
Matthew Rose bass

Period wind instruments.

 

(2) J. S. Bach – Mass in B minor BWV 232

Recorded for the project All of Bach on December 15th 2016 at the Grote Kerk, Naarden.

Netherlands Bach Society
Jos van Veldhoven, conductor

Hana Blažíková, soprano 1
Anna Reinhold, soprano 2
David Erler, alto
Thomas Hobbs, tenor
Peter Harvey, bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FLbiDrn8IE

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Fred

Does anyone know the name of the antique double-bass-like instrument with frets in the upper neck played by a member of the strings section, in the Netherlands Bach Society’s performance of the Mass in B minor? I have never seen one like that before.

It looks like an oversized lira da gamba (another baroque-period instrument about the size of a cello, but with frets).

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Isn’t it a bass viol, otherwise known as a viola da gamba? Looks like that to me.

Garth

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Fred

Garth, a viola da gamba also had frets and was more or less the size of a cello, but while the one I am curious about certainly looks like that, is much bigger, about the size of a double bass.

After some research I have found that:

It could be something called either a Viennese bass, or a Viennese violone, the size of a double bass, but with frets and four, five, or six strings, that was used to play, among other things, music of Bach in Bach’s time.
Two examples are shown here by the cellist of the Dutch group that performed the Mass in B:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3-nAWn2EH8

One of the two instruments shown in this video has six strings and is made of blond wood, the other of dark wood and with five strings, while the one played in the Mass in B minor is made of dark wood and looks like it has four strings (something very hard to see clearly, because: (a) the bassist is usually not seen much in videos and (b) because when shown close enough, the instrument is seen from the side). But this dark one used in the Mass also has frets, same as these other two, and is about the same size.

Below, a bass violon, or Viennese bass, in person, frets and all:

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Fred

Viol or violone, particularly in bass form, I don’t think there is a great deal of difference, and anyway that varied over time. There were also several different sizes.

https://www.vdgsa.org/about-the-viol-sizes-and-tunings

http://earlybass.com/articles-bibliographies/what-is-a-violone/

Having looked again at the Netherlands Bach Society’s performance, I feel the size of that instrument is not quite as big as a double bass, but bigger than a cello. It does only have 4 strings, there is a clear shot at 1:39:54 which I think leaves no doubt on that aspect.

Garth

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Fred, OscarCP

ABC Classic

Jordi Savall at 80

3 August 2021

https://www.abc.net.au/classic/programs/legends/legends/13464986

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OscarCP

According to Jordi Savali, music is an essential part of the collective memory of a people, and is derived from speech, two things I have understood to be so for a long time. As explained in the article linked by AJNorth above:

Quoting Savali: ” “Music”is a way “to save our culture from historical amnesia. Without historical memory, there is no possibility of progress, of evolution.” ”

“For Savall, music is not “the art of sound”, but rather a cultural activity linked closely to language, ways of living and working, religion and its rites.”

I wonder what a conversation (in Catalán, of course) between Jordi Savali and Pau Casals  on the pros of their own, and the cons of the other’s instrument might have been like.

Then there is the Arpeggione, that was invented in the late 18th or early 19th centuries and looked somewhat like a viola da gamba with frets all along the neck and had more than four strings, but was not widely adopted by musicians and composers, except for a few, including Schubert, that wrote the Arpeggione Sonata, now played on the cello, as can be heard and watch using a YT link in the very first comment in this thread.

As a possible point of interest, what the young man is playing in the Jordi Savali video (in the article AJNorth has linked) that looks like an underfed guitar, is actually a Baroque guitar.

Johannes Vermeer’s “The guitar player”

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This is the last thing Franz Schubert ever composed, when he was already fatally ill and knowing full well that he had weeks at most left to live. He actually died a few days after finishing this work, at age 31.

I could go on and on about how great a masterpiece this is and how superb were the five musicians assembled to make this recording. But I’ll leave it to you to think about that and make, in your own secret heart, your own elegy to true human greatness as you listen to it:

Schubert-Quintet in C Major op. 163, D. 956

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3tmFhrOgNk

Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims, Pablo Casals, Paul Tortelier

 

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GarthP

At this time in the Summer Olympics of 2021 are in full swing, with athletes gathering from all over the world to perform in empty stadiums; there are protests at the entrance of the venues by people who believe this is a crazy stunt made with disregard, for political reasons, of the new wave of the pandemic going on, that even vaccinated people, athletes included, are not spared, and that this, as has been the case in may other occasions in many other countries, is a serious waste of public money building large and showy venues that find little or no use in practice once the show is over. The athletes compete for gold, silver or at least, bronze, and the tally of how many or how few medals their country gets seems to be the main preoccupation of many who follow these games, both members of the public and sport comentators.

By contrast, here one can appreciate the admirable skill of superb athletes whose goal is not to gain medals, but to perform with supreme elegance their very difficult, painful in spite of the radiant smiles, and very hard to do well routines while moving deeply, exciting and amazing the spectators with the power of art.

Pyoter Ilyich Tchaikovsky:

The Waltz of the Flowers (from The Nutcracker)

The New York City Ballet, Ballet Corps and Orchestra, Ashley Bouder Prima Ballerina:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKcZL8q1eBw

 

Swan Lake,

(White Swan/Black Swan , Odette/Odile…)

La Scala Theater Ballet and Orchestra:

Principal Dancers Roberto Bolle and Svetlana Zakharova (Prima Ballerina Assoluta)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LKyWPmtX7Y

 

Finally a selection of solo variations, performed by some top prima ballerinas.
They are all very good, but Natalia Osipova in “Don Quixote” is something else!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt6Sl7T0sbE

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Lili Kraus was a pianist renowned for her interpretation of the whole piano repertoire of Mozart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Kraus

Here are her renditions of concertos (*) No. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27  :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvRhkZLM__E

Vienna Festival Orchestra, Conductor Stephen Simon.
(Recorded in 1965-66, remastered in 2017)

Translating from the YT notes in French:

“Lili Kraus compared her affinity with Mozart to a mission: “When I started to explore Mozart, I discovered the endless beauty of this music, and in a way I am empowered to bring that beauty to life. . . I find it my duty, my privilege, and if you will, my cross, to devote my life to this music.”

Some pianists and composers become inextricably linked in the public eye. Let’s mention Glenn Gould, for example, and Bach’s Goldberg Variations come to mind. Artur Schnabel and Beethoven were virtually synonymous, as were Walter Gieseking and Debussy, Arthur Rubinstein and Chopin, Alicia de Larrocha, and the Spanish Impressionists. When it came to Mozart’s piano music, several generations of listeners and collectors regarded Lili Kraus’ performances as the last word.”

(*) Well, OK!  The “Elvira Madigan” is No. 21, with the Adagio at 44:27.

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Mitsuko Uchida and Seiji Ozawa, with the international Saito Kinen Orchestra, have come toghehter to make it possible for us to enjoy this fiery interpretation of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano concerto No. 5, known as “The Emperor” :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQHrNdjUPDc

And here, Uchida with Mariss Jansons conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony, play Ludwig’s piano concerto No. 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3m9GUhhAMk

And, finally as the golden brooch, a talk at Oxford University, England, by Uchida on comparing Beethoven, Mozart and also on herself as a performer and her thoughts of what, in her own experience, musicians need to find in their hearts when performing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mBzp5_yR18

One has to be a bit patient, because there are rather long preliminary remarks on the reason this meeting with Uchida is dedicated to the memory of the late Lord Weidenfeld and the foundation that bears his name to assist promising foreign candidates to do their post-graduate studies at Oxford.

Also don’t worry too much about the discussion of the sonata form being ABA or something else (Beethoven’s fault?), or about Ludwig and Wofgang’s dramatic, attention-getting modulations from tonic to dominant to subdominant key chords and unexpected key changes.
The real meat of the talk, I think, comes in short comments earlier, but mainly in the later, less technical and more personal question and answer part of the talk.

And enjoy some great “bad” piano playing as well.

And that’s it, for now.

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Fred

Now and then, I can use some Scarlatti, and so can you.
It’s been more than one year since one of his compositions was featured here.

One thing about these sonatas is that, unlike to later compositions by this name, these were really, really short one-movement pieces:

Jan Rondeau (harpsichord): Scarlatti Sonata in A minor, K 175:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF3p4pGd838

And here is he again, here playing Scarlatti’s sonata in D minor, K 141:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yyBP3t7g90

And the same sonata, in the hands of Martha Argerich (piano) sound like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh9WX7TKfkI

Vladimir Horovitz at the Carnegie Hall playing Scarlatti’s Sonata in E K55 and Sonata in G K ?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5yWDliZZwladimir

And last, but not least, Arturo Benedetti Michelangelo (*), piano, plays four Scarlatti’s sonatas (1962 recording):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud0a8O1o9NY

And another five:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2pe4CJQsHU

Vladimir Horovitz at the Carnegie Hall playing Scarlatti’s Sonata in E K55 and Sonata in G K ?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5yWDliZZwladimir

(*) Coolest great pianist ever: seeing is believing.

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You know you guys COULD start a new post.  Even albums have multiple ones and don’t just jam all the music on one cdrom or platter.

(just sayin’ as this is a LONG thread to scroll through)

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

The above comment, I take it, is probably motivated by the number of links in my preceding one. Sorry about that, and duly noted to avoid repetition. It seemed like a good idea at the time: those tracks are really short, so I saw no point in splitting the one comment into two, which also would have made this thread longer, something worth taking seriously into consideration. Another motive for the above comment could be, perhaps, to express someones’ unhappiness about having to fish my comment from the trash can where it ended up after being sent “to moderation” the instant I submitted it, something that prevented me from editing the posting, which needed some corrections but now it is too late to do that. Sorry about that too.

Now, finding myself unexpectedly here once more, I take the opportunity to make this thread even a little longer by adding a link to a performance by three great musicians during a concert that took place in May of this year in celebration of Martha Argerich’s 80th birthday:

Martha Argerich, piano, Maxim Vengerov, violin, Mischa Maisky, cello, play Beethoven Triple Concerto, conductor Ion Marin, orchestra unknown, venue unclear in the YT notes (it could be the Château de Chantilly, in France). The date: May 21 of 2021:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB9G4TjlR7E

And, why not?

Also this recording of a very special (and strange) recital of compositions by J.S. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven by Martha Argerich & Mischa Maisky, live at the Synagogue of Görlitz, Germany, on October 13th of 2020:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivDRgJqlrB0

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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More likely it’s the >550 posts that causes the thread to be unwieldy.

cheers, Paul

It takes several seconds to load when one first opens it and also for a new posting to get submitted, but once it has loaded, scrolling through it and opening any preexisting entry is not slower than in any other thread. Of course, there could be problems that I am not aware of.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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Sorry, but, enjoyable as this is sometimes, this thread is getting out of hand.  Time to load is getting ridiculous.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

By my watch, it takes around ten seconds. Why is that ridiculous? It is not a thread that is visited all the time, but only by people that are really motivated to do so, because they like classical music.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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Fred

No it’s the 500 plus posts.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Susan, Perhaps you could take some time to explain your reply “No it’s the 500 plus posts” a bit more? I don’t understand why there is an issue with that number, if that is all there is to it. Thanks.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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OscarCP wrote:

By my watch, it takes around ten seconds. Why is that ridiculous? It is not a thread that is visited all the time, but only by people that are really motivated to do so, because they like classical music.

It’s going great, and the site is loading fine, as soons as an individual has passed all the filters.
Furthermore it is ‘priceless’ to learn about feelings from other people, and the cultural impact; as long as the postings are not wiped away

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP

Susan Bradley wrote:

No it’s the 500 plus posts.

I was thinking maybe time for a Aren’t these the greatest performances of classical music? PartII with a link in this one to that one. 🎹📯📻

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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GarthP

I think that would be sensible.

As well, sometime it might be appropriate to consider a list or index. Or maybe that’s overkill?

 

Garth

 

Garth and Wavy, I am waiting for someone to explain what is the real problem with this tread, something I have not seen so far in previous comments — if it is the length itself and if this has to do with any real problems is causing throughout AskWoody that I am unaware of — before making any changes to how and where anyone should post further  items to do with “classical” music (a category that has, in practice, covered things other than concert hall performances — including classic performances by Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Dolly Parton, as well as by the greats of Bossa Nova, Progressive Tango, Jazz + etc. fusion, etc. )

I don’t want to change anything here, the product of the work of several of us over more than one and a half years by now, until I know why, and therefore how best, to change it — if doing so turns out to be really necessary.

I am concerned that splitting the thread is going to require an effective reminder and connection to the original first part, that has to be more than its mention with a link in the first comment of the new thread, as I suspect that not many people ever bother to read the first comment in a thread once it becomes several comments long.

Also, to find something here, doing a search of the thread with the browser using as key words the last name of a composer, or the first few words of a particular composition, makes quick work of finding items of personal interest, so not finding things easily cannot be the reason for anyone familiar with how to use a browser. And looking for something interesting with no particular item in mind by scrolling is, I hope, no great cause of suffering to anyone.

Finally: I believe that one reason why this thread has endured enough to become this long, is that, as I intended when starting it, it has provided solace to more than a few loungers and anonymous visitors during the worst of a pandemic that is not yet over, but also appears to be increasing quickly in strength, world-wide, these very days. I don’t want to do anything that might put this goal in jeopardy without first understanding why.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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What wavy said, it’s just long scrolling.  Just start a new post with part 2 and keep going.  I don’t want the conversation to end, I’m just wearing out my mouse roller 🙂

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Thanks Susan for your appreciative words, but please read my last comment, if you haven’t yet, where I explain why scrolling for something should not be a problem, as far as I can see (and there is no need to wear out a mouse), and then let me know, perhaps, why you still think it is a problem. And where I also explain my concerns about splitting the thread. I am not dead set against doing it, just not sure of how best to do it so this original one does not sink into oblivion as a result, or for what compelling reason it needs to be done.

And is Garth’s suggestion of indexing the thread something that can be done and if so, how?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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So: waiting for suggestions, advise, reasons.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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I’ve set up this post as part 1.  I’ve “sticky-ed” it to the top so it won’t be lost.

As far as indexing, there isn’t anything automatic and I’ll be honest, I’m not going to ask our editor to take time on this because I’d rather he spent his valuable time on more tech orientated projects.

If anyone wants to take on the tasks what I would recommend is that you start ANOTHER post – title it up as an index, I’ll stick it to the top as well.  Then summarize (unfortunately by hand) each notable post and link to the perm link (right hand side of the post).

Apologies as I’m not aware of any automated way of indexing.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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wavy, GarthP, OscarCP

I’m confused as to why this just appeared in both windows 10 questions and windows 11 questions forums?

krism: Mysteries of AskWoody.

This definitely has to be solved. And I really, really, really hope that this can be done without permanently unpinning this thread from “New posts: Last x days” and the like, where it was pinned by Susan, so it stays more or less visible indefinitely, same as the other threads outlined in yellow. But not in  the Windows 10, etc. forums.

Fixing this should be feasible. After all, there is at least one Linux thread that has been pinned same as this one is supposed to be, and I imagine that it does not show up in the Windows 10 or 11 forums.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

the night shift did it.

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OscarCP

Somehow both the 7 and the Classical posts were “supersticky” not just plain “sticky” posts.  They are both back at mere “sticky” so that they are at the top of their venues, but not ALL forums.

I know I only did plain sticky when I did it, and while if this was running on Windows I’d blame it on patches overnight, this WordPress runs on Linux and didn’t reboot, so I have no idea what caused it, but bottom line I fixed it.  🙂

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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wavy

@Susan Bradley, @OscarCP and forum members: With all due respect, what is the criteria for dividing this topic into two parts? The fact that it covers more than 550 responses does not seem to be relevant. Considering that the topic that tops the list of “most popular topics” – Abbodi86’s very useful method, “Win7 ESU Installer script” – spans 578 responses and HAS NOT BEEN ASKED TO BE DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS, Why is this topic, which covers only one less answer, that is 578, if you are asked to do so? Thanks in advance for explaining it to us.

Your information about @abbodi86 ‘s Topic on Win7 ESU Installer Script is incorrect. The thread was split in March, 2020 for the same reason that Susan is requesting that this thread be split – it was causing problems with loading because it was too big. The link to the original thread is at the bottom of the first post in the extension, so the information is not lost.
The original Thread is archived here:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/comments-on-abbodi86s-win7-esu-installer-script-2020-archive/

The current extension that is active is here:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/standalone-installer-script-for-windows-7-esu-regardless-the-license/

It’s nearly to the point where it needs to be split into three parts.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Well, I never got a real answer to my several questions, that can be condensed into one:

Why was “550” a problem that required splitting this thread (or is, or has been, the number of comments the reason for splitting, or for wanting to split those two just mentioned in the preceding comments?)

I fully expect that there is a good reason, only it has not been mentioned yet, at all.

I think that “taking too long to scroll” was already shot down by me: someone looking for something specific can use the browser search feature to look for entries with the composer’s, player, or the first two or three words in the name of a piece. I have done that often enough, even quite recently, and it works very fast. Scrolling to see what is there that might be interesting without nothing in particular in mind, on the other hand, can be sped up by clicking on the scroll bar or pulling its handle up or down. Although just scrolling gradually along, at one’s leisure, can have its charms too.

So, if there was an actual problem, because of the length or something else, I am still curious to know.

But all of that is now water under the bridge, that ship already sailed, etc.

Now there is a Part II to this Part I, Susan has kindly pinned Part I to the lists of recent commented threads, with the yellow background, so it does not sink quickly and forever out of sight, and I have started Part II. Now we shall see how that one goes.

Now: If anyone here interested about partitioning is, perhaps, also interested in making Part II work, now that the partition is a fact and there is no going back, then please add now a comment in Part II on music, with links to classics you like, to help send it off to an interesting and maybe also useful future, as the times are not getting better and some pleasant and uplifting distraction, now and then, might help some of us live through them.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

Note I will be closing/locking this thread so folks need to post to this one:

Topic: Part II – Aren’t these the greatest performances of classical music? @ AskWoody

There isn’t any magical number selected, I just personally don’t like scrolling and scrolling down a long thread. The actual issue is that it took time to load.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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