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Post by jk on Apr 23, 2020 17:46:52 GMT -5
This is aeijtzsche's wonderful Eastertide offering--enjoy!
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Post by jk on Apr 24, 2020 5:06:45 GMT -5
This is aeijtzsche's wonderful Eastertide offering--enjoy! Here is the YouTube blurb, for those who look no further than the embedded video: In honour of Easter, and inspired by some of the great music ensembles of the world coming together for virtual community performances during this bizarre time, I offer my one-woman performance of the final Chorale from Bach's Cantata BWV 18.
Ich bitt, o Herr, aus Herzens Grund, Du wollst nicht von mir nehmen Dein heil’ges Wort aus meinem Mund; So wird mich nicht beschämen Mein Sünd und Schuld, denn in dein Huld Setz ich all mein Vertrauen: Wer sich nur fest darauf verläßt, Der wird den Tod nicht schauen.
I sang each voice part thrice, quadrupling the soprano line. The vocal bass lines were all sung an octave up from what's written and shifted down one octave because they are not always available to my range. The score calls for 4 violas and 2 recorders. Having little in the way of proper continuo instruments, I made do with my guitar serving as an ersatz lute, and adding a 16-foot virtual organ stop to shore up the low end.
Bach always brings me satisfaction - I pray that my offering can be worshipful or peace-giving to you. I (jk) should add that if I'm not greatly mistaken, the guitar/ersatz lute plays the bassoon part in Bach's original score. And yes, it is peace-giving to me.
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Post by jk on May 7, 2020 17:16:16 GMT -5
Right now I'm doing this jigsaw puzzle with a difference. When completed, it will not show the picture on the box but rather "what happens next". This afternoon I set aside an hour for it and played Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 as I puzzled. Subtitled "Babi Yar", this powerful work is not for the frail of spirit (see the wiki page). Ye gods. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._13_(Shostakovich)
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Post by jk on May 16, 2020 4:19:07 GMT -5
Toby Hession is a name I hadn't heard of until this morning, when my favourite Dutch radio programme played this sublime a cappella choral work of his. She Walks in Beauty is a setting by the then 20-year-old Hession of a poem by Lord Byron: "She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. "One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. "And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!"
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Post by jk on May 20, 2020 15:17:32 GMT -5
My most recent major musical discovery, thanks to my "Baroque guru", is the 18th-century German composer Christoph Graupner. Like Bach in the 1830s, Graupner had to wait for rediscovery, in his case well over a century later. There are now plentiful opportunities to hear his music on YouTube. Like Bach, he was incredibly prolific and the vast majority of his works have yet to be recorded. This is his Ouverture-Suite in G minor for 2 Flutes, Strings & Basso Continuo (GWV 470). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Graupner
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Post by jk on May 25, 2020 6:24:49 GMT -5
Heard this rather splendid double concerto on Dutch radio this morning and thought of our resident mandolinist. I'll become a Vivaldi fan yet!
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Post by jk on May 28, 2020 3:31:55 GMT -5
Here's an early Italian Baroque composer who has taken my fancy of late. Girolamo Frescobaldi wrote mainly keyboard music and some vocal works. From what I've read about him, his one excursion into music for instrumental ensembles was this collection of canzonas--and very colourful they are too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girolamo_Frescobaldi
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Post by jk on Jun 6, 2020 16:54:21 GMT -5
This performance of Elgar's "Nimrod" under Sir Adrian Boult is to commemorate those who fell during the D-Day landings in Normandy 76 years ago today. Thank you, filledeplage , for jogging my memory (scandalous that this was needed). Strangely I have neither seen nor heard mention of it anywhere in the Dutch media today...
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Post by jk on Jun 10, 2020 15:50:06 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Jun 16, 2020 7:01:30 GMT -5
Not quite sure how I arrived at this performance of Franz Tunder's Praeludium No. 2 in G. Maybe it was because I'd visited Vilnius in Lithuania three years ago--but not this particular church. Maybe it was the Buxtehude connection: Herr B married Tunder's daughter. Ms Motuzaite has a massive channel of organ recitals and lessons, often in the company of her organist husband. I like the closing remark in the "About" section: "When not playing the organ, they like to draw comics about the adventures of Pinky the piglet and Spiky the hedgehog and their imaginary friends." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Tunder
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Post by jk on Jun 20, 2020 9:06:15 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Jul 3, 2020 7:00:40 GMT -5
It might be fun to draw up a list of psychedelic "classical" pieces composed before the word ever became connected with music. The first example would arguably be Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Others in my list would be Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy and Prometheus, and Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie. And then there's this. The Australian-born Percy Grainger was a true trailblazer and every bit as innovative as the three composers listed above. This is his "psychedelic" orchestral take on the Debussy piano piece "Pagodes", dating from 1928 (according to my spies)--the original is a quarter of a century older: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Grainger
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Post by jk on Jul 8, 2020 15:51:14 GMT -5
I remember back at PSF that Jason (The Real Beach Boy) took an interest in classical piano music and even joined in the classical thread there (which I believe was called "Roll Over Tschaikovsky"). Now, for Jason in particular and everyone in general, here's some "classical" piano music with a difference. Here, after a spot of research in my part, are Jean Wiener and Clément Doucet recorded in 1927 playing Doucet's brilliant and (if you're familiar with the original) hilarious take on themes from Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, which he calls "Isoldina". I heard this on the radio this afternoon, pondered the curious un-stride-like chord changes at the start and then the penny dropped. Enjoy! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clément_Douceten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Wiener
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Post by jk on Aug 3, 2020 5:02:23 GMT -5
I was contemplating starting a thread of music in 5/4 throughout (such as Brubeck's "Take Five" and Blind Faith's "Do What You Like") but decided against it (Wikipedia has a list anyway). Arguably the first classical orchestral piece to have this time signature is the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony. The sleeve notes on my original LP version of this symphony describe the movement as having "the unique character of a waltz which is not a waltz; a waltz, let us say, turned inward". (Not a "limping waltz", as some would have it.) This is for a certain someone who warms to unusual time signatures. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._6_(Tchaikovsky)
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Post by jk on Aug 8, 2020 4:33:47 GMT -5
To celebrate the safe arrival of JH's trombone (fair restores one's faith in human nature it does), here's a piece by Gustav Holst with some wonderful writing for that instrument. Holst was himself a trombonist, and by Godfrey it shows. His (Holst's, not Godfrey's) opera The Perfect Fool has slipped into obscurity but the ballet suite he drew from it still features regularly in concerts. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perfect_Fool
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Post by jk on Aug 10, 2020 9:34:13 GMT -5
Today I accompanied my soprano friend on the piano on this "Ave Maria" by Caccini at a funeral service. The deceased was not known to me and unrelated to my friend. This is a version for organ alone: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Caccini
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Post by jk on Aug 27, 2020 5:35:20 GMT -5
This is for Silken, who celebrates her birthday today. The composer and performer are Argentinian and the venue is Dutch!
Que tengas un gran día!
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Post by Silken on Aug 27, 2020 11:41:27 GMT -5
Thank you, John!! ¡Gracias! And thank you for sharing Argentinian music (Martha Argerich is a genius).
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Post by jk on Sept 8, 2020 15:04:08 GMT -5
Three musical giants converge in this stunning recording of Johannes Brahms's Violin Concerto, with as the soloist Ida Haendel (who died at the beginning of July, aged 96) accompanied by the LSO under Sergiu Celibidache: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Haendel
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Post by jk on Sept 16, 2020 7:59:04 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Sept 24, 2020 5:48:08 GMT -5
There's nothing like a spot of Dieterich B. to soothe the soul in these perplexing times. This is Buxtehude's heavily improvisatory Sonata in D Minor (BuxWV 257), sort of a Baroque jam à la Grateful Dead (see the link below for juicy details): Buxtehude's Sonatas as Examples of the Stylus Phantasticus
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Post by jk on Oct 11, 2020 5:32:02 GMT -5
To celebrate the fact that the number of subscribers to Joshilyn's YouTube channel has passed the 300 mark, here's a post that combines Handel's Rodelinda, a hopefully still ongoing project of hers, with a singer who has been of major influence on her own vocal technique:
"As a contralto myself, I always seek out recordings of Sonia Prina, who sings Eduige on the Curtis recording [of Rodelinda]. I love her unique, flexible but weighty voice. I have modeled my technique after her. Also a really interesting, three dimensional character in the opera."
Congrats, JH. From Act 2, this is "De' miei scherni per far le vendette":
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Post by jk on Oct 16, 2020 8:51:31 GMT -5
Something of a pattern emerging here... I had this idea for a thread called "An A to Z of Baroque Composers", one composer per letter, but gave it up as too contrived (and there isn't one for X). My choice for the first letter of the alphabet however was intriguing enough for it to warrant a post in this thread. There's some confusion as to whether or not Vittoria Aleotti and Raffaella Aleotti are the same person. You decide. Raffaella seems to have been a bit of a multi-instrumentalist, like our JH. From her Sacrae cantiones, this is "Ego flos campi": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittoria_Aleotti
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Post by jk on Oct 17, 2020 5:11:37 GMT -5
My experiences of Claudio Monteverdi's music generally speaking have not been good, including some truly grotesque vocalizing at one point. Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned that this gem was by that very fellow. I love the contrast between the swooping brass and sustained voices. Absolutely gorgeous! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespro_della_Beata_Vergine
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Post by jk on Oct 29, 2020 11:56:43 GMT -5
I recently found myself exploring a work by the memorably named Italian Baroque composer Leonardo Vinci. It's his 1725 opera La Rosmira fedele, also known these days as (La) Partenope after the Queen of that name, here sung by the contralto Sonia Prina, whom I know aeijtzsche considers a model for her own singing voice. www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kpmNYKFOG-nmlCo0y-TUDxiworHP9l6rYEach of the 54 segments in the YouTube playlist identifies the role featured in that segment. To facilitate listening, and in case the cover image does a runner, here's a list of who sings what: Maria Ercolano, soprano ( Arsace, Prince of Corinth) Maria Grazia Schiavo, soprano ( Rosmira/Eurimene, beloved of Arsace) Eufemia Tufano, mezzo-soprano ( Emilio, Prince of Cumae) Sonia Prina, contralto ( Partenope, Queen of Naples) Stefano Ferrari, tenor ( Armindo, Prince of Rhodes) Charles Do Santos, baritone ( Ormonte, commander of Partenope's troops) Giuseppe/Pino De Vittorio, tenor and Borja Quiza, baritone provide comic intermezzi, variously described online as hilarious ("they stole the show") and excruciating! The whole was recorded live over three evenings, 29 April--1 May 2011, at the Victor Villegas Auditorium in Murcia, Spain. The first page linked below gives an invaluable in-depth review of the live performances and clarifies a couple of things (and explains a whole lot more). First, the two aforementioned comic intermezzi are only on the DVD (and not the CD linked above), where they get the aforementioned flak from some quarters. Second, the banter between Vittorio and Quiza's characters is in Spanish because the audience is Spanish! For those interested, and to gather as much material as possible in one place, here are both intermezzi as included on the DVD: Intermezzo I Intermezzo IItheidlewoman.net/2015/01/14/partenope-leonardo-vinci-1725/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partenope_(Vinci)
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