Classical Music - June 2018

Bach, J.S. - Der Friede sei mit dir (Peace be with you)
Barber

• Melodies passageres
• Hermit Songs
• Souvenirs ballet suite

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.30
Beethoven - Bagatelles, op.119
Brahms

• String Quartets 1 and 2
• Liebeslieder-Walzer
• Hungarian Dances 1, 3 and 10 (orchestral versions)

Bridge

• Two Old English Songs for string quartet
• Thy Hand in Mine (orchestral version)
• Mantle of Blue (orchestral version)
• Blow Out, You Bugles

Dvorak

• Symphony No.6
• 6 Piano Pieces, op.52
• 6 Mazurkas for piano
• 4 Album Leaves for piano, B.109
• 2 Waltzes for string quartet

Faure - Piano Quintet No.1
Haydn - Symphonies 62 and 68
Hindemith - Kammermusik No.5
Holmboe - Sinfonia II
Lorentzen - Tower Fanfare
Lorentzen - NUMUS Fanfare 
Mozart

• Piano Concerto No.12
• Rondo for piano and orchestra in A
• String quartets 14 and 15

Nielsen - Symphony No.6
Prokofiev - Piano Sonata No.9 
Ruders - Three Motets
Schumann

• Piano Concerto
• Das Paradies und die Peri
• Soldatenlied

 Scriabin

• Piano Sonata No.3
• Preludes, opp.16, 48 and 74
• Poèmes, opp.44 and 71
• Pieces, opp.52 and 59
• 2 Nocturnes, op.5
• 2 Dances, op.73

Sibelius - 6 Songs, op.86
Vaughan Williams - Songs of Travel

This was a pretty active month in classical music. I spent more than one session juxtaposing a selection of Scriabin's fragmentary piano pieces. Once you're paying close enough attention to not miss them going by, you can notice they are of consistently high quality.

I also played some of the my favourite Barber songs for the first time in several years. Both Hermit Songs and Melodies passageres (in French, which is rather interesting for an American composer) contain some real gems and are among the Barber works I would recommend people hear.

But I think the real highlight for me during June was listening to Brahms' Liebeslieder-Walzer, which are for a quartet of singers with piano duet. This sequence of songs (and it's undoubtedly a planned sequence) fizzes with wit. Finally listening to the recording I had purchased a year earlier (the singers are Mathis, Fassbaender, Schreier and Fischer-Dieskau) was a total delight.

Popular Music - June 2018

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk
Tori Amos - Native Invader
Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Francis Dunnery - Fearless
Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight
FKA twigs - M3LL155X
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Gomez - In Our Gun
Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses
Missy Higgins - Solastalgia
Lior - Autumn Flow
Joni Mitchell - Turbulent Indigo
Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer

Recent albums coupled with some old favourites and a few oddities. The latter category includes Francis Dunnery's album. It contains his one big hit "American Life in the Summertime", which once you understand his aesthetic is fairly consistent with the rest of his work, just a little more pop.

I own a total of three Francis Dunnery albums, and to be honest I'm not sure why. Well, I know that it was partly because a couple of them were very cheap opportunistic purchases, and I was curious. What I don't know is quite why I was so curious. The more I've listened, the more I've realised that Dunnery is a rather quirky songwriter, which could be interesting but the quirks are not the kind I embrace. There's a ramshackle quality, and I'm a listener who likes structure.

Fearless is probably the most conventional and organised of the albums that I have, but ultimately I still don't quite find the songs satisfying.

I suspect that nowadays, when I use the internet to sample music that I'm interested in, Dunnery might not have found his way into my collection, or perhaps Fearless would have but not the later more obscure albums. These CDs are relics of an age where I worked from memories of the radio and, when available, sampling in a shop.

Classical Music - May 2018

Bach, J.S. - Ich habe genug (I have enough) (Soprano version)
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.32
Beethoven - "Gratulations" Menuet
Bridge

• Summer
• Lament
• Two Poems for Orchestra after Richard Jefferies

Dvorak - Eight waltzes for piano
Dvorak - Eclogues
Haydn - Symphonies 67 and 69
Holmboe - Concerto No.9, for violin and viola
Medtner - Skazka, op.31/3
Medtner - Skazka (1915)
Mozart - Piano Concerto No.11
Mozart - Piano Sonata No.13
Schumann

• String Quartets 1 to 3
• Piano Quartet
• Piano Quintet

Scriabin

• Allegro appassionato
• 4 Preludes, op.37
• 2 Pieces, op.57
• 2 Poèmes, op.69

Not a long list by classical standards. I think I was spending a lot of time with those new pop albums I've discussed in recent posts.

My Schumann chronology reached the point where, after a year of song and then a year of orchestral works, there was a year of chamber music. The results of which were rather good.