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.