January 2014 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Herr, wie duwillt, so schick's mit mir (Lord, deal with me as you will)
• Es reisset euch ein schrecklich Ende (A dreadful end is being prepared for you)
• Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn (Praise, Jerusalem, the Lord)
• Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind (Behold, dear God, how my enemies)
• Mein liebster Jesus ist veloren (My dearest Jesus is lost)
• Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest (Much longed-for joyous feast)
• The Well-Tempered Clavier: preludes and fugues in D and G, Book I, and G sharp minor, Book II

Barber - Three Songs, op.45
Barber - Third Essay for Orchestra
Beethoven - Symphony No.9
Beethoven - 6 Bagatelles, op.126
Debussy - Two Arabesques
Delibes - Sylvia
Faure

• Barcarolle No.12
• Nocturne No.12
• Violin Sonata No.2
• Cello Sonata No.1 

Handel - Keyboard suites 1 and 4
Holmboe - Chamber Symphony No.2, 'Elegy'
Liszt -  Two Episodes from Lenau's 'Faust'
Mahler - Rückert Lieder
Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition
Poulenc

• Pastourelle from L'Eventail de Jeanne (piano version)
• Two Novelettes
• Three pieces for piano
• Piece breve on the name of Albert Roussel
• Nocturnes
• Valse-Improvision on the name of Bach
• Improvisations 1 to 10 

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.3
Rachmaninov - Liturgy of St John Chrysostom
Ravel - Ma mere l'Oye (Mother Goose)
Ravel - Menuet on the name of Haydn
Scarlatti, D. - Keyboard Sonatas - K. 87, 96, 146 and 520
Schubert - Schwanengesang
Schumann - Nachtstucke
Schumann - Liederkreis (to poems by Heine), op.24
Simpson - Symphonies 1 and 3
Vivaldi - Salve Regina in F
Vivaldi - Gaude mater Ecclesia (Rejoice, mother Church)

During the month I completed my survey of the works of Samuel Barber, of which there are surprisingly few. With just 4 CDs I have a substantial proportion of his output, and a decent chunk of one of those discs consists of early unpublished songs. It's consistently good music in my view, lyrical, and modern despite not following all the latest avant-garde trends. I find myself wondering, though, how he made a living. Did he get income from other sources besides composition? Did the success of the Adagio for Strings mean he wasn't under much pressure to create more works?

The Faure listening keeps going, and the work I want to make special mention of this time is the second Violin Sonata, which I hadn't heard for quite a while. Back in September 2012 I fell in love with the first sonata (this is how long my 'projects' can take!) and now I find that the second is every bit as wonderful. The opening movement is quite crazy in some ways, as the first half of it basically treats bar lines as things to be ignored. My ear frequently doesn't hear the beat where the printed music claims it to be.

Schubert's Schwanengesang (swan-song) is something I hadn't listened to for a very long time, and now I'm wondering why on earth not. I've already established that Schubert is one of those composers whose later music is, for me, the best, so it stands to reason that this collection of songs he wrote in the last year of his life would have relatively high value for me. And so it proved. There is some really lovely stuff here. For some reason a particular moment that happens twice in the song Am Meer (By the Sea) was something that struck me as particularly beautiful.

I think this might be the recording I have, which someone has helpfully combined with the score. The bit I love first appears around 1:18 and again about 3:13. 

 

January 2012 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S. - Violin Concertos 1 & 2
Bartok - Piano Concerto No. 3
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 29
Brahms - Piano Quartet No. 2
Chopin - Three Nocturnes, Op. 15
Debussy - Pour le piano
Faure

• Violin Sonata No. 1
• Piano Quartet No. 1
• Ballade for piano

Haydn - Piano Trios, Hob XV: 27 to 29 (dedicated to Therese Jansen)
Holmboe - Sinfonia in Memoriam
Rachmaninov - Symphony No. 2
Schumann - 'Album leaf' No. 1
Sibelius - Karelia Suite
Vivaldi - Gloria, RV 589
Vivaldi - Nisi Dominus in A, RV 803

The Bach violin concertos are rather lovely.  I don't know whether I was somehow 'pre-tuned' to them by having listened to the harpischord versions a couple of months earlier (part of the same set of CDs), but I really did enjoy them quite a bit.  At some point I will have to go back and do a direct comparison between the versions of each work, to get a better idea of what Bach did to turn a violin piece into a harpischord one, because the 2 instruments are fundamentally different.  A violin can sustain its tone for as long as you want, and a harpischord most definitely cannot.

The Haydn piano trios were the last 'set' that he wrote, one of at least 4 sets from around the time of his second visit to London. They are sparkling, vibrant stuff, but then so is just about every bit of Haydn I've laid my hands on so far.  I'm sure I'll add some more to the ever-expanding shopping list. 14-odd discs worth just isn't enough, apparently...

Somewhere I read that these three Faure pieces were his 'early' masterpieces, so I decided to listen to them as a group.  The term 'early' is an interesting one: these pieces date from when Faure was in his early 30s! It's all a question of perspective, really.  For Mozart, that age is seen as when he was in the advanced stages of his career. But Faure had nearly half a century of composing left in him.

Anyway, of the three it was the violin sonata that really satisfied me.  I hadn't listened to it for a couple of years, and this time I dove into it, playing it again and again until I felt like I knew it intimately and could follow the whole thing the way I might follow a favourite pop album.  Writing this several weeks later, it's the slower 2nd movement that appears in my head, and instantly transports me to the same feelings of pleasure I was having in January.