Classical Music - March 2017

Bach, J.S.

• Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats (On the evening, however, of the same Sabbath)
• Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten (II) (He who loves me will obey my commands)
• Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten (Until now you have asked for nothing in My name)
• Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (You shall weep and wail)
• Es ist euch gut, dass ich hingehe (It is good for you that I leave)
• English Suite No.6

Barber

• Capricorn Concerto
• Toccata Festiva
• Third Essay for Orchestra

Beethoven

• Symphony No.5
• Piano Trio in E flat, op.70/2
• Cello Sonata No.3
• Mass in C

Brahms

• Symphonies 1 to 3
• Double Concerto
• Intermezzos, op.116/4 & 117/1 (orch. Klegel)

Bridge

• String Quartet No.3
• Piano Trio No.2
• Sir Roger de Coverley - string quartet version
• Two Old English Songs - string quartet version

Debussy - Images, Books 1 & 2
Dvorak

• Poetic Tone Pictures
• 8 Humoresques
• Dumka and furiant for piano 

Faure

• Piano Quartet No.2
• Barcarolles 2 to 4
• Poème d'un jour
• Songs, opp. 18, 23, 27, 39, 43, 46, 51, 87

Haydn - Symphonies 24, 28 to 31
Holmboe

• Symphony No.11
• String Quartets 19 and 20
• Ballata

Mahler - Symphony No.1
Medtner - Three Pieces, op.31
Medtner - Etude in C minor
Nielsen - Cupid and the Poet: Overture
Rachmaninov - Etudes-tableaux, op.33
Rachmaninov - 14 Songs, op.34
Schubert - String Quintet
Schumann - Violin Sonata No.1
Schumann - Requiem for Mignon
Sibelius

• The Bard
• Humoresques for violin and orchestra
• Two Serious Melodies for violin and orchestra
• Five pieces for violin and piano, op.81

Smetana - From Bohemia's Woods and Fields
Smetana - Tábor
Villa-Lobos - Choros No.8
Villa-Lobos - Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 3 and 4 (orchestral version)

A lot of this still represents working through new acquisitions, mostly several months after the actual purchase.

I made relatively good progress with the Bach cantatas (a number of years after purchase). I can't claim to have much memory of individual pieces, but the impression remains a good one, of music that is well worth getting to know better.

I also spent some time getting to know Brahms' symphonies better - a rather easier task with only 4 works that fit on a couple of CDs! But the rewards here were considerable. I think perhaps the 3rd symphony is my favourite, but they're all of high quality and I love the differences in emotional character between each one.

But the thing I simply much talk about here is the Schubert String Quintet. And it's worth specifying the album I've been listening to:

This is the same album that I'd already enjoyed so much for the Schoenberg (which is a sextet). The Schubert - music that I didn't previously know - is if anything even better. It's utterly magical music and is played with such perfectly controlled passion. And, despite the cover image, there's no sense of one "star" and the other players accompanying.

Obviously there's something to be said for the proposition that I ought to get know the recordings better, but... right now I feel as if this has already become one of my desert island discs, one of the very best things in my classical collection.

So there.

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.