October 2013 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft (Now is come salvation and strength)
• Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben (You shall love the Lord your God)
• Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens (Give to the Lord the glory due to his name)
• French Suite No.6

Barber

• Hermit Songs
• Melodies Passageres
• Souvenirs (solo piano version, 2 movements only)

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.30
Bridge

• Phantasm
• Rebus
• Todessehnsucht (string orchestra version)
• A Royal Night of Variety

Delibes - Coppelia
Dvorak - Cello Concerto
Faure - La chanson d'Eve
Faure - Barcarolle No.8
Haydn - Piano Trio No.30
Hindemith - Kammermusik Nos. 2 and 3
Janacek - Glagolitic Mass
Liszt - From the Cradle to the Grave
Mahler - Piano Quartet movement
Mozart - Symphony No.39
Mozart - Piano Sonata No.16
Poulenc

• Sextet
• Elegie for horn and piano
• Improvisation No.15

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.2
Ravel - Sonatine
Ravel - Miroirs
Scarlatti, D. - Keyboard sonatas - K.1, 27, 283, 284, 443
Schubert - Piano Sonata in E, D.157 (unfinished)
Schumann - Kreisleriana
Schumann - Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood)
Vivaldi

• Beatus vir in B flat
• Laudate pueri in C minor
• Laudate pueri in A

I'm continuing to revisit the Vivaldi sacred music that I originally bought in 2011, with a more systematic approach. The C minor version of Laudate pueri (Psalm 113 or 112, depending on which denomination's Bible you're using), was a particular highlight. That's mostly thanks to the singing of Susan Gritton on the version that I have, which is incredibly beautiful, particularly in a couple of the slow movements.

Someone has put the whole performance on Youtube. I've only put the second half in here, partly because it happens to start with one of the movements that I find especially magical - it's just over 2 minutes of utter bliss. If you want to hear the whole thing, I'm sure you can manage it!

Some excellent Samuel Barber works were on the October listening schedule. Melodies passageres (which I think are his only songs not in English) was improved from all my previous listens simply because this time I had access to a translation!  But I like the Hermit Songs even better. They are in turns visionary and humorous.

But the things I probably listened to most enthusiastically, and several times over, were the Ravel piano works.  In my chronological revisiting of Ravel, I've reached works that really mark him, for me, as one of the great composers for piano. Sonatine is a piece of great clarity and beauty, showing Ravel's liking for combining old and new styles.  Miroirs is... well, it's a masterpiece.  Five wonderful pieces full of atmosphere, character and amazing harmonies. He turns a piano into fluttering moths, bird calls, a rolling ocean, a Spanish guitar, and tolling bells - and it all works.

March 2012 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S. - Christ lag in Todesbaden (Christ lay in Death's bonds)
Bach, J.S. - Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (For you, Lord, I long)
Beethoven - Piano Sonatas 5 to 8
Faure - Piano Quintets 1 & 2
Faure - Cello Sonata No. 1
Haydn - 6 String Quartets, Op.76 (the 'Erdődy' quartets)
Holmboe - Symphony No. 9
Vivaldi - Stabat Mater

The data recording kept going, even though the writing didn't.  (Meanwhile, what the heck has Blogger done to the look of the area I compose posts in?! Aargh!)

I didn't get my hands on the new purchase I hinted at in the February Classical post until the very last day of the month.  It was a 10-CD box of Bach cantatas - specifically, the first 10 of the chronological series still being created by Masaaki Susuki and the Bach Collegium Japan.  I had a lovely walk to the post office on a nice sunny day...

Oh, right, the music.  Well, this entry covers a mere two cantatas, but the early signs were good!  It's still strange to me that I'm suddenly listening to a lot more vocal Classical music.  Dealing with the different languages is still something of a challenge, and often it's better if I just switch off and hear it purely as music.  I also re-started on some Vivaldi, wrestled my box set into some vague resemblance of chronological and thematic groups and began with the Stabat Mater (probably the earliest of his vocal works to have survived).

The main 'event' of the month was probably listening to the Haydn Op.76 for the first time in several years.  I cannot recall for certain whether my cassette copies of these were the first classical music I ever bought for myself (around the age of 16 or 17), but if not the first they were very close to it.  And there's still so much to enjoy in there.  They're the last complete set of quartets from the first master of quartet writing.

I also tackled Holmboe's Symphony No. 9 with a vengeance.  It's one of his tougher works, but once I pulled it apart and put it back together, yet again I found it very rewarding and a clear example of the way this composer writes across movements.  The second movement on its own sounds like... well, nothing much. A lot of soft whimperings and scratchings.  But once you've grasped that there's a little melodic fragment in it that's carried over from the first movement, suddenly it's like the music is holding its breath for 4 minutes before unleashing in the third movement.

I know that's all rather brief and not terribly insightful, but I do have some catching up to do...

October 2011 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Brandenburg Concerto No.6
• Orchestral Suites (complete)
• Harpsichord Concertos 1 to 4

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas 13, 17 and 31
Schumann

• Kreisleriana
• Fantasy in C
• Arabeske in C
• Humoresque in B flat
• Piano Sonata No.2
• Nachtstucke (Night Pieces)
• Liederkreis (song cycle), Op.24
• 3 Romances
• Novelette No.9, Op.99/9

Telemann

• Tafelmusik Volume 1: Conclusion
• Tafelmusik Volume 2 (complete)
• Taflemusik Volume 3: Overture, Quartet

Vivaldi

• Concertos for Strings in E minor and in B flat ('Conca'), RV 133 and 163
• Violin Concertos in E minor, in F ('for the feast of S. Lorenzo'), and in C minor ('Amato Bene'), RV 281, 286 and 761
• Cello Concerto in D minor, RV 407
• Flautino (recorder/piccolo) Concerto in C, RV 443 - 2nd movement
• Concerto for 2 violins in D, RV 511
• Concerto for 2 cellos in G minor, RV 531
• Concerto for violin and organ in D minor, RV 541
• Domine ad adiuvandum (O Lord, make haste to help)
• Dixit Dominus, RV 595
• Confitebor tibi, Domine ( I will praise you, Lord)
• Beatus vir in C (1720s version), RV 597
• Beatus vir in C (1739 version), RV 795
• Beatus vir in B flat, RV 598
• Deus tuorum militum (God, your soldiers)
• Stabat Mater
• Canta in prato, ride in monte (Sing in the meadow, smile on the mountain), RV 623
• Clarae stellae, scintillate (Bright stars, shine)
• In turbato mare irato (In an angry, rough sea)
• Nulla in mudo pax sincera (There is no unblemished peace in the world)
• O qui coeli terraeque serenitas (You are the tranquility of heaven and earth)
• Filiae maestae Jerusalem (Mournful daughters of Jerusalem)
• Non in pratis aut in hortis (Neither in meadows nor in gardens)
• Juditha Triumphans

Anonymous, adapted by Vivaldi - Credidi propter quod (I believed, therefore have...)


See? I told you there was a lot of Vivaldi!

Almost too much, actually. There's a certain sense of churning through the list just in order to say that I've checked them all out. I'm sure there will be benefit to going back and listening to these pieces in smaller thematic groups of a few pieces at a time.

Ironically, the majority of these new Vivaldi CDs look like they've been designed to provide an interesting and varied listening experience if you just press play and go through the group of pieces as presented.  But I still think I need to 'say hello' to them as individual pieces first.  They weren't originally written and presented in anything like the order that they occur on the CDs.  In the case of the sacred vocal music, the notes provided will enable me to go back and put some more accurate groups together - things that are scattered right across the series that were written/presented together originally, back in the 1720s or 1730s.

It's not as if I'm not enjoying what I'm hearing. I generally am. The quality's not totally even (purely in my personal opinion), but the thing is, I never really know before listening which piece is going to be the one that grabs me.  I suppose one of the problems with the sheer volume is that I have trouble remembering for very long afterwards either...

I remember the Concerto for 2 Cellos is a good one. There you go.

In the Schumann, the Fantasy in C was quite marvellous and I know I'll be going back to that one a lot. But it's much the same thing - so much new music means that it doesn't really register as deeply as I'd like.  But that's hopefully part of what the next few decades are for.

September 2011 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S. - Cello Suites (complete, 2 recordings)
Bach, J.S. - Brandenburg Concertos (complete - 2 recordings for Nos. 4 and 5)
Haydn - Symphonies 102 and 103 ('Drumroll')
Scarlatti, D. - Keyboard sonatas - K.1, 3, 9, 17, 24, 27, 213, 214, 247, 283, 284, 380, 404, 443, 519
Schubert - Piano Sonatas in A minor and in D, D. 784 and D.850
Schumann

• Papillons (Butterflies)
• Davidsbundlertanze (Dances of the League of David)
• Carnaval
• Symphonic Etudes
• Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood)

Simpson - Symphony No.10
Telemann - Tafelmusik Volume 1: Overture, Quartet, Concerto, Trio, Solo
Vivaldi

• The Four Seasons (2 recordings)
• Violin Concerto in C, RV 171
• Kyrie in G minor
• Gloria, RV 588 with introduction Jubilate, o amoeni chori RV 639
• Credo in E minor
• Dixit Dominus, RV 594
• Lauda, Jerusalem
• Magnificat in G minor (1720s version), RV 610a
• In furore iustissimae irae (In wrath and most just anger)
• Longe mala, umbrae, terrores (Away with woes, shadows, terrors), RV 629

One of the things I did this month was compare different recordings of the same music.  I don't generally aim to get multiple performances of classical music into my collection, but my fondness for box sets does sometimes mean there's a bit of overlap.  And it's interesting to hear the different approaches that various musicians will take.

Some of the comparison was deliberate (the Bach Cello Suites for example - I think Rostropovich beat Tortelier in most of them, but honours were the other way in the 3rd suite), and some of it was quite accidental as a result of my massive new purchase.  Having been alerted to a sale of box sets, I ended up with 5 of them, and a whopping 32 CDs of new classical performances to explore.

That's a pretty overwhelming delivery of new music!

By chance rather than design, most of it comes from just one generation of composers.  I've got a lot of new Bach (1685-1750) as well as second, often considerably better versions of the Brandenburg Concertos. I've got some Telemann (1681-1767) for the first time, which has proved itself highly enjoyable.  It's about time the world's most prolific composer, allegedly, got some space in the collection - 18 pieces down, only around 3,000 more to go.

And I'm suddenly drowning in Vivaldi (1678-1741), after increasing my collection by about 1500 per cent!  The new performances of The Four Seasons are exciting and dramatic.  The sacred music is a bit of a mixed bag so far, some of it I like a lot and other bits aren't really grabbing me yet.

It's actually quite educational to get such a heavy dose of the one era, which I guess I'm not as familiar with as later music.  It's definitely helping me understand a bit more about the forms and styles of the late Baroque period.  Some things that I only knew as 'Bach' I now recognise as more general.  I'm getting a better sense of what's common to the composers of the time and what's individual to each of them.

Just before buying all of that, not only was I listening to my existing versions of the Brandenburg Concertos and The Four Seasons, I happened to be spending time listening to the first half of a 2-CD collection of the amazingly inventive keyboard music of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). So it really was a month full of music from around the 1710s to 1740s or so.

As well as the avalanche of Baroque, the other purchase was Schumann piano music.  And that's been a real surprise.  I had no idea just how radical, even strange, some of his work was.  In several of the early pieces I listened to this month (written when he was in his 20s), fragments of a minute or less zip by before being replaced by something else entirely.  It's pretty startling stuff when you consider that the previous generation was often creating sonatas that developed musical ideas on a large scale - not always, but often.  So to get, say, 21 Carnival 'scenes' stuffed into 27 minutes is really quite something.