What classical music did you listen to today?

Gary Blanchard

New member
I am listening to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra performing Philip Glass' Symphonies #2 & 3. Before that I was listening to the Glass CD, Solo Piano.

This weekend, I am planning to watch a DVD of Aida.
 

Sybarite

New member
Will you share with us? :)

That sounds great, Sybarite! Keep us posted on your progress. And I agree with ON; feel free to share whatever you like. :grin:

How long is the introduction course?

:D Your interest is very kind. The course lasts until the autumn and covers all aspects of the humanities (just been doing some introductory philosophy and am now moving onto studying the Rome Colosseum and the role of the games in Roman society.

Anyway, I've now completed the written piece that I mentioned (four very short essays of 300 words each), so here is the piece on the Vaughan Williams.

In his setting of Rossetti's Silent Noon, Vaughan Williams uses the music to echo and subtlely play with the structure of the sonnet.

The piece opens with a simple, gently rhythmical piano motif on piano, which continues when the tenor takes up the same melody.

The third line sees the composer take full account of Rossetti's enjambement, with the first four words sung to long, single notes that give a sense of conclusion before the remainder of the line is carried, via a rising melody, into the next, which itself ends with a strong, high note. The rising nature of the melody and the increase in volume from voice and piano matches the "billowing skies".

After a piano interlude, the voice begins a new theme. Again, the piano underpins this. This section concludes quietly, reflecting the poet's "visible silence".

On the ninth and 10th lines, the composer recognises Rossetti's turn by allowing the voice to be unaccompanied for much of the very simple melodic line, with the change to a minor key on "blue" reflecting the delicacy of the poet's image.

However, instead of musically starting the final quatrain on the 11th line, Vaughan Williams sets that as a stand-alone, again with the singer largely unaccompanied.

He returns to the major key for the recapitulation of the opening theme. Here, Vaughan Williams effectively turns the last three lines of the sonnet into a concluding quatrain by adding a fourth – 15th – line, giving the tenor a long, high note for 'song' and then repeating this and ending with the piano alone once more, with the theme falling rather than rising, mirroring the opening motif.

The texture is simple throughout, with the timbre of piano and voice matching each other and echoing Rossetti's theme of lovers spending time quietly together.
 

Ouled Nails

New member
A very eloquent short analysis, Sybarite. It took me far too long to more readily appreciate the art of judiciously coupling music with poetry or prose. Not every composer is/was capable of the amount of, what should I call it?, self-effacement required so that one's music truly serves the purpose of enhancing but not of dominating the poet's work. The fact that melodies are often found very early in a composer's opus, as part of one's apprenticeship or "student" years, can be an issue. But a number of melodies composed by mature composers, such as in the case of Poulenc or Ravel, remarkably illustrate the meaning of artistic convergence.
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
All this week, honoring the birth of JS Bach (March 21, 1685), I've been listening to his organ works on internet radio or from other webs.
 

Bassoonist

New member
I've been listening to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 a lot today. It's kind of my new obsession. I absolutely love the piano in the piece. I don't know the performer, but I just love the piece!

I also have listened to a little of Vivaldi's Summer, which is one of my favorite pieces as well.
 

Manuel

New member
Shostakovich: 5th symphony (and a bit of the 7th)
Pettersson: 8th symphony
Arensky: piano trios
Debussy and Ravel: string quartets (by the awsome Quartetto Italiano)
Brahms: violin concerto (Menuhin/Boult, live)
Busoni: Fantasia contrappuntistica
Beethoven: some early string quartets
A bit of Bax symphonies.
 

Ouled Nails

New member
Ernest Chausson, Le Roi Arthus, Theresa Zylis-Gara, Gino Quilico, Gosta Winbergh, Armin Jordan, conducting the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeurs de Radio France. Erato.
 

Manuel

New member
Ernest Chausson, Le Roi Arthus, Theresa Zylis-Gara, Gino Quilico, Gosta Winbergh, Armin Jordan, conducting the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeurs de Radio France. Erato.

Is it good? The only version I have is:

Genievre ...... Susan Bullock (soprano)
Arthus ...... Andrew Schroeder (baritone)
Lancelot ...... Simon O'Neill (tenor)
Merlin ...... Francois Le Roux (baritone)
Mordred ...... Daniel Okulitch (baritone)
Lyonnel ...... Garrett Sorenson (tenor)
Allan ...... Sir Donald McIntyre (bass-baritone)
Apollo Voices
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leon Botstein (conductor)

Recorded live.

Today I've heard:
Wagner: Die Meistersinger (Thielemann, Bayreuth 2000)
Tannhausser overture (Mengelberg)
Lehar: The merry Widow (Domingo, Von Stade, MET)

Not a lot... really...
 

Ouled Nails

New member
I don't really have a basis for comparison, Manuel :eek: That's the only version I own. The opera itself is very good (the old story of Arthur-Lancelot-Genevieve-Merlin and Excalibur) and the singers have no difficulty with proper French diction, which is an issue when I listen to French operas. As you probably known, Chausson's approach is far closer to Wagner's than to the forthcoming Debussy opera, Pelleas et Melisande, and, in my humble opinion the orchestra and choirs are also up to the task. Beyond that, we would have to swipe our respective versions to know which is really the best :grin:
 

Kromme

New member
Beethoven-Symphony No.3&9 by Sergiu Celibidache and his Munich Philharmonic.Eroica is mighty, truly heroic flawless execution and very good use of slow tempo.1st and 3rd movements of Chorale is unexpectedly orthodox and excellent.Celi as always takes great care for orchestral detail.4th movement is eccentric but spirit is there.It is very joyous although slow.But what about the second movement.It is painful.This is a scherzo,play it faster please.
 

Ouled Nails

New member
A medley of British composers with a particular emphasis on R. Vaughan Williams:
G. Finzi: Love's Labour Lost; Fall of the Leaves.
H. Parry: English Suite for Strings.
W. Walton: The Wise Virgins, ballet suite.
RVW: Norfolk Rhapsody no.1; In the Fen Country; English Folk Song; On Wenlock Edge; Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Partita for Double String Orchestra; Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra.
 

rojo

(Ret)
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 by Edvard Grieg.

Piano: Arthur Rubinstein

Conducted By: Erich Leinsdorf; Cellist: Alfred Wallenstein

Apparently written in 1868 in Sollerod, Denmark...
 

falcon1

New member
Yesterday I listened too Saint-Saens "organ" symphony. I never get tired of listening to that piece! :)
 

Andrew Roussak

New member
Well, the very last piece that I listened to today was the Klaviersonate Nr. 13 B-Dur KV 333 of W.A.Mozart, which was played by my student. This sonata is a quite famous piece ( it belongs f.e. to the concert program of Lang Lang ) and is absolutely brilliant - admittedly when good performed, which can be referred to any other work of Mozart as well.
 

rojo

(Ret)
Tahiti Trot, for orchestra (arr. of Youmans "Tea for Two"), Op. 16
Composed by Dmitry Shostakovich
Performed by Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam
with Peter Masseurs, Ronald Brautigam
Conducted by Riccardo Chailly

Suite for string orchestra in G major 5. Gigue
Composed by Arnold Schoenberg
Performed by Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by John Mauceri

A bit of light, celebratory fun for my 1000th post! Wheee! :grin:
 

Norman

New member
Today it has been Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore with Anna Netrebko as Adina and Rolando Villazon as Nemorino. :grin::grin::grin::grin:
 

Manuel

New member
Bartok's second violin concerto (Mutter)

Shostakovich: 5th symphony (Rostropovich)
Rautavaara: 1st and 2nd symphonies (Pommer)
 

rojo

(Ret)
Love Shosty`s 5th...

Penderecki - Capriccio for oboe and orchestra. Don`t know who the oboist was, found it at youtube, and it didn`t say. Which is annoying. However. I was absolutely captivated and entranced by this piece. I don`t recall ever hearing this piece before. Great flutter-tonguing, which I could never do properly. I`m off to listen to it again. :grin:
 

rojo

(Ret)
And finally some Holliger appears at youtube! -

Heinz Holliger in 1993 with Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and Coboz playing the 1st mvt. of the Mozart oboe concerto.

The master...
 
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