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Post by Kapitan on May 19, 2020 22:20:24 GMT
350 young Minnesota musicians from the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies performing Gustav Holst's "Jupiter" remotely. The work is an annual tradition for the group; the format, obviously, is new for this year. (The music begins after a short introduction by the group's director.)
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Post by jk on Jun 4, 2020 9:05:36 GMT
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Post by jk on Sept 14, 2020 20:10:26 GMT
I first heard this haunting lesser-known work by Jean Sibelius at this year's "Last Night of the Proms". His Impromptu for String Orchestra started life as a piano piece:
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Post by jk on Sept 23, 2020 20:16:45 GMT
Why is everything played so darn fast these days? Today I heard Beethoven's Fifth Symphony performed at breakneck speed -- pretty unlistenable to these ears but regrettably this seems to have become the norm. Thank goodness there are recordings and footage of this masterpiece being conducted by the likes of Sergiu Celibidache, who late in life embraced his inner snail (this description is far too good to be mine). This is his take on the sublime second movement: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergiu_Celibidache
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 11, 2020 15:56:27 GMT
Having started the day with yard work and a nice long walk along the creek and lakeshore, I've settled in for some reading with Mendelssohn symphonies in the background. I just finished No. 5, "the Reformation Symphony," which I enjoyed tremendously (and appreciated the nod to Luther with a movement based on "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God").
On to No. 3 now.
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Post by jk on Oct 11, 2020 19:06:48 GMT
Having started the day with yard work and a nice long walk along the creek and lakeshore, I've settled in for some reading with Mendelssohn symphonies in the background. I just finished No. 5, "the Reformation Symphony," which I enjoyed tremendously (and appreciated the nod to Luther with a movement based on "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God").
On to No. 3 now. Mendelssohn's "Reformation" coupled with #4 under Claudio Abbado was the first CD I ever bought. I like those two, and the overtures. We attended a performance of #3 (with which I'm not too familiar) under Valery Gergiev a short while ago, during the current restrictions -- our one shot of non-housebound culture. And most wonderful it was too. So yes -- enjoy!
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Post by jk on Oct 19, 2020 10:08:03 GMT
Yesterday I heard music by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Schmidt for the first time. The name was familiar but I kept confusing it with that of the Frenchman Florent Schmitt. This is the gorgeous "Intermezzo" from Schmidt's opera Notre Dame: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schmidt
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Post by jk on Oct 30, 2020 12:54:00 GMT
Yesterday I was in the middle of linking all seven of these Sinfonias for viol consort by the 17th-century Flemish composer Leonora Duarte at another forum when I noticed a needlessly nasty comment below the first of them and decided to move on to another version. I did so with regret, as Sonnambula seemed a sympathetic ensemble. So I'm doing the next best thing and linking the seventh in the series at BBT. The musicians engaged on this project are Jude Ziliak and Toma Iliev (baroque violin), Elizabeth Weinfield and Amy Domingues (tenor viol) and Shirley Hunt (bass viol). hispanicsociety.org/program/concert-series/the-salon-of-leonora-duarte-1610-1678/
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 30, 2020 12:58:36 GMT
Yesterday I was in the middle of linking all seven of these Sinfonias for viol consort by the 17th-century Flemish composer Leonora Duarte at another forum when I noticed a needlessly nasty comment below the first of them and decided to move on to another version. Such is the internet, where even classic music videos get nasty comments! (Is it the one about how awful Flemmish composers are? "Dispicable" [sic] etc?
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Post by jk on Oct 30, 2020 13:04:53 GMT
Yesterday I was in the middle of linking all seven of these Sinfonias for viol consort by the 17th-century Flemish composer Leonora Duarte at another forum when I noticed a needlessly nasty comment below the first of them and decided to move on to another version. Such is the internet, where even classic music videos get nasty comments! (Is it the one about how awful Flemmish composers are? "Dispicable" [sic] etc? That's the one! ****ing ****. On a lighter note, I remember this hilarious exchange in the comment section of something obscure by Haydn I believe, where two guys were involved in some sort of shady transaction, calling each other "bitch". Like they needed a quiet corner of the Internet to conduct their business!
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 4, 2020 13:18:57 GMT
Just this morning, perusing new release reviews, I learned of a comic opera that was apparently quite popular, even influential to Beethoven, but lay mostly ignored through the 20th century until it was performed last year. That opera is the Belgian composer Andre Gretry's "Richard the Lionhearted" (actually "Richard Coeur de Lion).
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Post by jk on Dec 9, 2020 22:12:38 GMT
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Post by jk on Dec 21, 2020 10:24:54 GMT
It was my brother who pointed me at the Baroque composer Andreas Hammerschmidt. And it was Rocker at Smiley who pointed me at the early music ensemble Vox Luminis. So Ach Jesus Stirbt seemed the logical choice of album. This is the closing track, "Siehe, wie fein und lieblich ists", with its magical echoes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Hammerschmidtwww.voxluminis.com
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Post by jk on Jan 9, 2021 11:15:29 GMT
It's that day again... January 9th 1905 is the fateful day in Russian history when soldiers of the Imperial Guard fired upon unarmed demonstrators marching on the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, killing several hundred of them. Shostakovich commemorates it in the second movement of his Eleventh Symphony (1957), although it is more likely a depiction of the then recent crushing of the Hungarian Revolution by Soviet troops. This is the complete symphony performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Shostakovich's favourite conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky. This must be the recording made in 1959, on 2 November it would seem (not 1967, as stated by the uploader). Important note: Play at a reasonable volume -- much of the first movement is very quiet and, more importantly, you may otherwise miss the deathly hush (here at 30:04) in the second movement. I. The Palace Square II. The 9th of January (starts 15:33) III. Eternal Memory (starts 34:01) IV. Tocsin (Alarm) (starts 45:48) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._11_(Shostakovich)
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Post by jk on May 23, 2021 21:03:20 GMT
Eek -- I haven't posted here in a while. Well, prompted by cello talk in the BB section, here's Jacqueline du Pré with the LSO under Sir John Barbirolli playing the heart-breaking third movement of Elgar's Cello Concerto in what for me is the definitive recording: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_du_Pré
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