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Post by jk on Aug 18, 2021 9:52:30 GMT
A few days ago, I heard part of Heinrich Biber's Requiem in F Minor on the radio, performed (as here) by Vox Luminis and the Freiburger BarockConsort under Lionel Meunier. This requiem is one of the works on the programme of a chorister friend of mine for the coming autumn. Her choir is now back in action in real-time. "Gently sorrowful, dignified, luminous, performed and recorded with an intimacy that makes the best of the chamber sized forces. Five solo singers, five more for the fuller passages, five string players and three trombones for funereal solemnity. It's easy to imagine Biber himself leading … one of the great violin virtuosos of his time playing the solo violin part that rises above the ensemble: the light in the darkness. " [Source] Biber (1644–1704) belongs to the "Middle Baroque" era. The section they played on the radio was part V, "Agnus Dei -- Communio": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Ignaz_Franz_Biber
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Post by jk on Oct 14, 2021 20:31:34 GMT
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sockit
The Surfer Moon
Posts: 234
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Post by sockit on Oct 14, 2021 23:25:31 GMT
Thank you so much for reviving this thread, jk! In the last month or so I have strayed a bit from my Baroque listening and I'm long overdue for seeking out more titles, particularly those performed by Hantaï. I've revisited those selections you linked on the previous page, and am still amazed at the skillful playing. This latest entry of yours is equally amazing to me. And have I mentioned that Bach is pretty much my favorite classical composer?
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Post by jk on Oct 15, 2021 9:37:39 GMT
Thank you so much for reviving this thread, jk ! You're welcome, s. I felt it had been lying dormant for too long. I'd long had this idea of posting those three. No you hadn't. I'd always had problems with Bach. Thing is, I'd heard some of his works, most notably the Brandenburg Concerti, far too often. And I'm not a great fan of the cello suites. Perhaps it's because I'm not a fan of chamber music in general. That said, my Baroque adventure is almost all chamber music, if you exclude the grander stuff. Well, a few years back we were in Germany for a brief holiday. The first stop was Weimar, where we attended an excellent amateur performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. The next day we moved on to Leipzig, where to our great surprise there was to be a professional performance of that same work in the church where JSB used to play the organ! I've heard it a few more times since then and have become quite the fan. It's a fascinating work, to be sure, with a fascinating structure. To be continued, no doubt.
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sockit
The Surfer Moon
Posts: 234
Likes: 181
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Post by sockit on Oct 15, 2021 22:41:12 GMT
Thank you so much for reviving this thread, jk ! You're welcome, s. I felt it had been lying dormant for too long. I'd long had this idea of posting those three. No you hadn't. I'd always had problems with Bach. Thing is, I'd heard some of his works, most notably the Brandenburg Concerti, far too often. And I'm not a great fan of the cello suites. Perhaps it's because I'm not a fan of chamber music in general. That said, my Baroque adventure is almost all chamber music, if you exclude the grander stuff. Well, a few years back we were in Germany for a brief holiday. The first stop was Weimar, where we attended an excellent amateur performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. The next day we moved on to Leipzig, where to our great surprise there was to be a professional performance of that same work in the church where JSB used to play the organ! I've heard it a few more times since then and have become quite the fan. It's a fascinating work, to be sure, with a fascinating structure. To be continued, no doubt. My interest in Bach came at a very young age in the form of organ interpretations of some of his more popular works. I remember hearing Stokowski's orchestration of Toccatta and Fugue in D Minor in the movie Fantasia, but when my father played me the organ rendition by E. Power Biggs, my little mind was blown away. It was on an Lp called simply E. Power Biggs' Greatest Hits. It had a few other Bach compositions I grew to like very much like The Little Fugue, Sleepers Awake, plus an amazing work by Widor called Toccata in F Major. Btw this very record is one that I recently inherited and burned to cd-r. Sorry for getting away from the Baroque theme, but I just wanted to give you some background on how I developed an interest in Baroque through Mr. Bach. Incidentally, what is the difference between Baroque and Chamber Music?
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 15, 2021 23:11:05 GMT
Incidentally, what is the difference between Baroque and Chamber Music? I can help with that one. (So can jk , I'm sure, too. But he might be sleeping, time zones and such.)
Baroque is a style, but even more than that, a time. It basically means (European) "classical" music of the period spanning 1600-1750 or so. Obviously they weren't thinking of themselves as baroque any more than bronze age people thought of themselves as bronze age. But that's the term used after the fact.
Chamber music is more about the ensemble size than anything else. Basically it just means smaller than an orchestra, but more than a xxxxxet. Not a quartet, quintet, sextet, etc., but a small group of musicians. But it might be performing music from 1550, 1935, 1780, or 2021. Time isn't a factor.
btw I loved your story about getting into this kind of music. It might be tedious to people by now, but as much as I love music, I love people's stories about music almost as much. (Not quite. But almost.)
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Post by jk on Oct 16, 2021 8:32:04 GMT
Incidentally, what is the difference between Baroque and Chamber Music? I can help with that one. (So can jk , I'm sure, too. But he might be sleeping, time zones and such.)
Baroque is a style, but even more than that, a time. It basically means (European) "classical" music of the period spanning 1600-1750 or so. Obviously they weren't thinking of themselves as baroque any more than bronze age people thought of themselves as bronze age. But that's the term used after the fact.
Chamber music is more about the ensemble size than anything else. Basically it just means smaller than an orchestra, but more than a xxxxxet. Not a quartet, quintet, sextet, etc., but a small group of musicians. But it might be performing music from 1550, 1935, 1780, or 2021. Time isn't a factor.
btw I loved your story about getting into this kind of music. It might be tedious to people by now, but as much as I love music, I love people's stories about music almost as much. (Not quite. But almost.)
Thanks, Cap'n. Yes, I was in dreamland at the time. I've always understood that chamber music was just that -- music that can be performed in a chamber. So it does include trios, quartets, nonets etc. Solo stuff, on the other hand, would seem to be a deliberate choice. It's an interesting topic, to be sure.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 16, 2021 11:56:53 GMT
Then I'm glad you woke up. I always thought of chamber music as slightly larger but not the smallest groups. Guess I should've googled before blabbing.
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sockit
The Surfer Moon
Posts: 234
Likes: 181
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Post by sockit on Oct 16, 2021 16:01:03 GMT
Then I'm glad you woke up. I always thought of chamber music as slightly larger but not the smallest groups. Guess I should've googled before blabbing.
No, not at all, Kapitan. Both viewpoints are very helpful to me. And for that matter, I could have googled it myself except I get a little lazy sometimes! Besides, I enjoy the discussion much more! I think the bottom line is that there appears to be no black and white guidelines for what constitutes "Chamber". A smaller group, perhaps a more intimate sound and style, as opposed to a large concert hall setting. If that's fairly accurate, I think that answers the question. Thanks!
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 16, 2021 16:15:37 GMT
Along the same lines of these definitions, I have always hated the terms like baroque, classical, romantic, etc., because they are used so broadly. Imagine if we said "music from 1950-2000 was 'rock and roll.'" Now, sure, "serious" music was more similar then than was music in the latter half of the 20th century. But even so, to say that something written by an Italian in 1675 is called the same style of music as what a Brit wrote in 1750, almost regardless of how they sound? That just strikes me as bizarre.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 16, 2021 16:50:50 GMT
You know, this might sound odd, but this little conversation makes me think about taking a music appreciation or history course again. I was actually a music major my first two years of college, but haven't studied since then: so we're looking at about 25 years since I paid any real, formal attention to "classical" music. I've listened casually for entertainment, but haven't given it much thought.
With so many cool, free online courses these days, I bet there is a good one out there I could use both as a refresher of what I've forgotten and a chance to learn things I never did pick up in the first place.
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sockit
The Surfer Moon
Posts: 234
Likes: 181
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Post by sockit on Oct 16, 2021 22:59:00 GMT
One of my needle drops from that aforementioned E. Power Biggs comp Lp is Schubert's Marche Militaire by Biggs on harpsichord. I couldn't find that anywhere on YouTube, but while searching I found this really nice piano version with two players.
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Post by jk on Oct 18, 2021 19:45:44 GMT
I love this woman's voice! Here Maria Cristina Kiehr sings Buxtehude's Herr, Wenn Ich nur Dich Hab’ (BuxWV 38), a cantata for soprano, two baroque violins and basso continuo. The instrumentalists are the ensemble Stylus Phantasticus (or members thereof, apologies if this lineup is incorrect): Pablo Valetti and Amandine Beyer (baroque violins), Friederike Heumann (viola da gamba), Eduardo Eguez (theorbo) and Dirk Borner (organ). The * complete collection* is well worth a listen. Note that tracks 6 and 7 are works by * Dietrich Becker* (c. 1623–1679).
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Post by jk on Oct 28, 2021 9:31:57 GMT
One of my needle drops from that aforementioned E. Power Biggs comp Lp is Schubert's Marche Militaire by Biggs on harpsichord. I couldn't find that anywhere on YouTube, but while searching I found this really nice piano version with two players. Nor could I. I love the man's name -- E. Power Biggs! For the following description, I've selectively edited and meshed together two sources, namely the composer’s brief wiki page and Recordare Domine A415's extensive YouTube blurb. Any errors, inconsistencies and/or oversights are my responsibility: The little-known Italian late baroque composer Antonio Brioschi (fl. c. 1725–1750) was an important pioneer in symphonic music in the early Classical period, which traditionally starts around 1730. Brioschi had acquired considerable experience in symphonic writing many years before Haydn completed his earliest works in the genre in the late 1750s. A prolific composer of instrumental music, Brioschi composed about 50 well-crafted symphonies [at least 26 according to his wiki page] between c. 1725 and 1750. It appears he was a more prolific symphonic composer during this period than even the better-known Giovanni Battista Sammartini and seems to have been active in or near Milan. The Milanese school of early symphonic composers gathered around the authoritative figure of Sammartini and included Brioschi, Ferdinando Galimberti and Giovanni Battista Lampugnani. This school flourished in the second quarter of the 18th century prior to the Viennese and Mannheim schools and was the only school of symphonists in Europe at that time. Yet isolated composers in different European cities also contributed to the emergent genre at this early stage, such as Zani, Harrer, Guilleman and Stamitz. Brioschi himself seems to have been associated with the musical life of the Jewish community in Casale Monferrato to the south-east of Milan. In spite of his impressive repertoire, Antonio Brioschi was unfortunately ignored in the nineteenth-century literature and subsequently remained almost unknown until the 1980s when Prof. Bathia Churgin and Dr. Sarah Mandel rediscovered the symphonies and prepared their modern editions. Despite this effort, our knowledge of Antonio Brioschi's biography is very sketchy. It appears he was born c.1690 in the small town of Briosco near Milan and died c.1756 in Milan. There is strong historical evidence about his association with the area of Milan, which at that time was musically a prosperous city. As is evident from the sources, Antonio Brioschi enjoyed special popularity in Paris. Approximately half of his symphonic output [most of it, according to his wiki page] (including the six works in this video) are neatly copied in a large luxurious manuscript collection of instrumental music preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. This collection was copied for the French music patron Pierre Philibert de Blancheton (1697–1756) probably as a repository for the music played at his private concerts. Blachenton and his musicians liked the fresh Italian musical taste and especially the Milanese flavour of Brioschi and his colleague Sammartini. The collection, known as the Fonds Blancheton, was compiled in 1740 and includes all the symphonies in this video. The music of Antonio Brioschi belongs to a period in which the mature baroque style of masters such as Locatelli and Vivaldi overlapped with a new rising classical mode. This is clearly reflected in Brioschi's symphonies, characterized as they are by an intriguing mix of baroque and early-classical traits. On one hand, their cyclic structure resembles the late-baroque concerto and Italian opera overture, each symphony consisting of three movements in the order fast-slow-fast. On the other, the choice of major keys for the works exemplifies a classical inclination. In addition, the slow inner movement of each sounds more baroque than the fast outer movements and contains music of a more lyrical character, full of emotion, while the first movements present a variety of early-classical gestures. They are performed here by Vanni Moretto and the Atalanta Fugiens Ensemble on period instruments:
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Post by jk on Nov 16, 2021 19:47:25 GMT
Now for something more intimate. I already knew of French lutenist Thomas Dunford and my "music friend" suggested this sublime combination with British counter-tenor Iestyn Davies. Here they are rehearsing "Oh Lord, Whose Mercies Numberless" from Act One of Handel's dramatic oratorio Saul (1738): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_(Handel)
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