What classical music did you listen to today?

[Dorsetmike]

Clive, do you have any preferences, orchestral, smaller ensembles, solo instruments, choral, opera, ballet, or do you maybe have certain composers you prefer?

I'm surprised at the variety to be found in Baroque, many people hear the word Baroque and immediately think Bach and maybe a bit of Vivaldi and Handel. If they have heard of John Stanley it's likely to be just his Trumpet Voluntary, he wrote 30 voluntaries, I would suggest about the only people who know any of the other 29 voluntaries are Organists and those who listen to a lot of organ music; he also wrote 12 keyboard concerti (organ and/or harpsichord, 12 trio sonatas and some choral works, he was a contemporary of Handel and took over the performances of the oratorios at Covent Garden after Handel.s death in 1760.

Try these works

http://www.baroquemusiclibrary.com/DLower/BMC01T1JohnStanleyConcerto2Op2.mp3

http://www.baroquemusiclibrary.com/DLower/BMC01T3JohnStanleyHpschdConc5Op2.mp3

http://www.baroquemusiclibrary.com/06Web.html

http://www.baroquemusiclibrary.com/DLower/BMC09T7PurcellSonata7Z808.mp3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek-43z_fTPY

http://www.baroquemusiclibrary.com/DLower/BMC31T4ZelenkaSinfoniaZWV189.mp3

and see if you can listen to this without your eyes leaking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACY03VwWmnA

 

[JHC]

Mr. White Knight - & anyone else out there (!) - pardon my failing spirit, but I do wonder if anyone apart from the two of us ever comes onto this thread, and if so do they take anything away ?

I have an occasional peep but see the same works posted again and again without any meaningful discourse that I really have no interest in doing the same. you mention Talk Classic which I used to be quite active on it has some very interesting discussions and some very knowledgeable members but so many arguments by mostly teenagers and that gets a bit tiring at times. You also mention "Art Music Forum" this one I have not tried but will have a look.

 

[cjvinthechair]

You also mention "Art Music Forum" this one I have not tried but will have a look.

Yes,do - generally a very civilised bunch...do agree with you about TC (fairly occasional, though !).

 

[cjvinthechair]

Mr. Mike - know I started it (!) but we're putting together a bit of an 'off topic' sequence here, so will send you a PM about your kind follow-up post.

In the meantime - a few pieces listened to over the last day or so :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvSVy33kKFg Valeri Kikta - Frescoes of St. Sophia for harp & orchestra (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEMriOL-Sno Janis Ivanovs - Symphony no. 2 (he's well represented on YT)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpTQEf_luLY Otto Olsson - Requiem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMW7JYmzyI Johan de Meij - T-bone Concerto (part 1, for wind band)

 

[JHC]

I did like the Jānis Ivanovs - Symphony No. 2, I must look for a down load.
I have found the 'Art Music forum' but not had time to have a good look.

 

[White Knight]

Camille Saint-Saens--Symphony No.3 in C Minor, Op.78 {"Organ"}, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and organist Michael Murray under Eugene Ormandy. A crisp and passionate reading here by all hands involved.
Aaron Copland--Symphony No.3 and Symphony for Organ and Orchestra {First Symphony}. Both are performed by the Leonard Bernstein led New York Philharmonic. The latter work also features organist E. Power Biggs,whose powerful, resonant playing sent shivers up and down my spine, especially at the end of this symphony.

 

[White Knight]

Carl Nielsen--Symphony No.4, Op.29 {"Inextinguishable"} and Symphony No.5, Op.50. Both works are passionately and crisply traversed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Michael Schonwandt.
Jean Sibelius--Symphony No.1 in E Minor, Op.39 and Symphony No.4 in A Minor, Op.63, both exquisitely rendered by the Paavo Berglund led Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Bohuslav Martinu--Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, both featuring Neeme Jarvi and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Both of these symphonies have some very captivating and haunting thematic developments and motifs going on.

 

[White Knight]

Carl Nielsen--Symphony No.4, Op.29 {"Inextinguishable"} and Symphony No.5, Op.50, both featuring Michael Schonwandt and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
Vaughan Williams--Symphony No.2 {" London Symphony"} and Symphony No.3 {"Pastoral"}, both performed by the Adrian Boult led London Philharmonic Orchestra. Both of these works are very flowing and mood evoking.
Jean Sibelius--Symphony No.2 in D, Op.43 and Symphony No.3 in C, Op.52, both traversed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Paavo Berglund. Again, some very rich and slow readings of these symphonies, which lend them that much more grandeur.

 

[Brandon]

I listened to Akira Ifukube's "Japanese Rhapsody" (1935) and "Sinfonia Tapkaara" (1954, revised 1979).

 

[White Knight]

Carl Nielsen--Symphony No.3 {"Sinfonia espansiva"}; Symphony No.4 {"Inextinguishable"} and Symphony No.5, Op.50. All three works feature Herbert Blomstedt and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Jean Sibelius--Symphony No.2 in D Major, Op.43 and Symphony No.3 in C Major, Op.52, both traversed by Lorin Maazel and the Vienna Philharmonic.
Piotr Chaikovskii--Symphony No.4 in F Minor, Op.36 and Symphony No.5 in E Minor, Op.64, both performed by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

 

[John Watt]

Oh no! I haven't been here for a long time, but I'm back in the middle of a serious composer composition.
The last classical CD I bought was for $1 at Dollarama, and I can't remember the title.
I thought of it as meditative pieces, some of my favorite, Erik Satie's Les Gymnopiedes, all three versions,
going into Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, I know, C#m, and other pieces, nice symphonies.
How could all this popular music be only $1, a new retail price?
It's got the sound of surf and shorebirds mixed into the music, not just at the beginning and end.
The one piece that wasn't getting me anywhere got good with surf sounds, nice dynamics.
This is a Canadian product, what wasn't even a country when these composers composed.
I now realize Beethoven and Mozart never went out on the ocean to compose.
May all mammals co-exist in all peace.

 

[JHC]

Good to hear from you again John, we missed you (but we are lousy shots) Satie Gymnopiedes are catchy works I like them very much also the Moonlight a great sonata but gets bad press for being so popular.....??

 

[White Knight]

Good to hear from you again John, we missed you (but we are lousy shots) Satie Gymnopiedes are catchy works I like them very much also the Moonlight a great sonata but gets bad press for being so popular.....??

So does his Fifth Symphony.

 

[White Knight]

Jean Sibelius--Symphony No.1 in E Minor, Op.39 and Symphony No.4 in A Minor, Op.63, both passionately performed by the Paavo Berglund led Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Bohuslav Martinu--Symphonies Nos.3 and 4, both traversed by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Neeme Jarvi. These are two very lively, haunting and emotional renditions.
Piotr Chaikovskii--Symphony No.1 in G Minor, Op.13 {"Winter Daydreams"} and Symphony No.2 in C Minor, Op.17 {"Little Russian"}, both strikingly carried off by Maestro Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

 

[JHC]

So does his Fifth Symphony.

Yes it's a funny thing in the classical world any work that is popular is rubbished

 

[White Knight]

Yes it's a funny thing in the classical world any work that is popular is rubbished

Yes, it's almost as if the classical world--unlike that of "popular music"--is afraid of being tainted or made less "pure" if any of its works are too well liked. Seems counter-intuitive, at best, and just plain dumb and self-defeating, at worst. :nut:

 

[Dorsetmike]

I wouldn't necessarily say that the more popular works get "rubbished" to quote Colin, what I do think though is that many of them are way overexposed; the commercial classical station in UK runs a yearly poll for the "Hall of Fame top 300" problem then is that it forms about 60% to 70% of their play list, with rarely much apart from new releases, often different performances of the same works or whatever gets hyped as flavour of the month. I rarely listen to it now, not because I think the popular stuff is rubbish, but because it loses its appeal with repeated playing.

This afternoon and part of the evening I have been listening to an ensemble I had not heard before, based in San Fransisco called "Voices of Music" Baroque on "original instruments" and with quite a few vocal tracks as wel as instrumental, some of the works are familiar but many were new to me

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=voices+of+music

Quite a few pages of tracks to choose from!

 

[White Knight]

Antonin Dvorak--Symphony No.8 in G Major, Op.88, passionately traversed by Herbert Blomstedt and the Staatskapelle Dresden.
Franz Schubert--Symphony No.6 in C Major, D 589, once again featuring Herbert Blomstedt leading the Staatskapelle Dresden.
Ludwig Van Beethoven--Symphony No.6 in F Major, Op.68 {"Pastoral"}, performed by the Karl Bohm led Vienna Philharmonic.
Franz Schubert--Symphony No.5 in B Major, D 485, again with Maestro Bohm helming the Vienna Philharmonic.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart--Symphony No.28 in C Major, K.200; Symphony No.33 in B-Flat Major, K.319 and SYmphony No.35 in D Major, K.385 {"Haffner"}. All three works feature George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.

 

[John Watt]

Ah, critics and commentators in the symphonic and classical world, who judge listener's tastes,
as you say JHC, trashing popularity. All this is very intellectual.
That's better than rock and pop media, playing hit songs to death until you don't want to hear them,
or songlists designed to create fame when the artist isn't a practiced or professional stage performer.
Fame is a flame that burns.

 

[JHC]

Over the years I have only heard LvB 5th performed once live and I came away speechless although I have heard it on CD by different orchestras many times, yet on forums it is one of those that is rubbished, on a music forum mention a work that hardly ever get played say First Con by E MacDowell (just as an example) and some smart ass will say it is a fantastic work, same with composers the good ones will sell and the bad ones forgotten. I know there are exceptions such as JSB.