This blog will not be updated for the next 6 months because I will be gone traveling.
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Label: Sony
Year: 2001
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Performer: Vladimir Horowitz
Allmusic about Domenico Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti began his compositional career following in the footsteps of his father Alessandro Scarlatti by writing operas, chamber cantatas, and other vocal music, but he is most remembered for his 555 keyboard sonatas, written between approximately 1719 and 1757… Read more…
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Label: Decca
Year: 1990
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Composer: Antonín Dvořák (September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904)
Performer: Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Sir Georg Solti
Allmusic about Symphony No. 9
Dvorák composed this work in 1893; Anton Seidl conducted the premiere with the New York Philharmonic Society on December 16, 1893.
His most popular work from his time spent in America was the swan-song symphony he subtitled From the New World. Chauvinists among us still claim that its themes are either Amerindian or African-American, which Dvorák refuted in 1900: “Omit the nonsense about my having made use of ‘American’ motifs….I tried only to write in the spirit of those national melodies.” This dust-up managed to ignore influences both stronger and more subtle. Dvorák already knew Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, completed in 1888, and he likewise used a motto-theme to link the four movements in his symphony in E minor. The introduction can be made to sound a lot more Tchaikovskian, indeed, than a subsequent theme can be made to sound like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” as alleged. Beyond the Slavic gravitas of both symphonies, however, Dvorák’s musical signature was intrinsically Czech, even in the Largo movement that represented, he once said, Hiawatha at the grave site of Minnehaha (a quasi-Spiritual, “Goin’ Home” text was created post facto by a white American pupil). By the time he heard any Amerind music, during the summer of 1893 near a Czech settlement at Spillville, Iowa, Dvorák had finished the Ninth Symphony. From the structural standpoint, two sonata-form movements (with an exposition repeat in the first) bracket two movements in song form (ABA), all of them with brief introductions and codas.
The 2/4 Allegro molto has an Adagio preface in 4/8 time. Horns introduce the motto theme, answered by clarinets and bassoons, then strings. Flutes and oboes play a melody in G minor before the “Swing Low” closing subject shifts from minor to G major. Sectional development omits the G minor tune; reprise and coda are distillations.
The Largo begins in D flat major, far from single sharped E minor. A plaintive English horn melody dominates both here and later on. In between a C sharp minor section marked Un poco più mosso, winds introduce two themes, more palpitant than the D flat section’s big tune, before the motto makes a sinister appearance.
Song sections marked Scherzo: Molto vivace, in E minor, pay homage less to Indian pow-wows than to the scherzo movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. A briefer subject in E major recalls the G major closing theme of the first movement, followed by the motto. The Poco sostenuto Trio is pure Czech, beginning in C major, with a G major second theme related to the Beethoven rhythm in sections A and A.
Allegro con fuoco is the marking of the final movement with a martial main theme in E minor for horns and trumpets. The clarinet counters with a nostalgic sub-theme, after which flutes and fiddles play a closing subject in G major. The development combines music from previous movements with the main theme of movement 4. Following the recap, a Grand Coda ends with a fortissimo restatement of the motto, then a diminuendo to pianissimo on the final chord.
Allmusic about Antonín Dvořák
Widely regarded as the most distinguished of Czech composers, Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904) produced attractive and vigorous music possessed of clear formal outlines, melodies that are both memorable and spontaneous-sounding, and a colorful, effective instrumental sense. Dvorák is considered one of the major figures of nationalism, both proselytizing for and making actual use of folk influences, which he expertly combined with Classical forms in works of all genres.
His symphonies are among his most widely appreciated works; the Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World,” 1893) takes a place among the finest and most popular examples of the symphonic literature. Similarly, his Cello Concerto (1894-1895) is one of the cornerstones of the repertory, providing the soloist an opportunity for virtuosic flair and soaring expressivity.
Dvorák displayed special skill in writing for chamber ensembles, producing dozens of such works; among these, his 14 string quartets (1862-1895), the “American” Quintet (1893) and the “Dumky” Trio (1890-1891) are outstanding examples of their respective genres, overflowing with attractive folklike melodies set like jewels into the solid fixtures of Brahmsian absolute forms… Read more…
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Label: Sony
Year: 1990
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Composer: Charles Edward Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954)
Performer: Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Michael Tilson Thomas
Amazon about this album
Ives never really intended his four holiday symphonic poems to be played together, and they are very seldom performed that way live. But it makes so much sense to group them on a recording that the Holidays Symphony has become the standard way to refer to the music. In any event, all four pieces offer some of Ives’ss finest, most imaginative work. The Fourth of July is the second most complex and crazy piece that he ever wrote–right up there with the second movement of the Fourth Symphony. Tilson Thomas is very much a specialist in this music, and he directs performances of almost supernatural accuracy. Simply the best.
Allmusic about Charles Ives
Charles Ives was the son of George Ives, a Danbury, Connecticut bandmaster and a musical experimenter whose approach heavily influenced his son. Charles Ives’ musical skills quickly developed; he was playing organ services at the local Presbyterian church from the age of 12 and began to compose at 13. Ives’ rural, rough-and-tumble childhood was revisited vividly and repeatedly in the music he composed as an adult.
In 1894 Ives entered Yale to study music, and his father died at age 40 from a heart attack. Professor Horatio T. Parker was not at all interested in encouraging Ives’ experimental style. Ives dutifully learned the basics, creating an interesting but conventional Symphony No. 1 as his graduation thesis in 1898. After barely managing to earn his diploma, Ives moved with a couple of his fraternity buddies to an apartment in New York City. He became organist at Central Presbyterian Church and composed his first large-scale attempt to reflect the spirit of America, the Symphony No. 2. In off hours Ives worked on his wild, highly dissonant and ragtime-influenced Piano Sonata No. 1, making a din that his roommates described as “resident disturbances.”.. Read more…
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Label: Brilliant Classics
Year: 2005
Quality: 320 Kbps (stereo)
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Composer: Simeon Ten Holt (Netherlands, 24 January 1923)
Performer: Irene Russo, Fred Oldenburg, Sandra van Veen & Jeroen van Veen
Website: http://www.simeontenholt.org/
Other parts: Part 1
About Simeon Ten Holt
Although Simeon ten Holt’s music is often categorized under the Minimal Music banner, the question is whether this characterization captures the true nature of his composing talent. Although the minimalist inspiration is undoubtedly present in all of his piano compositions, the distinctive feature is not so much the rhythmic and tonal structure which is so typical for this style, but much more the evolutionary space which his music actually creates for the players performing his music.
Simeon’s compositions are not just single works, but rather a collection of an infinite number of compositions, all hidden in a single written code. Like a multitude of images hidden in a holographic photographic image, the script outlines a solution space in which actual shape and form will develop in time towards its full extent and depth. Every performance is therefore unique, yet recognizable as a part of the larger collection. Like life itself, it emerges and takes shape in a complex interaction between the genotypes as a code in the score and the context of performers and audience. This evolutionary and interactive characteristic distinguishes the music from the mainstream minimal music and gives it a special position within this type of compositions. Whereas the minimal music is essentially a modernist, constructive style, Simeon’s music is better characterized as post-modernist and organic in nature.
The success of this music might be explained with this characteristic in mind, as it connects with audiences on an emotional level, taking them on a, every time unique, journey through a musical space. Adventurous but not unsafe, challenging but not beyond the stretch limit, uncharted but not random.
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Label: Cpo Records
Year: 1998
Quality: 128 Kbps (stereo)
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Composer: Stephen Heller (15 May 1813 – 14 January 1888)
Performer: Andreas Meyer-Hermann
Works included:
Allmusic about Stephen Heller
Having lived a checkered existence in several countries, the music of Stephen Heller exhibits several different sets of nationalistic characteristics at different points in his career. His oeuvre consists entirely of works for the piano, two of which (composed jointly with H.W. Ernst) are for piano and violin, and one other of which is a set of six valses as piano duet.
Upon revealing musical talent as early as age five, Heller was given lessons on the pianoforte by Ferenc Brauer and in harmony by a local organist named Cibulka. At the age of nine, his father to send him from Pest to Vienna to study seriously with Czerny. Because this well-known pedagogue was too expensive, Heller was compelled to take lessons from Anton Halm, a teacher of other virtuosi who was able to introduce him to Schubert and Beethoven. In 1828, at the age of 14, Heller embarked upon a prolonged concert tour which, although it fortified his financial resources, took a toll on his health. He returned home two years later exhausted and suffered a nervous breakdown… Read more…
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Label: Decca
Year: 1990
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Composer: Francois-Adrien Boieldieu, Ludwig van Beethoven, George Frederick Handel, etcetera
Performer: Marisa Robles (harp) and Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Random amazon review about this album
Even if you’re not a big fan of harp music, this wonderful disc is still a must-have. Containing music both well-known (the Handel concerto) and little known (the Dittersdorf) it also contains the masterpiece of the French late-classic composer Boieldieu — his wonderful harp concerto. It is a memorable work, and bears a very individual stamp. The brisk and lyric opening movement has harmonic intimations of the Romantic period to come, as well as a limpid Classical clarity. The minor key slow movement is lovely and haunting, and the finale even one-ups the slow movement. A rondo in ostensible major-key, its main theme has an oscillation into the minor mode that almost sends shivers up your back, so visceral is its impact, though subtle nonetheless: it is a truly wondrous movement, haunting, achingly beautiful. The magnificent playing of the great Marisa Robles does full justice to the wonderful pieces on the album, and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields is splendid. As bonuses, solo harp works by Mozart and Beethoven round out a fabulous menu of delectable works.
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Label: Opus 111
Year: 2006
Quality: 220 (VBR) Kbps (stereo)
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Composer: Claudio Monteverdi (15 May 1567 (baptized) – 29 November 1643)
Performer: Rinaldo Alessandrini
Allmusic about Il Sesto Libro de Madrigali
Appearing in 1614, Book Six of Madrigals was Monteverdi’s first publication after his taking the illustrious position of maestro di capella at St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice. Many of the pieces in the collection, including Misero alceo and Presso un fiume, were popular enough to have been circulating widely before the 1614 printing. Like the previous book from 1605, the sixth book of five-voice madrigals contains the older style of polyphonic a capella pieces along with the newer type of “concertati” madrigals for voice and continuo.
Considered as a whole (an approach that modern scholarship increasingly favors), the sixth book can be divided into two large and similar sections; each begins with an a capella section for five voices, followed by a set of madrigals with basso continuo. The entire book ends with a larger-scale madrigal for an expanded vocal ensemble of seven voices with basso continuo… Read more…
Allmusic about Claudio Monteverdi
If one were to name the composer that stitches the seam between the Renaissance and the Baroque, it would likely be Claudio Monteverdi — the same composer who is largely and frequently credited with making the cut in the first place. The path from his earliest canzonettas and madrigals to his latest operatic work exemplifies the shifts in musical thinking that took place in the last decades of the sixteenth century and the first few of the seventeenth.
Monteverdi was born in Cremona, Italy, on the May 15, 1567. As a youth his musical talent was already evident: his first publication was issued by a prominent Venetian publishing house when he was 15, and by the time he was 20 a variety of his works had gone to print… Read more…
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Label: EMI
Year: 2003
Quality: 192 Kbps (stereo)
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Composer: Jean Sibelius (8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957)
Performer: Christian Tetzlaff, Danish Radio National Symphony & Thomas Dausgaard
Contains:
About this album
Primarily a commander of turgid orchestral forces and vibrant musical landscapes, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius brought his formidable musical gift to just a single concerto. It is for violin, unsurprisingly; early on, Sibelius had aspired to a career as a concert violinist. His understanding of the instrument, his gargantuan Wagnerian orchestration, and his unabashed lyricism have succeeded in putting that single concerto at the heart of the violin repertoire, and it remains one of the most popular concertos written after 1900. The demands on the violinist in the concerto (as well as the dozen or so violin works) are greater than the usual fast fingers. The virtuosity of a good Sibelius player is something more: a study in contrasts of light and dark, hot and cold, sadness and mirth. Quite an imposing musical task.
German violinist Christian Tetzlaff has all the right tools in his shed. His eternal, liquid line and burly, burnished tone are ideally suited to he retro romanticism of Sibelius. He plays with understatement, emotive through a prevalent stoicism that gives way at, ooh, just the right times to unequivocal gush and guts. The sweet Humoresques are tender and nostalgic, the Serenades warm and effulgent. The rarely-recorded pictorial Suite is completely rapturous, and Tetzlaff is a knockout in the closing moto perpetuo. Simply a magnificent recording.
Allmusic about Jean Sibelius
Finland’s Jean Sibelius is perhaps the most important composer associated with nationalism in music and one of the most influential in the development of the symphony and symphonic poem. Sibelius was born in southern Finland, the second of three children. His physician father left the family bankrupt, owing to his financial extravagance, a trait that, along with heavy drinking, he would pass on to Jean. Jean showed talent on the violin and at age nine composed his first work for it, Rain Drops.
In 1885 Sibelius entered the University of Helsinki to study law, but after only a year found himself drawn back to music. He took up composition studies with Martin Wegelius and violin with Mitrofan Wasiliev, then Hermann Csillag. During this time he also became a close friend of Busoni. Though Sibelius auditioned for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, he would come to realize he was not suited to a career as a violinist… Read more…
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Label: London
Year: 1997
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Composer: Frédéric Chopin (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849)
Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy
Random amazon review about this album
There is Chopin. There is Ashkenazy. There is the London recording. That combination sounds like it should be excellent. It’s not. It’s way, way, w-a-y better than that. This is the stuff you stop what you’re doing and dream by. Chopin’s music is so wonderful in so many ways. Ashkenazy has it in his soul and in his fingers. I cannot imagine any other pianist doing it better. Yes, there are other superb players of this music, and some may equal, but none will better Asheknazy’s interepretations and technique. The London recording is, as usual with the Polygram labels, up close and personal. A reviewer said it felt like he was sitting next to Ashkenazy as he played. Oh, to have such an experience. But I have to agree, this is as close as you will come to that. These discs are for me, and will be for you, always close at hand and have a very, very special place in your musical life.
Allmusic about Frédéric Chopin
Although a few major pianists, notably Glenn Gould, have dismissed his music as excessively ornamental and trivial, Frédéric Chopin has long been recognized as one of the most significant and individual composers of the Romantic age. The bulk of his reputation rests on small-scale works that in other hands would have been mere salon trifles: waltzes, nocturnes, preludes, mazurkas, and polonaises (the last-named two groups reflecting his fervent Polish nationalism). These works link poetically expressive melody and restless harmony to high technical demands. Even his etudes survive as highly appealing concert pieces by emphasizing musical as well as technical values… Read more…
