Classical music [Youtube Clips]

Bach, Franck

Oege said:

Sinfonia de la Cantate No. 29' van Johann Sebastiaan Bach played by Gert van Hoef a young but excelent organist from the Netherlands.

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There are many vids on YouTube showing Gert at a very young age playing large Euro instruments. In the above video, a sample set used via software (a program called Hauptwerk) is simulating the sound of the Domkerk (cathedral) at Utrecht. I.e., most of the sound is digital (and quite well reproduced, I might add), not a product of the pipes seen in that tiny closet space. I searched for firsthand vids of the Batz organ at Utrecht's cathedral but could find none where I liked both music and performance.

March 21 was Bach's 329th birthday, however, so I'll honor that with this nice performance of the first (in Eb major) of his six triosonatas (played on the Trost organ of the Stadtkirche in Waltershausen):



Despite my love for the first movement, I've always found the third even more appealing, especially because it is so lively and so much fun to play. Except for their second movements, the triosonatas are full of youthful energy. Like many of Bach's works, they were probably intended as pedagogical (or teaching) pieces. Supposedly they were used as part of Wilhelm Friedemann's tutelage with his ridiculously talented father as headmaster. Impossible act to follow.

Here's another organ work, but this one transcribed for piano. Quite lovely. The Prelude of Cesar Franck's Prelude, Fugue and Variation for organ:

Johnny Greenwood's Norwegian Wood Suite

Gorgeous new music (from the BBC Proms):

Psycho (Bernard Herrmann)

Fascinating to hear without the visuals---and we know the visuals all too well. Each strain, each note calls them forth inevitably: the neurasthenic theft and flight, the rain-spattered windshield, the eerie self-calming, the seedy neon sign, the tense sandwiches, the taxidermy, the shower turning icy cold and bloodless, followed by schizoid interplay between sick remorse and fastidious cover-up. Then the final chord and severe delusion piercing through Norman’s eyes in the final shot! This whole thing scares me every time I see it---or hear it:



Keith Lockhart conducting at the BBC Proms.

Mozart - Missa Brevis in C, K. 220 (Spatzenmesse)

Lou Harrison is one of my favorites. He blends Gamelan music and Western orchestral works. I worked on his Piano Trio a year ago, though I can't find it online. UbuWeb has a nice synthesis of a bunch of his lesser known works, including the audio recording of a gay puppet opera. Here's the Ubu page: http://anon.projectarchive.net/?http://www.ubu.com/sound/harrison_lou.html The opera is listed at the bottom. I'm listening to the Molto Adagio from Concerto in Slendro, also listed there. Enjoy ~


all links to external websites must be anonymized - z

From a 20 year old obscure but beautiful cd with von Otter and Goebel, where Handel once more proved that he's the unbeaten master of recycling.

My current favourite is the opening chorus of J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

remembering good ol' "Hans Neubahn" on the anniversary of his death

Johannes Brahms
(7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897)



Sym 1, 4th movement



Sym 4, 1st movement

ihno said:

Handel once more proved that he's the unbeaten master of recycling.

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The master composers are capable of doing whatever they want TO whatever they want. Plus they know what NOT to attempt. That last intuition is one of the hardest to learn, I think.

Modern sucessful composer perhaps. But not 300 years ago.
Of course it was pretty normal back then but Handel is very obvious with it.

Handel self-parodies I



original
Quel fior, HWV 192, 1741



parody 1, His yoke is easy, Messiah, 1741



parody 2, Messiah, And he shall purify, 1741 (above vid 1 beginning 2:55)

Handel self-parodies II



original, Messiah, For unto us a child is born, 1741



parody, No, di voi non vo' fidarmi, 1742



original, Messiah Glory to God, 1741



parody, concerto a due cori 2, 1748

I like really very much!!!

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The opening is completely haunting.

Ah, finally there is the one and only recording von BWV 137 on youtube



BWV 137
Cantata "Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren"

Ton Koopman etc. pp.

"Lobe den Herren" is one of the most moving chorals to me. Back on the days when ihno was still little (and cute of course except for the hair and the strange glasses) and went to church I especially loved that choral.

We even gave it as a ringtone to my mom's mobile years later, which she found a little embarrassing I guess.

Now there's only BWV 197 with Koopman missing.

Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit (BWV 111)





Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (BWV 26)

The Dutch-Russian pianist Youri Egorov playing Schubert. He played these works at his last concert. Heartbreaking beautiful


The Dutch-Russian pianist Youri Egorov made his mark
on the performance of classical music in his own highly individual way.

Opposed to gimmicks and show, he went his own way. A career scarcely interested him.
This website is intended to keep the memories of Youri Egorov alive.

i like classical piano pieces (i studied piano for about 3 years)
and just discovered Chopin among others.

Any recommendation of classical piano pieces (as primary instrument) that sound incredibly complex like the piece Islamey (Oriental Fantasy) by Balakirev?

sammyyummy said:

Any recommendation of classical piano pieces (as primary instrument) that sound incredibly complex like the piece Islamey (Oriental Fantasy) by Balakirev?

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Our definitions of “complex” may differ, but try Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. It’s a repertoire mainstay in this postmodern age, and despite his early modernist harmonic adventurism, Prokofiev often returns to the Chopinesque, or more likely Tchaikovskian, Romanticism he supposedly detested. As a proud, determined reactionary, he often contradicted himself this way (whether by design or by Soviet force), fortunately for us. Like Beethoven, this also has a lotta rock ‘n’ roll rhythms---gotta love those!

Prokofiev is definitely complex and hard to play. This tour de force takes steely fingers, not something one would associate with a petite Asian female, but Yuja Wang digs in like a real jackhammer. Bravo! She's like a Viking shieldmaiden or one of the Russian warrior pianists. She knows how to feel, and being a music performer is closer to being a porn star than you might expect.

Sometimes keyboardists have to fuck their instrument---that is, if they’re at all interested in making the audience feel alive. Note the organ in the background---the king of fuckable instruments.

Monumental

J. S. Bach, Prelude from the Prelude & Fugue in c minor (BWV 546):



Lezajsk is a small Polish town near Poland’s border with Ukraine. It lies east of Krakow and south-southeast of Warsaw. Here's a nice close-up of the magnificent late-seventeenth-century organ in its basilica and monastery built by the Bernardines (a.k.a. Cistercians), an order named for St. Bernard of Clairvaux:

http://anon.projectarchive.net/?http://www.cracowcrafts.com/tourpics/lezajask/lezajask1.jpg

Note the extra pedal towers on the far right and left. Stanisław Studziński built the instrument c. 1680.

From Wikipedia: “The Jewish cemetery in Leżajsk is a place of pilgrimage for Jews from all over the world, who come to visit the tomb of Elimelech, the great 18th century Hasidic Rebbe.”