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Classical Music playlist for June 9


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Klipsch and Trey are once again generously providing the Palladium P-38 room for a classical music HT session, on the afternoon of Saturday, June 9. Comments are welcome on the program as currently planned:<p>
  • Claudio Monteverdi, Vespers of 1610, Duo seraphim and Nisi dominus; John Eliot Gardiner et al; 11:28 min.
  • J.S. Bach, St. Matthew Passion, Erbarme dich, mein Gott and Bin ich gleich; Richter, Munich Bach-Choir; 8:47 min.
  • François Couperin, Le Tic-Toc-Choc; Grigory Sokolov, piano; 3:21 min.
  • Nicolò Paganini, Caprice No. 1 and Caprice No. 24, Alexander Markov, violin; 6:50 min.
  • Antonín Dvok, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," Largo; Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic; 13:00 min.
  • Richard Strauss, An Alpine Symphony ("Calm" through Night") ; Neeme Järvi, Hague Residentie Orchestra; 14:10 min.
  • George Enescu, Romanian Rhapsody No. 1; Mariss Jansons, Berlin Philharmonic; 13:00 min.
  • Edvard Grieg, Solveig’s Song; Järvi, Berlin Philharmonic, Marita Solberg; 6:40 min.

    Total time: 1:11:16 min. plus discussion.

    We had to have three sessions last time because of the number who were interested (the room only holds 15). I'll plan on two sessions (one repeat) this time, but will try to hold another if there's spillover.

    Larry

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The Palladium room will be equipped with the following outstanding setup:

  • P-38 pair, C-27, S-27, B-17, P-312 x 2
  • Integra Prepro, Aragon amps
  • Sony projector on a 110 “ HD screen
  • Sony Blue ray, AMX media server.
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The following paragraphs are background to the featured composers and works. Please ignore the formatting problems.

Claudio Monteverdi, 1567-1643

Vespers of the Blessed Virgin of 1610, Duo seraphim and Nisi dominus – John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists (using period instruments), Monteverdi Choir, London Oratory Junior Choir, His Majesties Sagbutts & Cornetts. Eight vocal soloists.

Monteverdi was a great composer of the early Baroque era (1600 - 1750). He was key in music’s transformation from the highly restrained, rule-bound Renaissance to the introduction of opera.

The monumental Monteverdi Vespers, published in 1610, was one of the most striking and greatest musical works from before 1700. It is complex and in some ways baffling, assembled from psalms, earthy biblical songs, hymns, and liturgy, in a logical and lofty whole. Although the writing of separate parts for instruments and voices was only a recent development in music, the vocal writing and orchestration (somewhat reconstructed) show remarkable writing skill. This performance was recorded in 1989 in the unique San Marco basilica in Venice, an 1100-year-old world treasure with lofts (great for multi-channel!) and domes massively lined with precious gems and gold mosaic. Venice was a world leader in music composition, performance and publishing, in part because of Venetian masters like Monteverdi and the Gabrielis.

The vocal and instrumental writing is unsurpassedly beautiful. Some choral sections have many more than the usual four parts. Duo seraphim features 3 tenor soloists, accompanied only by a single theorbo (a large lute) each and a small portable pipe organ. Nisi dominus was written for a 10-part chorus, and accompanied by an orchestra, large by early 17th-century Venetian standards, that includes cornettos, trombones, 2 violins, 2 violas (only soloists, no string sections), tenor viola, cello, bass, theorbo, and keyboard. Elsewhere, the work adds recorders, shawms (early oboes), and a dulcian (early bassoon).

J.S. Bach, 1685-1750

St. Matthew Passion Erbarme dich, mein Gott (Have mercy O Lord) and Bin ich gleich von dir gewichen (Although I strayed from you) -- Karl Richter, Munich Bach-Choir

The St. Matthew Passion is a great dramatic masterpiece that must be seen to fully appreciate how forcefully it tells the agony of Christ’s final days. Erbarme dich is a special highlight of the work in the way it weaves together the violin and the alto soloist. It is immediately followed by the unaccompanied chorale Bin ich gleich. Bach inserted 15 a capella chorales in the Passion for observers to speak their inner insights and thoughts on the story and drama as told by recitatives, arias and choruses -- all of which are accompanied by the orchestra.

François Couperin, 1668-1733

Le Tic-Toc-Choc -- Grigory Sokolov Live in Paris, Grigory Sokolov, Piano.

Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. From Wikipedia: "Many of Couperin's keyboard pieces have evocative, picturesque titles and express a mood through key choices, discordant harmonies, and discords. Le Tic-Toc-Choc is a little perpetual motion machine whose title is a collection of words that mean pulsing, and clashing. The keyboardist plays constant sixteenth notes while both hands have notes that overlap within the same octave. Recorded in recital in .

Nicolò Paganini, 1782-1840 Caprice No. 1, and Caprice No. 24, from the 24 Caprices -- Alexander Markov, Violin, .

Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. Perhaps the most celebrated violin virtuoso of all time, he is one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His Caprice No. 24 in A minor, Op. 1, is among the best known of his compositions, and has served as an inspiration for many prominent composers. The 24th is actually a theme and several exceptionally brief variations that display the full range of Paganini's technique. He had exceptionally long fingers and tremendous flexibility that allowed him to play three octaves across four strings in a single hand span, extraordinarily difficult even by today's standards. Paganini usually worked out his sensationally difficult passages without writing them down, leaving a very sparse record of his works. The 24 Caprices were a rare exception. Released on DVD in 2006.

Antonin Dvorak, 1841-1904, Symphony No. 9, From the New World, Largo (II) Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dvorak, son of a provincial butcher and professional zither player in Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic), rose to fame amidst nationalistic political turmoil. This led to his appointment to Director of the new National Conservatory of Music in New York City, 1892-1895. One of his pupils was an early African-American composer who introduced him to the American ***** spiritual. Dvorak wrote the symphony in 1893 using melodies he felt reflected Native American and African-American music. The second movement, the Largo, is a famous movement that features the English horn.

Recorded in the Teatro Massimo (largest theater in Italy), Palermo, 2002. The Berlin Philhamonic is one of the best orchestras in the world. One can see precision playing and unified dynamic (loud-soft) shadings by its superb musicians. Abbado is an expressive conductor who has great communication with the orchestra.

Richard Strauss, 1864-1949, Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64); from Calm Before the Storm to the end, Night. – Neeme Järvi, Residentie Orchestra The Hague.

Strauss was a phenomenal and brilliant composer and orchestrator of pictoral orchestral works ("tone poems"), operas, and song. The Alpine Symphony was written from 1911 to 1915, in the shadow of the cultural disruption of WW I and the revolutionary shift from the 19th-century Romantic era of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, to the Modern 20th-century era of Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. The complexity and scale of this work reflects the transition.

This was Strauss’s largest orchestra – 120 to 140 players including a wind machine, thunder machine, and huge woodwind and brass sectiona playing some unheard-of notes in an unparalleled panoply of orchestral effects. It leaves far behind Beethoven’s ordered structures, harmonies, and orchestration. Strauss seemed to include everything but the kitchen sink (there wasn't one on the mountain), a sort of "candy store for conductors and players."

The 42-minute work portrays a day’s journey to the top of a mountain and return, through meadows and a pasture (and cowbells!), a glacier and the summit, a descent through gathering weather and an all-out thunderstorm, to sunset and nighttime. Some regard it as an allegory for one's life. It is "through-composed" as a single movement without breaks, making it difficult to excerpt. The work is extremely demanding. Recorded at the Hague, 2008.

George Enescu, 1881-1955, Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 -- Mariss Jansons, Berlin Philharmonic

Many of Enescu's works were influenced by Romanian folk music. He was a popular guest conductor in the United States in the earlier 20th century, and his two Romanian rhapsodies are among his most popular works.

Edvard Grieg, 1843-1907, Solveig’s Song, from Peer Gynt Suite No. 2 -- Marita Solberg, Berlin Philharmonic, Neeme Järvi cond.

Grieg was a Norwegian nationalist composer and a well-known pianist, who drew inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Written as incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, this song and performance have a special delicacy and depth. Recorded in Berlin in 2006.

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