What are you listening to now?

[Chris]

I like that one, Peter! And it does sound very much like something a 14 year old would write, I think. I don't mean that as a criticism of it, just that it has a youthful character - the work of someone who has learned some things and is excited to experiment with them, with the promise of more to come.

[Peter]

Bach's glorious cantata 'Actus Tragicus' written when he was just 22. I've also included an arrangement of the opening sonatina for piano duet played by the Jussen brothers.

[Quijote]

Bach's glorious cantata 'Actus Tragicus' written when he was just 22.

Lovely.
Here's his Cantata BWV 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden, also written when he was 22 (though revised in 1724/25) and equally lovely in my view, especially the cello part:

[Quijote]

To focus a bit on the cello part in BWV 4 posted above:

1) The Soprano and Alto duet 'Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt' with lachrymose, closely-voiced 2-part counterpoint against a more "muscular-but-tender-and-loving" octave-leaping solo cello part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrq626ro5VU&t=334s

2) The Soprano and Tenor duet 'So feiern wir das hohe Fest', with triplet figurations in the soprano and tenor parts against a more 4-square dotted quaver + semiquaver rhythm in the solo cello. A cellist can sometimes be seduced into making their dotted rhythm sound like a triplet to mimic the vocal soloists - a mistake!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrq626ro5VU&t=1034s

[Zevy]

Schubert: Complete works for violin/Viola & Piano, Zukerman/Neikrug

[Quijote]

Check out these extraordinarily beautiful variations from Beethoven's piano sonata No.30 in E Major, Op.109. I've jumped to Variation IV which just blows me away.

https://youtu.be/8JZGiY--2LM?t=780

[Peter]

Check out these extraordinarily beautiful variations from Beethoven's piano sonata No.30 in E Major, Op.109. I've jumped to Variation IV which just blows me away.

https://youtu.be/8JZGiY--2LM?t=780

Yes they are wonderful and of course very difficult to play well, especially the last few pages with those long trills. Isn't it strange how Schubert and Beethoven both entered the sublime with their last 3 piano sonatas?

[Quijote]

Yes they are wonderful and of course very difficult to play well, especially the last few pages with those long trills. Isn't it strange how Schubert and Beethoven both entered the sublime with their last 3 piano sonatas?

For me, just difficult to play at all, forget well !! Those long trills (https://youtu.be/8JZGiY--2LM?t=992) in both hands, against the accompanying LH & RH triplets, how do you manage that? There's also something wonderfully improvisational about these variations – it's very humbling to revisit this sonata and be reminded of just what an extraordinary pianist Beethoven must have been.

I'm still reading the Beethoven Conversation Books (volume 2, nearly finished it !) where in one of them he jotted down the opening theme of this sonata whilst in a fiacre (small horse-drawn carriage) on the way out of Vienna to Modling to check out some summer rental properties and later arranging for Stein to ship him his Broadwood that Stein had been adapting for him...I can imagine Beethoven receiving his Broadway and getting down to it out there in the countryside!

Another thing that has been brought home to me reading these Conversation Books is the astonishing amount of time Beethoven spent in various winstubs, bierstubs, coffee houses and eateries on a daily basis! Still, if were a bachelor with a bit of spare cash I'd be right there with him, hah !!

[Peter]

This is just crazy! Amazing improvisation by the wonderful organist Thomas Ospital

[Quijote]

This is just crazy! Amazing improvisation by the wonderful organist Thomas Ospital

That is fairly wild ! You know, I think improvisation is coming back in certain Music Master's programmes. About time, too.

[Quijote]

And now for a wonderful aria by Vivaldi. This is absolutely electrifying !

[Peter]

And now for a wonderful aria by Vivaldi. This is absolutely electrifying !

Indeed, quite stunning.

[Peter]

Saint-Saens's Organ symphony is well known, but not so the Organ symphonies of Alexandre Guilmant. Just for a taster listen to the last few minutes of the 2nd symphony from 27'

[Chris]

That is fairly wild ! You know, I think improvisation is coming back in certain Music Master's programmes. About time, too.

Has it ever left organ performance programs? That is a critical skill for church organists, at least, and I have often heard incredible improvisations from them.

[gprengel]

A great unknown symphony shortly from 1832 by C.Loewe who actually is known only for his songs: https://youtu.be/nyUjeccUEDM I love movements 1 -2 and 4 !