What are you listening to now?

[Quijote]

It's a warm Good Friday here in Strasbourg, I am replete after a hefty lunch and feeling in a good mood. Ergo, I'm listening again to two fortepiano concerti by Salieri (C major) and Joseph Anton Steffan (B-flat major). Both are HIP performances with Andreas Staier and the Concerto Köln. As I mentioned above, one can imagine Beethoven saying "hah!" in derision. His student Ries' concerti are of another order. I really think I need to re-evaluate my initial dismissal of this composer.

[Michael]

All this weekend I am listening on and off to Classic FM's Hall of Fame: the top 300 works voted by listeners.
I don't know why I listen every year. It always annoys the hell out of me but I have a sort of awful fascination with it. I keep hoping a string quartet piece will appear suddenly at No. 298 or something.
I don't have it on all day, I hasten to add. I tune in every now and again. I am listening now to Number 254 which is Mozart's 40th, a drop of ninety-something places from last year's chart (or so I am informed by the awed presenter.) How the mighty are fallen!

[Quijote]

All this weekend I am listening on and off to Classic FM's Hall of Fame: the top 300 works voted by listeners.
I don't know why I listen every year. It always annoys the hell out of me but I have a sort of awful fascination with it. I keep hoping a string quartet piece will appear suddenly at No. 298 or something.
I don't have it on all day, I hasten to add. I tune in every now and again. I am listening now to Number 254 which is Mozart's 40th, a drop of ninety-something places from last year's chart (or so I am informed by the awed presenter.) How the mighty are fallen!

There is nothing like the 'levelling effect' of the democratic vote, is there? Which makes me think of the expression : 'We should all eat excrement, as several billion flies cannot be wrong'.

[Preston]

I am still listening to Mozart's Requiem, different movements though. This must be the most powerful piece of music Mozart ever wrote. The Dies Irae and the Confutatis, are what I have been listening to. I think back to the flute and harp concerto, and then I think about The Requiem, quite different.

I have a somewhat changed view on Mozart's music. His late period is deep, very deep. He wrote some really sublime, profound, and very well thought out music, especially during his last years, it seems to me.

I have also been listening to Ave Verum Corpus, to light the mood after listening to the Dies Irae and Confutatis.

[Peter]

I am still listening to Mozart's Requiem, different movements though. This must be the most powerful piece of music Mozart ever wrote. The Dies Irae and the Confutatis, are what I have been listening to. I think back to the flute and harp concerto, and then I think about The Requiem, quite different.

I have a somewhat changed view on Mozart's music. His late period is deep, very deep. He wrote some really sublime, profound, and very well thought out music, especially during his last years, it seems to me.

I have also been listening to Ave Verum Corpus, to light the mood after listening to the Dies Irae and Confutatis.

Yes do you know the beautiful Laudate Dominum?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDmsI...om=PL&index=11

Another beautiful clip for you - Lucia Popp singing 'Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben' from Mozart's unfinished opera Zaide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joyiM...aynext_from=PL

The slow movement from the A major piano concerto is very profound and the earlier Great C minor mass is another very powerful work, though incomplete.

Honestly for sheer beauty of sound I think Mozart is unsurpassed.

[Preston]

Thank you for the links Peter.

I have heard the Laudate Dominum before. It is beautiful. I did not know the name of it, so I was surprised when I clicked on the link. I have it on a Mozart Works cd. I used to listen to it quite a lot because of the beauty of the piece, and there is something about it, can't put my finger on it though. Perhaps, I will have to go with what Beethoven once said, "I can feel it, but cannot describe it".

I have also been listening to the Piano Concerto 27, don't know if that is the A minor one? I quite like it. For me, it makes me feel like Mozart was questioning his spirituality, because I feel, what I would call, these sudden cries for some type of spirituality. For instance, in the 3rd movement the piece goes along, then :57 seconds come up and bam, the orchestra cries out. It is probably just me, perhaps. This is just what I was talking about, instead of just writing beautiful and formally correct music, he seems to be putting a lot of thought into it, I don't know though? Perhaps I have been listening to to much of the many pieces he wrote when he was younger, .

I have really only heard the Kyrie, and it is quite powerful. Then the beauty of the soprano comes in, and Mozart just builds and builds on that beauty. Until it reaches a climax. I do need to give the whole Mass a listening to. I mean, I think The Requiem is of the divine, one of the greatest pieces of music ever written (probably why I don't understand it and just pick up on some feelings of it). Mozart, I think, sees our and his sins and lays them out in his Requiem. I think, he writes of the horrors of the world, our sins, damnation, the divine, and etc., in it.

[Chris]

Happy Easter, all!

I recently bought Antal Dorati's boxset of Haydn's operas, and I am now listening to Armida. I am totally unfamiliar with Haydn's operas, so this should be interesting. So far so good!

[Preston]

Peter, I have been listening to Beethoven's Mass in C, and was wondering what you thought of it when compared to Mozart's Requiem Mass? Only wondering. They were both around the same age, when they composed the masses, so thought it would be interesting to hear a comparison.

I do like Beethoven's Mass in C, quite a lot. I do think that it is underated, but I don't understand the technicalities. Is there another who thinks Beethoven's Mass in underated? If so, why, and if not, why?

[PDG]

You wanna bet !

Why are you mad? I was only stating the obvious...

[PDG]

Peter, I have been listening to Beethoven's Mass in C, and was wondering what you thought of it when compared to Mozart's Requiem Mass? Only wondering. They were both around the same age, when they composed the masses, so thought it would be interesting to hear a comparison.

I do like Beethoven's Mass in C, quite a lot. I do think that it is underated, but I don't understand the technicalities. Is there another who thinks Beethoven's Mass in underated? If so, why, and if not, why?

I love Beethoven's C mass. Far more accessible than the Missa, Op. 123. No one seems to have mentioned that Mozart did not complete his Requiem?...

[PDG]

Happy Easter, all!

I recently bought Antal Dorati's boxset of Haydn's operas, and I am now listening to Armida. I am totally unfamiliar with Haydn's operas, so this should be interesting. So far so good!

Are you still keeping your enthusiasm going, Chris?...

[PDG]

How the mighty are fallen!

What was Top of the Pops?... (not that I care)...

[Chris]

Are you still keeping your enthusiasm going, Chris?...

Yep, listening to the final moments of L'isola disabitata right now! It's definitely given me my Classical opera fix. Once you listen to Fildelio and Mozart's operas, where else are you supposed to go?

[Megan]

Why are you mad? I was only stating the obvious...

Only joking PDG. I have never heard the piece of music before,but you wanted to insist that I had.

I was just responding to your humour. Sorry to digress.

[Peter]

Peter, I have been listening to Beethoven's Mass in C, and was wondering what you thought of it when compared to Mozart's Requiem Mass? Only wondering. They were both around the same age, when they composed the masses, so thought it would be interesting to hear a comparison.

I do like Beethoven's Mass in C, quite a lot. I do think that it is underated, but I don't understand the technicalities. Is there another who thinks Beethoven's Mass in underated? If so, why, and if not, why?

Well I adore the requiem and like the Mass - so there's the difference! The Beethoven is not so much underated as overshadowed by its mighty successor the Missa Solemnis, but so are Schubert's wonderful masses as well.