What are you listening to now?

[Quijote]

Yes, I know what you meant. I could have sworn Jaap Schröder only recorded these pieces with the "curved" bow, but I just did search on it and couldn't find anything about it, so I may be mistaken and thinking of someone else. Rachel Podger recently recorded the Bach solo violin works, and the reviews are quite good, so I may have to check those out. I have her recording of the accompanied Bach sonatas with Trevor Pinnock, and those are quite good. I'm surprised Andrew Manze has never record the solo sonatas and partitas (or if he did, I have not found it). Arthur Grumiaux's recording I love, even though it is with a modern violin. I almost always prefer Baroque instruments for Bach, but since I do not have a Baroque violin, when I play these pieces, it is naturally more like Grumiaux than a Baroque violinist, so I really connect with his excellent version. Well, actually it sounds nothing like Grumiaux - it sounds more like total crap. I gotta practice more

I think you may have heard (of) this CD, Chris :

Bach, Sonatas for Solo Violin Played on the Curved Bow, Rudolf Gähler. ("Mit Rundbogen").

This is a CD my ex-wife (long may she proposer) still has and has not returned to me, the cow. Anyway, I do remember it (or rather Gähler) produces a very special sound, not least the curved bow, plus the fact he plays his violin in a special "historical" way : not under the chin, almost on the shoulder, instrument pointing down (like in those baroque "depictions" we see in the history books).

[Chris]

Ah yes, that was it!

[Quijote]

And now a little discussion between string players, so please excuse the "in-talk" This is for Chris! (And apologies if I am excluding anyone!)

I have also used a "curved bow" : this was many years ago when a kind donor lent me (long term) a reproduction baroque 'cello, plus two bows, one a "standard" (in terms of curvature, though still "baroque"), the other the "real McCoy". The difference was quite audible and the feeling (the actual "handling") quite different, as you can imagine. The 'cello itself had a lovely sound, was a bitch to tune (or rather, keep tuned), but the curved bow, Lord, the bow! I had to radically rethink the "attacks" (down or up bow, as just one simple example), had the possibility to "nuance" long notes by applying finger pressure to the bow, not from above, but on the hair itself, plus the lovely piquant almost "nasal" timbre of the gut strings (recalcitrant objects at the best of times!).

The fact too that the "pressure" required on the strings (fingering) was considerably less made it that it was a joy and revelation to play Bach solo 'cello suites. So I think I agree with you, Chris : baroque music on period instruments, but not dogmatically.

[Quijote]

To continue, I sometimes had the feeling I could make my 'cello sound like an oboe, or a bassoon. But perhaps I'm wandering into the realms of the magic mountain, so I'll stop there.

Good night, Merry Christmas all.

[Chris]

Interesting. I have never had the chance to play a Baroque violin. I would like to try some some time. Perhaps after I have had the chance to play a REAL pipe organ.

[Sorrano]

Chris, playing a "real" pipe organ is exhilarating; especially in a good acoustical setting.

I've been listening to Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto, played by Martha Argerich with Abaddo conducting. It just makes me dizzy to hear how well she handled all those crazy chords!

[Megan]

Listening to BBC Early music show, featuring Pergolesi.



Listen Live on BBC Radio 3 (Started at 13:00)
SynopsisCatherine Bott marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of one of the most important composers of opera buffa (comic opera) - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. He was born in Jesi, near Ancona, in January 1710, and studied with local musicians before going to Naples at the age of fifteen, where he quickly made a name for himself as an accomplished musician and composer.

Apart from his operas, which caused such a stir in Naples, and, much later, in Paris, Pergolesi also wrote a number of secular instrumental works, including a violin sonata and a violin concerto. A considerable number of instrumental and sacred works once attributed to Pergolesi have since been shown to be falsely attributed. The Concerti Armonici, for instance, are now known to have been composed by Count Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer. Much of Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella, which ostensibly reworks pieces by Pergolesi, is actually based on spurious works.

It is Pergolesi's 1736 Stabat Mater for male soprano, male alto, and orchestra, which is his best-known sacred work. It was commissioned by the monks of the brotherhood of San Luigi di Palazzo as a replacement for the rather old-fashioned one by Alessandro Scarlatti for identical forces which was performed traditionally each Good Friday in Naples. The work has remained incredibly popular, becoming the most frequently printed work of the 18th century, and being arranged by a number of other composers, including Bach, who used it as the basis for his psalm Tilge, Hochster, meine Sunden, BWV1083.

Tragically, Pergolesi died from tuberculosis, aged just 26, but his legacy remained, and his comic operas became the subject of the now famous Querelle des Bouffons in Paris in the 1750s, which concerned the relative merits of French and Italian opera, sparked off by a performance of Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona.

Wassenaer, attrib. Pergolesi: Concerto No 1 in G (2nd movement - excerpt)
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Karl Munchinger (conductor)
DECCA 425 728-2
Track 1

Pergolesi: Concerto for violin & orchestra in B flat
Daniel Cuiller (violin)
Ensemble Stradivaria
Paul Colleaux (conductor)
ACCORD 465 952-2
Tracks 13-15

Pergolesi: Sinfonia - Lo frate 'nnamurato
Orchestra da Camera di Santa Cecilia
Alessio Vlad (conductor)
ARTS 47347-2
Track 2

Pergolesi: Il prigionero superbo (Che fiero martire)
Metalce......Adriana Cicogna (mezzo-soprano)
Orchestra Filharmonica Marchigiana
Marcello Panni (director)
BONGIOVANNI GB 2221
Disc 1, Track 6

Pergolesi: La serva padrona (Lo conosco a quegli occhietti)
Serpina......Patricia Biccire (soprano)
Uberto......Donato di Stefano (bass)
La Petite Bande
Sigiswald Kuijken (conductor)
ACCENT 96123
Track 22

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (Stabat mater dolorosa)
Barbara Bonney (soprano)
Andreas Scholl (alto)
Les Talens Lyriques
Christophe Rousset (conductor)
DECCA 466 134-2
Track 1.

[Chris]

Listening to something interesting today. Mozart made arrangements of some of Handel's oratorios to bring them more into line with the practices of his time, and I am listening to a recording of Alexander's Feast and Ode for St. Cecelia's Day conducted by Christopher Hogwood. Very interesting, hearing a modern conductor conduct a Classical arrangement of a Baroque piece Very nice, though...I like it.

[Quijote]

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4, Melvyn Tan (fortepiano) and Roger Norrington (London Classical Players).

[Chris]

Listening to Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, K581. This piece always moves me especially, because, off all the strange things, its use in the final episode of M*A*S*H.

[Michael]

Beethoven's String Trios, Opus 9. Marvellous works and so often overlooked instead of overheard.

[PDG]

Agreed, Michael. I remember reading in the 1994 Gramophone Guide, when reviewing a particular recording (I can't recall which), the reviewer stated that if these 3 works (Op.9) had been all that Beethoven had written, then he would still be regarded as one of the Greats...

[Michael]

Agreed, Michael. I remember reading in the 1994 Gramophone Guide, when reviewing a particular recording (I can't recall which), the reviewer stated that if these 3 works (Op.9) had been all that Beethoven had written, then he would still be regarded as one of the Greats...

Yes, they are one of the highlights of Beethoven's cat-alogue.

[PDG]

I'm so glad we agree. If we hadn't, the fur really would have started flying and I might have tried to scratch your eyes out....

[Michael]

I'm so glad we agree. If we hadn't, the fur really would have started flying and I might have tried to scratch your eyes out....

That would be a cat-astrophe.