What are you listening to now?

[djmomo17]

This very cool visual interpretation of the Grosse Fugue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s0Mp7LFI-k

I checked the author's website and he has a free software program which you can download and will create a very cool visualization for ANY midi file. Even a visualization by TONALITY.

http://www.musanim.com/index.html

I love this internet thing.

[Roehre]

Today:

Martin:
Cantata for August 1st (1941)

JSBach:
Cantatas for today:
BWV 94 Was frag ich nach der Welt
BWV 105 Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht
BWV 168 Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort

ap-Sian:
Gwales (1994) (R3 last night’s hear and now)

Hausegger:
Natursymphonie (1911)

[Sorrano]

This afternoon it was Bernard Haitink's performance of Bruckner's 5th Symphony and the Te Deum.

[Chris]

Listening to some Haydn cantatas conducted by Andreas Spering. He really does Haydn wonderfully. There is excellent music in these practically totally unknown works, and surprisingly interesting recitatives. The liner notes to one of the discs indicate that some of these works had not been performed since their first performances in the 1760's!

[Roehre]

Today:

Contant:
Les deux anes: overture (1918) (R3: TtN)

Herberigs:
Three from the 13 Oud-vlaamse Volksliederen (1951) (R3: TtN)

Mahler:
Symphony no.7

[Bonn1827]

Tonight:

Ella Fitzgerald, "The Cole Porter Songbook"

Listening again to these masterpieces makes me realize what a comprehensive genius Cole Porter was. These wonderful (mostly) love songs are witty and sophisticated and obviously written for very grown up people!! Fancy singing about prostitution and calling it "Love for Sale" and pitting plangent lyrics against the most melancholy melody, with incredible shifts in key. What astounds me about Porter is his ability to invert sentences for scansion and rhyming purposes just as Shakespeare did. He's a "shape shifter". Yes, great music for both the cogniscenti and general audiences. His love songs aren't simply emotive chants about the beloved, tied to notions of possession, marriage, domesticity and sexual charm - rather they describe the impact the beloved has on the every day life and experiences of the lover: 'the Louvre Museum', 'I feel a sudden urge to sing', 'I crucify the verse', 'you can hear Mother Nature murmuring low" etc. etc.

[Roehre]

Today:

Milhaud:
3 Psaumes de David opus 339 (1954) (R3: TtN)

Diepenbrock:
Songs on Latin, Italian and Dutch texts

Ave Maria
Avondzang
Beiaard
Come raggio di sol
De klare dag
Ik ben in eenzaamheid niet meer alleen
Maanlicht
Meinacht
Preghiera alla Madonna
Simeons Lofzang
Zij sluimert

Diepenbrock:
Overture The Birds (1917)
Marsyas-concert suite (1910)
Elektra- symphonic suite (1919)

Diepenbrock:
Missa in die Festo (1891/orch.1913 Kyrie+Gloria; orch.1976 Hendrik Andriessen Credo + Sanctus/Benedictus + Agnus Dei )

[Bonn1827]

Tonight:

Bach, "Goldberg Variations" Murray Perahia

Especially the UNBELIEVABLE 31st Variation!! I'm playing it over and over.
A friend recently described Bach as "a...Volcano"!! I never heard a truer word.

[Roehre]

Tonight:

Bach, "Goldberg Variations" Murray Perahia

Especially the UNBELIEVABLE 31st Variation!! I'm playing it over and over.
A friend recently described Bach as "a...Volcano"!! I never heard a truer word.

I fully agree, "Volcano" is really a nicely appropriate expression for this variation

[Sorrano]

This morning it was Bach's Clavier Partita No. 2, in C, BWV 826. Not too long ago I did not particularly care for Bach until I heard some violin works played by someone who really did care. I found the Partita particularly enjoyable.

[Chris]

The Goldberg Variations only has 30 variations

[Zevy]

The Goldberg Variations only has 30 variations

OK, the aria is followed by 30 variations. He's referring to the last variation. Bonn1827 probably meant "track 31" on his CD

[Bonn1827]

Woops!!

[Roehre]

I am afraid my recordings of the Goldbergs [Leonhardt - Gould 1955 - Verlet]have 32 tracks: Aria - 30 variations - Aria, and track 31 is the one I mean, and I am sure Bonnie does so too. Nevertheless: oops

==============

Today:

Amy Beach
Service in A: Te Deum and Nunc dimittis(1906),
Two Songs, Op.75 (1914) (R3: CotW)

Diepenbrock:
Songs on French Texts

Berceuse
Clair de Lune
Ecoutez la chanson bien douce
En sourdine
Incantation
Invitation de Voyage
La Chanson de l'Hypertrophique
Les Chats
Mandoline
Puisque l'aube grandit
Receuillement

Diepenbrock:
Hymn for violin and orchestra (1899 orch. 1900)

De Man:
Gramvousa (1995)
Nuit de l’Enfers (1998)

[Bonn1827]

This afternoon I'm listening to a new double CD set which arrived from Amazon: Soundtrack tunes from the RKO Pictures by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

"Night and Day" by Cole Porter
"They Can't Take that Away from Me" by George and Ira Gershwin
"Pick Yourself Up" by Jerome Kern

Just to name three!

These wonderful songs, and their "swing" arrangements, together with the voice of Astaire and Rogers, as well as the dancing, represented a pinnacle of artistry for which the US is justly famous. Wonderful, incandescent playing, fabulous arrangements and, oh, the melodies!! I'm so sad when I realize that George Gershwin died during the making of "Shall We Dance".