What are you listening to now?

[Enrique]

Bach:
Concerto for four harpsichords in A Minor, BWV 1065

[Peter]

Elgar symphony no.2 / Wagner - Wesendonck lieder.

[Sorrano]

This morning:

Beethoven: Six Bagatelles, Op 126
Rubenstein: Cello Concerto

[Peter]

This morning:

Beethoven: Six Bagatelles, Op 126
Rubenstein: Cello Concerto

Ah those little trifles - love them!

[Sorrano]

Ah those little trifles - love them!

That is exactly what the radio announcer called them, too.

[Enrique]

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro.

After 20 minutes I was tired and pass on to Bach's Erbarme dich. It's incredible how they track your tastes in youtube. After Le nozze, some other vocal piece! And they also measure frequency, I think.

[Enrique]

Mozart: Symphony no.25

To say that Mozart's slow movements have lyricism is not enough. They reach the depths of the heart. Beethoven's too, but those of Mozart have something that is not of this world.

[Peter]

Mozart: Symphony no.25

To say that Mozart's slow movements have lyricism is not enough. They reach the depths of the heart. Beethoven's too, but those of Mozart have something that is not of this earth.

Two of my favourite slow movements from the 20th century - Elgar's symphony no.2 Larghetto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3CB5Pbzy3M (this clip contains rare footage of Elgar) - he reaches the heights in this movement.

Vaughan-Williams: symphony no.5 Romanza - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JB49KTLM90 That sublime cor-anglais!

[Sorrano]

Mozart: Symphony no.25

To say that Mozart's slow movements have lyricism is not enough. They reach the depths of the heart. Beethoven's too, but those of Mozart have something that is not of this earth.

For me the slow movement of the Piano Concerto No. 20 is the epitome of what you are saying. The slow movement of Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto also reaches the depths of my soul.

[Sorrano]

This morning:

Mascagni: "Danza esotica"
Humperdinck:
"Hänsel und Gretel" Children's Prayer
"Dornröschen" "Festive Music"

[Enrique]

For me the slow movement of the Piano Concerto No. 20 is the epitome of what you are saying. The slow movement of Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto also reaches the depths of my soul.

Beethoven's? Yes, yours and anybody's who has something inside. But as to the 20th I dare say the 1st movement is grandiose. For me, the best of all Mozart's first movements of piano concerti. And for a slow movement (piano concerti), no. 17's is heavenly. What happens with Mozart, perhaps, is that he is the ripe fruit (pardon my English, in Spanish we have both fruto and fruta, meaning nearly the same thing, but fruto is masculine and fruta, which are the ones one eats, feminine) of an epoch, after which came the shipwreck. Beethoven of course did not sink. He produced the naufrage (I must be repeating old words).

Peter instead has decidedly English tastes.

[Peter]

Peter instead has decidedly English tastes.

Not specifically! These were just two particularly moving examples of 20th century slow symphonic movements that come to mind and I wonder if they are as well known beyond English borders (or within for that matter!) as they deserve to be? Of course I share your passion for Mozart and Beethoven or I wouldn't be here!

[Enrique]

Brahms: Piano quintet in F minor.[list]
It's wonderful how Brahms likes to repeat a phrase but with the third or sixth degree flatened. Sometimes he does this with any note, as in the following example:



Here he is making some kind of transient modulation or sequence (experts to the rescue, if you please). This is the movement first theme. Notice the fourth and fifth bars in the picture. The same notes are repeated in the 5th but E is now E flat.

[Enrique]

Not specifically! These were just two particularly moving examples of 20th century slow symphonic movements that come to mind and I wonder if they are as well known beyond English borders (or within for that matter!) as they deserve to be? Of course I share your passion for Mozart and Beethoven or I wouldn't be here!

Naturally. But believe me, Englishmen and Danes are heard here more than you (perhaps) think. I had an epoch in which I used to listen to radio all the time, and every now and then, they transmitted music by Niels Gaade or Elgar or some other composer of the late 19th century, early 20th. I'm going to listen to your links right now. There's a very popular music from a work by Elgar I once heard in Australia, a motion picture premiered some years ago. I did not rest until I could know what it was. Obviously some of it was in some place of my brain from before. I has an Hebrew name, I think.

[Peter]

Brahms: Piano quintet in F minor.[list]
It's wonderful how Brahms likes to repeat a phrase but with the third or sixth degree flatened. Sometimes he does this with any note, as in the following example:



Here he is making some kind of transient modulation or sequence (experts to the rescue, if you please). This is the movement first theme. Notice the fourth and fifth bars in the picture. The same notes are repeated in the 5th but E is now E flat.

This is the 4th symphony!! Wonderful though!