What are you listening to now?

[Enrique]

Mozart: Piano concerto no.27 in B flat major.

I have always said, in great cyclic works, first movements are generally the best part. This is a valid example I think. Well, last year I download the complete concerti. Now I'm liistening to 27 and find the 2nd mov very familiar, and even the last one an old connosaince. The first movement? Well, I discovered it was the least known by me.

But soon I found an explanation. Because it is the medular part, it per force is the most difficult to get familiar with. And so I found I was right after all.

[Peter]

Nice to see that I have at last one admirer !! Good to see you here too, Enrique.

I'm sure you have more than one fan here Quijote - good to know you're still visiting us!

[Quijote]

I know I've posted this before, but I've been listening again (and again) to Zelenka's Nisi dominus...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3eODmwrnoU

This post is a continuation of Michael's point about there being a vast treasure trove of long-forgotten (but quite worthy) music overshadowed by the "greats".

[Chris]

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

Haven't heard this one in a while, but it's one of my favorites.

[Michael]

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

Haven't heard this one in a while, but it's one of my favorites.

My son absolutely hates this. I don't know why and neither does he.

I haven't listened to any music for the past few days. I wonder if I'm coming down with something.

[Humoresque]

Loving and enjoying the piano works of Ginastera, amongst them this little gem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by05KVIiui4

My friend Max presented a program on Ginastera yesterday for our music group and this included music based on the 12 tone system from the composer's Neo-Expressionist period. One friend in the audience said some of this piano music reminded him of Ligeti and I think that's right. Max said that the rhythms in Ginastera's oeuvre might suggest that the composer walked around his house with a permanent case of St. Vitus's Dance!!!

Highly recommended.

[Fidelio]

New recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations by Filippo Gorini, arrived yesterday.

[Peter]

Loving and enjoying the piano works of Ginastera, amongst them this little gem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by05KVIiui4

My friend Max presented a program on Ginastera yesterday for our music group and this included music based on the 12 tone system from the composer's Neo-Expressionist period. One friend in the audience said some of this piano music reminded him of Ligeti and I think that's right. Max said that the rhythms in Ginastera's oeuvre might suggest that the composer walked around his house with a permanent case of St. Vitus's Dance!!!

Highly recommended.

I've taught this Ginastera Argentinian dance to a few pupils:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAUCYv5tzTw[/YOUTUBE]

[Peter]

Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor Op. 50 / Martha Argerich, piano
Gidon Kremer, violin / Mischa Maisky, cello

[Peter]

Bach Cantata BWV 54, "Widerstehe doch der Sünde" A Scholl - I ought to include this on my desert island discs!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9nNHSU3Icw[/YOUTUBE]

[Quijote]

Bach Cantata BWV 54, "Widerstehe doch der Sünde" A Scholl - I ought to include this on my desert island discs!

Wonderful!
I love the trick Bach plays on us in bar 51 (last two beats) where we expect a V-I cadence in G minor, but instead get a sudden V+4 (last inversion) in C minor - it's a real jolt!!

[Peter]

Wonderful!
I love the trick Bach plays on us in bar 51 (last two beats) where we expect a V-I cadence in G minor, but instead get a sudden V+4 (last inversion) in C minor - it's a real jolt!!

Yes and what about the very opening chord?

[Quijote]

Yes and what about the very opening chord?

Yes, a real "wake-up" call!! We can imagine perhaps the shock that caused to congregations at the time. (Akin, to take a later example, to the opening of Beethoven's 1st symphony where he starts with a series of V7s outside of the expected key. These gestures strike us as unsurprising these days, but to the sensibilities of the Viennese audience at that time they must have also been quite a jolt.)

As to the opening chord of the BWV* 54, it's a naughty, incomplete II2, i.e. 117 in last inversion; naughty because any inversion of a seventh chord should be complete, as the textbooks tell us. But Bach operates to his own rules...

* I can't tell you how many times I tend to write BMW - is this a marque of car I subconsciously desire?

[Quijote]

What a coincidence! I just now popped out onto my balcony for a breath of fresh air (I'm lying, I popped out for a quick cigarette; sorry to say I'm back on the fags). Anyway, a BMW with German registration plates just parked in our street (a pedestrian area) where it's forbidden to do so (apart from delivery vans etc at specific times on weekday mornings).
I tried to call out to warn him, but to no avail. In about half an hour his car is going to be towed away...

[Peter]

Yes, a real "wake-up" call!! We can imagine perhaps the shock that caused to congregations at the time. (Akin, to take a later example, to the opening of Beethoven's 1st symphony where he starts with a series of V7s outside of the expected key. These gestures strike us as unsurprising these days, but to the sensibilities of the Viennese audience at that time they must have also been quite a jolt.)

As to the opening chord of the BWV* 54, it's a naughty, incomplete II2, i.e. 117 in last inversion; naughty because any inversion of a seventh chord should be complete, as the textbooks tell us. But Bach operates to his own rules...

* I can't tell you how many times I tend to write BMW - is this a marque of car I subconsciously desire?

Isn't this unprecedented? I can't think of earlier examples in Bach or elsewhere that start a piece like this.