1. "A Little Fall of Rain," From Les Miserables original soundtrack.
2. "Come Rain Or Come Shine," by Arlen and Mercer; performed by (1) Dinah Washington on Dinah Jams and (2) Duke Ellington on 22 Original Big Band Recordings.
3. "Raincheck," performed by Duke Ellington on The Best Of Duke Ellington: Centennial Edition.
4. "Sweet Rain," by Mike Gibbs, performed by Stan Getz on Sweet Rain.
5. "En Obdach gegen Sturm und Regen," by Richard Strauss, performed by Lucia Popp and Irwin Cage.
Yes, it's raining today.
Showing posts with label Strauss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strauss. Show all posts
Friday, June 08, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
FriPod: Random 10
I'm not up to picking a meaningful topic today, so I just hit the refresh on Party Shuffle.
1. Sonata in D: Spiritoso ed adagio – Arcangelo Corelli, performed by Crispian Steele-Perkins. A short movement that shows off Corelli's tender side. It's not as good as his Adagio from Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 8, but still a nice change from the normal fireworks of Baroque trumpet concerti.
2. "My Favorite Things" – Rodgers & Hammerstein, performed by John Coltrane on the eponymous album. For the length of this track, I'd like to hear the familiar piece deconstructed more. The head is played almost verbatim, and the solos are harmonically conservative. Yes, the conversion of a standard to a Cool style modal improvisation is interesting, but take it outside a little more, please!
3. Missa "Puisque je vis": Benedictus – Guillame Dufay (attrib.), performed by the Binchois Consort. This is a wonderful benediction, full of peace and hope. The voices are so clean, the counterpoint is so stark, and the melismas perfectly balanced. The harmonic language seems to slide between unapologetic modality and more gentle tonal cadences and motions.
4. "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Salome – Richard Strauss, performed by Rudolf Kempe with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Okay, get your minds out of the gutters, people. Let's address the music, not the incestuous, manipulative, seductive, sensuous.... Ahem! The orientalism is an interesting choice, giving a sense of otherness and perhaps a touch of judgment on those evil heathens. This performance is a little slow, losing the dance flow. But there are good timbral colors and some nice phrasing.
5. Four Seasons Concerti: Winter, III. Allegro – Vivaldi, performed by Itzhak Perlman and the London Symphony Orchestra. This is an icy movement, so careful and almost emotionless, except for the little gasps of the tutti strings at the end of the introduction. The solo has some fireworks in the arpeggios, but they still seem cold in the planning and more like fake emotions rather than the real thing. The obligatory Vivaldi tremoli have the same effect on me.
6. Symphony No. 3 "Rhein," 5. Lebhaft – Schumann, performed by Rafael Kubelik and the Berlin Philharmonic. I used to prefer Schumann's second symphony, but now I feel the third has more depth. This movement (hey, if Beethoven can go beyond four movements, so can I!) alternates between elegant figures, passionate turbulence, grandiose river motions, a little nostalgia/sorrow, and some Brahmsian metric displacements.
7. Graal Theatre: I. Delicato – Saariaho, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gideon Kramer on violin. This is a work driven by colors, not by melody. Listening to the soundscape being created, you can picture the sound masses that Varèse strove for (I never really experience them in his own works). This is indeed a delicate tapestry, with the violin threatening to tear the fragile fabric of timbres. It is a long movement (16:54) but has enough tension and movement to keep my attention.
8. "Scriabin" – Vince Mendonza, performed by Michael Brecker on Don't Try This At Home. This is a very sad work, appropriate with the tragic loss of this great musician. I purchased this album after seeing Brecker live back in 1989 at Lawrence University. This track is full of angst, the tenor sax sound almost wailing while still remaining "cool."
9. Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 "Funeral March," IV. Presto – Chopin, performed by Horowitz. Not the famous march movement, but rather a frenzied series of meandering runs that never pause for breath. Running from Death? If so, Death catches up on the last two chords.
10. Short Ride in a Fast Machine – John Adams, performed by Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Orchestra. A strange juxtaposition with the previous work, the machine doesn't seem nearly as fast after Chopin's run with the devil. This performance is 4 seconds slower than my De Waart/San Francisco recording, and just doesn't have that sense of out-of-control driving that Adams wanted. The low brass don't come out enough, losing that metric tension. Still a fun piece, though as I think back to my first time experiencing it (about the same time as the Brecker concert mentioned above), I'm amazed that I found it so radical at the time.
1. Sonata in D: Spiritoso ed adagio – Arcangelo Corelli, performed by Crispian Steele-Perkins. A short movement that shows off Corelli's tender side. It's not as good as his Adagio from Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 8, but still a nice change from the normal fireworks of Baroque trumpet concerti.
2. "My Favorite Things" – Rodgers & Hammerstein, performed by John Coltrane on the eponymous album. For the length of this track, I'd like to hear the familiar piece deconstructed more. The head is played almost verbatim, and the solos are harmonically conservative. Yes, the conversion of a standard to a Cool style modal improvisation is interesting, but take it outside a little more, please!
3. Missa "Puisque je vis": Benedictus – Guillame Dufay (attrib.), performed by the Binchois Consort. This is a wonderful benediction, full of peace and hope. The voices are so clean, the counterpoint is so stark, and the melismas perfectly balanced. The harmonic language seems to slide between unapologetic modality and more gentle tonal cadences and motions.
4. "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Salome – Richard Strauss, performed by Rudolf Kempe with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Okay, get your minds out of the gutters, people. Let's address the music, not the incestuous, manipulative, seductive, sensuous.... Ahem! The orientalism is an interesting choice, giving a sense of otherness and perhaps a touch of judgment on those evil heathens. This performance is a little slow, losing the dance flow. But there are good timbral colors and some nice phrasing.
5. Four Seasons Concerti: Winter, III. Allegro – Vivaldi, performed by Itzhak Perlman and the London Symphony Orchestra. This is an icy movement, so careful and almost emotionless, except for the little gasps of the tutti strings at the end of the introduction. The solo has some fireworks in the arpeggios, but they still seem cold in the planning and more like fake emotions rather than the real thing. The obligatory Vivaldi tremoli have the same effect on me.
6. Symphony No. 3 "Rhein," 5. Lebhaft – Schumann, performed by Rafael Kubelik and the Berlin Philharmonic. I used to prefer Schumann's second symphony, but now I feel the third has more depth. This movement (hey, if Beethoven can go beyond four movements, so can I!) alternates between elegant figures, passionate turbulence, grandiose river motions, a little nostalgia/sorrow, and some Brahmsian metric displacements.
7. Graal Theatre: I. Delicato – Saariaho, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gideon Kramer on violin. This is a work driven by colors, not by melody. Listening to the soundscape being created, you can picture the sound masses that Varèse strove for (I never really experience them in his own works). This is indeed a delicate tapestry, with the violin threatening to tear the fragile fabric of timbres. It is a long movement (16:54) but has enough tension and movement to keep my attention.
8. "Scriabin" – Vince Mendonza, performed by Michael Brecker on Don't Try This At Home. This is a very sad work, appropriate with the tragic loss of this great musician. I purchased this album after seeing Brecker live back in 1989 at Lawrence University. This track is full of angst, the tenor sax sound almost wailing while still remaining "cool."
9. Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 "Funeral March," IV. Presto – Chopin, performed by Horowitz. Not the famous march movement, but rather a frenzied series of meandering runs that never pause for breath. Running from Death? If so, Death catches up on the last two chords.
10. Short Ride in a Fast Machine – John Adams, performed by Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Orchestra. A strange juxtaposition with the previous work, the machine doesn't seem nearly as fast after Chopin's run with the devil. This performance is 4 seconds slower than my De Waart/San Francisco recording, and just doesn't have that sense of out-of-control driving that Adams wanted. The low brass don't come out enough, losing that metric tension. Still a fun piece, though as I think back to my first time experiencing it (about the same time as the Brecker concert mentioned above), I'm amazed that I found it so radical at the time.
Friday, February 09, 2007
FriPod: Running music
This is a continuation of last week's challenge. Phil lists all of those who shuffled their MP3s brazenly in the open. He, and one of the challengees, point out the lack of classical tracks among all of us classical music bloggers. But my last week's list had 50% classical, 20% jazz, 20% pop/rock/folk, and 10% world music. So Operachic is not the only one that is classical heavy. And this week's list is even heavier in the classical realm. This list of twelve tracks are what I listened to while I was running this morning. It was shuffle mode, though occasionally I would skip a track that wasn't conducive to running or that was too soft to hear in the fitness room. In some ways this is a more boring list, with only three that are not of a classical vein (four if you don't think film music is classical). But this shows my interest in early music (2 pieces) , and actually has more 20th century music than the previous list. #3 is special, as I played that piece on my senior recital. And "Battle Royal" is a great chart to run to. Duelling lead trumpets get the blood stirring and the legs pounding.
1. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite, IV: Entrance And Dance Of The Tailors - Rudolf Kempe/Staatskapelle Dresden Richard Strauss - Orchestral Works (Disc 6)
2. Five Preludes: 5-Andantino - Martin Jones Dmitri Shostakovich
3. Légende - Wynton Marsalis George Enesco
4. Canzona Quintadecima Detta La Lievoratta Per Due Bassi - Girolamo Frescobaldi Virtuoso Solo Music For Cornetto
5. Canon Du Carousel - Nick Norton & Anthony Plog André Danican Philidor
6. Carmina Burana, Auf Dem Anger - 7. Floret Silva Nobilis - Arleen Augèr, John Van Kesteren, Jonathan Summer, Riccardo Muti; Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus Carl Orff
7. Symphony No.10 III. Purgatorio. Allegretto moderato Eliahu Inbal/Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt Mahler Symphonies 1-10 Das Lied von der Erde (CD 15)
8. Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Das irdische Leben Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 7 + Des Knaben Wunderhorn - 4 Lieder (Disc 2)
9. Battle Royal - Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington And His Orchestra First Time! The Count Meets The Duke
10. So Far Away - Dire Straits Brothers In Arms
11. Foundations Of Stone - Howard Shore The Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers
12. Confrontation - Les Misérables Original Broadway Cast Les Misérables [Disc 1]
1. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite, IV: Entrance And Dance Of The Tailors - Rudolf Kempe/Staatskapelle Dresden Richard Strauss - Orchestral Works (Disc 6)
2. Five Preludes: 5-Andantino - Martin Jones Dmitri Shostakovich
3. Légende - Wynton Marsalis George Enesco
4. Canzona Quintadecima Detta La Lievoratta Per Due Bassi - Girolamo Frescobaldi Virtuoso Solo Music For Cornetto
5. Canon Du Carousel - Nick Norton & Anthony Plog André Danican Philidor
6. Carmina Burana, Auf Dem Anger - 7. Floret Silva Nobilis - Arleen Augèr, John Van Kesteren, Jonathan Summer, Riccardo Muti; Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus Carl Orff
7. Symphony No.10 III. Purgatorio. Allegretto moderato Eliahu Inbal/Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt Mahler Symphonies 1-10 Das Lied von der Erde (CD 15)
8. Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Das irdische Leben Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 7 + Des Knaben Wunderhorn - 4 Lieder (Disc 2)
9. Battle Royal - Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington And His Orchestra First Time! The Count Meets The Duke
10. So Far Away - Dire Straits Brothers In Arms
11. Foundations Of Stone - Howard Shore The Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers
12. Confrontation - Les Misérables Original Broadway Cast Les Misérables [Disc 1]
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