Dead-Composers Society

[Parker Owens]

23 hours ago, AC Benus said:

I've listened to this several times, but don't find much soul in it, nor do I see how the music was progressive considering the composer's time setting and the state of the art furthered by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. By comparison, the piano works of Galuppi (who was born a few years earlier) are forward-looking and incredible with musical emotion and invention, as exemplified in this sonata in g-minor:

Piano Sonata No. 7 in G Minor: 00:26:47 I. Largo 00:30:49 II. Presto 00:32:42 III. Allegretto

Up with Galuppi!

 

 

I listened to the Galuppi g minor piano sonata. I could have been listening to Schubert or Beethoven. It sounded far more like an early romantic than a classical piece, with little of the vibe one gets from CPE Bach or Haydn. I enjoyed it very much. 

[AC Benus]

8 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

I listened to the Galuppi g minor piano sonata. I could have been listening to Schubert or Beethoven. It sounded far more like an early romantic than a classical piece, with little of the vibe one gets from CPE Bach or Haydn. I enjoyed it very much. 

Thank you for listening, Parker. As 19th century / early 20 century musicologists furthered their whole-cloth categories of "baroque," "classical" and "romantic," they pushed important composers like Galuppi aside. They were heavily invested in their own pronouncements, and artists like Galuppi who should be "baroque" based on his birth year (that is, sound like Bach, in their minds) did not match their classifications, so threw his legacy away. Thanks to popular performances in Italy, Galuppi has slowly re-reached the place he deserves.

 

[AC Benus]

Maria João Pires, with Mazuki Yamada leading the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, perform the minor key andantino from Mozart's Jeunehomme piano concerto. Mademoiselle Jeunehomme was a blind traveling virtuoso. 

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by AC Benus

[Lux Apollo]

22 hours ago, AC Benus said:

Maria João Pires, with Mazuki Yamada leading the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, perform the minor key andantino from Mozart's Jeunehomme piano concerto. Mademoiselle Jeunehomme was a blind traveling virtuoso. 

 

Pires and Mozart - a match made in heaven!

Also, Mozart in a minor key - always a treat. He so rarely wrote in the minor, but when he does he really makes it matter!

Edited May 6, 2022 by Lux Apollo

[AC Benus]

19 hours ago, Lux Apollo said:

Pires and Mozart - a match made in heaven!

Also, Mozart in a minor key - always a treat. He so rarely wrote in the minor, but when he does he really makes it matter!

Ever since I read your comment, this movement from the Haffner Serenade has been playing through my head...

 

[Lux Apollo]

I've always loved Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in e minor, especially the slow movement!

[AC Benus]

Kun Woo Paik performs Fauré's Op. 17 - 3. Andante moderato

 

[AC Benus]

Cecil Coles wrote some ambitious pieces before the start of the First World War, like the overtures to Macbeth and Comedy of Errors, but he is best remembered for his Behind the Lines Suite composed while in uniform (especially the gut-wrenching cortege). 

Here James Willshire performs the second movement from the last piece of music the man was able to mail out, even though the MS seems to have been partially ruined by rain and mud. "Her Picture" from Five Sketches.

 

 

[Lux Apollo]

Such a delightful piece, and a wonderful performance.

[AC Benus]

More mind-blowing Korngold . . . Jonas Kaufmann & Julia Kleiter sing Gluck, das mir verblieb from Die Tote Stadt

 

[BigBen]

Alexander Malofeev, a young man to keep your eye on, playing the Third Piano Concerto by Rachmaninoff, one of my favorite pieces.  He doesn't doesn't grab me quite as much as Argerich or Janis, but he's young.  Give him time.

 

 

[AC Benus]

The video poster says this is a pianoforte, but it's a late 18th century clavichord, something very, very rarely heard on recordings. And this despite the fact that Old Man Bach wrote for this keyboard, preferring the dulcimer sound of it over both the piano and harpsichord (although you'd never know that with all the tangy harpisy recordings of his stuff made in the 20th century). 

Give a listen; it's very interesting 

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Bortnyansky Choral Concerto a cappella No.10 (Psalm 47)

 

[AC Benus]

Ivor Novello's "The land that might have been"

 

[AC Benus]

"Blood still works, until it starts to dry!" 

Blood sweat and tears over Franklin's glass armonica 

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by AC Benus

[Parker Owens]

9 hours ago, AC Benus said:

"Blood still works, until it starts to dry!" 

Blood sweat and tears over Franklin's glass armonica 

 

This is fantastic. I remember hearing an Armonica played at the Corning Museum many years ago. This is a bigger example of the instrument. How much practice and training must go into learning to be proficient on it! 

[Lux Apollo]

On 6/14/2022 at 10:07 PM, AC Benus said:

The video poster says this is a pianoforte, but it's a late 18th century clavichord, something very, very rarely heard on recordings. And this despite the fact that Old Man Bach wrote for this keyboard, preferring the dulcimer sound of it over both the piano and harpsichord (although you'd never know that with all the tangy harpisy recordings of his stuff made in the 20th century). 

Give a listen; it's very interesting 

 

It's a fun little recording, but sorry AC, that's not a clavichord. It is a square piano after all. If you look closely at the action you can see the hammers and dampers. The action of the clavichord isn't nearly so complex the dead giveaway is the fact that the hammers drop back down after striking, even while the key is held. On a clavichord, the tangent remains pressed against up to the string as long as the key is held.

[AC Benus]

"It's never the Earl!" I remember a critic offering this sound refuting of the notion that the Earl of Oxford was "the author" of Shakespeare's works. "It's never the Earl" because suffering and privation seem necessary to create meaningful art. 

So how surprised am I to learn only this week that a forgotten Prussian prince was among the best composers in his generation! I mean, his piano works outshine Kuhlau and Bortniansky's, even their work from decades later. 

Just listen to this!!!

Horst Göbel, at piano, and the Joachim Quartett perform the adagio espressivo from Prince Louis Ferdinand von Preussen's Piano Quartet No. 1

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by AC Benus

[Parker Owens]

6 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

"It's never the Earl!" I remember a critic offering this sound refuting of the notion that the Earl of Oxford was "the author"  of Shakespeare's works. "It never the Earl" because suffering and privation seems necessary to create meaningful art. 

So how surprised am I to learn only this week that a forgotten Prussian prince was among the best composers in his generation! I mean, his piano works outshine Kuhlau and Bortniansky's, even their work from decades later. 

Just listen to this!!!

Horst Göbel, at piano, and the Joachim Quartett perform the adagio espressivo from Prince Louis Ferdinand von Preussen's Piano Quartet No. 1

 

That’s so good! It reminds me of a summer evening at dusk with friends, engaged in conversation. 

[Parker Owens]

And now for something offbeat... Something that's been running through my head all day.

 

[AC Benus]

53 minutes ago, Parker Owens said:

And now for something offbeat... Something that's been running through my head all day.

 

You're a Flanders and Swann fan!? How fantastic "...he thinks it's about cake (so does Swann)..." 

Beats the hurdygurdy ballad I was thinking of posting

Edited August 18, 2022 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

the famous Samuel Barber quote put right:

“A Gay poem is just a poem

Looking for another poem to love.”

 

Barber's arrangement of his Adagio for Strings as an agnus dei

 

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by AC Benus

[Parker Owens]

4 hours ago, AC Benus said:

the famous Samuel Barber quote put right:

“A Gay poem is just a poem

Looking for another poem to love.”

 

Barber's arrangement of his Adagio for Strings as an agnus dei

 

 

What an amazing timeless work

[AC Benus]

 

[AC Benus]

2 hours ago, AC Benus said:

 

The world's hottest (and best-singing!) countertenor. His bf must be so proud