Dead-Composers Society

[AC Benus]

Good Thursday, and this has to be among the most remarkable recordings of Haydn ever made. The symphonic version of The Seven Last Words of Christ, led by Antoni Ros-Marbà, conducting the Orchestre de Chambre de Catalogne in 1965. Rarely is spiritual presented in such a spiritual way; it's amazing. 

 

[AC Benus]

As it's almost Easter...here is some happy music. This performance is almost breathtakingly fine. Beautiful.

Francesco d'Avalos leads The Philharmonia in  Clementi's Symphony No. 4. 

 

[Lux Apollo]

 

[AC Benus]

More music for spring

The Beaux Arts Trio perform the finale from Haydn's Piano Trio in E flat, H.XV No.22

 

[AC Benus]

An a cappella performance of Hard Times Come Again No More by George Cooper and Stephen Foster

 

[Parker Owens]

1 hour ago, AC Benus said:

An a cappella performance of Hard Times Come Again No More by George Cooper and Stephen Foster

 

This is stunningly evocative, beautifully sung. I was transported. Thank you. 

[Mikiesboy]

11 hours ago, AC Benus said:

An a cappella performance of Hard Times Come Again No More by George Cooper and Stephen Foster

Michael listened to this earlier on his phone and told me about it.  Wow what a wonderful piece... i love their voices truly beautiful. Thanks AC.

[Reader1810]

11 hours ago, AC Benus said:

An a cappella performance of Hard Times Come Again No More by George Cooper and Stephen Foster

 

This is stunning, AC.  

[AC Benus]

33 minutes ago, Reader1810 said:

This is stunning, AC.  

Ah, thank you, Reader 

[AC Benus]

47 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

Michael listened to this earlier on his phone and told me about it.  Wow what a wonderful piece... i love their voices truly beautiful. Thanks AC.

The song is really great. I love it in most of the performances I've heard 

[AC Benus]

Overture to Offenbach's German-language opera, Die Rheinnixen  

 

 

[Parker Owens]

I've been lucky enough to be backstage for a local music festival. Here's a piece played recently:  Verdi's String Quartet in e minor. Apparently, he dashed it off while waiting to stage Aida.

 

[AC Benus]

@Parker OwensThanks for sharing the Verdi video. The finale is surprisingly complex, and reaches in several places for what I'd consider unusual harmonies. It's very engaging 

[Parker Owens]

9 hours ago, AC Benus said:

@Parker OwensThanks for sharing the Verdi video. The finale is surprisingly complex, and reaches in several places for what I'd consider unusual harmonies. It's very engaging 

The second movement truly made me think of a stage scene; this sounded so much like a dance, or characters circling each other and singing. But you’re right about the fourth, which exposes a side of Verdi we don’t always hear. 

[AC Benus]

Bach on guitar; a match made in heaven  

 

 

[AC Benus]

The most beautiful form of twin-speak ever!

 

Lucas & Arthur Jussen perform Schubert's Fantasy in f-minor

[AC Benus]

Joseph Wölfl - Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, II : Andante

 

[Thorn Wilde]

I feel like this belongs here more than in the other music thread...

Sommernatt ved fjorden (Summer Night by the Fjord in English) is a song by Norwegian composer Kjetil Bjørnstad, performed by opera singer Ellen Westberg Andersen. It was recorded in 1978. The song tells a story of the Norwegian painter Oda Lasson (later Krohg when she married Christian Krohg, another famous painter) and her lover, the writer, philosopher and activist Hans Jæger. Oda, Krohg, and Jæger's love triangle is famous in Norwegian cultural history. They were all part of a group of artists and subversives known colloquially as the Kristiania Boheme (Kristiania is an older name for Oslo) in the late 19th century. The song describes the couple out rowing late in a bright summer night, told from the point of view of Oda's sister, Bokken Lasson, who was a singer, song-writer and troubadour. My translation of the lyrics is in the spoiler.

Spoiler

Jæger rows

And Oda sits in front in a boat that they have taken

I stand by the window tonight

And a violet is my comfort

Soon the summer wind announces autumn

But the light is in the north

Blessed are you who row

 

The boat glides

Now Jæger releases the oars and leans forward

She takes his hand, it is his home

She laughs, I see that a boat

Bows its nose down so shy in shame

For what takes place on board

And the hot and fevered words

 

Something happens

He lies there with his head in my sisters dark embrace

A black bird wakes us with its song

A little boat glides along

Between night and day upon the fjord

In Hvidsten where we live

Jæger rights himself and rows

 

Another night

Is over, the light comes suddenly

My sister is a bit tired

A steamboat sounds, he rows straight

Towards this house, that is all

And I shiver, for it is quite cold

But Oda Lasson smiles

To her pale suitor

 

The boat

Is tied to the pier beneath my window

They stand up

He tries to lift her body up

He loves all that she is

But he understands he is too near

He kisses her hair

The sun comes, and he departs

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Thorn Wilde

[AC Benus]

Based on a hagis-fueled Scottish novel of the most Scottish type by Walter Scott, here is François-Adrien Boïeldieu's overture to La dame blanche  (or the Woman in White) 

 

[AC Benus]

Neeme Jarvi leads the Detroit Symphony in Bristow's Symphony in F sharp minor, movements two and three. 

 

 

 

[AC Benus]

A Shostakovich andante for a still summer afternoon.... 

 

[AC Benus]

Bill Evans - "The Two Lonely People"

 

[AC Benus]

A rockin' trifecta. Michael Hofstetter and Anna Bonitatibus bring alive Cimarosa's 32-minute long scene of unbroken music from Act Two of Gli Orazi e i Curiazi, 1796. That war-torn decade produced the turmoil represented in this Classical story of two families driving their nations to war, despite the blood and sorrow it means. This scene is the rushing moment war becomes inevitable. (Sorry for the over-use of the wind machine at the start of the scene... It goes away quickly.)

Cimarosa's grand opera is considered by many to be the greatest of the entire 18th century. A recording like this show why.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2019 by AC Benus

[Parker Owens]

Today I read the chapter Into the Storm from @Mikiesboy's awesome book The Searcher. This chapter reminded me of this piece of music - both get to my heart.

 

[AC Benus]

Cecil Coles -- In the Cathedral