Dead-Composers Society

[Talo Segura]

Joaquin Rodrigo composed this concerto during the Franco regime in 1939 shortly before the second world war. 

 

[AC Benus]

14 hours ago, Talo Segura said:

Joaquin Rodrigo composed this concerto during the Franco regime in 1939 shortly before the second world war. 

 

That's a really nice performance. That young man has tremendous talent and control. 

[Parker Owens]

Listening to this today...

 

[AC Benus]

Flanked by two much better-known of his concertos, No. 13 nevertheless has one of Mozart's most emotionally complex rondos of his entire piano concerto series. Sadly, it's not often concertized, but here Barenboim leads the Berlin Philharmonic in a very engaging interpretation. I love when the orchestra finally introduces the second subject, and it's like the clouds parting. In fact, I suppose this rondo is like a partially cloudy November day where the warmth of the sun comes out brilliantly, but is couched and made significant in the very foreboding tones of approaching winter.

18:03 Rondò-Allegro. 

[AC Benus]

If you have been thinking to yourself "Geee, I wish I had some 18th century Czech harp music to brighten my drear November days," you are in luck! 

What a gem I stumbled upon this evening. Jan Křtitel Krumpholtz, or so Wiki informs me, was one of the best-known harp virtuosos-composers in his day. The music the video will start with is fascinating. The theme of the second movement (Andante con variatione) is transfixing, and seems meant for a Slavic song on the baralaika (or perhaps a mandolin). The harmonies here are very interesting, and perhaps performed just a tad too fast to let the melodies blossom in their own time. The Rondeau is sheer heaven - what a great master of the sounds we think of as "Vienna School." The minor key modulations in this fast movement are pitch perfect and delightful, as are the wind orchestrations. Hope you enjoy 

Jana Boušková performes with Jiri Belohlavek and the Prague Chamber Orchestra, recorded in 1996

 

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by AC Benus

[Zombie]

You’ve probably never heard of the Italian aristocrat Alessandro Marcello (1673 - 1757)

But you probably have heard one of his compositions

Or rather part of one - the Adagio from his Oboe Concerto in D minor

His German contemporary, JS Bach, liked it so much he arranged it for harpsichord, and here is that arrangement played by English pianist Paul Barton (who lives in Thailand) on his Italian Feurich piano 

 

 

[Zombie]

Last year I posted an organ arrangement - wrongly attributed to J S Bach - of the ancient folk song In dulci jubilo by an unknown composer.

That organ arrangement was actually composed by Johann Michael Bach, a relative of J S Bach. The correct attribution, although long suspected, was only confirmed quite recently when various old music manuscripts that had been discovered were being catalogued.

I thought you might also like to hear this transcription for piano by the famous German concert pianist and composer Wilhelm Kempff (1895- 1991). It was recorded in 1975 by Kempff when he would have been 80 years old. As you’ll hear, he had a lovely, lyrical and light touch.

 

You can see from the score that there are three different musical “lines” going on, and much of the pleasure is listening to the harmonic interplay between those lines. Of course, organ notes sustain as long as the note is held but on a piano they die away (transcribing an organ piece for piano is a challenge).

Sadly all the YouTubes still wrongly attribute this piece to JS Bach so poor Johann Michael seems doomed to remain overlooked  

 

[Zombie]

Percy Grainger was many things

• Australian born, British folk song enthusiast and American citizen 
• Friend of Grieg, Gershwin, Delius and Duke Ellington
• A unique composer, arranger and virtuoso concert pianist, with a “Liberace” style
• A meticulous exponent of piano pedalling - so important yet so overlooked - and, in particular, of the sostenuto pedal, which (uniquely) he used in all of his piano compositions to add extra harmonic resonance to the music.

This is the 3rd movement of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, transcribed by Grainger for his solo piano concerts, which combines his exceptional arrangement skills and mastery of pedalling right from the very opening “silent” chord which is held down with the sostenuto pedal to add tonal richness to the opening bars.

It is played here by Martin Jones

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by Zombie

[AC Benus]

With due allowance that Ludwig Göransson has yet to earn the status of 'Dead Composer'  I have to say the holiday binge of Season 2 of The Mandalorian really woke me up to the way he pushed his original efforts that ran in 2019. There is more polyphony this time, and a whole chamber orchestrations just for recorders (a great plus for all you "Baroque" music fans), and brasses that change keys in surprising ranges to become Wagneresque (and yet out do the old bastard in some ways). If there's anyone out there who will give a listen, you may see what I'm saying 

 

 

[Zombie]

A Christmas cracker for Christmas Day   

Sergei Prokofiev’s Troika from his Lieutenant Kijé suite is a traditional Christmas favourite (in the UK anyway) and this fabulous piano arrangement is by the American classical concert pianist Frederic Chiu  
 

 

 

[AC Benus]

 

[Zombie]

Johann Schop - Werde munter, mein Gemüte (1641)

Music is universal.  

Throughout WWII Myra Hess gave lunchtime piano concerts, free to anyone walking in off the street, mostly at the National Gallery, in London every day of the week for the duration of the war from 1939-1945 

The one piece she always played - because the audience demanded it - was her sublime piano transcription, Jesu Joy Of Man’s Desiring, of the German composer and violinist Johann Schop‘s Werde munter, mein Gemüte melody, composed in 1641 and then arranged 83 years later (1723) by JS Bach (who had liked the melody so much) for the chorale movements in his cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (BWV 147)  

Hess’s piano transcription is so full of delightful details, like the tiny little countermelody at 2:32, that reward repeated listening or playing. For me it is the most beautiful piano arrangement of this melody (there have been many).  

Myra Hess also did a piano arrangement for four hands (below). OK, there’s a small mistake at 2:20, but Dr Ricardo de la Torre is very easy on the eye  and, hey, it was a live performance, these things happen, and all that matters is the ability to recover and continue seamlessly (perfectly done) and the performance itself

 

 

[AC Benus]

Probably some of the most wonderful Classical Christmas music you have never heard, here is the double chorus for angels and shepherds from Eybler's Christmas Oratorio. The counterpoint is glorious! 

 

Edited December 31, 2020 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Wow! What a performance by Markus Pawlik and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Antoni Wit of Moritz Moszkowski's Piano Concerto in E. This music is so balanced, and it's immediately clear Moszkowski had great influence on Russian composers like Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, but he goes beyond them too. Moszkowski's work still sounds fresh and entirely modern.

    "The first movement is a brilliant composition, opening with what may he taken as its principal theme, inasmuch as it furnishes most of the material for the development, and also reappears in the last movement as a climax to the whole work. The announcement of this resolute subject (by the flutes and oboes accompanied lightly by other woodwind, and deeper strings) is followed by a short solo cadenza, after which the unfolding of the musical picture begins. As this proceeds several subsidiary melodies come to notice, prominent among them being one which (while hinted at before) does not assume its formal shape until given out, grazioso, by the pianoforte alone following a short upward chromatic scale passage. This graceful subject also figure, conspicuously in the development, which after passing through a succession of interesting stages, culminates finally in a rousing climax. The second movement is an eloquent, nocturne-like effusion, of which the principal thematic element is the expressive subject given out softly at the commencement by the clarinet, and bassoons, staccato, and the strings, pizzicato - this being taken up shortly and carried on by the solo instrument. An agreeably contrasting intermediary section follows, after which the expressive first theme returns - now in the harp and strings against flowing figurations in the solo instrument. Lastly a short free conclusion passage leads us into the third movement. The Vivace is a lively, sparkling composition in Moszkowski's characteristically brilliant manner, and commences with the statement of a nimble running theme by the solo instrument. After this vivacious subject and its derivatives have been worked over briefly another buoyant theme comes to notice in the flutes and clarinets, over a strumming guitar-like accompaniment in the pianoforte. The development from here runs mainly on this theme, leading finally to a short cantabile passage for the solo instrument (unaccompanied), following which the movement proceeds quickly to a dashing conclusion. The fourth and last movement opens with a short flourishing introductory passage which leads to the statement of a resolute theme by the solo instrument. After this has been developed at considerable length the pianoforte introduces a contrasting theme of flowing character, to which the clarinet attaches itself shortly. Presently the development of the resolute opening theme is resumed, leading to the entrance of still another subject, given out softy but decidedly by the clarinet and the violas, and worked up forthwith in alternation and combination with the resolute opening theme. The flowing second theme returns, the movement mounting thence to a climax, at the pinnacle of which the resolute opening theme of the first movement reappears in enlarged rhythm." -- Hobbard William Harris

Edited January 10, 2021 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

A version of Purcell. Annie Lennox and the London City Voices perform "Dido's Lament" socially distanced

 

 

[Parker Owens]

5 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

A version of Purcell. Annie Lennox and the London City Voices perform "Dido's Lament" socially distanced

 

 

That's magnificent. Amazing.

[AC Benus]

It's so true; you need Italians to perform Italian music 😜 (differing opinions may be sent, in writing, in triplicate to, your mamma.) lol

Guido Rimonda and Cristina Canziani perform the second movement from Viotti's Concertante for piano and violin.

 

[AC Benus]

Rossini's Cinderella overture gets a fairy-godfather makeover

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Roberto Alagna sings Lalo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxuKA4sXNkY

 

[Parker Owens]

1 hour ago, AC Benus said:

Roberto Alagna sings Lalo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxuKA4sXNkY

 

Gorgeous. Thank you for sharing this.

[BigBen]

Don't know if anyone has posted this, the Piano Concerto No. 3, by Rachmaninoff, played by Argerich and conducted by Chailly.  The recording is from 1982.  If any woman could capture my heart, it would be the beautiful and redoubtable Madame Argerich.  She is a firecracker of a musician, worthy to be ranked with (and perhaps above) Rubenstein and Horowitz.

 

[AC Benus]

On 3/31/2020 at 2:00 PM, Lux Apollo said:

For Haydn's birthday, and mine too, I present to you perhaps his fortepiano sonata most orchestral in design. One of my favourites from his oeuvre.

This music is known best to me through Plentnev's version (hehe, lucky me ) 

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by AC Benus

[Zombie]

On 2/10/2021 at 8:42 PM, BigBen said:

Don't know if anyone has posted this, the Piano Concerto No. 3, by Rachmaninoff, played by Argerich and conducted by Chailly.  The recording is from 1982.  If any woman could capture my heart, it would be the beautiful and redoubtable Madame Argerich.  She is a firecracker of a musician, worthy to be ranked with (and perhaps above) Rubenstein and Horowitz.

 

interestingly this challenging work only became popular and well known after Horowitz popularised it in the 1930’s, more than two decades after Rachmaninov gave its first public performance in New York in 1909, the year of its composition

It’s such a haunting opening melody, so full of melancholy. Your link at 40 mins or so (I’ve not played it all through) seems to be the full work rather than the shortened version on some older recordings (authorised by Rachmaninov apparently)

 

[Parker Owens]

So I’ve been thinking of the character Gustavo Morales today. I can imagine him playing this...

 

[AC Benus]

Ran into this this evening...

Camile Thomas and the Brussels Philharmonic perform Una furtiva lagrima (A Wayward Tear) from Donizetti's Elixir of Love