Schubert: spirituality and ‘inherent weirdness’!

Here’s what a music reviewer wrote about this late piano piece by Schubert:

I find it hard to account for the intensity of the spiritual response that the slow movements of late Beethoven and late Schubert produce in me…  the slow movement of D960, one of the last creations of a desperately ill 31-year-old-man who has lost his Catholic faith, is frightened out of his wits by the ordeal that lies ahead, and yet produces music of the most magical serenity.

Piano sonata #21  D960/ second movement

02 – Piano Sonata In B Flat Major D960-02 Andante Sostenuto

And this second piece with its ‘inherent weirdness.’ It fascinates me how accurate, poetic and articulate some music critics can be!

In the great Andantino movement of the A major , the pianist is alive to its inherent weirdness as Schubert sends a nostalgically beautiful melody off the deep end to fragmentation, then reassembles it into a broken shadow of itself.

Piano sonata #20 in A major second movement

Schubert PS 20 second movement

Brahms cigar smokers’ anthem?

I was put off a bit by Brahms during my initial ‘musical education’ because of some bombastic riffs I’d encountered. Over the past weeks I’ve been obsessing on his music. Listening to a lot and reading commentary/critiques. Learning about his life and musical influences. (*note: there is now a Long Playing Brahms)

In this, the second movement of his third piano sonata, I think Brahms is inviting us to drift away. Perhaps he felt like this when he smoked his cigar and watched the sun set.

02 – Piano Sonata No.3 in F min, Op.5 – Andante espressivo

Afterthought: For those of you who might not know … Brahms was a cigar smoker. I’ll just betcha this was one of his smoking tunes!

Beautiful Brahms Piano

Intermezzo 118 number 2

The Clarinet

It’s a beautiful instrument isn’t it?

Mendelssohn Concert Piece in D minor for Clarinet, Basset-horn and piano Opus 114 Andante

Stravinsky 3 pieces for Solo Clarinet piece no. 1

Saint Saens Clarinet sonata in E flat major op. 167 Allegretto

Louis Spohr Clarinet concerto no. 4 in E minor Larghetto

Haunting Cello – Spooky Brahms

Brahms piano trio no. 1 in B major op. 8 / Adagio

Devienne

Francois Devienne 1759 – 1803

My brother heard some bassoon quartets on the radio and requested that some Devienne be put on the site. I wasn’t familiar with him so I went shopping! Here are a few snippets of what’s said about him:

“the elegant tone of Paris at the time… grace and balance – qualities which are associated with Mozart … explaining why Devienne was called the French Mozart.”

I got a bit carried away, and what was going to be a few pieces has turned into a Long Play selection! (nearly 40 minutes) I also realised there is very little flute on the site so welcome some Devienne flute. (he was a flautist)

Devienne Long Play

Trios for flute – Allegro Con Spirito – Trio En Ré Majeur

Symphonie Concertante for Flute and Bassoon /Andante

Bassoon sonata I in C major, Op. 24 All three movements

and Oboe sonata in G major opus 71 all three movements

You like solo violin?

Someone writing a review for an album on Amazon wrote:

The Bach solo string music is, of course, one of the landmarks of classical music. These are some of the greatest pieces of music ever written. They are the musical equivalent of the plays of Shakespeare.

Well … personally I’d have to say I’m not crazy about it (solo violin).  I Much prefer the addition of  piano which I feel softens what can sometimes be a grating intensity.

These few selections would have to be up there with the best of the best because afterall it is Bach,  and its Hillary Hahn playing; whom “they“  rave about!

From Bach’s violin partitas #2 and #3

08 Partita No. 2 in d, BWV 1004 – I. Allemande

09 II. Courante

Partita #3

06 VI. Bourree

15 III. Largo

Brahms Long Play

Approx.  40 minutes of music here.

Long Play Brahms

Symphony No.3 In F Major, Opus 90 (Third Movement)

variations on a theme by Haydn op 56b variation 3 con moto oma

variations on a theme by Haydn op 56b variation 4 andante-oma

Piano Trio No. 3 In C Minor Op.101 03 Andante Grazioso

Horn Trio In E Flat Major Op. 40 01 Andante – Poco Piu Animato

Piano Sonata No.3 in F min, Op.5  Finale  Allegro moderato ma rubato

Hungarian dances  No. 4   Poco Sostenuto

16 Waltzes Op- 39-03 In G Sharp Major

Schubert and Beethoven

Not enough Schubert on this site I think! Here’s a movement from his Octet. It’s interesting how it came about. A famous clarinetist asked Schubert to compose a work similar to Beethoven’s Septet Op. 20. (Schubert added a second violin)

Schubert and Beethoven: Arguably the two greatest composers of that time; and someone asks Schubert to do something similar to Beethoven! Schubert composed it in 1824. Beethoven died in 1827 so he only had 3 years to hear it. Wonder if he ever did?

Never mind … you get to hear a movement from each!

Schubert Octet 5th movement Menuetto Allegretto

Beethoven’s Septet second movement Adagio cantibile

Chamber Music Esoterica

This site is amazing! It’s an absolute must for serious Chamber Music aficianados. When you get to the site…

about-us.htm

then scroll down and click on Catalogue. The best part is that the sound bites are more like a minute long, rather than the stingy 30 second ones that most sites offer. This is true “Chamber Music Esoterica”!

Shostakovich attempts renewal

He attempts to be saved, renewed, re-born from a quagmire of sadness, poignancy and melancholy. Does he pull it off?

Piano concerto #2 Andante

A little Satie (and then some more!)

Eric Satie wrote 3 piano pieces he called  Gymnopédie. This is a transcription of the second Gymnopedie for piano. Transcribed for piano and bassoon.

Trying to find out Who transcribed it? -  from the original solo piano to piano with bassoon -  I googled until weary! … never did find out. Did Satie himself do it? Or the players on this piece? (Catherine Marchese and Emile Naoumoff) Some listener might leave a germain comment clearing this up! – please do if you’re out there.

Anyway it was so nice to be listening to Satie again this afternoon… what the heck – how about some more?!  Here are three pieces joined together running approx. 8 minutes. (I love the first one)

Satie collection

1)  5ieme Gnossienne.  Modere: 5ieme Gnossienne. Modere                  2)  Caresse      3)  Cafe-Concert Songs- Je Te Veux

Rachmaninoff does Bach!

Here’s another example of how interesting it is when a composer does ‘transcriptions’ of another’s work. (*for more, see the Post titled, “Great Composers pay tribute to other Greats”)
Here are 3 movements from Bach’s Partita #3 for solo violin in E major – transcribed by Rachmaninoff for piano.
First the original violin followed by piano.  (*after the music read a more in depth analysis of Rachmaninoff’s effort)

Nobuko Imai_08_Partita No. 3, BWV 1006 I. Preludio

Idil Biret_06_01_J. S. BACH Prelude, Gavotte and Gigue Prelude

Nobuko Imai_10_Partita No. 3, BWV 1006 III. Gavotte en Rondeau

Idil Biret_06_02_J. S. BACH Prelude, Gavotte and Gigue Gavotte

Nobuko Imai_13_Partita No. 3, BWV 1006 VI. Gigue

Idil Biret_06_03_J. S. BACH Prelude, Gavotte and Gigue Gigue

With a few exceptions, Rachmaninov was generally quite faithful to the source music of his transcriptions. In this Bach effort, however, he added contrapuntal parts and harmonies because the original was written for solo violin. Yet the music has a mostly Bachian flavor and some have surmised that Bach himself would have made very similar modifications had he fashioned a keyboard version. That said, there are more than a few snippets of Rachmaninov’s voice in this effort, especially in the opening prelude where there are echoes in the contrapuntal writing of some of the Etudes-Tableaux and the first movement of a work to come in 1940, the Symphonic Dances. The prelude is lively and light, busy with typical joyous Bachian contrapuntal activity. The ensuing Gavotte is even lighter and playful — gracefully dainty, actually — just the kind of music not expected for Rachmaninov to have a hand in. The closing Gigue is also light, but Rachmaninov gives it a little muscle in his bass harmonies. He also makes it quite a colorful affair, all of its nearly two minutes brimming with an infectious joy.

Pelleas and Melisande

Pelleas and Melisande is a nine part orchestral suite by Sibelius. Here are the first two parts.

Recently I’ve been trying to expand my horizons! Get away from being stuck on Chopin / Beethoven / Mozart / Bach / Handel / Haydn etc: Trying to find stuff a bit more modern that I can appreciate.

I like these two pieces and hope you do too!

Mendelssohn Long Play (Lieder Ohne Worte)

Lieder Ohne Worte – Songs without words. A series for solo piano Mendelssohn wrote over various periods in his life. I find them incredibly simple and straightforward in their emotional expression. Clear, uncomplicated and easy to digest! Mendelssohn himself resisted attempts to interpret the works too literally, or add words to the pieces to make songs; and he had this to say:

What the music I love expresses to me, is not thought too indefinite to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite. {Mendelssohn’s own italics}

Hmmm … sounds pretty Zen to me! Here are 9 pieces from the series. (the first number is the Opus number and after the / is the number of the piece within that opus)

(Opus 85 / #4) –   (67 / 1)   (30 / 1) (The third piece approx. 6 minutes in just blows me away! I love it. It also appears in another Mendelssohn post on this site)   (30 / 3)   (30 / 6)   (67 / 6)    (62 / 5)   (67 / 2) and finally 19 / 3  (called Jagerlied (“Hunting Song” -  powerful stuff!)

Mendelssohn Long Play.mp3