Arcangelo Corelli (February 17, 1653 – January 8, 1713) Coming just before Bach, Vivaldi and Handel. “His compositions are distinguished by a beautiful flow of melody and by a mannerly treatment of the accompanying parts, which he is justly said to have liberated from the strict rules of counterpoint” (from Wikipedia)
Three pieces from his Concerto Grosso Opus 6. He really worked hard on the pieces in opus 6 – or so my sources tell me!
Eve has requested Chopin’s Prelude op. 28 / no. 4 – and some Albinoni. (not on the site until now)
Since my father was the ultimate ‘Chopin freak’ – I probably heard this Prelude many times whilst still in the womb. And many, many more times after exiting! It’s exquisite… and SO Chopin.
Albinoni: His debut on jimsclassicalmusic (A simple oversight Eve) Eventually I’ll have EVERYBODY!
Let’s go with the ‘signature’ Albinoni. We’ve all heard it somewhere (the theme to the movie Gallipoli maybe?) but a great piece of music nonetheless.
I just read something really interesting about Albinoni. Apparently he was very rich and wasn’t much concerned with ‘hanging out’ with other musicians. Too busy being with the wealthy and aristocratic!
When I began my ‘classical quest’ I focused almost entirely on the Romantic period. Apart from Bach I had no interest in Baroque. I thought of Baroque as just wimpy flutes and recorders, or irritatingly tinkly harpsichords. No emotional punch and power like the Romantics. My brother showed me the error of my ways! A few winners.
Handel concerto grosso op. 3 no. 2 in B flat major / Largo
Domenico Zipoli – Elevazione for oboe and cello. A special name! A special piece.
Elevazione for oboe and cello
Arcangelo Corelli. Concerto grosso in G minor op. 6 no. 8 / Adagio
About 9 months ago I went crazy over Handel. I didn’t know his music much at that point, but rapidly accumulated a few hundred downloads, burned 3 or 4 CD’s to play in my truck and did a bit of reading about his life.
At some point I started thinking, ‘Gosh – he might be as great as Bach.’ They were born in the same year (1685) and Handel lived 9 years longer – D. 1759. Writing this blog entry I was going to Google, “Handel and Bach who is the greatest?” You’re bound to be able to follow your nose through cyberspace and find lots of scholarly comparisons. But that takes all the fun out of it! So I decided to pass this Post onto someone who must be a Handel freak (because he uses the name Handel on a music forum I access now and again.) Probably the best Classical Music forum.
Hopefully in the next few days you’ll see a Comment regarding who is the ‘greatest’ (“Handel” from the Forum responding) YES! Handel submitted a comment. (*see it above) Meanwhile here are a few pieces I like. There are two other posts that contain pieces by Handel – click on the link for Handel at the right.
This first piece: Trio sonata for 2 violins & continuo in G minor, Op. 2/8, HWV 393 (doubtful): Largo What you hear here! is a version adapted for oboe.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Classical music is how Soloists, Chamber groups and Orchestras interpret the musical scores of the Masters. The enormous discrepancies between versions is highlighted here. The first is used in my post, “The Bassoon, Vivaldi’s love of it and my funny dream”
I love this piece of music. It’s uplifting, soaring with a solar plexus punch!
Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto RV 498 – Allegro
Basoon concerto in A rv-498-allegro
Now listen to this! … by a supposedly well respected orchestra. To my ear all of the passion, guts and punch have been removed, creating a “Vivaldi elevator piece.” What’s the story? I’m sure a professional bassoonist or experienced conductor could read Vivaldi’s original score (if it still exists) and tell which of these two versions is closest to what he composed. I just can’t imagine it’s this one!
I’ll wait and hope that one day someone with ‘the knowledge’ will visit my blog and comment!
I recently discovered the haunting beauty of the Bassoon. My brother hit the nail on the head when he commented that it’s like a high-tech Didgeridoo! (Arguably the oldest musical instrument on earth, since the Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest living culture)
That deep, rich tonal quality hits somewhere in the heart region. After “discovering” the Bassoon, I next found that Vivaldi had an inordinate love of the instrument; since he composed 37 or 39 Concertos for it (*some scholarly arguments about this; Google it – I can’t be bothered!)
I became obsessed with Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concertos. Surfed the net for all of my paid sources, and kept looking for anyplace where I could download them. One night when I’d spent hours and hours downloading and searching (finding about 28 out of the 37 or 39) I had a dream.
The dream lasted about 15 minutes in dream time and it involved two things.
1) Trying to decide which newspaper I would put this ad in.
2) Composing and re-writing the wording. I finally came up with this ad:
Attractive, interesting older man seeks to trade ALL of Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concertos for intimate (sexual and intellectual) companionship with beautiful young woman.
What a hoot! Here are just three movements that highlight the beauty of the Basoon and Vivaldi’s composing skills.
Synaesthesia (with several different spellings – see this concise, fascinating article (http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Synaesthesia) – is basically a condition where two different sensory elements get linked.
Here are three types:
Grapheme-colour: Grapheme-colour is the most common type. People with this type of synesthesia associate letters and numbers with distinct colours.
Lexical-gusatory: Lexical-gustatory is a rare type of synesthesia. People with this type of synesthesia experience different tastes with certain words they hear.
Musical-colour: People with musical-colour synesthesia see colour when listening to music.
So what’s the Trumpet to a synethist? Since I’m not a synethist – I’m just making this up!
The trumpet is a very chilled white wine and it’s either yellow or gold … and a tangy Indonesian food spice!!
Genuine Synethists please respond!
Vivaldi concerto in G minor for trumpet and organ – Largo
Vivaldi concerto in g minor for trumpet and organ / largo
Handel – Allemande
Handel allemande
Torelli – concerto in D major for trumpet and strings
torelli concerto in- -major for trumpet and strings movement-3
