What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

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Ensemble Amarillis, Héloïse Gaillard - Portraits de la Folie
Stéphanie D'Oustrac
Qobuz 24/96




I found this a beautiful album.
Composers from all over Europe, but still a coherent whole.
D'Oustrac has the perfect powerful supple voice for this work.

The Baroque period was characterised by dramatic, grandiose structures, in the fine arts as well as in music. An array of exuberant expression with curved, sinuous lines took over all the arts. This was the starting point for this recording by mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d'Oustrac and Héloïse Gaillard at the head of her ensemble Amarillis.

This "road movie" into the land of madness invites us to discover its different faces through some of the composers of the time. From the famous theme of the "Folies d'Espagne" used by Reinhard Keiser in his comic opera Jodelet to the Gavotte en rondeau from Carnaval et La Folie, a lyrical comedy by André Cardinal Destouches, there’s a whole itinerary that inscribes madness in her role as a seductress, charmed and triumphant in André Campra's Fêtes vénitiennes, or of love madness through the character of Sémélé set to music by Destouches and Marin Marais, without forgetting a detour into perfidious Albion with Purcell and Eccles.

Love obviously comes with jealousy, one of the recurring themes of tragedy and consequently of opera. Instrumental music is not forgotten in this recording with a Concerto a 7 by Heinichen skillfully blending German, French and Italian influences in a European style ahead of its time. This programme invites us to discover a whole array of affects, which seem to have excluded the most terrible madness of all - that of war... © François Hudry/Qobuz

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Kitgut Quartet - 'Tis too late to be wise
Qobuz 24/96




Definitely a very interesting album, and agreeable too.

"Kitgut" is an old word for catgut (which is not made from cat intestines), and sure enough, the Kitgut Quartet plays on historical instruments with gut strings. That's just one of the measures taken by the group to make English, four-part music of the late 17th century cohere with the Classical-era string quartet, here represented by Haydn's String Quartet in D major, Op. 71, No. 2. The ancestors of the string quartet lie in the Italian trio sonata and transitional genres like the Telemann Quadro, not in English music that happened to have four viol parts, and the Kitgut Quartet here conflates two different genres, viol consort music and instrumental pieces from theatrical works by Purcell and John Blow. Not only the instrumental sound but also the engineering has to be manipulated to make the program, with Haydn in the middle, hang together. The good news is that the players pull it off. They concede that Haydn and Purcell are two different animals but claim that "on closer inspection of the spirit, the contrasts, the play on spatial effects, the asymmetries, the dance motifs that help to structure the freest and most experimental developments, the dramatic and theatrical lyricism, one wonders if the person playing that game is not still the same." The Haydn outer movements play off the humor of the Purcell theatrical pieces nicely, with the consort music of Purcell and Matthew Locke providing the main contrast. The result is a curiously attractive program, where another layer is added to the musical meanings of the original material. It can be heard for its sensuous surfaces, or as a kind of experiment, and one awaits future releases from this young group.

© TiVo

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William Alwyn - Miss Julie
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Qobuz 24/96




This was Presto Classical's album of the week a while ago.
I concur fully with the comments below and will listen again!

Sakari Oramo has shown an interest in little-known repertoires on several occasions. In the early 2000s he was involved in the rehabilitation of music by John Foulds (Warner Classics), a major figure in early 20th century England, particularly owing to his two masterpieces, the Dynamic Triptych and the Three Mantras. Before that, in the 1990s he unveiled several astonishing works by the Finnish composer Ernest Pingoud (Ondine). It’s a lovely surprise to find him at the head of the BBC Symphony Orchestra here conducting this recording of the magnificent opera Miss Julie. This was William Alwyn’s last major work, composed from 1973 to 1976 with a libretto written by the composer himself based on August Strindberg’s play (1888). The opera is essentially in the style of realistic theatre as since a young age Alwyn had been fond of the very realistic characters in Strindberg’s play. The original idea for Miss Julie dates back to the 1950s but due to the creative differences between Alwyn and his librettist at the time, Christopher Hassall, concerning the rapport between text and music, the opera wasn’t completed until the mid-20th century. Indeed, in terms of music, Miss Julie showcases the full extent of Alwyn’s unique talent in both his poetry and his theatrical effectiveness. His talent is, of course, evident in his orchestral masterpiece Symphony No. 3 as well as the Sinfonietta that he composed later in 1970 and there are echoes of Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights in his vocal prosody and atmospheres. After the war, Alwyn’s career as a film composer took off, allowing him to consolidate his ideas and perfect the art of creating mood and atmosphere. Miss Julie was the pinnacle of his life as a composer – a captivating work which deserves many listens, as is equally the case for his other great works. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz

[ehoove]

The Early BBC Recordings 1961-1965
Jaqueline Du Pre
Some wonderful expressive Cello!
EMI Classics 7243 5 73377 2 4
Regards,
Jim

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Carl Nielsen - The Mother, Op. 41 - A Play in a Prologue and Seven Scenes
Danish National Vocal Ensemble
Philharmonic Choir
Odense Symphony Orchestra, Andreas Delfs
Qobuz 24/192




This piece was composed for a special occasion, and you can hear that clearly.
This review explains it:

One of Carl Nielsen’s most popular compositions, the idyllic work for flute Tågen letter ("The Mist Is Rising"), originates from the play Moderen ("The Mother"). But what The Mother actually is is not as well known, one of the reasons for this being that the entire score for the piece first appeared in print in 2007 and has never been recorded in its entirety. This recording places the music in its right context for the first time, thus providing us with a new picture of Carl Nielsen as a composer for the theatre.
Some historical background is essential to an understanding of this. From the Middle Ages until 1864, the Kingdom of Denmark included the southern duchies of Slesvig (Schleswig) and Holsten (Holstein) with their mixed German and Danish populations. The situation was complicated by the fact that the role of duke was filled by the same regent who was king of Denmark. In the mid-1800s, Danish National Liberal forces attempted to incorporate Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark, whereas the pro-German people in the duchies wanted to sever Schleswig and Holstein completely from the union. The conflict led to the two Schleswig wars in 1848-50 and in 1864, in which the Danish army ultimately suffered a fatal defeat. Schleswig and Holstein were handed over to Prussia, and the Kingdom of Denmark thereby lost not only two historic and wealthy areas but also 40% of its population.
Denmark was smaller than it ever had been and was forced to redefine itself. Its language now became crucial to the definition of the nation, and Denmark’s countryside and national treasures – as symbols – were studied in detail. After Germany’s defeat in the First World War, the situation changed, and in 1920 a referendum was held among the inhabitants of Schleswig and Holstein in order to decide where the border should be drawn. The decision was clear and in accordance with the demographic structure: the most northerly part, North Schleswig, in Denmark called Southern Jutland, became Danish after 56 years. South Schleswig and Holstein, with a predominantly German population, became German. The people had spoken and democratically chosen the border that endures to this day.

Denmark’s reunification with Southern Jutland was one of the most important events in Denmark in the 20th century and was of course celebrated in every conceivable way. The Royal Theatre decided to put on a gala performance. The greatest talents were in charge of the play: the distinguished poet Helge Rode (1870-1937) wrote the text, and Carl Nielsen, who had established himself as Denmark’s leading composer, was to write the music.

The leitmotif in The Mother is the final song, Som en rejselysten flåde ("There’s a Fleet of Floating Islands"), Rode’s brilliant poem about Denmark’s geography, countryside and language that, with its sweeping poetic style and Nielsen’s majestic melody, could be a brilliant national anthem for the new, reunited Denmark. The melody is even used in the prelude to Scene Seven and, in a paraphrased form, in the song Søndret folk er vokset sammen ("Grown Together, Sundered Nation"). Funnily enough, Carl Nielsen himself returned to the counter-argument about using familiar songs in the play. We hear, among other things, the Danish national anthem Der er et yndigt land, reproduced by Nielsen with its original harmonies. Nielsen supplemented with new melodies in a popular style, and some of them were so popular that they slipped into the Danish repertory of community songs, for example Som en rejselysten flåde ("There’s a Fleet of Floating Islands") and Min pige er så lys som rav ("Like Golden Amber Is My Girl") – the most sacred moment of the entire play.

The premiere of the performance was postponed several times because Carl Nielsen was pressed for time, and parts of the music had to be orchestrated by the composer Emil Reesen, like the prelude to Scene Seven. We do not know whether it was lack of time that was the reason why Nielsen reused his tone poem Saga-drøm (Saga Dream) of 1908, but the piece serves as an excellent introduction to the fairy-tale atmosphere.
© Jens Cornelius/Dacapo

[audioguy3107]

[jimtranr]

A 24/96 download. The concerto's a wild ride.

[JemHadar]

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Originally Posted by Jem666

Excellent choice.
I wrote this after I had heard it:
Surprisingly nice marriage of 2 composers coming from a totally different era.

[Portioli]

In my opinion the best solo piano cd of the year