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jlaurson

#160
April 24, 2016, 06:04:42 AM Last Edit: April 24, 2016, 06:14:59 AM by jlaurson
Update on ionarts:

A Survey of Bach Organ Cycles

Updated: 04/24/2016: André Isoir and and the Hänssler cycle have been put into chronological
order. The details of the organs used (on mouse-over, depending on your browser) are now included for
Koopman, Alain III, Weinberger, Foccroulle and (partly) Phillips....


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-survey-of-bach-organ-cycles.html

jlaurson

#161
May 11, 2016, 02:15:50 AM Last Edit: August 03, 2016, 12:51:17 PM by jlaurson
Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Revelation Of A Mystery Play

Alongside Mieczysław Weinberg (Passenger and especially Idiot), Walter Braunfels is the greatest
among least known opera composers. (Needless to say, he was given an overdue chapter in the
new, second edition of Surprised by Beauty, Robert Reilly's "Listener's Guide to the Recovery of
20th Century of Music" for which it was my privilege to contribute this particular chapter.) Record-
ings of Jeanne D'Arc and at last a new recording of The Annunciation show Braunfels at his best...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/04/classical-cd-of-the-week-revelation-of-a-mystery-play/#1dbc464e4970


Classical CD Of The Week: Domestic Violins & Four Last Songs for Chorus

It's easy to be dismissive about Richard Strauss' Sinfonia Domestica, with its purported or actual
depiction of his eggs sunny-side-up for breakfast, afternoon nap, and a digestive movement (ma
non troppo). And although it's likely Strauss was deliberately poking fun at the symphonic tradition
with his juxtaposition of the most banal topicality, he didn't compose his 9th (of 10) tone poem
just as a lark...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/27/classical-cd-of-the-week-domestic-violins-four-last-songs-for-chorus/


Boston Symphony's Gift To Mahler In Vienna

...And that was achieved, and with perfectly hushed tones in the bargain, interrupted only by the
marimba ringtone of a goddamned iPhone, the owner of which was undoubtedly tarred and
feathered and thrown into the Danube Canal immediately following the concert...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/10/boston-symphonys-gift-to-mahler-in-vienna/

jlaurson

#162
May 12, 2016, 02:25:50 PM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Mozart With Je Ne Sais Quoi

To say that Mozart wrote some pieces that are greater than others is not to
denigrate the miracle-man from Salzburg. Even to say that he is an overrated
composer – which as the easily most popular classical composer, relative to
his colleagues, he must be – doesn't put a dent into his magnificent, ravishing
output. So to say that Mozart's violin concertos are wonderful works but not
of the same complexity and even quality as, for example, the later piano
concertos; to say that three of them are plenty in one sitting, and to say that
it needn't always be a complete recording of all five to adequately satisfy the
daily dose of Mozart, doesn't constitute a Lèse-majesté...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/12/classicalcdoftheweekzimmermann/

jlaurson

#163
May 19, 2016, 03:03:05 PM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Once-In-A-Decade Schumann

The three Schumann String Quartets (op.41/1-3) are not as present on the recital- or recording
scene as one might assume, given the fame of the composer and the relative popularity of the
genre. We notice this when there comes a recording our way – as seems to happen every decade
or so – that turns our heads and makes us go: "Woha! Right – those works!"...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/19/classicalcdoftheweek_schumann_hermes-quartet_la-dolce-volta/#5147bc8c345a

jlaurson

#164
May 27, 2016, 11:57:13 AM Last Edit: May 27, 2016, 11:59:45 AM by jlaurson
Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Post-Baroque Sluggard Demi-Genius

After a master-class tour of the Who's-Who of late-baroque/post-baroque composers – Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Adolph Hasse, C.P.E. Bach, and Georg Philipp Telemann – the aspiring composer Johann Gottfried Müthel settled in Riga with his new-won skills and composed. But, in his own words, only when he was in the mood. He didn't think much of working for work's sake or whenever anything but fully inspired and convivial. Sounds as prototypical romantic as impractical an attitude to have. J.S. Bach and P.G. Wodehouse would certainly have disapproved and look where steady hard work has got them!...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/26/classical-cd-of-the-week-classical-cd-of-the-week-post-baroque-sluggard-demi-genius/

jlaurson

#165
May 29, 2016, 06:38:54 AM
Happy Birthday, Wolferl!

Latest on Forbes.com:
An Introduction To Erich Wolfgang Korngold

...It wasn't that far from his Snowman to Korngold's first works of artistic maturity – and the Sextet, op.10, premièred in Vienna just before the composers' 20th birthday May 29th, 1917, already shows a composer in the fullest bloom of creative prowess. Think Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht or Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen and you get a fair idea of its perfectly developed chromatic romanticism. Add to that a touch of Viennese gaiety in the Intermezzo, and an Adagio that teases the ear with unfamiliar harmonies—not unlike the opening of Mozart's "Dissonance Quartet" or Alban Berg's Piano Sonata op.1—before offering up the notes that reel us back into familiar, lush territory...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/29/korngold_surprised-by-beauty/

jlaurson

#166
June 06, 2016, 12:27:58 AM Last Edit: June 06, 2016, 04:42:38 AM by jlaurson
Broken link fixed:

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Scarlatti Classical And En Suite

As every clever Scarlatti disc or recital should, this one has had some thought put into the selection and arrangement of the sonatas, rather than just willy-nilly lumping together personal favorites. True, the pudding-proof is in the listening, not the admiration of the thought behind it. But it's worth mentioning all the same in this case, especially since on Claire Huangci's disc it works so particularly well: The pianist (whom I heard at the 2011 ARD International Music Competition, where she came second, then still performing as Tori Huang) arranged bundles of sonatas in the form of baroque suites (disc 1) and classical sonatas (disc 2), as laid out by her lucid, well-written, and refreshingly level-headed liner notes:...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-scarlatti-classical-and-en-suite/


Latest on Forbes:

The Rebirth of Contemporary Classical Music?
The Vienna Philharmonic Plays Larcher

A balmy, sunny Sunday morning. A full house – twice now, counting the previous night –
at the venerable Musikverein's Golden Hall. The Vienna Philharmonic performs under top-tier
conductor Semyon Bychkov. And on the program – prominently, not hidden! – is a world
premiere: A living composer's work and the ink barely dry on it. Kenotaph, by Thomas
Larcher – his Second Symphony...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/06/the-rebirth-of-contemporary-classical-music-the-vienna-philharmonic-plays-larcher/

jlaurson

#167
June 10, 2016, 10:49:05 AM Last Edit: June 16, 2016, 01:23:25 AM by jlaurson
Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: That's Mendelssohn!

As every clever Scarlatti disc or recital should, this one has had some thought put into the selection and arrangement of the sonatas, rather than just willy-nilly lumping together personal favorites. True, the pudding-proof is in the listening, not the admiration of the thought behind it. But it's worth mentioning all the same in this case, especially since on Claire Huangci's disc it works so particularly well: The pianist (whom I heard at the 2011 ARD International Music Competition, where she came second, then still performing as Tori Huang) arranged bundles of sonatas in the form of baroque suites (disc 1) and classical sonatas (disc 2), as laid out by her lucid, well-written, and refreshingly level-headed liner notes:...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/10/classical-cd-of-the-week-thats-mendelssohn

jlaurson

#168
June 16, 2016, 01:22:19 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Serenading The Green Eyed Monster

Riccardo Muti's Otello, his first commercial audio recording of Verdi's
far-and-away greatest opera, hasn't got an all-star cast by name but
hand-picked singers instead, who contribute...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/15/classical-cd-of-the-week-serenading-the-green-eyed-monster/#79d3b76e4895

jlaurson

#169
June 21, 2016, 01:25:07 PM

Latest on Forbes.com:

Making Music Visible: Peter Sellars' St John Passion From Berlin

Is a staging of a Bach Passion necessary? Peter Sellars' 2014 production from
Berlin, since published on DVD and Blu-ray, vigorously affirms that: Yes! It
does seem necessary. Or at the very least it is very moving....


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/21/making-music-visible-peter-sellars-st-john-passion-from-berlin/

jlaurson

#170
June 24, 2016, 05:26:01 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:

Classical CD Of The Week: Handel At His Most English

If "no plot, no characters, no dialogue" (Ruth Smith) doesn't sound like a promising
premise for an entertaining musical work, think again: We listen to the music primarily
as it is (as we do with many very popular but daft operas and their excuses of a plot),
but if we chose to follow the text or listen carefully, we find ourselves immersed in an
enchanted literary world – very distant from ours, but beguiling...


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-handel-at-his-most-english/#2c0582f8343d

jlaurson

#171
July 01, 2016, 10:53:41 AM
Latest on Forbes:



James MacMillan In The Countryside
Contemporary Music Festival in Neuberg an der Mürz
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/01/contemporary-music-in-the-countryside/#4543307f1094

Usually it is chamber music that I seek when I make musical trips into the countryside... partly because Munich –
if and when I am based there – is not a terribly good place for chamber music. When based in Vienna, the situation
is not quite as dire, if only for the efforts of the Wiener Konzerthaus whose chamber music cycle(s) do all the heavy
lifting and whose chamber music venues – the Mozart- and Schubert-Hall – are absolute jewels... acoustically and
atmospherically better than the sarcophagus-like Brahms-Saal of the the Musikverein. There's a bit of contemporary
music going on in Vienna, too, but much of that either of the fig-leaf variety (done to satisfy the abstract notion
that it should be done, but with little heart behind it) or in the damp prison cell of avant-garde niche-ism ("Wien
Modern", which has thus devolved). I've certainly never gone as far for a contemporary music festival as Neuberg
an der Mürz – which is located somewhere between Vienna and the end of the world...

jlaurson

#172
July 24, 2016, 02:45:56 AM

Latest on Forbes:

Classical CD Of The Week: André Isoir's Art Of The Fugue

Andre Isoire died the day this was posted. May he rest in peace; I think of him with warm gratitude; he has brought me many hours of listening-joy!



Classical CD Of The Week: Madetoja -- Kullervo Without Sibelius




Classical CD Of The Week: Winterreise Threesome







Karl Henning

#175
August 15, 2016, 01:22:00 AM
Although still a work-in-progress, it was high time to launch: http://www.karlhenning.com/
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

jlaurson

#178
August 31, 2016, 10:29:38 PM

Classical CD Of The Week: The Vivaldi Vanity Package

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/08/31/classical-cd-of-the-week-the-vivaldi-vanity-package/#2bd122064599

If I can coax someone into leaving a comment on any of the Forbes CD of the Week reviews, I've got a voucher for the Berlin Phil's Digital Concert Hall (alas valid for only 7 days from the first concert watched) to go their way, or a High Resolution download of Alexandre Tharaud's Goldberg Variations.
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