What are you listening 2 now?

[Mandryka]

I'm asking myself whether I want to go down a Bach passions rabbit hole. If I did, it would be a case of akrasia I think.

How can this music retain so much power after all that has changed over the past 300 years? That is the big question IMO.

[Roasted Swan]

I'm asking myself whether I want to go down a Bach passions rabbit hole. If I did, it would be a case of akrasia I think.

How can this music retain so much power after all that has changed over the past 300 years? That is the big question IMO.

Excellent question - I have no answer!!!  All I do know is that as someone who has little/no religious faith I find myself always engaged/moved/inspired as if I did.  Somehow the power and the conviction carries me through.  I have always enjoyed religious buildings if not what they (literally) stand for and certainly hearing this music in such a building is a moving experience.  Sometimes I wish I was religious - how amazing must it be then........!?!?

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 3 in D Minor, SWR \Konxerhau Freiburg, Hans Zender

[Mandryka]

Excellent question - I have no answer!!!  All I do know is that as someone who has little/no religious faith I find myself always engaged/moved/inspired as if I did.  Somehow the power and the conviction carries me through.  I have always enjoyed religious buildings if not what they (literally) stand for and certainly hearing this music in such a building is a moving experience.  Sometimes I wish I was religious - how amazing must it be then........!?!?

It's something specific to the Bach approach in these passions I think. Other baroque religious music, lovely though it is, doesn't seem to tell the religious ideas to us now as powerfully as the Bach passions.

[Roasted Swan]

It's something specific to the Bach approach in these passions I think. Other baroque religious music, lovely though it is, doesn't seem to tell the religious ideas to us now as powerfully as the Bach passions.

My knowledge of baroque settings of the Passion apart from Bach is very limited - can you elaborate or suggest who gets closest to Bach (does anyone?!)

[Spotted Horses]

How can this music retain so much power after all that has changed over the past 300 years? That is the big question IMO.

The passions express human longings and emotions, which people may associate with Jesus, or with Taylor Swift, depending on their mindset.

[Karl Henning]

How can this music retain so much power after all that has changed over the past 300 years? That is the big question IMO.

The power of art.

[Mandryka]

The passions express human longings and emotions, which people may associate with Jesus, or with Taylor Swift, depending on their mindset.

They do that with the arias I guess. There's something about the way the arias combine with other genres/forms/textures (not sure of the word!) which makes the Bach passions stand out.

[Karl Henning]

It's something specific to the Bach approach in these passions I think. Other baroque religious music, lovely though it is, doesn't seem to tell the religious ideas to us now as powerfully as the Bach passions.

My initial reply was arguably glib. There's certainly some mystery in what is needed to create music so that it endures apparently timelessly.

[Todd]

[Karl Henning]

Dmitri Shostakovich
October, op. 131

I'm in! First I've listened to this performance.

Royal Philharmonic
Vladimir Ashkenazy

[Karl Henning]

Johan de Meij
Symphony 1 'The Lord of the Rings'

And it's Maiden-Listen Monday!

[brewski]

This recital livestreamed yesterday from Wigmore Hall was a joy. Cédric Tiberghien was new to me, as well as to some friends, so we made it an afternoon (with margaritas for Cinco de Mayo).

I had never heard any of the youthful Beethoven variations (WoO, nos. 66, 71, 72, and 73) and if they aren't worth endless rehearings, they are certainly worth a listen. Interwoven came selections from Kurtág's Játékok and the complete Ligeti Musica ricercata. Bach's Aria variata BWV989 made an impressive finale to what one friend described as "a bonkers program."

-Bruce

[Lisztianwagner]

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No.7
Piano Sonata No.9

Pianist: Vladimir Ovchinnikov

[Karl Henning]

And it's Maiden-Listen Monday!

The Wind Ensemble is the original. This is an arrangement for orchestra by Henk de Vlieger. I don't know why I took so long to listen to it, unless it is that I still hoped to compose a LOTR symphony myself and didn't want the external input. Perhaps now with the Shore soundtrack packaged as a symphony, there is no point in my supplying something for which there is no demand. The de Meij piece is superb, the Gollum scherzo especially. While obviously Shore's soundtrack suits the movies very nicely, I think I like de Meij's music better still.

[Linz]

Fauré Requiem, Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnsire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner

[SonicMan46]

Beethoven's Piano Trios - the three groups below in my collection; Orkis in the Castle Trio on a fortepiano; the other two trios on MIs - attached is a listing of Ludwig's works for 'Piano Trios', most with Op. numbers but a few without - I've put w/ superscripts which works are performed by each trio, obviously much less with the period recording - the 5-disc sets do virtually all of the listed works, plus several other transcriptions (LINK to LVB's composition) - reviews of the MI performances attached for those interested - not finding much else with period instruments on perusing Amazon.  Dave

[Que]

Sonatas nos. 15, 16 & 17.

[AnotherSpin]

Op. 106

[ultralinear]

This recital livestreamed yesterday from Wigmore Hall was a joy. Cédric Tiberghien was new to me, as well as to some friends, so we made it an afternoon (with margaritas for Cinco de Mayo).

I had never heard any of the youthful Beethoven variations (WoO, nos. 66, 71, 72, and 73) and if they aren't worth endless rehearings, they are certainly worth a listen. Interwoven came selections from Kurtág's Játékok and the complete Ligeti Musica ricercata. Bach's Aria variata BWV989 made an impressive finale to what one friend described as "a bonkers program."

-Bruce

I understand he has something of an obsession both with sets of variations in general and Beethoven in particular, so I'm really looking forward to later this year when he'll be playing the Diabellis.