Anyone know this music, new to me?

[Sean]

I'll be borrowing these from my library over the next few weeks, let me know if you have any views, thanks-

Boccherini- Symphonies
Busnois- Missa O Crux Lignum
Cavalli- La Callisto (complete)
D'India- Madrigals bk.1
Donizetti  Maria Stuarda
Du Fay- Missa L'homme arme
Dvorak- Biblical songs
Dvorak- Requiem
Gesualdo- Madrigals bk.4
Handel- Imeneo
Handel- Semele
Handel- Occasional oratorio
Mason- SQ No.1
Massenet- Le Cid
Maxwell Davies- Miss Donnithorne's Maggot
Piston- Violin concertos Nos.1-2
Purcell- My heart is inditing
Reich- It's gonna rain
Reich- Piano phase
Rubbra- SQs Nos.2&4
Strauss- Romance
Toovey- Juniper tree
Vaughan Williams- Riders to the sea
Warlock- The Curlew
Folk music- any recommended countries?

[gmstudio]

I'll be borrowing these from my library over the next few weeks, let me know if you have any views, thanks-

Boccherini- Symphonies

I love these.

Handel- Imeneo
Handel- Semele

Borrrrrr-ing...unless you happen to like Handel's operas.

[hippydippy]

Mason- SQ No.1

Rubbra- SQs Nos.2&4

Would really like to hear these

[jochanaan]

Boccherini- Symphonies

I've heard one or two of them on the radio.  Lovely light music, very like early Mozart or Haydn.

Folk music- any recommended countries?

Namdziliin Norovbanzad: Mongolian Songs (third one down on the link).  She's an amazing vocalist!

[Mark]

Cavalli- La Callisto (complete)
Du Fay- Missa L’homme arme
Handel- Semele

I have these three in my collection. Don't care for the Cavalli, but the Dufay is very enjoyable, and the Handel I love.

[BachQ]

Folk music- any recommended countries?

Upper Volta

[Sean]

gm, I agree that there's a monotony to much of the Handel opera/ oratorio cycles but they're still kept above a good level.

Jochanann, I've also tried some Mongolian music, a solo tenor accompanying himself on guitar/ balalaika- very interesting with real passion and a distinct if misty sense of crossing on horseback over the steppes.

Mark, I know the Jane Glover single CD issue of La Callisto but want to try the whole thing, even if it's stilted and dry of course, and far too long really. I know one other Du Fay mass, the Ancille domini (or something like that), profound stuff, and very long, filling the CD.

Hi D Minor, you mean Burkina Faso of course (have been through it!)- I do know a little Senegalese though with its hypnotic drumming foreshadowing Western pop.

[MishaK]

D’India- Madrigals bk.1

Marvellous stuff, particularly if you get Christie's recording.

I disagree on Handel being boring, having just watched a fantastic production of "Giul;io Cesare" at the lyric Opera last night, with Danielle de Niese as Cleopatra.

[Brian]

Folk music- any recommended countries?

Try this thread for a Hungarian sampler. 

[Sean]

O Mensch, D'India is underrated I know. I've already explored his Eighth book and it includes some of the most exquisite examples of the period.

Handel's Caesar, Rodelinda and Tamerlano have been seen as a triptych of his finest operas; certainly the aria melodies throughout are sophisticated and elegant, almost in classical style. The early Rinaldo remains a favourite for me.

[gmstudio]

Marvellous stuff, particularly if you get Christie's recording.

I disagree on Handel being boring, having just watched a fantastic production of "Giul;io Cesare" at the lyric Opera last night, with Danielle de Niese as Cleopatra.

I agree, Cesare is a fine piece, but the ones listed in the original post, IMO, fall in the monotonous category for me.

[Josquin des Prez]

Boccherini- Symphonies

Boring from the most part. Wasn't very impressed by this composer.

Busnois- Missa O Crux Lignum

Is that the one by the Orlando Consort? Decent mass, with clear cut counterpoint and some memorable melodic turns. Not the most complex piece but the recording alone (which is phenomenal) makes it worth it.

D'India- Madrigals bk.1

D'India is one of the better magrigalists of the early baroque. He was very eclectic in his use of dissonance in that he took as much from Gesualdo as he did from Monteverdi, though he never mixed the two (missed opportunity if you ask me). The book in question is based on the style of Gesualdo, and it's very good though obviously lacking the depth of the older master.

Du Fay- Missa L'homme arme

Arguably, Dufay's greatest mass (along with the ''Ecce ancilla Domini'') and a seminal work in the development of the high renaissance style.

Gesualdo- Madrigals bk.4

That book basically bridges his early more conservative efforts in this genre and his late work, where he used profuse amounts of dissonance to achieve bolder means of expression. Book 5 and 6 is where his genius shined the most, but book 4 probably serves as a better introduction.

[Sean]

Okay Josquin, thanks for that. I'd agree with you overall re Boccherini, his Cello concs & guitar quintets for instance I don't think find much inner logic: is his masterpiece the op.13/5 minuet? I also want to get the Stabat mater of 1800 though.

I do known a movement from the Busnois mass and was mightily impressed, not as refined as Ockeghem but darkly inventive with some ars nova vertical harmony(?), and perhaps pointing to Isaac.

Thanks for the D'India notes, as I say he's beautifully restrained in bk.8.

I also know the Dufay Ecce ancilla Domini- can you say why it's so long? Is the Homme arme also twice the length of a renaissance mass? Obrecht's Maria Zart (spelling?) is one example of a similar scale...

I know some Gesualdo of course, inc the amazing Fri-Sat stuff.

[Guido]

The Penguin Music Guide gave the Naxos CD of Piston Violin concertos a rossette (their highest accolade) and said that the concertos were just as good as the Barber concerto. They're not, but they are lovely and probably worth hearing if you like American music, though I don't think they will revoke your scepticism abut American music in general though. The best piece that I have heard by Piston is the second symphony - what else do people recommend?

[Sean]

The atmosphere Piston often creates is one of great music, real depth and passion, but as you say like some other examples of American music it doesn't have all the substance it heralds; the other side of his temperament is the melody and flux of The Incredible flutist or finale of the Third symph . Piston is one of the topmost American composers and is underrated: his Fourth symphony is said to be a masterpiece comparable with Harris's Third but I've never been able to track it down on radio or from libraries.

[btpaul674]

Folk music- any recommended countries?

http://cd.ciao.co.uk/Reviews/Norway_Sweden_Scandinavian_Valleys_Various_Artists__5871772

[Sean]

Thanks. I know that's a really fine series.

[val]

Cavalli- La Callisto (complete). This is a remarkable opera, with a superb melodic invention and very funny situations. The old version of Leppard was more an adaptation but had fabulous soloists (Baker, Cotrubas, Cuenod). The version of Rene Jacobs is more authentic and, with more modest soloists, a good recording.

D'India- Madrigals bk.1.  I only know an anthology of Madrigals, by Judith Nelson and Jacobs. I remember a very dramatic and eloquent Lamento, "Giunti a la tomba".

Du Fay- Missa L'homme arme. A masterpiece, perhaps the first Missa using the theme of the song "L'homme armé" (some authors suggest that the song itself was composed by Dufay). There is a very good version by the Hilliard Ensemble.

Dvorak- Requiem. I have this work, conducted by Ancerl. I must admit that it isn't one of the most inspired works of Dvorak. His Stabat Mater, although too long, is better.

Handel- Semele. To me, the absolute masterpiece of Händel. It is more an opera than an oratorio, with strong characters and a remarkable orchestration. The Arias, in special those of Semele and Juno are very, very beautiful.

[Sean]

Good one val. I've explored a few early operas but apart from Monteverdi they take a bit of patience; I hope to get the Cavalli on Tuesday.

(The Cavalieri (d.1602) Rappresentione oratorio is an interesting forerunner, but lacks distinction I thought.)

I recently played (repeatedly) the complete Du Fay secular music on the OL lable- surprisingly varied stuff.

The Dvorak Requiem has eluded me as yet but I know the extended Stabat mater, Mass & fine Te Deum.

I'll let you know about Semele, thanks.