Favorite Classical Music: Smorg's Sonic Sleeping PillFeb 23 '07 (Updated Feb 23 '08) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line For CaptainD's write off. Some of Smorg's idea of great classical music numbers. Hope there are some to your liking! SMORG’s CLASSICAL MUSIC MANIA : In response to CaptainD’s fantastic Favorite Classical Music Write-Off, I submit this list of my current 15 plus 1 favorite classical numbers (would narrow it down more, but I really like too many pieces). While some might be ideal for having on your stereo as you nod off to a peaceful sleep at night, I should warn that a few are more likely to give you adventurous dreams. The audio samples aren’t necessarily done by the artists whose performances are on my actual CD, they’re just here to give you some ideas. 1. Johannes STRAUSS (II): Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (Tales from the Vienna Woods) sample: http://musikarpatia.com/mp3/Mp3samples/Strauss/Geschichten.mp3 Johannes Strauss the Younger is the most famous of the 4 Strauss composers (Johannes the dad, Johannes the son & Joseph are a family, Richard the opera guy is not related). He is known as the Waltz King for good reason. This waltz is very descriptive of the Austrian country-side, with birds chirping in the trees with rustling leaves, squirrels on the limbs, little streams with clear water... It’s all in the music. The original version has the Zither (a strum instrument with around 40 strings in a wooden box) does the solo passages, but many recordings use the violin or another instrument instead. I love the version conducted by Carlos Kleiber. 2. HAENDEL: Rinaldo: Cara sposa sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AImvk6UrnqI (Marilyn Horne) This is Rinaldo the Christian Crusader’s musical yearning after his kidnaped fiancee Almirena. It is a brutally long piece at nearly 11 minutes with a fast coloratura-fest movement sandwiched between 2 slow ones. An extreme virtuoso aria if there is ever one and it is full of drama as well. I love the version sung by Marilyn Horne in the 1989 recording of the opera from Venice. The one by Vivica Genaux is stellar as well. 3. KHACHATURIAN: Spartacus: Adagio sample: http://khachaturian.am/mp3/7.mp3 (from http://khachaturian.am/eng/works/mp3.htm) I confess, I don’t know much about ballet. You’ve probably heard parts of this piece in various commercials and films, though (our English members might recognize it as the theme to the BBC’s Onedin Line). It is extremely relaxing and full of yearning.... Russian style (I know the ballet is called Spartacus, but there is nothing Rome about this piece). I’ve got the CD of it conducted by Yuri Temirkhanov. 4. BEETHOVEN: Fidelio: Komm hoffnung sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhSmgpOL9TY (Lotte Lehmann) Beethoven composed only 1 opera, and it is a masterpiece. Fidelio the helper of the jail warden is actually Leonora (a woman looking for her political prisoner husband Florestan) in disguise. She had overheard the bad-guy Pizarro’s plot to kill the prisoner she thinks is her husband and sings this song to express her anguish at Florestan’s plight and resolves that with love on her side she will be able to save his life. It is a glorious piece with really unearthly French horn obbligato dancing around and commenting on the vocal line which starts out in a wonderful lyrical plea that gets worked into a courageous pumped up ending (and one of the scariest high B in the dramatic soprano repertoire). Makes me wish old Beethoven had written more opera! My favorite version is sung by Astrid Varnay, but the ones by Waltraud Meier and Kiri Te Kanawa are wonderful, too. Honorable mentions to versions by Lotte Lehmann and Christa Ludwig. 5. BELLINI: Beatrice di Tenda: Angiol di pace all’anima Sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nDF9SZevIA (Gruberova, Kasarova, Bernardino) The tenor Orombello loves the married soprano Beatrice, but she is a faithful wife to Filippo. Her confidante the mezzo Agnese loves Orombello, and her husband Filippo loves Agnese. Are you dizzy yet? Anyhow, Agnese is miffed that Orombello loves Beatrice instead of her, so when Filippo accused Beatrice of having an affair with Orombello, Agnese sides with him. Orombello, unable to withstand the torture he is subjected to, confesses to the affair (Filippo being the ruler, Beatrice is awarded the death sentence). The guilt-ridden Orombello and Agnese now plead to Beatrice for forgiveness, and Beatrice proves herself too classy to live by granting them pardon before going in to the execution chamber (no good deed shall go unpunished!). This is truly a show of voices.... the 2 soprani and a tenor are accompanied by hardly any instrument but the harp. If you want a taste of what "bel canto" music is all about, this is it. A most gorgeous take of it is captured on the live CD from Vienna featuring Edita Gruberova, Vesselina Kasarova, and Don Bernardini (featured on the sample clip). 6. SMETANA: Ma Vlast: From Bohemians Fields & Groves sample: http://jnjmuse.cnei.or.kr/musicbox_2/my_fatherland_4_aus_bohmens_hain_und_flur.mp3 (from http://blog.empas.com/an590109/list.html... a Japanese site, but if you move the cursor over the links, you can see English name for the tracks) The Czech composer Smetana was deaf when he composed a set of 6 orchestral compositions dedicated to his Fatherland (Ma Vlast = My Fatherland) in 1878. This is the 4th movement and it is as descriptive of the fields and woods of Bohemia as any piece of music can get, I think (and being Slavic...there is that underlining grimness to it. My favorite version is by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Vienna Philharmonics. 7. MOZART: Piano Concerto#22 in Eb: Rondo-Allegro sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwYPjoj2_Yw This thing is as cute as a button. Playful and yet well grounded. With the piano, the flute, the oboe, and the strings chasing after each other like a bunch of spoiled kitten. I don’t remember who play the version in my stereo. It came from a Grammophone Magazine free CD last year. 8. BEETHOVEN: Symphony#5 in C minor: Andante con moto sample: http://jnjmuse.cnei.or.kr/musicbox/beetho5_2nd_mov.mp3 (from http://blog.empas.com/an590109/list.html) O, you know Beethoven’s 5th Symphony... at least the 1st movement (allegro con brio) with those famous 8 opening notes (ever seen that funny film about the dog Beethoven?). This ‘andante con moto’ is the 2nd movement, which I actually love even more than that famous 1st movement. It isn't as jarring as the first, but more premonitive... and darker. I used to play it on the car stereo all the time driving to work the night shift at a nursing home in Gower, Missouri during my first college year, and the piece is forever associated with a stormy night on the lonely highway between St Joseph and Gower in my mind. My favorite version is done by V Ashkenazy conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. 9.WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman: Johohoe! Traft ihr das Schiff sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0dX0jwlork Senta, the daughter of a seafaring skipper sings this song in telling her friends the story of Der Fliegende Hollaender (The Flying Dutchman), a man cursed to spend an eternity roaming the world’s oceans as a ghost ship. He is allowed to come ashore once every 7 years, and would be allowed to stop wandering and remain ashore if a woman loves him enough to marry him (and Senta wants to be his ‘redeemer’). If you love sailing songs, you’d really love this thing. The music puts you right in the middle of a not so calm ocean at night with the wind blowing and the waves frothing, and Senta at the mast singing out into the open sea. My favorite versions are by Astrid Varnay and Leonie Rysanek. 10. MOZART: La clemenza di Tito: Deh, per questo istante solo sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSxMYkJ87Qc (Vesselina Kasarova at Salzburg Festival 2003) This is the soul bearing 2nd Act aria sung by the remorseful Sesto, whose assassination attempt of his childhood friend and emperor Tito had failed and he now faces a death sentence. Having further aggravated Tito in his refusal to reveal the identity of his co-conspirator, Sesto bids Tito farewell begging him to remember their long friendship. This is another vintage Mozart dramatic aria, with one of the most deceptively simple yet scariest opening phrases around for the singer (it is long and extremely exposed, and supposed to be done in one breath). A piece where the singer either shows that she can express at least 3 different emotions in 6 minutes or she can’t. My favorite version is found on Vesselina Kasarova: Mozart Arias CD. 11. HAYDN: Arianna a Naxos sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV9oFyZDwCA (by Vesselina Kasarova) This cantata by Joseph Haydn is pretty much a 4 movement mini-opera that tells the popular tale of the abandonment of Arianna (Ariadne) by her beloved Teseo (Theseus), the heroic slayer of the Minotaur she had left her husband for, on the island of Naxos (there are a few operas written about it, the most famous being Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos opera within an opera tale featuring what many consider to be the most difficult song to sing in the soprano repertoire, Grossmächtige, Prinzessin!). Anyhow, this is a very testy piece for a singer because it is so long (nearly 17 minutes of continuous singing) and so dramatic as Arianna goes from being hurt at the absence of her husband, to being crossed at him, to raging at the stars, and ending in deadly terror. If the singer doesn’t pace herself properly, she’d have the audience nodding by the 3rd movement. My favorite version is unfortunately a non-commercial one sung by Vesselina Kasarova at the Beethovenfest in Bonn, Germany in 2004... Though you can catch an air-check of it on Youtube in the sample clip. The best commercial recording of the thing I’ve came across is by the Argentinian mezzo Bernarda Fink. 12. WA MOZART: Cosi fan tutti: Soave sia il vento sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMY3Ou9L5xE This Act I trio is also a commercial favorite especially for luxury cars. The girls are the sisters; the soprani Fiordiligi and Dorabella (who is usually sung by a mezzo nowadays). The guy is the basso Don Alfonso. And they are singing farewell to the girls’ fiances leaving on a ship to their soldierly posts (supposedly). A drop dead gorgeous number featuring very modern sounding orchestration (really cool key modulations to mimick sailing) for something written in the late 18th Century. Gorgeous ending bar for the basso (the girls are honest, but Don Alfonso isn't quite... can you hear that?)! Find the version with Pilar Lorengar, Teresa Berganza, & Gabriel Bacquier, if you could. 13. R STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier: Marie Theres! Hab’mir’s gelobt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZt_JlEyb8 This glorious soprani trio is probably the best melodic piece Richard Strauss ever wrote. One isn't an opera fan if one doesn't immediately recognizes this piece when someone says Der Rosenkavalier Trio. It is the music played at the revered German composer's funeral. The Marschallin is giving her blessing for her young lover Oktavian to leave her and take up with the young Sophie Faninal (whom he had fallen for) instead. The opening "Marie Theres!" is sung by the stunned Oktavian. The Marschallin sings the very heart rending high following phrase "Hab’mir’s gelobt ihn Liebe zu haben in die richtigenweise (I promised myself to love him in the right way...)", then Sophie joins in saying how she is bowled over by the older woman’s generosity, and Oktavian sings of the change happening in him and his new love. They are accompanied by a huge orchestra that gets louder and louder toward the end. A lot of time it's hard to hear Oktavian since he shares his lines with the 5 French horns for most of the number... and when he/she is teamed with a loud Sophie (who has the highest line of the 3 during most of the piece), the number can quickly degenerate into a 3 way contest of vocal size rather than a blissful blend of three souls who have finally found a common ground after an opera-ful of chaos! My favorite take is unfortunately not available on CD or mp3 (but there’s a youtube clip that I listed above)... it's the version sung by Nina Stemme, Vesselina Kasarova, and Malin Hartelius in the DVD from Zurich, which feature a wonderful teamwork of divas who aren't bent on being the loudest voice heard all the time. Other great takes can be found on the Georg Solti recording from 1986 (R Crespin, Y Minton, H Donath), and the Carlos Kleiber version (F Lott, A-S von Otter, B Bonney). 14. SCHUBERT: String Quartet in D minor ‘Death and the Maiden’: Andante con moto sample: http://www.goclassic.co.kr/mp3/Schubert_Death_&_Maiden_II.mp3 (from http://www.goclassic.co.kr/basic/199909.html) I fell in love with this rather morbid quartet during a very gray St Louis autumn. O, the music isn’t morbid, but the theme is kind of... Death is coaxing a young maiden to lay herself in his arm and he will gently take care of her. It was a rather much used theme in old Europe since the days of the Black Death when young people were dropping like flies. Nowadays whenever I hear this movement (2nd) from this quartet I can still see the walk-ways of Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri that I used to frequent when I wasn’t at school. It’s gray music for a gray day. 15. VERDI: Nabucco: Va pensiero (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BZSqtqr8Qk (from the Metropolitan Opera in 2001) This chorus is practically Italy’s alternative national anthem by now. Verdi wrote the opera Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar) while Italy was under Austria dominance, and the chorus of the Hebrew slaves musing of their home on the River Jordan struck a patriotic chord among the populace (you even heard it at the closing ceremony of the Torino Winter Olympics last year). For the lyric with English translation, go here: http://www.wowzone.com/pensiero.htm Bonus:16. BELLINI: I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues): Deserto e il luogo/ arresta. Qual mesto suon echeggia? This long scene in Bellini's operatic version of the tales of 'Romeo and Giulietta (Juliette)' occurs in the 2nd Act where Romeo confronts Tebaldo (Tybalt) near the Capulets' tomb. There is a long and very lyrically beautiful orchestral prelude featuring a solo clarinet before Romeo opens the piece commenting on how deserted the place is. When Tebaldo enters the music shifts from being contemplative to mutual indignation between the 2 foes and swords are drawn just when a procession arrives carrying the dead Giulietta (just pretending, actually), which is more effective in taking the fight out of the boys than anyone could have done. My favorite version is done by Vesselina Kasarova's Romeo and Ramon Vargas's Tebaldo, captured on their RCA Red Seal CD of the opera, and also on her Duets CD. The version by Agnes Baltsa and Dano Raffanti on the EMI CD is awesome also. I'm afraid I couldn't find a good sample of this thing, but here's a clip of the wonderful quintet that starts the Act I finale, 'Socorso, sostegno/ Se ogni speme': www.youtube.com/watch?v=0anA1ObN2JA Voila! Now you probably have a good idea why my cat is prone to sleeping whenever I’m around... but to my defense, he also goes to sleep whenever there’s a heavy metal concert going on at Petco Park nearby (the downside of living near Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego... free heavy metal concerts whenever you don’t want to hear heavy metal concert. And when you’re in the mood for heavy metal, they have a jazz festival!). Have a great weekend, folks!  |
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