Track of the week

[Meilir]

I love how you keep us all cultured^^ Without those tracks Easy might become a tribe of neanderthals.

[Erian]

Track #33. Piano Concerto no. 4 in G by Beethoven

Played here by Mitsuko Uchida and the Bavarian RSO under Mariss Jansons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a7XiHRjTGI

I was told a few years ago by a music director that the classical world falls into two parts: those who love Bach and those who love Beethoven. Put me firmly into the Beethoven camp. Everything he wrote is worth knowing better. So many tunes, so many melodies and rhythms, so much energy, texture, dynamism, love, spirituality, humanity, life. He wears his heart on his sleeve, like I do, warts and all. He is unquestionably my number one composer. I could have picked a dozen pieces of his so far and set them as tracks #1 to #12, but which to pick? For this track, I pondered possibilities. It came down to this or the 8th Symphony - a fabulous piece of music which is hardly known because the other great symphonies (5th, 6th, 7th, 9th) overshadow it so completely.

The 4th concerto has added meaning for me, because it's something I played a lot after I started to emerge from my mental breakdown in my 20s. There was just something in it that helped uplift my spirit. The version I played then, and still have, is played by the marvellous Alfred Brendel with the Chigago SO under James Levine. This youtube recording starts off with an interview with the pianist in which she tries to describe her feelings about the piece, which I guess must be akin to mine.

The 5th concerto is also a wonderful piece and much more famous.

[Erian]

Track #34. Nunc Dimittis, by Geoffrey Burgon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMNs9O55tpk

Performed here by Ischia Gooda and David Blackadder.

Another composition which evokes England. It's a haunting piece that I came to know and love when it was played as the signature tune for the 1970s TV series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I have a disc of Burgon's compositions; unfortunately this is the only work on it that stands out for me, but he also wrote the theme tune for Brideshead Revisited, another TV series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9EF3p2up7I

[Aleila]

I'm compelled to ruin the tone again this time with this achingly beautiful slice of nihilism I've played to death this week:



'Decima' is another gorgeously morbid cut from the same album I'd recommend.

[Erian]

Track #35. Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2rK_Yhpui8

The link here is to a stunning, mesmerising performance by 700 amateurs. Note that you will see the singers start to sway in rhythym to the beat - singers have various ways of keeping count. Some tap their feet. I tap my thigh with my right middle finger. There! Now you know all my secrets.

The following is a link to a good professional performance, where the parts are perhaps more distinct:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmH1nZSGIyY

This is a 40-part motet written by Tallis in about 1570. Properly, there are 40 voices in the choir, arranged into eight choirs with five voices each. I haven't sung it (not good enough), but a friend has, and he counts it his most memorable singing achievement. It is said to be fiendishly difficult, with each voice responsible for a different part.

[Erian]

Track #36. Requiem, by Guiseppe Verdi.

Performed here by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Proms Youth Choir, directed by Marin Alsop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pVYB6IaiFc

It's not the greatest piece of music. There are some passages that are a bit long-winded, but the good bits are exceptional bits and the piece overall has amazing power and energy. You've probably heard all the good bits in car commercials. If you ever get the chance to hear it live, go; you won't be disappointed.

It has a special place in my heart. I've sung it twice (or thrice, I can't remember) in Durham Cathedral. Anyone who sings is drained at the end, physically and emotionally, barely able to speak. A lot of it is sustained fortissimo. My favourite bit comes at about 10.30 in the above recording. It starts with trumpet fanfares, then a countermarch, and then the men come in with Tuba mirum spargens sonum (trumpets calling the dead) fortissimo, joined by the women also at full volume and then come to a crescendo and an abrupt stop with the cathedral rocking and echoing.

It has another special mention. The last time I sang it, it was in memory of the murdered jews of Terezin, a concentration camp in the Czech Republic. I wrote about that here: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=106&p=121762&hilit=terezin#p121762

Some snippets are in this video: https://vimeo.com/201566479 Those who know me can find me 3rd row at the back amongst the basses, and my wife is in the front row.

Suitably, as requiem, this will be last track of the week. I also had on my list the following honourable mentions:

Gilbert & Sullivan: Pirates of Penzance
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Delius: Over the hills and far away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5AcpmGzR-w
Franck: Symphony in D
Gorecki: Symphony #3
Jacqui Oates: Saturnine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2slyUeZERRs
Josh Ritter: The Beast in its Tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=590PNwvzHSo
Maddy Prior and June Tabor: Silly Sisters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO3ggC-o6w4
Mahler: Symphony #1 in D, Titan
Paul Robeson
Puccini: Tosca

[Elihm]

Thank you for sharing these; your love of music comes through.