Track of the week

[Erian]

Track #25. The Music Weaver, by Sandy Denny.

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

Hard to listen to this without crying. Sandy Denny died in 1978 in odd circumstances, possibly suicide and possibly not. What a loss.

Some of her other songs are better known, "It'll Take A Long Time" for example. She is maybe better famed for being the lead vocalist for Fairport Convention, a group in the sixties and seventies which - contemporaneously with Steeleye Span, Pentangle, and others - re-established folk-related music for post WWII generations and gave some of us an alternative to Slade. This particular song, sung as usual with extraordinary emotional range, evokes for me her sadness and emptiness.

Here is a clip to a live performance, also compelling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlNWdt66vzU

[Erian]

Track #26. Symphony No 3 in C minor, Op 78 'Organ', by Camille Saint-Saëns

Played here by the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Paavo Jarvi at a BBC prom (turn up the volume!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCZq33BrOo

I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again.

Beautiful melodic symphony, which starts ethereally and ends with one of the great uplifting symphonic finales. This is a super performance. I have heard it played live a couple of times (well worth trying to catch a live performance), but recordings fail very often to balance the organ and orchestra well. Here, the balance is spot on: you can even hear the organ pedals at some points, something I never heard before on the recordings I've listened to - I own four different recordings (I'm ashamed to discover).

My stepfather introduced me to this symphony; it became something of a bond between us. I came to know Saint-Saens' music very well, playing it frequently. There are five symphonies (two un-numbered) and five piano concertos in the late romantic tradition, and all sorts of other concerti, orchestral and chamber music and operas. He's probably most famous for Danse macabre and carnival of the Animals.

The finale, from about 28 minutes in, is stunning.

[Tan]

I first heard the Danse Macabre in the Ghost Hall in the Efteling when i was a child, and it's one of the very rare childhood memories i have (i can still picture vividly the dark room with the skeletons as they dance on those tones, it's uncanny!).
So Saint-Saens is definitely a topper on my list. Still get the chills when i listen to it on high volume.
I have a few of his compositions transwritten to piano but you can't have those last minutes he works up to (frequently in his pieces) as in a great orchestra!

[Erian]

Track #27. Talk to me of Mendocino, by Kate and Anna McGarrigle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7KsDv1K8-k

Very evocative.

I listen to their albums quite a lot, both the English records and the French. There is often a social commentary in their songs, coupled to a sweetness of melody and harmony. Kate died of cancer a few years ago. I first came across them at uni in 1975, and didn't think much of them at the time, but they've grown on me over the years. This song, written by Kate, is on their 1976 debut album. I'm especially fond of their 1996 album Matapedia, also with some fine songs from Kate.

[Tsumecho]

I've been listening to a load of Ludvico Einaudi lately, he tends to do mostly piano stuff, sometimes solo, sometimes with accompaniment, the below is one of my favourites, I really like the build of of tension, that despite expectation, never releases.

[Erian]

Track #28. Sinfonietta, by Leos Janacek

Here's a recording by the Halle Orchestra under Mark Elder at a BBC prom in 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aFTv50AoEQ

The great composers generate a unique, immediately identifiable, sound picture. So it is with Janacek. Nothing else sounds like it. The Sinfonietta is full of energy and rhythym and brassy quirkinesses, and memorable passages. I'm fond also of the Glagolitic Mass and his opera The Cunning Little Vixen.

This reminds me also of coming home to dinner from school and watching Crown Court, for which this (the 4th movement) was the signature music. The 5th movement is a very fine multi-layered triumphant finale.

Vitki, there is hope for us both. Nearly all Janacek's music, and all his major pieces, were written very late in his life. Sinfonietta was composed when he was 72. All the more remarkable is that he was born in 1854, and yet this piece is notably modern-sounding.

[Erian]

Track #29. Mass in D by Antonin Dvorak, op 86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l6yRRDPyd8

This youtube version is easily the best I found. I can't translate the Czech, but it seems to be a small but good quality choir based in Prague singing a chamber version of the work. The soloists are very good, not oversinging, and the balance in the choir and the choir-orchestra balance is spot on. The quality of the recording is poor, alas. There is a more mainstream orchestral version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC8Y4QsigV0

This is one of the sublime religious works, bringing a choke to the throat of even the most hardened atheist such as myself. Dvorak was an incomparable tunesmith, but here the inventive melodies are matched to a profound presentation of complete faith that I find quite emotional. The Credo is especially fine, and it's ending is one of the most moving beautiful passages written anywhere by anyone.

Footnote: I have twice tried to write this over the last few weeks, both previous times we have had power cuts and I lost everything. Maybe God is trying to have a quiet word.

[Erian]

Track #30. Fratres, by Arvo Part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk0cAciEuIY

Performed here by Mari Samuelson and Trondheim soloists.

Part made several versions of Fratres; I think this is the version known as Fratres for Violin, Strings, and Percussion. On the CD I have, there are also versions for Cello and Piano, Strings and Percussion, 8 Cellos, and so forth. This is a stunning performance, although a little marred by the soloist not quite nailing the highest notes at the end of the piece.

This is music that defies pigeon-holing, just forcing you to listen amd make your own judgements.

Here also is the better-known Spiegel im Spiegel, simply mesmerising:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZe3mXlnfNc

[Erian]

Track #31. Concerto for 2 Violins in A-Major "per eco in lontano" RV552, by Antonio Vivaldi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4XpLArd06o

Played here by Japanese students. Not the best sound quality, but you can see what is going on. I love the conversation between the two violins, one set off-stage.

Sonically I prefer the recording I bought a very long time ago, with soloists Franco Tamponi and Walter Gallozzi and I Musici directed by Felix Ayo. It can be found here, ripped from vinyl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5ZwFn4jwqU

There's lots to explore if you only know Vivaldi through the Four Seasons. Some of it can be a bit samey, but when it's played with energy it's very appealing. Here is another two-violin concerto (RV522) played with fire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgYl4eE3WJA

[Erian]

Track #32. St. John Passion, by JS Bach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMf9XDQBAaI

Performed wonderfully here by the Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven, conductor.

Listening to this, many different thoughts cross my mind. The intellect of Bach, beyond my comprehension. The very modern-sounding sonic picture, with its dissonances and rhythms, but written in 1724. The difficulty of the music - I have sung it in Durham Cathedral and it was both physically and mentally extremely taxing. The total immersion and certainty in the North German protestant faith of the time.

If you listen to all of it, you'll notice that many of the segments are (now) well-known hymns. There is an example at 1:12:40.

The St Matthew Passion is better known and more often performed, though quite a bit longer.