Johann Sebastian Bach, Air on the G String (adapted from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, 2nd Mvt.), Friedrich Gulda, piano, 1980s (?)
(Yeah, that’s Chick Corea at 2:57.)
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
This would make a helluva blurb:
Bach’s music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe cannot be regarded a complete failure.
If, someday, Björk invites you over for tea, don’t be surprised if she wants to show you this.
Martha Argerich, at home with then-husband conductor Charles Dutoit, Switzerland (near Lausanne), 1972
‘Recently I have been guilty of watching a lot of YouTube,’ Björk says. She’s been exploring Martha Argerich (1972 home movies) . . .
—Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise (blog), 11/13/11
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Happy Birthday, Suzanne!
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Wach (excerpt)
The Ensemble for Intuitive Music Weimar
Live (rehearsal), Austria (Klosterneuberg), 2009
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musical thoughts
Would I want to listen to this every day?
Nah.
But I don’t feel like listening to Junior Wells every day either.
Why shouldn’t our music be as various as our days?
Turn it off: cellphone, email, Twitter—the whole modern rot.
Let this, and nothing else, surround you.
Frederic Chopin, Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2
Martha Argerich (piano), live, Germany (Saarbrücken), 1972
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musical thoughts
In the right hands there are no notes—only mysteries.
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reading table
Then I considered the spiritual bread that a newspaper constitutes, still warm and moist as it emerges from the press and the morning mist in which it has been delivered at crack of dawn to the housemaids who take it to their masters with a bowl of milk, this miraculous loaf, multiplied ten-thousandfold and yet unique, which stays unchanged for everyone while proliferating across every threshold.
—Marcel Proust, The Fugitive (translated from French by Peter Collier)
Spirits need a lift?
Consider this: how much wonderful music—more than a lifetime’s worth—waits to be heard for the first time.
Morton Feldman, For Philip Guston (1984)*
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
More Feldman?
And here.
And here.
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musical thoughts
Q. This is a tough question, but what would be your five Desert Island disks?
John Luther Adams: I’d want music I could live inside for a long time; music that’s complex and enigmatic enough that there’s always something new to discover. Off the top of my head, my choices might be . . .
One of Morton Feldman’s major works, probably the Second String Quartet. Or maybe For Philip Guston.
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*For piano, celesta, piccolo, flute, alto flute, glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, chimes.
John Luther Adams, “Red Arc/Blue Veil” (excerpt)
Live, University of Kentucky, 2008
Clint Davis, piano
Charlie Olvera, vibraphone, crotales
Jason Corder, Jordan Munson, video
(Originally posted on 2/10/11.)
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musical thoughts
One of the functions of music is to remind us how much more beautiful the world is than it needs to be.
A high school girl in Reykjavik, an old man in Prague, a grieving widow in Sydney: no matter who you are, no matter where you are, these sounds are just a click away.
Franz Schubert, Piano Sonatas D. 958 (C minor), 959 (A major), 960 (B-flat major); Alfred Brendel, piano*
One of the delights of doing this blog is imagining the lives of the folks who stop by. In the past few days, for instance, there’ve been visitors from Germany, Netherlands, France, Syria, and Italy; Lithuania, Sweden, United Kingdom, and Mexico; Greece, New Zealand, Belgium, Israel, and Ethiopia; Colombia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Spain; Mongolia, Argentina, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Singapore, and the United States. To all: Welcome!
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*Here, courtesy of YouTube, is more detailed information about the program:
Sonata in C minor, D. 958
I Allegro
II Adagio
III Menuetto: Allegro — Trio
IV Allegro
Sonata in A major, D. 959
I Allegro
II Andantino
III Scherzo: Allegro vivace — Trio: Un poco più lento
IV Rondo. Allegretto — Presto
Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960
I Molto moderato
II Andante sostenuto
III Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza — Trio
IV Allegro, ma non troppo — Presto
old stuff
Claude Debussy, Children’s Corner, 1908
Alfred Cortot (piano), Marcel L’Herbier (director), 1936
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Children’s Corner was written for Debussy’s three-year-old daughter, Claude-Emma (nicknamed ‘Chou-Chou’ [AKA Chouchou]) and bears the following dedication: ‘to my dear Chou-Chou, with the tender apologies of her father for what is to follow.’
—All Music Guide to Classical Music (2005)
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Claude & Chouchou
picnicking in a pine forest near Archachon, 1915
Imagine what it would’ve been like to sit in the late afternoon with a cup of tea, listening to him, in the next room, practicing.
Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950), piano
Mozart, Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, K. 310,
Recorded live in Besancon, France, 9/16/1950
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As the date of his appearance in Besançon approached, Lipatti was becoming more and more ill [Hodgkin’s lymphoma]; nevertheless, in the days before the recital he wrote to his teacher Florica Musicescu and also to Paul Sacher that his health was fine. The morning of his performance, he practiced on the Gaveau piano in the Salle du Parliament without any problems. That afternoon, however, he developed a strong fever, and his doctor begged him to cancel; Lipatti did not want to consider this but admitted that he didn’t think he could perform. The organizer of the recital was contacted by telephone, and when he stated that the hall was already full, Lipatti made the decision to play. After some injections, he walked robot-like to the car that transported him to the hall. He took each step deliberately, with such difficulty that he decided that he would not leave the stage between pieces. The Radiodiffusion Française cancelled the live transmission of the recital, fearing the worst, but recorded the performance for future broadcast.
The hall was packed, with additional seating behind the piano . . . The concentration of both the artist and the audience members is palpable in both the photographs and the recording of the recital, with enthusiastic applause greeting each work.
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Despite other planned concerts later in September and in October, Lipatti did not give another public performance.
If I knew I had a week to live (as someday I will, whether I know it or not), this is one of the things I’d want to hear.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Chaconne in D minor for solo violin (Partita for Violin No. 2 [BWV 1004]); Isaac Stern (violin), live
Another take?
Here (Nathan Milstein).
And here (Gidon Kremer).
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.
—Johannes Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann (translated from German)
music clip of the day 