Posted in All Posts, Classical (1600s-1910s/WWI), Favorites, Sound Samples on January 1, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Dvořák: Cello Concerto; Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations
About the Music: After exploring Dvořák’s final three symphonies many moons ago, I read about his renowned Cello Concerto (Op.104), which was written in 1895 while he was residing in the United States. I have been curious about the cello for some time, as it strikes me [...]
Posted in All Posts, Classical (1600s-1910s/WWI), Sound Samples on August 31, 2007 | No Comments »
Rachmaninoff: Concertos Nos. 1 & 3
About the Composer: A familiar name in the world of classical music, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was one of Russia’s most well known romantic composers. Despite suffering from severe depression after receiving harsh reception from some of the critics of his time, Rachmaninoff has established a reputation as one of [...]
Posted in All Posts, Modern (post WWI/1920s-present), Sound Samples on July 12, 2007 | No Comments »
Vangelis’ El Greco is probably my favorite musical piece. I blogged about it in a post titled “VANGELIS: El Greco” awhile back.
Other fans I’ve met find Movement V and Movement X serve as effectively refreshing interludes of melodic accesibility. Refreshing in the sense of a welcome water break while playing an enthusiastic basketball game, [...]
Posted in All Posts, Modern (post WWI/1920s-present), Sound Samples on July 1, 2007 | No Comments »
Joaquin Rodrigo’s music captured my attention last year. Rodrigo successfully gambled that the guitar could hold its own with an orchestra.
I blogged about those hours of enjoyable listening in these posts:
RODRIGO: Complete Orchestral Music (Volumes 1-4)
RODRIGO: Complete Orchestral Music (Volumes 5-9)
Spanish Guitar Duel: Gallen vs. Romero
Complete Concertos for Guitar and Harp is a Philips re-release [...]
Posted in All Posts, Modern (post WWI/1920s-present), Sound Samples on June 24, 2007 | 4 Comments »
I enjoy cinematic music, particularly John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman, and Tan Dun. While some of those composers have produced rousing themes, much of their work serves to set the mood. In Erik Satie’s work, we find Classical music that could serve as mood music without attracting attention to itself, yet remains interesting when [...]
Posted in All Posts, Modern (post WWI/1920s-present), Sound Samples on June 3, 2007 | No Comments »
I bought this Deutsche Grammophon recording (Barber: Concerto for violin Op14; Korngold: Much Ado about Nothing Op11) after hearing these pieces performed by Orchestra London in Spring 2006. On this CD, Gil Shaham offers a fantastic performance (violin), directed by Andre Previn.Here’s a melody I enjoy from Track 6, the “Finale: Allegro assai vivace” from [...]
Posted in All Posts, Sound Samples on May 18, 2007 | No Comments »
Sound Samples Series
Welcome to a new series of posts called Sound Samples! The first installment is already available. I recently upgraded my WordPress account to provide the storage and ability to post MP3 snippets of music I find particularly enjoyable. I can’t speak for how Andrew might use this feature in his posts, but I’ve [...]
Posted in All Posts, Classical (1600s-1910s/WWI), Sound Samples on May 14, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Recently I enjoyed a third rendition of Schumann’s 1st “Spring” Symphony (for my previous comments see my post “SCHUMANN, R.: Symphony No. 1“). This third (to me) performance arrived courtesy of my local library. Titled Schumann: The Symphonies, the pieces were recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Sir Georg Solti in 1969 [...]
