101 Classical Music CDs

We return to papa Haydn for three more of his "London" Symphonies. We've already covered three symphonies ( #94 , #100 and #101 ), and with this post we'll finally finish off this two-CD collection of six symphonies from one of the most fruitful periods of Haydn's life. ********************** Sir Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Haydn: 6 "London" Symphonies (Nos. 94, 100, 101, 96, 103 and 104) Philips, 1977/2001 ********************** A couple of general comments first and then I'll get right into each individual symphony. First, the performance quality of the second disc in this two-CD set is noticeably poorer than the first; shockingly so, given the dearth of mistakes in disc one. There are flubbed notes, outright missed notes, a high-school caliber violin duet--and that's just my count from Symphony #96. Please keep in mind, however, that these mistakes will go completely unnoticed by most listeners. Furt...

After learning about Dmitri Shostakovich's life, the poverty and ill-health of his youth, the ideological struggles he had with the Soviet regime (particularly under Stalin), and the general overall misery of his life, I was really looking forward to tackling his Eleventh Symphony. ********************** Mstislav Rostropovich and the London Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Symphony 11: The Year 1905 London Symphony Orchestra (Live Recording), 2002 ********************** It was a letdown. This symphony, written on the 40th anniversary of the 1917 revolution in Russia, commemorates the Bloody Sunday massacre of January 9th, 1905, when some 200,000 workers, peacefully demonstrating for better working conditions, were fired on by Tsarist troops. I can see why some critics have derided this symphony as a glorified film soundtrack. Even the ( surprisingly coherently written ) liner notes accompanying this CD sound a bit defensive on this point: "This is a symphony...

Today we'll go over three of Beethoven's piano sonatas, from a Deutsche Grammophon CD of Maurizio Pollini performing Sonatas #13, #14 and #15. These are works composed for solo piano, with a symphony-like structure consisting typically of either three or four movements. ********************** Maurizio Pollini Beethoven (1770-1827) Piano Sonatas No. 13, No. 14 and No. 15 Deutsche Grammophon, 1992 ********************** You don't need to be a piano expert to appreciate these works. But you do need to be a piano expert to play them. Beethoven's piano sonatas are so difficult and so technically demanding that the majority of piano students simply cannot perform them. This is in stark contrast to works by composers like Chopin (who wrote most of his preludes such that intermediate piano players could play them), or Rimsky-Korsakov (whose symphonies are performable by any above-average community band ). In fact, piano players generally find practicing Beethoven's piano...

Today we'll cover three Mozart symphonies, the 30th, the 31st and the 32nd, from a Deutsche Grammophon CD of the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducted by James Levine (remember, he's the guy who keeps allowing himself to be photographed wearing his terrible 1980s glasses ). ********************** James Levine and the Wiener Philharmoniker Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Symphony #30, #31 ("Paris"), and #32 Deutsche Grammophon, 1990 ********************** These symphonies are brief enough that all three fit onto one glorious CD. Unfortunately, I can't find the identical disc on Amazon, so I've substituted a link to an exceptionally high-quality collection of the complete Mozart symphonies below. Listener notes for Symphony #30: 1) Throughout the 30th symphony Mozart repeats entire sections of music, sometime more than once. And what Mozart does in the first movement is particularly interesting: he repeats sections within other repeated sections, creating an i...

Band directors and music instructors around the world might cry rather than laugh at many of these classical music jokes, but to the rest of us they should provide some laughs and good memories from school band. From David Ward, posted on The Fun People Archive at Langston.com. Enjoy! ****************** OUT-TAKES FROM HARVARD DICTIONARY OF MUSIC Accidentals: The wrong notes. Audition: The act of putting oneself under extreme duress to satisfy the sadistic intentions of someone who has already made up his mind. Accelerando : What happens when drummers have to keep a steady beat. Conductor: An ignorable figure capable of following numerous individuals at once. Cut Time: When you suddenly realize that everyone else is playing twice as fast as you are. Crescendo: A reminder to the performer that he has been playing too loud. Cymbals: Percussion instrument to be dropped while the band plays pianissimo Fermata : A chance for the conductor to catch his breath while attempting to make ...

Let's briefly reprise my favorite classical music quote about Rimsky-Korsakov: "The works of Rimsky-Korsakov music may be conveniently divided into two groups: the overplayed and the unknown." --Richard Taruskin, author, The Oxford History of Western Music (6 Volume Set) And now that we've already covered three "unknown"works by this composer, it's time to listen to two of the "overplayed" ones. Today we'll cover the Russian Easter Festival Overture and the Capriccio Espagnol, and at last we'll have finished off this amazing two-CD set of Rimsky-Korsakov's works. ********************** Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) Three Symphonies; Capriccio Espagnol; Russian Easter Festival Overture Deutsche Grammophon, 1988 ********************** Listener notes: Russian Easter Festival Overture: 1) The slightly out of tune oboe solos in the early minutes of the work detracts from the perfo...

Today we'll cover the third of Rimsky-Korsakov's three symphonies, yet another of his works that, surprisingly, tends to be unknown by most classical music listeners. ********************** Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) 3 Symphonies; Capriccio espagnol; Russian Easter Overture Deutsche Grammophon, 1988 ********************** I've talked about Rimsky-Korsakov twice before (see Scheherazade and Symphonies 1 and 2 ) , but I haven't yet talked about his Brucknerian self-consciousness, a trait that sadly seems all too common among the great classical music composers. In his own autobiography, entitled My Musical Life, he described himself as a "dilettante" who was "undeservedly accepted at the [St. Petersburg] Conservatory as a professor." All three of his symphonies were written before age 30, and each was revised mercilessly by the sheepishly embarrassed composer. And, as we saw with Bruckner, ...

Going through each of these six London Symphonies (after today, we'll have finished three of them) has been a wonderful experience. I can't believe I went this long through life and, until recently , never really listened to Haydn's symphonic works. ********************** Sir Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Haydn: 6 "London" Symphonies (Nos. 94, 100, 101, 96, 103 and 104) Philips, 1977/2001 ********************** In fact, when I was a student, my limited familiarity with Haydn quickly morphed into contempt after playing his Trumpet Concerto a few hundred times too many at auditions for various All-State and All-County music competitions. Unfortunately, even the best music doesn't age well after countless repetitions. But what a mistake I made generalizing from the fact that I got sick of this one work! Just like with my initial, trumpet-centric impression of Mozart , I had no idea what I was missing. Yet again, this blog...

Today we continue our journey through six of Haydn's London Symphonies with a close listen to Symphony #100, nicknamed The Military Symphony. ********************** Sir Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Haydn: 6 "London" Symphonies (Nos. 94, 100, 101, 96, 103 and 104) Philips, 1977/2001 ********************** One of the unexpected joys of classical music is that it gives a window into the (often amusingly dainty) tastes and conventions of life hundreds of years ago. Modern listeners hearing Haydn's #100 will hear a fairly sedate symphony, complete with some modestly imposing martial-sounding touches, including triangles, cymbals and percussion not typically used in that era's symphonic works. But this symphony was not thought of as "sedate" in its time. In fact, a contemporary of Haydn used the phrase "a hellish road to war" to describe this symphony, a phrase that would no doubt seem impossibly quaint to mode...