Brahms and Liszt

I keep returning to this collection of "Russian adagios". Like the Vivaldi/Richter work, it's great music for working--more than a cut above background music but not obtrusive and perhaps even conducive to work. Gorgeous stuff.

^^^^^^
As I said when you first posted this---brilliant!

Heard this magnificent symphony on the BBC Proms a couple of nights ago. Turn it up to hear the very quiet beginning of the slow movement (Lento) depicting "Bloomsbury Square on a November afternoon":



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_London_Symphony

My soprano friend will be singing this with her choir next year so I'm helping her learn her notes. We used two cell phones--first we recorded me playing one of the other vocal parts on the piano and then we dubbed my piano line of her own part louder on top. It's a great way of nailing complex passages.



http://www.choirs.org.uk/prognotes/howells%20requiem1.htm

Mr. K wrote:I revisited this three-movement work yesterday...

Great stuff!

My chorister friend has begin rehearsing John Tavener's Svyati for solo cello (a demanding part) and mixed choir. To quote its composer:

"This work was commissioned by Cricklade Music Festival with funds from Southern Arts. It was first performed at the Cricklade Music Festival on 1 October 1995, by the Kiev Chamber Choir with Steven Isserlis (cello), directed by Mykola Gobdych.
"I began to write Svyati in early 1995: while sketching it, Iearned that John Williams, father of Jane, my dear friend and publisher, was dying. I could not refrain from dedicating it to Jane and to the memory of her father.
"The text is in Church Slavonic, and it is used at almost every Russian Orthodox service, perhaps most poignantly after the congregation have kissed the body in an open coffin at an Orthodox funeral. The choir sings as the coffin is closed and borne out of the church, followed by the mourners with lighted candles. The cello represents the Priest or Ikon of Christ, and should play at a distance from the choir, perhaps at the opposite end of the building. As in Greek drama, choir and priest are in dialogue with each other. Since the cello represents the Ikon of Christ, it must be played without any sentiment of a Western character, but should derive from the chanting of the Eastern Orthodox Church." (Source)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tavener

Mr. K wrote:

Interesting!

Mr. K wrote:Heard this (in this version) on my way to the library this morning:

Lovely.

Mr. K wrote:

Love the painting!

Germaine Tailleferre is one of the three lesser-known members of Les Six (the other two being Georges Auric and Louis Durey). I'd heard some things of hers for harp, accompanied and accompanied, but I was surprised to learn of this fine overture, which I heard on BBC radio this morning. Sadly, the same version (maybe the only recording) has been up on YouTube since June but I'm the first person to view it. It might help if the uploader added the name of its composer to the image.  



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germaine_Tailleferre