November 2, 2009. Recent uploads

Peter Schickele is best known as the creative force behind P.D.Q. Bach, "the oddest of the twenty odd children" of J.S. Bach. Schickele is also recognized as a serious composer in his own right. The Orion Ensemble recently uploaded a performance of Schickele’s Serenade for Three. Note that the third movement contains variations on a theme by P.D.Q. Bach's Oedipus Tex, "opera/oratorio in one cathartic act."

We continue with a much darker piece, Augusta Read Thomas' Angel Musings. It was commissioned by the Orion Ensemble in 1998. This composition consists of two movements, "Nightfall" and "Daybreak." To listen, please click here.

October 26, 2009

This week we’re celebrating the birthday of the great Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti, who was born on October 26, 1685. 1685 was a good year: Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handle were also born that year. Scarlatti wrote 555 sonatas, only a small part of which were published during his lifetime. Vladimir Horowitz and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli were wonderful (and very different) interpreters. Most of Scarlatti’s sonatas were written for harpsichord. We’ll hear four of them played on the modern piano (by the Italian pianist Mauro Bertoli, the American pianist and composer Heather Schmidt, the young Chinese pianist Jie Chen, and Mauro Bertoli again), and then on fortepiano by David Schrader. To listen, please click here.

We would be amiss not to mention Niccolò Paganini, who was also born this week in 1782. Listen here as Albert Markov plays Moses, Variations on One String. Exquisite.

October 19, 2009. Choral works

This week we present a rather unusual selection of choral works. We start with an excerpt from Rachmaninov’s The Vespers: Bogoroditse Devo (Ave Maria), sung by the National Collegiate Chorale of Scotland. We continue our Russian theme with Ya Raduyus, the setting of Psalm 114 by our contemporary and Oregon native, Tim Pack. We’ll finish with the three pieces from Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols: Procession, Bulalalow, and Recession. They are sung by the delightful Brighton School Chamber Choir from Adelaide, Australia under the direction of Michael Griffin. The soprano in Balulalow is Heather Muggridge. To listen, click here.

October 12, 2009. Three Trios.

We haven’t featured a trio in a long time, so we decided to present three of them. The Flatiron Trio named themselves after the architectural landmark of their neighborhood in New York City. It’s a truly international ensemble: an Israeli (Nurit Pacht, violin), a Canadian (Jeremy Findlay, cello) and a Russian (Elena Braslavsky, piano), happily making music in New York. We’ll hear them perform Shostakovich’s Trio No. 1, written when the composer was just 17.

The Brooklyn-based Janus Trio is quite unusual: it brings together a flute (Amanda Baker), viola (Beth Meyers) and a harp (Nuiko Wadden). They like to perform modern music, so Debussy (whose Sonata for flute, viola and harp we’ll hear) is almost as far back as they’ll go.

The Lincoln Trio (Desirée Ruhstrat, violin, David Cunliffe, cello and Marta Aznavoorian, piano) is one of Chicago’s most celebrated chamber ensembles.  We’ll hear them play Astor Piazzolla’s Otoño Porteño (Autumn), from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. To listen, click here.

October 5, 2009

Camille Saint-Saëns, who was born on October 9, 1935, wrote a lot of rather forgettable music. But he will be remembered for his masterpieces, such as The Carnival of the Animals, the Organ Symphony, and, of course, the Introduction and Rondo Cappricioso. That’s how we’ll begin our playlist, which we created to celebrate the birthday of this wonderful French composer and organist: the Introduction and Rondo Cappricioso is played by Lindsay Deutsch and accompanied by Kuang-Hao Huang. The Havanaise, arranged for flute and played by Kristin Paxinos (with Shelley Trissel at the piano), follows. The famous Swan is then heard in a very unusual arrangement for the saxophone; it’s beautifully played by Otis Murphy. We conclude with the Piano Concerto No. 2, performed by the pianist James Dick with the Texas Festival Orchestra (Pascal Verrot, conductor). To listen, click here.

September 28, 2009

It so happened that we haven’t featured the voice in quite some time. We’d like to make up for this by presenting the soprano Tina Beverly. Ms. Beverly has an agile voice and superb musicality. In this selection, she sings arias from Bach’s Cantata No. 205 and Mozart’s opera Il re pastore. She then brings us two songs by Edvard Grieg: Solveig’s song and With a water-lily. Debussy’s Claire de lune, from Quatre chansons de jeunesse, follows. The last piece in this selection is Glitter and be Gay, from Leonard Bernstien’s opera Candid. William Billingham is the pianist; the violin part in the Bach and the Mozart is performed by Alison Zlotow. To listen, click here.