So, another Quarantined Friday?
Don’t despair – I have a delectable €25 Golden Discs voucher to give away.
Simply tell me below what is your favourite piece of classical music.
Here’s mine.
The winner will be chosen by my pet budgie.
Please include video links if possible.
Lines close at 9.30pm EXTENDED until Midnight 6am!
Nick says: Good luck.
Sponsored Link
Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending
I’ve only really started listening to classical in the past 5 or so years but I’ve grown to love it.. probably an age thing.
Still can’t get into opera mind you.
If you like The Lark Ascending you might like Gustav Mahler’s “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen”. Not technically opera, but could be your gateway drug. I came across it on the TV program The Trip To Italy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=83&v=dJWwwwi3Nkw&feature=emb_logo
Very nice, thanks.
I was the same about opera until we went to the proper opera house experience in Budapest, red velvet and a box with champagne service, I’ve been hooked ever since. It’s something else when you see Madame butterfly or the marriage of Figaro on stage. It’s addictive.
I did suspect that alright Papi, similarly I’d love to go to a ballet.
Do it, and go to a big production, abroad if you can, then you’ll have that for when you see a community production that’s mostly effort and the pure love of it.
My pick by the way is Schubert with Dame Janet Baker, Ave Maria, in German. Just beautiful.
https://youtu.be/Mnp8w-hH2Y4
It’s on the ever increasing list of places to go, post lockdown…. probably straight after Thomas the Tank Engine Land.
you’ll spend half the night admiring how your mickey looks in the white tights in the reflection in the window, and the other half the night looking at everyone else’s
Ahhh, you’ve been to Thomas the Tank Engine Land before, I take it?
Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)
As sung by Beth Gibbons of course! Right on the Portishead continuum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YlGYxCSDJU
You beat me to it dylan.
That piece helped me through the most difficult period of my life- never heard that version before mind- thank you.
https://youtu.be/rmDuqL23gN0?t=1631
On of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.
*One
Dawn Upshaw singing it is great too.
I had not heard of this. My weekend is looking to be very educational. Thank you :-)
The second is the one which resonated with me- at a very sad time in my life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_(G%C3%B3recki)
The words were those of 18-year-old Helena Wanda Błażusiakówna, a highland woman incarcerated on 25 September 1944. It read O Mamo, nie płacz, nie. Niebios Przeczysta Królowo, Ty zawsze wspieraj mnie (Oh Mamma do not cry, no. Immaculate Queen of Heaven, you support me always). The composer recalled, “I have to admit that I have always been irritated by grand words, by calls for revenge. Perhaps in the face of death I would shout out in this way. But the sentence I found is different, almost an apology or explanation for having got herself into such trouble; she is seeking comfort and support in simple, short but meaningful words”.[11] He later explained, “In prison, the whole wall was covered with inscriptions screaming out loud: ‘I’m innocent’, ‘Murderers’, ‘Executioners’, ‘Free me’, ‘You have to save me’—it was all so loud, so banal. Adults were writing this, while here it is an eighteen-year-old girl, almost a child. And she is so different. She does not despair, does not cry, does not scream for revenge. She does not think about herself; whether she deserves her fate or not. Instead, she only thinks about her mother: because it is her mother who will experience true despair. This inscription was something extraordinary. And it really fascinated me.
Beat me to it as well!
Don’t know the Beth Gibbons version,my go to is Dawn Upshaw with the London Sinfonietta.
The most heartbreakingly beautiful music.
Takes a while to get going but give it a listen, volume up high.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8dWoxcpCpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESeBXhRU7pE
Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet #4 In D, “Fandango”, played by Jordi Savall and Les Concert Des Nations
A wonderful, bright, rollicking, joyous piece of music, a marvelous celebration of life and living, perfect for listening to while on a walk as it starts slow and builds to an absolute footstomper of a fandango, transporting you along until its triumphant conclusion.
From the same wonderful album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dmWAve3Pvk
La Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid. You may recognaise the latter part of it from the ending of Master And Commander.
Carl Orff – Gassenhauer
There are so many different arrangements of it but the one from Badlands is my favourite. Used in many different TV shows, films and ads but never get sick of listening to it.
https://youtu.be/-tEgzGnzojc
Does this count, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cwi0pkhoSE cause if it does, not only have you found a winner you’ve found something great to watch tonight… whatever night it is now, i’ve forgotten, do they still make days now.
Yes- thisday, thatday, otherday, someday, yesterday, today and nextday.
You’re welcome.
‘Air on the G String’ because it was played as my bride entered the church on our wedding day, but primarily because the title makes me snigger like a 12 year old boy every time I hear it
Apologies, mandatory video link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzlw6fUux4o
Snigger… G-string
Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem which is on everything and yet makes me cry each and every time.
Fun fact, it’s reported to be his most splendid funeral mass because he wrote it for his one true love, himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1-TrAvp_xs
Favourite use of this piece in a movie:
the pedalo chase scene from Belleville Rendezvous
From 0:40 seconds in. Brill!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsp2Oiez9EI
.. I mean the kyrie, not the
lacrimosa of course.
Brilliant! I used to live beside Belleville, I’ve been meaning to watch this for years.
And I’ll share this link with my choir who are all a bit sad about our concert that won’t go ahead for now, this will cheer them up.
Many thanks!
I love to play the full Planets Suite by Holzt as I wander around the house doing work. For now, I will go with Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity and hope you all enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUM_zT3YKHs&ab_channel=DanielBrusch
But we cannot forget the wonderful Ode To Joy, version by Beaker :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnT7pT6zCcA
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3217H8JppI
St Matthew Passion by JS Bach
Being both a philistine and an atheist, I hadn’t come across this magnificent piece until the opening scene of Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film Casino, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g7EjM-lP7Y. Then, as an admittedly intense teenager, I used to listen to it in the dark, turned up to the max. It tells the story of Jesus’ last days, and deals with the relatable themes (to my adolescent brain at least) of betrayal, judgement, love and death.
It wasn’t until Good Friday 2019 that I finally got to see it live in the National Concert Hall. Bach was not messing about with this one: the production requires a double orchestra, a double choir, 6 soloists, and a continuo organ. It was, quite simply, epic.
If I can do a throwback to last week, favourite music from
a film: Mr Holland’s Opus, and An American Symphony. Great film, and a lovely piece of music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8E807R7GkI&ab_channel=ScottHabeeb
Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” is brilliant.
The Trent Reznor remix is probably best known from the regatta scene in The Social Network
https://youtu.be/FmFhEQLMUBg
Was going to go with Jean Sibelius but no, for a little rub o’ the green seeing as it’s all exploding in my garden this weekend, will go with Seán Ó Riada and perhaps the most famous orchestral works; Nomos No. 1: Hercules Dux Ferrariae for string orchestra (1957)
https://youtu.be/RSDG7HPm9ek
Oh I love that piece! I was thinking of Seán O’Riada but could not choose. Thank you!
I love Fanfare for the Comman Man by Aaron Copland, here’s a couple of different versions for your listening pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKgk6G0lekQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2zurZig4L8
Carmina Burana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Damn sexy peice of music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynEOo28lsbc
At the risk of letting too much out, there are only two pieces of music I ever made love to.This was one, and thank you for the memory!
Probably unsurprisingly Bolero was the other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhhkGyJ092E
I can confirm that I did it to Rhapsody too! Haven’t done it to Bolero yet.
Yet!
With the right partner, it is incredible!
Amateurs!
Try doing it to this…
https://youtu.be/Hy8kmNEo1i8
Well, I did not get paid for it, so amateur? Yes!
Starting too fast often means you lose the rhythm, and rhythm is a dancer :-)
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture
My favourite piece. Opening credits to Trading Places.
‘Quarter blood technique’
https://youtu.be/ikQNFqVkNNc
Another Irish ‘classical’ composition, although a modern written piece by Patrick Cassidy, used in the movie Hannibal
https://youtu.be/OpQHAbIwNB0
Khachaturian’s Spartacus
The adagio danced beautifully here by the Bolshoi ;Lyudmilla Semenyaka as Phrygia
Irek Mukhamedov as Spartacus/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjVE_YP4gsQ
The Lark Ascending is a favourite also along with Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion and I see both have already been chosen, which is nice.
John Cage’s 4’33”
https://youtu.be/JTEFKFiXSx4
I forgot this-
Im Abendrot ,Richard Strauss
From Vier Letzte Lieder beautifully sung by Jessye Norman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXcEs0e7rg
All Farewells are Sudden by A Winged Victory for the Sullen is a wonderfully melancholic piece of contemporary classical music.
https://youtu.be/2X0xYT8Rtiw
Philip Glass – 1000 airplanes on the roof
I used to find his records in the classical section, have scant knowledge of old school classical composers.
enjoy
https://youtu.be/R4HyjgpM3Rw
Another classic:
Gavin Bryars – Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet
https://youtu.be/E1lnSi7QWY8
Why was Arvo Pärt deleted?
That’s twice now. Same as Miles Davis I lost week. What gives BS?
Should read as last week
One of my favorite pieces of music is Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3. Incredibly powerful and moving piece of music even for this indie electronic middle aged kid….
https://g.co/kgs/KoY83D
Join the club Brian- we are up the top of this comment section.
Ludwig Van Beethoven – The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor “Quasi una fantasia”, Op. 27, No. 2 (Year 1801)
Or, to you and me, Moonlight Sonata – a piece I regularly come back to, something very enjoyable about the frenetic-ness of it all and the evocative melodies. To hear a fine piece of music is sublime, to see it actually being played is magic. This video shows the complexity involved for the pianist quite nicely.
https://youtu.be/wrzSXDehrEM?t=110
*Disc, rather
Adagio for strings – Samuel Barber – Platoon OST
OR
The Blue Danube – Johann Strauss -2001 A Space Odyssey OST
Today I’ll say this playful Bach ditty.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aTX3VRB5Q4M
I bet he wrote it to amuse his million kids.
Theo Jr. enjoys being chased around the room to this one, and it reminds me how Theo Sr. (birthday later today – I’m breaking the 2km ban to wave at him through the window ) used to chase us about.
Schubert’s Ave Maria sung by Maria Callas. Heavenly!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j8KL63r9Zcw
Mozarts’ 12 Variations in C Major is a beautiful piece of classical music that I find wonderfully playful, and always good for lifting the mood :)
Played here by Yukio Yokoyama
https://youtu.be/-LoPzoO6wII
I also love that when one gets tired of humming or da-da-ing the four lines of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star the opening part to 12 Variations mixes really well with it :0)
I think the wee man may like it too!
Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 is mine for sure.
Thanks,
Owen.
Nils Frahm’s Tristana or Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight. Absolute perfection.
Cavatina
https://youtu.be/RwE2NSYYXp4
Dvorak – the new world symphony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qut5e3OfCvg