![Edvard Grieg - Four Songs, op. 2 [With score] @DamonJHK](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YHtzx1oWHok/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers: Monica Groop (voice), Ilmo Ranta (Piano)
Vier Lieder {Four Songs}, for Voice and Piano, op. 2, written in 1861
00:03 - I. Die Müllerin {The Maid of the Mill}
02:47 - II. Eingehüllt in graue Wolken {Closely wrapt in misty billows}
04:28 - III. Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen {I stood in gloomy musing}
07:55 - IV. Was soll ich sagen? {What shall I say?}
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers: Monica Groop (voice), Ilmo Ranta (Piano)
Vier Lieder {Four Songs}, for Voice and Piano, op. 2, written in 1861
00:03 - I. Die Müllerin {The Maid of the Mill}
02:47 - II. Eingehüllt in graue Wolken {Closely wrapt in misty billows}
04:28 - III. Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen {I stood in gloomy musing}
07:55 - IV. Was soll ich sagen? {What shall I say?}
![Edvard Grieg - Four Songs, op. 2 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YHtzx1oWHok/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Four Songs, op. 2 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers: Monica Groop (voice), Ilmo Ranta (Piano)
Vier Lieder {Four Songs}, for Voice and Piano, op. 2, written in 1861
00:03 - I. Die Müllerin {The Maid of the Mill}
02:47 - II. Eingehüllt in graue Wolken {Closely wrapt in misty billows}
04:28 - III. Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen {I stood in gloomy musing}
07:55 - IV. Was soll ich sagen? {What shall I say?}")
![Igor Stravinsky - Octet for Wind Instruments [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YyqLnP0hOnI/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - Octet for Wind Instruments [With score]
Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 6 April 1971)
Performers: The Columbia Chamber Ensemble
Conductor: Igor Stravinsky
Octet, for wind instruments, written in 1923
00:00 - I. Sinfonia
04:00 - II. Tema con Variazioni
11:14 - III. Finale
Stravinskys neo-Classical works in part reacted against what the composer perceived as ultra-romantic excesses in the music of German symphonic composers. However, these works must also be seen as a rejection of Stravinskys own earlier stylistic thinking. The Octet was the first masterpiece in the composers new style. Scored for flute, clarinet, two bassoons, two trumpets in A and C, and tenor and bass trombones, the Octet reflected Stravinskys general reduction in instrumental forces during and after the First World War. Although the war and its dismal aftermath necessitated economical scoring, these events do not explain the composers intriguing choice of instruments he could have written for eight strings. It seems that Stravinsky was striving for an extreme (and un-Romantic) clarity of timbre and texture. As he explained in his 1924 article, Some Ideas About my Octour [Octet]: Wind instruments seem to me to be more apt to render a certain rigidity of the form I had in mind than other instruments the stringed instruments, for example, which are less cold and more vague. Stravinsky further outlined his neo-Classical credo by stressing that the Octet is not an emotive work, but a musical composition based on elements which are sufficient in themselves. Accordingly, he chose classical forms commonly associated with absolute music: sonata form for the first movement, theme and variations (incorporating a fugue) for the second, and a rondo finale.
Stravinskys application of sonata form in the first movement mostly involves surface features. A slow introduction gives way to a fanfare-like main theme, which in turn is followed by a development section featuring incessant running notes and fragments of the fanfare. The main theme then returns in full, but is performed only once, and the movement closes abruptly. A theme and five variations make up the second movement. The theme is octatonic, and does not point to any tonal center, although the harmonies under the theme strongly suggest D major. The first variation makes use of the first few notes of the Dies irae chant, immersed in flurries of running notes, and returns before the third and fifth variations. The second variation is march-like in character, the third a waltz, the fourth a can-can, and the last a fugue. Stravinsky closes the Octet with a true rondo, which opens with a constant pulsing accompaniment from one of the bassoons while the other plays the main theme. The ensuing episode opens with a brass outburst and trumpet melody, which eventually dissolves into a reappearance of the main theme. The second episode features the flute, while the final appearance of the main theme, re-orchestrated and rhythmically altered, closes the movement.
The work was dedicated secretly to Vera Soudeikine (born de Bosset), whom Stravinsky had met in 1920, and with whom he had fallen in love and eventually married. Stravinsky conducted the first performance of the piece on October 18, 1923, the first time the composer had introduced one of his own works.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Six Songs, op. 4 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZlCV5FXmxHw/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Six Songs, op. 4 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (Songs 1, 2, 3): Monica Groop (voice), Love Derwinger (Piano)
-Performers (Songs 4, 5, 6): Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (voice), Hartmut Höll (Piano)
Sechs Lieder {Six Songs}, for Voice and Piano, op. 4, written in 1863-64
00:03 - I. Die Waise {The orphan}
02:35 - II. Morgenthau {Morning dew}
04:01 - III. Abschied {Farewell}
06:31 - IV. Jägerlied {Hunting song}
07:15 - V. Das alte Lied {The old song}
09:54 - VI. Wo sind sie hin? {Where have they gone?}")
![P. I. Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker, Acte I. Tableau I. N°1 - The Christmas Tree [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZoLPVgCHDdg/mqdefault.jpg "P. I. Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker, Acte I. Tableau I. N°1 - The Christmas Tree [With score]
Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 - 6 November 1893)
Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
[Scéne de lornement et de lillumination de labre de Noël]
+This is a test video. In 2017, My friend and I will work together on the famous ballet by Tchaikovsky: The nutcracker. And the result will be uploaded on my friends channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEH6BN8A5xxnMgg0uPQlU1A")
![Francis Poulenc - 15 Improvisations [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_4WI6B8rY4o/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - 15 Improvisations [With score]
Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
Performer: Pascal Rogé
15 Improvisations for Piano Solo, written in 1932-1959
10 Improvisations FP 63 (1932-1934)
00:03 - I. Presto ritmico
01:35 - II. Assez animé
03:04 - III. Presto très sec
04:33 - IV. Presto con fuoco
06:00 - V. Modéré mais sans lenteur
07:51 - VI. A toute vitesse
09:17 - VII. Modéré sans lenteur
11:38 - VIII. Presto
13:09 - IX. Presto possibile
14:34 - X. Modéré, sans trainer (Éloge des gammes)
2 Improvisations FP 113 (1941)
16:24 - XI. Assez animé
17:17 - XII. Mouvement de Valse (Hommage à Schubert)
2 Improvisations FP 170 (1958)
19:24 - XIII. Allegretto commodo
21:49 - XIV. Allegretto
Improvisation FP 176 (1959)
23:18 - XV. Très vite (Hommage à Édith Piaf)
As a gifted performer as well as a composer, Francis Poulenc questioned his own ability to compose with his mind rather than his hands. Many of my pieces have failed, suggests the composer, because I know too well how to write for the piano ... as soon as I begin writing piano accompaniments for my songs, I begin to be innovative. Similarly, my piano writing with orchestra or chamber ensemble is of a different order. It is the solo piano that somehow escapes me. With it I am a victim of false pretenses. And while he had rather harsh opinions of some of his own works ( ... I condemn without reprieve Napoli and the Soirées de Nazelles ... ), his set of fifteen Improvisations composed between 1932-1959 still met with his approval as the composer looked back on them later in life.
The first piece in the group, set in B minor, outlines a standard ABA form. However, the most striking difference between the A and B sections is not the thematic content itself, but rather the relative lucidity or obscurity of the same. The melody of the A section flits, stops, and starts, its florid contours outlining a series of graceful but unintelligible glyphs. The middle section, on the other hand, waxes rhapsodic, and the virtuosic surges string together clearly defined melodic points. A similar relationship is found in the next two improvisations a clean and lyrical waltz with few great surprises (save the screwy little uh-oh figure at the end) followed by a meandering march that bumbles along with a kind of haphazard chromaticism that has reminded some observers of Prokofiev.
The virtuoso performer in Poulenc asserts himself in No. 4, a Chopinesque scene that on the page stretches itself across three staves. No. 5, on the other hand, is a chromatic exegesis of a single rhythmic idea. The peppy little march that comprises No. 6 once again suggests the influence of Prokofiev. Perhaps the wry humor found in some of the other pieces makes the warmth and earnestness of the seventh Improvisation all the more striking. It begins and ends with a plaintive melody set afloat on a flowing figural accompaniment. The stable harmony lends to the melody an added measure of serenity, which is questioned only briefly by the chromatic queries in the middle section.
No. 8 is described by scholar Keith Daniel as an impish presto; nine is a perfunctory barrage of gesture, while ten once again wavers between melodic line and accompaniment figuration. The fleeting eleventh Improvisation (lasting only twenty-one measures) precedes a waltz subtitled Hommage à Schubert. No. 13 utilizes broad arpeggiation and extensive pedal to create rich, resonant harmonies. No. 14 is likewise characterized by extended harmonies, graced occasionally by characteristically Poulencian detours. The final Improvisation, dedicated to popular singer Edith Piaf, has the flavor of cabaret music.
Perhaps Poulenc favored these works because of their concision and directness. Because no idea in such a context will ever be fully worked out in the traditional sense, each improvisation centers on pure content rather than process, on idea rather than delivery. Still, when the performer and composer are (initially, anyway) one and the same, there is only a thin line between the abstract and the kinetic, or the instantaneous thought and its immediate instrumental execution. One wonders if the elementary language with which the composer/performers mind speaks to itself is the same one with which the fingers communicate with the instrument.
[All quotes as cited in Keith W. Daniel, Francis Poulenc: His Artistic Development and Musical Style (Ann Arbor: UMI), p. 163 ff.]
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 13 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_Pfg92qNgqU/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 13 [With score]
Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 4 September 1907)
Performers: Ivan Ženatý (violin), Antonín Kubálek (piano)
Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Major, op. 13, written in 1867
00:00 - I. Lento doloroso - Allegro vivace
08:38 - II. Allegretto tranquillo
14:28 - III. Allegro animato
Just two years separate Griegs first violin sonata from his second, the Sonata for violin and piano No. 2 in G major, Op. 13 (1867). But these were eventful years for the young composer, during which he married, fully took up the cause of Norwegian nationalist music, and began to make his name known around Europe. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that for all the apparent similarities between these two sonatas, they are really very unlike one another. It is not so much that Griegs interest in identifiably Norwegian music is apparent in the Sonata No. 2, as that the influence of Robert Schumann evident throughout the Sonata No. 1 is so much less evident, a change which allows Griegs own unique and colorful character to shine through with greater power. It perhaps also means that the structure of the piece becomes somewhat less concise and coherent; Grieg, by his own admission, struggled greatly with chamber music and its forms.
Like its sister piece of 1865, the Sonata for violin and piano No. 2 in G major, Op. 13 is in three movements, of which the first is the longest. It opens with a Lento doloroso introduction in the minor mode, in which the main theme of the upcoming, major-mode Allegro vivace body of the movement is tentatively voiced by the violin in a kind of quasi-cadenza. The second movement is an elegant and delicate Allegretto tranquillo, in which the piano from time to time imitates the strummed chords of a guitar or lute. Grieg crafts something of a light, peasant dance for the Allegro animato finale.
[allmusic.com]
Original Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7g9IVLZIrk")
![Edvard Grieg - Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, op. 51 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a9AkKBT37Kg/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, op. 51 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (2 Pianos): Dena Piano Duo
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, for Two Pianos or Orchestra, op. 51, written in 1890
Two Pianos
00:00 – Introduction (Poco tranquillo)
00:46 – Theme (Allegretto espressivo)
01:27 – Var. I
02:03 – Var. II (Energico)
02:32 – Var. III (Allegro leggiero)
03:05 – Var. IV (Poco Andante)
04:10 – Var. V (Maestoso)
05:31 – Var. VI (Allegro scherzando e leggiero)
06:12 – Var. VII (Andante)
07:49 – Var. VIII (Andante molto tranquillo)
09:51 – Var. IX (Presto)
10:30 – Var. X (Andante)
12:07 – Var. XI (Tempo di Menuetto)
13:25 – Var. XII (Allegro marcato)
14:04 – Var. XIII (Tempo di Valse)
15:05 – Var. XIV (Adagio, molto espressivo)
17:54 – Finale
Orchestra
24:00 – Introduction (Poco tranquillo)
25:00 – Theme (Andantino espressivo)
25:54 – Var. I (Poco Allegro ma tranquillo)
26:30 – Var. II (Energico)
27:04 – Var. III (Allegro leggiero)
27:37 – Var. IV (Poco Andante)
29:11 – Var. V (Maestoso)
30:22 – Var. VI (Allegro scherzando e leggiero)
31:07 – Var. VII (Andante)
32:43 – Var. VIII (Andante molto tranquillo)
35:01 – Var. IX (Presto)
35:44 – Var. X (Tempo di Menuetto)
37:54 – Var. XI (Allegro marcato)
38:38 – Var. XII (Tempo di Valse)
39:47 – Var. XIII (Adagio molto espressivo)
43:00 – Finale
A superb miniaturist, Grieg rarely turned his hand to large-scale musical structures. But here he brilliantly used the variation form, which is essentially a way to take a short musical example and create a large composition from a series of short pieces based on it. In this case, 24-minute work is generated from a tune found in L.M. Lindemans fine collection of Norwegian folk tunes. Grieg composed it originally for two pianos. Its form is traditional: The theme is stated, with Griegs own harmonization. Then follows about twenty minutes of variations upon it, and a finale which brings it back in grander fashion. While all the individual variations are interesting, what the composition lacks is a convincing feeling of over-all direction: The best sets of theme and variation lead the listener onward from variation to variation with a feeling of inevitability, and it is this that the Old Norwegian Romance lacks. The author is rather fond of it despite this fault, for the melodies (both the original one and the ones spun from it) are delightful, but it is not considered top drawer Grieg.
[allmusic.com]")
![Igor Stravinsky - LHistoire du soldat [With score] (Reupload)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aZrPO-1WCgQ/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - LHistoire du soldat [With score] (Reupload)
-Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
-Performers: Shlomo Mintz (Violin, Direction), Vincent Pasquier (Double Bass), Pascal Moragués (Clarinet), Sergio Azzolini (Bassoon), Marc Bauer (Cornet), Daniel Breszynsky (Trombone), Michel Cerutti (Percussion)
-Narrators: Carole Bouquet (le lecteur), Gérard Depardieu (le diable), Guillaume Depardieu (le soldat)
Lhistoire du soldat, lue, jouée et dansée [The Soldiers Tale, a theatrical work to be read, played, and danced], for 7 instruments and 3 narrators, written in 1917
[Pieces from Concert Suite]
00:17 - I. The soldiers march
02:56 - II. The soldiers violin
28:01 - III. Royal march
34:07 - IV. The little concert
37:05 - V. Tango
39:22 - VI. Waltz
41:13 - VII. Ragtime
43:15 - VIII. The devils dance
46:04 - IX. Choral
51:27 - X. The devils triumphant march
LHistoire du Soldat is neither a ballet nor a musical drama; rather, it is a little of both. It has a libretto, written in French by C.F. Ramuz, and mixes dialogue with music, dance, and drama. Stravinsky scored the work for a strange chamber ensemble, consisting of one clarinet, one bassoon, one cornet, one trombone, one violin, one double-bass, two side drums (strange because their are no instrumental doublings, and the percussion is particularly sparse). The work was designed by Stravinsky and Ramuz to be both inexpensive to perform and performable in virtually any kind of theatre. The result was what has been called a work of pocket theatre, with a story not so much set to music as accompanied by it (as Eric White notes, Stravinskys music was specifically intended to be independent from the text, so it could be performed as a concert suite). The main characters in the work are the Narrator, the Soldier, the Princess, and the Devil, and the action unfolds over six scenes. The plot is fairly simple, a Faustian tale in which the Soldier trades his fiddle to the Devil for a magic book which can provide wealth. He later becomes disillusioned, loses his wealth, and meets the Devil again in a card game. He gets the devil drunk, regains his fiddle, and uses it to cure the local Kings daughter, who has been ill. He then fends off the Devil with his fiddle playing, and marries the Princess. The Soldier lives happily until he decides to leave his new town and visit his old home. Once he leaves the safety of his new town, he is captured by the Devil, and must accompany him to Hell. The music in the first half of the work is largely incidental; it is the music of the final two scenes, particularly that of scene five, which is the most interesting. Scene five contains the Princesss three dances: a Tango, Waltz, and Ragtime. Waltzes had appeared earlier in Stravinskys works (notably in Petrushka), but this was the first appearance in any of Stravinskys music of such contemporary music as tangos or ragtime music. Stravinsky insisted that LHistoire du Soldat was strongly influenced by jazz, thereby claiming a place for himself in the history of music as one of the first art music composers to use jazz in a significant way; however, recent scholarship suggests that Stravinsky probably didnt know any true jazz, and indeed the date of the work, 1918, predates the age of jazz in Europe by a number of years. Stravinsky also used Lutheran chorale melodies and a quasi-gypsy tune in the work. LHistoire du Soldat features the violin throughout (making an obvious connection to the fiddle in the story), and contains some of Stravinskys most clever orchestration; as is usual with Stravinsky, orchestral color is at the fore of this work, with each individual instrument used soloistically. The texture of the piece is generally contrapuntal, with ostinati and complex rhythms, and the tonality is localized; there is no overall harmonic scheme, but rather tonally stable sections mixed with bitonal clashes.")
![Edvard Grieg - 6 Songs, op. 48 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/amnUXXAUFSs/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 6 Songs, op. 48 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers: Monica Groop (Voice), Ilmo Ranta (Piano)
6 Songs for Voice and Piano, op. 48, written in 1884-88
00:00 - I. Gruss {Greeting}
01:15 - II. Dereinst, Gedanke mein {Some day, my thought}
04:33 - III. Lauf der Welt {The way of the world}
06:10 - IV. Die verschwiegene Nachtigall {The silent nightingale}
10:00 - V. Zur Rosenzeit {At Rose Time}
12:35 - VI. Ein Traum {A Dream}
The period between autumn of 1887 and the spring of 1890 found Grieg giving piano recitals throughout Europe and composing very little. The Six Songs, Op. 48 were, along with the Op. 49 Songs, the only works published during this period. More remarkably, the Op. 48 Songs were set to German texts, the first time since the Op. 4 set of songs that Grieg had used the German language (although the Op. 48 set is often sung in a Norwegian translation by Nordahl Rolfsen). In any event, these are much more mature than the early German settings; to this day they are periodically used as recital pieces.
The first two of the set, according to the manuscripts, were written in September 1884 while Grieg was living in Lofthus, earlier than the other four. Gruss (Greeting), strikes a cheerful atmosphere from the outset with a series of upward arpeggio figures which then serve as an accompaniment to the vocal line. The through-composed song is based on a poem by Heine and is generally more German than Norwegian in style. The second song, Dereinst, (Once upon a Time) is a setting of a poem by Emanuel Geibel, and is quite opposite in feeling to the exuberant Gruss. Grieg sets this poem strophically, in a molto andante tempo and hymn-like style.
The remaining four songs of the Op. 48 group were composed between August 15 and 20, 1889. Lauf der Welt (The Way of the World), is based on a three-stanza poem by Uhland. Set in ABA form, the song is peppered with folk music elements, notably a pedal tonic fifth through the first fourteen bars. Die verschwiegene Nachtigall (The Silent Nightingale), is based on a poem by Walther von der Vogelweide, the great German poet of the Middle Ages. It also features folk elements, with a strophic setting, embellished vocal line, and imitation of the nightingales song in the accompaniment. The fifth song, Zur Rosenzeit (At Rose Time), is a setting of a poem by Goethe; its dissonant piano part, jarring syncopations, and angular vocal line suggest that rose time is not a happy time. The final and arguably most significant song of the set, Ein Traum (A Dream) is based on a poem by Friedrich Bodenstedt. Here, Grieg strikes a hopeful, contented mood, and accordingly the harmonies and vocal line are more serene than in the prior song. It is, moreover, a big song with a vocal range from middle C to high A flat a factor that may have contributed to its popularity.
The six songs were first published by Peters in 1889, and were dedicated to the Swedish Wagnerian soprano, Ellen Nordgren Gulbranson.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - 19 Norwegian Folk Songs for Piano, op. 66 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bE1ptuE4q1k/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 19 Norwegian Folk Songs for Piano, op. 66 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Gerhard Oppitz
19 Norwegian Folk Songs for Piano, op. 66, written in 1896-97
00:00 - I. Kulokk {Cow-Call}
01:16 - II Det er den største Dårlighed {It is the greatest Foolishness}
02:25 - III. En Konge hersked i Østerland {A King ruled in the East}
03:33 - IV. Siri Dale-visen {The Siri Dale Song}
04:51 - V. Det var i min Ungdom {It was in my youth}
07:27 - VI. Lok og bådnlåt {Cow-Call and cradle song}
08:58 - VII. Bådnlåt (Cradle song)
09:51 - VIII. Lokk {Cow-Call}
10:54 - IX. Liten va guten {Small was the Lad}
11:54 - X. Morgo ska du få gifta deg {Tomorrow you shall marry}
13:19 - XI. Det stander to Piger {There stood two Girls}
14:50 - XII. Ranveig
15:18 - XIII. En liten grå Man {A little grey man}
16:07 - XIV. I Ola-dalom, i Ola-Kjønn {In Ola valley, in Ola lake}
18:13 - XV. Bådnlåt {Cradle song}
20:29 - XVI. Ho vesle Kari var {Little Astrid}
21:27 - XVII. Bådnlåt {Cradle song}
24:05 - XVIII. Jeg gar i tusen tanker {I wander deep in thought}
28:17 - XIX. Gjendines Bådnlåt {Gjendines cradle song}
The 19 Norwegian Folksongs, Op. 66 are remarkable pieces, as Grieg himself knew. He wrote to the Dutch composer, Julius Röntgen, of having put some hair-raising chromatic chords on paper. The excuse is that they originated not on the piano but in my mind. If one has the Vøringfoss beneath ones feet, one feels them more independent and daring than down in the valley.
Indeed, the harmonies that Grieg employs in Op. 66 are even more strongly chromatic in flavor than those in his previous set of Norwegian Folk Tunes Op. 17, often to the extent that some of the chords and progressions would undoubtedly grate on the ear of the folk song purist. Nevertheless, given the fundamentally banal character of the original songs, some commentators have conceded that Griegs chromatic treatment tends to enhance their haunting charm.
Among the 19 tunes are several longer pieces, as well as three derived from cattle calls, the brief snatches of melody that were originally sounded to call cattle back to the fold, and have a kind of charming, far-away character. Among the most attractive is I Ola-Dalom, i Ola-Kjönn (In Ola Dale), No. 14, which Delius later used as the source of the theme for On hearing the first cuckoo in spring. The melody is treated strophically, and an interlude between each verse determines the style of accompaniment for the next.
Another remarkable piece is No. 18, Jeg går i tusind Tanker (In deepest thought I wander), the most purely pianistic and at four minutes long the longest of the collection. Based on a flowing 16-bar tune, the piece is marked andante religioso, and is characterized by the same fervor and sincerity of Griegs last opus (74), the Four Psalms for unaccompanied choir.
[allmusic.com]")
![Béla Bartók - Violin Sonata No. 1 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/b_C9qQhApvE/mqdefault.jpg "Béla Bartók - Violin Sonata No. 1 [With score]
-Composer: Béla Viktor János Bartók (25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945)
-Performers: James Ehnes (Violin), Andrew Armstrong (Piano)
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1, op. 21 (BB. 84), written in 1921
00:00 – I. Allegro appassionato
12:29 – II. Adagio
23:52 – III. Allegro
Béla Bartók wrote both of his violin sonatas for the Hungarian violinist Jelly dAranyi. Of the two works, the Sonata No. 1, Op. 21, is more traditional, both in structure and temperament; its three clearly delineated movements are marked by a character that is alternately rhapsodic and violent, but always virtuosic. Despite any appearance of conventionality, however, the sonata represents one of Bartóks most radical statements in its expressionistic rhetoric and its near-atonal harmonic and melodic language (notwithstanding the nominal indication that it is in the key of C sharp minor). The arresting opening bars are underpinned by fast, dissonant arpeggios from the piano that evoke the sounds of the cimbalom, a dulcimer-like instrument from Bartóks native Hungary. The violinists first statement is broad and chromatic, a passionate declamation in a setting of nocturnal fantasy. Both harmonically and melodically, these opposing elements recall Bartóks contemporaneous stage pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin, completed in piano score two years previously. The movement is discursive and often impulsive; while there is confluence and cooperation between the two instruments throughout, thematic material is rarely shared. In this highly dissonant context, the occasional consonance sounds peculiar. A subsidiary theme, for instance, features the interval of a major sixth; often perceived as almost cloyingly sweet, it here emerges in an entirely different light. A searching cadenza-like solo passage for the violin opens the second movement. The piano eventually joins in with a series of ascending chords, no less unsettled for their limpid, impressionistic sonority; even in the turbulent setting of this work, Bartóks debt to the music of Debussy and Ravel is evident. A middle section is ominous and imposing, with frightening, arpeggiated octaves in the piano, increasing in volume as if some catastrophe were imminent; the violin, meanwhile, cries out in double stops and chords. The octaves recede, giving way to the desolate air of the opening. The finale is a series of increasingly wild dances, folk-like in style but wholly expressionistic. Bartók here makes his greatest demands upon the players virtuosity and stamina as he leads them through a series of episodes that, however abstract in nature, arrange themselves roughly into a rondo form. Midway through is a grotesque pesante section marked by a thick and heavy stamping tread in the piano and detached skirlings from the violin in diffident response. The frenetic dance rhythms return, bringing the work to a grim conclusion. The Sonata No. 1 was premiered in Vienna by violinist Mary Dickenson-Auner and pianist Eduard Steuermann; dAranyi and Bartók first performed it at a private recital in Londons Hungarian Legation in March 1922.
[allmusic.com]")
![Maurice Ravel - Chansons madécasses [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bb1Swd9xrl0/mqdefault.jpg "Maurice Ravel - Chansons madécasses [With score]
-Composer: Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937)
-Performers: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone), Wolfgang Sawallisch (Piano), Karheinz Zoller (Flute), Wolfgang Boettcher (Cello)
Chansons madécasses, song cycle for voice, flute, cello and piano, written in 1925-26
00:04 - I. Nahandove
05:24 - II. Aoua
09:18 - III. Il est doux de se coucher
During the final phase of Maurice Ravels career, he experienced hampered creativity and a confused emotional state which in the years that followed evolved into a preoccupation with economy of means and ensemble combinations. For example, the Chansons madécasses (Madagascar Songs), with their unique chamber ensemble, was, as Ravel indicated, a kind of quartet in which the voice plays the part of the main instrument. The vocal line is uncharacteristic of Ravels detached and objective style; instead the song sensuously and frightfully declares its message. The texts, taken from the eighteenth century Creole poet Evariste-Desire de Parny, are a cry for liberation from colonialism, exploitation, and slavery as they occurred in Madagascar. Nahandove depicts the erotic seduction of a native woman, in which Ravel uses the cello in counterpoint to the flute and piano. Aoua! is the frightful warning of the deceiving and dangerous white men; it opens with shrieks of the songs title, made on descending minor thirds. The vocal line is supported by dissonant piano crunches, while a tam-tam effect is made by the resonances of the piano and low notes of the flute. Aoua! was probably the most discussed of the three songs. When it was sung by Jane Bathori in 1925, at a concert in the Paris Salle Majestic, it was well received, except by a few members of the audience, who found the songs message especially disturbing because fighting was occurring in Morocco. The song comes to a bitter ending where the singer again proclaims mefiez-vous des blancs (Dont trust the whites). Il est doux, featuring exotic timbres, returns to the earlier sexual lure. The first complete performance of the three songs was in 1926. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, an American patroness of chamber music, made only one suggestion when she commissioned the songs, in regards to the instrumentation of the accompaniment; the choice of text reveals Ravels interest in the exotic.
Ravel stated that he viewed the years shortly before and during which the Chansons madécasses were written as a turning point in his career. In that time he turned from harmonic techniques to the spirit of melody. The composer revealed in a late interview that these three songs were his favorites.
[allmusic.com]")
