![Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite (Piano), op. 40 [With score] @DamonJHK](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uCvE1HPEcoU/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Gerhard Oppitz
Fra Holbergs tid {From Holberg's Time} or "Holberg Suite" for Piano, op. 40, written in 1884
00:00 - I. Praeludium
02:34 - II. Sarabande
07:10 - III. Gavotte
10:45 - IV. Air
19:59 - V. Rigaudon
Despite the fact that Ludvig Holberg (1684 - 1754) lived most of his life in Denmark and was considered the father of Danish literature, his birthplace was Bergen, Norway, and for the bicentenary of his birth, Norwegians celebrated heartily. Even as a resident of Denmark, Holberg recalled in his works his childhood and celebrated the time that he spent there. Made a baron in 1747, his was an imposing reputation. Educated at the universities of Copenhagen and Oxford, Holberg's writings are regarded as having established Danish as a literary language. Prior to his time, Danish was employed only in ballads and hymns; plays were presented in French or German. Besides more than a dozen successful plays (several of them comedies), he wrote a history of his adopted country and published a collection of philosophical treatises.
Notwithstanding his stronger relationship to Denmark, Norwegians were pleased to acknowledge Holberg, and Grieg, also a Bergen native, was one of those who directed the planning for the event. As early as 1878, he contributed a fee from his publisher to the erecting of a Holberg statue in Bergen. Further, he wrote two works, the first for male voices, a Cantata for the Unveiling of the Holberg Memorial, and a second (of more lasting consequence) entitled From Holberg's Time: Suite in Olden Style. Grieg himself, a more than capable pianist, premiered the piano suite just days after the dedication of the memorial. Its great success led Grieg to score it for string orchestra the following year. Both versions enjoy enduring popularity.
The suite in five sections was intended by Grieg to recall the dance suites from Holberg's lifetime, which corresponded to the period of the Baroque. The Praeludium which opens the work is a section of such simple radiance that it imprints itself unforgettably on the listener's consciousness. The contrasting Sarabande moves soberly, reflectively, and with unfailing elegance. The Gavotte which forms the third section trips beguilingly over the course of its three minutes, yielding to the Andante religioso tempo of the Aria. The final section, a Rigaudon, returns the listener to the buoyant mood of the beginning prelude. Through each of the five sections, the level of invention is matched by a refinement and purity of feeling that marks this as among the most cherishable short works of the late nineteenth century.
[allmusic.com]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Gerhard Oppitz
Fra Holbergs tid {From Holberg's Time} or "Holberg Suite" for Piano, op. 40, written in 1884
00:00 - I. Praeludium
02:34 - II. Sarabande
07:10 - III. Gavotte
10:45 - IV. Air
19:59 - V. Rigaudon
Despite the fact that Ludvig Holberg (1684 - 1754) lived most of his life in Denmark and was considered the father of Danish literature, his birthplace was Bergen, Norway, and for the bicentenary of his birth, Norwegians celebrated heartily. Even as a resident of Denmark, Holberg recalled in his works his childhood and celebrated the time that he spent there. Made a baron in 1747, his was an imposing reputation. Educated at the universities of Copenhagen and Oxford, Holberg's writings are regarded as having established Danish as a literary language. Prior to his time, Danish was employed only in ballads and hymns; plays were presented in French or German. Besides more than a dozen successful plays (several of them comedies), he wrote a history of his adopted country and published a collection of philosophical treatises.
Notwithstanding his stronger relationship to Denmark, Norwegians were pleased to acknowledge Holberg, and Grieg, also a Bergen native, was one of those who directed the planning for the event. As early as 1878, he contributed a fee from his publisher to the erecting of a Holberg statue in Bergen. Further, he wrote two works, the first for male voices, a Cantata for the Unveiling of the Holberg Memorial, and a second (of more lasting consequence) entitled From Holberg's Time: Suite in Olden Style. Grieg himself, a more than capable pianist, premiered the piano suite just days after the dedication of the memorial. Its great success led Grieg to score it for string orchestra the following year. Both versions enjoy enduring popularity.
The suite in five sections was intended by Grieg to recall the dance suites from Holberg's lifetime, which corresponded to the period of the Baroque. The Praeludium which opens the work is a section of such simple radiance that it imprints itself unforgettably on the listener's consciousness. The contrasting Sarabande moves soberly, reflectively, and with unfailing elegance. The Gavotte which forms the third section trips beguilingly over the course of its three minutes, yielding to the Andante religioso tempo of the Aria. The final section, a Rigaudon, returns the listener to the buoyant mood of the beginning prelude. Through each of the five sections, the level of invention is matched by a refinement and purity of feeling that marks this as among the most cherishable short works of the late nineteenth century.
[allmusic.com]
![Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite (Piano), op. 40 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uCvE1HPEcoU/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite (Piano), op. 40 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Gerhard Oppitz
Fra Holbergs tid {From Holbergs Time} or Holberg Suite for Piano, op. 40, written in 1884
00:00 - I. Praeludium
02:34 - II. Sarabande
07:10 - III. Gavotte
10:45 - IV. Air
19:59 - V. Rigaudon
Despite the fact that Ludvig Holberg (1684 - 1754) lived most of his life in Denmark and was considered the father of Danish literature, his birthplace was Bergen, Norway, and for the bicentenary of his birth, Norwegians celebrated heartily. Even as a resident of Denmark, Holberg recalled in his works his childhood and celebrated the time that he spent there. Made a baron in 1747, his was an imposing reputation. Educated at the universities of Copenhagen and Oxford, Holbergs writings are regarded as having established Danish as a literary language. Prior to his time, Danish was employed only in ballads and hymns; plays were presented in French or German. Besides more than a dozen successful plays (several of them comedies), he wrote a history of his adopted country and published a collection of philosophical treatises.
Notwithstanding his stronger relationship to Denmark, Norwegians were pleased to acknowledge Holberg, and Grieg, also a Bergen native, was one of those who directed the planning for the event. As early as 1878, he contributed a fee from his publisher to the erecting of a Holberg statue in Bergen. Further, he wrote two works, the first for male voices, a Cantata for the Unveiling of the Holberg Memorial, and a second (of more lasting consequence) entitled From Holbergs Time: Suite in Olden Style. Grieg himself, a more than capable pianist, premiered the piano suite just days after the dedication of the memorial. Its great success led Grieg to score it for string orchestra the following year. Both versions enjoy enduring popularity.
The suite in five sections was intended by Grieg to recall the dance suites from Holbergs lifetime, which corresponded to the period of the Baroque. The Praeludium which opens the work is a section of such simple radiance that it imprints itself unforgettably on the listeners consciousness. The contrasting Sarabande moves soberly, reflectively, and with unfailing elegance. The Gavotte which forms the third section trips beguilingly over the course of its three minutes, yielding to the Andante religioso tempo of the Aria. The final section, a Rigaudon, returns the listener to the buoyant mood of the beginning prelude. Through each of the five sections, the level of invention is matched by a refinement and purity of feeling that marks this as among the most cherishable short works of the late nineteenth century.
[allmusic.com]")
![Robert Schumann - 12 Gedichte (Kerner-Lieder) [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uLfQ0GupJgw/mqdefault.jpg "Robert Schumann - 12 Gedichte (Kerner-Lieder) [With score]
Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 29 July 1856)
Performers: Peter Schreier (Tenor), Norman Shetler (Piano)
Years of recording: 1972/73
Zwölf Gedichte op. 35, Liederreihe nach Kerner, written in 1840
00:03 - I. Lust der Sturmnacht
01:22 - II. Stirb, Lieb und Freud!
07:26 - III. Wanderlied
10:30 - IV. Erstes Grün
12:46 - V. Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend
14:27 - VI. Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes
18:06 - VII. Wanderung
19:24 - VIII. Stille Liebe
22:18 - IX. Frage
23:37 - X. Stille Tränen
27:47 - XI. Wer machte dich so krank?
29:40 - XII. Alte Laute
Schumann wrote many of his first songs to Kerners poetry when he was just 17, and in May 1840, his most prolific year, he began to think about writing settings for other Kerner texts, writing this cycle in November and December.
Even though written during a happy time in his life, its dominant emotions are longing and grief rather than contentedness. The fifth song, Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend, (Longing for the forests) expresses an almost aching yearning with its arching vocal phrases, which rise in longing and fall back dejected and unappeased, and with the quiet resignation of the piano chords as the vocal lines become more earth-bound, murmuring rather than exclaiming. (This song was one of Claras favorites.) The tenth, Stille Tränen, (Silent weeping) is one of his most passionate expressions, with its outbursts of grief shared between voice and piano. However, in the sixth song, Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes, (To the drinking glass of a dead friend) the loss is sublimated in mystical thoughts, expressed with a sonority reminiscent of Mozarts Masonic music, and the seventh, Wanderung, is one of his most effectively jubilant pieces, comparable to An meinem Herzen from Frauenliebe und Leben, with an easy melodiousness that shows no signs of forcing, and where there are no hints of impending grief.
In the second song, when the woman prays with the words of the title Sterb, Lieb und Freund (Die, love and joy), the music uses a refrain from the final chorale from St. John Passion, an allusion to Schumanns attendence at a performance of Bachs work earlier in the year. The first song, Lust der Sturmnacht, (The joy of a stormy night), is noteworthy for the masterful way that it maintains a musical consistency while remaining faithful to the text. It opens with pounding chords from the piano and an equally turbulent vocal line, vividly painting the image of the storm. When the texts mood changes to describe the joy of being indoors with a loved one, the music becomes softer and the key changes suddenly, but the rhythm continues the pounding effect. This way, the effect of the storm is maintained, emphasizing the sense of the poem. However, a similar textual transition in the third song, Wanderlied, is less successfully carried out; the change is as sudden as that in the first song, but here it jars somewhat.
Another point of interest is in the concluding two songs, Wer machte dic so krank? and Alte Laute (Who made you so ill? and Old sounds), in which he uses the exact same melody for two different poems. This presents a challenge to performers, who must provide two different interpretations of the same music, to fit the different texts and moods.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Lyric Pieces (Volume III), op. 43 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v7sSDzWH4RQ/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Lyric Pieces (Volume III), op. 43 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Håkon Austbø
6 Lyric Pieces Book III, op. 43, written in 1886
00:00 - I. Sommerfugl (Butterfly)
01:39 - II. Ensom vandrer (Lone wanderer)
03:18 - III. I Hjemmet (In my native land)
05:05 - IV. Småfugl (Little bird)
06:55 - V. Erotikk (Erotikon)
09:10 - VI. Til våren (To spring)
Grieg quickly discovered that his greatest talent was for short, evocative compositions. Naturally, a shift in the emphasis of his music from longer and more abstract pieces to shorter pieces took place. Even when he wrote short pieces, he tended at first to give them abstract (tempo marking) titles; his first forty piano compositions (in five sets) were titleless. He first assigned titles in 1867, in a suite he called Lyric Pieces. This came to be Book 1 of ten sets. Each was a great success and thus delighted his publisher, particularly beginning around 1885, when Grieg turned out a set about every two or three years. Each sold out upon publication.
The first two or three movements were written while Grieg was staying in Denmark. It is At Home, which was actually composed while longing for home: Grieg had written to his friend Frants Beyer about his wish to go out in a boat on a quiet morning. The other day I was so full of this longing that it turned itself into a gentle song of thanksgiving. There is nothing new in it, but it is genuine and as it is really nothing other than a message to you, I enclose it here. He wrote the other four movements, including Solitary Wanderer (where expressed the longing he alluded to in his letter), back in Norway. Erotikon was inspired by his love for his wife, Nina. The final movement, To Spring, stands as the programmatic representative for the whole set, for, as Grieg wrote to his publisher, all six pieces comprise a set of spring songs.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Landkjending, op. 31 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vqMEXEJlpBM/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Landkjending, op. 31 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Vocal soloist: Håkan Hagegård
-Choir: Bergen Philharmonic Choir
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Landkjending {Land-Sighting}, cantata for baritone, male chorus, orchestra and organ ad lib, op. 31, written in 1872")
![Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 20, K. 499 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w6YQM87WgR8/mqdefault.jpg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 20, K. 499 [With score]
-Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
-Performers: Amadeus Quartet
String Quartet No. 20 in D Major, K. 499 Hoffmeister, written in 1786
00:07 - I. Allegretto
07:24 - II. Menuetto. Allegretto
10:40 - III. Adagio
19:25 - IV. Allegro
Between 1782 and 1785, Mozart composed six string quartets, which were subsequently published late in 1785 with a dedication to Joseph Haydn. They represent the pinnacle of Mozarts contribution to the form, a group of works that not only solve the problems of this difficult medium, but which also represent his tribute to the pioneering quartets of his friend and colleague. Thereafter, Mozart would compose only four more string quartets, including this one, subsequently turning his attention to the string quintet.
This isolated D major Quartet (scored for the normal disposition of two violins, viola and cello) was entered in his own thematic catalogue on August 19, 1786, less than two months after the premiere of Le nozze di Figaro. It owes its nickname to the Viennese publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister, who first issued the quartet in the same year it was composed. Nothing is known of the circumstances of its composition, although it has been suggested that it was commissioned by Hoffmeister, who was also a friend of Mozarts.
Shortly before the composers death in December, 1791, the quartet was the subject of a review in the journal of the German Philharmonic Society. The reviewer, who was also considering the Piano Quartet in E flat, K. 493, notes that Both these quartets are written with that fire of the imagination and that correctness, which long since won for Herr M. the reputation of one of the best composers in Germany. The first [the string quartet] consists of four, the second of only three movements, and even the Minuet in the former is composed with an ingenuity (being interwoven with canonic imitations) that one not infrequently finds wanting in other such compositions. It is the Minuet (the second movement) that has subsequently excited particular comment from Mozarts biographers, being described by H. C. Robbins Landon as one of the most original in eighteenth century music and by Alfred Einstein as unique. While the quartet is generally recognized as being less complex than the six Haydn Quartets, it remains a work of great beauty, with an Adagio of great profundity, and a final Allegro which treads the ambiguous line between tragedy and comedy that so often characterizes Mozarts later works.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Olav Trygvason, op. 50 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wIuYdWOPvZ8/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Olav Trygvason, op. 50 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Librettist: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Vocal Soloists: Solveig Kringelborn (Soprano), Ingebjørg Kosmo (Mezzo Soprano), Trond Halstein Moe (Baritone)
-Choir: Bergen Philharmonic Choir
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Olav Trygvason, Opera Fragment, op. 50, written in 1873, 1888-89
00:00 - Scene I
07:52 - Scene II
22:53 - Scene III")
![Paul Hindemith - Viola Concerto Der Schwanendreher [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wPgmUji_bBM/mqdefault.jpg "Paul Hindemith - Viola Concerto Der Schwanendreher [With score]
-Composer: (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963)
-Orchestra: Simphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
-Conductor: David Shallom
-Viola: Tabea Zimmermann
Der Schwanendreher [The Swan turner], concerto for viola & small orchestra, written in 1935
00:00 - I. Zwischen Berg und tiefem Tal [Between mountain and deep valley]
08:16 - II. Nun laube, Lindlein laube... Der Gutzgauch auf dem Zaune sass (Fugato) [Now grow leaves, little linden tree, grow leaves... The Cuckoo Sat on the Fence (Fugato)]
17:29 - III. Seid ihr nicht der Schwanendreher (Variationen) [Arent you the swan turner? (Variations)]
Hindemith, whose interest in the viola was intense and lifelong, wrote a number of concertante works for the instrument which he often publicly performed himself and which greatly enriched the instruments rather slender repertoire. Among the best known of these is Der Schwanendreher, a concerto which takes a number of folk songs as its point of departure.
The work was written on the heels of the composers monumental, medieval-themed opera Mathis der Maler (1934-1935); it is thought, in fact, that Hindemiths research for that work led him to the songs employed in Der Schwanendreher. The title of the work is shared with that of the tune that forms the basis of the finale; the Schwanendreher in question is a swan-turner, a cooks assistant who turns the spit upon which a swan is roasted. (In his nearly contemporaneous Carmina Burana (1935-1936), Carl Orff likewise bases an entire movement on the theme of roasting swans in this case, from the animals point of view!)
Hindemith no slouch as a violist casts the soloist in the role of an itinerant fiddler who...presents everything he has brought with him from afar: songs grave and gay, and finally a dance-tune. The composer further indicates that the player might well embellish and alter the tunes according to his own fancy, which similarly describes the way he incorporates the original folk tunes into the musical fabric. Der Schwanendreher, an amiable and vigorous work, is a product of Hindemiths mature neo-Classical style, marked by clearer tonality and less dense polyphony than that in his music of the previous decade.
[allmusic.com]")
![Etude mécanique No. 2 [My composition]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wTr0C323PqY/mqdefault.jpg "Etude mécanique No. 2 [My composition]
Written in October 2018 - January 2019
+++Sorry for the bad sound quality
*** Please notice that I dont study composition, I compose only for fun.")
![Robert Schumann - Myrthen, op. 25 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wt2XqrS2RCA/mqdefault.jpg "Robert Schumann - Myrthen, op. 25 [With score]
-Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856)
-Performers: Dorothea Röschmann (Soprano), Ian Bostridge (Tenor), Graham Johnson (Piano)
Myrthen, 26 Songs for Voice and Piano, op. 25, written in 1840
00:00 - I. Widmung (I. B.)
02:26 - II. Freisinn (I. B.)
03:41 - III. Der Nussbaum (D. R.)
07:09 - IV. Jemand (D. R.)
08:43 - V. Lieder aus dem Schenkenbuch im Divan I (I. B.)
09:21 - VI. Lieder aus dem Schenkenbuch im Divan II (I. B.)
10:23 - VII. Die Lotosblume (D. R.)
12:05 - VIII. Talismane (I. B.)
14:29 - IX. Lied der Suleika (D. R.)
17:27 - X. Die Hochländer-Witwe (D. R.)
19:03 - XI. Lied der Braut aus dem Liebesfrühling I (D. R.)
21:35 - XII. Lied der Braut aus dem Liebesfruhling II (D. R.)
23:22 - XIII. Hochländers Abschied (I. B.)
24:55 - XIV. Hochländisches Wiegenlied (D. R.)
27:44 - XV. Aus den hebräischen Gesangen (I. B.)
32:26 - XVI. Rätsel (D. R.)
34:12 - XVII. Venetianisches Lied I (I. B.)
36:02 - XVIII. Venetianisches Lied II (I. B.)
37:06 - XIX. Hauptmanns Weib (I. B.)
38:08 - XX. Weit, weit (D. R.)
41:12 - XXI. Was will die einsame Träne (I. B.)
43:48 - XXII. Niemand (I. B.)
44:50 - XXIII. Im Westen (D. R.)
46:07 - XXIV. Du bist wie eine Blume (I. B.)
47:53 - XXV. Aus den östlichen Rosen (D. R.)
49:57 - XXVI. Zum Schluss (I. B.)
Published in October 1840 by Kistner, Myrthen, Op. 25, is dedicated to the composers wife, Clara Schumann. Myrthen, or myrtles, are European evergreen shrubs with white or rosy flowers that are often used to make bridal wreaths. The 26 poems included were presented to Clara on the occasion of their wedding.
Unlike Dichterliebe of Frauenliebe und -leben, the texts of Myrthen are not by a single poet. Among them are eight poems in translation by Robert Burns (1759-96), five by Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866), and three each by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). The remaining seven are by Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, J. Mosen, and Catherine Fanshawe.
In the Myrthen collection of songs we find a clear contrast between Schumanns two musical personalities, Florestan and Eusebius. Those in the Florestan style have a lively, confident character especially evident in Freisinn, Niemand, and the Hochländer lieder. Eusebius more contemplative mood comes through in Mein Herz ist schwer and Was will die einsame Träne? Schumann also confronts numerous other emotions associated with love and marriage, such as devotion (Lied der Saleika and the two Lied der Braut), maternity (Im Westen, Hochländiches Wiegenlied), loneliness (Die Hochländer Witwe, Weit, weit) and bravery (Hauptmanns Weib). A few special gems are worth discussing in detail.
Heines Du bist wie eine Blume (You are like a flower) receives Schumanns most ceremonial treatment. Set in A flat major, a key associated with wedding ceremonies, the songs repeated chords provide a stately foundation for the free, almost recitative-like declamation of the brief text. A flat major is also important as the key of the first and last songs of the collection.
Schumann confronts longing and separation in two of the songs, Der Nussbaum by Mosen, and Aus den östlichen Rosen by Rückert. Der Nussbaum is notable particularly for Schumanns integration of the piano part into the overall rhetoric of the song. The opening piano measures later become both the completions of vocal phrases and, before Sie flüstern von einem Mägdlein, the beginning of the phrase. In both songs the piano depicts leaves fluttering in the wind In Der Nussbaum with constant arpeggios, in Aus den östlichen Rosen, with a rapid, quiet twisting figure while supporting a delicate, narrow-ranged voice part.
Schumanns setting of Byrons Rätsel is especially clever. The poem describes something without saying what it is. At the end is the question, What is it? Byrons answer is a breeze, rendered in German as Hauch. Schumann, however, omits this word from the text, leaving the piano to play the final note, a B natural an H in German.
[allmusic.com]")
![Francis Poulenc - Stabat mater [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wt8SvRBpP2U/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Stabat mater [With score]
Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 30 January 1963)
Orchestra: BBC Philarmonic Orchestra
Choir: Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Conductor: Christopher Robinson
Solist [Soprano]: Judith Howarth
Stabat mater, for soprano, chorus and orchestra, written between 1950-1951
00:00 - I. Stabat mater dolorosa
03:53 - II. Cujus animam gementem
05:09 - III. O quam tristis
07:59 - IV. Quae moerebat
09:17 - V. Quis est homo
10:49 - VI. Vidit suum
14:21 - VII. Eja mater
15:40 - VIII. Fac ut ardeat
18:14 - IX. Sancta mater
21:25 - X. Fac ut portem
24:55 - XI. Inflammatus et accensus
26:56 - XII. Quando corpus
Poulenc is remembered mainly as a gay boulevardier, but he also had a serious, deeply sincere religious side, expressed with austere beauty in his Stabat Mater. Poulenc wanted to write something in memory of a friend, painter Christian Bérard. Although he resisted writing a requiem, the slow movements of this work often call to mind the gentle Requiem of Gabriel Fauré, and structurally it adheres to the old motet patterns employed by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The Stabat Mater calls for mixed chorus, full orchestra, and soprano solo.
The opening Stabat Mater dolorosa, grave and dignified and at about four minutes, is one of the works longest movements. This is followed by the turbulent Cujus animam gementem, then the quiet, initially a cappella O quam tristis et afflicta, whose austerity is relieved by sensuous harp glissandi halfway through.
The tuneful Quae moerebat et dolebat has an agreeable, antique pastoral air, whereas Quis est homo, qui non fleret is highly dramatic, full of slamming brass chords in its first half and breaking into Stravinsky-like jaggedness in the second part. Complete contrast comes with the tender yet harmonically restless Vidit suum dulcem natum, where the soprano first appears; the two halves of the Stabat Mater symmetrically hinge on this movement.
Eja Mater, fons amoris is more celebratory, despite a suggestion of tragedy at the mid and end points. Fac ut ardeat cor meum begins canonically for unaccompanied chorus, but soon the writing becomes more traditionally vertical (harmonic) rather than horizontal (polyphony was not one of Poulencs major concerns). Sancta mater, istud agas begins as one of the scores darkest sections, and takes its inspiration partly from plainchant, but in the middle it rises to a peak of religious ardor.
Fac ut portem Christi mortem is a severe funeral march, and very distantly recalls the Berlioz Symphonie funèbre et triomphale; before long, though, the solo soprano returns, bringing with her a harmonic environment that is simultaneously rarefied and voluptuous. Inflammatus et accensus begins turbulently, withdraws into a hushed passage for chorus, then rises steadily through a passage that recalls the soprano solo in Vidit suum dulcem natum. From that dramatic peak, the beginning of Quando corpus moritur drops to a whisper; this quiet writing alternates with outbursts at full volume, some involving the soprano. The music levels off and becomes more soothing, although it does rise to a fierce conclusion on the word Amen.
[allmusic.com]
Original Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hyUSGEMXoc")
![Paul Hindemith - String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xHo8igW6qb8/mqdefault.jpg "Paul Hindemith - String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22 [With score]
-Composer: Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963)
-Performers: Los Angeles String Quartet
String Quartet No. 4, op. 22, written in 1921
00:00 - I. Fugato, Sehr langsame Viertel
05:18 - II. Schnelle Achtel, Sehr energisch
10:12 - III. Ruhige Viertel. Stets fließend
20:29 - IV. Mäßig schnelle Viertel
22:09 - V. Rondo. Gemächlich und mit Grazie
The numbering of Hindemiths quartets has remained a bit confusing because some catalogs and recording labels have been slow to designate the 1915 Quartet in C as No. 1. For years, it had been thought lost (the composer suppressed it and would not allow it to be published), thus leaving each succeeding quartet with a lower number. This Op. 22 Quartet was designated as No. 3 up to the 1970s, when the First Quartet was finally taken into account.
The Hindemith Fourth is his most popular quartet and one of his more direct in expression and style. It is cast in five short movements. The first, Fugato Sehr Langsam (very slowly), is fairly chromatic and features much brilliant contrapuntal writing. The second, marked Schnell Achtel (fast), is bristling with energy and features deft use of rhythms throughout. The middle movement, Ruhige viertel (calm), shows hints of Bartok in its harmonic and thematic fabric, and the last two panels are fashioned in part after baroque concertante models. The fourth movement is marked Massig Schnelle Viertel (very fast), and the fifth is a lively, attractive Rondo. Certainly this work must be assessed as one of Hindemiths finest early chamber works.
[allmusic.com]")
![Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xUxYtr1Z1VY/mqdefault.jpg "Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending [With score]
-Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958)
-Violin: Iona Brown
-Orchestra: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
-Conductor: Sir Neville Marriner
The Lark Ascending, Romance for violin and orchestra, written in 1914
The Lark Ascending is a relatively simple piece its musical discourse is plainly and easily perceived; yet at its heart is an emotional profundity that links it with other works by Vaughan Williams from the same period, in which a calm, almost detached pastoral approach is used to convey great feeling. Vaughan Williams completed The Lark Ascending in 1914 for violinist Marie Hall, with whom he consulted on the solo part. After a thorough revision in 1920, she first played it in a violin-piano arrangement in Shirehampton Public Hall in December 1920. The first performance of the orchestral version was in London, at a Queens Hall concert in June, 1921, during the second Congress of British Music Society.
Verses from George Merediths poem The Lark Ascending precede this evocative tone painting, describing the unique circling ascent of the lark, accompanied by its long-breathed, rhapsodic song. The writing for the violin mimics the silver chain of sound...In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake described by Meredith, though of course it also carries the main melodic argument. A brief cadence of soft chords from winds and strings discreetly usher in the first flight of the soloist, who rhapsodizes without accompaniment on a folk-like theme of considerable plasticity. The orchestra then quietly enters, and the first theme is developed organically until the section closes with a reprise of the solo cadenza.
A more straightforward folk theme on woodwinds begins the middle section, which has been likened to the pastoral countryside over which the lark soars; the violins free descant over the orchestra certainly underscores that impression. A magical moment ensues when solo woodwinds evoke a panoply of birdsong under the busy rustling of the violin; the effect is like a choir of birds led by the virtuoso lark. Vaughan Williams would achieve a similar effect in Jane Scroop: Her Lament for Philip Sparrow from his 1935 choral suite Five Tudor Portraits. A note of sadness and nostalgia informs the reprise of the first section, and the piece ends with one more cadenza from the violin, whose song circles ever higher into the upper reaches of the instrument until it more disappears than ends; as quoted from Meredith, Till lost on his aerial rings / In light, and then the fancy sings.
[allmusic.com]")
