Classical Music Appreciation Thread

[papermoon.lady]

 I love classical music, and I know the Countess likes it too. Maybe there are also lurkers who like it. 🙂

Anyway, maybe some will like to post classical music here (or listen to it).

You can post opera arias, piano recitals, orchestra concerts... - anything you like. Classical music is used in its broader meaning in this thread.

Please post links rather than embedding videos because sometimes the videos won't load.

Let's start...

Luciano Pavarotti - Una furtiva lacrima/lagrima (from L'Elisir d'Amore by Gaetano Donizetti)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J7JM0tGgRY

[papermoon.lady]

Donde lieta uscì from La Bohème by Puccini

Sung by Mirella Freni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGwU_Hqn3Dg

[papermoon.lady]

Like the 1st movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Träumerei from Schumann's Kinderszenen is only apparently easy. To play it well requires considerable skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z82w0l6kwE

[countessalmirena]

Freni is the Mimi of dreams. No one sings this rôle better than she... and she's also perfect in Bizet's Carmen as Michaela. Beautiful, beautiful voice.

[papermoon.lady]

I totally agree. 

[papermoon.lady]

Final scene of Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Madama Butterfly's death - one of the saddest scenes in the world of opera, in particular because of the farewell to her child)

Sung by Mirella Freni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESYSOXGZWl4

[countessalmirena]

---

@papermoon.lady wrote:

Like the 1st movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Träumerei from Schumann's Kinderszenen is only apparently easy. To play it well requires considerable skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z82w0l6kwE

---

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Horowitz's playing is without flourishing, just the pure simplicity of the music and the tenderness of the approach...

Marc-André Hamelin is another pianist who does that; he completely removes his ego and lets the music speak. I can't give a link to his performance, because it's not on YouTube...

[countessalmirena]

There are other performances by Hamelin on YouTube, so let me link to one of those.

Schumann: Fantasy in C major, Op. 17. Played by Marc-André Hamelin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAQMPKDLGY&t=2788s

The link starts at the Fantasy. The whole of the video shows the entire recital which includes:

• Szymanowska - Nocturne in B flat major 0:30
• Feinberg - Sonata no 2 in A minor, op. 2 6:08
• Feinberg - Sonata nr 1 in A major, op. 1 14:22
• Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 23 “Appassionata” >21:17
• Schumann - Fantasy in C, Op. 17 46:28

- 1st movement: 46:28

- 2nd movement: 59:38

- 3rd movement: 1:07:48

• Moszkowski - Waltz in E major 1:23:06
• Schubert - Impromptu D.935 no. 2 in A flat major 1:31:44

[countessalmirena]

Pauline Viardot: No. 3 Plainte d'amour, VWV 4024 (from 6 Mazurkas de Chopin). Sung by Ina Kancheva.

https://youtu.be/onRYmtqVaQ0

And... papermoon.lady, especially for you (as I know you love the star-studded night sky):

Pauline Viardot: No. 12 Я долго стоял неподвижно/The Stars/Les étoiles, VWV 1059 (from 12 Poems

based on Poems by Pushkin, Fet and Turgenev). Sung by Ina Kancheva.

https://youtu.be/Fs9joujEA9U

[countessalmirena]

This has been a wonderful month for concerts.

Last Friday we went to a concert called WOMEN OF THE PIETÀ. It was all Vivaldi music, performed by female singers of Pinchgut Opera, soprano Miriam Allan, and female players from the Orchestra of the Antipodes.

I'll post links to the pieces that were performed.

• Vivaldi: Concerto for Two Horns in F Major (RV 539). Performed by Academy of St Martin in the Fields, with horn players Timothy Brown and Robin Davis.
  https://youtu.be/HO-_q0CrZOY
• Vivaldi: In furore iustissimae irae (RV 626). Performed by Sandrine Piau and the Ensemble Amarillis.
  https://youtu.be/lP01Itak_SY
• Vivaldi: Magnificat (RV 610). Performed by Emma Kirkby, Cantillation, and Orchestra of the Antipodes.
  https://youtu.be/yR6oB95CyBY
• Vivaldi: Laudate pueri Dominum (RV 601). Performed by Suzie LeBlanc, with Teatro Lirico cond. Stephen Stubbs.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L86m4U650o&list=OLAK5uy_lhptIHdMaMmsu_skobS3e1Jsy5_3VnTlI&index=9
  (It finishes on track 17 in the playlist with the "Amen".
• Galuppi: Dixit Dominus (1774 version). Performed by Vocal Concert Dresden, Dresdner Instrumental-Concert, cond. Peter Kopp, with soloists Maria Grazia Schiavo (soprano), Emanuela Galli (soprano), and Josè Maria Lo Monaco (alto)
  https://youtu.be/9b5H7d-38Wg

And... if you're not familiar with Miriam Allan, you might want to listen to this: https://youtu.be/v3g7KTUN7oM (Fairest Isle, by Purcell, sung by Miriam Allan).

She was also one of the singers at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year. One link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCHr6FIz7h8

[countessalmirena]

And tonight - well, it's after midnight now, so I should say "last night" - we went to another wonderful concert. This also featured Miriam Allan as part of the Great Performers series; she was accompanied by Erin Helyard. The programme was Haydn and Schubert songs, as well as fortepiano pieces by the same composers and also by Mozart. The encore was a Mozart Lied. This recital was very, very beautiful.

• Haydn: She never told her love, Hob.XXVIa:34. Performed by Elly Ameling with Jörg Demus.
  https://youtu.be/O2voojxodKU
• Haydn: A Pastoral Song, Hob.XXVIa:27. Performed by Elly Ameling with Jörg Demus.
  https://youtu.be/bCcTC6ELRfI
• Haydn: O Tuneful Voice, Hob.XXVIa:42. Performed by Elly Ameling with Jörg Demus.
  https://youtu.be/jeKjO6TX0ZY
• Josepha von Auernhamme: 6 Variations on ‘Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja’. Performed by Erin Helyard.
  https://youtu.be/roTjMGgt1HE
• Haydn: The Wanderer, Hob.XXVIa:32. Performed by Elly Ameling with Jörg Demus.
  https://youtu.be/uDnnlSry3Jk
• Haydn: The Spirit’s Song, Hob.XXVIa:41. Performed by Elly Ameling with Jörg Demus.
  https://youtu.be/vJPuHnmWVo8
• Haydn: The Sailor’s Song, Hob.XXVIa:31. Performed by Elly Ameling with Jörg Demus.
  https://youtu.be/WSG2WxJwhK0
• Mozart: Six variations on an original theme, K.547b, Played by Daniel Barenboim.
  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOLbLjxOu7tb4Nmv2wAuY-FoyPKv3FNSb
• Schubert: Auf dem Wasser zu Singen, D.774. Performed by Irmgard Seefried with Gerald Moore.
  https://youtu.be/uLUYxk8saQY
• Schubert: Trauer der Liebe, D.465. Performed by Dorothee Jansen and Francis Grier. (Quite hard to find a soprano singing this; of course F-D is the definitive singer of this lovely Schubert Lied.)
  https://youtu.be/2dmddzw6-Z4
  ... and because Fischer-Dieskau gives so glorious a rendition of this, I really can't NOT give a link of one of his (many) recordings of "Trauer der Liebe":
  https://youtu.be/jbjo3-ZAzuY
• Schubert: Du bist die Ruh, D.776. Performed by Barbara Bonney with Geoffrey Parsons.
  https://youtu.be/MX2IL46rTGs
  ... and one of my favourite countertenors, Philippe Jaroussky, does an amazing job of singing this: https://youtu.be/ogoI7y5_3UI
• Schubert: Moments musicaux, D.780. Played by Alfred Brendel.
  https://youtu.be/0WDQL_X7Euk
• Schubert: Minneleid, D.429. Performed by Elly Ameling with Dalton Baldwin.
  https://youtu.be/hG_BXCCAoz4
• Schubert: Seligkeit, D.433. Performed by Irmgard Seefried with Erik Werba.
  https://youtu.be/eSs1qPumj8o
• Schubert: Ständchen, D.957 No.4. Performed by the amazing contralto Nathalie Stutzmann, accomp. Inger Södergren.
  https://youtu.be/pnpNX8WiTnI
  There is really only one soprano performance on YouTube that I could recommend. Soprano Jeanne Gérard, with Paul Montag.
  https://youtu.be/s6bB7PNT-qE
• Mozart: Abendempfindung, K.523.  Performed by Magdalena Kožená with Karel Košárek (piano). Kožená is an unusual voice; she sings both soprano and mezzo-soprano repertoire.
  https://youtu.be/T2vD-0cCWJQ
  ... and Elly Ameling with Dalton Baldwin...
  https://youtu.be/CN4iu0CzHiA

I hope these give pleasure.