Classical Music II

[Mari]

Gwai, no idea. It doesn't say.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I absolutely love "Che faro" from Orfeo ed Euridice. It's one of my favourite arias of all time; so beautiful, such an utterly heart-broken aria, but with a melody that isn't sad at all, and in a major key! It really takes a true artist to do it justice.

A couple of my favourite renditions:

Marilyn Horne's che faro is the best for the sheer sound; this coming from me, who tends to find singers from a few generations rather dated. But really, she sings it beautifully, with such great expression in her voice, it's magnificent.

Also very well sung, but with stellar acting to boot, is Jennifer Larmore's [/i]che faro[/i]. The different modes she takes Orfeo through, of earnest bewilderment, understated grief, totally heartbroken bewilderment, and others (not in that order) combine to create a masterpiece.

[Mari]

Okay, I promised I would write a review, so here it is (though it turned out to be more of a description then a review ). I've never written one before and I have no intelligent comments actually, so bear with me.


Dvorak's 9th Symphony, the New World Symphony.

The 1st movement starts sombre with a bit of fickleness here and there which quickly changes to a harsher sound. About 1/3 in, the music gets softer and the sounds of the hobo remind me of bravery and going on. With the use of many different instruments, you get a sense of enormity, vastness. There is a lot of play between the violins and woodwinds.
This movement seems to be about difficulties (darkness) and optimism to overcome them (lightness)

In the 2nd movement the music calms down. It is like sitting on your veranda in the evening in the middle of the dessert, looking out over desolate plains under a scorching sun. But then after 1/3 night falls in and the cold is sweet and embracing (and dangerous, but that aside) the 2/3 is more of the same, but in the last 1/3 we get started again. A new day starts which is the same is the first 1/3, but this time optimism can be heard. We survived a day and a night and we can start anew.
This last 1/3 is actually quite romantic, I thought.

The 3rd movement opens with a part that starkly reminds one of a famous composer. I'll leave it to you to find out who
Once again the action is pretty much determined by the play between the violin and windworks (in the 1st movement, it was mostly the hobo or horn, here it's more the flute and piccolo)
It sounds a bit like a buzzing town. Not one of those first (mining)settlements, but a more thriving town with women living in it, in the second part the sounds remind you more of the still harsh environment that can be found right outside the little town and that life was still hard, but in the third part we return to the town again.

In the final movement, we start with a part that is often used in commercials. At least, here it is. The finale is not very memorable IMHO compared to some other parts of this piece, but it is nice nonetheless.

All in all I liked listening to it and you can think up an entire story while listening. ^_^

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Hey, peeps, check out this contralto. She's got a hell of a voice. You may or may not like the ending of her intrepretation of the aria, but it's guaranteed to surprise you.

[Tessar]

I'm listening to a CD I just bought, and completely swooning for this baritone .


The CD is: L'Horizon Chimerique and it's a collection of works by Faure. The baritone is Sanford Sylvan, who I'm sure I've heard of but never actually heard to recognize. His voice is DIVINE. It's a gorgeous lyric baritone and he's got a perfect balance between that lovely baritonal warmth and a wonderful, shimmering, heady tone. I'm very impressed... a lot of professional lyric baritones press down on their voice too much trying to get a fuller sound, but Sylvan is simply wonderful.


I'm also madly in love with Faure anyways, so it's a great combination .

[Tessar]

Gwai--that's a great clip. I've always enjoyed Ewa and, as this particular clip shows, she had an INCREDIBLE upper extension that had an insane amount of power... Never mind altos, you don't find mezzos with an upper voice like that . She was amazing.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

It was her baritonal chest range, and holding it for so long, that blew me away. But she does have a hell of an instrument, all around. Simply superb. Shame the recording was a bit harsh sounding; shame on their technical assistant, or whaddever it's called.

EDIT: Wait, was? Did she kick the bucket, or something? Gawd, I hope not!

[Tessar]

Hahaha, I'm sorry--no, she's not dead by a long shot. Very much alive and, according to her site, still singing quite actively.


I just used the past tense because all of the recordings I can remember hearing of her are older. She's one of my favorite altos but I haven't actively bought any of her music in quite a while.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

For those of you who thought Radu Marian was interesting, here is a modern piece composed for his voice (and, of course, sung by him). I'd guess it was composed to showcase the eerie quality to his sound.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

By the way, can anyone tell me what the high note Ewa Podles hits near the end of the clip I linked to is? My pitch is far from perfect, but I think it might be a soprano C.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I want Der Rosenkavalier. Does anyone have any recommendations as to which production (DVD preferable, but CD also fine)?

[hectorberlioz]

re: Der Rosenkavalier.

CD: There are two conductors of the past who seemed to have a flair for the music of Richard Strauss. And those were Herbert von Karajan and Sir Georg Solti. The Karajan set is on EMI and features Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Christa Ludwig. Solti has two of my favorites: Regine Crespin and Yvonne Minton. I'd go for Solti, though Karajan could be just as good.

DVD: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_?u...er+dvd&x=0&y=0

The top three on in that search would be the best of the crop. Kleiber was another great conductor of Richard Struass.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Yeah, I was looking at those three already. I just need to narrow it down. I'm not sure which would be best. I'm thinking that the Te Kanawa production might be rather stiff and stodgy, so I'm leaning towards one of the other two; probably the more recent one, with Barbara Bonney and Sophie von Otter, but I'm not sure.

[Tessar]

You can't go wrong with anything that involves Barbara Bonney .


... no, seriously. I don't care if she's having a bad day, the conductor is twitchy, and the cello section spontaneously combusts.

Can't. Go. Wrong. >.<

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Well, that settles that, then.

Now, the question is, dare I attempt the purchase from eBay? I've already tried to get two different Rosenkavaliers from eBay in the past few months, and one time the seller suddenly cancelled his account, and the other time ebay suddenly killed the listing, and I never heard from him. I begin to worry that Rosenkavalieren on eBay are dangerous creatures. O.o

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Aha! It's cheaper on amazon! No need to worry about eBay.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Has anyone hear ever heard any compositions by Lera Auerbach?

[Tessar]

This is just lovely http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WllgLSul04g

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Nathalie Stuzmann has a beautiful rendition of the same song. I just noticed that Veronique Gens also has it; I'll have to check hers out.

[Tessar]

The piece, Apres un Reve, is something I would be shocked to find even one college-studying voice major without . You either know it, or you at least own it, because it's in every dang French Art Song collection book that exists, in about a million different keys.

I really want to sing it eventually, but it's a deceptively difficult song. I mean it's not hard to sing the notes, but when it comes to actually singing it well, it can be a very challenging song.


I've always loved Gen's version, but I can't really say I like Nathalie... I could've sworn I'd heard her name before, but I don't think I'd heard her. I don't really like her voice....