For Your Listening Pleasure

“The Nutcracker” Ballet companies all over the world perform The Nutcracker during the holiday season, each with a special take on the beloved classic. This listener guide proposes a complete performance of the Christmas classic,conducted by Velery Gergiev. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Pcast136

"Merry Christmas" This Christmas playlist programs titles from both the French (Canadian) and English repertoires. Some of the "stand alone" classics come from Adolphe Adam (Minuit, Chrétiens, which is known in English as O Holy Night), Frederick Delius (his charming sleigh ride) and Corelli's Christmas Concerto. Bemjamin Britten and Ralph Vaighan-WIlliams both provide variations based on a pair of well-known carols: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and Greensleeves. Marcel Dupre also adapted a well-known French carol for organ. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast212

"Messiah - Christmas Section" Messiah is a fixture of the Christmas season. For many amateur choirs, the work is the heart of their repertoire and the high point of the year. In most of Handel's oratorios, the soloists dominate and the choir sings only brief choruses. But in Messiah, says Laurence Cummings, director of the London Handel Orchestra, "the chorus propels the work forward with great emotional impact and uplifting messages." Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/119HeShallFeedHisFlock [First time on our podcasting channel]

"Busoni: Piano Concerto, op. 39" Busoni’s Piano Concerto in C major is one of the largest works ever written in this genre. The concerto lasts around 70 minutes and is in five movements; in the final movement a male chorus sings words from the final scene of the verse drama Aladdin by Adam Oehlenschläger, a Danish playwright who’s a contemporary of Goethe. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast247

"Beethoven Live!" Here are some year-end fireworks from Mr. Beethoven: two symphonies that were created almost 210 years ago, on the fateful evening of 22 December 1808 - his Symphonies no. 5 and 6, performed in front of a captive audience and captured for posterity. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/02SinfoniaN6InFaMaggioreOp [First time on our podcasting channel]

"Haydn: Die Schöpfung" The Creation, like Haydn’s other oratorio the Seasons, has both a German and an English libretto, both written by Swieten who chose to adhere very closely to the English King James Version. According to scholars, the German text corresponds to no known German Bible translation. Instead, it is constructed in such a way that the word order, syllabification, and stress patterns are as close as possible to the English. The first public performance was held in Vienna at the old Burgtheater on 19 March 1799. The oratorio was published with the text in German and English in 1800. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/haydn_schoepfung_mi_28_von__etc [First time on our podcasting channel]

“J.S. Bach: Sonatas Played on the Viola” The complete set of solo violin works by J.S. Bach consists of three sonatas da Chiesa (or church sonatas), in four movements, and three partitas (or partias), which are “dance suites”. The set was completed by 1720, but was only published in 1802 by Nikolaus Simrock in Bonn. Even after publication, it was largely ignored until the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim started performing these works. Today, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas are an essential part of the violin repertoire, and they are frequently performed and recorded. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/110SonateNo.3EnUtMajeurPour [First time on our podcasting channel]

This podcast sits at the confluence of opera and ballet (including operatic dance episodes), Read our commentary on December 20 @ https://itywltmt.blogspot.com/, details @ https://archive.org/details/pcast328-Playlist

"The Bach Partitas Played on the Viola" Bach himself transcribed many of his own works into different keys for different instrumentation-- including several movements from the Sonatas and Partitas. Bach, the master of polyphony, clearly felt technically freer with the violin to write more complex works. Whether we're talking about the three-part fugues, the Chaconne, or the beautiful slow movements of the sonatas, the additional lines that are close to non-existant or just hinted at in most of the Cello Suites really add to the beauty and interest of the violin sonatas and partitas. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/213PartitaNo.2Chaconne [First time on our podcasting channel]

"An Unlikely Pairing" Released in 1979, the movie 10 starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews and (introducing) Bo Derek told the tale of a Hollywood lyricist going through a mid-life crisis who becomes infatuated with a sexy, newly married woman. The film brought renewed fame to the Boléro by Maurice Ravel. Use of the piece during the love scene between Derek and Moore's characters, with Jenny describing it as "the most descriptive sex music ever written", resulted in massive sales of the work. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/05RavelBolero [First time on our podcasting channel]

"Pictures at an Exhibition" The story behind the work is well known – Piictures is a tribute by Mussorgsky to his late friend Viktor Hartmann, and is a suite of short pastiches that represent some of Hartmann’s artwork, assorted with “glue-like” promenades that depict Mussorgsky walking through an exhibition of Hartmann’s works. I think it is fair to say that we have been equally exposed to the original piano suite by Musorgsky and to the very popular orchestration by Maurice Ravel. As it turns out, Pictures is one of those piano works that has been adapted for other instruments, and for full orchestra. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/02MussorgskyPicturesAtAnExhib [First time on our podcasting channel]

"Play Bach" In 1959, Loussier began to explore a novel concept, combining his interest in jazz with his love of J.S. Bach. Only a pianist with an exceptional classical technique and deft improvisatory skill could have nurtured such a vision. He founded the Play Bach Trio, which used J.S. Bach’s compositions as the basis for jazz improvisation. The trio immediately caught the public imagination. In their live appearances, tours and concerts, plus a succession of recordings built on the cornerstone of four albums made for Decca between 1960 and 1963, Loussier’s group achieved commercial success enjoyed by only a select few jazz musicians. In 15 years, the trio sold over six million albums. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast214

"Opera Transcriptions" During the 19th century the piano transcription became popular for several reasons - the bourgeoisie grew in number and wealth, they were interested in symphonic and chamber music; the availability, quality, and affordability of attending ensemble music was not able to keep pace with this interest. Since recording technology would need another hundred years to catch up and that pianos were commonplace in the houses of wealthy people, piano transcriptions filled this gap with transcribers turning old and new popular works into arrangements involving one or two players. Earl Wild and Jorge Bolet play virtuoso opera transcriptions by Liszt, Thalberg and others. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast167

"Three Transcrtibed Concertos" This montage along the theme of « musical recycling », features three concertos (from three different eras) that have been transcribed for a different solo instrument. The eras are the baroque, the classical and the contemporary/neo-romantic. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/ThreeTranscribedConcertos

(Project 366 Listener Guide #90) Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies no. 2, 5, 6, 9, 12, and 14 were arranged for orchestra by Franz Doppler, with revisions by Liszt himself. These orchestrations appear as S.359 in the Searle catalogue; however, the numbers given to these versions were different from their original numbers. The orchestral rhapsodies numbered 1-6 correspond to the piano solo versions numbered 14, 2, 6, 12, 5 and 9 respectively. Read our fresh take on December 13 @ http://itywltmt.blogspot.com details @ https://archive.org/details/pcast176-Playlist (ITYWLTMT Podcast #176 - 5 Dec 2014)