Musically Speaking

Quote from the Musically Speaking official site: "Out mission: To present classical music of the highest quality performed by internationally recognized symphony orchestras and to produce educational products that encourage more people to appreciate and enjoy the art form." "The original series of CD packages, each covering a different classical composer, was developed in the early 1990's by Maestro Schwarz and musicologist, Paul Schiavo".

Here's the Spotify playlist: Musically Speaking (101 tracks, total time: 14 hours) To keep the playlist neat I only included the Listener's Guide, for full length recordings of the works in discussion, click the album title. Also check out my previous post for Leonard Bernstein music lectures playlist and an excellent video lecture on Mozart's Symphony No.40.

The Most Significant Piano Work of the Millennium

At least the eminent Charles Rosen said so.

If you are interested in this magnificent composition, J.S. Bach's The Musical Offering, and Prussia history of Bach's time in general, I recommend this book: Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment.

Here's the Spotify playlist: The Musical Offering: Ricercar in 6 Voices (21 tracks, total time: 2 hours) It features the ricercar played on piano (by Rosen), organ, harpsichord, and by various kinds of ensembles, plus orchestra arrangement by Anton Webern, and a triple orchestra version by Igor Markevitch. Yes it's the same music played 20 times (one version is not available in the UK and one in Sweden), but this is probably the best example of a piece of music that bears, deserves and benefits from repeated listens. Enjoy.

The Greatest Opus One Ever?

Berg by Schoenberg

A bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but the title may not be far off the mark,  provided we don't take Bach's last word on the keyboard suite, the Six Partitas as his Opus one as the composer intended. Glenn Gould argued that many composers's first works are their best, and he used the Berg sonata op.1 as a major example. It is also one of his favourite pieces, so we have three recordings from him in this playlist, placed at the beginning, followed by interpretations from fourteen other pianists, arranged alphabetically. At the end, two recordings of the string sextet arrangement and an orchestra version.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Berg Piano Sonata Op.1 (21 tracks, total time: 3 hours) And Analysis of Piano Sonata, Op. 1 (1907-8) by Andrew Kuster. Tomorrow is the first day of the Year of the Rabbit,  an especially great time to enjoy this great opus one :)

P.S. I recently updated my Schoenberg Op.1-50 playlist.

Naxos Guitar Collections on Spotify

"In 1994, NAXOS undertook to create the world's largest catalogue of recordings of the classical guitar. Produced under the artistic supervision of renowned guitarist, Norbert Kraft, with co-producer Bonnie Silver, the collection today numbers more than 70 titles, a clear realization of the company's aim.

Using the finest microphones in a magical acoustic, perfectly suited to the guitar's subtle nuances, and the latest digital technology, the recordings capture all the intimate detail and dynamic depth of the guitar's voice.

The Guitar Collection focuses on three repertoire streams:    

* The 'Complete Works' editions include the entire output of the instrument's important composers from the 19th and 20th Centuries. The works of Sor, Giuliani, Rodrigo, Torroba, Lauro, Ponce, Brouwer, and Barrios are among the many represented here.    

* The 'Laureate Series' features recent competition winners - stars of the future - in recital programmes displaying the artistry of these exciting young players.     

* Our 'National Series' presents music indigenous to various countries, mostly Latin American, in which the guitar is an integral part of the cultural fabric.  " - Naxos page for this series.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Naxos Guitar Collection (850 tracks, total time: 2 days) Press Ctrl (CMD on Macs) + G to browse in album view.

P.S. I updated my personal appeal post,  put the books that are cheaper in the UK store into a UK store wishlist.

Naïve Vivaldi Edition + Open Vivaldi Playlist

"The Vivaldi Edition, a recording venture conceived by the Italian musicologist Alberto Basso and the independent label Naïve, is one of the most ambitious recording projects of the twentyfirst century. Its principal objective is to record the massive collection of Vivaldi autograph manuscripts preserved today in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin, some 450 works. Incredibly, this is the private library of scores Vivaldi had at home at the time of his death in Vienna in 1741 and includes his extant operas, hundreds of concertos, sacred compositions and cantatas. Much of this music has not been heard since the 18th century. The release of more than 100 CDs, which began in 2000, will extend over the next ten years.

The Vivaldi Edition's goal is to make this extraordinary wealth of music available to the public and at the same time to reveal the full genius of Vivaldi, not only as a composer of instrumental music, for which he was already known, but as the creator of some of the 18th-century’s most exhilarating vocal music. " Naïve official site

Click thumbnail for full size image (2.7 MB)

All titles released so far are available on Spotify, except for Vol. 8, the most over-recorded classical works ever, The Four Seasons. I compiled a playlist for all titles with TDP (Tesori del piemonte, Treasures of Piedmont) volume numbers, in reverse order. So it goes like Vol.47, 46... Vol.10, Vol,7. Vol.1-6 and Vol.9 are not Vivaldi works, therefor not included here. And I also made a separate playlist for Naïve's Vivaldi recordings without TDP numbers, like opera highlights, sacred arias and new discoveries (one track per album, to keep this one neat). The latter one also function as a Vivaldi Edition appreciation playlist, and I will keep adding standout tracks that grab me when I listen to this Edition. You are welcome to add in your favourite tracks. For such a gigantic Edition, I am desperately in need for good recommendations like this.

Here are the Spotify playlists: Naïve: Vivaldi Edition (1521 tracks, 39 out of 40 released volumes) And Listen to Naïve Vivaldi Edition (open playlist, 11 tracks as of 2010, Jan. 16th) Enjoy. Everybody needs sunny Vivaldi, especially in this cold winter.

The official site doesn't list all titles, for complete discography, check out Presto and Arkivmusic. Press Ctrl (CMD on Macs) + G to browse in album view.

Hidden David Zinman Mahler Cycle on Spotify

"David Zinman's Mahler cycle has been among the most significant recording achievements of the last few years, if not without its controversies."  - Guardian Music

Just like the hidden Michael Gielen recordings, David Zinman's complete Mahler cycle is available on Spotify, but all tagged wrong (mostly as Barenboim). I hope Spotify would add a simple feedback function so users can report problems inside the client.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Mahler: 10 Symphonies - David Zinman (68 tracks, total time: 13 hours) Some albums might be unavailable in the UK or Sweden at this moment, but I believe soon enough the archaic digital copyright laws will die off, geographic restrictions in the age of cloud computing is a sick joke that no one finds funny anymore. Press Ctrl (CMD on Macs) + G to browse in album view.

Open Playlist: 2011 New Classical Releases

Since Spotify still doesn't offer an iTunes store-like interface that you can browse the new recordings easily, I think it would be handy to have all new classical releases in one open playlist.

Here's the Spotify playlist: 2011 New Classical Releases (As of 2011, Jan. 10th, 114 tracks, 10 hours) You are welcome to add in any new classical release you found. Please note: only newly recorded or never before released archive recordings that are released in 2011, are qualified. Reissues and repackaged box-sets don't belong here. As for the definition of classical... well, I hate to drew the line, but in order to keep it simple, I'd say that Ludovico Einaudi and "String Quartet Tribute to Metallica" don't belong here either. I may listen to Einaudi under certain circumstance, but not in this playlist. And if I'm going to give Metallica a spin, which I do occasionally, give me the real thing instead of a string quartet.

You can also check out new releases on Afront's New on Spotify page.

John Cage: Number Pieces

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all had wonderful holidays. I've been doing a lot of reading recently, and, I found myself listening to one particular playlist the most when reading modern literature: John Cage's number pieces. I found these music has a cleansing effect on the mind, as if it paints the walls of the room I'm sitting in with soothing colors, sometime in amusing shapes, but never to the point of freezing your mind, or distraction. The music always stay where they are, hanging in the air, on the walls, and leave the listeners to their own devices. Sometime it sounds even more quiet than silence.

Here's the Spotify playlist: John Cage: Number Pieces (20 tracks, total time: 6 hours)  Program notes on some pieces can be found here.

A Brief History of Post-World War II Music

I am always fascinated by the seemingly incongruous worlds of music and other historical events. Isn't it a bit surreal that the last guardian of the classical tradition, Johannes Brahms, could have met the amateur violinist Albert Einstein? The latter was 18 years old when Brahms died. Richard Strauss, who was born in the year of Second Schleswig War, lived to see the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and composed arguably the last great late romanticism piece Four Last Songs three years after the bomb. Britten wrote his splendid yet shadowy Suite For Harp, "it is rather 18th century harp writing" as he put it, around the same time they put men on the moon. And Shostakovich was composing the formidable Viola Sonata when John Lydon joined the Sex Pistols. This bewitching conflict came all the way into the new millennium, when Gorillaz's single Clint Eastwood was released in 2001, the 71 years old Clint Eastwood himself had yet to make Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags Of Our Fathers, Gran Torino, and Changeling. That single could come out today and still sounds utterly fresh, by the way.

A couple of months ago, I had this idea of trying to make a playlist that reflects, and plays with this surface conflict, by choosing one popular song, and one piece of classical works from every post-WWII year. Before long I realized that it's simply impossible to pick up "best songs of the 1960s" or "most representative composition of the year", so I just let my personal taste take the lead, while sticking to some simple principles: The micro-interplay of consecutive tracks is most important. Classical tracks should be less than 10 minutes long in order to maintain the flow of the playlist, except for tracks at or towards the end. And of course I tried to embrace as many styles and genres as I could. Needless to say, the title of the post is exaggerated, but History of Post-WWII English-Language Pop Music and Western Classical Music would be just too dull.

I like the way this aerial survey begins with Bing Crosby's It's Been A Long, Long Time from 1945, is there a more appropriate title to start with? And the fact that Bruno Maderna's Notturno For Tape came out at the same time with Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven makes the former sounds more bold - classical composers were quietly experimenting electronic instruments when the pop musicians just began to realise that they could challenge the old LvB too. The slow movement of Barber's piano concerto works surprisingly well as a postlude to Tony Bennett's I Left My Heart In San Francisco. The triumphant ending of the heroic Bridge Over Troubled Water makes the violent striking of Crumb's Black Angles that "sail right behind" even more frightening. Reich's Electric Counterpoint works great as an prelude to EBTG's ode to nostalgia. Listen to the Snoop Dogg track and Peter Lieberson opera extract back to back, you probably would have a hard time figuring out which is the rapper. Both are from 1992. The interlacing of different kinds of music adds an inexplicable charm to the whole listening experience.

Here are the Spotify Playlists: 1945-1955  1956-1965  1966-1975 1976-1985  1986-1995  1996-2005

I stopped at 2005 as it's hard to find classical works from the last couple of years in recorded version. For the sake of usability I broke it down into 10-year, 20-track playlists. You can put them into a folder. Every playlist is within 2 hours, and offers much more fun when you listen to it from the beginning to the end. Pop songs are selected according to their initial release years, and classical works are according to the date of completion, not the premiere. I've double checked to make sure that all tracks are available in the UK and Sweden.

So, that's all for the Christmas Special. I may not post new playlists until 2011, and after three days I will set that Personal Appeal post sticky for the rest of the year. Don't worry about whether the books could be delivered in time for Christmas, the Chinese New Year is in February this year:) Thank you all for helping me share the music that I love. Best wishes for Christmas 2010 and the New Year to come.

I pasted the tracklists below, with Wikipedia or other useful links to each classical work:

A Personal Appeal from SCP Founder Ulysses

Sorry to make you go through this again... I just cannot resist putting up Jimmy Wales' piercing eyes that might have been following you around the interenet during the last few months on my site. Look into them, you may get very sleepy, and want to donate all your money to him.

OK, joking apart, here's a personal appeal from me:

This blog, Spotify Classical Playlists, is about to celebrate its first birthday at the end of this month. I have been sharing my Spotify playlists with you for almost a year now. Spotify is such an amazing service in so many aspects, and one of its virtues especially make this site possible: it makes sharing so easy, and fun. I compiled my playlists for my personal pleasure, but with a little effort, I can also share them to music lovers all around the spotified countries, and hear feedback from you, even get recommendations that has helped to broaden my taste, to which I am truly grateful.

If you find my site useful and want to give something back, you can buy a book for me from my Amazon Wishlist (US, UK), or send an Amazon Kindle gift card to my email (spotifyclassical at gmail.com). I live in China and lead a slightly above average life, which means all those books are extremely expensive to me. I am fortunate to live very near to the National library, but some books are not for circulation, like Hermann Abert's Mozart, and some books really belong to the "basic issue item" list that I want to keep them at hand, like The New Bach Reader. Thank you.

Lastly, I still have 17 Spotify invites left. If you want one, drop me a line at the email address above, or on Twitter, I will send/DM you the code. Enjoy, and beware, a storm of playlists is about to begin for the Christmas season.

Update: Another note from 2011.