Marco Polo: Josef Strauss Edition on Spotify

"[Josef] is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular…"  - Johann Strauss II on his brother.

l.to r.: Eduard, Johann II, and Josef Strauss

"Josef Strauss (1827 - 1870)was trained as an engineer, and worked for the city of Vienna. He received several patents for various devices, and, it was only when his elder brother, Johann II, became ill from over-work, that he reluctantly took over - temporarily, he thought - the leadership of the Strauss orchestra. However, his creative mind soon caused Johann to envy him, and to acknowledge him the most talented of the three brothers." Josef's best-known composition are the waltzes Village Swallows from Austria (1864), The Mysterious Powers of Magnetism (1865) and Music of the Spheres (1868) as well as co-writing the Pizzicato-Polka (1869) with his brother Johann.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Marco Polo - Josef Strauss Edition (290 tracks, 26 albums, total time: 26 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See Naxos for album list and liner notes.

Marco Polo: Johann Strauss I (The Father) Edition

"Johann Strauss I is one of the most important composers of nineteenth century Viennese light music. While his son, Johann Jr., has rightly surpassed him in fame and stature, he must still be assessed as an important figure in the genre, not simply because of his influence on his sons and other composers, but because of the occasional high quality of his music. His melodies tend not to flow smoothly in their brevity or in their motif-like collage structure, and his harmonies are not particularly inventive. Still, he was able to fashion attractive music in the Viennese waltz genre owing to his understanding of its nature -- indeed, he was central to its evolution in the nineteenth century. Moreover, he possessed the ability to convey the best case for his works through his superior conducting skills. He had moments of genuine inspiration and created several memorable works, including the Loreley-Rhein-Klänge (1844) and Radetsky-Marsch (1848). In addition, he had a keen sense for employing popular themes from the works of other composers, as with his Walzer à la Paganini, Op. 11. " - AllMusic

This playlist includes all 22 albums released so far from Marco Polo's Johann Strauss I Edition, and a separate disk of his orchestral works. The series is in chronological order, and hasn't reached Op. 228 Radetzky March yet. I added two tracks of that piece and Op. 235 Piefke und Pufke Polka, from a Decca recording. They will be replaced with the Marco Polo recording once it's released.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Marco Polo - Johann Strauss I Edition (249 tracks, total time: 26 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See Naxos for album list and liner notes to every recording, and Presto for album overviews.

Naxos 19th Century Violinist Composers Series

"With flushed face, raised shoulders, and groans of delight Brahms belabored the keyboard while accompanying me and was happy that 'such a thing existed in this world." - Joseph Joachim: Ein lebensbild

"Brahms was talking about one of the seminal violin works of the 19th century, and it wasn't Beethoven's magisterial violin Concerto, nor was it Mendelssohn's marvelous light and airy essay in the same genre. Nor was it the great Kreutzer Sonata or the concertos of Saint-Saens. Brahms groaned with delight over the great 22nd violin concerto of Giovanni Battista Viotti, one of the true masters of the violin and the master who opened the door to a flood of great music little remembered today. Rode, Baillot, Kreutzer, Dancla, Alard, Spohr, Beriot, David, Mazas, Godard, Vieuxtemps and many more composers solidified the technique of modern violin-playing at the same time creating a body of music that is truly a buried treasure - now brought to the light of day and made part of our recorded legacy by Naxos. While the concerto form led the way, these composers wrote in a variety of forms: paraphrases of opera tunes, tone-poem descriptions of exotic travel , airs varie based on popular tunes, chamber music, and especially (many were pedagogues) etudes, caprices, and numerous 'violin schools.' This series on 19th century violin music provides a window onto this vast repertoire, mostly written by practitioners of the instrument, and all of it delightful listening." - Naxos.com

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Naxos - 19th Century Violinist Composers (337 tracks, 30 albums, total time: 34 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. I included a Naxos disk of Viotti's violin works, though it's not part of the series. See Naxos for list of albums in this series and liner notes, and Presto for album overviews.

The 7th Set of Bach Cantatas on Spotify

A new one voice per part (OVPP) series of Bach cantata recordings by La Petite Bande and conductor Sigiswald Kuijken is underway on Accent Records. The series will comprise 17 (some say 20) hybrid SACDs; not a complete set, but enough for a complete liturgical year. Classic FM comments: "The surround-sound experience, in which all voices register clearly within the setting of a large, reverberant space, aids contemplation of words and music. Then there is the sheer quality of Las Petite Bande's musicmaking, which blends impeccable period style with genuine substance of expression."

Get Kuijken's Bach cantatas set in one Spotify playlist: Bach Cantatas - Kuijken (310 tracks, total time: 15 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. An earlier Kuijken/LPB/Accent recording of Bach's cantatas for solo voices is not part of the series, but I included it at the end of the playlist. More links: discussions on this set at Bach Cantatas; a video of La Petite Bande Live at Ambronay 2009.

I made playlists for the other six complete sets of Bach cantatas in 2010: Rilling, Suzuki, Gardiner and Harnoncourt & Leonhardt, Leusink, Koopman (check out those posts for useful links). At that time many recordings were missing on Spotify; now every released recording from those sets are available, and the playlists were updated (if you already subscribed to them, they will update automatically in your place).

Playlists for the other six sets:

Bach Cantatas - Gardiner (1119 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Harnoncourt & Leonhardt (1239 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Koopman (1518 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Leusink (1219 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Rilling (1143 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Suzuki (1213 tracks) 

Esa-Pekka Salonen as Composer: Complete Recordings on Spotify

"Musical expression is bodily expression, there is no abstract cerebral expression in my opinion. It all comes out of the body."

"There's a trend in our culture to be constantly up to date because we're connected through the internet, and an art form that would be entirely backward-looking and museum-like would make no sense. People are interested in what's happening right now." - Esa-Pekka Salonen

"Esa-Pekka Salonen has progressed through a number of stylistic phases during his career as a composer. In the late 1970s when he was studying with Rautavaara at the Sibelius Academy, he wrote in a lyrical, neo-Romantic style; a few years later, after studying in Italy with Donatoni and Castiglioni, he adopted strict serial principles, notably in his Yta series of solo pieces. For a number of years after his conducting career took off in 1983, he had little time for composition, but began to write once again in the mid-1990s, mostly in larger forms, with a new sense of energy, joie de vivre and orchestral brilliance." (Full bio here).

This playlist was made after I heard the new recording of Salonen's Grawemeyer winning Violin Concerto. The irresistible rhythmic energy and spastic melodies make his music highly accessible and intriguing, and reminds me of Stravinsky. As a successful conductor, Salonen surely has a broad palette of orchestral colors, but there's hardly any moment in his music that is avant-garde for avant-garde's sake. I highly recommend the Violin Concerto, Foreign Bodies, Helix, and Gambit to any music fan.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Esa-pekka Salonen as Composer (61 tracks from 24 albums, total time: 7 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. More links: composition list with composer's notes; interviews with Alex Ross and David Patrick Stearns.

P.S. The Violin Concerto is available on Spotify UK but won't be available in the US till October 16th (unless it appears earlier than the CD release). I have no idea why major classical labels still use different release dates for digital releases in different regions.

Naxos: British Light Music Series on Spotify

"Famous for its harmonically unchallenging, smooth and entertaining melodic lines, British Light Music grew from the indulgent and sentimental music of the 19th Century, from composers such as Arthur Sullivan, to become one of the most popular classical musical styles in Britain during the first half of the 20th Century. British Light Music is often referred to as easy listening and usually instantly recognisable. Whilst the genre may not advocate ground breaking compositional techniques, it is not always limited to its convivial facade, sometimes parodying more serious classical music through citation of theme and motif.

British Light Music is, for the most part, a form of programme music, with each piece designed to represent a mood, object, place or event. It was this quality, which made it ideal for broadcast throughout the heyday of radio, leading to the introduction of The BBC Light Programme in 1945, and during the advent of television, where British Light Music featured as the introduction to many early programmes. It was, in fact, these two mediums, which facilitated its success.

The genre's popularity was complemented by its use in film; notably, and amongst many others, in the 1939 version of Goodbye Mr Chips with the soundtrack by Richard Addinsell, and the 1955 World War II classic The Dam Busters, which featured the famous 'Dam Busters's March' by Eric Coates. Although the style has declined since the early 1960s, its use in film has contributed greatly to its longevity.

Famous British Light Music composers include Ernest Tomlinson, Edward German, Haydn Wood, Richard Addinsell and Eric Coates, the last of whom is described as the 'father' or 'king' of British Light Music." - Naxos.com (where you can find liner notes for each album in the series)

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Naxos - British Light Music (539 tracks, 31 albums, total time: 35 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. It includes some Naxos British light music compilations, and Vintage TV & Radio Classics (including Fritz Spiegl's wake-up music for BBC Radio 4, which was dropped in 2006 after 30 years despite a nationwide campaign to save it), though they are not listed in the series on the Naxos site.

Everyday & Every Single Night: 101 Songs featuring Celesta

If you don't know what celesta is, try playing Buddy Holly's Everyday or Velvet Underground's Sunday Morning in your head. Yes it is chimes played by a keyboard, and that floating, shimmering sound is produced by felt hammers striking metal bars. In a Baroque pop setting it brings a playful, dreamy flavor to the music (Nick Drake's Northern Sky), and when played on top of jarring guitars it often sounds eerie and uncharacteristically powerful (Stooges' Penetration). Björk uses celesta a lot, and lent it to Sigur Rós for the Takk... sessions. Indie rockers, from Eels to Death Cab For Cutie, experiment with the instrument; it can also be heard on Adele and Amy Winehouse's blockbusters.

Celesta played by Vi Petty on Buddy Holly's "Everyday", May 1957.

This playlist is a collection of songs that features celesta. Other than pop/rock, I also included a few jazz recordings (Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner) and movie soundtracks (John Williams's Hedwig's Theme for Harry Potter). Some albums feature this instrument on many tracks, but I only selected one track per album.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Celesta (Celeste) in Pop, Jazz & Soundtracks (101 tracks from 101 albums, total time: 6 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. I started this playlist just because I discovered the excellent Buddy Holly box-set Not Fade Away: The Complete Studio Recordings And More on Spotify, and wanted to build something around it. The end result is much more fun than I expected. I look forward to make more playlists for uncommon instruments when I can find the time.

For celesta used in classical music, check out this NPR post.

For those who want the tracklist in text:

• Buddy Holly – Everyday
• Fiona Apple – Every Single Night
• Danger Mouse – The Rose With The Broken Neck - feat. Jack White
• Eels – Flyswatter
• Cass McCombs – The Lonely Doll
• Death Cab for Cutie – Title and Registration
• Nick Drake – Northern Sky
• Sigur Ros – Sé Lest
• Louis Armstrong – Someday You'll Be Sorry
• Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – Basin Street Blues
• Sufjan Stevens – Sister Winter
• The Beach Boys – Girl Don't Tell Me
• Daniel Johnston – Syrup Of Tears
• Ben Harper – When She Believes
• Iggy & The Stooges – Penetration
• Deerhoof – The Tears and Music of Love
• Beck – Strange Invitation
• Amy Winehouse – Tears Dry On Their Own
• Adele – First Love (album)
• The National – Conversation 16
• The Bees – The Start
• James Brown – America Is My Home
• Bruce Springsteen – American Land
• The Waterboys – Trumpets
• Richard Hawley – For Your Lover Give Some Time
• Björk – Mother Heroic
• Björk – The Comet Song 
• Frank Sinatra – I'll Never Smile Again
• Frank Sinatra – Pennies From Heaven
• Yeasayer – Damaged Goods
• The Decemberists – O New England
• Judy Collins – Houses
• Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
• Keith Richards – Hate It When You Leave
• Tracey Thorn – By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down And Wept
• Gene Wilder – Pure Imagination
• Tracey Thorn – Come On Home To Me
• Stevie Wonder – As If You Read My Mind
• Mink DeVille – Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl
• Tom Waits – Ice Cream Man
• The Moody Blues – Emily's Song
• Harry Potter Soundtrack – Hedwig's Theme
• Heidi Berry – One-String Violin
• Björk – The Boho Dance
• Björk – Sun In My Mouth
• Robert Forster – Demon Days
• Dido – Look No Further
• Elvis Costello And The Attractions – All This Useless Beauty
• Paul Simon – Hurricane Eye
• Doveman – Hurricane
• Paul Simon – Questions for the Angels
• Rufus Wainwright – Beauty Mark
• Whitney Houston – I Was Made To Love Him
• Eric Burdon & the Animals – White Houses
• Jarvis Cocker – Big Julie
• Richard Hawley – I'm Looking For Someone To Find Me
• Fiona Apple – Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)
• Passion Pit – Where We Belong
• Alanis Morissette – Tapes
• Jason Mraz – Who Needs Shelter
• Beirut – Forks And Knives (La Fête)
• John Mayer – Who Says
• Pearls Before Swine – Man In The Tree
• The Association – Cherish
• Thelonious Monk – Pannonica (Incomplete)
• The Polyphonic Spree – Lithium
• Frank Zappa – Absolutely Free
• U2 – Bad
• McCoy Tyner – Once I Loved (O Amor Em Paz)
• Carole King – Growing Away From Me
• John Denver – Aspenglow
• Stereolab – Vonal Declosion
• Tim Buckley – Song Of The Magician
• My Brightest Diamond – Something of an End
• Ryan Adams – Wild Flowers
• Giovanca – On My Way
• Eurythmics – Adrian
• Badly Drawn Boy – Stockport
• Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone
• Fad Gadget – Collapsing New People
• Jamie Lidell – Compass
• The Monkees – It's Nice To Be With You
• Charlotte Gainsbourg – In The End
• Cat Stevens – (Remember The Days Of The) Old Schoolyard
• Carly Simon – Fairweather Father
• Christina Aguilera – All I Need
• Lionel Richie – You Mean More To Me
• Jamie Cullum – Mixtape
• Marvin Gaye – Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
• Perry Keyes – Poor Boy
• Chet Baker – My Ideal
• Madeleine Peyroux – Blue Alert
• Clare & The Reasons – Nothing/Nowhere
• Divine Fits – Flaggin A Ride
• Bic Runga – Music And Light
• Amanda Palmer – What's The Use Of Wondrin
• Roberta Flack – Won't You Be My Neighbor?
• Add N To x – The Regent Is Dead
• Aluminium – Forever For Her (Four Tet Remix)
• Paul Weller – Night Lights
• The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning

Jonathan Harvey: Reverse Chronological Collection

"Jonathan Harvey can be thought of as an English Stockhausen: he is perhaps best known for integrating electronically generated sound with live music in the service of a mystical outlook with many (especially non-Western) philosophical influences. However, Harvey's large output also contains many accessible choral pieces and acoustic avant-garde works for orchestra or chamber ensemble." - AllMusic

This playlist is compiled after the list of works on the composer's site, and sorted in reverse chronological order; from Speakings (2008) to Dialogue (1965). Two undated works (The Tree & Ah! Sun-Flower) are included at the end. For newcomers, I recommend to start with the String Quartets, Bird Concerto With Pianosong and White as Jasmine.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Jonathan Harvey - Reverse Chronological Collection (91 tracks, total time: 11 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.  Also check out A Guide to Jonathan Harvey's Music on Guardian (and an interesting comment on contemporary music and Buddhism).

Surprised by Beauty: Complete William Duckworth Recordings on Spotify

I woke up this morning to the sad news that William Duckworth, my favorite composer discovered on Spotify, has passed away. Read Kyle Gann's obituary Strange Times here.

I made a Duckworth playlist one year ago, but kept it unpublished, as most of the composer's works are recorded by Lovely Music, which is not on Spotify. I even wrote to the label, and Mr. Duckworth to ask if they could make the music available. Unfortunately I didn't know about his heath condition at that time, otherwise I would write more about how his music opened my ears to a whole new genre. I also noticed a Coldplay song sounded suspiciously similar to one of the Time Curve Preludes, and Mr. Duckworth kindly retweeted it last August. It would be a great pleasure if my little discovery brought a smile to his face.

Hear his music in this Spotify playlist: William Duckworth - Complete Recordings on Spotify (54 tracks, total time: 3 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. For postminimalism, see my previous playlist.

Rest in peace.

Clara Schumann: Complete Works on Spotify

"Clara Wieck Schumann has often been misleadingly referred to as the wife of composer Robert Schumann, and as one of the leading pianists of her day, rather than as a composer in her own right. Beginning in the last quarter of the twentieth century however, her stature as a composer finally became recognized. Still, she cannot by any reasonable measure be ranked as a major composer, owing in great part to her relatively small output. She nonetheless wrote significant compositions in both the keyboard and vocal realms. Had she been able to devote more time to composition -- she was occupied by maternal matters much of the time, having given birth to eight children -- she might well have risen to the artistic heights of her husband. Some of her later works -- the Six Lieder, Op. 23, for instance -- demonstrate considerable subtlety and depth." - AllMusic

Google Doodle for Clara Schumann's 193rd birthday today

"Concert pianist, composer, mother, wife, German patriot. Saving western civilisation from complete demoralisation one tweet at a time." Her Twitter bio

This playlist includes Clara Schumann's works with opus number, as well as some notable unnumbered works, including a Piano Sonata in g minor, and a Concerto Movement for piano and orchestra. All works are sorted in chronological order. I used several recordings that feature the Schumann couple's works in one disk, and for the Piano Trio, I used the excellent recording from Boulanger Trio.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Clara Schumann - Complete Chronological Catalogue (100 tracks, total time: 5 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.