Fuxpuzzle

I did it!! I finally found the music that annoys my surroundings even more than GothicElectro, Dubstep, or Speedcore… :-) Not a bad accomplishment for a 17^th century Austrian composer, with a reputation for being a dull academic…! Poor Johann Joseph Fux, ok, the Habsburg Catholic court *might* not have been the gentlest, free-thinking surroundings of that period (ask it to the people who had to endure the 30 year war), but only to be remembered by a book that nobody can read (as it is written in Latin) no, that is too harsh for Johann. So I was glad to find his “Missa Corporis Christi” on youtube, nice flowing music, so easy going that you have to be in a splendid mood to endure it…

The only snag was that the uploader wanted to make a puzzle of the missa order. No clues given… So, here is my solution for this Fuxpuzzle, the right order for this work.

Hope you will enjoy it!

1) Kyrie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAT4qPfTM3I&hd=1

2) Gloria; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jNOQSDAj0c&hd=1

3) Credo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKIJUBaUCsg&hd=1

4) Sanctus; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJDmgAG0djo&hd=1

5) Benedictus; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6scDAgT7C3U&hd=1

6) Agnus Dei; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lcXNL-rB2I&hd=1

Music for the Dead Days

Ok, Christmas night is over… Are you already fed up with the fourth Weihnachtsoratorium you just had to hear this year? The sixth Messiah? Cambridge Choir Chorals until you drop? Do you want to act on the word “Wham” when ”Last Christmas” bugs you for the zillionth time in the mall you visit? Don’t despair! Here is the Christmas music that does not feature any tunes wich crawl in your ears when you actually want to sleep, does not contain any people singing and is actually a very nice composition an sich. Perfect music for what the Dutch writer Natalie Koch so beautifully described as “the dead days between Christmas and New Year”…

It’s the Weihnachtsquintett (Christmas Quartet) from the Dutch Composer Jan Brandts Buys (1868-1933). Scored for Flute and String Quartet and composed in 1915, it perfectly set’s the introvert and reflective mood of the Dead Days, providing a suitable transition between O Holy Night and Auld Lang Syne… Click the link below for the music.

Have a Happy Dead Days!

 

Click here for Jan Brandts Buys’ Weinachtsquintett

Liszt in a Ladies magazine...

Some records you take just for the cover alone... Like this 45RPM that once was a supplement with the Dutch ladies magazine "Margriet". I have several records on this label, mostly VOX re-issues, but non have that wonderful late 1950's romantic flair on it... What is she staring at? What does she think? Why is that candle there?? Well, in the end, 10 Eurocents well spend... :-) Greek pianist Rena Kyriakou (1917-1994) easily glides through the piano lollipops by Beethoven (für Elise!), Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, can’t go wrong there… Hope you will enjoy this curiosity!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddy1rqx_Jys&hd=1 (HD 720p link)

My all time favorite classical LP: Helene Boschi Plays Mozart

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Recently, Dutch classical music station Radio 4 had an “Edison day” to commemorate the 80th anniversary of phonograph inventor Thomas Alva Edison. The broadcast itself was a little disappointing, only a few items had connection with the theme and a collector who wanted to play a two minute wax cylinder on the show was asked to shut down the machine after 30 seconds… It made a rather hilarious part of the broadcast, and hey, show some courage there on Edison day! Anyway, there was an intriguing red wire theme through the broadcast, which was he question “what is your favorite classical LP?” It prompted me to think about it, and all the usual suspects passed by; Glenn Gould’s Goldberg variations, Mravrinski’s Shostakovich or even Bruckner Six by Otto Klemperer… But… The one I came up with in the end was something completely different. It’s Mozart’s 22nd piano concerto, played by the Swiss pianist Helene Boschi (1917-1990). From the moment she steps in the arena (after the introduction with some awesome Czech wind players) you have the feeling that the concerto has to be played like this and not in any other way. It’s played so unbelievably natural and “right”, that from the moment I first put the stylus in the groove of this 1953 LP, I was completely blown away by it. The weird thing is, to my knowledge, it has never been re-issued on cd… Well, judge for yourself, I have transferred the LP (about a quarter inch thick, tha good old Supraphon pressings…) and put the MP3’s online.  Rightmouseclick to download. As a bonus, I added an interview I had with the Dutch Teleac radio program “Hoe? Zo!” about the transfer of this LP. It’s in Dutch, but you hear some examples of the “before” and “after” treatment of the crackles and pops… Enjoy the performance!

1– Allegro (Mp3)

2– Adagio (Mp3)

3– Allegro-Andante cantabile-Tempo I (Mp3)

Interview about this LP (in Dutch) Teleac Radio

Hey! I'm not nice... (but I can sing)

There are these artists who just aren’t that “nice”. An acquaintance of mine wanted to have Elisabeth Schwarzkopf autograph on an authentic 1940’s picture of her. She took the photo and said she looked awful on it. He later found the picture back under the table, torn… She was a terrific singer. Elly Ney adored Adolf Hitler and was appointed to be his official “Kammermusikerin”. In letters to friends she complained that Jews were treated too polite in Nazi Germany… She was a terrific pianist. In the light of these two examples Dutch soprano Jo Vincent doesn’t come off that bad…  She had a mouth and was not afraid to use it. She was nosy, interfered with just about everything in the life of her pupils and when in 1960 she was asked her opinion on Dutch TV about then popular singer Mieke Telkamp she replied that “she didn’t sing, she just shouted in a microphone”… Beside the fact that I am not a big of a Mieke Telkamp fan, it’s quite tactless to say that before an audience of about a million people. Straightforward, honest maybe, but also a bit rude… Yet, Jo Vincent was an awesome singer. Here is a 1927 recording of her, made when she was 29 years old. A very atmospheric performance of Franz Schubert’s “Du bist die Ruh”, with Maurice van Ijzer on the tingly (hey, authentic 1927!) piano.

Follow this link! -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdqLXbplC7I

The human car-magnet… Abbey Simon (b. 1922)

Some guys have all the bad luck… Take Abbey Simon, pianist. Pupil of the legendary Josef Hofmann. He had a rocketing career in the 1950’s; a contract with Philips and all the potential to be “one-of the-greats”. That is, until he also attract the attentions of passing cars,  or… cars hat had the tendency NOT to pass, but to hit him… The first one was when he tried (I said tried) to cross the road in front of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. #Not. He slowly recovered from the accident,  that is until, well; you get the picture I guess… In 1954 his magnetism was focussed on pianism still, and inside the Concertgebouw hall (relatively save) he recorded Grieg’s piano concerto in a minor with the Residentie orchestra from the Hague (famous in that period!) and Willem van Otterloo conducting. As if it should be that way; the record was a “dump” from a… Hospital radio station ;-)

Click here for the MP3’s, right mouse-click if you want to save them on your computer.

Part1 - Allegro molto  moderato (mp3)

Part2 - Adagio (mp3)


Part3 - Allegro moderato molto e marcato (mp3)

Your alternative suicide music…

Serendipity. When I was linking the Odnoposoff video in my last post, I finally found an other record I was looking for for ages… It’s the ultimate funeral or “oh-my-god-I-want-to-kill-myself” alternative for Albioni’s Adagio, (the people who know the brilliant Swedish arthouse movie “Fucking Amal” will probably know what I mean… :) called The Chaconne by Vitali. Equal to Albioni’s Adagio, it’s a fraud too… But who cares, sob along, light some candles and unashamedly let yourself flow in the stream of pseudo-baroque sadness… Especially when these qualities of the music are heightened by the violin playing of Ricardo Odnoposoff in this 1952 MMS recording. The appropriate inauthentic organ continuo by Heinz Wehrle comes as a bonus…