Frédéric Chopin - Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1
Pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy
It was tough choosing which of Chopin’s nocturnes to upload. Quite a few of them sound very similar without an obvious standout, but the idiosyncratic ones, to my ear, give up some of their earnest loveliness in exchange for being unique.
This one, though, is both lovely and wild. It sounds polite enough in the beginning, but the left hand’s slow ebb of rising and falling arpeggios—in place of the usual ascending broken chord—gives off the impression that all is not quite as it seems. The contrasting middle section (almost all the Nocturnes follow an A-B-A thematic plan) starts off with an ominous buzzing sound made by left-hand trills before coming to a fortissimo chordal climax that ranks among Chopin’s least subtle moments.
Some of Chopin’s Nocturnes are pretty easy to play, and some are trickier than they look, but this is one of only a handful that looks Beethoven-scary on paper. It’s fairly demanding, and the impulse to hammer out the major mode climax certainly comes from the feeling that one has earned it.* However, and I don’t mean this as a slight on the staggering Mr. Ashkenazy at all, but I’d love to hear a performer who has the guts to play it delicately. After all, those who heard him swear that Chopin never played a note above mezzo forte in his life.
* I would imagine. I can’t play this.
Richard Strauss - Four Last Songs: II. ‘Beim Schlafengehen’ (‘Going to Sleep’)
Herbert von Karajan, conductor
Gundula Janowitz, soprano
(Amazon)
String quartet N°8 in C minor - Shostakovich, 2nd Mvmt. Allegro molto
W.A. Mozart: Piano Concerto #23 in A, K488 - II. Adagio
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz
Orchestra del Teatro Alla Scala
I had to drive back and forth across town multiple times today, and it seemed like every time I got in my car WUOL was playing another piano concerto. I caught the end of this one on my way home from work. This is the second movement, which Wikipedia says is the only movement Mozart wrote in the key of F# minor.
Giuseppe Verdi - Requiem: “Ingemisco”
Beniamino Gigli, Tenor
Text of the ‘Dies Irae’ with English trans. ‘Ingemisco’ begins about 2/3rds down.
Giuseppe Verdi - Requiem: “Lacrimosa, Dies Illa”
Recorded in 1939 at the Rome Opera House
George Frideric Handel - Messiah: Recitative, Air, Chorus (Alto); “Behold, a virgin shall conceive”
