Debussy’s Clair de Lune, from concert in Istanbul with Denyce Graves.
Excellent video of Carlos Kleiber conducting a very quick, almost manic Beethoven’s 7th
I. Poco Sostenuto — Vivace
II. Allegretto
III. Presto — Assai meno presto
IV. Allegro con brio
Brahms: Variations on a theme by Haydn, Op. 56a
Pianists Martha Argerich and Akane Sakai
RequiemTubes
W. A. Mozart
- Introitus and Kyrie as usual, Mozart gets the ball rolling. The opening to every other Requiem is just a variant on this.
- Confutatis and Lacrimosa a moment of Mozart infusing his usual sublime grandeur with a little Beethovenian toughness. (If only Beethoven wrote a Requiem!)
Hector Berlioz
- His entire requiem in a convenient YouTube playlist. A sprawling, massive work scored for an orchestra of about 1,393,402 instruments and singers. This is a great recording of Bernstein conducting it at Les Invalides in Paris.
Johannes Brahms
- His German Requiem is notable for eschewing the Latin (Catholic) text in favor of selections from the Luther Bible. The selected texts focus more on the act of mourning than on Christian doctrine, and the impending judgment of the Dies Irae. My favorite movement is here with a cool subtitled translation.
Gabriel Fauré
- Sanctus gorgeous, consummately French Romantic stuff, you can hear how this style will mutate into the ethereal stuff (à la Satie) that follows a few decades later.
- Pie Jesu the finest movement Fauré ever wrote of anything?
Benjamin Britten
- Libera Me from his non-liturgical War Requiem (debuted in 1962) which combines the traditional Latin text with settings of Wilfred Owen’s WWI-inspired poems. This movement is almost a half-hour long, but don’t miss Britten’s heart-stopping setting of the poem “Strange Meeting” in the second part.
György Ligeti
- Sections of “Kyrie” and “Dies Irae” set to images from 2001: A Space Odyssey. For fans of horror movie soundtracks gone high-art
(these are just the Requiems I am most familiar with. There are way more)
The prelude from the Suite in G Major BWV 1007 by J.S. Bach. Performed on the baroque cello by Tanya Tomkins. Video from the Voices of Music Great Artists Series, January 2009.
(via Vimeo)
I chose this performance for the first real post on this blog over some rather more famous cellists playing the same piece on Youtube, and it wasn’t just a matter of video and sound quality. I really love her raw interpretation of this famous prelude, especially toward the end. By “raw” I don’t mean unrefined, I think her playing exudes both gravitas and personality.
For the choice of work, this is one of Bach’s best-known chamber compositions, and with good reason, as it is lovely. I couldn’t help but start the blog with Bach.
