Beethoven - Mass in C major, Op. 86














Carlo Maria Giulini conducts the New Philharmonia Chorus and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
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Mass in C major (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his Mass in C major, Op. 86, to a commission from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II in 1807. In fulfilling this commission, Beethoven was extending a tradition established by Joseph Haydn, who following his return from England in 1795 had composed one mass per year for the Esterházy family, to celebrate the name day of the Prince's wife. Haydn had ceased this tradition with the failure of his health in 1802.

Prince Nikolaus did not appreciate the mass, causing Beethoven to leave his house in a rage. Charles Rosen, in his The Classical Style, has called the episode Beethoven's "most humiliating public failure". The mass is appreciated by critics (such as Rosen), but is probably one of the least often performed of Beethoven's larger works.

Of the work, Michael Moore writes "While it is often overshadowed by the immense Missa Solemnis, written some fifteen years later, it has a directness and an emotional content that the latter work sometimes lacks." The widely-read Penguin Guide to Compact Discs (2004 edition) forthrightly calls the work a "long-underrated masterpiece."

Movements

1. Kyrie / 2. Gloria (Qui tollis – Quoniam) / 3. Credo / 4. Sanctus (Benedictus – Osanna) / 5. Agnus Dei (Dona nobis pacem)

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Mass in C major (Beethoven)

Rachmaninov - prelude in c sharp minor no.2 (Ashkenazy)


Pianist - Vladimir Ashkenazy
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Bach - Cello Suite No. 6 ( Mischa Maisky )












I. Prelude / II. Allemande / III. Courante / IV. Sarabande / V. Gavottes / VI. Gigue

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Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012

It is widely believed that the sixth suite was composed specifically for a five-stringed violoncello piccolo, a smaller cello, roughly the size of a 7/8 normal cello that has a fifth upper string tuned to E, a perfect fifth above the otherwise top string. However, some say there is no substantial evidence to support this claim: whilst three of the sources inform the player that it is written for an instrument "a cinq cordes", only Anna Magdalena Bach's manuscript indicates the tunings of the strings and the other sources do not mention any intended instrument at all.

Other possible instruments for the suite include a version of the violoncello piccolo played on the arm like a viola, as well as a viola with a fifth string tuned to E, called a viola pomposa. As the range required in this piece is very large, the suite was probably intended for a larger instrument, although it is conceivable that Bach—who was fond of the viola—may have performed the work himself on an arm-held violoncello piccolo. However, it is equally likely that beyond hinting the number of strings, Bach did not intend any specific instrument at all as the construction of instruments in the early 18th century was highly variable.

Cellists wishing to play the piece on a modern four-string cello encounter difficulties as they are forced to use very high positions to reach many of the notes, though modern cellists regularly perform the suite on the 4-string instrument. Performers specialising in early music and using authentic instruments generally use the 5-string cello for this suite, including Anner Bylsma, Pieter Wispelwey, Jaap ter Linden and Josephine van Lier.

This suite is written in much more free form than the others, containing more cadenza-like movements and virtuosic passages. It is also the only one of the suites that is partly notated in the Tenor C clef, which is not needed for the others since they never go above the note G4 (G above middle C).

Mstislav Rostropovich called this suite "a symphony for solo cello" and characterised its D major tonality as evoking joy and triumph.

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Cello Suites (Bach)

Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis


Conductor: Eugene Ormandy / Philadelphia Orchestra
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Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, also known as the Tallis Fantasia, is a work for string orchestra by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. It was composed in 1910, and performed for the first time in September of that year at Gloucester Cathedral for the Three Choirs Festival. Vaughan Williams himself was the conductor on this occasion, and the composition proved to be a major success.
He revised the work twice, in 1913 and 1919. Performances of the work generally run between 14 and 16 minutes.
The work takes its name from the original composer of the melody, Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585). Vaughan Williams took much inspiration from music of the English Renaissance and many of his works are associated with or inspired by the music of this period. In 1906 Vaughan Williams included Tallis's Third Mode Melody in the English Hymnal, which he was then editing, as the melody for Joseph Addison's hymn When Rising from the Bed of Death. The tune is in Double Common Meter (D.C.M. or C.M.D.)
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
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