CLASSICAL OPUS no.2

Franz Schubert – “Trio in E flat major op.100”

フランツ・シューベルト – 「Eフラットメジャーop.100のトリオ」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 9 minutes

A climax of unhurried, audacious precision, the trio alternates with ease between mirth and solemnity.  The gentle, discursive style is richly endowed with a structural elegance of pointillist contrasts.  Uniquely among Austrian composers, Schubert started out as a viola player, hence – probably – his acute focus on non-ornamental detail within the structural frame.  And although his latest period is known for dour shades of saturnine bleakness, little of the downcast mood transpires in the Trio.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Trio_No._2_(Schubert)

 

A REFLECTION

Comfort

which finds no windows and no doors

and wants to come in

bitterly gathers kindling.

It wants to force a miracle

and sets fire to

the house of pain

 

Hilde Domin: “House without windows”

Published in: on December 29, 2018 at 5:32 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.8

Johannes Sebastian Bach: “Erbarme Dich, mein Gott, no.39 Matthaeus Passion”

ヨハネス・セバスチャン・バッハ：「「憐れみ給え、わが神よ」、39番マタイ受難曲」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 8 minutes

The prime aria from the second part of the “Passion” has a contemplative, lilting rhythm framing a rather resigned mood – a proper metaphor for the spiritual traditions of the mainly Jewish audience that Matthew targeted in his Gospels.  Kathleen Ferrier’s classic 1950 recording with von Karajan is a priceless document, but the trimmed down orchestration in the second video is more transparent, with the lamenting violin, comforted by the cello under the organ’s warm eiderdown.

 

MUSIC

 

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Matthew_Passion

 

A REFLECTION

Over this your white grave

covered for years, there is a stir

in the air, something uplifting

and, like death, beyond comprehension.

Over this your white grave

oh, mother, can such loving cease?

for all his filial adoration

a prayer:

Give her eternal peace

 

Karol Wojtyła: “Over This Your White Grave”

Published in: on December 23, 2018 at 5:03 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.23

Gabriel Fauré: “La Sicilienne op.78”

ガブリエル・フォーレ：「シチリアオペラ78」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 4 minutes

This introspective and inconsolable lullaby adsorbs layer by layer as a carefully balanced, subliminal chamber piece.  The asymmetric dialogue places a crooning cello in piano’s collateral embrace.  The result is perennially subtle, creaky and slow, just as the means of transportation were in the composer’s era.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilienne_(Faur%C3%A9)

 

A REFLECTION

Eyes, are you not aware,

When eager to admire

Her face so soft and fair,

You are as wax in fire,

As snow in sun? Unless you have a care

Certes you’ll melt away.

 

Ludovico Ariosto: “Madrigal 1”

Published in: on December 8, 2018 at 4:40 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no. 99

Darius Milhaud – Elegie pour piano et violoncelle, op.251

ダライアス ミルホード – – ピアノとチェロのためのエレジー、op.251

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 4 minutes

This elegant, dusky threnody showcases fibrous cello verses, warmly endorsed by heartfelt keyboard touches.  It successfully conceals trans-Atlantic eclecticism that this ultra-prolific composer often betrayed and eventually bequeathed – also to his American students: Steve Reich and Dave Brubeck.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darius_Milhaud

(I know, it’s not much, but if you are truly hungry, here’s the beef):

Click to access these_cortot_pierre_2003.pdf

 

A REFLECTION

Out of this world, we’re on our way:

Our greetings to those who will stay.

We send all our greetings to those

Who give us their blessings and pray.

 

Yunus Emre “Poems”

Published in: on September 22, 2018 at 3:02 pm  Leave a Comment