Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday (Part 1)

Today’s is lovely. I listened to a baritone version and a soprano, (so the YouTube titles tell me) both beautiful.

It's even more beautiful sung, I think.

Oh goodness, I love this so much. Tender, heart rending. I’ve listened to 5 or 6 versions, favourites being the cello version on the Spotify playlist and a baritone version I found. Lovely, lovely song.

Hahn; 'L'Heure Exquise' from Chansons Grises.

I like this piece. It is simple, tender, exquisite! It's undemanding on the ear. The opening bars remind me of Brahm's lullaby. It is rather like a lullaby, actually.

I’m definitely reading the page after I’ve listened for exactly that reason. So my first response is my response pure and simple. Partic for stuff I haven’t known.

@Grawlix thanks for that lovely reply, yes you’re right of course - our response to a piece of music and how it moves us is what’s important.

So interesting reading everyone’s comments above. I love this, so cheerful and scurrying.

AliasGrape I think often the problem is that we feel we ought to ‘understand’ the musical architecture behind the pieces we hear, and then feel a bit inadequate if we don’t....but my feeling is that if we love listening to something, if it cheers us, excites us, moves us, or whatever - that’s enough. It has done its job as music. You don’t need to know about fugal structure or 12-tone rows or anything really, or only if you want to find out more.

And that description you gave of the feelings Mozart conveys is perfect. As Heron says, the overture to The Marriage of Figaro is about exactly that - Figaro and his fiancée Susanna (servants to a Count and Countess) bustling about planning their wedding arrangements. It’s a comedy with bittersweet sad bits and the overture sets the scene for all the high-jinks to come. Do give it a listen if you can, I think you’d enjoy it too.

I think you are a true ‘natural’ alias !

theturn I know exactly. When I was younger it was all Mozart Haydn and lush romantics. Now I love Mozart in his deeper melancholic moods more (arias dealing with betrayal or loss) much older stuff (that Byrd from earlier is right up my street) and 20th century more atonal dissonent stuff. Not sure what this says about my mental state but I love that music twists and turns to meet your changing tastes etc.

I hear what you're saying TheTurn0fTheScrew. Those Strauss songs are on the playlist for this year. They are wonderful. I agree with you. Some music moves you. I feel the same about Mozart. I love his Requiem though.

ok, here is where I reveal myself as a proper philistine. I get that Mozart is a genius. I admire the contrasts and the clarity of this movement. I thought the woodwind lines were very cleverly structured and very pretty, but (choral works aside) Mozart never really gets me in the guts. It's very much admiration rather than love.

I heard Jupiter played live in October on the same bill as Strauss' Vier Letze Lieder. The Mozart I appreciated with my head, but the Strauss got me in the heart.

Now funny, I thought I was just being a bit daft, but obviously it’s something in the music that manages to convey that sense. It just made me think of being very busy, but in quite a cheerful , anticipatory way! I feel quite clever now

Think you have v similar reaction to Mozart Marriage of Figaro Overture. Which you may of course know - you’ve described it uncannily.

alias that image is spot on. It’s not dissimilar to overtures to opera where depending on the production the orchestra plays the curtain rises during the orchestral overture (not always) to a scene on stage often of a household busying themselves for the arrival of someone etc overture finishes (sometimes curtain rises here) and the action and singing and drama starts. Lovely intro to the musical themes we’ll hear later. Useful in the time written as the audience would still be coming in / jostling / chatting etc.

Today’s was very cheering indeed.

I actually googled and tried to learn a bit more about what I was listening to, but got very bogged down in the difference between a fugue and a fugato (that just autocorrected to rigatoni haha) and even looking up the definitions just brought up more musical terms and language I’m not familiar with, so then I got a bit despondent that I’ll never really understand it properly, put google down and decided just to listen with my eyes closed and enjoy it, which I certainly did.

I can imagine this being played in a film, when the character(s) has lots to do or a huge task to accomplish in order to put the house back in order before the owners arrive or save the orphanage or some such, the montage showing speeded up clips of them doing all the different things and rushing around and then collapsing in a big satisfied heap with a smile as it all gets finished just in time.

I really enjoyed listening to this. It does raise the spirits. I love the swift changes from major to minor.
I remember playing this before. It's a devil to play, because you have to be very precise playing the semi-quavers at speed or it's a mess.

Mozart Jupiter Symphony. 4. Molto Allegro

‘Cheering joy’ indeed. The world is a better place for this being in it.

I wasn't bothered either, bibliophile. A bit too lift-musicky.

Clearly I'm a Philistine, but this piano piece does nothing for me. It taxes my patience.

I love today's and have listened to the rest of the album twice already! I remember 'discovering' Satie in the 80s when I was a student and felt very grown up listening to it. It appealed to a feeling of melancholy, if not unrecognised depression... I like this because it's similar, but to me, more positive and gentle. I do still love Satie too.

Definitely get the ripples and lapping water. Lovely gentle meditative piece. Satie sounds an interesting character.

I really liked today’s, it felt like it was sort of pulling at me - like water lapping at your feet maybe? It was so peaceful but also kind of insistent.

Yes. It reminds me of that Prelude too.

I too like today’s a lot. Reminiscent of Bach preludes esp Prelude no 1 in c major. Deceptively simple until you play or hear it a lot.

Elena Kats-Chernin; Unsent Love Letters

I like this piece a lot. It's very calm, very soothing. It reminds me of ripples on a pond. There is a gentle swell in the middle of the piece and the close of the piece mirrors the opening. It's music that would be suitable for meditation or to listen to while reading.

I've started to listen to other pieces in this suite and they are very interesting. I don't know much about Satie. I must look him up. I'm trying to imagine two grand pianos placed one on top of the other :)