The Rosenberg Trio is a “gypsy” jazz ensemble of two guitars and a double bass. The Rosenberg Trio was founded in 1989. It was inspired by the gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. The musicians are Stocholo Rosenberg (guitar soloist), Nous’che Rosenberg (rhythm guitarist), and Nonnie Rosenberg (double bass player).
For Sephora is a latin flavoured tune with a lot of passion. It is a very good tune to improvise on, and if played well it can sound exciting.
Here is a clip of the Rosenberg Trio playing For Sephora.
Mieczyslaw Horszowski was a Polish-American pianist. He had one of the longest performing and teaching careers in history. As a pianist, Horszowski was known for producing an unforced, beautiful singing tone, and for his skill in balancing the intellectual and emotional qualities of the music he was playing.
His repertoire was very diverse and extensive. It included composers as diverse as Honegger, d’Indy, Martinu, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Villa-Lobos, and of course Chopin.
Mieczyslaw Horszowski was also a very respected teacher. Anton Kuerti was one of Horszowski’s students. Horszowski taught piano until a week before he died at the age of 100.
When Horszowski was 97 years old he gave a solo piano recital at Carnegie Hall. Here is a clip of him playing a Chopin Nocturne and Etude from that Carnegie Hall recital. Enjoy!
Maurice Duruflé was a French composer and organist. He didn’t write very many works. Duruflé is most well known as a composer for his Requiem. He was also a well known performer on the organ and toured internationally.
Duruflé’s four motets are based on gregorian chants taken from the Liber Usualis (a book of prayers, lessons, and chants for important offices used in the Roman Catholic Church). The motets are written in a modal style because the chants themselves were written in modes (these are old scales that were used in church music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance period and folk song long before major and minor scales and modern harmony existed in music).
Here is a recording of Maurice Duruflé’s four motets performed by the Laurens Collegium in Rotterdam. The conductor is Wiecher Mandemaker.
Italian violinist, guitarist, and composer. Paganini was famous as a violin virtuoso and a composer who helped expand violin technique through works such as the 24 Caprices and 6 violin concertos. Paganini also composed close to a 100 duets for violin and guitar. Sadly the duets for violin and guitar have been neglected because most people only know about the 24 Caprices for solo violin and the violin concertos of Paganini. Paganini’s caprices and concertos were the only works of his published during his lifetime.
Leonid Kogan (1924-1982) was one of the great Soviet violinists of the 20th century.
Here is a recording of Leonid Kogan (violin) and Alexander Ivanov Kramskol (guitar) playing Paganini’s Sonata in A Major, op.2. Listen how the violin melody cascades in between the guitar chords. What a beautiful tone that Kogan produces on the violin!
I decided to post this piece because it is a Paganini piece that most people have not heard. It is also very simple and beautiful. This music also shows a different side of the composer and virtuoso. It is not simply virtuosity for the sake of virtuosity, but real music.
Bonporti was an Italian baroque composer. Many of his works have been lost. Bonporti himself published 12 sets of his works (most of these works were solo and trio sonatas). His musical style was inspired by that of Arcangelo Corelli (a virtuoso violinist and composer whom Bonporti may have studied with). Bonporti’s music is notable for its imaginative harmonies, unusual focus to melodic detail, and it is full of lively interplay between the instruments in fast movements. Bonporti’s inventions for solo violin and continuo were a favourite of J.S. Bach. Bach copied out at least four or them. For a long time the pieces that Bach copied were thought to have been composed by him. The latest musicological research shows that the four inventions found in Bach’s hand are actually by Francesco Antonio Bonporti.
The link on this post is a recording by an early music ensemble called I Virtuosi Italiani. They are playing some concertos by Bonporti written for a quartet of string instruments with keyboard continuo.
Michel Chapuis is a well known French organist and pedagogue. He studied organ with Marcel Dupre (who was one of the most famous organists of the 20th century, a fine teacher, and one of the greatest extemporizers of all time). Michel Chapuis is renowned for his interpretations of French baroque and German baroque music.
Here is a recording of Michel Chapuis improvising a prelude and fugue in stylus phantasticus (a style of music that North German organists invented. The music is full of sudden virtuosic flourishes and it is almost like a written out improvisation). The prelude and fugue that Michel Chapuis is playing here is in a style similar to that of the North German organists during the baroque period.
A Brazilian composer who is best known for the tangos that he wrote. Nazareth also wrote waltzes and polkas. He worked for a time as a pianist playing for silent films. Nazareth’s tangoes and other music is full of beautiful melodies and infectious dance rhythms. Ernesto Nazareth’s tangoes established him as one of the most influential Brazilian composers of the 20th century.
Confidencias means Confidences. The piece is melancholy. The title of the piece refers to lost opportunities in life. This particular piece is a hesitation waltz. I decided to post this piece because I want people to know about this composer (who I think is not as well known as he should be). I also think this piece is very beautiful.
The pianist on this recording is Iara Behs. She is one of the foremost pianists in Brazil. You can buy the recording of this piece and other pieces by Nazareth on Amazon.com. It is an excellent recording. I have a copy of this recording and I highly recommend it.
Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso. In the early part of his career as a composer, Bartók travelled with his colleague Kodály to remote villages in order to study their folk melodies. He recorded some of the peasants in these villages singing the folk melodies native to their region. Bartok later transcribed most of these melodies as best as he could for the piano and added harmonies to the melodies.
The Three Folk Songs from Csik are melodies that Bartók recorded village peasants singing, and then transcribed for the piano. I hope you enjoy them. They are quite beautiful.
A Russian 19th century composer. He is known today by lovers of classical music for works such as his Romeo and Juliet Overture, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto no.1 in b flat minor, his six symphonies, the Waltz of the Flowers, and the music to the ballet Swan Lake.
Tchaikovsky wrote wonderful lyrical melodies and his music is often melancholy.
Here is a lullaby written for the piano played by the famous Russian pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (the composer’s name is sometimes spelt with a v, but he preferred to spell it with two Fs). As a pianist, Rachmaninoff was renowned for his precision, rhythmic drive, legato (smooth playing), and the clarity of texture. Being a composer himself, Rachmaninoff had a real knack for figuring out what the composer was trying to say in his music. He learned a piece of music by deconstructing it note by note in order to figure out the phrasing of the melody (the contour of the melody) and how the piece fit together as a whole.
Here is a recording of a Tchaikovsky Lullaby transcribed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, and played by Rachamaninoff himself. Note that the recording quality is very good (Rachmaninoff lived from 1873-1943). Rachmaninoff made normal recordings and also recorded piano rolls. I think that this particular recording is a piano roll because the sound quality is extremely good and does not contain any pops or background noise. Enjoy!
John Dowland was an English composer and lute virtuoso.
He wrote several books of songs for voice and lute accompaniment. The lute accompaniment in his songs is notable for its complexity and expressiveness.
“In Darkness Let Me Dwell” is one of Dowland’s songs for voice and lute accompaniment. The subject material is melancholy and that is typical of many of John Dowland’s songs. It is not known who wrote the texts to Dowland’s songs. Dowland was a master of word painting in his songs (emphasizing certain words by using dissonant harmonies, or raising and lowering the melodic line which includes leaping down to a low note or leaping up to a high note). The song “In Darkness” dates from about 1610 and is a late composition.
Here is a recording of “In Darkness Let Me Dwell” sung by Christian Hilz, Baritone, and accompanied on the lute by Rolf Lislevand on the lute. Listen to the beautiful melodic line and how expresive it is. Listen to the wonderful lute accompaniment, how complex it is, and how well it fits together with the vocal line. I chose this song for my blog because I think it is one of Dowland’s most beautiful songs in his entire output. His music is old but does not sound dated at all. I think it sounds quite modern compared to some of the music written during Dowland’s lifetime.
Musical Treats 