Welcome to our free classical music site
Do you write about classical music? Are you a blogger? Want to team up with Classical Connect? Send us a message, let's talk!
Do you write about classical music? Are you a blogger? Want to team up with Classical Connect? Send us a message, let's talk!
January 3, 2011
Welcome to 2011! This year we hope to add many more recordings to the 2,500 already in our library, and look forward to welcoming more performers to join the ranks of about 500 musicians who have already contributed their music to Classical Connect. Here are some of the recent recordings; we hope they give you some idea of the high caliber and talent of musicians who collaborate with Classical Connect.
The violinist Rachel Lee, who studied with Itzhak Perlman at the age of 10 and also with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, plays Leoš Janáček's Sonata for Violin and Piano. She's accompanied by Ron Regev.
The Korean pianist Soyeon Lee won the First Prize at the 2010 Naumburg Piano Competition. She studied at the Juilliard School with Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald. She plays Prelude and Fugue in D-flat Major Op. 87, No. 15 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
The cellist Wendy Law has appeared as a soloist with renowned orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the Russian Philharmonic. Ms. Law has been appointed a Teaching Artist at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Here she plays 12 Variations on a theme from Mozart's "The Magic Flute" by Beethoven. Byron Sean is on the piano. To hear the complete playlist, click here.
December 27, 2010
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our musicians, and classical music lovers! Have a wonderful holiday season, and here to celebrate are two pieces written more than two centuries apart. Bach's Cantata BWV 110, one of the several he wrote for the Christmas day, was first performed in Leipzig on December 25, 1725. Here, in an old recording, is the opening chorus, Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Psalm 126:2). It is performed by the Boys Choir (Knabenchor) of Windsbach, Bavaria, conducted by the choir's founder and director, Hans Thamm, with the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra.
Olivier Messiaen, a deeply religious man, wrote his piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, or Twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus, in 1944. The whole piece takes about two hours to play, but here you can listen to Movement 13, Noël (Christmas), performed by the pianist Minju Choi. Happy listening!
December 20, 2010
Beethoven's 240th birthday anniversary eclipsed several events that are very much worth noting. One of the greatest composers of the 20th century, Olivier Messiaen, was born on December 10, 1908. Messiaen was a bird-lover (as was one of his heroes, St. Francis of Assisi), considered himself an ornithologist, and incorporated birdsongs in many of his compositions. During World War II he spent a year in a prison camp where he composed one of his most profound pieces, Quartet for the End of Time (Quatuor pour la fin du temps). Here is Première communion de la vierge, from Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jésus, played by the French pianist Jean-François Latour. And yes, you can hear the birds.
Another great French composer, Hector Berlioz, was born on December 12, 1803. Even though musically Messiaen and Berlioz are worlds apart, a historical curiosity links the two: for many years Messiaen worked as an organist at the church of Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris - the same church in which Berlioz's funeral was held on March 11, 1869. Berlioz wrote operas, songs, but is probably best remembered as a great symphonist. Here is the first movement, "Rêveries - Passions" (Daydreams - Passions) of his Symphonie Fantastique in the old noncommercial recording by Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the direction of Igor Markevitch.
December 13, 2010
Beethoven! As strange as it sounds, we don't quite know when one of the greatest composers in the history of music was born. We do know that he was baptized on December 17th, 1770, so the date of the 16th seems likely. But this uncertainty is not going to stop the world from celebrating the 240th anniversary of of Ludwig van Beethoven's birthday and of course we'll join in the festivities. Beethoven's output is so large and its level is so tremendous that the task of selecting several pieces for a playlist appears rather futile. With some trepidation we put together a playlist featuring different instruments, although we could've easily increased its size many times. We start with Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op.53, "Waldstein" played by the pianist Yukiko Sekino. Then the violinist Nathan Cole and the pianist Kuang-Hao Huang perform Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 8 in G Major, Op. 30, No. 3. Following that we'll hear Suren Bagratuni, cello, play 7 Variations on "Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen." He's accompanied by the pianist Ralph Votapek. Arianna String Quartet will then perform Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6. We'll finish with the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73. James Dick is the pianist, with the Texas Festival Orchestra under the baton of Stefan Sanderling. To listen, click here.
Also, please follow us on Facebook, as we feature different pieces each day of the week.
December 6, 2010
Three Flute Sonatas. After we posted a recording of Prokofiev's Flute sonata on Facebook last week, one of our friends mentioned that he thinks it's one of the greatest flute sonatas written in the last 50 years. We hastily agreed; only later it occurred to us that even though it sounds as fresh as ever, it was written more than 50 years ago, in 1943. We decided to look around for other interesting music for the flute written at about the same time. Fortunately, there are great pieces in our own library. Two more flute sonatas that would qualify were written around the middle of the 20th century: one by Francis Poulenc (1957) and another – by Paul Hindemith (1936). All three sonatas are rather elegiac in style, and even Hindemith, who is often so cerebral, is almost lyrical in his piece, especially in the first two movements. Poulenc wrote his sonata for the great Jean-Pierre Rampal. Prokofiev was approached by David Oistrach, who asked him to transcribe it for the violin – a rare occasion, since usually it's the flutists who borrow from the violin repertory.
The Prokofiev is played by Sonia Formenti and Mauro Bertoli (Piano); Poluenc – by Madelene Campos and Saori Chiba, Hindemith – by Jennifer Bartel and Melody Lord. You can listen to the sonatas here and decide for yourself, which one you like best.
November 29, 2010
Baroque Band, Part III. Yet again we visit with Baroque Band, this time to present their interpretation of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's masterpiece, Stabat Mater. It is thought that Stabat Mater was Pergolesi's last major work (he died in 1736 at the age of just 26, probably from tuberculosis). Stabat Mater Dolorosa, one of the most famous medieval Italian poems, was composed either by the Pope Innocent III, a crusader against the Cathars, or a Franciscan monk by the name of Jacopone da Todi. It is thought that the poem was written in the early to mid-13th century. The poem has been set to music many times, for example by Palestrina and Haydn, but none of the settings became as famous as Pergolesi's. In this recording the soprano is Jennifer Ellis Kampani, mezzo-soprano – Jennifer Lane. As usual, Garry Clarke is conducting. To listen, click here.