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Music for Isolation During a Pandemic

Each day of the week I select one or two pieces of music that speak to me. I am a musician raised in a healthy mix of music traditions which was reflected in the first entries in my musical diary. However, I soon settled on the music that has accompanied me for most of my life from early childhood into my senescence – early Western and Classical music in its many forms. Art is the most human and hopeful response I have to the threat and uncertainty of life during this pandemic. My captions evolve from basic descriptions to sometimes self-indulgent stories about me and the music. Two things you will notice – I post Youtube videos, which do not always yield the best recordings, and I post performances where you can see the humans playing and singing underlining the joy of music making and a reminder that in music there is life and eternity as we mortal beings who live and love Classical music can understand.

Juan Carlos Espinosa

CLICK TO STREAM THE PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE

11/03/20: More music for the Thirty-sixth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Charles Ives, The Unanswered Question, Frankfurt Radio Symphony ∙

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Dirigent.

11/03/20: Music for the Thirty-sixth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A remarkable piece that shows up in bits and pieces in other places.

Charles Ives, Emerson Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Lang Ning Liu, Piano, Anne Manson Conductor, Juilliard Orchestra.

11/03/20: Music for the Thirty-sixth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The music of Charles Ives is my soundtrack for the week.

Charles Ives – From the Steeples and the Mountains for Brass and Bells.

11/02/20: More Music for the Thirty-sixth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. This piece was my introduction to Charles Ives in 1974, his centennial year. I still consider it one of the most important and influential pieces of my life. It is in many ways the first composition of the twentieth century.

The original title of the piece was “A Contemplation of Nothing Serious or Central Park in the Dark in ‘The Good Old Summer Time’ (in comparison to A Contemplation of a Serious Matter or The Unanswered Perennial Question)”.

Charles Ives, Central Park in the Dark. New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

11/02/20: More Music for the Thirty-sixth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Charles Ives is the American composer. A documentary and a performance of his Holidays Symphony. Take the time and watch. Very well worth it.

Charles Ives, Holidays Symphony performed by the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

11/02/20: Music for the Thirty-sixth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A week to be an American.

Charles Ives, Three Places in New England. 1. The “St. Gaudens” In Boston Common (Col. Shaw And His Colored Regiment. 2. Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut. The Housatonic At Stockbridge” By Robert Underwood Johnson.

Boston Symphony Orchestra · Michael Tilson Thomas

11/01/20: More Music for the Thirty-sixth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Sometimes it takes a foreigner to see in us what we have forgotten about ourselves.

Antonín Dvořák, String Quartet No. 12 in F (American). New York Philharmonic String Quartet.

11/01/20: Music for the Thirty-sixth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Chamber music and early morning gardening are keeping me outside and optimistic. If you are listening to my quarantine music, know that Beethoven works for me. Is there a piece or a composer who does for you what the Beethoven Septet does for me?

Beethoven: Septet in E-Flat Major, Op. 20 performed by Camerata Pacifica.

10/31/20: Music for the Thirty-fifth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Chamber music is medicinal. The Martinů Nonet pulled me (partially) from the pit of exhaustion and anxiety that comes with being an American at this time in our history.

Bohuslav Martinů, Nonet No. 2, H 374, performed at the Round Top Festival Institute.

10/30/20: Music for the Thirty-fifth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The Schubert Octet – a wonderful way to end the work week.

Franz Schubert, Octet in F Major, D 803. Antje Weithaas, Violine / Alina Pogostkina, Violine / Veronika Hagen, Viola / Sol Gabetta, Cello / Robert Vizvari, Double Bass / Alejandro Núñez, Horn / Gustavo Núñez, Bassoon / Sabine Meyer, Clarinet.

10/29/20: Music for the Thirty-fifth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Gabrieli is always a great way to start the day.

Giovanni Gabrieli – Canzona per Sonare N. 4 performed by Italian Wonderbrass.

10/29/20: Music for the Thirty-fifth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A trio d’anches – reed trio. Here is one of the best known trios, a staple.

Alexandre Tansman, Suite pour Trio d’Anches (oboe, clarinet and bassoon). Performed by the BesTrio.

I. Dialogue

II. Scherzino

III. Aria

IV. Finale

BesTrio

Zura Gvantseladze- Oboe

Nicola Hartwig- Klarinette

Jakob Fliedl- Fagott

10/27/20: Music for the Thirty-fifth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The wind quintet is now my second favorite ensemble. Maybe because my niece Alyssa Mercedes Mena played in the Stamps WQ at the University of Miami or because my father exposed me to Anton Reicha while I was still in the womb. Surprised my mother did not file for divorce.

Jean Françaix, Wind Quintet No. 1, first movement.

Veits Quintet

Sunghyun Cho, Flute

Kyeong Ham, Oboe

Ricardo Silva, Horn

Rie Koyama, Bassoon

Han Kim, Clarinet

10/26/20: Music for the Thirty-fifth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Bari sax. Several.

Camille Saint-Saëns – Bassoon Sonata in G Major, Op.168 (Baritone Saxophone), Baritone Saxophone – Haruka INOUE

Piano – Makiko YAMAGUCHI.

10/25/20: Music for the Thirty-fifth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. More sax. A small “classical” repertoire that is growing. Saxes are still trying to get some respect in the orchestra. Jean-Baptiste Singelée made a great contribution – he was a friend of Adolphe Sax.

Jean-Baptiste Singelée, Concerto for tenor saxophone and piano, Op. 57, Justin Rollefson, tenor saxophone, Hannah Creviston, piano.

Arizona State University’s Organ Hall.

10/24/20: Music for the Thirty-fourth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. One of my favorite ensembles to play in – the Sax Quartet.

Philip Glass: Concerto for saxophone quartet and orchestra. Mvmt. 1,

Bohemia Saxophone Quartet

Brno Philharmonic Orchestra

cond. Aleksandar Markovič

10/23/20: Music for the Thirty-fourth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Paul Creston’s Alto Sax Sonata is killer. The sheet music is somewhere in a box in the garage. Creston wrote well for the sax. This is the concerto.

Paul Creston, Saxophone Concerto op. 26 – Rob Burton, saxophone – City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

10/22/20: Music for the Thirty-fourth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A solo work for the contrabassoon by Erwin Schulhoff. The composer was murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Look for his work.

Erwin Schulhoff, Baßnachtigall (Bass Nightingale) for solo contrabassoon performed by Richard Bobo with Henry Runkles reading a preface written by the composer.

10/21/20: Music for the Thirty-fourth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Exhausted, but pleased with my day. Sharing a bassoon concerto I always underestimate. Nice performance.

Gioachino Rossini, Bassoon Concerto 1°and 2° movement (Allegro-Largo). Andrea Bressan, bassoon (winner of Sàndor Vegh competition 2014), Gàbor Takàcs Nagy, conductor.

Budapest Festival Orchestra.

10/20/20: Music for the Thirty-fourth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. To battle this morning with dulcians and drums. And I mean battle.

Heinrich Isaac, A la battaglia”, performed by THE ITALIAN CONSORT

Dulcian: Maurizio Barigione, Giuseppe Davì, Giovanni Battista Graziadio, Alessandro Nasello, Vincenzo Onida

Percussion: Matteo Rabolini

10/19/20: Music for the Thirty-fourth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Mozart and clarinet is glorious.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Concerto in A major for Clarinet and Orchestra K.622. Gala Concert for the 250th anniversary of W.A. Mozart’s birth.

Sharon Kam – clarinet

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Manfred Honeck – conductor

10/18/20: Music for the Thirty-fourth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. My favorite woodwind instrument played by an excellent player.

Rafael Junchaya, Concierto Silvestre, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bahia Blanca, José Antonio Cerón, conductor. Marco Mazzini, Bass Clarinet.

10/17/20: Music for the Thirty-third Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Great concerto highlighting the best of the e-flat clarinet.

Paul Dean – Concerto for E flat Clarinet & chamber ensemble

Justin Beere, E flat clarinet.

Musicians of ANAM, conducted by Paul Dean

10/16/20: Music for the Thirty-third Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I kept one these in my closet at home for years and rarely played it. The neglect was not merited. A tiny repertoire, little respect, but it can soar beautifully.

The last two movements of Sonata for Alto Clarinet and Piano, Op. 111, by Norman Heim. Joe Clark, alto clarinet, Evan Ritter, piano.

10/15/20: Music for the Thirty-third Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The deepest voice of the family is actually versatile and expressive.

Dai Fujikura, Contours. Heather Roche, contrabass clarinet

10/14/20: Music for the Thirty-third Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Whenever I think of the Basset Horn, I think of Mozart. Here is a concerto by Alessandro Rolla. The few who know of Rolla think of him as a violin virtuoso and “minor” composer, and that he gave lessons to a young Paganini.

Alessandro Rolla: Concerto in Fa maggiore per Corno di bassetto e Orchestra – Young Musicians European Orchestra diretta da Paolo Olmi, Corno di bassetto: Sauro Berti.

10/14/20: Music for the Thirty-third Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. High pitched clarinets can be annoying, but the Molter concerti make the rare instrument shine. The related e-flat clarinet is in every marching band in the US and klezmer bands around the world.

Johann Melchior Molter, Concerto No. 1 for D-Clarinet and orchestra (2nd mov.) Kymia Kermani, clarinet.

10/14/20: Music for the Thirty-third Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

W. A. Mozart: Oboenkonzert C-Dur KV 314, François Leleux, Oboe and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

10/14/20: Music for the Thirty-third Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Gem.

Maurice Ravel, Rhapsodie pour Cor Anglais et Piano, Nicholas Daniel, English Horn and Julius Drake, piano.

10/11/20: Music for the Thirty-second Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I could not share the Gavin Bryars concerto for Bass Oboe, but here is a beautiful one by Christopher Tyler Nickel.

Christopher Tyler Nickel, Concerto for Bass Oboe (2016): I. Andante. Northwest Sinfonia · David Sabee, conductor · Harrison Linsey, bass oboe.

10/10/20: Music for the Thirty-second Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Johann Sebastian Bach – Konzert für Oboe d’amore und Streicher A-Dur. Es spielt das arcata Stuttgart-Orchester unter der Leitung von Dirigent Patrick Strub.

10/9/20: Music for the Thirty-second Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The heckelphone is rare and smoky – one of my favorite voices in the woodwind family.

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963): Trio per pianoforte, viola e heckelphon op.47 (1928) — Stefania Redaelli, pianoforte; Carlo Feige, viola; Francesco Pomarico, heckelphon.

10/8/20: Music for the Thirty-second Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Final flute piece – an incredibly difficult flute concerto that started as a violin concerto.

Aram Khachaturian

Flute (Violin) Concerto in D minor, arr. Jean-Pierre Rampal

Emmanuel Pahud • flute

Kirill Karabits • conductor

Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra

10/7/20: Music for the Thirty-second Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Ned McGowan, PAN, for contrabass flute, live electronics and audience.

10/6/20: Music for the Thirty-second Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The bass flute is one of spirit instruments.

WANG Chenwei 王辰威, Qi 氣 for Bass Flute and Percussion, Bass Flute: Maria Teper, Percussion: Ivan Bulbitski.

10/5/20: Music for the Thirty-second Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Smallest of the flute family and more versatile than most people think. A nice contemporary piece.

Piccoloist Erica Peel and pianist/composer Amanda Harberg perform Harberg’s Sonata for Piccolo and Piano at West Chester University at the Philadelphia Flute Fair gala concert.

Movement 1- Allegro, Flowing- 0:00-3:40′

Movement 2- Moderato, Dreamy- 4:00- 7:51

Movement 3- Vivace, Driving, Playful- 8:24-12:00

10/4/20: Music for the Thirty-second Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Juan Trigos – SONATA FOR ALTO FLUTE AND GUITAR, Gianluigi Nuccini, alto flute. Stefano Bartolommeoni, guitar

10/3/20: Music for the Thirty-first Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A marvelous work by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, a lush score, simple story. I share the entire opera in a performance by the Finnish National Opera, followed by clip in the comments of a production at the Met.

Orchestra and Chorus of the Finnish National Opera. Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor. Peter Sellars, stage director.

10/1/20: Music for the Thirty-first Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Jacques Denis Thomelin, Ave Maris Stella: I. Verset No. 1, Jean-Luc Ho, organ.

9/30/20: Music for the Thirty-first Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

John Weldon (1676-1736) “Take, O take those Lips away”

THE CONSORT OF MUSICKE, Anthony Rooley, director.

9/29/20: Music for the Thirty-first Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Ippolito Tartaglino (ca. 1539 – ca. 1582) – Canzon supra Susanna par la Guilde des Mercenaires : Adrien Mabire (cornet et coordination artistique), Elsa Franck (basson ténor), Jérémie Papasergio (basson basse), Jean-Luc Ho (orgue), extrait de l’album “Mottetti e Canzoni virtuoses”.

9/29/20: Music for the Thirty-first Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Intentions for the Week: A Personal Psychological Curatorial Experience.

GIOVANNI BATTISTA MELE, Concerto for recorder, two violins and basso continuo in F major. Stefano Bagliano (recorder), Collegium Pro Musica / Stefano Bagliano (conductor).

9/27/20: Music for the Thirty-first Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Max Bruch, Kol Nidrei performed by Jacqueline du Pré with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

9/27/20: Music for the Thirty-first Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Ernest Bloch, Avodat Hakodesh (Sacred Service), Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic, Robert Merrill, Cantor. The Choir of Metropolitan Synagogue and the Community Church of New York.

9/26/20: Music for the Thirtieth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Albinu Malkeinu performed by Alia Música.

9/24/20: Music for the Thirtieth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Beautiful, a bit bruised, voices past their prime, but appropriate.

Pierre de La Rue «Missa pro fidelibus defunctis» (REQUIEM), performed by “the sound and the fury”

Alessandro Carmignani (Countertenor, Tenor)

John Potter (Tenor)

Christian Wegmann (Tenor)

Christian M. Schmidt (Bass)

Wilhelm Schwinghammer (Bass)

9/23/20: Music for the Thirtieth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Orlando di Lasso, From Lagrime di San Pietro. Soloists of the Collegium Vocale Gent, Koordirigent, Philippe Herreweghe

9/22/20: Music for the Thirtieth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Absalon, fili mi.

William Billings, David’s Lamentation, Christopher Wren Singers.

David the King, was grieved and moved

He went to his chamber, his chamber and wept

And as he wept and said

Oh, my son, oh, my son

Would to God I had died

Would to God I had died

For thee, oh Absalom, my son, my son

Victory that day was turned into mourning

When the people did see how the king grieved for his son

He covered his face and in a loud voice cried

Oh, my son, oh, my son

Would to God I had died

For thee, oh Absalom, my son, my son

9/22/20: Music for the Thirtieth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Ludwig van Beethoven – “Egmont” Overture, Op. 84. Gewandhausorchester Leipzig conducted by Kurt Masur.

“In the music for Egmont, Beethoven expressed his own political concerns through the exaltation of the heroic sacrifice of a man condemned to death for having taken a valiant stand against oppression. The Overture became an unofficial anthem of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.” [Wikipedia]

9/20/20: Music for the Thirtieth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie.

Antonio Vivaldi, Juditha triumphans, Federico Maria Sardelli conducts Modo Antiquo. Singers: Ann Hallenberg, Nicki Kennedy, Delphine Galou, Loriana Castellano, Rosa Bove.

PLOT: The Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar sends an army against Israel to demand overdue tributes. Under the leadership of the General Holofernes, the Assyrians lay siege to the town of Bethulia and are about to conquer it. The young Jewish widow Judith goes to him to implore mercy. He falls in love with her and she indulges him. After a rich banquet and having drunk much wine, Holofernes falls asleep. Judith beheads him, flees the enemy camp, and returns victorious to Bethulia. (Wikipedia)

9/19/20: Music for the Twenty-ninth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. “Then Shall the Righteous Shine Forth.”

Felix Mendelssohn: Elijah – Op.70, MWV A25 / Part 2 – “Then Shall The Righteous Shine Forth,” performed by Jerry Hadley, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Conductor: Robert Shaw, 1995

9/17/20: Music for the Twenty-ninth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Jehan Alain died at the age of 29 at the start of WWII in the Battle of Saumur (June 18-20, 1940).

The world-famous French organist Marie-Claire Alain (died February 26th, 2013 at the age of 86) plays Litanies by her brother Jehan Alain (1911-1940) on the great organ of the Hofkirche in Luzern, Switzerland.

9/16/20: Music for the Twenty-ninth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

John Taverner’s In Nomine performed by “Concordia” on early instruments. Taverner composed about 70 works, he wrote eight masses in all, and the tune for the “In Nomine Domini” section of his Missa “Gloria tibi Trinitas” became one of the most popular cantus firmus melodies for instrumental music in England, in a genre know as “In Nomine” in honor of Taverner’s vocal original.

9/14/20: Music for the Twenty-ninth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. My harp is turned to grieving, and my music to the voice of those who weep. Spare me, Lord, for my days are worth nothing.

Alonso Lobo, Versa est in luctum, Tenebrae, conducted by Nigel Short.

Versa est in luctum cithara mea,

et organum meum in vocem flentium.

Parce mihi Domine,

nihil enim sunt dies mei.

9/13/20: Music for the Twenty-ninth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. From motivation to preparation for the week ahead.

Richard Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries (Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim, dirigent).

9/12/20: Music for the Twenty-eighth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

We are Americans first, Americans all.

Aaron Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man. Three performances for our times.

9/11/20: Music for the Twenty-eighth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Remembrance.

Gabriel Fauré, Requiem, op. 48.

9/11/20: Music for the Twenty-eighth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Edward Elgar, Lux Aeterna (arr. John Cameron) performed by Voces 8.

9/9/20: Music for the Twenty-eighth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Béla Bartók, Rumanian Folk Dances performed by the Rajko Orchestra, Gyula Fehér, soloist. Performed in the Great Synagogue of Budapest.

9/8/20: Music for the Twenty-eighth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Sergei Prokofiev, Scythian Suite op.20

I. The Adoration of Veles and Ala 0:00

II. The Enemy God and the Dance of the Spirits of Darkness 6:17

III. Night 9:00

IV. The Glorious Departure of Lolli and the Sun’s Procession 14:03

New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein

9/7/20: Music for the Twenty-eighth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I always play this very loud, have done so since my teens.

Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in Camille Saint Saens’ Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah, Silvesterkonzert 2010, Philharmonie Berlin.

9/7/20: Music for the Twenty-eighth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A dance needed to start the week.

Aram Khachaturian: Sabre Dance from the Gayane Suite No. 3 / Sir Simon Rattle, conductor · Berliner Philharmoniker .

9/6/20: Music for the Twenty-seventh Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. #WeRespectVets

Frank Musker and Michael Kamen, Requiem for a Soldier (Band of Brothers) performed by Cynthia Erivo on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on the 29th National Memorial Day Concert. Aired May 27, 2018 on PBS.

9/5/20: Music for the Twenty-seventh Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Sublime.

Jean Richafort, Requiem in memoriam Josquin Desprez, a 6 voces. Huelgas Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel, director.

9/3/20: Music for the Twenty-seventh Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Krzysztof Penderecki, Dies Irae (Auschwitz Oratorium). Kraków Philharmonic, Henryk Czyż, conductor.

9/3/20: Music for the Twenty-seventh Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Johannes Ockeghem, Requiem. ENSEMBLE ORGANUM – MARCEL PÉRÈS.

9/1/20: Music for the Twenty-seventh Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Today, tonight, tomorrow.

Richard Danielpour, An American Requiem. Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Chorale conducted by Carl St. Clair.

8/31/20: Music for the Twenty-seventh Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. An extraordinary piece. .

Alexander Kastalsky, Requiem for Fallen Brothers.

Conductor: Leonard Slatkin

Anna Dennis, Soprano

Joseph Charles Beutel, Bass-baritone

Cathedral Choral Society

Chamber Choir of St. Tikhon’s Monastery

Choir: Kansas City Chorale

Orchestra: Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Choir: The Clarion Choir

8/30/20: Music for the Twenty-seventh Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Start your week by listening with your body without prejudice or arrogance, but with open ears. Beautiful.

George Crumb, Star Child.

Warsaw Boys’ Choir, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Conlin, conductor. Susan Narucki (soprano), Joseph Alessi (trombone), George Crumb (bell-ringer).

I. Introduction: Desolato

II. Vox clamans in deserto – 02:17

III. Ascensum Protestatum Tenebrarum – 10:40

IV. Musica Apocalyptica – 11:47

V. Seven trumpets of the Apocalypse – 17:33

VI. Adventus puerorum luminis – 19:52

VII. Hymnus pro novo tempore – 22:11

8/29/20: Music for the Twenty-sixth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. It is much more entertaining to sit in the corner and watch the three of them go at it than to sit at home and just listen to the piece on Spotify. It’s really not the same. Person, woman, man, pool boy, piano.

Sergey Rachmaninoff, Romanza per pianoforte a 6 mani.Martha Argerich, Daniel Rivera e Gabriele Baldocci.

8/28/20: Music for the Twenty-sixth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. It’s dark outside.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Schmerz ist der Grundton der Natur (Pain is the Basic Mood of Nature). Dorothea Klotz & Otto Sonnen.

8/27/20: Music for the Twenty-sixth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I had not heard this piece in probably 30 years.

Franz Schubert, Sonata for Piano 4 Hands in C Major, Op. 140, D. 812, “Grand Duo” performed by Jonathan Plowright and Aaron Shorr.

8/26/20: Music for the Twenty-sixth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A true treasure.

Erik Satie: Parade, played by Francis Poulenc and Georges Auric, piano four hands.

8/25/20: Music for the Twenty-sixth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. This performance made me so happy. Argerich thwarts the page turn!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata for piano 4 hands KV 521 performed by Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin.

8/24/20: Music for the Twenty-sixth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. An evening inspired by

Gabriele Fiorentino

and the Dranoff International Two Piano Foundation.

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Suite for Two Pianos No. 2, Op. 17. Duo Yoo + Kim (Pianists Jackie Jaekyung Yoo & Yoon-Jee Kim).

8/23/20: Music for the Twenty-sixth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Comienza la semana a cuatro manos.

Camille Saint-Saëns, Danse Macabre performed by Dubravka Vukalovic & Bruno Vlahek.

8/22/20: Music for the Twenty-fifth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. What I needed at the end of a good day on the last day of the rollercoaster week.

Martha Argerich plays Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, composed on 1929 – 1931, with the Orchestre national de France conducted by Emmanuel Krivine. Live recording on October 5th 2017 in the auditorium of Radio France (Paris).

8/21/20: Music for the Twenty-fifth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Frederick Delius – ‘Summer Night on the River’. Orquestra Clássica do Centro Pavilhão Centro de Portugal, Coimbra, 30 Maio 2013

Maestro David Wyn Lloyd.

8/21/20: Music for the Twenty-fifth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. It was a late night.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op. 21 (Allegro di molto) / Ein Sommernachtstraum, Ouvertüre. Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig

Kurt Masur – conductor

8/19/20: Music for the Twenty-fifth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A week of lurking.

Guiseppe Verdi, Otello, “Credo in un Dio Crudel,” Sherrill Milnes, 1979 broadcast from the Met.

8/18/20: Music for the Twenty-fifth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I hate Tuesdays.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), Soprano Diana Damrau sings ‘Der Hölle Rache’, the famous Queen of the Night aria from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, with Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina. Royal Opera House.

8/17/20: Music for the Twenty-fifth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The week still needs a cleansing.

Béla Bartók: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Bluebeard: Robert Lloyd

Judith: Elizabeth Lawrence Conductor: Adam Fischer.

8/16/20: Music for the Twenty-fifth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Trying to exorcise the Confluence will take all week.

Krzysztof Penderecki, Die Teufel von Loudun (The Devil of Loudon). The TV version of the opera based on the play by John Whiting, in turn based on the book THE DEVILS OF LOUDON by Aldous Huxley.

Director: Rolf Liebermann

Starring: Cvetka Ahlin, Heinz Blankenburg, Ursula Boese

German with subtitles.

8/15/20: Music for the Twenty-fourth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Summer nights are different here.

Hector Berlioz: Les nuits d’été. hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) ∙ Véronique Gens, Sopran ∙ Lionel Bringuier, Dirigent ∙

8/14/20: Music for the Twenty-fourth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The days are short, the nights are long. I prefer to linger in the afternoons.

Claude Debussy, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein from his marvelous lecture series “The Unanswered Question.” The talks were an important part of my musical education as a youngster and also reinforced my viejo crush on Bernstein.

8/13/20: Music for the Twenty-fourth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Wir sind durch Not und Freude

gegangen Hand in Hand;

vom Wandern ruhen wir beide

nun überm stillen Land.

Rings sich die Täler neigen,

es dunkelt schon die Luft.

Zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen

nachträumend in den Duft.

Tritt her und lass sie schwirren,

bald ist es Schlafenszeit.

Dass wir uns nicht verirren

in dieser Einsamkeit.

O weiter, stiller Friede!

So tief im Abendrot.

Wie sind wir wandermüde–

Ist dies etwa der Tod?

***

We have gone through sorrow and joy

hand in hand;

Now we can rest from our wandering

above the quiet land.

Around us, the valleys bow;

the air is growing darker.

Just two skylarks soar upwards

dreamily into the fragrant air.

Come close to me, and let them flutter.

Soon it will be time for sleep.

Let us not lose our way

in this solitude.

O vast, tranquil peace,

so deep at sunset!

How weary we are of wandering—

Is this perhaps death?

Richard Strauss – Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs)

IV. Im Abendrot ( Joseph von Eichendorff)

Jessye Norman – soprano

Gewandhausorchester Leipzig conducted by Kurt Masur

8/12/20: Music for the Twenty-fourth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. At night, the sun.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Olga Trifonova sings the Queen of Shemakha’s marvelous aria “The Hymn to the Sun”. Kent Nagano conducts the Orchestre de Paris.

8/11/20: Music for the Twenty-fourth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Where I started, where I hope to start again.

David Matthews: Music of Dawn, Mark Wigglesworth- conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

8/11/20: Music for the Twenty-fourth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A day with little music, but Haydn brought order and beauty in the morning.

Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in B flat Major, Op. 76, No. 4 “Sunrise.” The Dover Quartet.

8/9/20: Music for the Twenty-fourth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine! I needed Bach this morning and will be listening all day. Balm in the heat of the day.

Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata BWV 1 “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (How beautifully shines the morning star). Movement 1. Choir and Orchestra of the J. S. Bach Foundation

Rudolf Lutz – conductor.

8/8/20: Music for the Twenty-third Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The last day of the week, the last of the six quartets. The set is the heart of the 20th century string quartet. An excellent performance by young Juilliard musicians.

Béla Bartók, String Quartet No.6, Sz.114, Bordone Quartet.

8/9/20: Music for the Twenty-fourth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine! I needed Bach this morning and will be listening all day. Balm in the heat of the day.

Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata BWV 1 “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (How beautifully shines the morning star). Movement 1. Choir and Orchestra of the J. S. Bach Foundation

Rudolf Lutz – conductor.

Béla Bartók, String Quartet No.6, Sz.114, Bordone Quartet.

8/7/20: Music for the Twenty-third Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The 5th played by the Végh Quartet in 1954.

Béla Bartók, String quartet n°5 Sz.102, BB 110. Végh Quartet.

8/6/20:Music for the Twenty-third Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. My first experience with this piece was a Vegh Quartet recording. I love the Emerson and they get it, but here is the Takacs Quartet performing my favorite of the six.

Béla Bartók: String Quartet No.4, BB 95 (Sz.91), Takács Quartet.

8/6/20: Music for the Twenty-third Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. This was my father’s favorite of the six Bartok quartets. I prefer #4, but I love them all.

Béla Bartók, String Quartet No. 3. Juilliard String Quartet.

8/4/20:Music for the Twenty-second Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The six string quartets are the best set of its kind in the 20th century along with Shostakovich, Schnittke, Carter.
Béla Bartók, String Quartet No. 2, Opus 17, performed at the 2015 Marine Chamber Music Series.

8/3/20: Music for the Twentieth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The right opera for this afternoon.

“Retirez-vous : que la Suisse respire !”

“Ô jour de délivrance !

Sa mort termine enfin nos maux.”

“Liberté, redescends des cieux,

Et que ton règne recommence !

Liberté, redescends des cieux !”

Gioachino Rossini William Tell, Act 3, Scene 4: “Anathème à Gessler!” (Guillaume, Rodolphe, Gessler, Chorus) · Montserrat Caballé/Mady Mesplé/Gabriel Bacquier/Louis Hendrikx/Riccardo Cassinelli/Ambrosian Opera Chorus/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Lamberto Gardelli

8/1/20: Music for the Twentieth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A great opera rarely performed. And a timely one.

Luigi Dallapiccola, IL PRIGIONIERO (The Prisoner). CONDUCTOR:

Christian Baldini. BUENOS AIRES. TEATRO COLÓN.

7/31/20: Music for the Twentieth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The right opera for this afternoon.

“Retirez-vous : que la Suisse respire !”

“Ô jour de délivrance !

Sa mort termine enfin nos maux.”

“Liberté, redescends des cieux,

Et que ton règne recommence !

Liberté, redescends des cieux !”

7/30/20: Music for the Twentieth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The death of Baron Vitellio Scarpia, the impure satyr, Rome’s Chief of Police.

Giacomo Puccini, Tosca, La Scala, Direttore: Riccardo Chailly

Scarpia: Luca Salsi

Tosca: Anna Netrebko

7/29/20: Music for the Twentieth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. From the Book of Lamentations.

Leonard Bernstein, Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah” (1942). Mezzo-Soprano: Christa Ludwig, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

7/28/20: Music for the Twentieth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. This is what thanks and praise sound like.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Te Deum in D major H 146 1688. performed by Les Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie.

7/27/20: Music for the Twentieth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. This piece played an important part in my life during a dark time. It reminded (reminds) me – Et laudamus nomen tuum in seculum, et in seculum seculi.

7/26/20: Music for the Twentieth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Te Deum laudamus. The Bruckner is glorious.
Josef Anton Bruckner, Te Deum in C major. Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.
Soloists: Anna Tomowa-Sintow; soprano.
Agnes Baltsa; mezzo-soprano.
David Rendall; tenor.
José Van Dam; bass-baritone.
Wiener Singverein — chorus master: Helmuth Froschauer.

7/25/20:Music for the Nineteenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Last day of the week of oboe.
Antonio Vivaldi, Oboe Concerto a minor RV461. José Antonio Masmano, oboe barroco, Alexis Aguado, Concertino-Director
Orquesta Ciudad de Granada.

7/25/20:Music for the Nineteenth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. It is now Saturday, but I did not feel like sharing anything last night.
Wolfgang Rihm, Music for Oboe and Orchestra. Alexander Ott, soloist, SWR Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks conducted by Hans Zender.

7/23/20: Music for the Nineteenth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A jewel of a concerto by one of my favorite Czech composers. His string quartets are wonderful and his oratorio The Epic of Gilgamesh is unique.

Bohuslav Martinů, Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by Ruth Reinhardt, José Luis García Vergara, Oboe .

The performance was recorded in June 2020 – “In accordance with the current restrictions imposed by the Corona pandemic in Germany, this livestream series currently only features ensembles up to chamber orchestral size. The required minimum distances are respected. Streaming is also carried out in a reduced setting.”

7/23/20: Music for the Nineteenth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Into the evening. Oboe sonatas performed by the brilliant Heinz Holliger.
1. GF Handel Sonata in G minor Op.1,6 0:05
2. GF Handel Sonata in B flat mmajor 7:22
3. GF Handel Sonata in C minor Op.1,8 16:27
4. JS Bach Sonata in G minor BWV 1020 26:02
5. A Vivaldi Sonata in C minor F.XV/2 39:20
Heinz Holliger, Oboe
Edith Picht-Axenfeld, Harpsichord
Marçal Cervera, Violoncello

7/21/20:

Music for the Nineteenth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. An interesting piece for oboe and orchestra by contemporary Australian composer Nigel Westlake.

Nigel Westlake, “Spirit of the Wild.” Sydney Symphony Orchestra

conducted by David Robertson, Diana Doherty, oboist.

7/20/20: Music for the Nineteenth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Antonio Vivaldi, Oboe Sonata in C minor, RV. 53. Pablo Pons, oboe.

Daniel C. Rubio, harpsichord.

7/18/20: Music for the Nineteenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Oboes in my ears while gardening. This piece came up on the iTunes oboe playlist – I had not heard it in 20-odd years. Sweet.

Camille Saint-Saëns: Sonata for Oboe and Piano in D Major, Op. 166, Bunkichi Arakawa (Oboe), Yuka Morishige (Piano).

7/18/20: Music for the Eighteenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I am pretty sure this was my first Stravinsky as a little boy. The LP had a beautiful Chagall firebird on the cover and is still the Firebird in my head.

Igor Stravinsky, The Firebird, Valery Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic.

7/17/20: Music for the Eighteenth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. One of Stravinsky’s most exquisite pieces.

Igor Stravinsky, Requiem Canticles. Robert Craft conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Simon Joly Chorale.

7/17/20: Music for the Eighteenth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A migraine kept me away from music all day. One of my favorite Stravinsky pieces. The score was a revelation when first I saw it at age 16.

Igor Stravinsky, Les Noces (Свадебка), Valeri Gergiev conducts members os the London Symphony Orchestra.

7/15/20: Music for the Eighteenth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. From the first chord, it captures you.

Igor Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms, Ricardo Muti conducts the La Scala Orchestra and Chorus.

7/14/20: Music for the Eighteenth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A musical experience as beautiful and complicated as my day.

“Its perfect fusion of music, choreography, and décor and its theme—the timeless tragedy of the human spirit—unite to make its appeal universal” – Grace Robert (1946).

Igor Stravinsky, Petrushka, the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons.

7/13/20: Music for the Eighteenth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I am not sure if this belongs on a Monday now or a Monday later.

Igor Stravinsky, A Soldier’s Tale (L’histoire du Soldat), performed by musicians of the New England Conservatory.

7/13/20: Music for the Eighteenth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The Rite of Spring is most important piece of music of my life. I was 10 or 11 when I first heard, saw, and felt it. Despite hearing lots of contemporary and 20th century music with my father, I had never felt a piece of music “mount” me like this – “mount” as in spiritual possession.

Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring, London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

7/11/20: Music for the Seventeenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. We watched Mucho, mucho Amor tonight – the marvelous documentary about Walter Mercado by Kareem Tabsch and Cristina Costantini. This selection is for Walter who brought mucho, mucho amor and the stars to our home in Hialeah.

Gustav Holst, The Planets, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

7/10/20: Music for the Seventeenth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109. Claudio Arrau.

7/9/20: Music for the Seventeenth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Der Dichter spricht.

Robert Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op.15. Martha Argerich.

7/8/20: Music for the Seventeenth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Unable to figure out the day, I spend all afternoon listening to Scriabin.

Daniil Trifonov performs Alexander Scriabin – Sonata no. 3 in F-sharp minor op. 23 at the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition (May, 2011, Tel Aviv).

7/7/20: Music for the Seventeenth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The music of Debussy can turn my restless thinking into an almost liquid calm that allows me to focus. Today I found this wonderful recording which I am playing now for the second time today.

Claude Debussy – Piano Works – Arabesques, Images, Rêverie,

D’Un Cahier D’Esquisses, L’Isle Joyeuse, Hommage À Haydn, Page D’Album, Berceuse Héroïque.

Performed by Zoltán Kocsis.

7/6/20: Music for the Seventeenth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Long day, good mood.

Leonard Bernstein, Overture to Candide, New York Philharmonic conducted Leonard Bernstein.

7/6/20: Music for the Seventeenth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I fell asleep and left the first day of the week silent.

Mark Nowakowski String Quartet No. 1, “Songs of Forgiveness” (First Movement), Voxare String Quartet.

7/4/20: Music for the Sixteenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. This Independence Day there are no fanfares, just anxiety, hope, courage, remembrance. Ives, not Copland this year.

Charles Ives, Fourth of July. New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

7/3/20: Music for the Sixteenth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Hearing this glorious piece performed live by Seraphic Fire was one of the most sublime musical experiences of my life and I am old and I have listened to billions of hours of Classical music.

Vespers for the Blessed Virgin SV 206 by Claudio Monteverdi performed by the Venice Monteverdi Academy and Orchestra Lorenzo da Ponte under the direction of Roberto Zarpellon.

7/2/20: Music for the Sixteenth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The melody of La Folía – Folies d’Espagne is an earworm that spins out variations without provocation. It is an old aural obsession that strikes millions each year. I am struck by sporadic bouts of La Folie and this is the music for a jeudi fou.

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) “La Follia” Sonata in G minor op. 5 No.12. Michala Petri, recorder & Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord.

7/2/20: Music for the Sixteenth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The kind of day that required merriment at the end of work.

Georg Friedrich Händel. Recorder Sonata in a minor, HWV 362.

Flute à bec: Farid Rahmé, Clavecin: Liana Harutyunyan, Violoncelle: Jana Semaan.

6/30/20: Music for the Sixteenth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Francesco X. Geminiani (1687-1762), Concerto 10 in F major (after A. Corelli op. 5, no.10) performed by Vincent Lauzer.

6/29/20: Music for the Sixteenth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Vivaldi at his most fun.

Antonio Vivaldi: Recorder Concerto RV 443 performed by Maurice Steger.

6/28/20: Music for the Sixteenth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Starting the week with Bohuslav Martinů, s composer too often overlooked, but marvelous and well-worth exploring.

Bohuslav Martinů – Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra. Hannover Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor: Eiji Oue.

6/27/20: Music for the Fifteenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Ending the week with a late night of folies with the amazing Lucie Horsch.

Marin Marais – Couplets des Folies, Lucie Horsch & Thomas Dunford.

6/26/20: Music for the Fifteenth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The opening Kyrie is the sound of God opening the Gates of Heaven. Only the Kyrie and not a “live” performance, but my favorite recording because it is beautiful, but mostly because it was given to me by a dear old friend I lost along the way.

6/25/20: Music for the Fifteenth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. This is beautiful.

Johannes Brahms, Cello Sonata No.1 in E minor op.38. Yo-Yo Ma, cello, Emanuel Ax, piano.

6/24/20: Music for the Fifteenth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Charles Wuorinen is a composer of my teen years. I remember buying my first album that included his work at Westland (Hialeah). Because I was a sophomore, I asked the guy at the front to play the record on the feature record player. His eyes widened when the sounds rang out. Time’s Encomium.

Charles Wuorinen, Electric Quartet performed by Bodies Electric.

6/23/20: Music for the Fifteenth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Listening to the music of one of my favorite little known composers in between Zoom meetings. Three pieces by Giovanni Maria Trabaci (1575 – 1647). Look for his music.

Giovanni Maria Trabaci, O Domine salvum me fac (for 4 voices) performed by Theatro dei Cervelli.

Giovanni Maria Trabaci, Gagliarda Terza. performed by Modo Antiquo.

Giovanni Maria Trabaci, Tre Gagliarde – Mauro Castaldo, organ. St. Nikolaus Kirche, Stuttgart, Germany.

6/22/20: Music for the Fifteenth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Working this afternoon with my student Beatrice Dalov on her Junior Thesis “Reclaiming Australia: Voices of Urban Aboriginal Protest.” She introduced me to “Pecan Summer,” an opera by Australian Aboriginal singer and composer Deborah Cheetham. It premiered in 2010 and is the first opera written by an indigenous Australian and involving an indigenous cast.

Aboriginal Black Lives Matter!

Deborah Cheetham, Prelude from Pecan Summer.

6/21/20: Music for the Fifteenth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Father’s Day. The last piece of music my father and I listened to together as he lay dying.

Joaquín Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez. John Williams, guitar. BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel.

6/20/20: Music for the Fourteenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Today is June 20, World Refugee Day. Music by Hungarian refugee Bela Bartok.

Béla Bartók: Konzert für Orchester Sz 116. SWR Symphonieorchester conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.

6/19/20: Music for the Fourteenth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A composer I discovered during the recent months of captivity. This piece glows beautifully.

Lyric for Strings is by the 95-year-old US composer George Walker, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Performed by the British orchestra Chineke! conducted by Kevin John Edusei.

6/18/20: Music for the Fourteenth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. An old friend posted pictures from high school (1977!) on Facebook and I was reminded of this fun piece and of Mr. Greco.

Franz von Suppé, Light Cavalry Overture, Franz Welser-Möst conducting the Cleveland Orchestra.

6/17/20: Music for the Fourteenth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I saw this opera some years back on YouTube. Lewis Carroll has been a constant in my thoughts lately, a brain worm. I feel like I am jumping from one side of the looking glass to the other, and again and again. Watch it. Make the time.

Unsuk Chin: Alice in Wonderland (Opera), Kent Nagano conducting the Bavarian State Orchestra and Bavarian State Opera Chorus and Children’s Choir. Libretto by Henry David Hwang & Unsuk Chin after Lewis Carroll.

6/16/20: Music for the Fourteenth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Gavin Bryars is an extraordinarily gifted and generous composer. My Tuesday ends with his work, this piece after 9 pm. I don’t which one of his compositions will be the last of the day.

Gavin Bryars – Silva Caledonia – Ludus Gravis Ensemble, Daniele Roccato – soloist and director.

6/15/20: Music for the Fourteenth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

TE DEUM. The Supreme Court says gay, transgender workers protected by federal law forbidding discrimination by a 6 – 3 decision.

Georg Friedrich Händel – “Te Deum for the Victory of Dettingen,” HWV 283. Händelfestspielorchester Halle, MDR Rundfunkchor, Hallenser Madrigalisten, Händelfestspielchor, Chor der Oper Halle

Howard Arman – conductor.

6/14/20: Music for the Fourteenth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. My best intentions for the week are to exercise and to listen to Baroque operas I have never heard before.

Jean-Baptiste Lully, Prologue from Cadmus et Hermione,

Le Poeme Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre, Opera Comique Paris 2008.

6/13/20: Music for the Thirteenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. To close the day.

Arnold Schoenberg, Gurre-Lieder, BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Donald Runnicles.

Gurre-Lieder is a large cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (translated from Danish to German by Robert Franz Arnold).

6/12/20: Music for the Thirteenth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. My father subscribed to the Musical Heritage Society in the 1970s. LPs would arrive every week, much to my mother’s horror. One day, an MHS box arrived with only one record in it. When he got home, my father put the record on the turntable and had me pour him un whiskey doble. Pachelbel – Side A, Fasch – Side B. He liked A, I liked B. The same performance I heard for the first time, but on another label. I am almost sure.

Johann Friedrich Fasch, Trumpet Concerto in D major, Maurice André, Trumpet, Orchestre de Chambre Jean-François Paillard, Jean-François Paillard, Conductor.

6/11/20: Music for the Thirteenth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I hear like this. Alexander Scriabin left Mysterium unfinished. Alexander Nemtin spent almost 30 years reworking and editing what Scriabin left. This version is presented here.

“There will not be a single spectator. All will be participants. The work requires special people, special artists and a completely new culture. The cast of performers includes an orchestra, a large mixed choir, an instrument with visual effects, dancers, a procession, incense, and rhythmic textural articulation. The cathedral in which it will take place will not be of one single type of stone but will continually change with the atmosphere and motion of the Mysterium. This will be done with the aid of mists and lights, which will modify the architectural contours.”

— Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Scriabin, Mysterium. Belgian National Orchestra, Hungarian Radio Choir, Stanislav Kochanovsky, conductor Alexander Ghindin, Piano, Nadezhda Gulitskaya, Soprano.

6/10/20: Music for the Thirteenth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The work day will continue well into the night. For some reason this particular string quartet makes me feel strong enough to slay any dragon. Four more to go this evening.

Béla Bartók, String Quartet No. 3, Juilliard String Quartet.

6/9/20: Music for the Thirteenth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Where the dark events of the last week have taken me, the bright beauty of Má vlast (My homeland).

Bedřich Smetana, Vltava also known as The Moldau is the second of six tone poems that comprise Má vlast. Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nejc Bečan.

6/8/20: Music for the morning of the Thirteenth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Yesterday my day ended with The Swan of Tuonela, but today I started with Finlandia. I am sure it will give me energy and hope for the rest of the week.

“Oh Finland, behold, thy daylight is dawning,

the threat of night has now been driven away.

The skylark sings across the light of morning,

like the firmament itself was chiming,

and now the day the powers of night is scorning:

thy daylight dawns, oh fatherland!

Oh Finland arise, and raise towards the highest

thy head now crowned with mighty memories.

Oh Finland arise, for to the world thou criest

that thou hast thrown off thy slavery,

beneath oppression’s yoke thou never liest.

Thy morning’s come, motherland!”

Jean Sibelius, Finlandia op.26, Lyrics from a poem by V.A. Koskenniemi, Helsinki City Orchestra & Radio Symphony Orchestra, Great Choir of the Sibelius Academy,

Jukka-Pekka Sarast, conductor.

6/7/20: Music for the Thirteenth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. My mood all afternoon.

My romance with the English Horn (corno inglés) started with The Swan of Tuonela when I was around 13. I still have the score I bought at Allegro Music in Coral Gables.

Jean Sibelius, “The Swan of Tuonela” – National Orchestra of Wales, Thomas Sondergard (conductor), Sarah-Jayne Porsmoguer (cor anglais)

6/6/20: Music for the Twelfth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Proving that music can be powerful as political speech and as a means of transmitting power and strength to those who listen.

“On Aug. 21, 1968, Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring. This same day saw the Soviet State Symphony Orchestra’s Proms debut, with Rostropovich scheduled to perform Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, an ironic coinciding of events. A skirmish ran through the audience, which finally settled down with shouts of “shut up” out-yelling calls for the concert to be cancelled. Rostropovich performed with tears streaming down his cheeks as a terrified Vishnevskaya hid in her box. The performance burns with Rostropovich’s impassioned playing – an unforgettable evening when art coincided with human events to create one of history’s momentous theatrical occasions.”

Antonín Dvořák, Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191. Mstislav Rostropovich, cello. Evgeny Svetlanov conducting the Soviet State Symphony Orchestra.

6/5/20: Music for the Twelfth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. My niece and flute player Alyssa Mercedes Mena introduced me to the music of Philippe Gaubert. Good night.

Philippe Gaubert, Berceuse. Eduard Belmar, flute, Yuko Mizutani, piano.

6/5/20: Music for the Twelfth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Alban Berg, Violin Concerto “Dem Andenken eines Engels” – “The memory of an angel” – Akiko Suwanai, violin, Pierre Boulez, conducting the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.

6/3/20: Music for the Twelfth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Before retiring for the night, listening, trying to sort through a difficult day.

Josquin Desprez, La Déploration sur la Mort de Jean Ockeghem performed by Vox Luminis.

Nymphes des bois, déeses des fontaines,

Chantres expers de toutes nations,

Changez voz voix fort clères et haultaines

En cris tranchantz et lamentaions.

Car d’Atropos les molestations

Vostre’Okeghem par sa rigueur attrappe,

Le vray trèsoir de musicque et chief d’oeuvre,

Qui de trépas dèsormais plus n’eschappe,

Dont grant doumaige’est que la terre coeuvre.

Acoutrez vous d’abitz de deuil:

Josquin, Brumel, Pierchon, Compère.

Et plorez grosses larmes de’oeil:

Perdu avez vostre bon père.

Requiescat in pace. Amen.

(Cantus firmus)

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

6/2/20: Music for the Twelfth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Another favorite of my father’s. Lots of great recordings, but this is one of the better “in person” videos on YouTube.

Aram Khachaturian, Piano Concerto in D-flat major, op. 38. Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano, Orchestre de Paris, Kazuki Yamada, conductor.

6/1/20: Music for the Twelfth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Music of the first real American composer. Played this symphony while watching the news today with the TV sound muted. Hope in American music.

Charles Ives, Symphony No. 4. BBC Symphony Orchestra, David Robertson, conductor, Ralph van Raat, piano.

5/31/20: Music for the Twelfth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A day of work and worry. Fighting in the battle on the ice.

Sergei Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky, Op.78 with Yuri Temirkanov conducting the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Алекса́ндр Не́вский

5/30/20: Music for the Eleventh Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I am grateful for lightness in the darkness.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Divertimento Primo KV 439b, Alessandro Carbonare Clarinet Trio.

5/29/20: Music for the Eleventh Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis.

György Ligeti – Lux Aeterna. Ensemble Aedes

Director: Mathieu Romano

5/28/20: Music for the Eleventh Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. I hope Smetana will guide me back to Má Vlast because I have lost my way.

Bedřich Smetana, Má Vlast, Rafael Kubelík conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

5/27/20: Music for the Eleventh Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. And even with the sun out this piece fits my day.

Lamentations by Alfonso Ferrabosco (the younger). Ars Nova Copenhagen and Paul Hillier.

5/26/20: Music for the Eleventh Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. One of my earliest musical memories as a refugee in Miami.

My father bought a turntable, amplifier, speakers, and some LPs

a few months after we arrived. We lived 5 in a one-bedroom apartment. My mother was still packing tomatoes and he was soldering electrical parts in a factory. A terrible, extravagant purchase that enraged my mother and made our lives infinitely better.

Camille Saint-Saëns, Symphony No 3 in C minor, Op 78 ‘Organ’

Thierry Escaich, organ, Orchestre de Paris, Paavo Järvi, conductor.

5/25/20: Music for the Eleventh Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Memorial Day. Remember who they where, what they did, why they did it. Remember to defend the freedoms they died to protect. “Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin conducting.

5/24/20: Music for the Eleventh Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. For those who serve and protect us from the virus and from ourselves.

“National Philharmonic’s virtual performance of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” honors hospital workers currently fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.” Piotr Gajewski, conductor.

5/23/20: Music for the Tenth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

What started as Chopin when I began working in the garden today turned into Liszt as I tried to finish hanging pots in the rain. Études d’exécution transcendante.

Franz Liszt, The Transcendental Études, performed by Daniil Trifonov.

5/22/20: Music for the Tenth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Little musics for the evening.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Trio for 2 oboes & English horn in C major, Op. 87. Performed by the Royal Danish Oboes (the oboes of the Royal Danish Orchestra), 1st Oboe: Joakim Dam Thomsen,

2nd Oboe: Rixon Thomas, English Horn: Sven Buller.

5/21/20: Music for the Tenth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Evening music sublime.

Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time, Daniel Bard, Violin; Tibi Cziger, Clarinet; Michal Korman, Cello; Yael Kareth, Piano

Live Performance at Elma Arts Center, Israel.

5/20/20: Music for the Tenth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Alberto Ginastera’s Harp Concerto is beautiful and underrated. Although I could not find any of my favorite soloists in decent live people-performances, I found one I liked.

Alberto Ginastera, Harp Concerto, Symphony Orchestra of Serbian Radio and Television conducted by Natalija Mićić with Nađa Dornik playing harp.

5/19/20: Music for the Tenth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Two Cuban composers who died too young. They are rarely heard outside the island. Alexandre Moutouzkine performs Amadeo Roldán’s “Preludio cubano” and Alejandro García Caturla’s “Comparsa.”

5/18/20: Music for the Tenth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

William Byrd, “Ave verum corpus” performed by the Gesualdo Six.

Ave verum corpus, natum

de Maria Virgine,

vere passum, immolatum

in cruce pro homine

cuius latus perforatum

fluxit aqua et sanguine:

esto nobis praegustatum

in mortis examine.

O Iesu dulcis, O Iesu pie,

O Iesu, fili Mariae.

Miserere mei. Amen.

5/17/20: Music for the Tenth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Giacinto Scelsi (1905 – 1988) is a seldom performed Italian composer whose work had a big impact on me and is worth exploring. His music requires an open mind and open ears. The first piece I heard was his Quattro Pezzi su una nota sola (1959) – Four Pieces for Orchestra on a Single Note. It was an intense sensory, almost hallucinatory experience. I searched for LPs (later CDs) of his amazing work. I found several people performances on YouTube of other works, but not the Four Pieces. The score will have to do.

Scelsi, Quattro Pezzi. Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra,

Peter Rundel, conductor.

5/16/20: Music for the Ninth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Some years ago I delivered a few pre-concert talks for the Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland and in Miami. The first lecture was on War and Music – a conversation about Dmitri Shostakovich, the Great Patriotic War, and his Symphony #7, The Leningrad. Never a favorite, to prepare for the talk I listened to a dozen recordings and sat in my backyard drinking vodka & tangerine juice with the score on my lap. I fell in love with the piece; the vodka may have helped.

That same weekend, I was invited to do a talk at the Wolfsonian about Shostakovich. Four 1st chairs played Shostakovich’s String Quartet #8. It was a brilliant performance. I don’t remember what I talked about that night.

Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No 7 ‘Leningrad’ in C major op 60, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Valeri Gergiev conductor.

5/15/20: Music for the Ninth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Max Reger, “Nachtlied” op. 138, no. 3 for mixed choir. SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart and the Neuer Kammerchor Heidenheim

conducted by Frieder Bernius.

Die Nacht ist kommen,

Drin wir ruhen sollen;

Gott walt’s, zum Frommen

Nach sein’m Wohlgefallen,

Dass wir uns legen

In sein’m G’leit und Segen,

Der Ruh’ zu pflegen.

Treib, Herr, von uns fern

Die unreinen Geister,

Halt die Nachtwach’ gern,

Sei selbst unser Schutzherr,

Schirm beid Leib und Seel’

Unter deine Flügel,

Send’ uns dein’ Engel!

Lass uns einschlafen

Mit guten Gedanken,

Fröhlich aufwachen

Und von dir nicht wanken;

Lass uns mit Züchten

Unser Tun und Dichten

Zu dein’m Preis richten!

— Petrus Herbert

5/14/20: Music for the Ninth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Pauline Oliveros, “Tuning Meditation” performed in the Fuentidueña Chapel in the Met Cloisters in New York.

5/13/20: Music for the Ninth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Lou Harrison – Solstice – Cello. Viola, Bass, Singer, Guitar, Piano, Celesta, Trumpet, Flute, Oboe. A early work.

5/12/20: Music for the Ninth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The soundtrack of my day.

Heitor Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras Nº 2 – IV. Tocata (O trenzinho do caipira) performed by the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira conducted by Roberto Minczuk.

5/11/20: Music for the Ninth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The days blur.

Béla Bartók, Music for strings, percussion and celesta, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Alan Gilbert.

5/11/20:

Music for the Ninth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The day almost spent.

Jean Rondeau, the French harpsichordist, performs Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata K. 175 A Minor. He wrote 585 of them.

Sharing anecdotes and reflections about the music I like is not a bad thing. It is therapeutic, especially now that we are cooped up. Everyone has their own relationship with music – for me it is a full contact experience. I can be a snob, but I never deride the tastes of others as treacly or banal, or mock the emotions of others. I leave that boorishness to others. Scarlatti’s music is a pleasure no matter what the vanesi of the ragnatela have to say.

5/9/20: Music for the Eighth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Béla Bartók’s Cantata Profana: The Nine Enchanted Stags, is one of my favorites of his works. It is a beautiful, haunting piece that tells the story of a huntsman whose sons are transformed into nine stags. You can listen and let the music tell the story. Later you can do a little research and you can see how well the text and music are interwoven.

The performance is by the Hungarian National Choir, the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Hamar Zsolt.

5/8/20: Music for the Eighth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Two nights ago, we were awakened by Alexa and she was playing Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” symphony. Apparently I was not really awake but sang along to the music making comments along the way, at least through the first movement. At least that is what Xavier says. I don’t trust Alexa – she is now bilingual and knows my father’s middle name, but I truly love the symphony.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 “Pathétique” with Valery Gergiev conducting the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra.

5/7/20: Music for the Eighth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

An opera nowhere near my top 100 has been on my mind since Saturday. I listened to a recording on Sunday and a couple of arias earwormed themselves into my head – “La mamma morta” in the voice of Maria Callas and the one I am sharing below. I am sharing it as exorcism and political statement.

Plácido Domingo sings “Come un bel di di Maggio” from Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano. Julius Rudel conducts the Royal Opera House.

5/6/20: Music for the Eighth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A day of energy and fertilization. Worked all day with Mendelssohn piano and chamber music. I thought I hated Mendelssohn, but it turns out I love him.

Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor. Performed by Lang Lang (Piano), Andreas Röhn (Violin), and Sebastian Klinger (Cello).

I added something interesting in the comments.

5/5/20: Music for the Eighth Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

“A prayer in darkness.” A brief piece by the underrated and prolific Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness – Prayer of St. Gregory for trumpet and organ. Two performances, one trumpet and harmonium and a second for trumpet and organ performed by Wynton Marsalis. I am having trouble picking one performance over the other. Listen to both.

Prayer of St. Gregory, Alan Hovhaness by Jacq Sanders on cornet and Theo Hes on harmonium.

5/4/20: Music for the Eighth Monday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The blur of the day is slowing down into sunset and a beautiful evening.

Whenever I hear or think about “Beau Soir,” I think of my niece Katrina Mena Rick. She must have been 12 or 13 when she learned it hoping to get into New World School of the Arts. Her voice was like a clear stream, her diction and her pronunciation good, but careful. She sang it so many times for me that she must have hated it. With the repetition, she relaxed and every word of the lyrics came alive, said her proud uncle.

The song has been sung, arranged, orchestrated, pummeled, and slapped for what is to some, cliche status. However, in the right voice it is magic. Between Jessye Norman and Renee Fleming I picked the latter. It is a recording and not a video with live people. I have also added a recording I found while trying to choose between Norman and Fleming – Victoria Bezetti. Google her.

Claude Debussy, Beau Soir performed by Renee Fleming accompanied by Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Setting of a poem by Paul Bourget.

When at sunset the rivers are pink

And a warm breeze ripples the fields of wheat,

All things seem to advise content –

And rise toward the troubled heart;

Advise us to savour the gift of life,

While we are young and the evening fair,

For our life slips by, as that river does:

It to the sea – we to the tomb.

5/3/20: Music for the Eighth Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The first day of the week.

I listened to Andrea Chenier while gardening, iTunes, my plugs, and my orchids. It fit my mood for some reason thinking I might share something revolutionary on this post. Instead I decided to share a video I had seen a year or so ago of O Welche Lust, the Prisoners Chorus, from Ludwig von Beethoven’s opera Fidelio.

Not a brilliant performance, but an authentic, compelling one.

5/2/20: Music for the Seventh Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

I close the week with one of my favorite American composers, William Kraft. He is also a timpanist and a percussionist. I hope you’ll take the time to look into his work. Here is his Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra performed by the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela conducted by Joshua Dos Santos. The soloist is the talented Ramón Granda. This is an outstanding piece.

4/30/20: Music for the Seventh Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

Jordi Savall is a conductor of early Western and Classical music, a player of viols, and a magician. Whether he is by himself or in an ensemble, his trained passion, and enormous talent can capture you and take you places. I listened to Savall this afternoon to make sure this is what I felt made my day and it was. Search him out.

Here is a video of Savall performing three works for viola da gamba, by CF Abel, JS Bach, and J Schenk.

4/29/20: Music for the Seventh Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

The selection for today was inspired by what I saw and heard during the first coffee break of my work day sitting in my backyard with the last bit of my colada. Ralph Vaughn William’s “The Lark Ascending” still calms me when I feel anxious – perfect music for life uncertain.

“The Lark Ascending” is a lovely piece for violin and orchestra here performed by Hilary Hahn and the Camerata Salzburg conducted by Louis Langree at the George Enescu Festival in October 2013. Hahn becomes her violin and ascends with the music. Enjoy what I enjoyed today.

4/28/20: Music for the Seventh Tuesday of our COVID-19 quarantine.

I love Igor Stravinsky. I love him brutal, playful, stately, austere, serial. I don’t care for The Fairy’s Kiss or Jeu de Cartes. Tonight I am sharing a fabulously fun piece Stravinsky wrote for Woody Herman’s Band in 1945. My favorite recording is “Meeting At The Summit,” a 1965 recording with Benny Goodman and the Columbia Jazz Combo. Album cover below. I have my dad’s original LP. You can hear this performance, my first hearing, below in the comments.

As is my custom, I am going to share a performance where you can see people playing the music. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto, featuring clarinetist Chris Richards, the second most handsome clarinetist today.

4/26/20: Music for the Seventh Sunday of our COVID-19 quarantine. A gray and cloudy day.

Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel is a magical piece, a synesthete’s delight. Commissioned for a meditative space in Houston, the composition was inspired by the work of painter Mark Rothko and the space where the art lived. It is in a way, a site-specific composition.

I first heard the piece when I was in late 20s. Eyes closed, the blocks of color of my imaginary Rothko paintings slowly shifted toward and away from me. The effect was like a soft wash of hallucinogenic mushrooms on your brain.

Here is a live recording by the Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain.

4/25/20: Music for the Sixth Saturday of our COVID-19 quarantine and our 24th anniversary.

The first time is imprinted on you forever. My first Carmina Burana was a recording of a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa that almost knocked me off the couch. I was 11 or 12. It was an overwhelmingly physical experience, a rush of hormones, shallow breathing; I was a little bit in shock.

Whenever I hear Carmina Burana in my head, I hear that first performance. Every performance I have ever heard live or in a recording is compared with it. Objectively, it is not the best performance I’ve heard, but it was my first.

The first time I saw a live performance (mid-20s?), I exploded in gooseflesh, hairs standing on end. My nipples popped erect with the first “O Fortuna” – the rest of the evening was adrenaline, testosterone, clenched fists, dopamine, clenched teeth, the occasional loss of emotional and physical control.

Here is one of my favorite Carminas also conducted by Seiji Ozawa. He leads the Berlin Philarmonic with Kathleen Battle, Frank Lopardo, Thomas Allen, and the Shin-yu Kai Chorus.

It still does it for me.

4/24/20: Music for the Sixth Friday of our COVID-19 quarantine. The end of the work week and at sunset, peace and tranquility, even in the midst of the fear and confusion of the moment. Two things: hope and music.

The Fantasia in F minor by Franz Schubert, D.940, for piano four-hands is one of my favorite pieces of music despite its ubiquity and to some, cliche status. Here it is performed by the brothers Lucas & Arthur Jussen. There are many recordings out there, though not many good performances on Youtube where you can see the humans playing the piano. I wonder if any of my piano friends have a favorite? Evgeny Kissin & James Levine, Radu Lupu & Murray Perahia, Sviatoslav Richter & Benjamin Britten, Alfred Brendel & Evelyne Crochet, Philippe Entremont & Gen Tomuro? Pretentious, I know, but it’s Friday and it is almost sunset.

4/23/20: Music for the Sixth Thursday of our COVID-19 quarantine. Candela on a hot afternoon.

Manuel de Falla, El Amor Brujo, Teresa Berganza (cantaora) with the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, conductor. There are so many better performances out there, but I am sharing ones where the humans interpreting the scores are visible, live, performing. I always look for the best, most accessible files. Nevertheless, I am sure you will enjoy Berganza and her Candela.

4/22/20: Music on the morning of the Sixth Wednesday of our COVID-19 quarantine, Earth Day.

John Luther Adams, “Become Ocean” performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ludovic Morlot.

John Luther Adams

and his entire body of work is about hearing and listening to the Earth. His work channels the sounds of our planet through the language of music. Adams’ music is also strikingly visual, evoking colors, textures, shifting patterns – “Become Ocean” is a synesthetic experience. Be patient, be quiet, listen.

4/21/20: Music on the evening of Sixth Tuesday, the closing of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day which began the evening of April 20. I share the music of four composers murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Erwin Schulhoff, Ilse Weber, Viktor Ulmann, Gideon Klein. Their memory and their music will never be extinguished.

My friends of the Amernet String Quartet perform “Five Pieces for String Quartet” by Erwin Schulhoff (1894 – 1942). A brilliant work.

4/21/20: Music for the Sixth Tuesday of our COVID-19 isolation with music shared with my friends. Today is a Psalm 150 day – praise with music, shofar, psaltery and lyre, timbres and dance, praise Him with stringed instruments and flute.

“Literally translated [the word Tehillim] means ‘praises’,” writes Steve Reich in his composer’s notes, “and it derives from the three letter Hebrew root ‘hey, lamed, lamed’ (hll) which is also the root of halleluyah.”

Steve Reich, Tehillim, performers: Synergy Vocals – Heather Cairncross (alto), Micaela Haslam (soprano), Caroline Jaya-Ratnam (high soprano), Rachel Weston (soprano) and ASKO|Schönberg conducted by Clark Rundell.

4/20/20: Music for Sixth Monday.

Today is a day for Franz Josef Haydn: Die Schöpfung (The Creation), one of my favorite pieces by a composer I love and who sometimes bores me. But this is marvelous. A performance by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra & Radio Choir conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón.

4/19/20: Music for the Sixth Sunday of COVID-19 isolation. “From me flows what you call time.”

My mother came into the living room with a shocked look on her face. My father and I were sitting on the floor blasting Tōru Takemitsu (~1971?). Side B, very loud, was “Vocalism Ai (Love).” Find it for yourself and you’ll see why my mom was horrified.

Takemitsu was a master of color and an évocateur who used music for time travel and astral projection.

“From me flows what you call time” for five percussionists and orchestra performed by Raphael Haeger, Simon Rössler, Franz Schindlbeck, Jan Schlichte, Wieland Welzel, percussion. Yutaka Sado, conductor, Berlin Philharmonic. This is a brief excerpt, but you can listen to the entire piece if you join the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall. It is free.

4/18/20: Music for Fifth Saturday, the last day of the week.

“Puisqu’en oubli je suis de vous, doux ami, je dis adieu à la vie amoureuse et à la joie. Funeste le jour où je vous ai connu ! Mais je tiendrai ma promesse : jamais je n’aurai nul autre amant.”

“Since you forgot me, my sweet friend, I leave to God my love life and joy. Unfortunate the day I put my love in you since you forgot me, my sweet friend. Still I will keep the promise I made,

for never will I know another lover. Since you forgot me, my sweet friend, I leave to God my love life and joy.

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), a composer and poet who lived in times more difficult than ours. “Puisqu’en oubli” performed by Trio Musica Humana.

4/17/20: Music for the Fifth Friday of our COVID-19 isolation.

The first five minutes of Das Rheingold, the Prelude, are among the most beautiful in Western classical music. Wagner was not big at our house growing up, just the overtures, the Bugs Bunny, the Valkyries. It was not until college that I sat through an entire Wagner opera and it was this one. I have too many favorite performances, so I am sharing a concert performance I discovered last weekend, something the people in the pit would appreciate.

Richard Wagner, Das Rheingold performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

4/16/20: Music for the night of the Fifth Thursday of our COVID-19 isolation.

I first heard the music of Claude Vivier late one night decades ago on Stephen Malagodi’s radio show on WLRN. The Canadian composer is pretty much unknown outside his country. I have been thinking about this piece a lot the last few weeks, so . . .

“Beauteous child of light sleep, sleep, sleep, forever sleep.

The dreams will come, the gently fairies will come and dance with thee.”

“The Lonely Child” by Claude Vivier performed by Aphrodite Patoulidou, soprano, Barbara Hannigan, conductor. Ojai Music Festival 2019.

4/16/20: Music for the afternoon of the Fifth Thursday of our COVID-19 isolation.

My father loved organ music and his record collection included work by Bach and Buxtehude, Widor and Dupre. In college, I met a brilliant organist who opened up a new universe of music for the King of Instruments – Here is the Organ Sonata No. 2 by Paul Hindemith. A great sound for a great day.

Sonate II (1937) by Paul Hindemith

I. Lebhaft

II. Ruhig bewegt

III. Fuge – Mäßig bewegt, heiter

David Kriewall, organ

4/15/20: Music for the night of the Fifth Wednesday of our COVID-19 isolation.

My obsession with the music of George Crumb started with the random purchase of an LP “Ancient Voices of Children” when I was in tenth grade. The piece was performed by Jan DeGaetani and Arthur Weisberg’s Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. I fell in love – his exotic musical language, his quirky creativity, and his love of the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca sealed my attraction.

George Crumb – Night of the Four Moons. Good night.

4/15/20: Music for the afternoon of Fifth Wednesday – a day of triumph and bright sun and celebrating my baby sister.

Modest Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition performed by Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Memories of my sister and I at the piano – she played the right hand, I played the left, the score lost forever somewhere between Tallahassee and Miami.

4/14/20: Music for the night of Fifth Tuesday of our COVID-19 isolation.

Taking me into slumber, In Paradisum from Gabriel Faure’s Requiem.

4/14/20: Music for the morning of the Fifth Tuesday of COVID-19 isolation.

Richard Strauss, “Also sprach Zarathustra” op.30 performed by L’Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma, direttore d’orchestra: Antonio Pappano.

4/13/20: Music for the night of the Fifth Monday of COVID-19 isolation.

I am here.

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki – Symphony No. 3, Op. 36 – “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.” Archikatedra Chrystusa Króla w Katowicach – Narodowa Orkiestra Symfoniczna Polskiego Radia w Katowicach – Zofia Kilanowicz, sopran – Antoni Wit, dyrygent.

4/13/20: Music for the morning of Fifth Monday of COVID-19 isolation.

Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, op. 82, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. My friend

David Rice

introduced me to the symphonies of Sibelius in college. I knew Finlandia, the Swan of Tuonela, and some of the tone poems, but ignored the symphonies because I thought they might be Arctic schmaltz. I was wrong. This piece starts at sunrise and ends at sunset, the beautiful colors and anxieties of the day.

4/12/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Classical music speaks to and for me. I have been posting one piece in the morning and another at night for over two weeks. It’s something I can do to reach out to others that makes me feel better. I hope you appreciate the music I am sharing.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/11/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

I first heard this piece with my father when I was 11 or 12. My father taught me how to listen to music with my entire body and to let the music take me wherever it led. I wonder where it leads other people. I still have the LP. The Ginastera Piano Concerto no. 1 is on side A.

4/11/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/11/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

4/11/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/10/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

4/10/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/9/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

4/9/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/8/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

4/8/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/7/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

4/7/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/6/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

4/6/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/5/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

4/5/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/4/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

4/4/20: Music at noon for the Third Saturday, the last day of the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Hymn to the Aten” from the “Akhnaten” conposed by Phillip Glass performed by Nicholas Tamagna and the Indianapolis Opera.

“At daybreak, when thou arisest on the horizon,

When thou shinest as the Aton by day,

Thou drivest away the darkness and givest thy rays.”

4/3/20: Music for the morning of Third Friday of the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, “Scheherazade” performed by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

4/2/20: Music for late evening on the Third Thursday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Prayers at the End of the Day.

Nunc Dimittis by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina performed by Les Voix Animées.

4/2/20: Music for the afternoon of Third Thursday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has been a busy day mostly without music because of work. So here is Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the great Leonard Bernstein. From his incredible TV series “The Unanswered Question,” an important part of my music education as a little boy (thanks, Dad).

4/1/20: Music for the evening of Third Wednesday in the middle of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joseph Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Choir at its 2015 Summer Concert.

Light at night replacing my darker selection for the evening. I am rediscovering Haydn for the third time and not a moment too soon.

4/1/20: Music for the morning of Third Wednesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alberto Ginastera, Variaciones Concertantes for Chamber Orchestra, op. 23, performed by the WDR Funkhausorchester conducted by Alondra de la Parra.

3/31/20: Music for the night of Third Tuesday, entering the third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Concerto Grosso No. 1 by Alfred Schnittke, performers unknown, a crime of Youtube. I recommend Schnittke’s string quartets which I group with the Bartok, Shostakovich, Carter, and Janacek quartets.

3/31/20: Music for the afternoon of Third Tuesday – the fantastic Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 by Camille Saint-Saëns. The last movement is glorious. Orchestre de Paris, Paavo Järvi, conductor, Thierry Escaich, organ.

3/30/20: Music for the night of Third Monday. The beginning of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Classical music speaks to and for me. I have been posting one piece in the morning and another at night for two weeks. It’s something I can do to reach out to others that makes me feel better. I hope you appreciate the music I am sharing.

Composer Krzysztof Penderecki died yesterday at age 86. His music had a huge influence on me as a young musician. Here is a performance of one of his early iconic works – Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960) played by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Krzysztof Urbański. Penderecki’s style evolved over time into an almost romantic, very original tonalism. His 60 years of work is well worth exploring.

3/30/20: Music for the morning of Third Monday. Martha Argerich plays Frédéric Chopin’s Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39, in C♯ minor. The performance is from the 2nd round of the Chopin Competition in 1965.

The beginning of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Classical music speaks to and for me. I have been posting one piece in the morning and another at night for two weeks. It’s something I can do to reach out to others that makes me feel better. I hope you appreciate the music I am sharing.

3/29/20: Music for the evening of the Third Sunday, the beginning of our third week in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Classical music speaks to and for me. I have been posting one piece in the morning and another at night. It’s something I can do to reach out to others that makes me feel better. I hope you appreciate the music I am sharing.

Antonín Dvořák: Requiem, op. 89. Performing: Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava conducted by Jakub Hrůša and Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno with choirmaster Petr Fiala.

3/29/20: Music for the morning of Third Sunday. Listening to this piece of American history brought me beauty, comfort, and hope on a difficult day. The music is wonderful, but listen to the eloquent words of Maestro Leonard Bernstein who reminds us of who we are as Americans when we live up to our American values and beliefs. He could have been speaking to us today. Watch the entire piece.

Seven year-old Yo-Yo Ma in his debut for President John F. Kennedy at a benefit concert “The American Pageant of the Arts” on November 29, 1962. His sister Yeou-Cheng Ma accompanies him on the piano in a performance of the first movement of Jean-Baptiste Bréval’s Concertino No. 3 in A Major.

3/28/20: Music for the last night of the Second Week. Clause Debussy, Syrinx for solo flute performed by Emmanuel Pahud.

3/28/20: Music for the morning of Second Saturday. The opening fanfare at 6 AM. Sinfonietta by Leos Janácek, performed by Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra. It is dedicated “To the Czechoslovak Army” and Janáček said it was intended to express “contemporary free man, his spiritual beauty and joy, his strength, courage and determination to fight for victory. [Wikipedia]

3/27/20: Music for Second Friday. “Oh! s’io potessi…Col sorriso d’innocenza” from Il Pirata by Vincenzo Bellini performed by Maria Callas.

3/27/20: Midday struggle with the snake on Second Friday. Silvestre Revueltas, Sensemayá (Canto para matar una culebra), Gustavo Dudamel and the Berlin Philharmonic. Inspired by a poem by Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen.

“Canto para matar una culebra :¡Mayombe-bombe-mayombé! :¡Mayombe-bombe-mayombé! :¡Mayombe-bombe-mayombé! :La culebra tiene los ojos de vidrio :la culebra viene y se enreda en un palo :Con sus ojos de vidrio, en un palo :Con sus ojos de vidrio :La culebra camina sin patas :La culebra se esconde en la yerba :Caminando se esconde en la yerba :Caminando sin patas :¡Mayombe-bombe-mayombe! :¡Mayombe-bombe-mayombé! :¡Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!”

3/26/20: Music for the night of Second Thursday. Igor Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms (1930). Riccardo Muti, conductor. Coro e Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di MIlano. Remembering my father bringing the salve of music to ease my anxiety on a long night.

3/26/20: Music for the morning of Second Thursday. Dvořák: Symphony № 9 in E minor, Op. 95 “From The New World,” 2nd movement, Largo. Herbert von Karajan (1908 – 1989) conducts the Vienna Philharmonic at the Großer Saal des Wiener Musikvereins in 1985. Antonín Dvořák (1841 – 1904).

3/25/20: Music for the end of Second Wednesday. Charles Ives, The Unanswered Question.

3/25/20: Music for the start of Second Wednesday. Gustav Holst – The Planets – Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.

3/24/20: At sunset on Second Tuesday. “What Wondrous Love” performed by the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers.

3/24/20: Music for the start of Second Tuesday. “Good Morning Starshine” from the musical Hair (1967). Light, slightly silly way to start the workday.

3/23/20: Music for the end of Second Monday. Deo Gratias. Johannes Ockeghem – (c. 1410 – 1497)

3/23/20: Music for a beautiful morning and for Italy.

3/22/20: Sunday.

3/21/20: Saturday morning music.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt*;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder*
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

3/20/20: Every one of my days is filled with music. I will share the first piece of the morning every day on Facebook. Today is March 20 and here is Celia Cruz on Sesame Street singing “Zun Zun Babae.” My grandmother Matilde would sing this song softly to me and my sister in the form of a lullaby. Celia does it like Celia.

3/17/20: Every one of my days is filled with music. I will share the first piece of the morning every day on Facebook. Today is March 17 and I share Mo Ghille Mear (My Gallant Hero), a song of love (and a song of politics).

There are other, more traditional recordings, but seeing and hearing college students performing this moving song reminds me of the beautiful young people I have worked with over my many years at FIU.

Music Playlist

Music for Isolation During a Pandemic

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