What some of us are listening to...

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, we contacted those on our e-mail list and asked them what music they were enjoying. Perhaps not surprisingly, Bach was the composer most frequently mentioned. Here’s what we learned:

Keyboard works mentioned included this performance of François Couperin’s Les Ombres Errantes (The Wandering Shadows) by Israeli pianist Iddo Bar-Shaï, available on YouTube.  One writer is enjoying Bach’s French and English Suites and The Goldberg Variations was cited twice, with Simone Dinnerstein specifically mentioned.

Bach’s choral music made the list as well, specifically this performance of his Easter Oratorio by the Netherlands Bach Society, also available on YouTube. 

The Metropolitan Opera’s free Nightly Opera Steams were praised.  Tonight’s (10 May) offering is the popular double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana / Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.  In addition to the performances, the web site also has downloadable playbills, from the original performance dates, that contain plot synopses and program notes.

The Triumphs of Oriana, a collection of English madrigals published by Thomas Morley in 1601 in honor of Queen Elizabeth I, were noted by one writer, who specifically praised this recording by the British vocal ensemble, I Fagiolini.

We heard from someone who, in addition to Bach’s Cello Suites (Pieter Wispelwey’s recording), enjoys the jazz band The Hot Sardines (while cooking dinner!) as well as a new discovery, the trio 3MA, musicians from Madagascar, Mali, and Morocco who play three different stringed instruments—the valiha, the kora and the oud—from their respective cultures.  This individual also mentioned an enjoyable article, from the New York Times, that came complete with its own playlist:  5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Classical Music.  (In a similar vein, see also 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Piano, and 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Opera).

Our artistic director, Ian Watson, has been catching up on areas of repertoire ‘which I haven't traversed up to this point.’ This includes all six Tchaikovsky Symphonies, as well as Brahms’ 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  Here’s a direct quote: “Karajan rules!! It is pretty obvious why Tchaikovsky 4-6 are the most played and I liked 1 also. The Little Russia I found meandering and rather weak by comparison.”

One writer has been listening to a work she first heard performed in the wake of another seminal event in our history, 9/11.  The Boston Symphony Orchestra ditched their scheduled program and replaced it on short notice with Berlioz’s Requiem, complete with trumpets and trombones in balconies and boxes all around the audience.

And this writer, who has, on many previous occasions, turned to classical music for solace—Mozart’s Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Grieg’s Lyric Pieces—has turned most frequently in recent weeks to 1970’s R&B, funk and soul…