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Category Archives: Music
Mozart – Coronation Mass – Karajan 1985
The Agnus Dei of “Coronation Mass” by Mozart, with Katleen Battle, directed by Herbert Von Karajan in the Saint Peter Basilica in Rome on the presence of His Holiness Pope John Paul II in 1985.
The agony and the ecstasy – Gustav Mahler
Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed the World. By Norman Lebrecht.
“MY TIME will come,” Gustav Mahler used to say when he felt unappreciated. In his early days the composer often was. He described himself as “three times homeless”: born to a Jewish family in a German-speaking enclave in Czech-speaking Bohemia, and not feeling properly at home anywhere. Being Jewish, at a time of widespread anti-Semitism, was his “chief mistake”, as he put it to a friend. But his musical talent was so evident that at 15 he found himself at the Vienna Conservatory of music and afterwards embarked on a career as a conductor. By the time he was 37, he was artistic director of the Vienna Court Opera—though not before he had converted to Catholicism. He was also enjoying increasing fame as a composer.
Mahler’s life and his music were two sides of the same coin. His oeuvre was small: ten symphonies (the last one unfinished), a symphonic work for voices and orchestra (“Das Lied von der Erde”) and a number of songs. As a successful conductor he had little time to compose, fitting most of it in during long summer breaks spent by an Austrian lake. So one of his symphonies could be years in the making, but each of them packed a tremendous punch. For him, “the symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.” That meant childhood memories and sleighbells, folk songs and frustrated ambition, love and death. …
Arvo Part – Magnificat
Music video of Arvo Part’s Magnificat. Video taken from:
http://www.archive.org/deta…
Antonín Dvořák: Stabat Mater I (a) (Talich cond.)
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Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Stabat Mater, Cantata for Soloists, Choir and Orchestra
op. 58 (B 71, 1876-77)
The first of 12 videos featuring the complete Stabat Mater, recorded in 1952 by the top Czech artists of that time. The first part (Stabat Mater dolorosa) lasts over 21 minutes, so it had to be divided into three parts. In the videos description, there are the lyrics and translations (from here: stabatmater.info/dvorak.html), plus information about the respective artists: Introduction in Part I – 2, Václav Talich in Part II, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Part III, Karel Kalaš in Part IV, Prague Philharmonic Choir in Part V, Beno Blachut in Part VI, Drahomíra Tikalová in Part VIII, Marta Krásová in Part IX, and a short talk about Antonín Dvořák in Part X. Each video is accompanied by just one still picture, forgive me for that, but firstly, I didnt find that many appropriate pictures (note that, as far as I know, Dvořáks Stabat is the longest of all), and secondly, I was afraid it would drive attention away from the music. The video response is always the following part. Running time of the entire cycle is 85:13, so snuggle down and enjoy. I hope you will.
Drahomíra Tikalová, soprano
Marta Krásová, contralto
Beno Blachut, tenor
Karel Kalaš, bass
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Jan Kühn, choirmaster
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Václav Talich, conductor
I. Stabat Mater dolorosa (Quartetto, Coro)
II. Quis est homo, qui non fleret (Quartetto)
III. Eia, Mater, fons amoris (Coro)
IV. Fac, ut ardeat cor meum (Basso solo e Coro)
V. Tui nati vulnerati (Coro)
VI. Fac me vere tecum flere (Tenore solo e Coro)
VII. Virgo virginum praeclara (Coro)
VIII. Fac, ut portem Christi mortem (Duo)
IX. Inflammatus et accensus (Alto solo)
X. Quando corpus morietur (Quartetto e Coro)
I. Quartetto, Coro. Andante con moto (Stabat Mater dolorosa)
1.
Stabat mater dolorosa
Juxta crucem lacrymosa,
Dum pendebat Filius.
2.
Cujus animam gementem,
Contristatem et dolentem,
Pertransivit gladius.
3.
O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigeniti
4.
Quae maerebat et dolebat,
Pia Mater, dum videbat (et tremebat)
Nati pœnas incliti
1.
the grieving Mother stood
beside the cross, weeping
where her Son was hanging
2.
through her sighing soul
compassionate and grieving
pierced by a sword
3.
o how sad and afflicted
was that blessed
Mother of the only-begotten
4.
who mourned and grieved
loving Mother, when she saw (and trembled)
her child with torment inflicted
