Spotify Classical Playlists

Family Album: 53 Musical Bachs on Spotify

2012-06-01T09:44:00.000+08:00

The Bach family was of importance in the history of music for nearly two hundred years, with over 50 known musicians and several notable composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and 4 of his 11 sons: W.F. Bach, C. P. E. Bach, J. C. F. Bach and J. C. Bach (if you find that confusing, just think of this: four of J.S. Bach's brothers had the same first name Johann; the other? Johannes).

Morning prayers in the family of Sebastian Bach

Every album in this playlist features works of various musical Bachs in one disk, except the four Carus albums at the beginning, which are dedicated to the four famous sons of J.S. Bach respectively. Total disk numbers are over 30, some highlights are:

Sacred Music Of The Bach Family (Hänssler): 12 Bachs
Organ Works Of The Bach Family (Hänssler): 10 Bachs
3 volumes of Bachiana by Musica Antiqua Köln (DG/Archiv)
Bach Dynasty by Les Talens Lyriques (Naive)
Family Matters by Musica Novantica Vienna (Gramola)
The Father, the Son & the Godfather (BIS), Telemann was the Godfather and namesake of C. P. E. Bach; this album and Isaac Stern's Trio Sonatas of The Bach Family and Telemann (Sony) also feature his works.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: The Bach Family Albums (521 tracks, total time: 42 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view (yes you really should do that for this playlist clustered with Bachs). See this page for a detail family history and more.

Deep Listening: Pauline Oliveros and More

2012-05-31T09:39:00.000+08:00

"The Deep Listening Band was founded in 1988 by Pauline Oliveros, (accordionist, electronics and composer), Stuart Dempster, (trombonist, didjeridu player and composer) and Panaiotis (vocalist, electronics and composer).

The band is named after Oliveros' term, concept, program and registered servicemark of the Deep Listening Institute, Ltd., Deep Listening, and specializes in performing and recording in resonant or reverberant spaces such as cathedrals and huge underground cisterns including the 2-million-US-gallon (7,600 m3) Fort Worden Cistern which has a 45 second reverberation time." - Wikipedia

"Deep Listening® is a philosophy and practice developed by Pauline Oliveros that distinguishes the difference between the involuntary nature of hearing and the voluntary selective nature of listening. The result of the practice cultivates appreciation of sounds on a heightened level, expanding the potential for connection and interaction with one's environment, technology and performance with others in music and related arts.

The practice of Deep Listening provides a framework for artistic collaboration and musical improvisation and gives composers, performers, artists of other disciplines, and audiences new tools to explore and interact with environmental and instrumental sounds." - Official site

I put together a playlist containing all recordings on the Deep Listening label, as well as the Deep Listening Band's other releases on New Albion, Music and Arts, with Deep Listening Band – Then & Now/ Now & Then: Celebrating 20 Years at the beginning.

Get this collection here: Deep Listening: Pauline Oliveros and More (308 tracks, total time 46 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. For a guide for Oliveros' music, read Tom Service's introduction on The Guardian.

Happy 80th birthday to one of the great pioneers of electronic music.

Tenor of the Century: Enrico Caruso Complete Recordings (1902-1920) on Naxos Historical

2012-05-29T15:35:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered what Corrado "Junior" Soprano was singing in the finale of The Sopranos Season 3? It's a Napuletano classic "Core 'ngrato" ("Ungrateful heart") written in 1911 for Enrico Caruso, whose 1904 recording of Vesti la giubba was the first million-selling record in history.

I wouldn't normally do playlists for a single performer. I mean, what's the point? You want complete recordings of Emerson String Quartet? Just click that link and put all albums into a playlist by yourself. Tip: you can use Ctrl (CMD) + A and select all tracks at once.

Things are different for elder artists like Miles Davis or Caruso. Their artist pages are polluted by hundreds of rip-off albums that made it impossible for a casual user to find the proper recordings. I say rip-off because though the marginal cost to listen to a recording on Spotify is zero, financially; you still have to spend your time. And every time you listen to an inferior recording, you wasted an opportunity to hear a better one. Copyright laws only protect the master recordings for a certain period of time, which means anyone can "reproduce" archive recordings and sync them to streaming services and make some easy money. Most of them sound worse than the originals, which are already on Spotify. See the Enrico Caruso page and get an idea.

Now the good news: Naxos Historical "...is devoted to keeping the great recordings of the past alive and accessible. Naxos uses the services of the finest transfer engineers, such as Mark Obert-Thorn and Ward Marston, to produce restorations of outstanding quality." (Naxos site) Their 12-volume catalogue of Caruso recordings is a crowning achievement of historical vocal recordings restoration. According to WSJ, "Naxos has Caruso on 12 CDs, artfully transferred in what is the best historically respectful version currently available".

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Enrico Caruso: Complete Recordings (1902-1920) on Naxos Historical (250 tracks, total times: 14 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. Look up Naxos's official site for detailed tracklists and liner notes. Also check out the previous playlist Naxos Educational: An Index for a fascinating 4-hour audiobook Enrico Caruso - A Life In Words And Music.

Not in this playlist: my favorite song about the tenor: The Night I Heard Caruso Sing sang by Ben Watt of Everything But The Girl.

Nico Muhly: Arranger & Composer

2012-05-28T20:44:00.001+08:00

Nico Muhly (born August 26, 1981, in Vermont) is a contemporary classical music composer, who has worked and recorded with classical and pop/rock musicians, including Antony & The Johnsons, Björk, Grizzly Bear, Jónsi (singer/guitarist of Sigur Ros), and The National.

Nico Muhly, not Robert Smith without eye shadow

This playlist is a collection of music that Muhly composed, arranged, remixed or transcripted (Philips Glass's Hours for piano). The first half including songs that showcase his elegantly complex arrangement:

Tracks from Jónsi's debut Go and soundtrack We Bought A Zoo;
Tricks Of The Trade from Danish indie band Mew's album No More Stories...;
So Far Around The Bend, and two tracks on High Violet by The National;
Four tracks from Grizzly Bear's album Veckatimest;
Three songs by Antony & The Johnsons, including Salt Silver Oxygen, which was composer by Muhly;
Brighton by Dawn Landes, featuring some impressive flute arrangement;
Three tracks from Ane Brun's Changing Of The Seasons;
One track from Doveman's The Conformist.

Second half including his sophomore solo effort Mothertongue; three album on Decca: Seeing Is Believing, A Good Understanding and I Drink The Air Before Me; two works on Analekta's From Here On Out (which also features works by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry); Detailed Instructions, for Orchestra played by Alan Gilbert and New York Philharmonic; Ta and Clap and Flexible Music for small ensemble; brand new EP Drones & Piano and more.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Nico Muhly: Arranger & Composer (87 tracks, total time: 7hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Guest Post: Introducing Bridge Records

2012-05-23T23:30:00.002+08:00

Guest post by Rob Starobin, vice president of Bridge Records, an independent record label based in New Rochelle, New York that specializes in 20th century classical music. To date, Bridge Records has been nominated for more than 20 Grammy Awards, and has received 3 - a 2001 Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition for George Crumb's Star-Child, a 2007 Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Recording for Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's performance of Peter Lieberson's Rilke Songs and Garrick Ohlsson's recording of Beethoven sonatas (volume 3) won a 2008 Grammy award for best instrumental solo performance.

Rob on the Iron Throne

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Thanks for having me guest here, Ulysses - I’m a big fan of your work in popularizing Spotify for classical and new music. We’re at a very exciting, and somewhat terrifying time for music producers, as distribution has shifted from being solely physical, to permanent downloads, and now to streaming on demand services, like Spotify. I can’t claim to know the future, or speak for everyone at Bridge, but my personal listening habits have changed immensely since I first acquired a Spotify account. While reading Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise, I could search any of the pieces being mentioned and listen to a dozen recordings of them without having to limit myself to 30 second samples, or break my wallet buying far too many discs on a whim. I’m very excited to see how Spotify contends with classical music going forward, and I feel like better discovery tools and metadata apps will be the next major leap forward in the software.

And now, to introduce what we produce at Bridge! Ulysses has already covered our Complete Crumb series and Music of Elliott Carter series very well here, so I’ll gloss over them, and talk about some of the other projects that Bridge is best known for, in a catalog that’s now nearly 400 titles.

Danish composer Poul Ruders is probably most known for his operas. Our Music of Poul Ruders series is up to seven discs, with a Kickstarter project in progress to help fund volume eight.

Rolf Schulte and the Riverside Symphony play his Violin Concerto, conducted by George Rothman:

Ruders writes for the exotic combination of accordion and string quartet with the Carl Sagan-influenced Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean. Mikko Luoma, iO String Quartet:

Bridge is devoted to presenting exceptionally gifted young performers. Soprano Susanna Phillips is at the beginning of what is sure to be a stellar career, with performances at the Metropolitan Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera. She and accompanist Myra Huang recorded a recital disc of French song, Paysages:

In the 90’s, Bridge signed an agreement with the Library of Congress, allowing us to work with their archival concert recordings to produce remastered versions of performances by great artists, including Nathan Milstein, Samuel Barber, Leontyne Price and the Budapest Quartet. Bridge's cycle of Beethoven String Quartets performed by the Budapest Quartet was completed earlier this year with the release of the six early quartets.

Bridge's founder, guitarist David Starobin (full disclosure, he's also my father) has made a mark in the world of both 19th century and modern guitar repertoire:

Reverie by Giulio Regondi:

Semi-Suite by Paul Lansky:

Bridge has released a number of recordings by America's first International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition winner Garrick Ohlsson, including a complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas:

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson sings her late husband Peter Lieberson's Rilke Songs:

Get above works in one Spotify playlist here: Bridge for Spotify Classical (33 tracks, total time: 2 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. And browse Rob's Spotify profile for more exciting Bridge stuff.

Australian & New Zealand Composers Sampler

2012-05-22T07:25:00.000+08:00

Here's a playlist to celebrate Spotify's launch in Australia and New Zealand today.

Australian composers: Percy Grainger, Arthur Benjamin, Carl Vine, Michael Easton, Stephen Leek, Don Banks, Don Kay, Malcolm Williamson, Georges Lentz, Brett Dean, Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards, Liza Lim, and Robert Hughes.

New Zealand composers: Douglas Lilburn, David Farquhar, Alfred Hill, Edwin Carr, Anthony Ritchie, Nigel Keay, Dorothy Buchanan and John Psathas, whose fanfares were used at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Get this sampler in one Spotify playlist here: Australian & New Zealand Composers Sampler (22 tracks, total time: 110 minutes) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view.

66 Performances of Mahler's Urlicht (Primal Light)

2012-05-14T22:56:00.001+08:00

Urlicht, originally a song in Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, was later incorporated (with expanded orchestration) into his Symphony No.2, known as the Resurrection Symphony, as the work's fourth movement. To quote Michael Steinberg:

"'Urlicht,' one of Mahler’s loveliest songs, is full of Mahlerian paradox in that its hymnlike simplicity and naturalness are achieved by a metrical flexibility so vigilant of prosody and so complex that the opening section of thirty‑five bars has twenty‑one changes of meter. The chamber‑musical scoring is characteristically detailed and inventive."

This playlists features Urlicht from over 60 performances of the Resurrection Symphony, including the premiere recording made by Oskar Fried with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra in 1924, and almost every critically acclaimed recording in or out of print: Mehta, Abbado, Tennstedt, Klemperer, Kaplan, Rattle and many more.

I only included recordings from complete performances of the 2nd symphony, except for one track from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, sang by Anne Sofie von Otter, attached at the end of the playlist. Besides being an index of Mahler 2 recordings (click the album title of any track if you want to hear the full symphony), it also works as an all-star list of alto and mezzo-sopranos on Spotify.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Mahler: Urlicht (68 tracks, from 66 recordings). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. Lyrics below is from Wikipedia.

Original German

Urlicht

O Röschen rot!

Der Mensch liegt in größter Not!

Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!

Je lieber möcht' ich im Himmel sein.

Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg:

Da kam ein Engelein und wollt’ mich abweisen.

Ach nein! Ich ließ mich nicht abweisen!

Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott!

Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben,

Wird leuchten mir bis in das ewig selig Leben!

In English

Primeval Light

O red rose!

Man lies in greatest need!

Man lies in greatest pain!

How I would rather be in heaven.

There came I upon a broad path

when came a little angel and wanted to turn me away.

Ah no! I would not let myself be turned away!

I am from God and shall return to God!

The loving God will grant me a little light,

Which will light me into that eternal blissful life!

Mahler X

2012-05-12T22:58:00.000+08:00

This playlists is a collection of 37 interpretations of Bohemian-Austrian composer Gustav Mahler's final work, the unfinished Tenth Symphony, plus one piano transcription and a recomposition by electronic musician Matthew Herbert.

To keep the playlist neat, I only included the adagio from each album, though many of them are recordings of the various "completed" performing editions. Click the albums titles to hear full performances.

You can also use the playlist as a shortcut to Mahler cycles on Spotify, as the first ten adagios are taken from ten complete Mahler symphonies box-sets: Chailly, Kubelik, Bernstein, Abbado, Gielen, Sinopoli, Haitink, Ozawa, Maazel, and Abravanel. Inbal, Boulez, Zinman and Rattle's cycles are also on Spotify (see their tenth below), though not as one album. The only notable complete sets missing are Solti (who never recorded the tenth), Tennstedt (partially available), MTT (here and gone again), and Bertini's.

Other recordings are sorted by recording date; versions in bold:

Scherchen, Wiener Philharmoniker, Adagio,1952
Mitropoulos, New York Philharmonic, Adagio,1960
Rozhdestvensky, Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra, Adagio, 1963
Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cooke I,1965
Bernstein, New York Philharmonic, Adagio,1975
Sanderling, Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, Cooke II,1979
Rattle, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Cooke II,1980
Bertini, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Adagio, 1983
Inbal, Radio Sinfonie Orchester Frankfurt, Adagio, 1986
Rickenbacher, Bamberger Symphoniker Orchester, Adagio, 1988
A. Legeti, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Adagio, 1991
Inbal, Radio Sinfonie Orchester Frankfurt, Cooke II, 1992
Mehta, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Adagio, 1992
Wit, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Adagio, 1994
Slatkin, Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra, Mazzetti I, 1994
Rattle, Berliner Philharmoniker, Cooke III, 1999
Olson, Polish NRSO, Wheeler IV, 2000
Litton, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Carpenter, 2001
Kremer,Kremerata Baltica, Adagio (Transcr. for 15 strings, H. Stadlmair), 2001
Gielen, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Cooke III, 2005
Harding, Wiener Philharmoniker, Cooke III, 2007
P. Jarvi, Radio Sinfonie Orchester Frankfurt, Adagio, 2008
Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra, Adagio, 2008
Maazel, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Adagio, 2008
Zinman, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Carpenter, 2010
Boulez, Cleveland Orchestra, Adagio, 2010
Schwarz, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Adagio, 2011

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Mahler X (48 tracks, total time: 17 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See a noted discography of the Tenth here. Photo by A. Samur.

Bach on Classical Guitar

2012-05-07T20:10:00.000+08:00

Just 30 hours of mind-blowing - or mind-soothing, depending on your level of focus on the music - J.S. Bach played by some of the best classical guitarists: Andres Segovia, Göran Söllscher, Julian Bream, John Williams, Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, Xuefei Yang, Paul Galbraith, Narciso Yepes, Prague Guitar Quartet and more.

(Picture take from cover of this book)

Works in this playlist include guitar transcriptions of the lute suites; sonatas and partitas for solo violin; cello suites; Goldberg Variations; orchestral suites and Brandenburg Concertos etc, played on 6, 8, 11 or 12-string classical guitars or by guitar ensembles.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Bach on Classical Guitar (456 tracks, total time: 30 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. As with Bach's many other works, this music is suitable for almost every occasion: it never ceases to amaze after repeated listening, and it is also perfect background music for reading or relaxing.

Bach transcriptions on jazz guitar, electric guitar, banjo, ukelele, marimba and everything else will be another playlist someday.

Vincenzo Bellini: Complete Operas & Other Works

2012-05-01T21:49:00.000+08:00

"Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835) was a Italian opera composer. A native of Catania in Sicily, his greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (1830), La sonnambula (1831), Norma (1831), Beatrice di Tenda (1833), and I puritani (1835). Known for his long-flowing melodic lines, for which he was named "the Swan of Catania", Bellini was the quintessential composer of bel canto opera. He died in Puteaux, France at the age of 33, nine months after the premiere of his last opera, I puritani." - Wikipedia

This playlist contains Bellini's ten operas sorted in chronological order, including such universally acclaimed recordings as Callas' 1960 Norma, as well as other notable works: over a dozen songs performed by Cecilia Bartoli, Dame Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti; eight symphonies; an organ sonata; two concertos for oboe and trumpet respectively, and several large scale sacred choral pieces.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Vincenzo Bellini: Complete Operas & Other Works (453 tracks, total time: 28 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See list of works with introduction here on AllMusic.

Gaetano Donizetti: Complete Operas & Other Works

2012-04-27T15:09:00.000+08:00

Gaetano Donizetti was among the most important composers of bel canto opera in both Italian and French in the first half of the nineteenth Century. Many of Donizetti's more than 60 operas are still part of the modern repertoire and continue to challenge singers for their musical and technical demands. Donizetti stands stylistically between Rossini and Verdi; his scenes are usually more expanded in structure than those of Rossini, but he never blurred the lines between set pieces and recitative as Verdi did in his middle-period and late works. Often compared to his contemporary, Bellini, Donizetti produced a wider variety of operas and showed a greater stylistic flexibility, even if he never quite achieved the sheer beauty of Bellini's greatest works. - AllMusic

This playlist gathers 39 of Donizetti's operas available on Spotify in chronological order (from L'ajo nell'imbarazzo, to Dom Sébastien, the last opera that Donizetti completed before going insane as a result of syphilis), as well as his orchestral works, chamber music (including 19 string quartets), songs and sacred vocal works, in one place.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Gaetano Donizetti: Complete Operas & Other Works (1238 tracks, total time: 86 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See this Wikipedia page for list of works, and the previous Naxos Educational playlist for an audiobook introduction to Donizetti's most famous opera L'elisir d'amore(The Elixir of Love).

Spotify Orchestra: Four Playlists for Percussion

2012-04-23T22:34:00.000+08:00

Spotify Orchestra is an ongoing series that focuses on the instruments, featuring playlists curated by professional players. Previous posts including Horn, Trumpet, Harp and Theremin. Below is a guest post by percussion virtuoso Thad Anderson. Thad made four wonderful playlists that cover lots of exciting percussion music from drum improvisation by Glenn Kotche (of Wilco fame) to Steven Schick's breathtaking performance of Xenakis. I discovered many unknown gems in his playlists, and hope you find them helpful as well.

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Percussion music is incredibly eclectic. Not necessarily eclectic as in taste, but eclectic in style and instrumentation. A violinist plays one instrument, a violin, but a percussionist plays hundreds, maybe even thousands. The word percussion, by definition, does not refer to a single object or instrument. It describes a family of instruments, which then includes sub-categories, such as keyboard percussion, multiple percussion, accessory percussion, membranophones, idiophones; the list goes on and I still haven't even mentioned a singular instrument. This is all to say that classical or contemporary percussion music is vast and wide-ranging.

The following four playlists represent suggested listening. They are not intended to be a catch-all of everything that has been recorded, but rather some of the most creative and significant works composed for percussion instruments (listed in no particular order).

Percussion - New Releases (79 tracks, 8 hours)

The past year or so have been particularly good for listeners seeking great percussion recordings. Here are some of the best new releases from the genre. I will continue to update this list as new albums become available.

Percussion - Solo (26 tracks, 2 hours)

Artistry as a solo percussionist takes on many forms. I kept this list short, but it represents a good variety what is possible as a soloist behind a percussion instrument or multi-percussion set-up.

Percussion - Ensemble (71 tracks, 9 hours)

The Percussion Ensemble is a 20th-century invention. It has really turned into an incredible compositional tool and means of expression.

Percussion - Mixed Chamber (54 tracks, 6 hours)

Percussionists make for great collaborators and there is no better example than in chamber music. This playlist includes great works that feature percussionist with a mixture of non-percussion instruments.

Guest post by Thad Anderson, a member of the percussion faculty at The University of Central Florida. In addition to the percussion area, he also teaches courses in music composition and technology. Anderson is a versatile performer and pedagogue with interests that span contemporary music, historic percussion ensemble literature, design, conducting, and technology.

Spotify As Stage: Shakespeare Plays and Poems on Recordings

2012-04-19T22:40:00.002+08:00

This playlist features recorded performances and dramatized readings of Shakespeare's plays; recordings of the sonnets and other poems; as well as selected overtures and incidental music for the plays.

Sir John Gilbert's 1849 painting: The Plays of Shakespeare

The rightly legendary Arkangel Shakespeare is not on Spotify yet, but many other great recordings make up for that: Sir John Gielgud's Old Vic performance of Hamlet with a one-hour introduction and his famous reading of the sonnets; Orson Welles' radio show of the same play; Dylan Thomas reads King Lear, to name just a few. Many performances from The Marlowe Society are highly listenable too. The plays are arranged chronologically (roughly), followed by the sonnets and other poems.

The playlist opens with a prologue from Celebrating Shakespeare: This World's Globe, played on period instruments from the playwright's time, and ends with the ending theme from the soundtrack of Shakespeare in Love. Some famous overtures, symphonic poems and suites, and incidental music are included, put along side of the plays. For more Shakespeare-inspired music, see this previous playlist.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Shakespeare Plays and Poems on Recordings (365 tracks, total time: 70 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.

Classical Music That Imitate Or Use Birdsong

2012-04-17T22:26:00.002+08:00

"Birds are the opposite of time. They represent our longing for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant song." Oliver Messiaen

Hitchcock works with composers Remi Gassman and Oscar Sala on the soundtrack for The Birds. This keyboard was used to created a large variety of sounds, from the birds' shrill caws to a subtle, electronic silence as they prepare to attack.

This playlist only features works that are - for lack of a better description - heavily influenced by the birds. There are brief passages in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and various of Mahler's symphonies that mimic bird calls, but I did not include them here. Some obvious and overplayed choices were also skipped, like Vivaldi's Four Seasons (instead I included his flute Concerto "Il gardellino", or The Goldfinch).

Two tracks from Janáček's On an Overgrown Path bookend this playlist: about people chatted like swallows and the barn owl that did now fly away, respectively. In between them are 42 other works, from Mozart's starling to Saint-Saëns' Swan. Among my personal favourite are Xenakis' Nuits (Night) and Vasks' Plainscapes, both employ choir forces to create bird-like sounds in unforgettable ways. For practical reasons I only put in three tracks from Messiaen, and a recording of Blackbirds singing as a postlude. You can find more recordings of various European and Israel birds, which Messiaen quoted, in that BIS album (scroll down to end of the playlist and click album title).

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Classical Music That Imitate Or Use Birdsong (45 tracks, total time: 5 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See full tracklist in embedded Spotify Play button below. Further readings: Bird vocalization and Our Sonic Environment and the SoundScape on Sound Research.

P.S. The Spotify app for this blog is live today, it's called Ulysses' Classical. Please add to your Spotify sidebar and share with friends if you like it, thanks. More news to follow soon.

Bridge George Crumb Edition & A Few More

2012-04-10T21:09:00.004+08:00

George Crumb was one of the most distinctive compositional voices to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century. A charter member of the "New Virtuosity" movement, Crumb developed an expansive musical palette noted for its emphasis on extended instrumental and vocal techniques, its rich and sophisticated musical allusions, an evocative theatricality, and a poet's sense of sonorous detail. - AllMusic

...Examples include seagull effect for the cello (Vox Balaenae), metallic vibrato for the piano (Five Pieces for Piano), and using a mallet to play the strings of a contrabass (Madrigals, Book I), among numerous others. He is not an electronic music composer, however many works call for amplification of instruments, such as Black Angels (string quartet) or Ancient Voices of Children (mixed ensemble). Crumb's music contains an intense humanism, which is reflected in his personal definition of music: "a system of proportions in the service of spiritual impulse." - Wikipedia

"Bridge's decision to embark on a complete edition of George Crumb's music remains one of the most significant recording projects currently in progress, as well as one of the most artistically successful." - ClassicsToday

Bridge Records added many recordings to Spotify this week, all eight released volumes of the Elliott Carter Edition are available now (last week there were only three); I have incorporated them into the Carter playlist from last December.

Today's playlist gathers all 15 volumes of the ongoing George Crumb Edition, except for vol. 14 which is a DVD, in one place; together with some significant Crumb recordings on other labels, such as Anne-Sophie Mutter's Four Nocturnes, Kronos Quartet's Black Angels, and Eighth Blackbird's Voice of the Whale. Start with these works and Music For A Summer Evening if you are not familiar with the composer. Vol. 9, featuring the hauntingly beautiful Ancient Voices of Children, is also a good starting point.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Bridge George Crumb Edition & More (315 tracks, total time: 19 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See the Bridge site for more information about this edition, which the composer has not only supervised all of the recordings, but has also taken part in them as pianist, percussionist and narrator.

Alexander Scriabin: Complete Chronological Catalogue on Spotify

2012-04-09T23:08:00.003+08:00

The pianist Athur Rubinstein recalled a visit to a café with Alexander Scriabin:

"Who is your favourite composer?" he asked with the condescending smile of the great master who knows the answer. When I answered without hesitation, "Brahms", he banged his fist on the table. "What, what?" he screamed. "How can you like this terrible composer and me at the same time? When I was your age I was a Chopinist, later I became a Wagnerite, but now I can only be a Scriabinist!" And, quite enraged, he took his hat and ran out of the café, leaving me stunned by this scene and with the bill to pay.

- Arthur Rubinstein, My Young Years

Scriabin is the Russian counterpart of Chopin, though much darker and outlandish even by Russian standard. This playlist is a collection of his complete compositions, arranged (mostly) in chronological order: first opus 1 to 74; then a few works without opus number (including the unfinished Mysterium); at the end I also put in four preludes by Scriabin's son, Julian, composed before drowning at the age of 11.

The playlist features more than 50 pianist, from Vladimir Sofronitsky (played at the composer's piano in Scriabin museum) to Vladimir Horowitz (Scriabin heard the then 11-year-old pianist play and had an enthusiastic reaction).

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Alexander Scriabin: Complete Chronological Catalogue (262 tracks, total time: 16 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. You can also hear Scriabin's own piano roll recordings in the previous Composer As Pianist playlist.

Guillaume de Machaut: Complete Recordings on Spotify

2012-04-03T21:48:00.002+08:00

Notre-Dame de Reims (Our Lady of Rheims)

Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300 – 1377) was a Medieval French poet and composer. He is one of the earliest composers on whom significant biographical information is available.

According to Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, Machaut was "the last great poet who was also a composer". Well into the 15th century, Machaut's poetry was greatly admired and imitated by other poets, including Geoffrey Chaucer. - Wikipedia

Machaut is the first in the line of great composers; this playlist gathers all recordings of his works available on Spotify in one place. Machaut tracks from medieval music compilations (like Where Beauty Moves And Wit Delights) are put at the beginning. They are followed by albums feature only Machaut's works (loosely arranged by genre: Lais, Mass, Motets, etc.). The playlist ends with New York Polyphony's beautiful paraphrase of Ma fin est mon commencement (My end is my beginning) from 2012.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Guillaume de Machaut: Complete Recordings on Spotify (415 tracks from more than 60 albums, total time: 26 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. More about Machaut on medieval.org, and more pictures of Reims Cathedral (where Machaut worked From 1338 until his death) here.

This brings the French Composer series to an end. Adieu.

20th Century Concerto Grosso Revival on Spotify

2012-03-31T23:24:00.003+08:00

The concerto grosso (Italian for big concerto) is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the concertino) and full orchestra (the ripieno). This is in contrast to the concerto which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by the orchestra. - Wikipedia

The neo-Classical movement of the early 20th century reintroduced the concerto grosso as part of a "Back to Bach" campaign. [...] This form of 20th century concerto grosso is viewed as a reaction against the flamboyant display of the typical Romantic era solo concerto and often makes much the same effect as it did in the Baroque: a balanced conversation between the two major textures rather than a contest between them. - AllMusic

This playlist is a collection of concerti grossi written in the 20th century and onwards: Gian Carlo Menotti's Triple Concerto a Tre; the Palladio suite from the 1966 album Diamond Music by Karl Jenkins; Béla Bartók's Divertimento for String Orchestra; Krzysztof Penderecki's Concerto Grosso No. 1, for three cellos and orchestra; Concerto in E-flat (Dumbarton Oaks) by Igor Stravinsky; Edward Elgar's Introduction and Allegro and concertos by Ernest Bloch, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bohuslav Martinů, Alfred Schnittke, Andrei Eshpai, Eino Tamberg, Ernst Krenek and more. I only selected one piece from every composer, except for Martinů. These are all remarkable works, so I did not include Peter Breiner's Beatles concerti grossi.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: 20th Century Concerto Grosso Revival (58 tracks, total time: 6 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. In case you missed it, a similar playlist from 2010: The Art of 20th Century Fugue.

Georges Bizet: Complete Thematic Catalogue

2012-03-29T18:45:00.006+08:00

"Known for one of the world's most popular operas, Carmen, Georges Bizet deserves attention as well for other works of remarkable melodic charm. Many of his works received cool receptions on their premieres but are now considered central to the repertory of classical music." - AllMusic

Works in this playlist:

Orchestral, piano and vocal works: Symphony in C (the very existence of this brilliant work was not known to the world until 1935, 60 years after Bizet's death), Overture in A, Roma Symphony, Petite suite, Overture Patrie, Vasco de Gama, Agnus Dei, Te Deum and cantata Clovis et Clotilde; L'Arlésienne (complete incidental music and suites); other suites from operas; various songs and piano works, including Variations Chromatiques and Jeux d'enfants (Children's Games).

Operas: Le docteur Miracle, Don Procopio, Ivan IV, Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers; both the amended and original versions), La jolie fille de Perth, Djamileh, Carmen (four versions performed with spoken dialogue as originally intended or with recitatives added by other composers; plus three tracks from a 1908 recording sang in German). Arranged in chronological order.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Georges Bizet: Complete Thematic Catalogue (460 tracks, total time 28 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. In the Naxos Educational playlist you can find an audiobook introduction to Carmen.

A playlist for the greatest French Composer ever will be posted next week.

Felix Mendelssohn: Complete Works on Spotify

2012-03-28T22:46:00.003+08:00

"Mendelssohn never outgrew his precocious youthful style. [...] He remained stylistically conservative [...] feeling no need to attract attention with a display of 'revolutionary' novelty. Throughout his short career he remained comfortably faithful to the musical status quo – that is, the "classical" forms, as they were already thought of by his time. His version of romanticism, already evident in his earliest works, consisted in musical 'pictorialism' of a fairly conventional, objective nature (though exquisitely wrought)." - Richard Taruskin

This playlist is a collection of Mendelssohn's complete works available on Spotify. An early violin sonata (from 1820, composed when he was 11) and the exquisite string symphonies (taken from a dozen different recordings) are put at the beginning. Then follows works with opus numbers, Op.1 - 121 (only the opus numbers 1 to 72 were assigned by the composer, the later ones by publishers. The opus number sequence does not therefore always accord with the order of composition). Other works without opus number, including such notable ones like Concerto for Violin in D minor and Double Concerto for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra, are placed at the end.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Felix Mendelssohn: Complete Works (716 tracks, total time: 55 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See list of compositions here. If you don't know where to begin, try this Naxos sampler: Mendelssohn: His Life and Music first.

Pierre Boulez as Composer & Mahler Conductor

2012-03-26T15:30:00.003+08:00

Two playlists to celebrate the 87th birthday of Pierre Boulez, French composer, conductor and winner of 26 Grammys. First one collects his compositions in reverse chronological order, with a brief and appropriate intro at the beginning: seven extracts of his most important works, from the DG compilation Pierre Boulez at 80: The Conductor and The Composer. Boulez often rework and expand earlier works dramatically; I included all the versions available on Spotify.

Works in this playlist includes (with dates of completion/revision):

Dérive 2 (expanded and completed 2006)
Dérive 2 for eleven instruments (revised 2002)
Sur incises for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists (1996–1998)
Anthèmes 2 for violin and live electronics (1997)
Dialogue de l'ombre double (transcribed for bassoon and electronics, 1985/1995)
Incises for piano (1994)
Anthèmes for violin (revised and expanded 1994)
"...explosante-fixe..." for solo MIDI flute, two "shadow" flutes, chamber orchestra, and electronics (1991–93)
Anthèmes for violin (1991)
Pli selon pli for soprano and orchestra (1957–58; revised 1989)
Le visage nuptial for soprano, mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra (1946; revised 1988-89)
Mémoriale ("...explosante-fixe..." originel) for flute and ensemble (1985); an arrangement of the central section from "...explosante-fixe..."
Dialogue de l'ombre double for clarinet and electronics (1985)
Dérive 1 for six instruments (1984)
Répons for two pianos, harp, vibraphone, xylophone, cimbalom, ensemble and live electronics (1980; revised and expanded 1982; revised and expanded 1984)
Notations for orchestra (1978- )
Messagesquisse for solo cello and six cellos (1976)
Rituel - in memoriam Bruno Maderna for orchestra in eight groups (1974)
Cummings ist der Dichter for chorus and ensemble (1970; revised 1986)
Domaines for clarinet and six instrumental groups (1968)
Domaines for clarinet (1968)
Figures-doubles-prismes for orchestra (1957–58, as Doubles; revised 1964; revised 1968)
Livre pour cordes (1968; string orchestra version of Livre pour quatuor)
Éclat for ensemble (1965)
Le soleil des eaux for soprano, chorus and orchestra (1948; revised 1965)
Piano Sonata no.3 (1955-57/63); unfinished
Pli selon pli for soprano and orchestra (1957–58, as Improvisations sur Mallarmé 1–2; completed 1959–62)
Structures II for two pianos (1961)
Poésie pour pouvoir for tape and 3 orchestras (1955/58); withdrawn
Le marteau sans maître for alto and six instruments (1953–55; revised 1957)
Structures I for two pianos (1951–52)
Polyphonie X for ensemble (1950–51); withdrawn
Piano Sonata no.2 (1948)
Sonatine for flute and piano (1946)
Piano Sonata no.1 (1946)
Douze notations for piano (1945)

Second playlist is the complete Mahler recordings Boulez made with DG, including the ten symphonies (plus an individual recording of Totenfeier from "Resurrection"), Das Lied and two albums of other songs; arranged in the order of composition date. I also put Boulez's only Bruckner recording to date, a monumental 8th, at the end.

Here are the Spotify playlists: Boulez as Composer: Reverse Chronological Collection With Intro (111 tracks, total time: 14 hours); Boulez Conducts Mahler & Bruckner (99 tracks, total time: 16 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.

Happy 87th birthday; still waiting for Godot.

Easy Listening Classical For Study, Work, Relaxing, Chillout, Anything But Serious Listening, On Spotify

2012-03-23T18:31:00.003+08:00

If you never went to the opera house but don't mind a bit of refreshing Vivaldi after a hard day's work, this is the classical music that you may love the most. And albums in this playlist are the best of its kind.

Nice try. Now give me back Marvin Gaye.

If you just saw Amadeus and were surprised that some classical music were less boring than those you heard before. This playlist is for you.

If you haven't decided if you really want to hurl yourself into a bunch of dead white Europeans or ask you grandpa about how to pronounce Furtwängler, but still want a taste of classical music. Look no further.

If you normally get your annual dose of classical music by picking up albums with delightfully subtle and tasteful names (like Make Out To Mozart) in Spotify's search results for "classical music". Thank whoever leads you to this place.

If you are a true hipster that collects all kinds of aural wallpapers but so far hasn't found a classical one (or you have a compilation like The Most Relaxing Classical In The Universe but your freckle-faced cousin already liked it on Facebook), today is your lucky day.

Phew. I never thought that I could talk like Lang Lang's PR.

Seriously, this playlist offers some of the best easy to access classical compilations, including: Deutsche Grammophon's four Yellow Lounge releases (classical mix albums for real, all the peaceful movements transition smoothly between one and the next) and Classical Choice series (15 albums featuring famous composers and their works as well as different topics e.g. Meditation, Good Morning or Love´s Dream.); Decca's Set Your Life To Music series (Bach at Bedtime, Debussy For Daydreaming etc.) and Bluebird - Music Of Contemplation; Serene Journeys Through Classical Music and Horizons - A Musical Journey from Delos; Mystic Classics - Visionary Choral and Orchestral Masterpieces from Naxos; the Atmosphere series from Analekta (Night, Morning, Winter and Fall); and Berceuses: Evening Music for the Whole Family from Aeon.

I only included albums that 1, offer excerpts (i.e. the big tunes) and single movements from multiple-movement works; 2, organized upon moods and pragmatic themes; 3, performed by top-notch artists. There's many other fine albums for classical newbies, like Naxos's recent "My First Mozart/Bach/etc. Album" series, but I intended to make this playlist as barbarian-friendly as possible. This playlist is just meant to help you to get used to the sound of classical warhorses, not to get you into Bach or any composer. I am really not sure if you want to know Bach and get your "first Bach album", but I suppose you go to bed every day and Bach At Bedtime may come handy when Red House Painters can't get you to sleep anymore. These compilations present classical works as well constructed, lushly orchestrated and out-of-this-worldly catchy pop music, for newbies, there's nothing wrong with this approach. It's as nature as introducing people to Elton John with Tiny Dancer. Hand on heart, how did you feel when you first heard the 11-minute opening track in Yellow Brick Road, when you were eight?

Here's the Spotify playlist: Easy Listening Classical For Study, Work, Relaxing, Chillout, Anything But Serious Listening (523 tracks, total time: 41 hours) It works better in Album view. I will add more fitting albums when I stumble upon them; suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Hope you enjoy the music. After a while, maybe you will find yourself just can't get a certain tune off your head and decide to dig more about that composer, use Google or the library, and come back here to get the dude's complete works in one playlist. Most likely you will find him in the composer list here. I look forward to see you around.

Bach Works Catalogue (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) on Spotify

2012-03-21T21:42:00.003+08:00

"Perhaps the most serious complaint you could make about Bach is that he has every quality of humanity except imperfection." -Jeremy Denk

I made a playlist of Hänssler's Complete Bach Edition before (duo to a temporary glitch, most recordings from that playlist became unavailable since this week; Hänssler's digital distributor Naxos told me they were re-delivering them to Spotify). The performances in that Edition were very fine, but few of them are first choices. So I compiled another playlist for the complete works of J.S. Bach, using the best non-Hänssler recordings, from DG (Helmut Walcha, Martha Argerich), Decca (András Schiff), EMI (Pierre Hantai), Sony (Glenn Gould, Murray Perahia), Warner (Nikolaus Harnoncourt), BIS (Masaaki Suzuki), SDG (John Eliot Gardiner), Nonesuch (Lorraine Hunt Lieberson), Harmonia Mundi (Richard Egarr), CPO (Gerhard Weinberger) and many other labels that I could find.

Works in this playlist are sorted by BWV numbers, from BWV 1 to 1128 (discovered in 2008). Works with Anhang ("Appendix") numbers are attached at the end. The BWV catalogue itself is sorted by genre; see detailed list of works in this Wiki page.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Bach Works Catalogue (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) (3488 tracks, total time: 168 hours) It works better in Album view. All tracks are available on both Spotify UK and US. There is no such thing as a definite recording of Bach's work, so I used as many recordings as possible (six recordings for the six unaccompanied cello suites, for example), and I will keep on updating this playlist to include more outstanding albums. Look forward to your suggestions.

Happy 327th birthday.

Christian Carey's Sixty Postwar Pieces to Study on Spotify

2012-03-21T18:07:00.004+08:00

Christian Carey, composer and Sequenza 21 editor, made an interesting list of important postwar classical works yesterday. The selected music here are not as formidable as you might think; a degree in music theory surely helps you to see more beauty in Babbitt or Ferneyhough, but most of them only require your attention and open mind. Quote from his original post:

"Note that I am not attempting to give them the “greatest hits” of the past sixty-five years. Instead I strove for a diversity of selections, both watershed masterworks and vibrantly interesting pieces that merit attention, even if they may not be the first ones that come to mind for the given composer. On a different day, we could come up with sixty different pieces: a composer must be prepared for a lifetime of listening, score study, and learning. Even after that, they must also be humbled by the fact that they will only get to a fraction of all the good stuff out there!"

Here's the Spotify playlist: Christian Carey's 60 Postwar Pieces to Study (341 tracks, total time: 28 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. See full list and original article here. Thanks Mr. Carey, now, what about making another list of postwar pieces to listen to for us amateur music fans (example), or even postwar pieces to study to for those who think classical music is only tolerable when an exam is coming up?

Note: 14 pieces: No.3-6, 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 32, 35, 36, 50 and 60, are not yet on Spotify.

Guest Post: Bach's 133 Arias For Tenor

2012-03-19T14:17:00.003+08:00

Jon Ploug Jørgensen is a young Danish classicist, or teacher of classics, with a strong proclivity for all things classical.

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It was only a year ago that I discovered Bach's arias. I always knew they were there and have enjoyed them when I heard works such as the Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew Passion, etc. But it was only when I started to use Spotify that I learned about the hundreds of other arias which Bach composed as a small part of his hundreds of cantatas - an achievement I still find it hard to comprehend! Perhaps the greatest discovery here was that these arias - composed at a furious pace - were as good as the arias from the large and more famous oratorios.

It was especially the arias for tenor that caught me, and I must admit that I almost never listened to any other music for the last six month. For convenience, I set up a playlist in Spotify, where I gathered all Bach’s arias for tenor, which I hear present.

When you stumble upon something great you want to share it and I am therefore pleased that Ulysses will present them on his excellent blog. A blog, which also has brought me lots of inspiration for classical listening.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Bach's Arias for Tenor (133 tracks, total time: 9 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view

Guest Post by Jon Ploug Jørgensen.

P.S. There are at least six complete or semi-complete sets of J.S. Bach's cantatas on Spotify, you can get them in six playlists here and here.