Spotify Classical Playlists

Spotify's New Feature: Gapless Playback

2012-02-23T21:48:00.000+08:00

Today Spotify added gapless playback, probably the most wanted feature among classical fans. If your desktop hasn't been automatically updated, you can get the new version here.

A few examples to showcase this great new feature:

Stockhausen's monumental work for six vocalists and six microphones, Stimmung. Over 70 minutes long, in 51 tracks, now with no gaps in between!

Live albums sounds so much better without gaps. Check out the last three track from Grateful Dead's Europe '72 Vol. 2, one of the most exciting encores ever.

Concept albums are now presently properly too, from What's Going On to Deltron 3030, from The Ninth Wave (the second half of Hounds Of Love) to The Downward Spiral, all those annoying gaps are gone for good.

If the short pause between the third and fourth movement of Beethoven's fifth Symphony made you wanted to bang your head on the desk, rejoice now, those days are gone and gone forever. Listen to The Fifth, or any symphony smoothly as one whole piece of work now. If you don't know where to start, check out my previous post: ABC Classic FM's Classic 100 Symphony.

And yes operas! Finally you can listen to a Wagner piece as three hours of contentious music without interrupting of any kind (provided you've turned off the phone and Twitter). Go search for an opera, or pick up one from my Wagner, Puccini, Strauss, Britten or Mozart playlist.

Electronic music/DJ mixes also benefits greatly from this feature, follow @afront and check out his blog for tips on that.

All album examples are linked to Spotify. Try it for yourself and look forward to your recommendations.

W. H. Auden in Music

2012-02-21T14:19:00.000+08:00

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. - W. H. Auden

"Much of his poetry is concerned with moral issues and evidences a strong political, social, and psychological context. While the teachings of Marx and Freud weighed heavily in his early work, they later gave way to religious and spiritual influences. Some critics have called Auden an “antiromantic”—a poet of analytical clarity who sought for order, for universal patterns of human existence. Auden’s poetry is considered versatile and inventive, ranging from the tersely epigrammatic to book-length verse, and incorporating a vast range of scientific knowledge." Poetry Foundation

To celebrated Auden's 105th birthday, I put together a playlist of music based on his poems and translations, including Auden songs from Barber, Britten (Fish in the Unruffled Lakes), Foss (We're Late), Henze, Rorem and many more; libretti, including The Rake's Progress and Elegy for Young Lovers; and compositions inspired by his writings, like Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety.I also included jazz pianist Andreas Schnermann's Tell Me The Truth About Love, which set 12 Auden poems to music.

Here's the Spotify playlist: W.H. Auden in Music (163 tracks, total time: 9 hours). Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. See song texts here. For further readings, I wholeheartedly recommend his prose collection: The Dyer's Hand, one of the best books on reading, writing, Shakespeare and music that I have read, and this blog post: W.H. Auden as Muse. You can also hear Auden reading his poems from this previous playlist.

Rainer Maria Rilke in Music

2012-02-08T21:25:00.002+08:00

Music. The breathing of statues. Perhaps:

The quiet of images. You, language where

languages end. You, time

standing straight from the direction

of transpiring hearts.

- Rilke, To Music

"Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 –1926), was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language. His haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety: themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets." - Wikipedia

"By sheer dint of prayer, I knew bread."

"Rilke's conservative forms, lyrical diction, rhyme and brevity are qualities that have historically commended themselves to the masters of the German lied, but prolific ones like Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner and Othmar Schoeck ignored Rilke and turned readily, among contemporary writers, to Hermann Hesse, whose purely poetic gifts were of a lesser order.

The modernists dabbled: Schoenberg, Berg and Webern each set a Rilke lyric or two, but with unmemorable or sometimes jarring results. Paul Hindemith made a cycle of "The Life of Mary" that many admire. But the list is very short.

Rilke is by far the most-read German poet in English translation; there are at least 12 translations of the sonnets alone, most of them still in print, and when the poet's name comes up in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives," it isn't an obscure reference. Yet though there must have been some previous American or British settings of the sonnets, none has come my way." - NYT, A 'Musician' in Spite of Himself

Though the author is on record as having only contempt for musical settings of his work, many more Rilke settings were composed and recorded since the above 1992 NYT article; I collected more than 60 classical works for this playlist. Not all of them are masterpieces that are worthy of the original text; I put my favourite ones at the beginning: Morten Lauridsen's Chansons des Roses, Krenek's O Lacrymosa, and Lieberson's Rilke Songs. Other notable works include: Brad Mehldau's Love Sublime, Rautavaara's setting of the first Duino Elegies, three settings of Sonnets to Orpheus (by Rautavaara, Danielpour and Eric Moe), and four settings of Rilke's only major prose poem: The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke (by Earl Kim, Frank Martin, Viktor Ullmann and Paul von Klenau).

Here's the Spotify playlist: Rainer Maria Rilke in Music (336 tracks, total time: 20 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. See song texts here. For further readings, I recommend any good anthology with Letters to a Young Poet, and The Complete French Poems.

Spotify Hidden Feature: Playlist Search

2012-02-05T20:44:00.004+08:00

I wrote about how to use advance search to look for classical music on Spotify before; Spotify's official site also offers various examples of wildcard searches. Today I discovered a hidden feature in Spotify's desktop app: playlist search.

Example 1: playlist:pitchfork

I browsed the five results in the first page, they are all quite popular (8k+ subscribers), but strangely, no playlists from Pitchfork's official account was shown in the first ten pages of results (even though this one has 35k+ subscribers). Apparently, the reason is, there's no "pitchfork" in the titles of those playlists.

Example 2: playlist:mozart

Here begins the confusion. It shows a list of seemingly random playlists - many of them have no subscribers at all. I am not going to browse through a list of playlists titled just Mozart unless I'm really bored, and I doubt many users will. I didn't see my Mozart Chronological Catalogue playlist (800+ subscribers) in the first 10 pages of results, and couldn't find anything when I searched for "Mozart catalogue".

Example 3: playlist:tom moon

My intention was to find out if other users could find my 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die Based on Tom Moon's Book playlist (1.7k+ subscribers) through playlist search. The answer is negative - it only shows dozens of playlists consist of only one album: Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever. This brings up another problem in Spotify: the unwanted one-album playlists.

Why would users create a playlist for a single album? Because they have to; there's simply no other way to save an album for further listening. Playlist management is always a weakness in Spotify, after a user created dozens or hundreds of playlists, it becomes really hard to look for or even remember what's in the library. Creating a "favourite albums" playlist partly solves the problem, but I think Spotify could add a simple function that vastly improves the user experience, for now I call it My Collection.

We create and subscribe to various playlists for rainy days, parties, holidays, etc., all tracks in those playlists go into our Spotify Library, but I think many of us also treasure the notion of a personal music collection, consists of only the albums/tracks we really think as "our music", i.e. those we would buy before music subscription comes into being. What I suggest is: add an "Add" button for tracks, albums and even artists, and show music added to My Collection is grid view, as in Devices (see image below).

I don't think it's the same as Starred tracks, which would become hard to browse after I added in hundreds of albums; it also cannot hold more than 10,000 tracks. For unknown reasons, users can no longer star an album in the latest version of Spotify.

This Collection function also creates useful stats for Spotify: how many users added a particular track/album to their collections; how many followed (added to collection) an artist. They can also add another handy function here: show new releases/newly added recordings from an artist to their Spotify followers as a unread (unheard?) count in their icons in the grid view. How many times did we stumble upon a promising release from an unknown band every year, and how do we keep track of their follow-ups? Why do I need a 3rd party service to tell me a new Radiohead or Leonard Cohen album has become available on Spotify? This function improves user experience, as well as offering the musicians a chance to gain loyalty, other than one-time exposure.

I think Spotify is still working on playlist search (hence the hidden-ness); hope it becomes a truly useful function soon.

Songs of Bob Dylan: After Clinton Heylin's Chronological List

2012-01-31T01:32:00.001+08:00

To celebrate Bob Dylan's return to Spotify, I compiled a chronological playlist of songs written by the master, after renowned Dylanlogist Clinton Heylin's two volume companion to every Dylan song from 1957 to 2006: Revolution In The Air and Still On The Road.

Mostly I use Dylan's studio takes for the playlist, with a few live recordings/demos from the official bootleg series, like It's All Over Now Baby Blue & Visions of Johanna from the "Royal Albert Hall" Concert, and a studio outtake of Born In Time - like the other dozen or so outtakes of this song circulating among bootleggers, it sounds vastly superior to the version appeared on the album. Heylin's list ends at 2006, I also included the 2009 album Together Through Life and The Love That Faded from 2011's The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams. Please note no covers are included here - though Dylan's two recordings of traditional folk songs from the early 1990s are up there with Cash's American Recordings - on the other hand, a few songs performed by other artists are included, like Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word sang by Joan Baez, because Dylan never officially recorded it.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Songs of Bob Dylan: After Clinton Heylin's Chronological List (392 tracks, total time: 30 hours) (CMD)+G to browse in album view.

Also check out this awesome blog: Every Bob Dylan Song.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Chronological Catalogue on Spotify, Version 2.0

2012-01-27T20:03:00.000+08:00

"We cannot despair about mankind knowing that Mozart was a man." - Albert Einstein

I compiled first version of this playlist in July, 2010, it was the Philips's 180-CD Complete Mozart Edition rearranged in chronological order. I totally remade it last month, because: 1, I want to add more variety into this playlist; 2, About half of the Philips recordings are not available in Spotify USA. 3, There are dozens of works are not recorded for the Philips Edition, including newly discovered pieces.

After the remake/expansion, this playlists now include 2802 tracks from more than 470 recordings, covering most of the excellent Mozart interpreters and important recordings from the stereo era that I know of, and most of the tracks are now available in both Spotify UK and USA.

I tried to find all of Mozart works in recorded form. The criteria for inclusion are: 1, all works included in the Philips Edition, even a few works (like K44) are not authentic; 2, all fragments and unfinished works should be here, in their original form when possible (I have to include the completed version of the Requiem, but another recording of only the notes written by Mozart is also featured); 3, all doubtful works, unless they are proved definitely spurious (like Symphony No. 2 & 3), are included. In addition to all works listed in the main list of the Köchel catalogue, this playlist also contains these works below:

K44/K73u, Cibavit eos
K61h, Minuet
K72a, Piano Sonata in G
K74g/K.Anh 216, Symphony in Bb
K91/K186i, Kyrie in D
K142, Tatum ergo in Bb
K196e & K196f, Wind Octets in Eb and Bb
K197, Tatum ergo in D
K198, Offertory "Sub Tuum Praesidium"
K223/K166e, The Osanna (and sketches on same page)
K288/K246c, Fragment of a Divertimento in F
K293/K416f, Oboe Concerto Fragment
K293e, "19 Coloratura Cadenzas to J.C. Bach Arias"
K297b/K.Anh C14.01, 4-Wind Sinfonia Concertante
K299c, Fragmentary Ballet Pieces
K299d/K.Anh 103, The "Chasse"
K312/189i/590d, Piano Sonata Fragment in G
K314, Flute Concerto in D, 2 Versions
K315a - K315g, 8 Minuets
K320e, The Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola, Cello
K322, Kyrie in Eb
K323, Kyrie in C
K357, 4-Hand Piano Sonata
K370b, Horn Concerto
K375b, c & d/K.Anh 42, 43 & 45, Two 2-piano fragments
K396, Sonata movement or Fantasia
K403/K385c, K404/K385d, K402/K385e, Pieces for Piano and Violin
K426a/K.Anh 44, Allegro in c-minor for 2-pianos
K429/K468a, Cantata, Dir Seele des Weltalls
K440/K383h, Soprano Aria "In te spero, o sposo amato"
K442, 3 Fragments of Piano Trios in d-minor, G, and D
K443/K404b, Trio-Sonata Fugue in G
K446, Pantomime Music
K452a/K.Anh 54, Larghetto in B flat for Piano, Oboe, Clarinet, Basset Horn and Bassoon
K464a/K.Anh 72, Rondo movement in A
K484b/K.Anh 95, Fragment for Wind
K484e, Fragment of Allegro for Bassetthorn
K494a/K.Anh 98A, Horn Concerto fragment in E major
K498a/K.Anh 136, Piano Sonata in Bb
K514a/K.Anh 80, Movement for 2 Violins, 2 Violas, and Cello in B-flat
K515c/K.Anh 79, String Quintet Fragment in A
K516c/K.Anh 91, Clarinet Quintet Fragment
K535b/K.Anh 107, Fragment of a Contredance
K562e/K.Anh66, Fragment for String Trio
K565a, Contredance
K580a/K.Anh94, Adagio for 4 Instruments
K580b/K.Anh 90, Clarinet/Bassethorn Quintet in F
K589a/K.Anh 68, Fragments for the Final Movement of this String Quartet
K621a/K.Anh 245, The Aria "Io ti lascio"
K621b, Fragment of Bassetthorn Concerto in G
K623a, Austrian National Hymn
K.Anh 138, Andante variatio
K.Anh 137, Piano Variations on Clarinet Quintet K581
K.deest, Soprano Aria "Cara. Se le mio pene"
K.deest, Symphony"Neue Lambacher"
K.deest, Larghetto and Allegro for 2-Pianos in Eb
K.deest, "Modulating Prelude"
K.deest, Interval Canons

Notes:

Anhang I: Lost authentic compositions (Anh. 1 - 11)
Anhang II: Fragmentary Compositions (Anh. 12 - 109)
Anhang III: Transcribed works by others (Anh. 110 - 184)
Anhang IV: Doubtful Compositions (Anh. 185 - 231)
Anhang V: Spurious Compositions (Anh 232 - 294)

I included all the Bach arrangements in their entirety, as for Mozart's arrangement of Handel's oratorios (K566, 572, 591, 592) I only put in one track per piece.

Here's the Spotify playlists: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Chronological Catalogue based on K6 (2802 tracks, from more than 370 artists, on more than 470 recordings, total time: 190 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. Works are arranged in chronological order based on the 6th edition of the Köchel catalogue, for works not listed there, I consulted various online sources and Hermann Abert's definite biography W.A. Mozart, but I am no expert, please leave a comment if you find any mistakes in the track order, or find anything that I left over. Thank you.

More references: Main Köchel, Mini Köchel, list of Fragment Recordings, what's on and not on the Philips Edition.

You can use this playlist to play the Mozart Game, or create as many smaller playlist as you want: just press Ctrl(CMD)+F to bring out the filter bar, then input, say, oboe:

You get all the Mozart works for oboe.

or Horn:

Flute:

Clarinet:

Piano:

Piano Concerto:

For unknown reasons, Spotify took out the stats from the filter bar, and now you cannot see those track/artists/albums numbers. The screenshots were taken with the previous version of Spotify. Also please note these sub-playlists are not as exhaustive as the main list, as tracks on Spotify are tagged by different labels using their own methods, for example: some piano sonatas are tagged as "keyboard sonatas".

If you miss the old one based on the Philips Edition, here's another Spotify playlist: Philips Complete Compact Mozart Edition - 17 Box-sets (2636 tracks, total time: 180 hours)

Happy birthday Wolfie, thank you for the music.

EMI 20th Century Classics on Spotify

2012-01-20T22:14:00.002+08:00

This series features recordings of both popular and rare 20th Century works. All are 2CD releases, with the repertoire taken from both the EMI and Virgin Classics catalogues. It offers a wonderful introduction to the more accessible classical music from the last century, and also covers the some of the most famous avant-gardists.

EMI listed 44 titles in their official site, but thanks to Mark Whitehead, I found more than 60 titles on Spotify. Composers features in this series include: Bartók (3 volumes), Berg, Britten, Debussy, Delius, Dukas, Dutilleux, Elgar, Enescu, Falla, Glazunov, Hartmann (2 volumes), Henze, Hindemith (2 volumes), Holst, Honegger, Ibert, Janácek, Khachaturian, Kodaly, Korngold, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Messiaen, Milhaud, Nielsen (2 volumes), Orff, Pärt, Penderecki, Poulenc, Prokofiev (2 volumes), Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Respighi, Rodrigo, Roussel, Satie, Schoenberg, Schreker, Scriabin, Shostakovich (2 volumes), Sibelius, Stockhausen, Stravinsky, Suk, Szymanowski, Tavener, Tcherepnin, Tippett, Villa-Lobos, Walton, Weill, R.V. Williams, Xenakis, Zemlinsky (2 volumes).

Here's the Spotify playlist: EMI: 20th Century Classics (1785 tracks, total time: 152 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. Albums are sorted by composer names, as listed above.

Guest Post: The Art of Binary, or Music To Code To - Domenico Scarlatti's 555 Keyboard Sonatas

2012-01-16T16:32:00.001+08:00

Marc van Oostendorp is a Professor of Phonology - that is: the study of the sound systems of human languages - in Leiden, the Netherlands, a lover of music and a Spotify enthusiast.

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Many things are unknown about the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). During the first half of his life he lived in Italy and in the shadow of his father Alessandro (1660-1725), who was a much more famous (and productive) composer at the time, even though he is now less well-known than his son. The second half of Domenico’s life was spent on the Iberian peninsula. He worked at the Portuguese and Spanish courts, probably mainly as a music teacher to the Portuguese princess Marie Barbara de Bragance. During these last decades he also worked on what is now considered his most important work: over 550 keyboard sonatas (written originally for the harpsichord or pianoforte, but now performed on other instruments as well).

Although Scarlatti has always remained less famous than Johann Sebastian Bach or Georg Friedrich Handel, his sonatas enjoy a great reputation among lovers of the piano and the clavecin. The recording which the French pianist Alexandre Tharaud released earlier this year is generally considered to be one of the best classical cds to have appeared in 2011.

In 1953, the harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick published a catalogue of all Scarlatti sonatas known to him; this is still considered to be the most authoritative catalogue. Numbers from this catalogue (1-555) are usually prefixed by K or Kk.

I know of one complete edition of all ‘Kirkpatrick’ sonatas: the recordings made by the British harpsichordist Richard Lester. I made a different playlist of all Scarlatti Keyboard Sonatas (579 track, total time: 1 day. Including a few not in Kirkpatrick), which is more varied: I tried to include as many different keyboard players as I could find, and also included recordings by guitarists, harpists, and even a violinist and a saxophone quartet. I also made a separate playlist of Scarlatti Sonata K9, as played by 28 different musicians.

As a bonus, the Petrucci library offers free musical scores of all sonatas. A very nice website is also the one by Christopher Hail, which offers among other things a great catalogue (pdf), plus a Calendar for 2012, with a suggestion for every day on which sonata to listen to (something done in 2010 by blogger Mimo).

Guest post by Marc van Oostendorp

1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Spotify Playlist after Tom Moon's Book

2012-01-08T11:43:00.004+08:00

"This is a book both broad and deep, drawing from the diverse worlds of classical, jazz, rock, pop, blues, country, folk, musicals, hip-hop, world, opera, soundtracks, and more. It's arranged alphabetically by artist to create the kind of unexpected juxtapositions that break down genre bias and broaden listeners' horizons— it makes every listener a seeker, actively pursuing new artists and new sounds, and reconfirming the greatness of the classics. Flanking J. S. Bach and his six entries, for example, are the little-known R&B singer Baby Huey and the '80s Rastafarian hard-core punk band Bad Brains. Farther down the list: The Band, Samuel Barber, Cecelia Bartoli, Count Basie, and Afropop star Waldemer Bastos."

"The goal, Moon writes in the introduction, is to spark curiosity about music —all forms of music. 'There's great treasure waiting on the other side of wherever you draw your territorial lines.'" - official site

I bought Tom Moon's 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die yesterday when it's featured on Kindle Store's daily deal. After skimming though the list, I was happy that there's tons of stuff I didn't know, and I liked most of the recordings I did know. My only complain, aside from Tommy made into the list instead of Quadrophenia, was that it didn't come with a Spotify playlist. Well, you can guess the rest.

Here's the Spotify Playlist: 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (Tom Moon): An Index (805 tracks from 805 recordings). Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view, and use the filter bar (Ctrl+F) to look for recordings. See complete list with essays here or download it as a pdf. Most of Moon's selections are albums, I kept only one track per recording for practical reasons: to get rid of the 10,000 tracks limitation, and keep the playlist easy to browse. I didn't mean to make it into a singles playlist, so I chose the tracks from albums rather randomly. Most recordings here deserve to be listened in their entirety.

Why only 805 recordings? Well, some artists like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin are not on Spotify yet. Also, I only included albums exactly matched the list. For example, Serkin's Complete Beethoven Piano Concerto with Ozawa is available, but the book recommends his earlier recordings with Kubelik; Spotify has many recordings of Oum Kalthoum, including a gigantic 26-CD set, but the very compilation listed in the book, Legend of Arab Music, is not available, in both cases I didn't include them into this playlist. My goal is to create a playlist for the readers of the book, and people who are curious to explore, so I don't think any addition or alteration to the original list is necessary.

Collaborative Playlist: 2012 New Classical Releases

2012-01-03T23:41:00.003+08:00

Three days into the new year, we already have more than 100 new classical releases on Spotify. I created a collaborative playlist for newly recorded classical recordings released in 2012, please feel free to add any new recording you stumble upon. I appreciate it if you can 1, check if the recording is already in the playlist (press Ctrl+F for the filter bar, then type in the album title to look up); 2, make sure it's not a compilation or repackaging of previously released materials, or newly reissued/remastered historical recording.

Thanks to many contributors, the 2011 new classical releases index playlist was a great success. But towards the end of last year, more than 100 tracks disappeared from that 1300+ tracks playlist. I thought it might be someone deleting the superfluous titles, until I noticed that the excellent Mozart recording from Kristian Bezuidenhout was also deleted. I hope it was an accident, and Spotify can make collaborative playlist more easy to use, like only allowing adding but not deleting.

Here's the collaborative playlist: 2012 New Classical Releases Index (as of 2011/01/03, 102 tracks from 102 albums 16 hours). Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. Please add one track from one recording only, at the top of the playlist, so we can browse the new releases without scrolling down to the end. Thank you.

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Update: 10 hours after I published this post, I found 17 tracks were deleted from the playlist. It seems that someone is intentionally messing up with it. Please stop, it is not my job to go through Spotify's classical library weekly and I don't get paid by Spotify, me and other users just want to have a convenient index of all the new classical releases on Spotify. Thanks for your cooperation.

Vienna New Year's Concert: A Collection

2011-12-31T16:13:00.000+08:00

The New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic (German: Das Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker) is a concert of classical music that takes place each year in the morning of January 1 in Vienna, Austria. It is broadcast around the world to an estimated audience of 50 million in 72 countries (as of 2010). The music always includes pieces from the Strauss family—Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss—with occasional additional music from other mostly Austrian composers. - Wikipedia

Here's the Spotify playlist: Vienna New Year's Concert: A Collection (513 tracks, total time: 46 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. It features all recordings of the New Year's Concert available on Spotify: 1941 & 1952-54 (Clemens Krauss), 1979 (Willi Boskovsky), 1987 (Karajan), 1989 & 1992 (Carlos Kleiber, if you had to own only one Strauss family album, the 1992 concert would be a safe choice), and everything from 1996 to 2011, sorted in reverse chronological order. I also included four highlight compilations at the end of the playlist.

Happy New Year, and look forward to add the 2012 concert soon.

Christmas Hiatus

2011-12-16T16:25:00.004+08:00

2011 has been a good year for this blogger. I saw Bob Dylan and The Barber of Seville for the first time; saw Spotify became a even better service since I started to use it in 2009 (though I slightly worry about their alliance with Facebook) and kept innovating; got to know many interesting online personalities since Spotify launched in five new territories this year, and learned a lot from those who kindly send me emails or contributed guest posts; and all my family are well. I hope it's a good year for you too, and I hope what I did on this site was helpful.

If you enjoyed this blog and want to give something back, you can buy me a book from my Amazon wishlists: (US, UK), or send an Amazon Kindle gift card to my email. Thank you. Here's a longer appeal from last year. The National Library, which is just one block away from my apartment, closed for innovation (though I am sure that's just an excuse, they did that just like they blocked Twitter, Youtube or Blogger, where this blog is hosted) this year, so any help with books would be much appreciated. Please choose Standard International Shipping for the minimum postage. Getting the books before or after Christmas makes no difference to me, and they always arrived within two weeks though Amazon states 17-28 days.

I fear that might be too much to ask, in this economic turndown. So I also propose this, that I believe most of you can do: if you have any relative or friend who's interested in classical music but hasn't discovered Spotify, please show him/her what Spotify can do for a classical music fan. I truly appreciate your help on spreading the word for this greatest music service, and all the wonderful music it offers.

Thank you all for reading. Happy holidays, and see you in two weeks.

Richard Strauss: Complete Chronological Catalogue by TrV Number

2011-12-15T10:02:00.003+08:00

Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Also sprach Zarathustra, An Alpine Symphony, and Metamorphosen.

Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style. - Wikipedia

Richard Strauss working on Die schweigsame Frau (The
Silent Woman) at his villa outside Munich, 1932

This playlist was compiled after the 3rd version of Franz Trenner's chronological catalogue of Strauss's works. The version was revised by his son Florian Trenner in 1999. This catalogue lists 298 works and each has been assigned a TrV number. See full list here.

It starts from Trv 2-4, three songs date from 1870-71, when the composer was six/seven years old, when Germany, or Kingdom of Prussia, was fighting Napoleon III; and ends with Four Last Songs, completed in 1948, by then the composer had seen, among many others, two world wars that took over 100 million lives.

Der Rosenkavalier, photo of a 1911
performance. Elisabeth Böhm van Endert
as Oktavian, Erna Denera as Sophie

2011 is both the 100th anniversary of the death of Mahler and the premiere of Der Rosenkavalier. I always feel this opera is something like the last glimpse into a lost world. A world in which death is not just cold numbers, and sentiment in art music was not deemed cliche because the artists and the audience still shared a lot of common emotions. You can almost see the grim faces of the generals behind those grand waltz tunes. If Mahler survived into the war time, I highly doubt if he would continue to write symphonies that lament over life and death of individuals.

One year before the premiere of Der Rosenkavalier, Arnold Schoenberg wrote: "Art is the cry of distress uttered by those who experience at first hand the fate of mankind. Who are not reconciled to it, but come to grips with it... Who do not turn their eyes away, to shield themselves from emotions, but open them wide, so as to tackle what must be tackled. Who do, however, often close their eyes, in order to perceive things incommunicable by the senses, to envision within themselves the process that only seems to be in the world outside. The world revolves within-inside them: what bursts out is merely the echo-the work of art."

And indeed the composer of Rosenkavalier might be one of the last great artists who turned their eyes away from this most violent century in human history - because he had seen better times - while kept their integrity and created profound art.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Richard Strauss: Complete Chronological Catalogue by TrV Number (999 tracks from more than 150 albums, total time: 71 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. I compiled the playlist in October on my Spotify UK account, and revised it on a Spotify US account this week, to substitute recordings also available on Spotify US with those only available on Spotify UK (like Solti's Strauss opera recordings on Decca). You can see from the "Added" column that nearly half of the tracks were added recently.

Some interesting curiosities in this playlist: Strauss's Interludio from his revision of Mozart's Idomeneo (in which he dispensed with Electra, maybe his own opera and wife were enough for him); 1912 version of Ariadne auf Naxos, with its prolog, musical-theater version of Bourgeois Gentilhomme; the complete chamber music (including many early, Brahmsian works); Karl Anton Rickenbacher's The Unknown Strauss series including the unfinished singspiel, Des Esels Schatten (1949), orchestrated and completed by Karl Haussner; orchestral versions of songs for piano and voice, and piano version of Four Last Songs (not arranged by the composer, but very interesting to hear nevertheless). I also included the suites, symphonic fragments and popular concert pieces from the operas (sextet from Capriccio, Dance of the Seven Veils etc), placed after the full recordings.

Please leave a comment if you find something that I left out. Thank you.

Guest Post: The Art of Horn

2011-12-12T17:26:00.000+08:00

Kathryn Zevenbergen, a Spotify fan who is studying horn at Zurich University of the Arts, emailed me in July to ask me "how much do you pay attention to or value the use of original instruments when you make your playlists", and I confessed I couldn't judge recordings from that angle. That's how I got this idea about guest posts by professional musicians. I asked Kathryn to compile some playlists for her instrument, and suggested to include the slow movement of Hummel's Piano Concerto No.3 (four horns accompany the piano throughout while the rest of the orchestra go for vacation). She just sent me two great playlists with an intro. Here's Kathryn.

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The Horn Highlights playlist is my attempt to make a short playlist with the best movements written for horn. It has a little bit of everything--obviously there are concerto movements, but there’s also some chamber music. Now, I have to admit, I have a grudge against only listening to one movement of a piece. If you have that bias as well, the complete version of everything on the Horn Highlights list can be found on the aptly named Horn list. This list is everything I can think of, but if you subscribe, I will be continually adding to it, because I know for a fact that it is in no way complete. The Horn list is not in chronological order, I prefer to listen to things mixed up a bit. I also didn’t want to have six Mozart pieces in a row.

A couple notes about the horn: the first horns had no valves, and thus could not play a complete scale. Some of the recordings I found are played on similar instruments (such as the Bach Brandenburg Concerto recording), but I couldn't always find historically informed performances performances. You can maybe hear the difference, because some notes will sound with more of a buzz than others. The buzzy notes come from the player moving his/her hand in the bell to cover the hole, and thus the pitch changes, creating a note the instrument shouldn’t actually be able to play (this is maybe most obvious in the recording of Mozart's concerto K. 447).

Another cool thing about horn is the amount of chamber music we can play. I didn’t put a whole lot on this list (only my favorites) because if I put every quintet, the list would be about a year long. Horns are very versatile in the chamber music world--although we are a brass instrument, we also play in most woodwind ensembles.

Here are the Spotify playlists: Horn Highlights (21 tracks, total time: 2 hours), and Horn (159 tracks, 14 hours) Hopefully these playlists give you a taste for everything horn! Enjoy!

Guest post by Kathryn Zevenbergen

Olivier Messiaen: Complete Chronological Catalogue on Spotify

2011-12-10T21:26:00.001+08:00

"A true music, that is to say, spiritual, a music which may be an act of faith; a music which may touch upon all subjects without ceasing to touch upon God; an original music, in short, whose language may open a few doors, take down some yet distant stars." - Olivier Messiaen, in the preface of his Technique de mon Langage Musical (Technique of my Musical Language)

Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist, teacher, and ornithologist whose music is distinguished by his deep devotion to Catholicism, exoticism, and nature. - AllMusic

On the fall of France in 1940, Messiaen was made a prisoner of war, during which time he composed his Quatuor pour la fin du temps ("Quartet for the end of time") for the four available instruments—piano, violin, cello and clarinet. It was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners for an audience of inmates and prison guards.

He found birdsong fascinating, believed birds to be the greatest musicians, and considered himself as much an ornithologist as a composer. He notated bird songs worldwide and incorporated birdsong transcriptions into most of his music. His innovative use of colour, his conception of the relationship between time and music, his use of birdsong and his desire to express religious ideas are among features that make Messiaen's music distinctive. - Wikipedia

Here's the Spotify playlist: Olivier Messiaen: Complete Chronological Catalogue (357 tracks from more than 60 albums, total time: 36 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité in this playlist was recorded on the organ of Trinité Church, where Messiaen served as organist for 61 years. You can also hear the composer plays the piano in Poèmes pour Mi in the previous playlist Composer As Pianist. For newbies, try 4 Etudes de rythme, Zion Park et la cité céleste, Quartet For The End Of Time and Vingt Regards Sur L'enfant Jesus first.

Messiaen is Elliott Carter's senior by one day, happy 103rd birthday too.

Below is a list of works in this playlist, including English translation for the original French titles. All works are linked to introductory articles.

Offrande au Saint Sacrement / Offering to the Holy Sacrement (c.1925-30)
Le banquet céleste / The Celestial Banquet (1926)
Prelude ,for organ (1928)
8 Preludes, for piano (1929)
Diptyque: Essai sur la vie terrestre et l'éternité bienheureux / Diptych: Essay on the Earthly Life and the Blessed Eternity (1929)
Les offrandes oubliée: Méditation symphonique / The Necessary/Required Offerings: Symphonic Meditation (1930)
La Mort du nombre / The Death of Numbers (1930)
Trois mélodies / Three Melodies (1930)
Le Tombeau resplendissant / The Shining Tomb (1931)
Apparition de l'église éternelle / Apparition of the Eternal Church (1932)
Fantasie burlesque / Burlesque Fantasy (1932)
Hymne au Saint Sacrement / Hymn to the Holy Sacrament (1932)
Theme and Variations, for violin & piano (1932)
L'Ascension / Ascension Day, for orchestra (1933)
L'Ascension: Quatre Méditations Symphoniques / Ascension Day: Four Symphonic Meditations, for organ (1933)
Fantasy (for violin and piano) (1933)
Pièce pour la tombeau de Paul Dukas / Piece for the Tomb of Paul Dukas (1935)
Vocalise-Etude / Vocalize Study (1935)
La Nativité du Seigneur: Neuf méditations / The Nativity of the Lord: Nine Meditations (1935)
Poèmes pour Mi / Poems for Mi (1936, orchestrated 1937)
Oraison, for ondes martenot (1937)
Fête des belles eaux / Celebration of the beautiful waters (1937)
O sacrum convivium / O Sacred Banquet (1937)
Les Corps glorieux: Sept visions brèves de la vie des ressuscités / The Glorious Bodies: Seven Brief Visions of the Li / Songs of the Earth and the Sky (1939)
Quatuor pour la fin du temps / Quartet for the End of Time (1941)
Visions de l'amen / Visions of the Amen (1943)
Rondeau / Rondo (1943)
Trois petites liturgies de la Présence divine / Three Small Liturgies on the Divine Presence (1943)
Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus / Twenty Gazes/Looks at the Infant Jesus (1944)
Chants des déportés / Songs of the Deported (1945)
Harawi: Chants d'amour et de mort / Harawi: Songs of love and death (1945)
Turangalîla-Symphonie / Turangalila Symphony (1948)
Cinq rechants / Five Refrains (1948)
Cantéyodjayâ / [Untranslatable] (1949)
Messe de la Pentecôte / Mass for Pentecost (1950)
Quatre études de rythme / Four Studies in Rhythm (1950)
Livre d'orgue / Manual for the Organ (1950)
Le Merle noir / The Blackbird (1952)
Réveil des oiseaux / The Waking of the Birds (1953)
Oiseaux exotiques / Exotic birds (1956)
Catalogue d'Oiseaux / Catalogue of Birds (1958)
Chronochromie / Chronochrome/Color of Time (1960)
Verset pour la fête de la Dédicace / Verse for the Feast of the Dedication (1960)
Sept haïkaï / Seven Haiku (1962)
Monodie / Monody (1963)
Couleurs de la cité céleste / Colors of the Celestial City (1963)
Prelude, for piano (1964)
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum / In Expectation of a Resurrection After Death (1964)
La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ / The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1965)
Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité / Meditations on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity (1969)
La Fauvette des jardins / The Garden Warbler (1970)
Des canyons aux étoiles... / From the Canyons to the Stars... (1974)
Saint François d'Assise / Saint Francis of Assisi (1979)
Livre du Saint Sacrement / Book of the Holy Sacrament (1984)
Petites esquisses d'oiseaux / Small Sketches of Birds (1985)
Chant dans le style Mozart / Song in the style of Mozart (1986)
Un vitrail et des oiseaux / A Stained-Glass Window and the Birds (1986)
La Ville d'en haut / The City of the Proud (1987)
Eclairs sur l'Au-Delà / Illuminations of the Beyond (1988-92)
Un sourire / A Smile (1989)
Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes / Piece for Piano and String Quartet (1991)
Concert à quatre / Concerto for Four (1992)
Feuillets inédits, for ondes Martenot (unknown)

Elliott Carter: A Reverse Chronological Collection

2011-12-07T22:14:00.008+08:00

"One of the most significant post-WW II American composers, Elliott Carter remains a forceful and eloquent voice into his 10th decade. From an early, quasi-neo-Classical style, Carter has forged his own complex, dramatically oriented adaptation of serial methods." - AllMusic

"He has been extremely productive in his later years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and over 14 more since he turned 100 in 2008." - Wikipedia

Happy 103rd birthday, with many more to come.

It is my first playlist for a living composer this year, though Carter is actually older than Britten, Cage, Schnittke, Stockhausen and Xenakis. His great Indian summer still lives on, and recordings of his new compositions are coming out steadily, so I compiled this playlist in reverse chronological order. If you are not familiar with Carter, you may start with the first few tracks of his most recent works, then try String Quartet No.1 (it quotes from Ives, whom Carter befriended in the 1920s), Cello Sonata, and the Clarinet Concerto.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Elliott Carter: A Reverse Chronological Collection (211 tracks from more than 50 recordings, total time: 18 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. To accompany your listening: an informative article on Carter's 101th birthday, from two years ago, including pictures of Carter with Bernstein, Cage and Stravinsky; Richard Taruskin's article on Carter, a standalone chapter from The Oxford History of Western Music, on Google Books.

Below is a list of works in this playlist, all linked to introductory articles. The Bridge Carter Edition will appear on Spotify soon, and the post/playlist will then be greatly expanded.

Retracing III, for solo trumpet (2009)
Figment V, for solo marimba (2009)
Retracing II, for solo horn (2009)
Duettone, for violin and violoncello (2009)
Duettino, for violin and violoncello (2008)
Poems of Louis Zukofsky, for clarinet and soprano (2008)
On Conversing with Paradise, for baritone and ensemble (2008)
Tintinnabulation, for percussion sextet (2008)
Wind Rose, for wind ensemble (2008)
Clarinet Quintet (2007)
Mad Regales, for 6 solo voices (2007)
HBHH, for oboe solo (2007)
Figment IV, for viola (2007)
Sound Fields, for string orchestra (2007)
Matribute, for piano (2007)
La Musique, for soprano solo (2007)
Figment III, for solo contrabass (2007)
Caténaires (Two Thoughts About the Piano) (2006)
Horn Concerto (2006)
Intermittences, for piano (2005)
Mosaic, for harp & 7 instruments (2004)
Dialogues, for piano & chamber orchestra (2003)
Retracing, for solo bassoon (2002)
Oboe Quartet, for oboe & string trio (2001)
4 Lauds, for solo violin (2001)
Steep Steps, for clarinet (2001)
Figment No. 2, "Remembering Mr. Ives", for solo cello (2001)
Asko Concerto, for orchestra (2000)
Retrouvailles, for solo piano (2000)
Fragment No.2, for string quartet (1999)
2 Diversions, for piano (1999)
Tempo e Tempi, for soprano, oboe, clarinet, violin & cello (1999)
What Next?, opera in 1 act (1998)
Shard, for guitar (1997)
Quintet for piano and string quartet (1997)
Clarinet Concerto (1996)
A 6 Letter Letter (1996)
Symphonia: Sum fluxae pretium spei (1996)
Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux II, for flute, clarinet & marimba (1995)
String Quartet No.5 (1995)
90+, for piano (1994)
Figment, for cello (1994)
Of Challenge and of Love, for flute, clarinet & marimba (1994)
Fragment No.1, for string quartet (1994)
Gra, for clarinet or trombone (1993)
Inner Song - in Memory of Stefan Wolpe, for oboe (1992)
Quintet for piano and winds (1991)
Scrivo in vento, for flute (1991)
Con leggerezza pensosa, for clarinet, violin, and cello (1990)
Violin Concerto (1990)
Three Occasions for Orchestra (1989)
Enchanted Preludes (1988)
Oboe Concerto (1987)
String Quartet No.4 (1986)
Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux, for flute & clarinet (1985)
Penthode, for 5 groups of 4 instruments (1985)
Triple Duo, for ensemble (1983)
Changes for guitar (1983)
Night Fantasies for piano (1980)
Syringa, for soprano, baritone & ensemble (1978)
A Symphony of Three Orchestras (1976)
A Mirror on Which to Dwell, for soprano & chamber orchestra (1975)
A Fantasy about Purcell's "Fantasia Upon One Note", for brass quintet (1974)
Duo for violin and piano (1974)
Canon for Three Equal Instruments, "In Memoriam Igor Stravinsky" (1971)
Concerto for Orchestra (1969)
Piano Concerto (1964)
Double Concerto for piano, harpsichord and 2 chamber orchestras (1961)
String Quartet No. 2 (1959)
Variations for orchestra (1955)
Sonata for flute, oboe, cello, and harpsichord (1952)
String Quartet No. 1 (1951)
Eight Pieces for Four Timpani (1949/66)
Eight Etudes and a Fantasy, for wind quartet (1949)
Woodwind Quintet (1948)
Cello Sonata (1948)
The Minotaur, ballet in 2 scenes, for orchestra (1947)
Piano Sonata (1946)
Holiday Overture, for orchestra (1944, revised 1961)
Voyage, for medium voice & piano (1943)
Warble for Lilac-Time, for voice & piano (or orchestra)(1943)
Elegy, for viola (or cello) and piano (1943)
Symphony No. 1 (1942, revised 1954)
Three Poems of Robert Frost, for mezzo-soprano (or baritone) & small orchestra (or piano) (1942, orchestrated 1980)
Pastoral, for english horn (or viola or clarinet) & piano (1940)
Canonic Suite, for 4 alto saxophones (or 4 clarinets) (1939)
Tell Me Where is Fancy Bred, for alto & guitar (1938)

(Flute Concerto, 2008)

NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums Of 2011

2011-12-06T10:49:00.005+08:00

"Given that it was compiled by a score of NPR Music staffers and public radio DJs, and that it spans more than a dozen genres and embraces artists both well-known and brand-new, one might reasonably wonder what principle ties together this list of our favorite albums of 2011. How about this: They’re the albums that opened our ears to something new, ones that we enjoyed from beginning to end, ones that challenged us, ones we fought over and treasured quietly. Most of all, they're the albums that made us hand our headphones over a cubicle wall and say, 'You have to listen to this."" From NPR Music

Here's the Spotify playlist: NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums Of 2011 (562 tracks, 46 out of 50 albums) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. See complete list of albums here (it left out Watch The Throne). Their classical choices are excellent (Alexandre Tharaud's Scarlatti sonatas is one of the favourite albums of all time) and look forward to catch up with some music made by people of my age.

And you can sample the unavailable albums on BandCamp: Dwellings by Cormorant, Chancletas y Camisetas Bordada by Los Rakas

Guest Post: Not Just Another Classical Christmas Playlist

2011-12-05T16:02:00.002+08:00

Last week I discovered a surprisingly enjoyable Christmas playlist on Twitter, and got in touch with its maker, writer Jack Spearing. Jack writes about classical music for indie music sites including Spotify's buddy Drowned In Sound. He is so generous that not only allows me to share his playlist here, but also wrote a hugely informative introduction to it. Here's Jack:

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Hello - my name is Jack Spearing. I'm an art historian by training, but I write on a freelance basis about classical music, film and art. Recently I've been writing a series of articles introducing the work of different composers for various websites who usually focus on indie music. My aim is to help people who want to know more about classical music but don't necessarily know where to begin. Spotify is a spectacularly helpful tool for me, and a brilliant resource for organising and passing on classical music in general, and I always include Spotify playlists in my articles. You can find some of my articles here and here.

Some music is made for Christmas, other music achieves Christmassyness, and sometimes music has Christmas thrust upon it. As such, Christmas music is a very loose category into which all manner of things can fall – choral religious works, winter symphonies and Christmas concertos, or just anything which happens to include jingle bells. This playlist includes all of these things, no matter how tenuous their connection to the festive season, but is purged (for the most part) of Christmas Carols and cheesy Christmas albums put out by particular singers. Music, despite its programmatic and associative possibilities, remains a fundamentally abstract medium, and as a result doesn’t always lend itself particularly well towards illustrating particular times of the year, so certain tropes do surface time and time again – falling snow, sleigh rides, chanting, evocations of winter, and so on. I’ve started the playlist with a selection of odd and ends, extracts and freestanding pieces, before moving onto a series of condensed versions of larger Christmas classics, and then ending with a few slightly less serious selections.

This is a link to the playlist (138 tracks, 8 hours), and here's a quick run-down of some of the pieces included:

Prokofiev – Troika from the Lieutenant Kije Suite. A troika is a kind of Russian folk dance in which people imitate a carriage and horses, and in this case comes just after the wedding of Lieutenant Kije, a character taken by Prokofiev from a Russian folk story which satirises Tsarist bureaucracy. Lieutenant Kije himself is entirely fictitious – he is created as the result of a clerical error, and the Christmas association here is equally odd – the jingle bells were borrowed by Greg Lake (of ELP fame) for his song "I Believe in Father Christmas", and the link has persisted ever since.

Delius – Sleigh Ride. English composer Frederick Delius, whose best known tone poem is probably ‘On hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring’ also provided a cheery little number for a colder season. The liberal use of jingle bells accompanying a chirpy folk melody makes this one of the most enjoyable of all Christmas pieces.

Josef Strauss – Winterlust. Pretty much self-explanatory. A standard issue Strauss family Polka Schnell, with added jingling to tell you it’s Christmas.

Rameau – Various extracts from orchestra suites. These are a bit of a cheat – there are no jingle bells here, only Tambourines. But if you don’t think about it too much, they do have a vague Yuletide feeling to them.

Mozart – The Sledge. Composed in the year that he died, Mozart’s three German dances K605 mark the end of the composer’s long interest in dance. The sledge or “Schlittenfahrt” is the final piece in the set, beginning with a bumpy downhill journey before moving into a lilting section with prominent parts for angelic trumpets and, you guessed it, jingle bells.

Michael Praetorius – In dulci jubilo. Some time before Mike Oldfield arrived on the scene, Praetorius produced what is perhaps the definitive choral setting of this medieval carol, which also includes a thunderous brass section.

Rimsky-Korsakov – The Snow Maiden. This has nothing to do with Christmas. But it has “Snow” in the title, so draw your own conclusions.

Perotin – Alleluia. Nativitas. Perotin isn’t a name that’s hugely familiar to most people, or even to a lot of classical listeners, but it ought to be. His vocal music is fantastic, particular pieces like Sederunt Principes, which show off his trademark technique of spending minutes on individual syllables of each word, intermingling and overlapping the voices in a complex, but nonetheless melodious, sonic texture. This piece, in case you haven’t guessed, celebrates the birth of Christ.

Bach – Sheep May Safely Graze. Although the link to sheep might have you thinking that this piece is about the Shepherds who visited Jesus in his manger, it was originally part of a strictly secular work, nicknamed the Hunting Cantata. It was only much later when eccentric composer Percy Grainger created his own much more festive arrangement, entitled ‘Blithe Bells’, that the piece came to be associated with Christmas. As we’ll see in the rest of the playlist, Bach wrote quite a few other pieces which have much stronger links to Christmas, but this is still one of the prettiest melodies he ever penned, so who cares?

Corelli – Christmas Concerto. Normally the slow movements of Baroque Christmas concerti are extracted for their evocative qualities, and if you want to hear them in full then Naxos’ many and varied releases of this material are worth investigating, but I think that this anxious minor-key fast movement is better for calling to mind all the rushing and anticipating that the festive season brings.

Tchaikovsky – The Seasons: December. Ordinarily it’s the June Barcarolle which is highlighted in this exquisite piano suite, or occasionally November, which was a favourite encore of Rachmaninoff’s. But this doesn’t really do justice to what is, I think, the best solo piano piece from Christmas composer par excellence – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Johann Strauss II – Die Fledermaus Overture. Again, really nothing to do with Christmas at all. But somehow it sounds as if it should be Christmassy.

Charpentier – Noel sur les instruments. Charpentier wrote a comparatively large amount of Christmas music in the 1670s, including a cantata telling the story of the nativity, which can be found on the same album that this extract is taken from. The piece I’ve chosen is one of his lively arrangements of what were, even then, traditional carols, again with a tambourine.

Waldteufel – Les Patineurs (“Skater’s Waltz”. Not to be confused with a work by Meyerbeer of the same name, Les Patineurs was inspired by a real ice-rink in Paris. Waldteufel, being a composer of light dance music, immediately saw the parallels between the elegant skaters and the denizens of the ballroom.

Offenbach – Barcarolle. Originally this piece was an aria from an opera of Offenbach’s which had flopped, but the composer recycled the piece for his final masterpiece – The Tales of Hoffman. It has since become one of his most famous works, aside, of course, from the ubiquitous Can-Can. The Christmas connection comes from ETA Hoffman himself, because his story “The Adventures of New Year’s Eve” was incorporated along with others in Offenbach’s work.

Respigi – Siciliana. Sicilianas are a kind of Baroque dance – slow and frequently in a minor key. Italian Baroque revivalist and deeply underrated composer Ottorino Respighi, who is best known for his spectacular Pines of Rome suite, was naturally drawn to this form in his collection of Ancient Airs and Dances, from which this piece is taken. As with Baroque Christmas concertos, it’s the pastoral quality to the music which is important here, as German and Italian composers of the time associated this style with Christmas Eve.

Debussy – The Snow is Dancing. Taken from Debussy’s small set of solo piano pieces ‘Children’s Corner’, this miniature piece is one of many examples of the composer’s effortless ability to summon up images – in this case, the gentle, almost soundless falling of snow, buffeted by the winds.

Bach – In dulci jublio. Music of a more explicitly festive bent from Johann Sebastian, this time on his instrument of choice – the organ. This piece is frequently played at the end of Christmas church services.

Ryba – Bohemian Christmas Mass. Unusually for Christmas music, this is actually the composer’s best known piece, and it’s also the only work on this playlist sung in Czech. It employs the structure of a standard Latin mass, but also works in various elements of the Nativity story, and was supposedly written to mark Ryba’s reconciliation with local church authorities, who he was always pestering.

Liszt – Chasse Neige (Snow Plough). The last of Liszt’s transcendental etudes, Chasse Neige is also one of the most difficult and programmatic in this set, which is one of the composer’s greatest achievements. The nearly constant cascade of trembling notes gives the effect of the ever present snow.

Chopin – Winter Wind Etude. One of the last of Chopin’s Opus 25 Etudes, and another programmatic work, although admittedly less to do with Christmas and more to with the season as a whole, or perhaps the difficulties and obstacles of life in general.

Mendelssohn – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Another initially secular piece adopted for Christmas use due to its catchy tune. I’ve included this not because I enjoy carols, but purely to remind listeners of how many ubiquitous tunes that we assume have always existed actually had to be written by someone – the wedding march from a Midsummer Night’s Dream, also by Mendelssohn, being just one of many examples.

Mahler – Symphony No.4, 1st Movement. Another cheat – nothing to do with Christmas, just jingle bells. But Mahler can always do with being a bit more popular, so that’s reason enough for me.

Tchaikovsky – Symphony No.1 ‘Winter Daydreams’ – 3rd and 4th Movements. Tchaikovsky always struggled with sonata form and development, especially at the outset of his career, but his first symphony is still surprisingly accomplished. Don’t listen to those who say that only the 4th, 5th and 6th are worth hearing – his transformations of folk tunes into vast orchestral statements here are fantastic.

Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker. The Ultimate in Christmas Music. Despite being endlessly cannibalised for use in adverts this ballet is refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable. Obvious highlights include the Waltz of the Flowers and Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy, but the whole work is permeated with Tchaikovsky’s particular genius for musical fun.

Bach – Christmas Oratorio. One of Bach’s crowning achievements, and another of the finest pieces of true Christmas music. The work is actually a compilation of several different cantatas which were performed at different dates around the Christmas period. Along with the St Matthew and St John Passions, it ranks amongst Bach’s best choral compositions. John Eliot Gardiner’s interpretation of this piece is absolutely superb.

Handel – Messiah. The Messiah is not strictly Christmas music, as it only deals in part with Christ’s actual birth, focusing instead on various aspects of his life and the Old Testament prophecies with which it had been connected. I’ve picked out a few of my favourite sections as well as some more obvious highlights, such as the endlessly repeated Hallelujah Chorus. John Eliot Gardiner again brings his excellent direction to the piece, restoring it to the more intimate number of performers for which it was originally intended.

Vivaldi – Winter from the Four Seasons. I’m pretty sure Bernard Hermann stole ideas from Mendelssohn’s 4th Symphony, but I also wonder if he took motifs for the iconic Psycho score from the opening movement of Vivaldi’s Winter, which had been gaining in popularity in the decade before the film came out. Vivaldi himself, of course, was simply aiming to recreate a few seasonal sound-effects. To me, Winter’s three movements bring to mind sleet, followed by snow and fog, and ending with a fully-fledged blizzard.

Prokofiev – Cinderella. Once again, a piece which has nothing in particular to do with Christmas, but I felt like including it anyway. My tenuous excuse being that Cinderella is a very popular subject for that most bizarre of phenomena, Pantomime, which despite being English I have thus far managed to avoid.

Rimsky-Korsakov – Christmas Eve Suite. Various orchestral extracts from the composer’s opera of the same name.

Humperdinck – Hansel and Gretel. Before Engelbert Humperdinck beat the Beatles to Number One in the charts, he existed in rather different incarnation as a 19th century classical composer. Based on the classic children’s tale by the Brothers Grimm, the piece has enjoyed a Christmas association since its very first performance was given by none other than Richard Strauss on December 23rd 1893.

Leopold Mozart – Toy Symphony. Although this work was essentially a novelty piece, it is now the best-known work from Mozart Senior, and includes a variety of bizarre effects, including bird calls, noisemakers and drums, overlaid onto what is otherwise a fairly straightforward piece.

Rossini/Respighi – The Magic Toy Shop. This one is more or less self-explanatory, but on a musical note I should explain that this piece is made up of piano compositions by Rossini which were later orchestrated by Respighi and used in a production by the Ballet Russes.

Poulenc – Four Motets for Christmas time. Francis Poulenc was one of the finest 20th century composers of Latin choral music, with his Gloria being particularly well-regarded. Although his works are often light and playful, these motets are marked by their seriousness, and sound simultaneously ancient and modern.

Britten – A Ceremony of Carols. Don’t be fooled by the names – these are carols as you’ve never heard them before. The use of Middle English texts, harp accompaniment and a choir of boy sopranos make this a highly distinctive, beautiful and idiosyncratic piece, which ranks alongside War Requiem as one of Britten’s best choral works.

Schutz – The Christmas Story. German is often dismissed as an ugly, guttural language, but nothing could be further from the truth. As if Bach’s oratorios and cantatas weren’t proof enough of this, Heinrich Schutz’s own version of the Nativity puts to bed the idea that German cannot be beautiful. Works like this would also later encourage Brahms to write in German too.

Prokofiev – Battle on the Ice. I have no real excuse for the presence of this piece here. Not only is it not associated with Christmas, it is also irrevocably associated with a very different historical event. But it has “ice” in the title, and it’s a truly awe-inspiring piece.

Schubert – Der Leiermann. The chilling final song of Schubert’s monumentally depressing ‘Winterreise’ (Winter Journey) Song Cycle. The piano mimics the sound of the hurdy-gurdy man of the title, while lieder master Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau describes him to the listener. A reminder, perhaps, that this is not always a happy time of year for everyone.

Guest post by Jack Spearing

2012 Grammy Classical Nominees on Spotify

2011-12-02T09:51:00.008+08:00

Check out the official site for the full list of nominees in the classical category, and NPR for a detailed report on Grammy's classical cutback.

Among the 35 classical-category nominees, 26 are available on Spotify. I also included 16 albums whose producers or engineers are nominated for Classical Engineering and Producer of the Year.

Here's the Spotify playlist: 2012 Grammy Classical Nominees (837 tracks, total time 64 hours) Press Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. See full nominees list below, with links to Spotify (if available).

Best Orchestral Performance

Bowen: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2, Andrew Davis, conductor (BBC Philharmonic)[Chandos]
Brahms: Symphony No. 4, Gustavo Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic) [Deutsche Grammophon]
Haydn: Symphonies 104, 88 & 101, Nicholas McGegan, conductor (Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra) [Philharmonia Baroque Productions]
Henze: Symphonies Nos. 3-5, Marek Janowski, conductor (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin) [Wergo]
Martinu: The 6 Symphonies, Jirí Belohlávek, conductor (BBC Symphony Orchestra) [Onyx Classics]

Best Opera Recording

Adams: Doctor Atomic, Alan Gilbert, conductor; Meredith Arwady, Sasha Cooke, Richard Paul Fink, Gerald Finley, Thomas Glenn & Eric Owens; Jay David Saks, producer (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Metropolitan Opera Chorus) [Sony Classical]
Britten: Billy Budd, Mark Elder, conductor; John Mark Ainsley, Phillip Ens, Jacques Imbrailo, Darren Jeffery, Iain Paterson & Matthew Rose; James Whitbourn, producer (London Philharmonic Orchestra; Glyndebourne Chorus) [Opus Arte]
Rautavaara: Kaivos, Hannu Lintu, conductor; Jaakko Kortekangas, Hannu Niemelä, Johanna Rusanen-Kartano & Mati Turi; Seppo Siirala, producer (Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra; Kaivos Chorus) [Ondine]
Verdi: La Traviata, Antonio Pappano, conductor; Joseph Calleja, Renée Fleming & Thomas Hampson; James Whitbourn, producer (Orchestra of the Royal Opera House; Royal Opera Chorus) [Opus Arte]
Vivaldi: Ercole Sul Termodonte, Fabio Biondi, conductor; Romina Basso, Patrizia Ciofi, Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Vivica Genaux, Philippe Jaroussky, Topi Lehtipuu & Rolando Villazón; Daniel Zalay, producer (Europa Galante; Coro Da Camera Santa Cecilia Di Borgo San Lorenzo) [Virgin Classics]

Best Choral Performance

Beyond All Mortal Dreams - American A Cappella, Stephen Layton, conductor (Choir Of Trinity College Cambridge) [Hyperion Records]
Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor; James K. Bass, chorus master (Justin Blackwell, Scott Allen Jarrett, Paul Max Tipton & Teresa Wakim; Professional Choral Institute & Seraphic Fire) [Seraphic Fire Media]
Kind, Kjetil Almenning, conductor (Nidaros String Quartet; Ensemble 96) [2L (Lindberg Lyd)]
Light & Gold, Eric Whitacre, conductor (Christopher Glynn & Hila Plitmann; The King's Singers, Laudibus, Pavão Quartet & The Eric Whitacre Singers) [Decca]
The Natural World Of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Paul Hillier, conductor (Ars Nova Copenhagen) [Dacapo Records]

Best Small Ensemble Performance

Frank: Hilos, Gabriela Lena Frank; ALIAS Chamber Ensemble [Naxos]
The Kingdoms Of Castille, Richard Savino, conductor; El Mundo [Sono Luminus]
Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music From Slide, Rinde Eckert & Steven Mackey; Eighth Blackbird [Cedille Records]
A Seraphic Fire Christmas, Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor; Seraphic Fire [Seraphic Fire Media]
Sound The Bells!, The Bay Brass [Harmonia Mundi]

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

Chinese Recorder Concertos - East Meets West, Lan Shui, conductor; Michala Petri (Copenhagen Philharmonic) [OUR Recordings]
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 In C Minor, Op. 18; Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini, Yuja Wang (Claudio Abbado; Mahler Chamber Orchestra) [Deutsche Grammaphon]
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4, Leif Ove Andsnes (Antonio Pappano; London Symphony Orchestra) [EMI Classics]
Schwantner: Concerto For Percussion & Orchestra, Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Christopher Lamb (Nashville Symphony)[Naxos]
Winging It - Piano Music Of John Corigliano, Ursula Oppens [Cedille Records]

Best Classical Vocal Solo

Diva Divo, Joyce DiDonato (Kazushi Ono; Orchestre De L'Opéra National De Lyon; Choeur De L'Opéra National De Lyon) [Virgin Classics]
Grieg/Thommessen: Veslemøy Synsk, Marianne Beate Kielland (Nils Anders Mortensen) [2L (Lindberg Lyd)]
Handel: Cleopatra, Natalie Dessay (Emmanuelle Haïm; Le Concert D'Astrée) [Virgin Classics]
Purcell: O Solitude, Andreas Scholl (Stefano Montanari; Christophe Dumaux; Accademia Bizantina) [Decca]
Three Baroque Tenors, Ian Bostridge (Bernard Labadie; Mark Bennett, Andrew Clarke, Sophie Daneman, Alberto Grazzi, Jonathan Gunthorpe, Benjamin Hulett & Madeline Shaw; The English Concert) [EMI Classics]

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

Aldridge, Robert: Elmer Gantry, Robert Aldridge & Herschel Garfein [Naxos]
Crumb, George: The Ghosts Of Alhambra, George Crumb [Bridge Records, Inc.]
Friedman, Jefferson: String Quartet No. 3, Jefferson Friedman [New Amsterdam Records]
Mackey, Steven: Lonely Motel - Music From Slide, Steven Mackey [Cedille Records]
Ruders, Poul: Piano Concerto No. 2, Poul Ruders [Bridge Records, Inc.]

Best Engineered Album, Classical

Aldridge: Elmer Gantry, Byeong-Joon Hwang & John Newton, engineers; Jesse Lewis, mastering engineer (William Boggs, Keith Phares, Patricia Risley, Vale Rideout, Frank Kelley, Heather Buck, Florentine Opera Chorus & Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra) [Naxos]
Glazunov: Complete Concertos, Richard King, engineer (José Serebrier, Alexey Serov, Wen-Sinn Yang, Alexander Romanovsky, Rachel Barton Pine, Marc Chisson & Russian National Orchestra) [Warner Classics]
Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music From Slide, Tom Lazarus & Bill Maylone, engineers; Joe Lambert, mastering engineer (Rinde Eckert, Steven Mackey & Eighth Blackbird) [Cedille Records]
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4, Arne Akselberg, engineer (Leif Ove Andsnes, Antonio Pappano & London Symphony Orchestra) [EMI Classics]
Weinberg: Symphony No. 3 & Suite No. 4 From 'The Golden Key', Torbjörn Samuelsson, engineer (Thord Svedlund & Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra) [Chandos]

Producer Of The Year, Classical

Blanton Alspaugh

Aldridge: Elmer Gantry (William Boggs, Keith Phares, Patricia Risley, Vale Rideout, Frank Kelley, Heather Buck, Florentine Opera Chorus & Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra)
Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas (Peter Takács)
Osterfield: Rocky Streams (Paul Osterfield, Todd Waldecker & Various Artists)

Manfred Eicher

Bach: Concertos & Sinfonias For Oboe; Ich Hatte Viel Bekümmernis (Heinz Holliger, Eric Höbarth & Camerata Bern)
Hymns & Prayers (Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica) Manto & Madrigals (Thomas Zehetmair & Ruth Killius)
Songs Of Ascension (Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, Todd Reynolds Quartet, The M6 & Montclair State University Singers)
Tchaikovsky/Kissine: Piano Trios (Gidon Kremer, Giedre Dirvanauskaite & Khatia Buniatishvili)
A Worcester Ladymass (Trio Mediaeval)

David Frost

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass Live (Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass)
Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music From Slide (Rinde Eckert, Steven Mackey & Eighth Blackbird)
Prayers & Alleluias (Kenneth Dake)
Sharon Isbin & Friends - Guitar Passions (Sharon Isbin & Various Artists)

Peter Rutenberg

Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (Patrick Dupré Quigley, James K. Bass, Seraphic Fire & Professional Choral Institute)
The Vanishing Nordic Chorale (Philip Spray & Musik Ekklesia)

Judith Sherman

Adams: Son Of Chamber Symphony; String Quartet (John Adams, St. Lawrence String Quartet & International Contemporary Ensemble)
Capricho Latino (Rachel Barton Pine)
85th Birthday Celebration (Claude Frank)
Insects & Paper Airplanes - Chamber Music Of Lawrence Dillon (Daedalus Quartet & Benjamin Hochman)
Midnight Frolic - The Broadway Theater Music Of Louis A. Hirsch (Rick Benjamin & Paragon Ragtime Orchestra)
Notable Women - Trios By Today's Female Composers (Lincoln Trio)
The Soviet Experience, Vol. 1 - String Quartets By Dmitri Shostakovich & His Contemporaries (Pacifica Quartet)
Speak! (Anthony De Mare)
State Of The Art - The American Brass Quintet At 50 (The American Brass Quintet)
Steve Reich: WTC 9/11; Mallet Quartet; Dance Patterns (Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich Musicians & So Percussion)
Winging It - Piano Music Of John Corigliano (Ursula Oppens)

John Cage: A Chronological Collection on Spotify

2011-12-01T21:31:00.003+08:00

"What I'm proposing, to myself and other people, is what I often call the tourist attitude - that you act as though you've never been there before. So that you're not supposed to know anything about it. If you really get down to brass tacks, we have never been anywhere before." - John Cage

Even after his death, John Cage remains a controversial figure. Famously challenging the very notion of what music is, Cage remained on the leading edge of both playful and profound experimentalism for the greater part of his career, collaborating with and influencing generations of composers, writers, dancers, and visual artists. One of his best-known and most sonically intriguing innovations, the prepared piano, had become an almost commonplace compositional resource by the end of the twentieth century. Years before the invention of the synthesizer, he was in the forefront in the exploration of electric and electronic sound sources, using oscillators, turntables, and amplification to musical ends. He pioneered the use of graphic notation and, in employing chance operations to determine musical parameters, was the leading light for one cadre of the avant-garde that included Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, Earle Brown, and Pauline Oliveros. Cage produced works of "performance art" years before the term was coined, and his 4'33'' (1952) -- in which the performers are instructed to remain silent for four minutes and thirty-three seconds -- takes a place among the most notorious touchstones of 20th century music. - AllMusic

This playlist is a chronological collection of John Cage's works on Spotify. I only included one recording for every work, except for the Sonatas and Interludes, which I used recordings from eight artists, including dedicatee of this work, Maro Ajemian. Different versions of the works are also included, like In A Landscape played on harp and guitar, orchestra version of The Seasons, and Lou Harrison's arrangement of the Suite for Toy Piano. Nowth Upon Nacht (1984) is intended to be performed right after The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1942) so I included the latter song twice.

Here's the Spotify playlist: John Cage: A Chronological Collection (479 tracks from 100 albums, total time: 53 hours) Press Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. If you are new to Cage, try the String Quartet, Prelude For Meditation, In A Landscape and Sonatas and Interludes first. Then Four Walls, and the Number Pieces.

Below is a list of works featured in the playlist, all linked to introductory articles on AllMusic, Wikipedia and John Cage Database.

Apprenticeship period (1932–36)

Three Easy Pieces (1933)
Sonata For Two Voices (1933)
Composition for 3 Voices (1934)
Solo with Obbligato Accompaniment of Two Voices in Canon, and Six Short Inventions on the Subjects of the Solo (1934)
Quartet (1935)
Quest, for any four percussion instruments (1935)
Two pieces, for piano (1935?, revised 1974)
Trio, for three percussionists (1936)

Modern dance, prepared piano, and the transition to chance (1937–51)

Metamorphosis, for piano (1938)
Imaginary Landscape No. 1, for two variable-speed phono turntables, frequency recordings, muted piano and cymbal (1939)
First Construction (in Metal), for six percussionists with an assistant (1939)
Second Construction, for four percussionists (1939–40)
Bacchanale, for prepared piano (1940)
Living Room Music, for percussion and speech quartet (1940)
Double Music, for 4 percussionists (collaboration with Lou Harrison, 1941)
Third Construction, for four percussionists (1941)
Forever and Sunsmell, for voice & 2 percussion (1942)
Totem Ancestor, for prepared piano (1942)
Jazz Study, for piano (1942, spurious work possibly not by Cage)
Imaginary Landscape No. 3, for six percussionists (1942)
Imaginary Landscape No. 2 (March) (1942, first title Imaginary Landscape No. 4)
Credo in Us, for four performers with various objects (1942)
And The Earth Shall Bear Again, for prepared piano (1942)
The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs, for voice and closed piano (1942)
Primitive, for prepared piano (1942)
In the Name of the Holocaust, for prepared piano (1942)
Ad lib, for piano (1943)
Our Spring Will Come, for prepared piano (1943)
A Room, for piano or prepared piano (1943, originally third part of She is Asleep)
She Is Asleep: 1. Quartet for percussion, 2. Duet for voice and prepared piano (1943)
Amores, for percussion and prepared piano (1943)
Tossed As It Is Untroubled, for prepared piano (1943, first title Meditation)
Triple-Paced No. 1, for piano (1943)
Chess Pieces, for piano (1943)
Four Walls, for piano and voice (in one of the movements) (1944)
Prelude for Meditation, for prepared piano (1944)
Root of an Unfocus, for prepared piano (1944)
Spontaneous Earth, for prepared piano (1944)
The Unavailable Memory of, for prepared piano (1944)
Triple-Paced No. 2, for prepared piano (1944)
The Perilous Night, suite for prepared piano (1944)
A Valentine Out of Season, for prepared piano (1944)
A Book of Music, for two prepared pianos (1944)
Party Pieces: Sonorous and Exquisite Corpses, for any melodic and/or keyboard instruments (1945)
Mysterious Adventure, for prepared piano (1945)
Soliloquy, for piano (1945, originally part of Four Walls)
Three Dances, for two prepared pianos (1945)
Daughters of the Lonesome Isle, for prepared piano (1945)
Ophelia, for piano (1945)
Two Pieces, for piano (1946)
Music for Marcel Duchamp, for prepared piano (1947)
Nocturne, for violin and piano (1947)
The Seasons, Ballet, versions for piano and for orchestra (1947)
Dream, for piano or viola and ensemble of 4 violas (1948)
In a Landscape, for piano or harp (1948)
Sonatas and Interludes, for prepared piano (1946–48)
Suite for Toy Piano, for toy piano or piano (1948)
A Flower, for voice and closed piano (1950)
Works of Calder, film score for prepared piano and tape (1950)
String Quartet in Four Parts, for string quartet (1949–50)
Six Melodies, for violin and keyboard instrument (1950)
Concerto for prepared piano, for prepared piano and chamber orchestra (1950–51)

First chance works (1951–59)

Sixteen Dances, for flute, trumpet, 4 percussionists, piano, violin and cello (1951)
Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (March No. 2), for 12 radios, 24 performers and a conductor (1951)
Music of Changes, for piano (1951)
Seven Haiku, for piano (1952)
Waiting, for piano (1952)
Imaginary Landscape No. 5, for any 42 recordings (1952)
Two Pastorales, for piano or prepared piano (1952)
For M.C. and D.T., for piano (1952)
Music for Carillon No. 1, for carillon (1952)
4′33, for any instrument or combination of instruments (1952)
Music for Piano 1, for piano (1952)
Williams Mix, for tape (1953)
Music for Piano 2, for piano (1953)
Music for Piano 4–19, for any number of pianos (1953)
Music for Piano 3, for piano (1953)
Music for Piano 20, for piano (1953)
Music for Carillon No. 2, for carillon (1954)
Music for Carillon No. 3, for carillon (1954)
26'1.1499" For a String Player, for string instrument (1955)
Music for Piano 21–36, 37–52, for piano solo or in an ensemble (1955)
Music for Piano 53–68, for piano solo or in an ensemble (1956)
Music for Piano 69–84, for piano solo or in an ensemble (1956)
Radio Music, for 1 to 8 performers using radios (1956)
Concert for piano and orchestra (1958)
Solo for Sliding Trombone (1958)
TV Köln, for piano, optionally with other objects (1958)
Fontana Mix, for tape (1958)
Aria, for voice (1958)

Happenings, theater (1959–68)

Sounds of Venice, for television set (one performer) (1959)
Cartridge Music, for amplified sounds (1960)
Music for Amplified Toy Pianos, for any number of toy pianos (1960)
Indeterminacy, for reader & tapes (collaboration with David Tudor, 1961)
Atlas Eclipticalis, for an ensemble of 86 instruments (1962)
Variations II, for any number of performers and any kind and number of instruments (1961)
Rozart Mix, tape loops (1965)

Return to composition (1969–86)

HPSCHD, for 1 to 7 amplified harpsichords and 1 to 51 tapes (1969)
Cheap Imitation, for piano (1969)
Song Books (Solos for Voice 3–92), for one or more voices (1970)
Sixty-Two Mesostics Re Merce Cunningham, for voice solo (1971)
Etcetera, for orchestra & environmental tape (1973)
Empty Words, for reciter (1975)
Etudes Australes, for piano (1975)
Lecture on the Weather, lecture for 12 voices and tapes (1975)
Apartment House 1776, for any number of musicians (1976)
Branches, for percussion made of plants or plants used as percussion (1976)
Cheap Imitation, for violin (1977)
Inlets (Improvisation II), for four performers with conch shells and the sound of fire (1977)
Chorals, for violin solo (1978)
Etudes Boreales, for cello and/or piano (1978)
Roaratorio, an Irish circus on Finnegans Wake, tape (1979)
Freeman Etudes I-XVII, for violin (1980)
Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras, for five orchestras (1981)
Souvenir, for organ (1983)
Perpetual Tango, for piano (1984)
Nowth upon Nacht, for voice and piano (1984)
Ryoanji, for double bass, trombone, oboe, voice, percussion, small orchestra (1985)
Eight Whiskus, for low voice (1984)
ASLSP, for piano or organ (1985)
But what about the noise of crumpling paper ..., for percussion ensemble (1985)
Thirteen Harmonies, for Violin and Keyboard (1985)
Hymnkus, for voice and chamber ensemble (1986)

Number Pieces and other late works (1987–92)

Two, for flute and piano (1987)
Organ²/ASLSP, for organ (1987)
One, for piano (1987)
Five, for any five instruments or voices (1988)
Seven, for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello (1988)
Four, for string quartet (1989)
One², for 1 to 4 pianos (1989)
Sculptures Musicales, for electronics (1989)
c Composed Improvisations, for bass guitar, snare drum and one-sided drums with or without jangles (1987–90)
Fourteen, for piano, flute/piccolo, bass flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn, trumpet, 2 percussionists, 2 violins, viola, cello and double bass (1990)
One⁵, for piano (1990)
One⁶, for violin (1990)
One⁷, for any sound-producing object (1990)
One⁸, for cello (1991)
108, for orchestra (1991)
Eight, for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, tenor trombone and tuba (1991)
Two⁴, for violin and piano or shō (July 1991)
Four⁵, for four saxophones (October 1991)
Five⁴, for soprano saxophone, alto saxophone and 3 percussionists (1991)
Five³, for trombone and string quartet (1991)
Five⁵, for flute, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet and percussion (1991)
Ten, for flute, oboe, clarinet, trombone, percussion, piano, 2 violins, viola and cello (1991)
Sixty-Eight, for orchestra (February 1992)
Four⁶, for four performers with any means of producing sounds (March 1992)
Seventy-Four, for orchestra (March 1992)

The playlist and post will be updated when more Cage recordings become available on Spotify.

Franz Schubert: Complete Chronological Catalogue D. 1 - 998 In One Spotify Playlist

2011-11-24T23:00:00.006+08:00

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) was among the first of the Romantics, and the composer who, more than any other, brought the art song (lied) to artistic maturity. During his short but prolific career, he produced masterpieces in nearly every genre, all characterized by rich harmonies, an expansive treatment of classical forms, and a seemingly endless gift for melody. - AllMusic

This playlist was compiled after the chronological catalogue of Schubert works by Otto Erich Deutsch, sorted by the D Nnumbers. Some composition has an extra letter after the number, like D. 124b (second version of D. 124) and D. 1a (newly discovered piece since the Duetsch Catalogue was completed, composed around the same time of D. 1). All works available on Spotify were collected into this 113-hour chronological playlist, through more than 2,000 searches.

As with my other composer playlists, my goal is to feature as many fine recording as possible. And since Spotify launched in America, I also have to make sure all the tracks are available on Spotify USA, unless the sole recording of a piece is only on Spotify UK, which I use. Still, about 200 track in this playlist are not currently available on Spotify USA, please make sure you have unchecked "Hide unplayable tracks" in Spotify's Preferences to browse the full list.

When the playlist is fully loaded in your Spotify, press Ctrl (CMD on Macs) + G to set it to album view. Then you can use the filter bar (Ctrl + F) to browse by genre or find specific works your are looking for.

Type in symphony to browse the 13 symphonies:

No. 1 (Menuhin/EMI), No. 2 (Wand/RCA), No. 3 (Zender/Hänssler), No.4 "Tragic"(Davis/RCA), No. 5 (Harnoncourt/Warner), No.6 "Little"(Beecham/EMI), Symphony in D (Marriner/Decca. Sketches orchestrated by Brian Newbould, D. 615), Symphony in D (Gülke/Berlin Classics. D. 708a), No.7 (Litschauer/Naxos. Completed by Weingartner), No.8 "Unfinished" (original version: Abbado/DG; 4-movement version: Mackerras/EMI), No.9 "Great" (Bernstein/Sony), Symphony "Gmunden-Gastein" (Samuel/Centaur. D. 849, reconstructed by G. Elsholz, probably spurious), No. 10 (Gülke/Berlin Classics)

D. 708a and D. 936a (No. 10) were tagged not as symphony but sinfonische, and D. 615 symphonic, you will have to change the keywords. Wand, Zender, Marriner, and Abbado's recording are from their complete sets of the symphonies, so you can also click the album title and browse other symphonies in those albums. I wanted to include Brüggen's compete set but it's not on Spotify USA.

Type in piano sonata to browse the 22 piano sonatas:

E major, D. 157 (Oppitz/Hänssler), C major, D. 279 (Klien/Vox), E major, D. 459 (Klien/Vox), A minor, D. 537 (Nebolsin/Naxos), A-flat major, D. 557 (Kempff/DG), E minor, D. 566 ((Oppitz/Hänssler), E-flat major, D. 568 (Pludermacher/Transart), F-sharp minor, D. 571 B major (Schiff/Decca), D. 575 C major (Uchida/Philips), D. 613 F minor (Keller/MGB), D. 625 C-sharp minor (Badura-Skoda/Genuin), D. 655 A major (Damerini/Arts Music), D. 664 A minor (Richter/BBC Legends), D. 784 C major (Endres/Capriccio), D. 840 A minor (4-movement version, Gothoni/Ondine), D. 845 D major (Uchida/Decca), D. 850 G major (Andsnes/EMI), D. 894 C minor (Sokolov/Opus 111), D. 916b "Sonata Oubliée" (Knauer/Berlin Classics), D. 958 A major (Pollini/DG), D. 959 B-flat major (Perahia/Sony), D. 960 (Richter/Alto)

D. 613 and D. 894 were tagged not as "piano sonata", you may use their D numbers to filter. D. 916b was not even tagged with its D. number, filter with the artist name Knauer instead. I wanted to use more recordings from Kempff, Uchida, Lupu and Schiff, but most of them are not on Spotify USA yet.

You can also type in piano to browse works with piano. In addition to the sonatas, you will see dozens of other works, including 6 Moments musicaux (Brendel), 12 German Ländler (Goode) and the Impromptus (D. 899 Perahia; D. 935 Serkin).

Type in string qu to browse the string quartets and quintets:

Ensembles in this section include Melos Quartet, Kodaly Quartet, Borodin Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Belcea Quartet (Death and the Maiden), Kim Kashkashian/Gidon Kremer/Yo-Yo Ma/Daniel Phillips (Quartet No. 15, D. 887), Heinrich Schiff/Alban Berg Quartet (String Quintet D. 956) and others.

Type in lied or song to browse the lieder:

This section features dozens of singers, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Fritz Wunderlich, Hermann Prey, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Elly Ameling, Peter Pears, Janet Baker, Anne Sofie von Otter, Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, and Thomas Quasthoff. The tracks were taken from over 100 albums. A few lied recordings do not have those two keywords in their titles, you may try recital, sings or simply Winterreise.

Type in hand or duet for piano four-hand works. Pianists in this section include: Kissin/Levine, Richter/Britten, Perahia/Lupu, Eschenbach/Frantz and more.

Type in fragment for the odds and ends.

If you are looking for a specific work and you know the D number, simple type in the D number xxx, if you can't find it, then try Dxxx. Most tracks in this playlist are tagged with either format of the D number, except for the Wanderer Fantasy and very few others.

For the Arpeggione Sonata, besides the popular cello transcription, I also included a recording on an early 19th century arpeggione and a 1824 Conrad Graf pianoforte from the Beethoven House in Bonn.

I started this playlist in early 2010, until last week there was only one track in this playlist: D. 1, the 24 minutes fantasia for piano four-hand. It is Spotify's Austria launch that gave me the determination to fulfill this huge task. I hope this playlist can help you to enjoy this greatest native Viennese composer's gigantic output. (The current file of D. 1 has a transcoding problem and it's not streamable, though it still works in my place. I have informed Spotify and hopefully they will fix it soon).

Here's the Spotify playlist: Franz Schubert: Complete Chronological Catalogue D. 1 - 998 (1605 tracks, total time: 113 hours) Press Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. See this page for over 700 songtexts set by Schubert, many of them with English translations. You can also download the 422-page Schubert songbook from Hyperion for free.

I am not knowledgeable enough to choose the best recording for every work, but as you flip through this playlist, you probably would agree that, no single label can ever release such a thoroughly comprehensive Schubert box-set with such a great diversity of performers, not to mention the ability to locate and start to play any piece within seconds. My effort is nothing but some 10 hours of searching, and I am but an amateur music fan. What is evident here is the sheer power of Spotify, and its advantage over CD/digital downloads is even more evident than CD/MP3 over cassette/vinyl (as mass distribution medium, not just collectable items for analog/hi-fi fans only). Maybe its business model is not perfect yet, but there is no going back. I hope the music industry, especially the classical heads get ready for this soon. Why keep pondering which box-set (EMI, 50-CD, $78; Brilliant, 40-CD, $94) is a greater bargain? Get this 100-CD Spotify edition and start to listen now.

Please leave a comment if you find something that I left out, thank you.

Guest Post: Classics Today 10/10 Albums

2011-11-23T22:37:00.001+08:00

Another guest post from Sam Callahan, who shared some brilliant trumpet playlists earlier this year. It is a collaborative playlist and anyone who are interested can help to update it. I already discovered a fine recording from this playlist and updated my Shostakovich playlist with Pacifica Quartet's recording of Quartet No.5. Thanks, Sam!

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For years, Classics Today has been my go-to source for classical album reviews because of its enormous breadth and excellent writing. The reviewers rate CDs daily using a dual-number system, the first for "artistic quality" and the second for "sound quality," meaning the top possible rating is a "10/10".

This Spotify playlist is based on Classic Today's list of "Current 10/10 Reviews", which shows all reviews from the past month that received top honors. One track represents each each album on the list, sorted descending by review date. The playlist will be constantly updated to include new additions to the 10/10 list, but older CDs will still remain on the bottom of the playlist. Happy listening!

Playlist: Classics Today: Current 10/10 Reviews

Guest post by Sam Callahan

Benjamin Britten: Complete Chronological Catalogue in One Spotify Playlist

2011-11-22T16:03:00.000+08:00

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony." - Benjamin Britten

"Benjamin Britten wrote some of the most appealing classical music of the twentieth century. As a boy he began by setting favourite poems to be sung by family and friends. Later, his life partner, Peter Pears, was a singer who provided inspiration for almost four decades. So it is not surprising that Britten is best known for his music for the voice: choral works, songs and song cycles, and - above all - a series of operas among the most engaging ever written. His first success in this genre, Peter Grimes, revived opera in English. Britten was also a master of orchestral writing, as his two most familiar works, the Four Sea Interludes and Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, make clear. He was equally committed to writing music for children and amateur performers as he was for leading soloists of the day such as cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. From the outset, Britten was the modern composer who did not want modern music to be just for 'the cultured few', and aimed always to be 'listenable-to'" - Britten-Pears Foundation

About this playlist: First I put in all the works with opus number (Op. 1-96), which were published almost strictly in the order of completion. Then I added dozens of unnumbered works (see list below), including three unused songs from Les Illuminations, and placed them in their chronological position after Britten-Pears Foundation's Britten Thematic Catalogue, which "will have catalogued all manuscript sources for both the juvenilia and the mature works by Britten's centenary in 2013".

Quatre Chansons françaises (1928)
Untitled Fragment for Strings (1930)
Quartettino (1930)
A Hymn to the Virgin (1930, rev. 1934)
Rondo Concertante (1930)
String Quartet in D major (1931)
Double Concerto in B minor (1932)
Te Deum in C (1934)
Two Insect Pieces (1935)
The King's Stamp - Film score (1935)
Coal Face - Film score (1935)
Telegrams - Film score (1935)
Rossini Suite (The Tocher) - Film score (1935)
Men Behind The Meters - Film score (1935)
Negroes - Film score (1935)
When You're Feeling Like Expressing Your Affection (1935)
Three Divertimenti (1936)
Night Mail - Film score (1936)
Peace Of Britain (1936)
Russian Funeral (1936)
Around The Village Green - Film score (1936)
Love From A Stranger - Film score (1936)
The Way To The Sea - Film score (1936)
Advance Democracy (1938)
A.M.D.G (1939)
Three unused songs from Les Illuminations (1939)
Clarinet Concerto (unfinished) (1942)
Folksong Arrangements, Vol. I "British Isles" (1942)
Folksong Arrangements, Vol. II "France" (1942)
Festival Te Deum (1944)
Prelude and Fugue On A Theme of Vittoria (1946)
Folksong Arrangements, Vol. III "British Isles" (1946)
Men of Goodwill (1947)
A Wedding Anthem (1949)
Variation On An Elizabethan Theme (1953)
Three Songs From The Heart of the Matter (1956)
Folksong Arrangements, Vol. IV "Moore's Irish Melodies" (1957)
In Memoriam Dennis Brain (1958)
Folksong Arrangements, Vol. VI "England" (1958)
Fanfare For St. Edmundsbury (1959)
Folksong Arrangements, Vol. V "British Isles" (1959)
Jubilate Deo (1961)
The Twelve Apostles (1962)
A Hymn of St. Columba (1962)
Night Piece (1963)
Untitled Piece (6 Variations) for Piano (1965)
Children's Crusade (1969)
Tema "Sacher" (1976)
Lachrymae arranged for viola and small string orchestra (1976)
Eight Folk Song Arrangements For Hight Voice and Harp (1976)

Songs from the six volumes of folksong arrangements were composed on various dates, and I used the completion date of the last song from each volume as the reference, hence Vol. 6 is placed before Vol. 5.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Benjamin Britten: Complete Chronological Catalogue (1071 tracks, total time: 62 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. It features many classic performeces by Britten & Pears, as well as other fine new recordings, like the War Requiem by Masur, the Canticles by Ian Bostridge, and Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo by Nicholas Phan. I used recordings that are available both on Spotify UK and USA when possible. See this page for text used in the vocal works.

Happy 98th birthday.

Edward Elgar: Complete Works With Opus Number

2011-11-21T16:01:00.000+08:00

"For thirty years after his death in 1934, his music was considered to be 'out of fashion'. It was said to epitomise the Edwardian era and to have no relevance to a later age. I believe, however, that it is far too great to be tied to one short period of history and that, in any case, it is music of so personal a nature that it can be described accurately not as 'Edwardian' but only as 'Elgarian'." Michael Kennedy - 'Portrait of Elgar'

"Those years had seen change accelerate as never before in human history. His response had been to seek the illumination of time remembered. For all those of his generation and the future who would feel the insight of retrospection, he had made of that evanescence his music." Jerrold Moore - 'Edward Elgar - A Creative Life'

The playlist collects Edward Elgar's complete works with opus number, including the unfinished Pomp And Circumstance March No. 6 and Symphony No.3 (both completed by Anthony Payne), and a few songs without opus number: two teenage songs are placed at the beginning, The Wind at Dawn after Op. 7, and four more songs from Seven Lieder of Edward Elgar are included together Op. 16. The last track of the playlist is a unused fragment from the NMC recording of the complete sketches for the Third Symphony, exactly as the composer left them.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Edward Elgar: Complete Works with Opus Number (390 tracks, total time: 32 hours) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. See list of works here.

Richard Wagner: Complete Chronological Catalogue

2011-11-17T16:56:00.009+08:00

Richard Wagner was one of the most revolutionary figures in the history of music, a composer who made pivotal contributions to the development of harmony and musical drama that reverberate even today. Indeed, though Wagner occasionally produced successful music written on a relatively modest scale, opera -- the bigger, the better -- was clearly his milieu, and his aesthetic is perhaps the most grandiose that Western music has ever known. - AllMusic

Works in this playlist (operas are in bold):

WWV 15: Seven Compositions on Goethe's Faust
WWV 21: Sonata in B flat Major, Op. 1
WWV 22: Fantasia in F-sharp minor
WWV 23B: Polonaise for piano, four hands
WWV 24A: König Enzio, overture for orchestra
WWV 26: Grand Sonata in A major
WWV 29: Symphony in C major
WWV 32: Die Feen
WWV 35: Symphony in E major
WWV 37: Columbus Overture
WWV 38: Das Liebesverbot
WWV 39: Polonia. Overture in C major
WWV 42: Rule Britannia. Overture in D major
WWV 49: Rienzi
WWV 50: Der Tannenbaum
WWV 53: Dors mon enfant
WWV 54: Extase
WWV 55: Attente
WWV 57: Mignonne
WWV 58: Tout n'est qu'images fugitives
WWV 59: Eine Faust-Ouvertüre
WWV 60: Les deux grenadiers
WWV 61: Adieux de Marie Stuart
WWV 62: Arrangements from Donizetti's opera La favorite
WWV 63: Der fliegende Holländer
WWV 64: Albumblatt für Ernst Benedikt Kietz
WWV 68B: Festgesang for men's chorus (& brass)
WWV 69: Das Liebesmahl der Apostel
WWV 70: Tannhäuser
WWV 72: An Webers Grabe, for male chorus
WWV 73: Trauermusik, for band (based on Weber's Euryanthe)
WWV 75: Lohengrin
WWV 84: Polka
WWV 85: Eine Sonate für das Album von Frau MW
WWV 86A: Das Rheingold
WWV 86B: Die Walküre
WWV 86C: Siegfried
WWV 86D: Götterdämmerung
WWV 87: Konzertschluß to the Overture to Iphigenie in Aulis
WWV 88: Züricher Vielliebchen-Walzer
WWV 90: Tristan und Isolde
WWV 91: Wesendonck Lieder
WWV 94: Albumblatt, In the album of Fürstin M
WWV 95: Ankunft bei den schwarzen Schwänen
WWV 96: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
WWV 97: Huldigungsmarsch
WWV 103: Siegfried Idyll
WWV 104: Kaiser march
WWV 105: Scherzlied für Louis Kraft, (Kraft-Lied)
WWV 108: Albumblatt für Frau Betty Schott
WWV 110: American Centennial March
WWV 111: Parsifal
Geburtsangrüß an Cosima, (no catalog number)

(Only one track from WWV 62 the Donizetti arrangements is included)

All operas are available on Spotify UK and USA in their entirety, except for Die Feen (no recording on Spotify USA). For the Ring cycle, I used four recordings for the four parts: three of them are from Bohm, Boulez and Barenboim's complete recording of the cycle, and for Die Walküre I used Furtwangler's only studio recording of the Ring.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Richard Wagner: Complete Chronological Catalogue (669 tracks, total time: 2 days) Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. Also check out these Wagner audiobooks on Spotify: Opera Explained: The Flying Dutchman from Naxos Educational, and Deryke Cooke's introduction (link 1, 2) to the Ring.

Update: added the Paris version of Tannhäuser (partially available on Spotify USA).