# Coronavirus listening projects



## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

Seeing as daily life as we know it has been more or less canceled, I was wondering if you had in mind any listening projects while "stuck" at home? Not to make light of the situation, but I'm guessing most of you would know what to do with a two-week home quarantine.

Some will be binge-watching on the BPO Digital Concert Hall, I'm sure.

For me I think I'll focus on my new CD collection. I didn't intend to get into CDs again — the import fees make them almost twice as expensive for me as a lossless download. But then I happened upon the local estate sale of my dreams and have been buying basically as much as I can carry in one go.

My new CD player is arriving next week and then I'm all set. Will probably start with my new Maria Callas box set as I'm really getting into opera now — very excited about that.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Sounds like a decent plan Helgi.
I hope you get as much enjoyment out of the Callas box as I have. I only have a lossless flac download I got from Qobuz a couple of years back for £7.95! A short term pricing error I suspect but for once I was able to benefit.

With no sport on tv I will be reaching into dark forgotten corners of the collection, dusting off and enjoying discs I have neglected for years.


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## AlexD (Nov 6, 2011)

I am "stuck at home".

So far I'v watched Norma, listened to Beethoven's last quartets and listened to The Met's Flying DutchMan and had a go at Bruckner's 5th until the telephone interrupted. 

Tomorrow, it's St Matthew's Passion and something cheery from Beethoven - 6th and/or 9th. 

Monday is for Mahler. 2nd and 8th.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

So far I went a bit nuts with BPO, watching several premieres. It's not like I have more time to listen, so I will let it just flow naturally, meaning putting on whatever, like always  I might or might not have a sudden idea to hear a piece in 13 different versions...


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

I just found this compilation from Another Timbre. Free streaming. I have albums which include some of the tracks and will check out other releases on the label.

Coronavirus quarantine 5 - hour playlist #1 by Various Another Timbre artists
https://anothertimbre.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-quarantine-5-hour-playlist-1

"A 5-hour playlist of tracks from recent CD releases on Another Timbre. For everyone, but especially for those who are self-isolating or in quarantine because of the coronavirus pandemic."


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I've putting on Wagner's Ring. Then onto the complete Korngold operas which I haven't heard in a while. If the apocalypse hasn't happened by then, probably the complete Puccini operas.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

If I actually end up getting any time off work, I might take the opportunity to try and get into opera. Might even try and get through Tristan und Isolde. Other than that, it might be a good time to get into late Feldman with his super long works. Maybe Bruckner. I don’t know, we’ll see.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I posted this in Latest Concerts, but seems more fitting here:

Hélène Grimaud performance cancelled at the University of Michigan because of Corona restrictions, but they are giving free access to listen to the playlist *HERE*. The playlist is of her exact concert recital program, featuring music from her latest album, Memory, and 2009 recording of Schumann's Kreisleriana.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

tortkis said:


> I just found this compilation from Another Timbre. Free streaming. I have albums which include some of the tracks and will check out other releases on the label.
> 
> Coronavirus quarantine 5 - hour playlist #1 by Various Another Timbre artists
> https://anothertimbre.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-quarantine-5-hour-playlist-1
> ...


Only the good people at Another Timbre could have made a five-hour playlist out of thirteen tracks...


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

A short preview.

Something new to listen to for all you self-quarantined folk.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

1996D said:


> https://youtu.be/KQQoFAGEjYA
> A short preview.
> Something new to listen to for all you self-quarantined folk.


This truly is viral.. Thanks for posting


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

1996D said:


> A short preview.
> 
> Something new to listen to for all you self-quarantined folk.


Welcome back Dave. Thought you were gone for good. I think if you toned down the chromaticism, it would go a long way.


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Phil loves classical said:


> Welcome back Dave. Thought you were gone for good. I think if you toned down the chromaticism, it would go a long way.


I said the 14th, it was maybe over ambitious, in the end I really had to push to finish in time but the piece turned out great.

The piece is chromatic, except for the last part which represents the aristocratic regime idealized by Plato. Everything in the piece represents these regimes as I understood them - the music changes to fit them and there are some modern, contemporary elements when they are required.

I have a piece coming later this year which is not chromatic at all, perhaps my best yet, but it's still in its infancy.

I'll continue getting better as a music engineer; that's really what was preventing the music from its potential, and still there are things that bother me.


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

At the end of the world , I shall be content with grandpa's cuckoo clock .


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

1996D said:


> I said the 14th, it was maybe over ambitious, in the end I really had to push to finish in time but the piece turned out great.
> 
> The piece is chromatic, except for the last part which represents the aristocratic regime idealized by Plato. Everything in the piece represents these regimes as I understood them - the music changes to fit them and there are some modern, contemporary elements when they are required.
> 
> ...


Here's the dilemma. I can hear a strong Mahler influence, and it would work much better I believe if you had stronger diatonic associations between voices, since you already have some (with strong dissonance), and the parts are not gelling together as well as they would if they were less chromatic. On the other hand, the chromaticism that's there is not enough to stand on its own, unlike, say Schnittke, who was also strongly influenced by Mahler. It ends up being a not-so-well harmonized diatonic piece.


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Phil loves classical said:


> Here's the dilemma. I can hear a strong Mahler influence, and it would work much better I believe if you had stronger diatonic associations between voices, since you already have some (with strong dissonance), and the parts are not gelling together as well as they would if they were less chromatic. On the other hand, the chromaticism that's there is not enough to stand on its own, unlike, say Schnittke, who was also strongly influenced by Mahler. It ends up being a not-so-well harmonized diatonic piece.


The piece is through-composed, program music, and changes a lot, nothing from the opening is ever repeated. It represents the aggressive and primal nature of the timocracy, yet at the same time its order.

This is why it's essential to lay it out clearly as opposed to what Woodduck said about preferring to go in blind. The piece is a journey through human nature - they are named the four unjust regimes for a reason, each of them have their peculiarities; their ways through which they are unjust; and through the music these feelings are called upon.

Think about how the music makes you feel, not its technicalities, for those become whatever they need to be, and are complete servants to what feeling they can achieve - discomfort, intimidation, confidence, shock, order, excitement, disorder, optimism, pain. This is what political systems do to us, because each of them violates nature in a certain way.

You're welcome to read book 8 of The Republic, it's essential to the music.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I don't and won't tell.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

1996D said:


> The piece is through-composed, program music, and changes a lot, nothing from the opening is ever repeated. It represents the aggressive and primal nature of the timocracy, yet at the same time its order.
> 
> This is why it's essential to lay it out clearly as opposed to what Woodduck said about preferring to go in blind. The piece is a journey through human nature - they are named the four unjust regimes for a reason.


Ok, but structure aside, it doesn't change the fact it is primarily diatonic, or rather has strong implications, whether or not it ends in a different key, etc. The chromaticism should enhance it, rather than work against it. As it stands it is neither this nor that, rather than having elements of both. It needs more consistency of form.


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Rogerx said:


> I don't and won't tell.


Each person will experience it in a different way, the purpose is to focus on what you feel at the end of the piece once you experience the work as a whole.

It's designed to flow; to keep going until the senses are overwhelmed; each injustice after the next until peace is found at the end, not without its twist.


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Phil loves classical said:


> Ok, but structure aside, it doesn't change the fact it is primarily diatonic, or rather has strong implications, whether or not it ends in a different key, etc. The chromaticism should enhance it, rather than work against it. As it stands it is neither this nor that, rather than having elements of both. It needs more consistency of form.


The duality is what makes that movement, once you hear the work as a whole it can be put in perspective.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*Coronavirus listening projects???*

What? You mean there's a virus out there, and we're under attack?

And just when I was planning to come up from the listening room and get some fresh air.

My decades of disc collecting, a madness really, has given me plenty to work through without ever having to repeat should I so choose, though I find I continually return to a couple of handfuls of discs which never seem to grow stale. And there is always music (like the Beethoven symphonies or the Bach Cantatas) which also never grows old and invites hearings of new interpretations. My collection will allow me to listen to nothing but a different reading of Beethoven symphonies and Bach Cantatas for at least a good year. You don't think that virus thingy will be around that long, do you?

I hope that virus doesn't attack the power grid. Now that we have "time enough at last" to listen to some music without the usual distractions of a non-viral-polluted world at our throats, it would be a great shame to find that we are like the hapless Henry Bemis in the old _Twilight Zone_ episode which starred Burgess Meredith as a fellow finally freed to explore his passion for books (having been saved from a nuclear explosion that annihilates the world while enjoying his lunch break in a sturdy underground bank vault) except that at the critical moment his thick spectacles fall off his face and shatter, making it impossible for him to see page print. Alas …

Who needs viruses when everything else is out to get you!

I just cracked open a twelve disc collection of contemporary Chamber Music collected in a box set titled _Southwest Chamber Music _on the Cambria label.

















There's a ton of music in the collection. I've thoroughly enjoyed the first two discs, both of which I replayed: music by Anthony Vazzana on disc 1 and music by Charles Wuorinen on disc 2. Ten discs to go … and a couple of thousand more on the shelves around me.

You don't think this virus is attracted to vinyl … or, god forbid, aluminum coated polycarbonate plastic? Do you?

I better put on some gloves before I continue with my music session.

All the best to you all out there in these lands of the plague. Stay healthy, friends.


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## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

Many listening rooms do have that apocalyptic bunker vibe to them :lol:

I don't expect to get any time off work as I can easily work from home, but the main difference is that at home I can listen on speakers instead of headphones. And the CD collection of course.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I'm expecting to make a lot of progress with my multiyear project to listen to (and catalog) all my CDs, more or less alphabetically per composer. I'm at the P and R composers now (listening to Prokofiev's Fiery Angel as I type this).


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Other than Berlin Phil. Concert Hall exploration, business as usual here


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Wagner Ring: Sawallisch Roma 1968
Wagner Ring: Stein Bayreuth 1970
Wagner Das Rheingold: Knappertsbusch Bayreuth 1957, Konwitschny ROH 1959
Wagner Die Walkure: Knappertsbusch Bayreuth 1958
Wagner Siegfried: Knappertsbusch Bayreuth 1957
Wagner Götterdämmerung: Knappertsbusch Bayreuth 1958, Konwitschny ROH 1959

Beethoven complete symphonies by Haselböck and Wiener Akademie
Beethoven complete symphonies by Arturo Toscanini (1939 NBC cycle and many spare recordings)
Beethoven symphonies by Otto Klemperer in Amsterdam and Cologne
Beethoven symphonies by Franz Konwitschny (both stereo cycle and mono recordings)

Sibelius Symphonies by Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra, RCA

And I should listen to the Brahms recordings I got from Memories too

I don't assure that I listen to everything, especially the Wagner Rings.

I need to rest from Verdi for a while. Only Falstaff and Otello left.


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## Sad Al (Feb 27, 2020)

Helgi said:


> Seeing as daily life as we know it has been more or less canceled, I was wondering if you had in mind any listening projects while "stuck" at home?
> 
> My new CD player is arriving next week and then I'm all set. Will probably start with my new Maria Callas box set as I'm really getting into opera now - very excited about that.


Cool. Especiallyt check out the 1955 live Callas as Lucia with Karajan and the 1955 live Callas as Norma with Votto. It's Bach and Callas on a desert island any day. I'd get also the Bach Cantatas by Harnoncourt / Leonhardt and all Bach that Scott Ross recorded.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Granate said:


> Wagner Ring: Sawallisch Roma 1968
> Wagner Ring: Stein Bayreuth 1970
> Wagner Das Rheingold: Knappertsbusch Bayreuth 1957, Konwitschny ROH 1959
> Wagner Die Walkure: Knappertsbusch Bayreuth 1958
> ...


Wow, if they shut the schools down imagine how many Beethoven cycles I could review!!!! Lol. I'm currently going thru the rest of the Haselbock (I knew half of the discs well already).


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I haven't changed my listening regimen except for one work - a few hearing of César Cui's A feast in the time of plague. Everyone eats in a large grouping and dies.


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## Sad Al (Feb 27, 2020)

Of course Songs and Dances of Death. And Chopin's Funeral march, Scriabin's Black Mass and Rachmaninoff's Bells


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## Ulfilas (Mar 5, 2020)

Prokofiev symphonies! I need a recommendation - thinking Kitajenko?


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## Sad Al (Feb 27, 2020)

Ulfilas said:


> Prokofiev symphonies! I need a recommendation - thinking Kitajenko?


Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra of the USSR conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky (Melodiya 1965-1967)


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

All 5, while on work-at-home, with the choral one last.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

As schools are shut from Friday I'm gonna make a concerted effort to catch up on my LVB SQ cycles. I've 3 sets to make my way through including these 2.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Boulez, Sonatina for flute & piano, violent, explosive, to represent the racial aggression I saw at the grocery store.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Sad Al said:


> Of course Songs and Dances of Death. And Chopin's Funeral march, Scriabin's Black Mass and Rachmaninoff's Bells


I'm really up to being a bit more positive in my listening, especially at my current age. Here's a list of tunes to put a more positive spin on your Corona Virus (or Viris, if you spell badly) sessions:

Crown Imperial (Coronation March, 1937) by Walton
Voices From "Corona Borealis" - Aquarius (from Part III of Makrokosmos Vol. II) by George Crumb
Mass In C, K. 317 "Coronation" Mass by Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 26 "The Coronation" by Mozart
_The Crown Diamonds_ Overture by Auber
"Creatures Of Pan Appear And Frighten The Pirates, Who Flee In Terror, Leaving Chloé Alone With A Shining Crown" (from Scene 2 of _Daphnis Et Chloe_) by Ravel
Moralia: No. 24. _Principibus placuisse viris_ by Jacobus Gallus
Cantate De Viris by Jacques Loussier
"_Tu virginum corona_" (Andante) from _Exultate, jubilate _K. 165 by Mozart
"The Crown Of India": March by Elgar

Stay healthy, and happy listening.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Here you go

All three hours.

All four acts.

*La Scala*.

Subtitles in Italian and English.

*The Marriage of Figaro*.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Since I am at home working and proctoring my kids through their schoolwork, I really don't have additional listening time beyond the norm.

I recently finished a listen through of Mendelssohn's 5. I think I may go Scandinavian next, with some Nielsen and Sibelius. I also haven't listened to Scriabin in a good long while.

I will avail myself of the BPO Digital Concert Hall in the late evenings, though.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Since I am at home working and proctoring my kids through their schoolwork, I really don't have additional listening time beyond the norm.
> 
> I recently finished a listen through of Mendelssohn's 5. I think I may go Scandinavian next, with some Nielsen and Sibelius. I also haven't listened to Scriabin in a good long while.
> 
> I will avail myself of the BPO Digital Concert Hall in the late evenings, though.


I've been listening to Mendelssohn's 5th lately. What a great symphony. I love the introduction to the first movement.


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## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Since I am at home working and proctoring my kids through their schoolwork, I really don't have additional listening time beyond the norm.


This is more or less my situation as well, most days. Today I have the place to myself and so I'm listening to opera in the living room, while working of course


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

My music analysis course will meet via Zoom this afternoon to begin looking at Schubert's B Flat Trio (my suggestion after we finished the Archduke). So I've played that several times over the last several days.

Now listening to Dufay, which calms the nerves and soothes the soul.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

This reminds me of a movie where they played soothing music at the voluntary euthanasia center.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

millionrainbows said:


> This reminds me of a movie where they played soothing music at the voluntary euthanasia center.


You crepe hanger! :lol:


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

millionrainbows said:


> This reminds me of a movie where they played soothing music at the voluntary euthanasia center.


"Soylent Green" is people!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Prodromides said:


> "Soylent Green" is people!


I read that it's really pangolins...


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Why is it that all this "Soylent Green" chatter reminds me of the green vinyl Zombies Greatest Hits album I recently added to my collection?









By the way, millionrainbows,



millionrainbows said:


> This reminds me of a movie where they played soothing music at the voluntary euthanasia center.


some of us "Senior Members" are true "seniors", and we take our viruses seriously, and with whatever soothing balm is necessary.


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

I can’t go to work and can’t work from home with my job, and am taking care of my kids who are at home doing e-learning. So I’m listening to WFMT sort of to keep me company, and when I can get about 80 minutes to myself I’m working my way through recently acquired CD sets - Michael Sanderling/Dresdener Philharmonie complete Shostakovich symphonies, and Chailly’s Bruckner set. And taking long walks with the dog, for whom life is good these days.


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

I will miss 3 Budapest Festival Orchestra, 6 Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & 2 Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra concerts plus a Tannhäuser performance in Erkel Theatre if the rest of the season is cancelled. My most anticipated concerts would have been Prokofiev's VC with Steinbacher/Hungarian National PO, Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 (BFO) & Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 (Hungarian RSO).

I missed 4 concerts including BFO's one with Savall as well for safety reasons as I did not want to travel 4.5 hours with train, coach & metro for a performance. the last concert in Budapest was more than 2 weeks ago.

I will probably listen to the pieces of the cancelled concerts.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

I'll pick 10. And I'm really going to listen to these, no matter what. Really. Don't try and stop me.

Besides all the stuff from the 1980-2000 Listening Group...

1. Van der Aa: Up Close 
2. Chin: Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles (a new work by Unsuk Chin. I hope it doesn't suck.)
3. Elgar: Dream of Gerontius (I love a lot of Elgar, but have never heard this)
4. Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (Messiaen loved this work, so I'm going to check it out)
5. Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (time to see what all the fuss is about)
6. Strauss: Metamorphosen
7. Berio: Sinfonia (I've heard parts but not the whole thing)
8. Ginastera: Violin Concerto
9. TBD jazz album (any recommendations?)
10. TBD 1960's film score (any recommendations?)


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## Caesura (Apr 5, 2020)

I will listen to as many Handel operas and oratorios as I can during this time. I'm pretty that will be more than enough to last through it all.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

I am about Bach and Froberger harpsichord suites and some Telemann or Bach, Buxtehude cantatas. If to musically express theevent, some titles do echo the current event, notably" Wie liegt die stadt so wüste/How the city laid so wasted." JSBach did not set to music of this text, I have both Weckmann and Telemann`s versions. You can this cantata by them from following Cds:

--Weckmann: Sacred Concerti by The Purcell Quartet (1999-11-08) Chandos ASIN: B01AXM8Y9S

--Four Cantatas by Telemann, G.P. (2007-06-26) CPO ASIN: B013Q7DLSG
(Drei sind, die da zeugen im Himmel; Ich hatte viel bekumennisse;Wie liegt die stadt so wüste; Er kam, losingt ihm.)

Also, "ich hatte viel bekuemmernisse/ I had so many troubles." This text is set by both Bach (BWV 21) and Telemann(TVWV1:843), Telemann`s version is also available on the same Telemann CD listend above. JS Bachs version I have from Ton Koopmans complete set. 

As to the event,


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

As to the event, I want to say nothing at all, we are on our own. I wrote a poem for us:

黎明的钟声是天使的安魂曲，让新生的太阳燃烧尽那死亡之灰，让鲜红的光芒照亮进最黑暗的灵魂，让命运的齿轮咬紧生命的悦动，让世界乘上晨曦之光的羽翼，加速，奔跑，这是命运之钟的快板。

The tolling dawn is the angelic requiem, let the new Sun incinerate the ash of mortality;
Let the vermillion light shine into the darkness of soul. 
So that the wheels of destiny shall clutch at the will of life, 
so that the world shall be winged with dawning lights,
so that we shall accelerate, gallop toward the end,
this is the Allegro of the bells of destiny. 

Music just become so much sweeter these days, I can not imagine myself as one who can express false wishes, do you believe everybody really wants the mundane days back? It is party time, lets get crazy and happy every minute with music, poems, family.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

20centrfuge said:


> 9. TBD jazz album (any recommendations?)


Charles Mingus's The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

Alternatively, Oliver Nelson's Blues & the Abstract Truth


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Being Stuck in a single appartment is not very good to start Opera Challenges. I was going to do Verdi's Otello by now. However, I've made a plan to listen to two recordings of *Beethoven's Missa Solemnis* every day. One in the morning, another in the night. I have 32 recordings to rate, all in 16 days, which should pass like the wind.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

20centrfuge said:


> . . .
> 10. TBD 1960's film score (any recommendations?)


Maurice Jarre - Lawrence of Arabia 1962
Bernard Herrmann - Psycho 1960
Elmer Bernstein - The Magnificent Seven 1960
Elmer Bernstein - To Kill a Mockingbird 1962
Jerry Goldsmith - Planet of the Apes 1968
Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther 1964 
Alfred Newman, Ken Darby - How the West Was Won 1962

Take your pick.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Granate said:


> Being Stuck in a single appartment is not very good to start Opera Challenges. I was going to do Verdi's Otello by now. However, I've made a plan to listen to two recordings of *Beethoven's Missa Solemnis* every day. One in the morning, another in the night. I have 32 recordings to rate, all in 16 days, which should pass like the wind.


I can hardly make it through the _Missa Solemnis_ in one sitting, let alone twice in a day! That's some challenge! Good luck...I have been searching for a good recording of this for quite a while - one that doesn't sound so strained and enormous (a.k.a. not Klemperer).


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

20centrfuge said:


> 10. TBD 1960's film score (any recommendations?)


I am currently, by coincidence, listening to Kaper's score to the 1962 film version of Mutiny on the Bounty. Partly in honor of this period of confinement, I have been making a point of trying to revisit a number of the more neglected portions of my CD collection.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> I can hardly make it through the _Missa Solemnis_ in one sitting, let alone twice in a day! That's some challenge! Good luck...I have been searching for a good recording of this for quite a while - one that doesn't sound so strained and enormous (a.k.a. not Klemperer).


Haha. I'm especially interested in the HIP ones. I didn't like Gardiner or Bernstein on first listen. Now I have a different sound equipment.

I'll tell you.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Counterintuitively this Easter season I'm listening to a lot of Pierre Boulez. I have quite a bit in my collection. They say this music scares away a lot of people. Good for social distancing. Too, maybe it will scare away the virus.


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## RobertKC (Dec 9, 2013)

Because all live concerts have been canceled, I'm watching modern Blu-ray videos of classical concerts, opera, and ballet. IMO, Blu-ray's state-of-the-art DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround-sound, and high-definition video, deliver the next best thing to being in the symphony hall or opera house.

Blu-ray Videos of Classical Concerts


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Like always, I'm switching between all kinds of classical and all kinds of metal! :cheers:


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Like always, I'm switching between all kinds of classical and all kinds of metal! :cheers:


Actually, although I'm not into 'modern' metal, I can imagine this working rather well with many of the 20th Century composers.

There's still some "Heavy Metal" from the very late 60s and 70s that I'm very fond of, but that is a very different genre than what passes for Metal nowadays.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

I've spent the last couple days doing some deep listening and comparing versions of Bach's _St. Matthew Passion_ (I wrote mini-reviews for each recording I listened to over in this thread, in case anyone cares). I'll finish my weeks-long exploration of sacred choral music tomorrow, then I'm going to move on to exploring some composers that I'm unfamiliar with; namely lesser-known symphonies. I've perused the TC annals for ideas and assembled a playlist of 20 or so relatively unknown symphonies that I'm looking forward to hearing. I'm also in the process of listening to all of Beethoven's piano sonatas chronologically and getting a taste of different performance practices (I'm hoping to do this with his quartets later in the year too, all in honor of the Beethoven 200 celebration - but I can't take his music in large quantites). Finally, I'm looking to get into some more contemporary music - lately I've been somewhat obsessed with Messiaen and that's opened the door to a lot of creative and fascinating music that I never would have envisioned myself listening to a year ago. I think I'm ready to take the plunge...


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

pianozach said:


> Alfred Newman, Ken Darby - How the West Was Won 1962


And since it is Easter, I listened to another Newman score, The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), yesterday, and today I am planning a Rosza score on the same genre, King of Kings (1961). And since it is Sunday, I may try to delve further into the Masses volume of my Complete Mozart set from Phillips. (I think I have listened only a few of those, and when I first obtained that volume.) Handel's Messiah is also a good Easter selection. (People tend to think of it as only a Christmas piece.)

Edit: I note that the Phillips set calls them Missae rather than Masses. I also note that there is apparently a Mozart 225 set that claims even more completeness. That was basically $500 when it first came out in 2016, and now that it is out of print, cannot be had for less than, basically, twice that. Not having that large a chunk of change at my disposal, the collector in my will have to skip that one.


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)

I went through the entire Vaughan Williams symphony cycle, the Adrian Boult Decca set, and had a wonderful time. My other listening project is going through my film scores year by year. I started with the 1950s, and am currently on 1955, a year that includes no less than 33 scores in my collection. I started this project in my car earlier in the year, but am now picking it back up at home due to being on the road so much less these days. 

Other listening projects I am considering: poring through the massive Sony Bernstein Symphony box; revisiting composers I used to like but haven't listened to in years (like Holmboe, Simspon and Arnold); and maybe finally trying to get into Bruckner, a composer who has not fully clicked with me yet, even though I'm open to it.

So much music to listen to, and not enough time - even in these isolating times!


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## Long02 (Jun 23, 2018)

As a relatively new and young listener to Classical music I’ve been trying to broaden my listening. My main listening project is to listen to all of Beethoven’s works but I’ve been trying to listen through the great Symphonies that I’ve not listened to before.


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## DaddyGeorge (Mar 16, 2020)

I try to explore the works of the late Baroque composers I do not know yet, hope to discover a new Bach.


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## nncortes (Oct 5, 2014)

I have listened more seriously to Haydn lately and find such a refreshing quality to his symphonies. However, my favorate composer is Jean Sibelius and so I just ordered a few more biographies I have not read and am thinking about starting a listening project hearing all of his works (piano, songs, symphonies, everything) in the order which they were composed to try to gain more insight to his music and maybe find some underperformed work. The website of his estate has a comprehensive list. Anyone try doing this with a composer?


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

nncortes said:


> I have listened more seriously to Haydn lately and find such a refreshing quality to his symphonies. However, my favorate composer is Jean Sibelius and so I just ordered a few more biographies I have not read and am thinking about starting a listening project hearing all of his works (piano, songs, symphonies, everything) in the order which they were composed to try to gain more insight to his music and maybe find some underperformed work. The website of his estate has a comprehensive list. Anyone try doing this with a composer?


Another diehard Sibelian here, even though I'm not much familiar with non-orchestral output (which is really not all that impressive IMO). Great idea anyway! Earlier this year I did this project with Mahler - pretty much the most significant composer I could think of who wrote so little and whose works would be easy to listen to within a span of two weeks. It was a great experience all-around. My listening projects will mostly center around doing in-depth explorations of genres or bodies of work rather than composers.


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## nncortes (Oct 5, 2014)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> Another diehard Sibelian here, even though I'm not much familiar with non-orchestral output (which is really not all that impressive IMO). Great idea anyway! Earlier this year I did this project with Mahler - pretty much the most significant composer I could think of who wrote so little and whose works would be easy to listen to within a span of two weeks. It was a great experience all-around. My listening projects will mostly center around doing in-depth explorations of genres or bodies of work rather than composers.


I see that you are a Minnesotan. Being from Duluth, the first time a heard Sibelius No. 2, I heard the opening and thought, "Well this is a nice piece, I wonder why I have not heard of Sibelius yet." Then I heard the build up to the finale, and was hooked. I have not heard music that was so relatable to me and could describe the landscape of northern Minnesota so well. It is not a shock to me that the Minnesota Orchestra is one of the premiere orchestras for his work and also why the music doesn't make sense to people who haven't experienced that sort of landscape in Finland (or Minnesota). His piano works are criticized for often being too muddy, as if the music really would be suited for orchestra but limited to a keyboard. I actually think that struggle makes for very intimate music to hear that stuggle. Those miniature pieces often remind me of drives up Lake Superior's north shore. They are so raw, and I like that. Anyways that is why I want to go through all of his works.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

I'm listening to the complete works of Arnold Bax! I heard a work from him and loved it and am now going through everything I can find on Youtube/Wikipedia.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

nncortes said:


> I see that you are a Minnesotan. Being from Duluth, the first time a heard Sibelius No. 2, I heard the opening and thought, "Well this is a nice piece, I wonder why I have not heard of Sibelius yet." Then I heard the build up to the finale, and was hooked. I have not heard music that was so relatable to me and could describe the landscape of northern Minnesota so well. It is not a shock to me that the Minnesota Orchestra is one of the premiere orchestras for his work and also why the music doesn't make sense to people who haven't experienced that sort of landscape in Finland (or Minnesota). His piano works are criticized for often being too muddy, as if the music really would be suited for orchestra but limited to a keyboard. I actually think that struggle makes for very intimate music to hear that stuggle. Those miniature pieces often remind me of drives up Lake Superior's north shore. They are so raw, and I like that. Anyways that is why I want to go through all of his works.


Sorry I saw this so late, but awesome! I never would have thought I'd find another Duluthian on this forum (though I live in the Twin Cities now). Your impressions are almost identical to mine.


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## chorallawyer (May 3, 2020)

I'll probably work on my film score listening project while quarantine continues, but I am trying to start a formal classical music exploration project, so I'll get started on that in June.


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