The Whole Music Experience

Book review How to Listen to Great Music   A Guide to its History, Culture & Art Robert Greenberg   Plume Book/Penguin I’m a music appreciation junkie and when I find a music appreciation book with a flowing narrative, theory that’s explained in a way I can understand, and biographical details of composers tossed in, I climb on board.   I have taught music appreciation courses, but my focus was on world and folkloric music.   Robert Greenberg, a composer and music historian not only teaches through the pages of How to Listen to Great Music , but he also teaches a series through his teaching company, Great Courses. In this book, he gets us started with medieval and renaissance music and then we’re off into the baroque, classical, romantic and post modern eras--starting with Gregorian chant and landing in the terrain of Arnold Schoenberg.   We learn about fugues and musical structures from each of the musical/cultural eras as Greenber...

  Classical   Jerusalem Quartet Sharon Kam Brahms Clarinet Quintet String Quartet, No. 2 Harmonia Mundi     The clarinet is among the most versatile instruments showing up in classical, baroque, jazz, world, gypsy and klezmer music.  On Jerusalem Quartet’s recording of Brahms Clarinet Quintet featuring clarinetist Sharon Kam, the wind instrument takes on a chameleon role blending in with the strings so well, that at times I can barely detect its warm tones.  I’m reminded of the solitary clarinet of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto , not knowing why exactly since Brahms doesn’t send his clarinet on flights of fancy and the clarinet portrays adult sobriety as opposed to Mozart’s childlike glee.  Brahms, for whatever reason, refrains from shining the virtuoso spotlight on the instrument, and this is during an era when fiery musicianship on a soloing instrument was the norm. The musical conversation of the Clarinet Quintet holds my atten...

C lassical Matthias Goerne (Baritone) Andreas Haefliger (Piano) Schubert Erlkönig Harmonia Mundi Celebrated baritone Matthias Goerne brings us number 7 of a Schubert series, Erlkönig (title comes from a Goethe poem), a collection of songs set to Romantic Era poetry.  If I had only read the liner notes, I would have assumed that the recording only contains darker material.  The titular song indeed tells a dark supernatural tale but at least on this recording it only has one voice, instead of the original three from Schubert’s time (a man, his son, and a phantom).  However, diverse sentiments from a Scottish warrior bidding farewell to his distant love while on the battlefield ( Norman Love ), and spiritual musings ( By the Lake ) and familial love described in nature-based metaphors ( Sunset ) also appear in the 19 tracks. Goerne’s operatic talent comes through on the seductive Fisherman’s Song (which also resembles Mozart’s mirthful arias)....