The Whole Music Experience

Face it, many of us are feeling like we're a high wire act these days so staying balanced and grounded feels challenging.  When we feel stress, tension, or too much chaos in the world we need to take time out and retreat either into silence or with relaxing classical music. You could even listen to new age or other types of music, but I choose classical music specifically because we know the key of each piece.  Also with classical music, you can bet that the second movement of a concerto or even a symphony will slow down and provide a respite, but more so with the concertos.  I feel that chamber music provides the most relaxation since the brain doesn't go into overdrive keeping up with several musical themes.  Solo instruments provide the most relaxation, especially instruments playing low tones--the low end of the piano, a prominent bass ostinato, cello, bassoon, etc... I'm providing you with a list of composers, compositions and 2nd movements (or whole piece...

Classical Julian Cochran Extracts From Romanian Dances, Animation Suite and Mazurkas Independent release English pianist virtuoso/composer Julian Cochran gazes fondly at Eastern European folk dances and 19th and 20th century composers who composed mainly for piano.  While Cochran has a good ear for delightful and playful melodies, his compositions don't stray far from piano works by Liszt, Ravel, and Prokofiev.  In fact, my first impression of the opening piece, Russian Toccata  (on the CD Extracts from Romanian Dances...) reminded me of Prokofiev from the first quirky piano phrase, and since I like Prokofiev, I mean "quirky" as a compliment.  While the pieces here are obviously finger-twisters, in their complexity and speed, Cochran plays with these pieces with gleeful abandonment. The folkloric dances appear on tracks 3 through 7 and for this section, I'm reminded of Chopin's dreamy piano works.  The only problem I have with this recording is ...

In-Tune with Neptune (The Outer Planet Returns Home to Pisces on April 4) Besides researching and writing about music, I practice astrology as a hobby. I tend to favor watching the trends caused by the outer planets, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus because these planets stay many years in a sign. Uranus stays around 7 years, Pluto and Neptune around 12-14 years slowly transiting a sign. In fact, since the discovery of Neptune during the Victorian Age (September 23, 1846) the planet has only made one round of the zodiac, starting and ending in Aquarius. On April 4, Neptune transited into its home sign, Pisces. I find this significant because I work in a field that is governed by Neptune and I also have this large and beautiful planet smack on my MC/10th house of my natal chart (career). So it’s no accident that I discovered the healing power of music since Neptune basically rules my chart. Incidentally, I think its fate that I write this article because Neptune was discovered whe...

Arcanto Quartett Quatuors à cordes Debussy, Dutilleux, Ravel Harmonia Mundi I have mixed feelings about Aracanto Quartett’s Quatuors à cordes . I’m a fan of the French Impressionist composers, Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy so I enjoy hearing their string quartets. While the composers employed some dissonance in their quartets, they also provided harmonic release. I cannot say the same for French composer Henri Dutilleux’s suite, Ainsi la nuit in which the composers brings no release to his listeners. It’s as if listeners are trapped in a desert of dissonance and punished by the shrillness of strings. Similar to a cat which can meow sweetly or caterwaul, string instruments can also provide its share of tension while playing dissonant passages. Granted the composer set out to express darker emotions and even the words “unsettling anxiety and sombre violence” appear in the liner notes to convey part of what the French composer aimed at expressing—the experience of night...

Dante String Quartet with Simon Crawford-Phillips Debussy String Quartet Ravel String Quartet and Violin Sonata Hyperion/Harmonia Mundi In 2000 or 2001 when I was reviewing cinema, I checked out the film, Un Coeur en Hiver (A Heart in Winter) by Claude Sautet from the library. While the love story in the film portrayed by French actors Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Beart felt cold and philosophical to me, the music by Ravel struck a chord. Unfortunately, I did not think of writing down the soundtrack information and I ended up checking out every Ravel recording from the library in search of the music. To make a long story short, I finally found the music on Dante String Quartet’s Debussy String Quartet/Ravel String Quartet and Violin Sonata. And I finally found a Ravel and Debussy recording where the musicians perform all the movements of the compositions. I heard only one movement of Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor , Assez vif et bien rythmè and single movements of ...

Gerald Finley and Julius Drake Songs by Ravel Hyperion/Harmonia Mundi French Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel specialized in short, ensemble compositions. Although his songs are less frequently recorded or written about, Ravel mastered both art and folk songs. The art songs would have reflected the era and country in which he resided. The French were not at that time short on poets or interdisplinary arts. So Ravel would have had his share of poetic muses in which to create musical canvasses. His love of folk songs, especially Spanish folk songs, came from his Basque mother who instilled a love of Spain and its folk traditions. According to the liner notes for operatic baritone Gerald Finley and pianist Julius Drake’s interpretation of Ravel’s short form, Ravel’s Songs , these gems are not appreciated to the extent that they deserve. “Why this is so remains something of a mystery, but it could stem from his refusal to repeat himself, so there is nothing we can call ...

  Ballet & Requiem Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chicago Symphony Chorus With Jessica Rivera and Bernard Haitink Ravel Daphnis et Chloe/Poulenc Gloria CSO-Resound/Harmonia Mundi It’s odd to find a requiem and an Impressionist ballet sharing the same disc. However, Francis Poulenc’s Gloria, with its fanfare, and Copeland-esqe orchestration, not to mention vocal arrangement, hardly resembles a requiem—at least not the kind we have grown accustom. The liner notes mention that Poulenc, (“a bad boy of French music”), composed the requiem for a fellow composer, Pierre-Octave Ferroud who was beheaded in an automobile accident. Also in the liner notes, “Over the next 25 years, as Poulenc examined his own beliefs and confronted the Roman Catholicism of his childhood, he developed a unique religious musical style, one that confirms and, in turn questions the significance of faith.” The six movements are cited as both “introspective and breezy.” And the soprano role ...