A few ways to ponder our current US plight through some remarkable classical music -

[NRaleighLiberal]

First - as I type this, Public Television is showing the special concert for today - Mahler's Symphony #2 - they just started the second movement - the finale is one of the most moving things I've ever heard (we've seen it performed live at Duke Chapel...just indescribable).

Two pieces written for Sept 11 - a brand new one by minimalist Steve Reich (with the Kronos Quartet) - can be heard in its entirety at the NPR site - http://www.npr.org/2011/09/11/140144067/first-listen-steve-reich-wtc-9-11 - it won't be released for a week or so. Quite a remarkable piece.

And another minimalist, John Adams, has a piece well worth hearing based on the event - http://www.amazon.com/John-Adams-Transmigration-Souls/dp/B0002JNLNM/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1315793127&sr=1-1

I think music is what moves my wife and I much more than words (and certainly all of the political noise) - each of these three works is worth the time to my wife and I, anyway!



:hi:

[frazzled]

1. Listening to the Mahler "Resurrection" right now

Music (classical) has become a real solace and escape from the political noise for Mr. Frazzled and myself as well these past years, including contemporary composers like Reich and Adams. We are fortunate to have the country's most phenomenal orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, right here, and we have subscribed for a number of years.

For an inspirational, moving contribution from Adams (not regarding 9/11 but the birth of the nuclear era), listen also to this unbelievable aria from his Doctor Atomic. "Batter My Heart," from a poem by John Donne, sung by Gerald Finley:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYiokai3FW4

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. I sure will - and thanks! They are into the Mahler finale now....just....wow. n/t

[markpkessinger]

4. It's a marvelous work. Are you familiar with his 8th Symphony?

It is also orchestral/choral (multiple choirs) with 16 vocal soloists. It is not performed very often due in part to the magnitude of resources required to perform it. It's in two movements: the text for the first is the Latin hymn, "Veni, Creator Spiritus," and the second movement is the final scene from Goethe's Faust. Some of the most sublime music you will ever listen to, I can promise you.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. I like Mahler's First better.

I listen to nothing but classical, classical choral and some forms of jazz to keep my sanity.

schubert's Trout Quintet and Schubert's Quintet in C Major (last thing he ever wrote) is excellent. I have the excellent recording of the Melos Quartet and Misistlav Rostropovich as the "fifth wheel". Extra cello. It's scored for two fiddles and one viola and two celli.

And I listen to assorted world music.