This is a blog containing my personal taste in music and art. That means you will see lots of Youtube videos with music I fancy, and also art videos and portraits from the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo era.
Monday 28 December 2009
Marche pour le cérémonie des Turcs - excerpt from the film Tous les Matins du Monde
Music by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Film: Tous les Matins du Monde (1991)
Sunday 27 December 2009
Saturday 26 December 2009
Thursday 24 December 2009
Anniversary
I hope that all kind listeners and 'watchers' of this blog will have a Merry Christmas, and I also hope you all will enjoy this first part of Bach's Christmas Oratorio:
Tuesday 22 December 2009
Monday 21 December 2009
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Note: Now I have categorized all my posts (162) to make this blog somewhat easier to overlook. Well, now it's quite a list so I'm not sure if it has done anything better. Build your own opinion by scrolling down. You will see all the labels at the right side of the page.
Sunday 20 December 2009
Saturday 19 December 2009
Wednesday 16 December 2009
G.F Händel: Sonata for Recorder in D Minor HWV367 - Mov. 5-7/7
5. Alla breve
6. Andante
7. A tempo di menuet
Sunday 13 December 2009
Antonio Vivaldi: "Filiae Maestae Jerusalem" - "Sileant zephyri"
Largo
Sileant zephyri,
Rigeant prata,
Unda amata
Frondes, flores non satientur.
Mortuo flumine,
Proprio lumine
Luna et sol etiam priventur.
Counter-tenor: Andreas Scholl
Saturday 12 December 2009
Antonio Vivaldi: Cantate "Cessate, omai cessate" - " Ah, ch'infelice sempre"
Larghetto & Andante Molto
Ah, ch'infelice sempre
Me vuol Dorilla ingrata,
Ah sempre piú spietata,
Mi stringe à lagrimar.
Per me non v'è ristoro
Per me non v'è speme.
E il fier martoro e le mie pene
Solo la morte può consolar.
Counter-tenor: Andreas Scholl
Sunday 6 December 2009
Thursday 3 December 2009
G.F Händel: ''Dixit Dominus'' in G minor, HWV232
Psalm 110 "Dixit Dominus" for Strings and Basso continuo in G minor, HWV232
1. Dixit Dominus
2. Virgam virtutis tuae
Sunday 29 November 2009
Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice, J'ai perdu mon Eurydice
Tenor: Richard Croft
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Conducted by Marc Minkowski
Sunday 15 November 2009
Saturday 14 November 2009
Jan Dismas Zelenka: Miserere in C minor ZWV 57, mov. 1-2/6
1. Miserere I
2. Miserere II (after ricercar by Frescobaldi)
Jan Dismas Zelenka: Miserere in C minor, mov. 3-6/6
3. Gloria Patri I
4. Gloria Patri II
5. Sicut erat
6. Miserere III
Wednesday 11 November 2009
Monday 9 November 2009
Sunday 8 November 2009
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Marie-Antoinette: C'est mon ami
Romance pour soprano & harpe
(One day too late. I should've posted this yesterday)
Friday 30 October 2009
Tuesday 27 October 2009
Monday 19 October 2009
Sunday 18 October 2009
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Sunday 11 October 2009
A. Vivaldi: L'Estro Armonico - Concerto no 2 in G minor, Opus 3, RV578
1. Adagio e spiccato
2. Allegro
3. Larghetto
4. Allegro
Wednesday 23 September 2009
Monday 21 September 2009
Thursday 17 September 2009
Thursday 10 September 2009
Saturday 5 September 2009
A. Vivaldi: Concerto for violin in A Minor RV 356
1st movement
Performed by Europa Galante
Conductor: Fabio Biondi
Friday 4 September 2009
Thursday 3 September 2009
Tuesday 1 September 2009
Charles Avison/Domenico Scarlatti: Concerto Grosso No. 3 in D Minor
1. Largo andante
2. Allegro spiritoso
3. Amoroso
4. Allegro
Performed by Cafe Zimmerman
Conductor: Pablo Valetti
Sunday 30 August 2009
A. Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagion; L'inverno
1. Allegro non molto
2. Largo
3. Allegro - Lento - Allegro
Performed by Concerto Italiano
Violin: Francesca Vicari
Conductor: Rinaldo Alessandrini
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Monday 24 August 2009
Friday 21 August 2009
Wednesday 19 August 2009
Monday 17 August 2009
Sunday 16 August 2009
Monday 10 August 2009
A. Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Winter
I. Allegro non molto
II. Largo
III. Allegro
Baroque Violin: Giuliano Carmignola
Saturday 8 August 2009
Wednesday 5 August 2009
Monday 3 August 2009
Monday 27 July 2009
Saturday 25 July 2009
Thursday 23 July 2009
Monday 20 July 2009
Sunday 5 July 2009
Wednesday 24 June 2009
Johann Friedrich Fasch: Orchestral Suite in D Minor FWV K:d4
Movement 6-8/8
6. Menuet I
7. Réjouissance
8. Menuet II
Monday 22 June 2009
Sunday 21 June 2009
Saturday 20 June 2009
Tuesday 16 June 2009
Monday 15 June 2009
Monday 8 June 2009
A. Vivaldi: Juditha Triumphans RV644 "Agitata infido flatu"
It amazes me that this was first performed by teenage girls at the Ospedale della Pietà, the institution for orphan girls where Vivaldi taught. What talent!
Thursday 4 June 2009
Tuesday 2 June 2009
Sunday 31 May 2009
Wednesday 27 May 2009
Henry Purcell: Dido's Lament
Monday 25 May 2009
Saturday 23 May 2009
Thursday 21 May 2009
Wednesday 13 May 2009
Wednesday 6 May 2009
Saturday 2 May 2009
Portrait of a Young Girl with a Fan
Friday 1 May 2009
Lully and Molière: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Francois-Nicolas Geslot (tenor)
Arnaud Marzorati (baryton)
Claire Lefilliâtre (sopran)
Conductor: Vincent Dumestre
Ensemble: Le Poème Harmonique
Director: Benjamin Lazar
Monday 27 April 2009
Saturday 25 April 2009
Friday 10 April 2009
Thursday 9 April 2009
Tuesday 7 April 2009
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Friday 27 March 2009
Thursday 19 March 2009
Tempus Fugit Award
Wednesday 18 March 2009
François Couperin: Pièces de clavecin du Vingtième Ordre (Quatrième livre)
III. Les Chérubins ou l'aimable Lazure
Sunday 15 March 2009
Thursday 12 March 2009
Sunday 8 March 2009
Saturday 7 March 2009
The art of Leonardo da Vinci
Music: Bach's Prelude And Fugue No. 13 In F-Sharp Major BWV 882
0:01 - The Last Supper
0:14 - Portrait of an Unknown Woman (La Belle Ferroniere)
0:24 - St. John the Baptist
0:35 - Portrait of Ginevra de'Benci
0:48 - Study of an Old Man's Profile
0:59 - Madonna Litta
1:11 - The Annunciation
1:23 - The Virgin of the Rocks
1:33 - Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine)
1:43 - The Lady of the Dishevelled Hair (La Scapigliata)
1:53 - John the Baptist
2:02 - Virgin and Child with St. Anne
2:14 - St. Hieronymus
2:24 - Madonna with the Carnation
2:33 - Portrait of a Musician
2:45 - Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)
2:58 - Self-Portrait
Video by the divine eggman913 :)
Friday 6 March 2009
Wednesday 4 March 2009
"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships..."
Another award! Now, I'm truly flattered, thank you dear Ms Lucy!
The Doctor from Tempus Fugit
Elena Maria Vidal from Tea at Trianon
Amadè from The Official Weblog of Wolfgang Amadè Mozart
(I know, that's just seven, but..)
Tuesday 3 March 2009
Saturday 28 February 2009
Johann Rosenmüller: Sinfonia Quinta
1. Grave
2. Allegro-Adagio
3. Allemanda
4. Correnta
5. Intrata
6. Ballo
7. Sarabanda
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Sunday 22 February 2009
Saturday 21 February 2009
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Musing: Portrait of a Young Girl with a Prayer Book by Agnolo Bronzino
The Excessively Diverting Blog Award
Tuesday 10 February 2009
Friday 6 February 2009
Thursday 5 February 2009
A. Vivaldi: Trio Sonata "La Follia" in D Minor RV63
(I'm not sure if I have posted this piece before... well, you'll have to remind me then! :)
I just have to say how much I dislike this new manner Youtube has - putting the title on the video like that. So undecorative!!
Monday 2 February 2009
Thursday 29 January 2009
Wednesday 28 January 2009
J.S Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1
Prelude and Fugue in C minor
I became obsessed with this piece (the prelude) at the age of 13-14, and started to practice. Of course, I never managed to learn the piece fully.
Since that, I have discovered it in some movies, and I just love the scenes they include this piece in. For example -
Le Silence de la Mer (2004). A young girl, Jeanne refuses to speak to the German officer who stays at her grandfather's house during the occupation of Paris in World War II. But eventually, there's a certain, silent sympathy between the two, and in one scene when the officer is leaving the house and Jeanne wants to warn him (you can see why in the movie, I don't want to spoil anything) she doesn't find any other way than starting to play the piano - Bach's prelude in C minor.
The Forsyte Saga - in one of the episodes there is a scene where the lovers Fleur and John have an argument and then, when John's mother can't stand the tension anymore, she starts playing Bach's prelude in C minor.
The Triplets of Belleville - a wonderful, French animated film, where the Prelude is one of the very themes of the film, variated in several ways (there's even a jazz version!).
Tuesday 27 January 2009
J.S Bach: Goldberg variations, aria, BWV 988
Performed by Pierre Hantaï
Enjoy this sweet little masterpiece. :)
They used this as soundtrack for the movie Stupeur et tremblements a French/Japanese film. Then I loved the fact that they had a piece of Bach in a film which is set in the 80's (?) in a horrible office. But since I've seen the film (which was not so good, I think) I can't think of anything else when I hear this piece. So awful when you associate good music with experiences you don't want to associate it with, isn't it? Same thing usually happens when I read a book and listen to music at the same time. Later on, when listening to the music, it often strikes me how genuinly it has captured the atmosphere of the book.
Sunday 25 January 2009
Saturday 24 January 2009
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Masked Beauties in Vivaldi's Winter
Sunday 18 January 2009
Musing: The Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci
A young woman is looking away from us in a quite idealized manner, holding a white ermine in her lap. She almost resemble a fashionable woman from the 20's with her necklace of black pearls and a black ribbon over her forehead - and an almost modern face. But she is a lady from the 15th century, this portrait being painted of her c. 1489-90 when she was about 16-17 years old. She was one Ludovico Sforza's, the Duke of Milan's official mistresses and a talented singer, musician and poet. According to some sources, her salon was the first in Europe, where she entertained the Milanese intellectuals discussing philosophy, art and other subjects. It was also here she invited Leonardo and became friends with him.
At first, I was puzzled by the fact that she is holding an ermine in her lap (clasping it with a slender hand - how different from the rounded, feminine hands seen in Rococo portraits!). Ermines are small predators, surely they wouldn't let you hold them without clawing or biting? And back then, they weren't pets either, people made collars and other fashionable accessories of them instead.
Then I found out that it might hint at the woman's name - Cecilia Gallerani - galée meaning ermine in Greek. It may also be a reference to her lover's membership of the Order of the Ermine. And then, of course - ermine is a symbol of purity and virtue - quite important things to a sophisticated Renaissance woman - a patron of the arts (according to a contemporary writer) - as Cecilia Gallerani.
Saturday 17 January 2009
Joseph-Hector Fiocco: Premiere Suite de Clavecin - Mov. 9&10/12
I think the art of checking small boxes (similar to the ones below) is underestimated. Therefore, feel free to do so whenever you agree with the statements.
Thursday 15 January 2009
Antonio Vivaldi: Nulla in mundo pax sincera
With soprano Emma Kirkby.
1. Aria:
Nulla in mundo pax sincera,
Sine felle; pura et vera
Dulcis Jesu est in te.
Inter poenas et tormenta,
Vivit anima contenta,
Casti amoris, sola spe.
---
There is no true peace in the world
without bitterness; in you, sweet Jesus,
it is pure and rightful.
Amongst anguish and torment
lives the contented soul,
its only hope, chaste love.