With a heavy heart, we honor the life of one of the greatest composers of the modern era. It only seems appropriate to listen to his famous work for soprano and orchestra: Symphony No. 3 “Sorrowful Songs.” Take a few minutes of your Friday, a box of tissues, and some time alone with Górecki in true sonic bliss.1
Timothy Rutherford-Johnson has a moving obituary on his site.
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki: 1933-2010. Rest in peace.
And now, for great moments in YouTube discovery, I bring you Oliver Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques for piano and small orchestra; Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Pierre Boulez, conductor.
As my great musicology mentor once said, “Funny how all of Messiaen’s birds seem to chirp exactly within the modes of limited transposition.” If you get the modes in your ear, it’s really easy and fun to pick them out of the score.
Nonetheless, this piece is an astounding example of Messiaen’s orchestration chops. It also is impeccably conducted and Aimard is at his absolute finest.
Check out the updated Lossless Music Downloads page for an updated list. The legendary Deutsche Grammophone label is now available for lossless downloads.
Who’s on Deutsche Grammophone? Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and so many more.
This is a great sign that things are opening up for the listener who wants to hear “all of the bits”. I am very happy about this.