Hallelujah Chorus

Title: Hallelujah Chorus / Christmas Food Court Flash Mob Artist: Handel / Chorus Niagara Date: November 2010 Since this blog is about how music serves as a ladder for the soul, I felt this was a really good example of this. As a Baha’i, I believe that all religions come from the same divine source, [...]

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The Essential Canadian Brass

Title: The Essential Canadian Brass Artist: The Canadian Brass Date: 1991 Style — Classical crossover Mood — happy, jovial, quirky Good for — relaxing, chilling out in an energetic sort of way A fun mixture of classical, pop, and jazz elements. I was very impressed with Canadian Brass’s Zarathustra Fanfare which almost fooled me into [...]

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Goldberg Variations

Title: Goldberg Variations Original title: Aria mit verschiedenen Veranderungen (‘Aria with Diverse Variations’) BWV 988 Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Artist: Glenn Gould Date:1982 Style: Baroque Mood: Turbulent, calm, distracted Good for: Writing, working, catharsis, staying awake Supposedly Bach wrote this piece for a Russian ambassador who had trouble falling asleep at night. If you [...]

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Goldberg Variations

Title: Goldberg Variations Original title: Aria mit verschiedenen Veranderungen (‘Aria with Diverse Variations’) BWV 988 Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Artist: Angela Hewitt Date:1999 Style: Baroque Mood: Calming, peaceful, brilliant, an anchor in a sea of peace Good for: Reading, writing, working, relaxing, catharsis I needed something to work to again. So I decided to [...]

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Haydn/Hummel Trumpet Concertos

Title: Haydn/Hummel Trumpet Concertos Artist: Alison Balsom, trumpet; Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen Date: 2008 Style – Classical, Baroque Mood – bright, cheerful, happy Good for – studying, writing, background, relaxing, entertaining This is one of those albums which I liked okay on first listen, but once I learned a bit more about how this recording [...]

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Concerti per oboe

Title: Concerti per oboe Performer: Zefiro; Alfred Bernardini, conductor, oboe. Composer: Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Date: 2009 Zefiro is a group that specializes in music that highlights the wind instruments, and their name Zefiro is for “Zephyrus” or the god of the West Wind. The group performs on mostly period instruments, and I spent some time [...]

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The Collection 1, The Solo Recordings

Image by exquisitur via FlickrTitle: The Collection 1, The Solo Recordings Artist: Martha Argerich Date: 2009 So, how do you sum up the career of an artist? This collection of 8 CDs begins with Argerich’s career as a teen and concludes with recordings in her 40s. To truly get a feel for this set, I [...]

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Gloria! / Vivaldi’s Angels

Title: Gloria! / Vivaldi’s Angels Artist: Ensemble Caprise Label: Analekta Date: 2008 Other Artists: Matthias Maute, conductor; Monika Mauch, soprano; Shannon Mercer, soprano; Josee Lalonde, alto; Matthias Maute, Sophie Lariviere, recorders. This is a good album if you’re in a Vivaldi-kind of mood with his cool basso continuo and slowly-resolved harmonic dissonances, and if you [...]

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Bach in Havana

Title: Bach in Havana Artist: Tiempo Libre Date: 2009 I am still not sure what to make of this album. Afro-Cuban dance forms intersect at sometimes odd angles with the gavottes, minuets, and preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach. The artists definitely know their stuff, having been trained at the Russian La Escuela Nacional de Arte [...]

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