In Memoriam: Music For Solemn Occasions

Various

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Cat No: 8553435

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099443524

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: In Memoriam

Description
In MemoriamMusic when softvoices die Vibrates in thememory The present collection of solemn musicoffers works that give expression to deeper emotions, associated, in somecases, with death, and in others simply with moments of calm and serenity .The firstof these is a March taken from Henry Purcell's Music on the Death ofQueen Mary. This heartfelt music was intended to mark the death of theEnglish Queen whose marriage had brought her husband William of Orange to sharethe throne of England, after the expulsion in 1689 of her fatherKing James II. Her patronage was of value to musicians, but, ironically,Purcell's music for the death of the Queen in 1694 came shortly before his owndeath in 1695. In LondonHandel was much influenced by Purcell, at least when it came to English churchmusic. Bom in Halle in 1685, he had found employment at the opera in Hamburgbefore moving to Italy, where he continued in the Italian melodic style ofwriting before finding employment at court in Hanover and, almost at once,lucrative work in London as a composer of Italian opera. Of this the opera Serseis an example. Handel's Largo allows the king of the title, Xerxes, to contemplatethe beauty of nature. Handel later turned his attention to English oratorio, ofwhich he may be considered the creator. The Dead March from the biblicaloratorio Saul marks the death of the King, the fall of the mighty inbattle, slain with his son Jonathan, to be mourned by David, his successor. Music of great serenity comes from Johann SebastianBach, notably in the famous Air from the Orchestral Suite in D major,popularly known as the Air on the G string from anarrangement by the violinist August Wilhelm. The calm and peace of Bach's organmusic is heard in the Adagio from his Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in Cmajor and the tranquil happiness of the blessed in a transcription of acantata movement, known in English as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Bach's near contemporaries include threedistinguished composers from Venice, musicians whose work influenced Bach andwhich he even transcribed. His arrangements for harpsichord include aversion ofAlessandro Marcello's splendid Oboe Concerto, the slow movement of whichis heard here in its original version. Antonio Vivaldi, a great violinist andmost prolific composer, is here represented by a pensive slow movement from aconcerto for flautino, the smallest member of the recorder family, while Albinoni,with rather less justification, appears nominally at least in a moving Adagiothat owes its origin rather to the twentieth century Albinoni scholar RenzoGiazotto. The Baroque leads imperceptibly into theclassical, by way of Christoph Willibald von Gluck, innovator in opera and animportant figure in the theatres of Vienna and Paris. Gluck's opera on the subject of the legendarymusician Orpheus, who tried to bring back his beloved Eurydice from the dead,includes the Dance of the Blessed Spirits, music for those who havedied, yet suffer no more. The nineteenth century br
Tracklisting