Music of Cabeza
Music of Cabeza
I have now made recordings of most of Bach's Art of the Fugue and the two Ricercari from the Musical Offering, Schubert's Sonatas in B-flat, D. 960, C minor, D.958, and Beethoven's Sonata No.30, Opus 109, and 31, Op.110, and 32, Op.111. Thanks to having a stunning virtual piano (see this page and scroll down) and software that gives me unlimited editing abilities, I can say my renditions please me far more than any performances I have heard. The above works and those below have done nothing less than guided my entire life and as I have written, I don’t know where I’d be, if I’d be, without them. Click here for most and see below for Sonata 32 and Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. If you would like to be notified of future videos, please subscribe to the newsletter. Otherwise you can just check back to this page.
Below is the music mentioned in Cabeza, and more. While there may be better recordings than the ones listed, I know for certain that there are many far worse. Many performers seem to have no sensitivity for the spiritual profundity of this music. I will add that virtually all of this music took me many listenings to fully appreciate. Regarding music that can be downloaded as MP3 files. You can burn a CD on your computer with these if you wish to play them in a CD player.
Suggestion: download just the audio from YouTube and then use Audacity — freeware — to isolate the parts you want to hear. You can also use Audacity compress the music so it has less dynamic range — I do this for CDs I make to play in our truck. At the bottom of this page there’s a screenshot of Audacity’s compressor set the way I do for playing CDs in our truck. If you want it less compressed, move the ratio slider to the left, e.g. to 3.0 or less.Note that you should normalize to 0 DB first. These are both called Effects in Audacity. The best program I know for making CDs is iTunes. Every other program I’ve tried makes a scratchy sound between bands. In iTunes if you check Sound Check, everything will be at the same volume, so you don’t have to normalize in Audacity.
I use the Avast Security Browser which allows you to download with either video and audio, or just audio. One experiment I just tried with the Mozart Mass below which had several ads — it seems the download has no ads.
I suggest downloading all the pieces that you want because you never know when they will be removed or blocked on YouTube.
Other earlier great works of Beethoven I’m fond of — perhaps more readily appreciated but not at the same level as the last three sonatas, the Ninth Symphony, and Quartets 12-16—are: the fourth piano Concerto, the sixth and seventh symphonies, Quartet #8, and the Archduke Trio, etc.
Many of these are available on YouTube.
Bach, St. John Passion, Karl Richter, Munich Bach choir. The opening chorus, "Herr Unser Herrscher," is the greatest part and all I listen to now. Discussed in Cabeza. Can be found on YouTube. The performance is not quite the same, but close.
J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor by J.S. Bach, Karl Richter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Munich Bach Orchestra, and Maria Stader. The opening Kryie, the Agnus Dei and Dona Nobis Pacem are the most profound parts. Wonderful performance; don't get any other. All other performances of both the above are too fast for the profundity to shine through.This performance is not quite the same; I think the CD set is a litte better. Many consider this the greatest work ever written — but see my comment at YouTube; The Art of the Fugue is far more profound.
Bach: Great Organ Works - by Johann Sebastian Bach, Helmut Walcha, organ.This contains the great Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, and Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 (one YouTube comment: “This is the voice of God!” I find it hard to disagree). Both at You Tube.
Bach: The Art of Fugue / Musical Offering by Johann Sebastian Bach, Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Christopher Hogwood This is a fine performance of the complete Musical Offering. I like that of the Art of the Fugue less. My own above is preferred, as well as my renditions of the two fugues from the Musical Offering.
Bach: Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903, PhilGrant, piano
Bach - Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, Artur Grumiaux, violin. The last movement is the Chaconne Bach wrote at the time of his wife’s death. See the excerpt from Cabeza I’ve included with my own rendition of the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, composed almost at the same time.
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Singverein, and Gundula Janowitz, etc. This is von Karajan's 1962 recording (he made four or five), and his best. Great performance. But I’ve just discovered this performance by Leonard Bernstein six months before he died in 1989: . The first three movements are superior to any I’ve heard including Von Karajan. The only flaw in the fourth movement is the soloists; I have replaced those soloists with the ones above, and posted it here.
Beethoven, Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Opus 111. Phil Grant, piano
Beethoven, Sonata 31, Opus 110. Phil Grant.
Beethoven, Quartets 12 -16, and Grosse Fuge. Talich Quartet. This is on four different CDs (they include a number of the earlier quartets also) listed as discontinued by the manufacturer but still available at Amazon.com new or used. Great performances. The most famous of these quartets is #15 for its Adagio entitled by Beethoven: “Holy song of Thanksgiving to the Godhead.” YouTube comment: “If you listen to this movement, it will change your life.” It did mine, and countless others such as T.S. Eliot, inspiring his Nobel prize-winning work Four Quartets.
This is the playlist for the entire 14th quartet, Talich Quartet, which Beethoven called his greatest, and was played for Schubert on his deathbed. I mention this in my chapter from Cabeza, The Last Sonata. Certainly one of the greatest pieces ever composed. The other quartets can be found at YouTube also; I don’t know which is the best performance.
The following two links are for the Budapest String Quartet. Quartets 12-16 and the Grosse Fuge are Beethoven’s last works. They were called the “crazy quartets” at the time. There certainly the music that took me the longest to appreciate, but many consider them some of the greatest works ever composed. It’s worth reading in conjunction with them JWN Sullivan’s Beethoven: His Spiritual Development.
Vol.1 ⇒https://youtu.be/K2y3lrFKAII Vol.2 ⇒https://youtu.be/oEdaPbu8i4o
Handel, The Messiah, Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Heather Harper soprano, Helen Watts, alto, etc. I only listen to part one, The Hallelujah Chorus, and the final two choruses: Worthy Is the Lamb, and the Amen Chorus. Or just from the beginning up through "For unto Us a Child Is Born."
Joplin, Scott, rags, Phil Grant piano
Schubert, String Quintet in C Major, D. 956, Lindsay Quartet with Douglas Cummings, on YouTube. Only the first two movements are currently available. I prefer their very slow tempo for the second movement. For the rest of the quintet try the the Emerson Quartet. Or purchase the CD of the Lindsay.
Schubert Sonata in C minor, D.958, Phil Grant, piano. This is almost at the same level as Schubert’s B-flat Sonata.
Other pieces:
Gregorio Allegri: Miserere (Lord have mercy on me) by Tallis Scholars. See what I have written about this piece on the Meditation/Sitting-Postures, etc. page. Very beautiful, spiritual work. (YouTube comment: “Now I know . . . there is . . . God.”)
Monteverdi: Vespro della beata vergine, (also called 1610 Vespers). It took me long enough, but I now consider this one of the most spiritually profound pieces ever composed. Monteverdi composed two Magnificats for the Vespers; the one with the live performance has instruments, the second one below just an organ continuo. This is an extraordinary work, and a wonderful performance. I’ve uploaded three other videos of Monteverdi’s greatest works. The second Magnificat from the 1610 Vespers, paired with his greatest Mass. Excerpts from the Selva Morale; the second of these two videos contains the extraordinary third Magnificat Monteverdi wrote.
Beethoven, Missa Solemnis. Edda Moser (Artist), René Kollo (Artist), Kurt Moll (Artist), Hanna Schwarz (Artist), Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Leonard Bernstein (Conductor), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Orchestra). This was begun before the last three piano sonatas and finished after, just before the Ninth Symphony, which he was working on the same time as all of these. Spiritually, the most profound part is the Sanctus and Benedictus (composed concurrently with the sonatas). Beethoven called it his greatest work to date, but he exceeded it with the Ninth Symphony. At the same time he had plans for a Tenth Symphony in which he planned to create: “A new gravitational force.” Only sketches for this remain — most unfortunately — although he worked on it almost up until his death. This performance by Bernstein is the best I know.
Beethoven: Klaviersonaten Opp. 101 & 106 Emil Gilels. Op.106 is the great Hammerklavier with its searching slow movement. Not at the same level as the last 3 sonatas, though.
Brahms Trio No.1, Rubinstein, Szeryng, Fournier. My favorite work since Schubert. Look for MP3 download, or used. Or Brahms Trio No.1, Istomin-Stern-Rose
Schubert, Symphony #8 (The Unfinished; composed when he had just discovered he had syphilis. Discussed in Cabeza)
Schubert Symphony #9. These two symphonies are the greatest composed after the Beethoven Ninth. There are perhaps other performances of both of these that are superior. Neither of them are on quite the same level as the Sonata in B-flat or the Quintet in C.
Schubert: Mass in E flat major; Stabat Mater by F. Schubert, Morten Schuldt-Jensen, Immortal Bach Ensemble and Leipziger Kammerorchester. Fine work composed just before the B-flat sonata; not quite at the same level.
Mozart: Great Mass in C minor, K.427 ,conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Mozart’s greatest work, in my opinion — discussed in Cabeza.
Schutz: Musikalische Exequien (Motetten Und Konzerte/Motets & Concertos) by John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir.
For compressing piano I suggest moving the bottom slider to the right, possibly all the way. Otherwise the sound is very strange. For compressing for a car probably about a 3.5 to 1 ratio is best. You can use the freeware Audacity also to convert to MP3 and put it on your phone.
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