Beautiful Music

On this date in 1649, Francesco Cavalli’s opera GIASONE premiered in Venice.  Although it’s described as “the most popular opera of the 17th c.” GIASONE, it’s not well-known today. That made it a perfect choice for Australia’s Pinchgut Opera, which seeks out these buried treasures and the Beautiful Music contained within. Pinchgut Opera presents Cavalli’s […]

Louis Braille was born on this date in 1809. The French innovator, teacher and writer invented the reading and writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people. Louis Braille was a musician, and his Braille system included a method for reading music. For today’s Beautiful Music offering, I’d like to introduce

Have you heard of Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyńsky? He was a Polish composer and monk active as a musician in the last decade of the 17th century, and early years of the 18th century. Today you can enjoy some of his Beautiful Music, performed by the luminous soprano Julie Roset with Clematis. CLEMATIS & Julie ROSET

Johann Sebastian Bach’s New Year’s Cantatas are today’s Beautiful Music. Bach was a busy musician, and composing music for various holidays was part of his job. These are four Cantatas for New Year’s celebrations. Bach: New Year Cantatas (BWV 58, 143, 171, 190) – YouTube

Happy New Year! We’re saying farewell (good riddance?) to 2020, and welcoming 2021 with Beautiful Music for New Year’s Day. THE OLD YEAR NOW AWAY IS FLED is known as the Carol for the New Year. It’s a ballad sung to the familiar tune Greensleeves. (also used for the Christmas Carol WHAT CHILD IS THIS) 

On this final day of the year, this is Beautiful Music by Johann Sebastian Bach from his Cantata BWV171: Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm. It was for January 1, 1729 in Leipzig. This performance of the aria “Jesus soll mein erstes Wort” is by two incomparable musicians: soprano Kathleen Battle and

Recently a music scholar rediscovered a Christmas carol from 1785: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night. It was composed by Jane Savage (1752-1824) and is the earliest known Church of England hymn by female composer. I had not heard of this early classical era musician, so I am sharing some of her Beautiful Music

Today I’m offering you Beautiful Music played on the viola da gamba by Ibrahim Aziz. First, with harpsichordist Masumi Yamamoto, he plays the “Kassel Sonata’ #55 in D major, attributed to George Frideric Handel, but thought to possibly be by Johann Jakob Kress. Kress was born in 1685 – the same year as Handel —

Elisabetta de Gambarini was born in 1731, so she came of age right around the end of the baroque era. The Englishwoman was not only a gifted musician who mastered several musical instruments, she was also a composer. Harpsichordist Paule van Parys plays some of Elisabetta de Gambarini’s Beautiful Music — her Sonata #5. And if

This offering of Beautiful Music is a jig by Occramar Mareycoo. That was the given name of the enslaved man, Newport Gardner, who was born in 1746 in Africa, right near the end of the baroque era. This cheery jig — CROOKED SHANKS — was published in 1803. In addition to listening to his composition,