Beautiful Music

Today’s installment of Beautiful Music in Difficult Times is a BAROQUE DUET between two extraordinary musicians: the angelic voice of soprano Kathleen Battle and the versatile trumpet playing of Wynton Marsalis. One of the things I especially enjoy about this is when one plays with little ornamentations, and the other echoes with his/her own ornamentations. […]

I love French Baroque music. I love the cheerful, quirky sound of the unusual combinations of instruments, I love the fanciful plots of French Baroque operas, and I love that this lovely music is less well-known, making it fresh and surprising. Today’s offering of Beautiful Music in Difficult Times is by French Baroque era composers

Brass music is so cheerful, so uplifting, so exuberant … I hope you enjoy this glorious brass music by Giovanni Gabrieli performed by the Philadelphia Brass. It’s the kind of extroverted music that begs to be cranked up to high volume and played with the windows open — so go ahead and do it! 😉

On what WOULD have been Tax Day (until it was postponed until July this year) I offer music by a baroque era composer whose “day job” was as Tax Collector for the Royal Tobacco Control.  French musician Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was afraid he wouldn’t be able to support his family as a full time

Today’s offering of beautiful music in difficult times features The Italian Violin. It’s a live concert from 2013 by the marvelous Four Nations Ensemble. I can’t think of a better way to connect with other people than with the intimacy of chamber music in a small venue, where one can see the communication between the

I can’t think of a better title for a piece of music to enjoy at this moment than AGREABLE SOLITUDE! Today I’m sharing a concert by Cincinnati, Ohio-based Catacoustic Consort which begins with this aptly named selection.  

Happy Easter! For today’s offering of Beautiful Music in Difficult Times, George Frideric Handel’s Easter Oratorio THE RESSURECTION. It’s an exciting concert performance by the Italian period instrument ensemble Accademia Bizantina. The group was founded in Ravenna in 1983 with their mission of “making music like a large quartet.”   https://youtu.be/49I6Pr7rqLk  

Please meet Salomone Rossi — he was an Italian violinist and composer who lived from c. 1570 – 1630. Rossi worked for the Gonzaga family in Mantua, and as a Jewish man, he also wrote music for Synagogue services. I hope you enjoy listening to Salomone Rossi’s SONGS OF SOLOMON and some of his madrigals.

This is the season of some of the holiest of holidays. Passover began at sunset on April 8, and will continue until April 16. George Frideric Handel composed an oratorio that tells the story of Passover, ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Since we can’t attend concerts in person, I’m sharing a concert recording by William Christie directing

Today I offer you another marvelous Italian musical ensemble: I Musici. the Rome-based chamber orchestra that established in 1951. This is one of their classic recordings — a sampler of familiar and beloved baroque music.