Beautiful Music

This is an installment of Beautiful Music that you’ll want to WATCH while you listen. Cellist Kevin Olusola inhabits this music so completely, and he employs extraordinary techniques to craft this joyful, engaging performance.

Ifetayo Ali-Landing is a marvelous young musician, and today’s Beautiful Music is a recording of a virtual concert she gave in January 2021. The talented cellist played music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Florence Price, Sulkhan Tsintsadze, Felix Mendelssohn, and others. https://backstage.ravinia.org/posts/ifetayo-ali-landing-meditates-on-her-chicago-symphony-debut-and-making-music-personal

Today’s Beautiful Music is a captivating performance by the innovative Fifth House Ensemble and Alash, the Tuvan throat singing group. They are performing the Reindeer Herder’s Song. You can also read more about both groups using the links below. https://www.alashensemble.com/ https://www.fifth-house.com/

Consortium5 is a recorder quintet whose members are Emily Bloom, Kathryn Corrigan, Oonagh Lee, Gail Macleod, and Roselyn Maynard. They formed the group in 2005 when they were all students at the Royal Academy of Music, and their repertory ranges from traditional renaissance-era recorder music to modern compositions. Today’s Beautiful Music features Consortium5 playing Three

Mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian is featured in today’s Beautiful Music. She is the soloist with La Barroca del Suquia in Cordoba, Argentina performing ACH! NUN IST MEIN JESUS HIN! from the St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. The live performance took place in 2015.

Imagine the unique challenges of playing in an orchestra … now imagine the challenges of playing in an orchestra WITHOUT a conductor! Today’s Beautiful Music features the Sphinx Virtuosi, a conductorless chamber group, performing the third movement of the Divertimento for Strings by Bela Bartok. It’s an exciting and precise performance of a difficult piece

Carter Brey became principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic in 1996. He joins the Harlem Quartet — all performing on Stradivarius instruments — for today’s Beautiful Music, playing the first movement of Franz Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C. This concert took place at the LIbrary of Congress in 2008.

What a pleasure to see such talented young musicians! Today’s Beautiful Music features 21 year old violinist Gabriela Lara performing the first movement of the Violin Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven. This live performance from 2021 was part of the Chicago Violin Competition 2021 – Senior Artist Division. As you listen, use the link below

Italian singing teacher and composer Nicola Porpora was born on August 17, 1686. His star students included the famous castrato singers Farinelli and Caffarelli, and composer Franz Joseph Haydn. Today’s Beautiful Music is Porpora’s 1732 opera GERMANICO IN GERMANIA.

Today’s Beautiful Music is from a recent concert performance at St. Andrew Church in Rugby. Violinist Tamaki Higashi and pianist Mariko Terashi perform MILONGA LONGA, a tango by Argentinean composer and pianist Gerardo Di Giusto.