Beautiful Music

Bardcore creates clever medieval-style covers of a variety of familiar melodies — from the Bee Gees to Dolly Parton. Today’s Beautiful Music is a selection of their fun and festive Christmas adaptations. Carol of the Bells (Medieval Cover) | Christmas 2020 – YouTube

Today’s Beautiful Music is a buoyant Christmas cantata by Christophe Graupner. He composed his sacred work, Jauchzet ihr Himmel erfreue dich Erde (Rejoice Heaven and Earth), in 1753. Graupner was one of the runners-up for the Cantor job in Leipzig eventually given to Johann Sebastian Bach. I hope you enjoy this lovely seasonal work. Christoph

On this Christmas Eve, today’s Beautiful Music offering is Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata BWV132: Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn. The sacred cantata for Advent is from 1715 when the composer was in Weimar. This performance is by Alfredo Bernardini leading Netherlands Bach Society. I have also thrown in some festive holiday music as a

Merry Christmas! My Beautiful Music offering today is a selection of baroque era Christmas music, including the Christmas section of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio MESSIAH, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata BWV63 for Christmas Day, and a lovely concert performance of Italian and Czech Baroque Christmas Music. Wishing you good health and happiness today and always! Handel’s

One of my picks for the Sunday Baroque Holiday Gift List this year is called CORELLI’S BAND. It’s a collection of Sonatas by Arcangelo Corelli and some of the musicians he taught or influenced, including Giovanni Mossi and Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli. Baroque violin specialist August McKay Lodge is featured. Today’s Beautiful Music is a selection from

This time of year can feel like madness, so today’s Beautiful Music is designed to help you feel calmer. It’s based on a melody called LA FOLIA — aka madness, or folly. And it’s from the 2021 cd BAROQUE featuring violinist Nicola Benedetti and Benedetti Baroque Orchestra. You can also watch her explaining the history

Hildegard of Bingen lived from c.1098-1179 and was a German polymath. Her scope of interests included philosophy, medicine, spirituality, and music. She was a Benedictine nun who composed a large number of musical works, including ORDO VIRTUTUM (The Play of Virtues), a musical drama. The group Seraphic Fire, led by Patrick Dupré Quigley, recorded Hildegard

AN AMERICAN MOSAIC is a new recording of piano solo music by American composer Richard Danielpour. It was his response to the anxiety and insomnia he experienced because of the pandemic, and the comfort he found in listening to pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach. Danielpour wrote his 15-movement cycle paying tribute to

This year’s Sunday Baroque Holiday Gift List includes a terrific recording, INFLUENZA ITALIANA, featuring Ensemble Mirable. The San Francisco Bay Area-based period instrument ensemble originated in 1996 at Indiana University’s Early Music Institute. Today’s Beautiful Music features selections from INFLUENZA ITALIANA; the title is a play on the idea of spreading an infectious Italian Baroque

At age 13, violinist Christian Li made history as the youngest person to record Antonio Vivaldi’s FOUR SEASONS Concertos. The young musician gives a remarkably sensitive and mature performance. I included the recording on my Sunday Baroque Holiday Gift List this year. Today’s Beautiful Music features Christian Li working on the recording with the Melbourne