This week features the holdover choral piece, in its second week, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610, joined by Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole and Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

Week Four: January 23

This past weekend, I spent a few days away, and my wife and I enjoyed listening to the Vespers in the car. It’s a cheapie version from an Amazon set of the 99 best Renaissance masterpieces, which in itself is a bit odd, given that he bridged very much into the new Baroque period at the turn of the 17th century. Perhaps they just needed to get that album up to an even 99 tracks. As it turns out, the ensemble on the recording is the Bach Collegium Japan. I often wonder how some of the finest groups end up on these bargain recordings. We had a lot of fun with the period orchestra and the highly ornamented soloists. It’s a very fun piece. I’m a bit surprised that most of the movements are small ensemble pieces, where I’d been expecting a lot of bombastic brass, as in the opening movement, which I’ve been aware of for years. Over all, the piece reminds me of Schütz‘s music, the Musikalische Exequien, for instance, being steadily in my mind since performing it in the late 1990s with UMass Lowell Chamber Singers.

The two new pieces were inspirations to me based on concert recordings I heard on the radio recently. The Met is performing Tales of Hoffmann right now, so it got me doing some research and interested. The most intriguing aspect has been the fact that there seems to be no definitive version of the piece, and the acts and numbers seem to change order from recording to recording. Back in the mid-1990s I spent my summers digging through the VHS collections of the various public libraries I had access to in my region. One was a Domingo-led Hoffmann, and although I’ve forgotten most of the rest of the opera, the Kleinzach section pops into my head from time to time. Aside from that one watching of the opera, I’d say Kleinzach is what has stayed on in my mind since then.

Update: I’m about a week into the opera, and so far, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the plot. There are lots of characters, and the Metropolitan Opera synopsis isn’t helping me a lot. I feel like I’ll start to get it if I can get a hold of a video of the opera. There are some very fun moments, and I’m looking forward to a deeper dive next week.

Second update: I took a stab at tackling this one the way I did for La Bohème. I worked on the prologue and the Olympia act in the first week, and this week I’ve added the Antonia act, while reviewing the previous two. I’m also watching the Paris production with Shicoff, Terfel, and Mentzner. It’s helping me to realize who’s singing and distinguish the characters from each other, in lieu of no reliable online English libretto.

And finally, the Lalo. I’d heard this piece over the summer, when Joshua Bell and Andris Nelsons led the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. I’d mistakenly assumed that Lalo was a 20th century composer, until a few days ago when I sought out the score, and realized that Édouard Lalo was a 19th century composer, and that the piece premiered in 1875 with Pablo de Sarasate taking on the lead. I see now, on Wikipedia, that the period was full of Spanish-themed music in France, and I’m delighted to read this after observing on my own that this piece feels a lot like Carmen, which I see now premiered one month later. Good job, Ricky!

Update: I always enjoy sifting through iTunes’ podcast directory to see if there are any episodes out there about any of the pieces I encounter. This is much more likely with opera or larger orchestral works, but I was surprised this week to stumble upon a series called Violin Adventures with Rachel Barton Pine, in which the host basically has a masterclass on a different piece each week. It was weird, voyeuristic, and very informative. Fun to hear an expert coach her on the piece!

Week Five: January 30

This week, I’ll be adding two pieces to the mix. This whimsical one is Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, Op. 80 by Gabriel Fauré. I know nothing about this piece yet, by title alone. Of course, there may be some themes that I know, as is often the case, but it appears that I am going into this with clean ears, so to speak.

Update: Well, that didn’t take too long. Only a few minutes into my first listen, I see that the “Sicillienne” movement is one of those pieces that is tip-of-the-tongue familiar, but I sure can’t place why exactly I know it. But, there goes the “clean ears” belief about this work!

This is the first time that Fauré has made it onto the Silly Symphonies list. My very first memory of his music goes all the way back to my second year of college, when I prepared the song “Au cimetière” for a jury. I remember that the only version I had access to was too high for my voice. I think it was still considered a “low voice” score, but I hadn’t stretched enough yet to be able to use it. I plugged the score into my QuickScore Deluxe music software at home, which could only handle three notes at a time, and was unable to notate triplets or lyrics. What a mess, but I still recall trying to use that transposed score with my accompanist.

The choral piece that I’ll add is Brahms’ Schicksalslied, the “Song of Destiny” or “Song of Fate”. This is another that I know very little of. So I’d say that for starters, this will be a very new week for me. I’m looking forward to the new music!

Update: In many ways, after several times through now, it feels to me like this piece is both a 15-minute secular truncation and a missing movement from Ein Deutsches Requiem, with which I am well familiar. Its opening sounds and feels like the peaceful opening of the Requiem, while there are moments that seem to be taken directly from the bombastic sixth movement. An amazing piece over all, I’m so glad to be learning it these weeks.

Week Six: February 6

This week, I’m going to take up Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. It is the first time that I’ve looked at a song cycle as part of my listening regimen. I was a voice student in college, and learned several cycles. This will be the first since my sort-of retirement from singing that I’ve studied in depth. It’s a piece that I had not heard of until recently when it showed up on a Cleveland Orchestra on the Radio broadcast, featuring soprano Measha Brueggergosman.