The first track in this mix is a piece written by Gavin Bryars for David James of the Hilliard Ensemble. It’s called Incipit Vita Nova and was written to celebrate the birth of a child called … Vita. There’s a connection with the piece Diptych by Silvestrov, which was on my previous mix. Diptych appeared on one of Gavin Bryars’ albums, On Photography. He explains why:
I sat in a pew [at a rehearsal by the Latvian Radio Choir] and [they] started to sing the piece they were rehearsing before mine. It was something I did not know but I thought it was the most beautiful music I had ever heard in my life. I sat still, completely overwhelmed by the richness of its harmonies, by its serenity and by the way in which it evolved – slowly but inevitably …. I resolved at that moment to include this music on the recording and enable it to be heard more widely.
Then there’s classical Iranian music from the singer Mohammed Reza Shajarian, with Kayhan Kalhor on kamancheh / spike fiddle. The piece is called Avaz va Saz; the words are a poem by Sa’adi: ‘Those who give themselves to the madness of your love, free themselves from the burden of life’s worries.’
Guitar music follows, from John Fahey, Jack Rose and Carlos Paredes.
Like the first track, the last two tracks feature a male alto / countertenor: Andreas Scholl in O Jesu, nomen dulce by Heinrich Schütz and Carlos Mena in Sances’s Stabat Mater.
I recently bought the CDs of Vivaldi’s ‘pastiche opera’ Bajazet, also known as Il Tamerlano. It’s loosely based on the story of the life of the 14th century warrior Timur the Lame and the emperor Bajazeth, as was Marlowe’s play Tamburlaine the Great. I saw the National Theatre’s production of Tamburlaine the Great in 76/77 (Albert Finney was Tamburlaine) and it was grim indeed – Vivaldi’s version is a sunlit picnic by comparison.
I wanted to listen to Bajazet because of the singing of Marijana Mijanovič, my favourite Serbian. I saw her singing Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina in Amsterdam a couple of years ago and was bowled over – I do love a woman in a trouser role. In Bajazet she sings the part of Asteria:
Other highlights of these CDs are Patrizia Ciofi singing ‘Nasce rosa lusinghiera’ (one of the tracks in this mix) and this aria, ‘Qual guerriero in campo armato’, from Vivica Genaux:
Vivica Genaux is a mezzo more famous for singing Bellini etc. apparently. I’d never heard of her, let alone heard her singing – I’m a real ignoramus when it comes to grand opera. This aria was written for the castrato Farinelli by his brother, Riccardo Broschi, who was probably the one who arranged for Farinelli to be castrated at the age of 12 or so. So I guess he owed Farinelli a hit aria.
If you’re wondering how it is that an aria by Riccardo Broschi appears in a Vivaldi opera, Wikipedia’s on hand:
Bajazet is a pasticcio. It was a common practice during Vivaldi’s time for composers to borrow and adapt arias from other composers with their own works for an opera. Vivaldi himself composed the arias for the good characters (Bajazet, Asteria and Idaspe) and mostly used existing arias from other composers for the villains (Tamerlano, Irene, Andronico) in this opera. Some of the arias are reused from previous Vivaldi operas.
as you’ve maybe noticed, i’ve changed the theme on my blog. the new theme, called ‘viala’, was written by david garlitz, who has made it freely available under the GPL licence – generous man. you can download it here.
also new is the flickr plugin, which is ‘Flickr Photo Album‘, written by joe tan, seen here asleep on a plane. this is a great plugin; i’ve tested quite a few flickr plugins over the last 2 or 3 years and this is the most comprehensive and trouble-free i’ve come across. installing it was a breeze – for which i’m very grateful. i stumbled a little when it came to customising the photoalbum pages to fit the viola theme, but in the end it was very simple.
