Turning over a new leaf June 18, 2008
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Downloadable pdf piano-vocal scores for Bach Cantatas June 16, 2008
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Bach lovers can find a complete collection of piano-vocal scores for the cantatas in pdf here. Enjoy!
CD 15424: Mendelssohn, St. Paul June 13, 2008
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Although Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy died before he could write an opera, he did leave us with two powerfully dramatic works: his oratorios, St. Paul (Op. 36, 1836) and Elijah (Op. 70, 1846-47). Both works have been recorded by Frieder Bernius with the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and soloists for the Carus label as part of the Mendelssohn church music series in twelve volumes (still in progress). Elijah was only just recently released and is consequently not yet available in our collection, but you can find the excellent recording of St. Paul in our collection as CD 15424. Bernius’ interpretation of this challenging work is exemplary. The chorales are crisp, the arias soar, and, most importantly, the dramatic impulse of Mendelssohn’s work is kept alive. While it is tempting to interpret Mendelssohn with an overly Romantic performance aesthetic, Bernius preserves the integrity of Mendelssohn’s Bach-infused style. Don’t miss the liner notes, written by Duke University’s R. Larry Todd.
Check out the CD and score, have a listen, and enjoy!
Mendelssohn, St. Paul, Op. 36:
CD 15424
Score: M2003.M53 P42 1997
On the Library in the New Age June 12, 2008
Posted by Tom Moore in : Uncategorized , add a commenta stimulating essay in the NY Review of Books on the library in the new age.
New Books Shelf (June 11-18, 2008) June 10, 2008
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“In no great hurry, the short, simple train rumbles across the flat North German landscape. ‘Today the small train of my childhood is still running,’ writes Lotte Lehman in her autobiography of 1937, from Wittenberge through the thinning pine woods of sandy Wesprignitz County, straight to Perleberg, some twenty miles away.”
With these first lines, the reader of Never Sang for Hitler: The Life and Times of Lotte Lehmann is drawn to board the train that is the story of Lotte Lehmann’s extraordinary life. Michael H. Kater’s new book, hot off of Cambridge University Press (March 2008), details the struggles Lehmann faced as a brilliant singer and actress in Nazi Germany, her subsequent difficulties assimilating to American culture after she fled the Nazis, and her final days as a teacher and mentor to younger musicians.
For those fascinated by the tangled labyrinth of music, culture, and politics that ultimately resulted in “Romanticism,” James H. Donelan’s first book, Poetry and the Romantic Musical Aesthetic (Cambridge University Press, 2008), is a must-read. A nicely condensed dissertation, Donelan’s study of Hegel, Hölderlin, Wordsworth, and Beethoven provides a readable exploration of the intimately connected worlds of music and words in the first several decades of the 19th century.
Please stop by the music library to have a look at these books and the rest of our new titles this week!
These items will be available for circulation on June 18, 2008.
