SUNDAY MORNING CLASSICS ON TBP

A collaboration of: “The Classic Music Mafia”
Anthony Aaron, and Steve C.



Steve C / Classic Music Mafia: Here is the image depicting “The Classic Music Gangsters,” a whimsical and imaginative group of classical musicians with a playful gangster twist. The scene is set in an old-world music hall with rich, vintage decor, where the musicians are performing in stylish 1920s-era gangster attire. The atmosphere is mysterious yet sophisticated, capturing the unique blend of classical music and a lighthearted gangster theme. – aka.attrition


Every Sunday morning we present selections for our TBP family to enjoy.

We present symphonies, ensembles, quartets, octets, etc.

Not all of our music is strictly ‘classical’. We may stray a little, but we strive to make all of our selections ‘classy’.

We offer tips on proper ‘symphony etiquette’ and even some selections that are a bit light-hearted and fun aimed at a younger audience. Those pieces will be so designated, and might be a good way to introduce kids to a world of music that they might not have been exposed to or think of as old and ‘stuffy’.

A full symphony will run as long as it will. We don’t want to cut a symphony short. However, we also include some shorter pieces that we try to keep under fifteen minutes in length. You can sample each and hopefully find one or more that pleases you.

We hope that you enjoy our Sunday selections.

Steve C.

These two pieces and next weeks are for Ursel Doran. We both think that this conductor – Alondra de la Parra – is truly magnificent.

Unlike so many 20th century conductors who are stiff and very regimented, she is definitely a conductor of the 21st century…

I will also feature her in my ‘shorts’ this week.

Beethoven Symphony No 3 in E♭ „Eroica“ Alondra de la Parra Tonhalle Orchester Zürich

Ludwig van Beethoven

Sinfonie Nr 3 in Es-Dur op. 55 „Eroica“ (Heroische Sinfonie), Symphony No 3 in E♭

Alondra de la Parra conducts

Tonhalle Orchester Zürich

1. Allegro con brio
2. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai in C minor 16:40
3. Scherzo: Allegro vivace, at 30:58
4. Finale: Allegro molto, at 36:16

La Maestra: portrait of Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra | Music Documentary

This is actually a very interesting look at her life and how she became a conductor.

Alondra de la Parra has taken the world’s concert halls by storm. She has conducted more than 100 orchestras in 20 countries, shattering the glass ceiling in a male-dominated profession.

Born in 1980 in New York, Alondra de la Parra decided early on that she wanted to become a conductor. Her great dream has taken her on a long journey – and it is far from over yet. De la Parra’a roots are in Mexico – but her orchestras and her audiences are all over the world. She is a trailblazer who has made history by being appointed the first ever music director and female conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2017.

Alondra de la Parra began playing the piano at age seven and the cello at 13. After studying in England and the United States – with Kurt Masur and Kenneth Kiesler among her mentors, she founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA) in 2004 at age 23. To date, she has conducted more than a hundred orchestras in twenty different countries.

Her spellbinding and vibrant performances have gained her widespread attention. Part of her unusual approach to classical music is the unique way she infuses her cultural heritage into the world of classical music: “I’ve always been an advocate that Mexican and Latin American music belongs in the core repertoire of every philharmonic orchestra.”

Aside from her musical prowess, the documentary portrait from 2018 traces the multiple facets of Alondra’s life, offering insight into the beginnings of her career, her background and family in Mexico, and accompanies her to Brisbane as she works with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, as well as to Germany, where she conducts the Bamberg Symphony and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

For La Maestra, de la Parra allowed us access to her private archive, and the film presents previously unpublished footage from the conductor’s life, including videos shot at a workshop with legendary German conductor Kurt Masur in New York.

At a glance:

(00:00) Intro (Alberto Ginastera: Variaciones Concertantes Op. 23, 12. Variazone finale in modo di Rondò per orchestra)
(01:16) Titles
(02:52) Work as conductor with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane
(12:41) Childhood and education in Mexico
(20:53) Student of Kurt Masur at the Manhatten School of Music in New York
(24:43) Beginnings of the career as a conductor
(25:16) Alondra de la Parra in Germany (Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, II. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza)
(31:33) Success as conductor worldwide (Silvestre Revueltas: La Noche de los Mayas, III. Noche de Yucatán – Night of Yucatán)
(37:44) Back in Brisbane
(41:14) On tour with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
(44:38) Concert at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (Arturo Márquez: Danzón No. 2)

See more of her work in my ‘shorts’ below.

And Ursel, – I will feature another female composer next week so stay tuned.

This Next Piece Comes To Us Thanks To Iska Warren.

Walter Murphy – A Fifth of Beethoven

This One Comes To Us Thanks To Former Mafioso SMC.

Rossini William Tell Overture Final

Danish (S.O.) goes good with coffee on a Sunday Morning.

Focus on the good, dismiss the bad, have empathy for the ugly.

Thx for highlighting Sarah Hicks, nkit.

Likewise, for the theme from the Mag. 7. Good stuff.

Complete the trifecta, with the theme from The Lone Ranger,

Classically known as Rossini’s William Tell Overture.

The Next Three Come To Us From difrangia.

Dimitri Shostakovich waltz no 2 from Jazz Suite no 2 Prometheas String Quartet

M.y kinda ‘Quartet’

Schubert-Ernst: “Der Erlkönig”, Grand caprice Op. 26 – Hilary Hahn

One artist and barely a pound of wood, wire and hide glue. Amazing !

The Most Insane Interstellar Cover On A Public Piano

Another version of ‘Interstellar’ theme from a passer-by shopper. How can people just walk by without acknowledging.

This Next One Comes To Us Thanks To m.

Hilary Hahn : Paganini Caprice #24 & Milstein’s Paganiniana

More from the same evening:

The Next Two Pieces Come To Us Thanks To Ursel Doran.

Judy Collins – Send in the Clowns (Complete version)

Thanks so very much for your work in providing this temple to worship the music!!

Here is a piece that I have been posting frequently lately alongside all the political nonsense.

“Send in the Clowns” “Don’t bother, they’re here.”

7 Dynamic YUJA WANG Finales!!

A further review of Yuja to explain why she has such a devoted following around the world concert industry.

This One Comes To Us Thanks To Anonymous.

Evandro do Bandolim e Seu Regional

Evandro e seu regional – Chorinho

Vários compositores são interpretados pelos músicos do regional de Evandro.

Anthony Aaron

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Johannes Brahms

It would seem that someone didn’t want the von Karajan Brahms Symphonies from 1973 performances to be on YouTube anymore … I just discovered that the 4th has been deleted. This is a studio recording by von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, 1955.

Symphony No. 4 (1884–1885)
The Fourth is the only of Brahms’s symphonies to end in a minor key—a rarity for a symphony of this period—and is usually considered the darkest and most tragic. Technically incredibly complicated while remaining exacting and succinct at the phrasal level, many critics consider it the pinnacle of his symphonic achievements.

However, not everyone responded to the new work with pure adulation. After attending an early performance of the work for two pianos, critic Eduard Hanslick (otherwise an admirer of Brahms) attested that the first movement made him feel “as if I were being beaten by two terribly clever people.” Brahms himself worried about how the work would be received, perhaps understanding that its complexity and deviation from the public’s expectations for a symphony might leave listeners in the cold; the Fourth, however, remains well-loved and often performed.

Dense and intricate, Symphony No. 4 is ripe for repeat listening. It is heavily allusive to works by Beethoven, J. S. Bach, and R. Schumann, and leaves much to discover. Despite his appraisal of the first movement, Hanslick also said expressively of the work, “It is like a dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back.”

Brahms’s symphonies were among the cornerstones of Herbert von Karajan’s repertoire – and his compositions have also played a more important role in the work of the Berliner Philharmoniker than almost any other composer’s. So when it came to this music, the partnership between orchestra and conductor was a particularly happy one, as these 1973 recordings of all four Brahms symphonies show: performances full of passion and dark fire.

Symphonie n°4 op.98

I. Allegro non troppo
II. Andante moderato
III. Allegro giocoso – Poco meno presto – Tempo I
IV. Allegro energico e passionato – Più allegro

Philharmonia Orchestra

Herbert von Karajan

Studio recording, London, V.1955

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien, Op. 45

The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra led by Antony Hermus perform Pjotr Iljitsj Tchaikovsky’s ‘Capriccio Italien, Op. 45’ during The Sunday Morning Concert of Sunday the 1st of September 2019.

J. S. Bach – Lute Suite in E Major BWV 1006a

J.S. Bach often transcribed his own musical works, using them in multiple settings, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Lute suites.

In J.S. Bach’s huge repertory, a sizeable number of transcriptions exist. Bach frequently re-worked his own material and cast it in different settings, and nowhere is this better illustrated than in the Lute Suites, particularly BWV 1006a. 23 Bach’s earlier version of this piece, Partita III for Solo Violin, BWV 1006, served as his source material for the lute version. Bach also used the Prelude of this suite as an orchestral Sinfonia in the cantata “Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir,”24 BWV 29, and as an introduction to the second part of another cantata, 25 “Herr Gott 26 Beherrscher aller dinge,” BWV 120a. The piece is now performed most frequently on the guitar, transcribed from the lute version.

I. Prelude
II. Loure
III. Gavotte en Rondeau
IV. Menuet I/II
V. Bouree
VI. Gigue

Evangelina Mascardi, Baroque Lute

J.S.Bach Concerto no.1 in D Minor BWV 1052

J.S.Bach HARPSICHORD Concerto in D Minor BWV 1052 Polina Osetinskaya piano

The Mariinsky String Orchestra

Conductor: Anton Gakkel

St.Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre, Concert Hall

29.03.2015

0:05 – 1mvt / 8:15 – 2mvt / 16:13 – 3mvt

Steve C.

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 | Music Documentary with Alondra de la Parra & the Münchner Symphoniker

Since I am also a great fan of Alondra de la Parra I have been waiting for a version of this, my second place (and a very close second), to Beethoven’s 6th symphony “The pastoral”. In fact, sometimes I like this piece even better. That’s how close it is.

I especially love the second movement from which the popular song “Going Home” was written.

Antonín Dvořák’s 9th Symphony “From the New World” is his most famous. But why? Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra performs it with the Münchner Symphoniker (Munich Symphony Orchestra) at the 2022 Tutzing Brahmstage festival. During rehearsals, she discusses the famous work with musicians and experts.

00:00 Opening: Dvořák’s 9th in a nutshell
01:06 Introduction
02:40 The piccolo flute in the 1st movement
03:37 The history of the creation of Dvořák’s 9th
04:17 Analysis of the 2nd movement
07:52 Analysis of the 3rd movement, part 1
08:15 The triangle in the 3rd movement
09:37 Analysis of the 3rd movement, part 2
12:00 Analysis of the 4th movement
12:58 The revolutionary in Dvořák’s 9th

Maurice Ravel – Bolero | Alondra de la Parra | WDR Symphony Orchestra

Beginning with the probably best-known, always constant (ostinato) rhythm, the snare drum opens the piece in pianissimo.

It accompanies the two 16-bar melodies (melody A and B) throughout, which are repeated eighteen times – first solo, then by several registers in unison. They occur in the form AA BB until the last two repetitions. In the climax of the climax, A and B follow each other “undoubled”. The melodies are varied only in the shaping of the instrumentation – and thus the timbre – resulting in a majestic crescendo until the end of the boléro.

Copland: Appalachian Spring – Alondra de la Parra

Frankfurt Radio Symphony

Alondra de la Parra, Conductor

Aaron Copland:

Appalachian Spring – Suite for 13 Instruments

I. Very Slowly 00:00
II. Allegro 03:08
III. Moderato 05:59
IV. Quite Fast 09:35
V. Subito Allegro 13:10
VI. As at first (Slowly) 17:17
VII. Doppio Movimento. (Variations on a Shaker Melody) 18:35
VIII. Moderato. Coda/Moderato – Coda 21:33
hr-Sendesaal Frankfurt, 26 June 2020

Arturo Márquez – Danzón No. 2 (Alondra de la Parra, L’Orchestre de Paris)

And now a few shorter pieces…

From the Philharmonie de Paris, 2015 (Music starts at 0:12)

Alondra de la Parra conducts L’Orchestre de Paris in a concert that weaves musical bridges between Mexico and France

Alondra de la Parra – conductor

L’Orchestre de Paris

0:12 Arturo Márquez – Danzón No. 2

Moncayo – Huapango (Alondra de la Parra, Orchestre de Paris)

From the Philharmonie de Paris, 2015

Alondra de la Parra conducts L’Orchestre de Paris in a concert that weaves musical bridges between Mexico and France

L’Orchestre de Paris

Alondra de la Parra – conductor

0:00 José Pablo Moncayo – Huapango

Sergei Prokofiev – Sinfonía nº 1 | Alondra de la Parra | Orquesta Sinfónica WDR

Okay, just one more. I can’t help myself…

Sergei Prokofiev – Sinfonía nº 1 en re mayor op. 25

00:00 I. Allegro
04:57 II. Larghetto
09:38 III. Gavotta. Non Troppo Allegro
11:17 IV. Final. Molto Vivace

Orquesta Sinfónica de la WDR

Alondra de la Parra, directora de orquesta

The Classic Music Mafia – Adding some class to this joint one Sunday at a time.

Heaven help us…

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