Classical

278: The Danish String Quartet, ‘Sønderho Bridal Trilogy – Part II’/Dreamers’ Circus, ‘Kitchen Stories’

Some of the most exciting music I’ve heard in years. Oh, do give it a listen.

113: J.S. Bach, ‘Prelude to Suite #2 for Unaccompanied Cello’ (Casals)

Yom Kippur is when we Jews face up to the way we lead our lives. The cantor uses the liturgy to break open our hearts and try to pry open God’s. But if there were going to be a secular soundtrack, it would have to be Bach’s Cello Suites.

September 28, 2022 by jeff Classical Song Of the week 7

301: Erik Bosio (& jeff meshel), ‘Galia’

If I’m a wave, then she’s a shoreline
Watching the tide rise
Waiting to break me.
Galia.

August 23, 2022 by jeff A Cappella Classical Personal Song Of the week 16

086: ‘Different Trains’, Steve Reich (Kronos Quartet)

Minimalism and “the only adequate musical response—one of the few adequate artistic responses in any medium—to the Holocaust.”

July 22, 2022 by jeff Classical Other Song Of the week 9

097: Mstislav Rostropovich, ‘Cello Concerto Opus 43, Adagio’ (Mieczyslaw Weinberg)

On Holocaust Day we remember the incomprehensible persecution suffered by Moldovan/Polish/Russian Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919–1996) at the hands of both the Nazis and the Soviets.

April 26, 2022 by jeff Classical Song Of the week 6

084: Dmitri Shostakovich, Prelude & Fugue No 16 in B-flat Minor (Tatiana Nikolaeva)

As our hearts weep with the innocent Ukrainian victims of Russian aggression, our thoughts turn to Dmitri Shostakovich, a courageous human being and a great composer who lived and worked under the shadow of Soviet oppression.

March 10, 2022 by jeff Classical Personal Song Of the week 8