Collection of music videos

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is considered one of the three giants of musical composition, along with Bach and Beethoven . A child prodigy born in Salzburg , Austria, he mastered the keyboard and violin at the age of six and began composing. His father, Leopold , exhibited him on exhausting tours of various European courts. A prolific composer (more than 600 works written between the age of five and his death), he cultivated all kinds of musical genres: piano works, chamber music, symphonies, concertante works, choral works, operas... each and every one of them a masterpiece of their kind. His operas The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Così fan Tutte, and The Marriage of Figaro are among the 10 most performed operas in the world. He died in Vienna at the age of 35.

The clarinet is a single-reed woodwind musical instrument (the oboe and bassoon use double reeds). Within the orchestra, it is found in the woodwind section, alongside the flute, oboe, saxophone, and bassoon. The clarinet's timbre is rich in nuances and expressive possibilities; along with the flute and violin, it is the most agile instrument in the orchestra; it can produce any extreme nuance in any of its registers, making this instrument an extremely versatile voice. Great works and concertos have been written for the clarinet, including one of the most highly regarded concertos in history, the Concerto in A major for Clarinet and Orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 's Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622, was composed in Vienna in 1791 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler , a close friend and fellow Freemason of Mozart . The orchestra accompanying the soloist consists of two flutes, two bassoons, two horns, and strings. It is written in the same key as the Clarinet Quintet, K. 581 , and is also dedicated to Stadler .

Today we present the Second Movement of this concert performed by German clarinetist Sharon Kam , accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Austrian maestro Manfred Honeck .

Jesús Guridi (1886-1961) was born in Vitoria-Gazteiz into a musical family. After the family moved to Madrid , Guridi entered the Conservatory . However, his parents' finances were not successful, so they moved to Bilbao , where, thanks to his patron, the Count of Zubiría , he was able to move to Paris and enter the Schola Cantorum to study piano, organ, counterpoint and composition. After completing his studies, he spent time in Belgium , Cologne and Munich to further his studies. Back in Bilbao , at the age of 21, he took over as director of the Bilbao Choral Society , a job he combined with that of organist at the Basilica (now the Cathedral) of Santiago . In 1939 he returned to Madrid as director of the Conservatory , where he died at the age of 75.

The Ten Basque Melodies come, for the most part, from the popular songbook compiled by the Basque philologist and musicologist Resurrección María de Azkue (1864-1951), Guridi 's protector and companion during his student years in Paris . What the composer does, in Guridi 's own words, is "communicate his soul by infusing it with all his emotional breath." It is also the work of someone who is very familiar with the history of music, since there are moments when we are reminded of Gregorian chant or the Baroque concerto grosso . I also find in it evocations of Romanticism, musical nationalism, or Impressionism , which can only be created by a musician with a mastery of orchestration comparable to Rimsky-Korsakoff, Strauss , or Ravel . (Excerpt from the article by Antonio R. Rubio Plo published on the Guridi Family Website)

Amorosa (No. 6 from the Melodies). This piece, part of the Ten Basque Melodies , is one of the most lyrical in this collection, reflecting the rich yet delicate musical personality of maestro Guridi . Its intelligent and brilliant instrumental timbre, incorporating modernist features, never deviates from the simplicity, emotion, and melancholic nature of the original melody on which it is based. (Excerpt from the article by José Antonio Cantón in the Program Notes of the Córdoba Orchestra.)

Today it is offered to us by the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia conducted by the Madrid maestro Andrés Salado Egea .

Bianca Maria Meda (1665-1700) was an Italian Benedictine nun and composer of music. No mention of her life has yet been found; only her name, which appears for the first time in 1677, in the documents of the Benedictine convent of San Martino del Leano in Pavia . She would have been 16 years old, the age at which, according to the custom of the time, young girls entered convents. When she was about thirty, according to the above assumptions (1691), she published her only known compositions: " Mottetti a 1, 2, 3, e 4 voci ". With this collection, Meda became one of the few nun-composers in Italy to see her work printed in the 17th century ; she was followed only by Isabella Leonarda , an Ursuline nun from Novara .

Today we offer the motet Cari Musici by composer Bianca Maria Meda in a performance by soprano Brett Umlauf accompanied by cellist Anneke Schaul-Yoder and harpsichordist Kelly Savage .

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer, conductor, poet, essayist, playwright, and music theorist of the Romantic era . He was controversial for his anti-Semitic ideas and writings, such as " Judaism in Music ," in which he railed against the Jewish relationship with music. Initially, his works followed the Romantic tradition; however, he later transformed musical thought with the idea of the " total work of art " (Gesamtkunstwerk). His talent for philosophy, literature, music, the performing arts, painting, and sculpture was transferred to his operas, conceived as an exponent of " total art ." Based on these principles, he built the Bayreuther Festspielhaus to stage his own operas, for which he was not only the author of the music but also the libretto and the stage design.

A prelude is a short piece of music, usually without a particular internal form. While during the Baroque era it may have served as an introduction to successive movements of a work, it may also have been a stand-alone work during the Romantic era. It typically features a small number of improvisational rhythmic and melodic motifs that are repeated throughout the piece. A prelude may also refer to an overture, particularly of an opera or oratorio.

Tristan und Isolde (original German title: Tristan und Isolde) is a musical drama in three acts by Richard Wagner , loosely based on the romance by Godfrey von Strasbourg . It was composed between 1857 and 1859, and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865, under the baton of Hans von Bülow . Wagner did not call it an opera, but rather Eine Handlung , which translates as "musical drama". Widely acknowledged as one of the pinnacles of the operatic repertoire, Tristan is notable for Wagner 's advanced use of chromaticism, tonality, orchestral color, and harmonic suspension. The first chord of the opera, called the " Tristan chord ", is considered to be of great importance in the development of traditional tonal harmony. Many see Tristan as the beginning of the end of conventional harmony and tonality and consider it to set the stage for the direction of classical music in the 20th century .

Today we present the Prelude to Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner in a performance by the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Russian maestro Anna Rakitina .

John Pizzarelli (born April 6, 1960) is an American jazz singer and guitarist. Possessing a warm, smooth voice and an elegant presence, Pizzarelli is one of the foremost exponents of neo-traditional jazz singing. The son of guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, John began singing with his father at age 20 and made his debut recording in 1983. As a guitarist, he shows influences from Les Paul and Django Reinhardt . In 1993, the John Pizzarelli Trio opened for Frank Sinatra on one of his final tours, even participating in his 80th birthday celebrations at Carnegie Hall. In 1997, he participated in a tribute to composer Johnny Mercer . His 1998 album Meets the Beatles featured reinterpretations of classic songs from the Liverpool group, and the following year he paid tribute to one of his greatest influences, Nat King Cole , with P.S. Mr. Cole . He has since recorded an album with pianist George Shearing and celebrated ten years of musical activity with his trio by recording a live album Live at Birdland in 2003. Moving away from swing for a while, Pizzarelli recorded Bossa Nova in 2004, featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim compositions such as "The Girl from Ipanema" and "Aguas de Marco" .

Douzi (born 30 April 1985) is a Moroccan singer, dancer and music producer. His mother is Algerian and his father is Moroccan. His older brother, Abdelkader , also a musician, encouraged him to pursue music and helped him compose his single "ليس للحرب" (" lays lilharb", "no to war "), which was very successful. In 2003, he emigrated with his family to Belgium to study and pursue a professional career. In addition to being a musician, Douzi is an activist against racism.

Kurt Weill ( Dessau , March 2, 1900 - New York , April 3, 1950) was a German composer who studied musical composition at the Berlin Conservatory with Ferruccio Busoni . Although he had some success with his early works, Weill increasingly gravitated towards instrumental music and musical theatre. In 1926, he made his theatrical debut in Dresden with his first opera, Der Protagonist . He achieved his definitive success with Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), written in collaboration with the playwright Bertolt Brecht . His music was not to the taste of the Nazis, who continually boycotted him; so in 1935 Weill traveled to the United States composing important musicals until he suffered a heart attack on April 3, 1950.

Seven Deadly Sins (Spanish: Los Siete Pecados Capitales; German: Die sieben Todsünden; French: Les sept péchés capitaux) is a satirical ballet chanté ('sung ballet') in seven scenes (nine movements, including a prologue and an epilogue), composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933, commissioned by Boris Kochno and Edward James . It was translated into English by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman , and more recently by Michael Feingold . It was the last major collaboration between Weill and Brecht .

Kurt Weill was commissioned to compose Die sieben Todsünden by Edward James , a wealthy Englishman who had been in Paris during Weill 's visit in December 1932. James's wife, Tilly Losch , was a dancer whom James described as closely resembling Weill's wife, Lotte Lenya . As James knew that Weill was going to write for Lenya , he included in the commissioning contract for the work a text demanding that his wife, Losch , dance opposite her double. This dictated the complicated split-personality plot even before Bertolt Brecht was asked to write the libretto.

The Seven Deadly Sins tells the story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II . Anna I , the singer, plays the lead vocal role. Anna II , the dancer, is heard infrequently, and the text suggests that they may be the same person: "To convey the ambivalence inherent in the 'sinner,' Brecht divides Anna 's personality into Anna I , the cynical businesswoman with a practical sense and conscience, and Anna II , the emotional, impulsive, artistic beauty, the marketable commodity with an all-too-human heart."

The Seven Deadly Sins premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on 7 June 1933, produced, directed and choreographed by Georges Balanchine with staging by Caspar Neher . According to Nils Grosch , "It was received with bewilderment by the French public (not least because the work was sung entirely in German). However, the German emigrants living in Paris were enthusiastic and considered it 'a magnificent evening'." The production moved to London and opened at the Savoy Theatre under the title Anna-Anna on 28 June of the same year, performed in an improvised translation by Weill 's widow, Lenya .

Today we present the performance offered by the Paris National Opera Ballet and Orchestra, with Anne Sofie von Otter in the role of Anna I and Elisabeth Maurin and Caroline Bance as Anna II ; the choreography is by Laura Scozzi and the musical direction is by Alexandre Polianichko .

The Malambo is a traditional Argentine folk dance, belonging to the so-called southern or southern music, which originated in the Pampas around 1600. Among Argentine folk dances, it is an exception because it lacks lyrics; the music of a legüero bass drum and guitars (sometimes just the bass drum) accompany this dance, performed exclusively by men. There are no rules for performing a zapateo. Each combination of basic movements is unique and depends on the originality of the gaucho performing it. The zapateos are separated from each other by a foot tap called "repique," which contains a quick, distinctive sound that indicates the end of one zapateo and the beginning of another.