Collection of music videos

Georg Friedrich Handel ​( 1685-1759) born in Halle , Germany, is one of the leading figures in the History of Music and, of course, of the Baroque (1600-1750). He wrote numerous operas, cantatas and oratorios, among which we must highlight his masterpiece, the Oratorio El Mesías . At the age of 18 he moved to Hamburg where he joined the Opera Orchestra . After three years, he traveled to Florence and then to Rome . In 1710 he returned to Germany and from there to London where he settled under the tutelage of different patrons. Although he was always very jealous of his private life, there are innumerable indications that make us assume his homosexual inclination. In London he acquired his British nationality and was appointed manager of the Opera House until his death in 1759.

The concerto grosso (in the plural, concerti grossi ) was a Baroque instrumental form of Italian origin based on the contrast between a small group of soloists ( concertino ) and a full orchestra ( ripieno or tutti ). The concerto grosso dates from about 1670 and can be attributed to Alessandro Stradella , who appears to have written the first musical work in which a "concertmaster" and a "ripieno" characteristically face each other, despite not using the term concerto grosso . Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori is the first composer to use the term concerto grosso and Arcangelo Corelli its main representative.

The Concerti grossi, op. 6 , are twelve concerti grossi by Georg Friedrich Händel for a concertmaster trio made up of two violins and cello and a ripieno in four parts, string orchestra and harpsichord, carrying the basso continuo. He takes as models the ancient concerto da chiesa and the concerto da camera of the Arcangelo Corelli tradition, rather than Antonio Vivaldi 's late three-movement Venetian concerto favored by Johann Sebastian Bach . They were written to be played as an interlude during performances of Handel's oratorios and odes. The concertos are among the best examples of the concerto grosso baroque genre.

Today they are offered to us by The Academy of Ancient Music Orchestra under the direction of its principal violin (concertmaster) Andrew Manze .

Amadeo Vives (1871-1932), a composer born in Barcelona , is the author of numerous songs and more than a hundred stage works, including Bohemios, Maruxa and, above all, Doña Francisquita , considered among the masterpieces of the genre. . He began receiving music lessons from his brother at the age of five; later with José Ribera he would study piano, harmony and composition; he collaborated with Lluis Millet in the founding of the Orfeó Catalá , which would begin its journey with Catalan songs harmonized by Amadeo Vives . At the age of fourteen he had composed several sonatas and at the age of 24 he premiered his first opera in Barcelona . Later he moved to Madrid where his stage premieres received successful responses and recognized prestige.

Doña Francisquita is a zarzuela, called a "lyrical comedy", in three acts, with a libretto by Federico Romero Sarachaga and Guillermo Fernández-Shaw Iturralde , based on the comedy La discreta enamorada by Félix Lope de Vega , with music by maestro Amadeo Vives ; It premiered at the Teatro Apolo in Madrid on October 17, 1923. It is considered one of the greatest works of zarzuela, setting a model within the great genre. The libretto portrays the romantic Madrid in a poetic and faithful way, creating pictures of great color and vividness, without falling into mere historical recreation, this being a work full of freshness. Due to its characteristics, it can also be defined as a high-quality comic opera.

María Bayo (1961 Fitero , Navarra/Nafarroa) is a soprano who has developed an outstanding international career as an opera, zarzuela and classical song performer. Although he was born in a hospital in Tudela , he considers the town of Fitero , where his family resides and with which he maintains close ties, his hometown. She has been awarded first prize in the Belvedere competition in Vienna , the National Music Award , the Prince of Viana Award for Culture ; She has been invested as an elected member of Jakiunde , awarded with the Eusko Ikaskuntza-Caja Laboral Humanities Award , with the Traetta Award from the Traetta Society, with the Cadenas de Navarra Award ... In 2020 she received the Gold Medal for merit in the Fine Arts .

Today he offers us the romance of Doña Francisquita , Song of the nightingale accompanied on piano by Brian Zeger .

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) together with Bach and Mozart is part of the trio of giants of Western music. Born in Bonn , his father, of Flemish origin, tried to make a second Mozart of him, though it was a notable failure. Despite this, from the age of nine, the organist Christian Gottlob Neefe captivated him with the study of Bach , whom he would always keep in mind. In 1787 he moved to Vienna with the intention of receiving Mozart classes, but the death of his mother brought him back to Bonn after a few days. And so after five years, he returned to Vienna where he made contact with Haydn and Salieri , making himself known as a composer and pianist with well-known public recognition. However, his profession as a pianist could not be carried out due to the deafness that attacked him the following year until he was totally disabled from said faculty.

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36, opens with a slow and powerful introduction, I (0´25´´) ADAGIO MOLTO, full of dramatic gesture, which ends in a (3´14´´) ALLEGRO CON BRÍO full of energy. Then follows a II (11'00'') LARGHETTO, noble and pastoral in character, full of lyrical themes, of great serenity and beauty. Next, instead of the usual Minuetto-Trio , Beethoven introduces, for the first time, a III (22'06'') SCHERZO -"game" or "joke" in Italian-, which gave the composition a great dimension and energy. The set closes with an explosive IV (25´ 46´´) FINALE ALLEGRO MOLTO, a movement of such depth and harmonic complexity that it was described, on the day of its premiere, as a "repulsive monster, a wounded serpent, striking wild and furious blows while driving to his death agony."

Daniel Barenboim ( Buenos Aires , November 15, 1942) is an Argentine nationalized Spanish, Israeli and Palestinian pianist and conductor and son of musicians with whom he began his piano studies at the age of five. He then studied with Nadia Boulanger, Igor Markevitch, and at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome . His debut as an opera director took place in 1973. Between 1975 and 1989 he was music director of the Orchester de Paris . In 1981, he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival . From 1991 until June 17, 2006, he was the conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra . Since 1992 he has also been the General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and has conducted the most important orchestras in the world. In 2009 and 2022 he conducted the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra .

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a German pianist, conductor and composer of outstanding technical and formal perfection. Child prodigy who at a very early age showed his extraordinary abilities and brother of the pianist and composer Fanny Mendelssohn , also a child prodigy. He began by receiving piano lessons from his mother; At the age of eighteen, he entered composition classes based on Bach 's Well-Tempered Clavier . In this way, Mendelssohn 's works show a well-established tonal clarity and a deep mastery of counterpoint. His legacy includes piano music, organ music, chamber music, overtures, symphonies, concertos, oratorios, and incidental music.

Elijah (Elías) Op. 70, MWV A 25, is an oratorio with music by Mendelssohn and a libretto by Julius Schubring . Describes events from the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah , drawn from the Old Testament Books of Kings . In 1829 Mendelssohn had organized the first public performance since the composer's death of Bach 's St. Matthew Passion and was a driving force in spreading and popularizing Bach 's works. By contrast, Handel 's oratorios never went out of fashion in England. Mendelssohn prepared a scholarly edition of some of Handel 's oratorios for publication in London . Elías is inspired by the oratorios of these two baroque masters; even so, in its lyricism, orchestral and choral color, it reflects Mendelssohn 's own style and the peculiarities of Romanticism .

The Oratorio , structured in two parts (1'04'' and 1h 10'04''), is offered to us by the sopranos Liz Baldwin and Kira Winter , the mezzo-soprano Penelope Bitzas , the tenor Martin Bakari , the baritone James Demler with the Orchestra and Boston University College Symphony Chorus ; all of them led by teacher Ann Howard Jones .

Stanley Turrentine (1934-2000) was an American jazz musician and tenor saxophonist. A legendary figure on his instrument, Turrentine 's style spans hard bop and jazz fusion . His way of playing is characterized by a baroque, dense sound, rooted in the blues , and by a constant imagination and sensitivity in improvisation. Turrentine began his career playing with various blues and R&B groups, heavily influenced musically by Illinois Jacquet . In 1950 and 1951, he played with Ray Charles in blues guitarist Lowell Fulson 's band. Later, he would join the band led by Charles . In the early 1970s, Turrentine became a mainstay of the jazz fusion-oriented label CTI,34 ; Otherwise, he continued to record extensively and returned to soul jazz in the '80s and '90s.

Paco de Lucía (1947-2014) was an Andalusian guitarist considered the best flamenco guitarist of all time. He began his musical education with his father, also a guitarist, and soon came into contact with and influenced by Niño Ricardo and Sabicas . With his brother Pepe he was part of the group Los Chiquitos de Algeciras ; later he collaborated with Fosforito and with El Lebrijano . With the passage of time, he began to make contact with new styles and collaborate with different artists of ethnic music, jazz, bossa nova, and even classical music ; he began the reform of flamenco while involving artists of the stature of Tomatito and Camarón de la Isla in the work. He recorded 38 albums, toured successfully in Europe, America and Japan and received numerous important awards.

Carl Orff (1895-1982) was a German composer, whose work can be framed within the current of musical neoclassicism . He was known for his work Carmina Burana , from the triptych of scenic cantatas to which Catulli Carmina and the Triumph of Aphrodite also belong; His name has also been universally disclosed for developing a musical teaching system for children (known as the Orff method ) that has had notable results. Orff began playing the piano at the age of five, and also took organ and cello lessons. However, he was more interested in the composition; so from an early age Orff wrote and staged puppet plays for his family, with music for piano, violin, zither, and glockenspiel to accompany his plays.

Catulli Carmina (Songs -or Words- of Catullus ), from which we offer a selection today, is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff , premiered in 1943 in Munich and based on the texts of the Latin poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (84-54 BC ). It is written for two soloists, a mixed choir, a large percussion group and four pianos. The work experiments with the repetition of phrases and syncopated rhythms, along the lines already used in Carmina Burana , taking this game even further. This composition is another example of Carl Orff 's brilliant use of orchestra, percussion and stage action, displaying interesting sung stage play. Today we present a selection of the work whose musical direction is provided by Roman Válek , while the choreography is performed by Ladislava Košíková .

The San Juanito is the national dance of Ecuador . This dance has its origins long before the time of Spanish colonization and is said to have been practiced by the Incas as a type of ritual to honor the god Inti . Perhaps in its beginnings this dance did not have this name, since this denomination has a Christian heritage and is an example of the many practices of cultural appropriation, since this name is in honor of San Juan Bautista (Extracted from Factory Tap) . Today it is staged for us by the group of Teachers of the Rafael María Carrasquilla School.