Steely Dan: Gaucho
Geffen Records - 21st November 1980
DSD 64 (2010 SHM SACD)
Listening to the first of Vaughan Williams’s “Five Mystical Songs” which is entitled “Easter”…
Willocks, Cleobury, Hickox, Boult “British Composers - Vaughan Williams, Finzi & Holst” Qobuz 16/44.1
Good stuff Jonathan. Had me reaching for one of my favourite JB albums…
James Brown “Live at the Apollo, 1962” Qobuz 16/44.1
I like this one too…
James Brown: Love Power Peace, Live at The Olympia, Paris, 1971.
Polydor - 23rd June 1992
16/44.1
I haven’t listened to these albums in a while.
It seems appropriate to me to have some blues/rock/metal prior to the Easter weekend, when I’ll be listening to much more serene music, in keeping with the occasion…
Led Zeppelin II
Atlantic - 22nd October 1969
24/96
Led Zeppelin III
Atlantic - 5th October 1970
24/96
If you like James Brown, you will also very much like James Brown’s Funky People.
James Brown’s Funky People is an outstandingly chunky three-disc collection that spotlights some of the many talented musicians associated with James Brown and his early- to mid-'70s People Records imprint.
All three can be found on Qobuz, 16bit 44.1 kHz
I’m posting this again, because I’m really enjoying it…
Alice Coltrane: The Carnegie Hall Concert (Live, February 1971)
Impulse! / Verve - 22nd March 2024
24/96
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater & Salve Regina
Scarlatti: Salve Regina
June Anderson, Cecilia Bartoli
Charles Dutoit, Sinfonietta De Montreal
Decca - 15th June 1993
16/44.1
J.S. Bach: St Matthew Passion BWV 244
Pregardien, Goerne, C. Schafer, Roschmann, B. Fink, Von Magnus, Schade, M. Schafer, Henschel, Widmer
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Wiener Sangerknaben, Concentus Musicus Wien
Warner Classics - 2001 (Remastered)
24/96
J.S. Bach: St. John Passion BWV 245
Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists
Deutsche Grammophon - 4th March 2022
24/96
Haydn: Stabat Mater
Birgitte Christensen, Kristina Hammarstrom, Steve Davislim, Christian Immler
Renee Jacobs
Kammerochester Basel, Zurcher Sing-Academie
Pentatone - 17th March 2023
24/96
So, what to listen to on Good Friday, one of the most important days in the Christian calendar? Although I am not religious myself it is impossible to ignore the enormous influence that the Christian faith has had on western classical music.
My choice today is another reading of the Johannes-Passion (St. John Passion) with the Collegium Vocal Gent under Philippe Herreweghe. Beautifully played and a super recording but that’s not why I have chosen it.
This is not the nowadays much more common version Bach presented exactly 300 years ago today on Good Friday 1724 (his first year as the Cantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig) but the revised version he went with on Good Friday a year later. Here he swapped the opening chorus Herr, Unser Herrscher for the chorale fantasia O, Mensch, bewein dein Sünden groß (which he subsequently worked into the conclusion of Part 1 of Mattäus-Passion) and which I personally think is one of his most beautiful choral pieces.
So please listen to the first track in particular and if you like it go on to enjoy the rest of the work.
Happy Easter folks!
Collegium Vocal Gent, Herreweghe “Bach: Johannes-Passion” 2007, Qobuz 16/44.1