Summer Music

Music is the science of sound made art. The development of music notation combined with the printing press meant that western music, which we call classical music, could develop at the same pace as science, politics, art, and technology. The harpsichord gave way to the clavichord which gave way to the piano. Bach wrote his cello suites to see what the Amati-Stradivarius pattern cellos during that time period could do. We no longer have five string cellos and the instruments of today have strings that are far more powerful that the pure gut strings made in the seventeenth century. (Yech. They really had gut strings) Some of his suites are difficult if not impossible to play on modern instruments but Bach's First Suite for the Cello is pure genius. I hear it all the time, on Television commercials, in movies, and even as background music on computer games. Without classical music we would never have had spirituals, jazz, blues, or rock since the structures, forms, harmonies, and chordal progression were worked out by centuries of western musical experimentation.

As always I've been trying to find the highest quality music for the Library's collection. With classical music this is always problematic. It's not just the music, it's also the performer, and even the specific performance that makes a particular recording great. Yo Yo Ma, for example, is famous for his ability to play the Haydn Cello Concerto. Some performers just have a feeling for a particular piece of music. Some performances are just stellar.

This summer I have made three different Music buys, chamber music for the piano, solo pieces for the piano, and solo pieces for the violin. I did this not just to have a good general collection but because music lessons are a rite of passage for many kids. I have now, hopefully built collection of the best solo works for cello, violin, and piano for music students to emulate and enjoy.

Piano Works

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas No.s 28 & 29
Liszt: Sonata in B Minor
Rachmaninoff Preludes, Morceaux De Fantasie.
Glen Gould Edition: Brahms: Ballades, Rhapsodies etc.
Scrlatti: Keyboard Sonatas
Rubinstein Collection Vol. 51 Schumann
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3, Bagatelles Etc.
Beethoven: Sonatan Op. 31, 53, 79 & 81
Ravel: Gaspard De La Nuit; Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 6
Schumann: Kreisleriana

Violin Works

Bernstein Century - Beethoven Violin Concerto
Schubert: Violin Works
Beethoven: Triple concerto, Brahms
Joshua Bell Edition V. 3 - Brahms Violin Concertos
Isaac Stern - A life in Music - Wieniawski, Bruch Concertos
Schumann: Sonatas for Violin & Piano 1-3, Faust, Avenhaus
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Khachaturian
Artist of the Century - Jascha Heifetz
Shostakovich
Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole, Saint Seans, Ravel.
Paganini: Violin Concertos 1 & 2
Mendelssohn: Violin Sonatas
Schubert: Sonatas for Violin
Spohr: Concerto No. 8, Beethoven Serenade
Brahms: Violin Sonatas
Franck, Strauss: Violin Sonatas
British composers - Elgar, Delius: Violin

Piano Chamber Music

Stokowski: Symphonic transcriptions
Schubert: Trout Quintet
Brahms: Complete Piano Quartets
Dvorak: Piano Quartets Op. 23 & 87
Bach: Great Organ Works
Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Piano Concertos
Mozart: Piano Quartets
Beethoven, Mozart: Quintets
Schumann: Piano Quartets