Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x71jgMx0Mxc&feature=relatedPart 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgZ0K8vCdbo&feature=relatedWith a fascinating historical note. Music so sensuous it could not be copied under pain of excommunication. However, the 13-year-old Mozart blew thru town with his daddy Leopold, heard it performed in the Sistine Chapel, copied it down from hearing it once, and then took the manuscript back on Good Friday to make a few corrections!!!
Gregorio Allegri is one of music's great one-work-wonders. He is famous today (and throughout history) for just a single, magnificent composition, his Renaissance masterpiece Miserere mei Deus for nine part choir.
The Miserere (c. 1638) is a work wrapped in legend and shrouded in mystery, and yet its origins are very plain, it being a setting of Psalm 51.
Somebody powerful in the Vatican took a special liking to Allegri's Miserere soon after it was written and decreed that it was not to be copied or removed from the Vatican on pain of excommunication. In effect, the Church banned its performance anywhere in the world except within the Sistine Chapel.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the Papal ban on its copying and performance, its fame spread throughout Europe. Visitors to the Vatican at Easter would make a point of experiencing this heavenly work.
One such visitor was a twelve year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on a 15 month tour of Italy with his father, Leopold. They arrived in Rome just in time for Easter, 1770. The Mozarts heard the famous work performed at the Sistine Chapel on Easter Wednesday, and legend has it that on returning home, Mozart junior sat down and wrote out the entire piece from memory. With a second hearing on Good Friday, manuscript hidden under his hat, the young Amadeus was able to make a few minor corrections.
But the Mozarts were responsible enough not to circulate it. Leopold wrote to his wife that Wolfgang had indeed transcribed the famous music, but as it was a secret of Rome, they did not wish to let it get into the hands of others. But just a year later, the Miserere was published in London, forever breaking the Papal monopoly. Through what hole in the net had it escaped?
The plot thickens. While the Mozarts were completing their tour of Italy, an English music historian by the name of Dr Charles Burney, was also in Rome. His special interest was the music for the celebration of Easter in the Sistine Chapel, and it was this Burney that was the publisher of Allegri's Miserere. How did he come across it?
In his studies in Bologna, Burney met Giovanni Battista Martini, famous composer and known to have a copy of Allegri's manuscript. He also consulted the Choirmaster Santarelli at the Vatican. But given the Papal decree, it is unlikely that either of these men would divulge the music to a foreigner.
The really interesting thing is that in Bologna Burney also met Mozart, there to study with the Padre Martini. Did Mozart, perhaps showing off, give Burney a copy of the manuscript, and thereby unwittingly reveal it to the world? Possibly.
======================================
Mozart - Ave Verum Corpus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TfAyX8l5-g&feature=relatedPat Metheny - A Map of the World:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQSVqMdTVNEA MAP OF THE WORLD is a 2000 movie starring Sigourney Weaver and David Strathairn, for which Pat wrote the soundtrack and used a string orchestra as well. Peaceful, lovely music. I would advise getting the soundtrack CD!!!
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In the Bleak Midwinter -- sung by Chanticleer, composed by Gustav Holst:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjRXIiZ8bs0==============
Mendelssohn Octet Part 1 of first mvt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSmSYIvq094&feature=relatedPart2 of first mvt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ypl6v-CTJw&feature=related================
Dvorak Piano Quintet -- part 1 of first mvt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfSYwJuq3Vg (with a former Secretary of State on the piano)
==================
Alfredo Kraus sings "Estrellita" by Manuel M. Ponce:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot9FHZ8cgMI&feature=PlayList&p=B5CFD4A2752461EB&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=39Alfredo Kraus sings "Mattinata" (Morning Song) By R. Leoncavallo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvT7ePXH94sPlacido Domingo and Mirella Freni sing the Love Duet of Othello and Desdemona:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9MFz2UrXWo&feature=relatedBeautiful Night, O Night of Love - Jacques Offenbach, sung by Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd3_8AfOFFgMario, Mario, love duet from Tosca, Karita Mattila:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOUJeOedVnASamuel Ramey as Don Giovanni singing a serenade, "Oh come to the window my treasure"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-13t581Fzc&feature=related
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