Meeting in Music: Gershwin G

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Following the guide below you will be able to create the ultimate HQ rip and upload for sharing here at the Meeting in Music Internet Community or on your own blog if you have one.

RIPPING A CD USING EXACT AUDIO COPY (EAC)

1. Start Exact Audio Copy and load the clean and scratchless CD into you drive.
2. Pressing ALT+G will pull track and album info from the FreeDB database if this feature is set up properly.
3. If no info is found the CD is not registered in the database and you will have to type in the info manually.
4. Adjust the Drive Settings according to the model of your drive and enable the ”Create Log-file” option.
5. Adjust the Compression Settings to rip in Flac format at 768 kBit/s. Alternatively rip in the Ape fomat.
6. Rip the CD by pressing Action -> Test & Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet -> Compressed...
7. Check the log-file to see if any ripping errors or AccurateRip inaccuracies were registered.

SCANNING THE COVERS OF THE ALBUM

1. Scans of the front and back covers should be included if available as should the booklet. 300dpi is standard.

COMPRESSING THE FOLDER USING WINRAR

1. Wrap the audio files and images in a folder marked the composer and album name etc.
2. Set Compression method to ”Store” and the volume size to 200000000. Add a 3% recovery record.
3. Compress the folder using a not-too-obvious filename.

UPLOADING TO A FILEHOST AND SHARING WITH THE WORLD

Now all you need to do is to upload the rar-files to a filehost of your choice. Mega.nz is the standard and most stable option but there are many others and some services even feature upload to multiple filehosts. Finally the download links are ready to be presented on your blog.

THE MEDIEVAL ERA (600 - 1450)

At around 500 AD, western civilization began to emerge from the period known as “The Dark Ages”, the time when invading hordes of Vandals, Huns and Visigoths overran Europe and brought an end to the Roman Empire. For the next ten centuries, the newly emerging Christian Church would dominate Europe, administering justice, instigating “Holy” Crusades against the East, establishing universities, and generally dictating the destiny of music, art and literature

During this time, Pope Gregory I is generally believed to have collected and codified the music known as Gregorian Chant, which was the approved music of the Church. Much later, the University at Notre Dame in Paris saw the creation of a new kind of music called organum.

Secular music was sung all over Europe by the troubadours and trouvères of France, and it was during the Middle Ages that western culture saw the arrival of the first great name in music, Guilliame de Machaut.

THE RENAISSANCE ERA (1450 - 1600)

Generally considered to be from c.1420 to 1600, the Renaissance (which literally means “rebirth”) was a time of great cultural awakening and a flowering of the arts, letters, and sciences throughout Europe.

With the rise of humanism, sacred music began for the first time to break free of the confines of the Church, and a school of composers trained in the Netherlands mastered the art of polyphony in their settings of sacred music. One of the early masters of the Flemish style was Josquin des Prez. These polyphonic traditions reached their culmination in the unsurpassed works of Giovanni da Palestrina.

The late Renaissance also saw in England the flourishing of the English madrigal, the best known of which were composed by such masters as John Dowland, William Byrd, Thomas Morley and others.

THE BAROQUE ERA (1600 - 1750)

Named after the popular ornate architectural style of the time, the Baroque period (c.1600 to 1750) saw composers beginning to rebel against the styles that were prevalent during the High Renaissance. Many monarchs employed composers at their courts, where they were little more than servants expected to churn out music for any desired occasions. The greatest composer of the period, Johann Sebastian Bach, was such a servant. Yet the best composers of the time were able to break new musical ground, and in so doing succeeded in creating an entirely new style of music.

The instrumental concerto became a staple of the Baroque era, and found its strongest exponent in the works of the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Harpsichord music achieved new heights, due to the works of such masters as Domenico Scarlatti and others. But vocal and choral music still reigned supreme during this age, and culminated in the operas and oratorios of German-born composer George Frideric Handel.

THE CLASSICAL ERA (1750 - 1820)

From roughly 1750 to 1820, artists, architects, and musicians moved away from the heavily ornamented styles of the Baroque and the Rococo, and instead embraced a clean, uncluttered style they thought reminiscent of Classical Greece.

At this time the Austrian capital of Vienna became the musical centre of Europe, and works of the period are often referred to as being in the Viennese style. Composers came from all over Europe to train in and around Vienna, and gradually they developed and formalized the standard musical forms that were to dominate European musical culture for the next several decades. The Classical period reached its majestic culmination with the masterful symphonies, sonatas, and string quartets by the three great composers of the Viennese school: Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

During the same period, the first voice of the burgeoning Romantic musical ethic can be found in the music of Viennese composer Franz Schubert.

THE ROMANTIC ERA (1820 - 1910)

The earliest Romantic composers were all born within a few years of each other in the early years of the nineteenth century. These include the great German masters Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann; the Polish poet of the piano Frédéric Chopin; the French genius Hector Berlioz; and the greatest pianistic showman in history, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. The field of Italian opera was dominated by Giuseppe Verdi, while German opera was virtually monopolized by Richard Wagner.

Composers like Antonin Dvorak began looking for ways in which they could express the musical soul of their homelands. Legends were therefore used as plots for operas, and folk melodies and dance rhythms were frequently used as inspiration for symphonies and instrumental music.

With the continued enhancement of instruments, plus the invention of new ones, the late Romantic composers of the second half of the nineteenth-century created richer and ever larger symphonies, ballets, and concertos. Two of the giants of this period are the German-born Johannes Brahms and the great Russian melodist Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY ERA (1910 - 1960)

In the early part of the twentieth century music became either outwardly expressive (as in the early symphonic poems of Richard Strauss, the huge symphonies of Gustav Mahler, or the operas of Giacomo Puccini), or more introverted (as in the so-called “impressionist” music of Claude Debussy). The previous century’s tide of Nationalism found a twentieth century advocate in the Hungarian Béla Bartók.

In a time of deepening psychological awareness, the expressionistic music of Arnold Schoenberg and his disciples germinated and flourished for a time.

Twentieth-century music has seen a great coming and going of various movements, among them post-romanticism, serialism and neo-classicism in the earlier years of the century, all of which were practiced at one time or another by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.

Many of the greatest and best-known composers of the century, including Russian composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Sergei Prokofiev, and Dmitri Shostakovich along with British composers William Walton and Benjamin Britten were those who wrote music directly descended from the approved models of the past, while investing these forms with a style and modernistic tone of their own.

THE LATE 20TH CENTURY ERA (1940 - 2000)

Composers of this era sought to free music from its rigidity, placing the performance above the composition. Similarly, many composers sought to break from traditional performance rituals by incorporating theatre and multimedia into their compositions, going beyond sound itself to achieve their artistic goals. In some cases the line is difficult to draw between genres. Composers were quick to adopt developing electronic technology. As early as the 1940s, composers such as Olivier Messiaen incorporated electronic instruments into live performance. Recording technology was used to produce art music, as well.

The musique concrète of the late 1940s and ’50s was produced by editing together natural and industrial sounds. Steve Reich created music by manipulating tape recordings of people speaking, and later went on to compose process music for traditional instruments based on such recordings. Other notable pioneers of electronic music include Edgard Varèse, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

As more electronic technology matured, so did the music. In the 1950s aleatoric music was first championed by American composer John Cage. Early minimalist compositions of the 1960s such as those by Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass stemmed from aleatoric and electronic music.

THE CONTEMPORARY ERA (from 1975)

In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. In the context of classical music the term has been applied to music written in the last quarter century or so, particularly works post-1975. Minimalism was practiced heavily throughout the latter half of the century and has carried over into the 21st century, with composers like Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki and John Tavener working in the more popular “mystic minimalism” variant.

Recently there has been increasing stylistic variety, with far too many schools of composition to name or label. However, in general, there are three broad trends. The first is the continuation of modern avant-garde traditions, including musical experimentalism. The second are schools which sought to revitalize a tonal style based on previous common practice. The third focuses on non-functional triadic harmony, exemplified by composers working in the minimalist and related traditions.

12/31/2017

Cabaret Songs (4 cds)

Farewell to Boheme
Cabaret Songs from Paris and Berlin

Jody Karin Applebaum
Marc-André Hamelin

Weill, Hollaender, Satie, Wolpe, Eisler, Braunt, Bizet,
et al

Kleos KL 5108

READ MORE...

10/30/2017

Leontyne Price 2

The Complete Collection of Operatic Recital Albums

Sony Classical 886979-40512

14 CDs, Collection [P] 2011

Recorded 1960-1982

Currently out-of-print

3/09/2016

Bruce Hubbard - For You, For Me

01. - 10. Aaron Copland - Old American Songs. Set I and Set II [24'32]
11..Traditional - Shenandoah [4'16]
12. Leonard Bernstein: A Simple Song from 'Mass' [4'41]
13. Leonard Bernstein: Seena from '1600 Pennsylvania Avenue' [3'27]
14. George Gershwin: Bess, You is My Woman Now from 'Porgy and Bess'* [4'43]
15. George Gershwin: A Woman is a Sometime Thing from 'Porgy and Bess' [1'52]
16. George Gershwin: For You, for Me, for Evermore from 'The Shocking Miss Pilgrim' [4'08]
17. George Gershwin: Home Blues from 'Show Girl' [3'25]
18. George Gershwin: Bidin' My Time from 'Girl Crazy' [3'28]
19. Jerome Kern: All Through The Day from 'Centennial Summer' [3'51]
20. Jerome Kern: The Way You Look Tonight from 'Swing Time' [3'23]
21. Jerome Kern: All the Things You Are from 'Very Warm For May' [3'04]
22. Stephen Sondheim: Everyone Says Don't from 'Anyone Can Whistle' [2'23]
23. Stephen Sondheim: In Praise of Women from 'A Little Night Music' [3'21]
24. Irving Berlin: Always [3'12]

Bruce Hubbard- baritone and Orchestra of St Luke's conducted by Dennis Russell Davies
(* with Marvis Martin- soprano)

EMI CDC7499282 (recorded October 1989; CD issued 1990)

(flac and scans)
READ MORE...

2/09/2016

Joanna MacGregor - American Piano Classics

01. Conlon Nancarrow - Prelude [1'25]
02. Conlon Nancarrow - Blues [2'07]
03. Charles Ives - Varied Air and Variations [5'25]
04. Erroll Garner (transc. MacGregor) - Erroll's Blues [3'19]
05. Erroll Garner (transc. MacGregor) - Erroll's Bounce [2'48]
06. Charles Ives - Some South-Paw Pitching! [2'09]
07. Charles Ives - The Anti-Abolitionists Riots [3'14]
08. Aaron Copland - Piano Variations 10'29]
09. Thelonius Monk (transc. MacGregor) - Monk's Point [1'55]
10. Thelonius Monk (transc. MacGregor) - Round Midnight [4'01]
11. Charles Ives - The Alcotts from 'Concord Sonata' [5'34]
12. Aaron Copland - Blues No.2 [2'23]
13. Aaron Copland - Blues No.3 [2'53]
14. Charles Ives - Three Page Sonata [6'34]
15. George Gershwin (arr. Michael Finnissy) - A Foggy Day [3'10]
16. George Gershwin (arr. Michael Finnissy) - Fidgety Feet [1'56]
17. George Gershwin (arr. Michael Finnissy) - But Not For Me [3'54]

Joanna MacGregor - piano

LDR Recordings LDRCD1004 (recorded October 1988 - CD issued 1989)

(flac and scans)
READ MORE...

12/09/2015

John McGlinn - Gershwin Overtures

George Gershwin - Overtures
01. A Damsel in Distress [5'52]
02. Girl Crazy [5'18]
03. Of Thee I Sing [4'55]
04. Tip-Toes [4'44]
05. Primrose [5'39]
06. Stiff Upper Lip, Funhouse sequence [8'22]
07. Oh, Kay! [6'40]

The New Princess Theater Orchestra conducted by John McGlinn

EMI CDC 747977-2 (Recorded June 1986; CD issued 1987)

(flac and scans)
READ MORE...

5/27/2013

Gershwin between Broadway and the Concert Hall

A devoted tribute to the glory of Gershwin, this survey is going to explore the great Master from Brooklyn's production in both the Broadway repertoire and his amazingly innovative and ambitious symphonic efforts.
With the plausible exception of the Vaughan/Tilson Thomas album, all of the material presented here reflects my strong belief that Gershwin's sublime Songs have to be treated with historical care and philological approach. Harmonically among the most refined and sophisticated ever written, these melodies are little masterpieces enchanced by some of the wittiest and most delightful, elegant and memorable lyrics (thanks to the extraordinary artistic partnership with his brother Ira).
In fact, as a Gershwin freak and despite being a jazz lover myself, I happen to dislike the standardization process which led most of Gershwin's song to be trivialised in all sorts of arrangements, and most of all (a real crime for me) to be sung/played without the verse. Not only all of Broadway songs should always be performed with their verse, but in Gershwin's case these gems are often the best part of the song, which would make little sense when deprived of its magnificent intro (the same applies to many of the Masters of the Great American Songbook, from Porter to Kern, from Berlin to Rodgers, from Weill to Arlen).
Amongst the many "must-haves" offered here are the beautiful political satire comedies "Let 'Em Eat Cake" and "Of Thee I Sing" and the great Broadway classics of the 20s and 30s, Gershwin's early opera "Blue Monday" and of course one of the highest peaks of 20th Century music - "Porgy & Bess". Plus, a number of astounding recordings of Gershwin's great concert hall repertoire, including "Rhapsody in Blue" both in the composer's own draft for jazz band and in Ferde Grofé's beautiful transcription for large orchestra.
Not to be missed is the album "Gershwin Performs Gershwin", featuring the great composer himself on radio shows recorded in New York in the mid-30s - a great chance to hear his debonair voice introducing the music he would play and conduct on air, and even some sharp banter with the host of the radio show, before or after the sponsor's commercial (...Feen-A-Mint chewing-gum laxatives!).

George Gershwin
Of Thee I Sing
Let 'Em Eat Cake

Maureen McGovern, Larry Kert, Jack Gilford, George Dvorsky.
New York Choral Artists & Orchestra of St. Luke's
Michael Tilson Thomas
CBS 42522 (1987)
Must-Have Album!

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4/09/2013

A Gershwin Selection

G. Gershwin (1898-1937)

Piano Concerto in F & Three Preludes

A. Copland (1900-1990)

El salón México & Piano Blues No.3

S. Barber (1910-1981)

Ballade

Peter Jablonski - piano

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Vladimir Ashkenazy

11/25/2012

Mad about the Bad Boy (of Russian Music) - Prokofiev Vol. 1

Introducing an extensive discography of Prokofiev's music on MIMIC. It is always a pleasure to switch from his glorious orchestral music and his renowned chamber masterpieces, and here we have a chance to offer a number of outstanding recordings from the last three decades.
The art of Prokofiev is that of an exceptionally talented composer and innovator, whose early works' daring modernity clashed with the rigid schemes of Soviet Russia mainstream aesthetics. Later in his glorious career, the "Bad Boy of Russian Music" abandoned his typical sarcasm and roughness to become an extremely sensitive post romantic creator - one who still stands in our hearts today for his sublime and distinctive wide ranging melodic scope and his virtuosic instrumental technique (he was a stunning pianist himself, and a skilled conductor).
The deeply humane Adagio from his noted war Symphony (No. 5, composed in the summer of 1944), bringing its unforgettably sorrowful theme into a wrenching climax and finally to its consolatory, cosmic, ending, has been a personal panacea of mine all my life.

Sergej Prokofiev
"Romeo and Juliet" Op. 64 (Excerpts)

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Myung-Whun Chung

DGG 439 870-2 - 1994

READ MORE...

7/17/2012

Chung in Rome: The Blu America Series (Gershwin, Bernstein, Ellington)

George Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue
Duke Ellington
"Night Creature", Suite
Leonard Bernstein
"Candide" Overture
"On the Town", Three Dance Episodes

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Myung-Whun Chung
Musicom 2001

These three very rare CDs were published in 2001. They present a devoted hommage by the South-Korean Maestro to the symphonic music of Gershwin, and to some of Bernstein's most successful film score suites. For the Gershwin lovers like I am, his sublime Songbook and his "American Opera" Porgy and Bess are probably the most beloved and sophisticated compositions, yet these immortal symphonic scores, fresh and authentic as if they had been composed today, still hold a strong grip on our hearts.
READ MORE...

5/18/2009

Porgy and Bess: Cleo Laine & Ray Charles

As an impresario and producer of jazz, Norman Granz was an extremely interesting and influential character, and no doubt deserves a dedicated post of his own. But today it’s about one of his productions of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.

Granz’s famed 1957 recording of Porgy and Bess with Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Russell Garcia is well-loved by many. Less known, perhaps, is the version he produced 20 years later with Cleo Laine, Ray Charles and Frank De Vol.

It’s out of print (again, or still), so here’s an opportunity to hear it:

AIFF (individual tracks + covers)
http://rapidshare.com/files/234429579/GGPBaiff.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234429581/GGPBaiff.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234429583/GGPBaiff.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234429584/GGPBaiff.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234430886/GGPBaiff.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234430888/GGPBaiff.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234430891/GGPBaiff.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234430893/GGPBaiff.part08.rar

320 kbps mp3 (individual tracks + covers)
http://rapidshare.com/files/234432862/GGPBmp3.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234432863/GGPBmp3.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/234432865/GGPBmp3.part3.rar

(My thanks to L for sharing the original files)

Photo: Cleo Laine and Norman Granz during the recording of Porgy & Bess READ MORE...