arresting baroque adagios/largos

[arthroceph]

I was watching a youtube video which had put a lovely baroque adagio in the background, and I replayed over and over again straining my ears trying to work out who it might be. The main subject of the video of course ceased to have any interest.

I decide that trying to ID the piece was futile and instead started reflecting how special the baroque adagio really is. There are great slow time signatures in any time period, but somehow the baroque adagio has made quite a name for itself. The pace and the style seem to create a an atmosphere of introspection which takes on a character of its own ... somehow beyond the music itself ... if I make any sense at all.

I considered the Largo from Serse (Handel) and the Cum Dederit from the Gloria (Vivaldi) and they seem to grab, drop my mind in a place which I think would not occur if they were in the style of another time period.

OK, so all this commentary is very amateurish. Actually it was a roundabout way of asking, which are your favourite baroque adagio/largos? Which ones "do it" for you?

[jayne lee wilson]

Last year I discovered some sublimely dark & deep slow movements in CPE Bach - especially the tragic masterpiece at the heart of the Oboe Concerto Wq.165. Almost as fine is the one in the Harpsichord Concerto Wq. 17 on the same superb Barokkanerne disc..

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/LAWO/LWC1038

The Wq. 164 Oboe Concerto has a Largo e Mesto partner to 165, here...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CPE-Bach-Concertos-various-instruments/dp/B00IADJVV8/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1443147204&sr=1-1&keywords=cpe+bach+il+gardellino

[BBMmk2]

Yes, certainly, unlike any other period of music, the baroque Period, surely has had some of the best slow movements. Like for instance in the Agnus Dei of JSB's mighty Mass in B minor.

[arthroceph]

Oh so it's not just me then :-)

Thanks for the tips JLW and BBM .. will try them out.

Cheers!

[arthroceph]

Another unbelievable one is the 5th movement from Corelli's Op 6 F major concerto, referred to as No .9 ref:

https://youtu.be/Q-qcWulph_I?t=392

It's so short, and then so sparse too, you're left thinking: " ... but there's hardly any music in that piece, how can it be so exquisite?"

(That isn't the best interpretation but it'll do for now: Ensemble 415 is my go-to for these works.)

[MickyD]

Not sure if it could be classed as an Adagio, but this probably ranks as my supreme favourite slow baroque piece, the sublime "Entrée de Polymnie" from Rameau's 'Les Boréades' in a performance from JEG which I don't think has ever been more tenderly played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCWeAI4AYxM&index=85&list=FLBc5HbFSu_TDvzxC8-xga4Q

[arthroceph]

cheers MickyD, that definitely qualifies!

[EdgeleyRob]

The adagio part of JS Bach's BWV 564 is the first thing that comes to mind.
Try the Busoni arrangement too.
Extraordinary.

[arthroceph]

Will do, cheers EdgeleyRob!

[jayne lee wilson]

I'd forgotten about Rameau till Micky said....

The Musettes from Acante et Cephise, both tendre or gracieuse, and most of all the haunting Musette en Rondeau
that closes the Fetes d'Hebe Suite, among the most beautiful "Baroque adagios" I know. The keening pipes add an extra plangency...

Anywhere in the Rameau Suites you see "tendre" or "gracieux" will be worthy of your yearning heart's attentions......

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's not fashionable, but the "Air" from Handel's Water Music in F, used to fall into this category. There's no tempo marking in the Arnold manuscripts, but nowadays many conductors like to play it as fast as possible, and the presumptuous editor of the newer Eulenburg score has marked it presto, without any explanation. Perhaps the adagio religioso of some conductors was not what the composer had in mind, but for some egotistical editor to invent a tempo marking smacks of arrogance.

[MickyD]

I'd forgotten about Rameau till Micky said....

The Musettes from Acante et Cephise, both tendre or gracieuse, and most of all the haunting Musette en Rondeau
that closes the Fetes d'Hebe Suite, among the most beautiful "Baroque adagios" I know. The keening pipes add an extra plangency...

Anywhere in the Rameau Suites you see "tendre" or "gracieux" will be worthy of your yearning heart's attentions......

Jayne, I couldn't agree more - I had to restrain myself to just one Rameau piece, but yes, you are right, those musettes are utter enchantment.

[Tony Halstead]

Continuing from what JLW said recently:
"sublimely dark & deep slow movements in CPE Bach"
I do think it's worth mentioning that - if we proceed backwards in time from the 'public persona' of CPE's immensely talented younger brother Johann Christian when he first erupted onto the London 'musical scene' in or about 1763 when he wrote ( and published) his Op 1 set of keyboard concertos for Queen Charlotte, we find a much earlier superb set of six 'keyboard' ( presumably harpsichord) concertos written in Berlin in or about 1750-1755 ( latest). These lovely works seem to find Johann Christian - then a pupil of his older brother Carl Philipp Emmanuel - composing in a similar style to his brother, somehow 'finding his feet' but demonstrably departing from the CPEB style in the quicker - outer - movements of these six harpsichord concertos.
However, in several of the various 2nd ( 'slow') movements he writes some beautifully dark, doleful and expressive music in a style that he was never ever to explore again after his move to London. It is very touching that one of these six 'Berlin Concertos' by JC Bach when he was aged 18 was 'signed off and approved' by his brother CPE Bach.