Music Lessons: A playlist by Stephen Johnson
For critic and composer Stephen Johnson, there have been moments when music has confronted him with life-changing insights. Some of these have been hard to accept, but once accepted they have opened up new possibilities of thinking, feeling and living.
In his new book, Music Lessons: Seven Composers and What They Taught Me, through an exploration of seven pieces – by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Johann Sebastian Bach, Lili Boulanger, Richard Wagner, Jean Sibelius and Ludwig van Beethoven – Johnson considers the lives and the intentions of the composers who created them, and how they have affected him personally.
Here, he has created a playlist to accompany your reading experience of Music Lessons.
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No 8 in C minor
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, cond. Günter Wand
https://youtu.be/Hk04chBNMW0?si=SSxDC7pjxo1R1ywk
Sergei Rachmaninoff: ‘Nyne otpushchayeshi’ (‘Lord, now lettest thou’), fifth movement from All-Night Vigil
USSR State Academic Russian Choir, cond. Alexander Sveshnikov
https://youtu.be/rWKA7i_JJ2M?si=rJuLNi3ARJgMGogj
Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion
English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, London Oratory Junior Choir, Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Evangelist), cond. John Eliot Gardiner
https://youtu.be/Sl5Zc3Qrz2I?si=n6haZcV9jaTg08UX
Lili Boulanger: Du Fond de l’abîme (‘From out of the depths’, Psalm 130)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus, BBC Philharmonic, cond. Yan Pascal Tortelier https://youtu.be/gYj3nP6l6DA?si=5G_tq0rfJEWyZNTN
Richard Wagner: Parsifal, Act Two
Jess Thomas (Parsifal), Irene Dalis (Kundry), Gustav Neidlinger (Klingsor), Choir and Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival, cond. Hans Knappertsbusch
https://youtu.be/dzeNnoMmsjM?si=vikzLD-4LiGIuZb6
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No 5 in E flat major
London Symphony Orchestra, cond. Colin Davis
https://youtu.be/z6w1IB_wRMk?si=GxioqNMngy8AgiCm
Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio
Christa Ludwig (Leonore), Jon Vickers (Florestan), Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra, cond. Otto Klemperer
https://youtu.be/-ezuFBbMgSI?si=sGvJxOVw4Ey48YM4
Extra pieces
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No 4 in C minor
Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
https://youtu.be/aDKBo0bUMNU?si=iugiCsNya-ettxgV
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata in A flat major, Op 110 (third movement)
Igor Levit
https://youtu.be/LMNxNT-G-3g?si=bCsUG5FkFKXe4ehX
David Bowie: ‘I can’t give everything away’ from Blackstar
https://youtu.be/OZscv36UUHo?si=XZevzEWLHiC5K5C1
John Tavener: The Protecting Veil
Steven Isserlis (cello), BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Gennady Rozhdestvensky https://youtu.be/EJdTxFLU6zY?si=Wek-sX4NkVZPOBP5