A Bach kind of morning

Got two new cds in the mail yesterday. One is J.S.Bach Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1014-1019.

J.S.Bach Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord

 The other is Robert and Clara Shumann Piano Trios, Op. 17, 88 and 110.

Schumann Piano Trios

When I purchase cds I rip them using iTunes to the Apple Lossless format before playing them. I almost never play the actual cd on a cd player, because then I wouldn't get to listen using the software on the Mac and the wonderful DAC (see previous post) which makes everything sound so good.

The Bach is a two cd set and lasted way past breakfast. At first I was put off, thinking, oh no I've wasted more money on something I will only listen to once. "It's not interesting enough." But after maybe half an hour, either the music got more interesting or something happened to me because it became more than just a background drone of simple Bach but a subtle interplay between the single violin and harpsichord that my ears enjoyed the more they heard. It's like I got used to the sound and following and anticipating the flow of the musical lines and felt motion in the music and in me.

I finally stopped it after about an hour and a half. There was still some music left to play on the second cd (iTunes just keeps playing all the tracks in the set) but I had enough for one morning.

I had heard the piano trio by Clara Schumann before, on ClassicalArchives.com. I just played the first movement, the 10 minute Allegro Moderato. It sounded great from the uncompressed file from the cd.

I often will order cd's I like after hearing them first on ClassicalArchives. It's a fabulous resource for finding new stuff and listening to things you might not buy but want to hear. They have so much music available and it's sorted by composer and artist and work. You can play a single movement, an entire work or the whole cd. You can choose which artist to choose for any work they have. Some popular pieces have many artists and recordings to choose from. It's really terrific.

Here are the Bach Sonatas on ClassicalArchives.

Of course the stream from ClassicalArchives is in compressed mp3 format so isn't as perfect as listening to a cd or high definition download, but it's still very good.

Recently I installed a new piece of software for interacting between the iTunes library and the DAC. Audirvana Plus takes over completely playing the music, even skipping Apple's CoreAudio software and talking to the DAC directly, if you want it to. iTunes is still used for selecting what to play, but Audirvana plays the music. Sounds great and so far has been foolproof.