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John

@jvm.bsky.social

301 followers 257 following 326 posts

Comparative spirituality, history, AI, meaning. How do we make the internet a nourishing place to be?

Posts Replies Media

John @jvm.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Happy Trinity Sunday!

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Happy holy Saturday to those who celebrate

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Happy Baptism of the Lord! “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

John @jvm.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

Happy feast of St Francis!

John @jvm.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Happy Michaelmas everyone!

John @jvm.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Happy Easter… Kommt eilet und laufet! www.youtube.com/watch?v=62fa...

Bach - Easter Oratorio: Kommt, eilet und laufet BWV 249 - Van Veldhoven | Netherlands Bach Society

YouTube video by Netherlands Bach Society

John @jvm.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Great day for the Seven Last Words of our Savior on the Cross www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBsZ...

Joseph Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross (Jordi Savall)

YouTube video by EuroArtsChannel

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

ChatGPT is actually very helpful as a tour guide for appreciating the crazy gyrations of tone and style in Bach's Mass in B Minor

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Origins of emancipation: ca. AD 1315 Louis X, proclaims that any slave who steps foot in France is emancipated ipso facto. This was the basis of many emancipations of slaves in the 18th century, and famously provided James and Sally Hemmings leverage against their owner, Thomas Jefferson

Louis X proclaiming "France signifies freedom, and any slave setting foot on the kingdom becomes free by that very fact."

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Reading today was the prodigal son! Like a lot of people I often identified most with the older goodie two shoes son, but I've also come to recognize that the prodigal son is my shadow.

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone!

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

…and here's what I get for O1-pro, honestly I don't think this is $200 worth of pelican

John @jvm.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Have you tried O3-mini or O1-Pro yet? Here is what I get for O3-mini:

o3-mini's SVG rendition of a pelican riding a bicycle.

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

"yeah you're welcome you load of ingrates!"

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

TIL specifically Ptolemy invented the 60 second minute and 60 minutes hour

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Today we celebrate the Christ's baptism. "This Is My Beloved Son, In Whom I Am Well Pleased." Hits different now that I'm a dad too!

John @jvm.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Actually I should say that for his string quartets I found the Robert Greenberg lectures super useful: www.audible.com/pd/The-Strin... The piano sonatas one was also cool but I felt like I was more able to grok them without assistance

John @jvm.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Another chunk of his I hadn't repertoire I hadn't listened to much out was his cello sonatas, cello is such a gorgeous instrument, here's yo yo ma doing op 69 www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9pi...

Beethoven：Cello Sonata No.3／Yo-Yo Ma & Emanuel Ax（1985 Live）

YouTube video by cello644

John @jvm.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Or if you want to see the birth of modernism here's op 135 no 2 Vivace, he does a lyric thrumming theme out of a Haydn andante then suddenly **record scratch** and then crazy atonality www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Ep...

Beethoven: Quartet in F major for Strings, Op 135 II. Vivace

YouTube video by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

John @jvm.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

He was never a big quartet guy but at the end of his life he only did quartets and produced some of the greatest music in history. I'd say they're probably not the best place to start if you're new to the genre but if you want a taste try op 130 mvt 2 presto: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOB4...

Beethoven String Quartet in Bb Major, Opus 130: II. Presto

YouTube video by Cypress Quartet

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

I think our modern ears are less attuned to string quartets so it took me a lot of listens to appreciate his quartets, I think Razumovsky op 59 no. 1 might be the best place to start, the opening sounds to me like Frodo heading off on his adventure www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG89...

Beethoven String Quartet No 7 Op 59 No 1 in F major Alban Berg Quartett

YouTube video by Natalia Karatjeva

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

His last public performance was playing the piano concerto #4 in 1808. Movement 2 is thought to depict Orpheus (piano) taming the furies (orchestra) at the gates of hell. I think I love this piece more than any of his symphonies. The piano concertos are so underrated, no 5 is also incredible

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4

YouTube video by Daniil Trifonov Fan

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

…parts of that one sound to me like two pianos being smashed together. One thing I haven't mentioned was that in addition to being a composer, he was considered one of the greatest piano players of his day . Some of his pieces like the Hammerklavier were considered simply unplayable at the time.

Beethoven Sonata #29 Op. 106 "Hammerklavier" Valentina Lisitsa

YouTube video by Valentina Lisitsa QOR Records Official channel

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

I always knew about Pathetique and Moonlight mvt 3, but Waldstein is such a headbanger. The opening theme 1 is hammering 5th notes so basically a 90s grunge sound, then a wild virtuosic bridge breaking into slow stately harmony like church bells, and it keeps going… www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quvq...

Beethoven Sonata #21 "Waldstein" Op.53 Valentina Lisitsa

YouTube video by Valentina Lisitsa QOR Records Official channel

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Happy epiphany! Enjoy one of Bach's great epiphany cantatas, BWV 65 www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhzr...

Bach - Cantata Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen BWV 65 - Rademann | Netherlands Bach Society

YouTube video by Netherlands Bach Society

John @jvm.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 🎄🌟🎄

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

People love the hero's funeral movement in Symphony #3, but he sketched out the idea in his op 26 mvt 3. Is this the first time someone made a piano do a military drum roll followed by a cannon shot? And yet it's not even my favorite movement in that sonata www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo9l...

Beethoven Sonata #12 in A♭ major ("Funeral March"), Op. 26 Valentina Lisitsa

YouTube video by Valentina Lisitsa QOR Records Official channel

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

His early work gets condescendingly labeled "influenced by Haydn and Viennese classicism"... But does this majestic largo from op 7 sound like Haydn or Mozart? Listening to this is like staring for minutes at a Degas it is stunning and it's not even famous youtu.be/vxdutquL_Kg?...

Beethoven- Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major Op. 7- 2nd mov. Largo con gran espressione

YouTube video by ClassicalMusic

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

One of my biggest discoveries this year was the piano sonatas. Beethoven was considered the greatest pianist of his time, so this is his native instrument. If his symphones are big lavish oil paintings, his sonatas are sketches. He could work out his craziest ideas freely

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Continuing thread here bsky.app/profile/jvm....

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Continuing the thread here! bsky.app/profile/jvm....

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Beethoven thread! He hit the ground running. The Op 1 piano trios were the first music he gave an opus number to, in 1795. Even this first work is awesome and worth listening to www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY_r...

BEETHOVEN | Klaviertrio in Es-Dur op. 1 Nr. 1

YouTube video by Südtirol in concert

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Sad to say

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Yeah I didn't want to use AI but all the original portraits of you are so overused and when I saw this one I just thought it was awesome

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Haydn left for London after he figured out going there was an infinite money cheat code, and sadly Mozart died shortly thereafter. When he got back Haydn started tutoring a disagreeable young man from Bonn named Ludwig Beethoven who was a huge jerk to him. But the kid could cook…

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Link to Greenberg's course on Mozart's chamber music www.audible.com/pd/The-Chamb...

The Chamber Music of Mozart

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Nowhere is Mozart's maturity and mastery more apparent than in the chamber music he wrote during the last 10 years of his life. These 16 lectures take you d...

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

He has a lot of chamber music and I listed to the whole Greenberg course, but my favorites were the quintets and the trio divertimento k 563. Mozart and Haydn would play these when they hung out. k 614 was inspired by Papageno, the bird catcher from Zauberflöte www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzbj...

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

His piano concertos in particular must have been awesome to attend, with the big orchestra there to back up Mozart hamming it up on keys. Often he didn't even write down his own cadenza, just improvising. And always you can see his love of opera and a big show. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM8C...

Mozart: Concerto for piano and Orchestra (d-minor) K.466, Uchida

YouTube video by forye

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Haydn became a devotee of the young prodigy Mozart. Mozart composed in every genre then popular, but his true passion was opera. Here's Don Giovanni, the gangster who has trampled over anyone who ever tried to get in his way, finally meeting his match in an undead statue.

Don Giovanni - Commendatore Scene - EN Sub (Better Quality)

YouTube video by BassosaurusRex

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

He also invented what we think of as the classical symphony and so much of the texture and timbre we associate with the symphony is from him. Here's Bernstein conducting 88 including the famous encore where he conducts the last movement with only his eyes www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXEl...

Haydn - Symphony No. 88 - Leonard Bernstein, Vienna Philharmonic

YouTube video by bassist

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

It was really Haydn who consolidate what we now call the classical style. Haydn got good via grindset, with over 100 symphonies and dozens of quartets. For me his quartets are the greatest, check out Dover quartet making the sun rise here, part of the epic opus 76: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcrK...

BISQC 2013 - Dover String Quartet - Joseph Haydn Quartet in B flat Major "Sunrise"

YouTube video by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

It's worth thinking about Haydn as reflecting the spirit of the Enlgihtenment age. On the one hand, orderliness and aristocratic "good taste" is prized, yet revolution is in the air and modernity is dawning. Like so much art of the period, Haydn straddles revolution and reaction.

John @jvm.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

On to the classical era! I got serious whiplash in Greenberg's survey course because he brought us straight from JS Bach to Haydn which is like mixing coke with 7 up. For a smoother transition try some CPE Bach, note the use of silence and homophonic texture in place of polyphony

Daniil Trifonov – C.P.E. Bach: 2 Piano Sonatas, Wq. 59: IV. Rondo in C Minor, H. 283

YouTube video by Deutsche Grammophon - DG

John @jvm.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

I realize I started this teasing Beethoven and didn't get there. I'll do that later but basically wow that guy is good at music lol, if I was to just shout out it would be piano concertos 4 and 5, the late string quartets, and all the piano sonatas

John @jvm.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

One last point about Baroque: the French court of Louis XIV was doing really crazy things and Rameau in particular is super underrated. It's hard for me to believe this piece is from ~1760, it sounds like a modern movie score www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iVf...

Rameau: Les Boréades / Act IV - Entrée de Polymnie (Live)

YouTube video by Les Musiciens du Louvre - Topic

John @jvm.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Harpsichord music in particular is something I never really listened to but there are some really talented performers cranking it out now, here's Francesco Corti dropping some Handel, he has a whole album of this called Winged Hands that's great for working www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErO-...

HANDEL // 'Rodelinda, HWV 19, Ouverture: [Largo] - Presto - Adagio' by Francesco Corti

YouTube video by Outhere Music

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Bach has so many awesome Bach concertos you could really just listen to any of them, one album I was enjoying was Dynastie by harpsichordist Jean Rondeau which also features some bangers by his sons www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcsf...

Bach: Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D Minor BWV 1052 (Jean Rondeau)

YouTube video by Warner Classics

John @jvm.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

In general I just got a huge ear for baroque music. @maxrichtermusic.bsky.social 's rework of Vivaldi's four seasons has been making the rounds but I did a side by side listen of some of his with the original and the original just really shreds, doesn't need a rework www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPdk...

Vivaldi Four Seasons: Winter (L'Inverno), original version. Freivogel & Voices of Music RV 297 4K

YouTube video by Voices of Music

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John @jvm.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

I also started listening to a lot of the solo violin… I knew about the solo cello stuff (Yo Yo Ma just performed the suite 1 prelude at the Notre Dame reopening) but his solo violin pieces might be even more amazing. And don't miss the chaconne! www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7LV...

Frank Peter Zimmermann plays Bach Violin Partita No. 3 Preludio

YouTube video by Jonathan's corner

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