Nope is it now what extraterrestrials would love but rather we would be able to offer to them to demonstrate what our Earth Classical Music (let say Western music) is all about.
When in 1977 Voyager was sent into deep space then the golden phonograph record included many “Sounds of the Earths” including:
1) First Movement of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 by Munich Bach Orchestra conducted by Karl Richter 2) Bach’s "Gavotte en rondeaux" from the Partita No. 3 by Arthur Grumiaux 3) The Mozart “Queen of the Night” aria from Die Zauberflöte performed by Edda Moser and Bavarian State Opera under Wolfgang Sawallisch 4) The Stravinsky’s “Sacrificial Dance” from Rite of Spring performed by Columbia and conducted by author 5) Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1 by Glenn Gould 6) The Beethoven’s First Movement of the Fifth Symphony performed by Philharmonia Orchestra under Otto Klemperer 7) Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 by Budapest String Quartet
Sure, the selections were wonderful. There were a number of other recordings on that disk that did not represent classical music. But I wonder if the purpose of the communication was juts to deliver a poly-portrait about the Earth’s Classical Music (Western) then what would be your chooses to add (or remove) from this list?
I would personally add:
8) Shostakovich’s “Alegro molto” from his 8th String Quartet performed by Borodin String Quartet. 9) The “In ruhig fleessender Bewerung” (Ehrlich) from Mahler Second Symphony performed by Seiji Ozawa and Saito Kinen Orchestra 10) Schumann Toccata op.7 played by Vladimir Horowitz 11) A hole act, any act, from Verdi’s Rigoletto prodaction of La Scala under Tullio Serafin with Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Giuseppe di Stefano and Giuse Gerbino 12) First Movement of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto by Erick Friedman and Jascha Heifetz with New Symphony Orchestra of London under Malcolm Sargent 13) The Mozart sextet “Dammi Un Bacio, O Mio Tesoro“ from “Cozy fan tutti” between Alfredo Kraus, Giuseppe Taddei, Walter Berry, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig and Hanny Steffek accompanied by Philharmonia under Karl Böhm Rgs, Romy the caT
|