Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Magnificat ( Wq 215, H.772)

The Magnificat by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach ( Wq 215, H.772) was composed in 1749. 

I conducted this piece in 2004 with my philarmonic orchestra and our amatorial choir. The work wasn't simple, but I think we have achieved a good result. From what you can hear, I love to conduct it fast! ;)

Organico:
Voices: solo and choir: soprano , alto , tenor , bass

Instruments: Flauto traverso I / II, Oboe , Horn I / II, Strings, Basso continuo

History:

The Magnificat is the earliest surviving vocal work of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788). In June 1749, still during the lifetime of Johann Sebastian Bach, the City Council of Leipzig was trying a possible successor to the critically ill  Kantor. Bach put his two talented sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel close, also to seek to follow him. While Carl Philipp Emanuel set to music the Magnificat, Wilhelm Friedemann wrote an Advent cantata. But neither of the two sons had success, finally Johann Gottlob Harrer was given the post of cantor of St. Thomas.

Carl Philipp Emanuel's composition represents a modern style, the direct comparison with the style of the father . In Hamburg Bach changed the instrumentation and added trumpets and timpani in the outer movements and the "Fecit potentiam" . The original version was known throughout Europe in numerous copies.

On April 9, 1786 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Hamburg conducted a charity concert. The program included three of his most representative works: the Symphony in D major, Wq 183/1 of 1780, the Magnificat and the Cantata Christmas of 1776 for double choir. 

Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for Strings, Op. 47

The Elgar's Instroduction and Allegro for strings is one of the most interesting piece of this english composer. I had the opportunity to conduct in 2004 with my chamber orchestra "Euterpe", enlarged for the occasion with other musicians. This is the live recording posted on my Youtube channel: 

This piece was composed in 1905, played by the London Symphony Orchestra and dedicated on Samuel Sanford, an american pianist and educator who brought Elgar's music to american attention. 

Structure

The piece opens with a tutti descending fanfare, which segues into a major-key moderato section, interspersed by an Allegretto e poco stringendo section consisting of two measures in length. Foreshadowing into a slow, lyrical theme played by the solo viola, Elgar cascades between solo voice and orchestra by use of echo. Elgar writes that this theme is a quotation of a song sung by a distant voice that he had heard during a holiday in Wales.^[3] An expressive, romantic section leads into a recapitulation of the opening fanfare and Welsh theme, ending the Introduction and transitioning jovially into the Allegro.

The Allegro begins with a theme in G major built around a quarter-eighth-eighth note motif. 21 measures of nonstop sixteenth-notes build from piano to a powerful forte as the piece arrives at a hemiola-infused G major restatement of the Introduction's opening fanfare. Instead of a development section as would be expected in traditional sonata form, a new theme is introduced, a vigorous fugue in which the piece returns to the opening key of G minor. In a letter to his good friend A. J. Jaeger ("Nimrod" of the Enigma Variations), Elgar referred to this section as a "devil of a fugue." After the fugue concludes, the piece's themes are all recapitulated in G major, initially begun by a unison orchestra before dividing across echo between orchestra and solo quartet. With the Welsh theme repeating a succession of three times before striking a momentous ƒƒƒ, on which the orchestra is in unison again (see Polyphony), it is this time echoed by the solo quartet, a change from the rest of the piece. The Welsh theme appears in all its splendour in a triumphant coda for the fifth and final time, before ending with a ternary perfect cadence followed by a pizzicato G major chord.