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Jack put the painting decision aside and turned to an easier category. As he explained to the cat, "My choices for the musical artifacts are Richard Wagner's Ring and Bach's Goldberg Variations and the musician recommended Gundula Janowitz singing the Four Last Songs of Strauss, so that settles that. I'll attach an explanation with the CDs."
1. Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen, The Metropolitian Opera, 1990 production, James Levine conductor.
Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four operas that constitute the Ring cycle are, in sequence:
I leave explaining The Ring to experts, I suggest M. Owen Lee, Wagner's Ring: Turning the Sky Round. A copy is included.
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2. Johann Sebastian Bach - Goldberg Variations | Glenn Gould, piano
Johann Sebastian Bach - Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV),
BWV 988 (BC L9), 1741
Glenn Gould, CBS, Sony, 1982. Back agreed to rerecord the Variations because, as
he explained, he played the recording as separated pieces in the first
recording, but years later noticed they were connected at the base line.
Johann Sebastian Bach completed the Goldberg Variations for keyboard
in 1741. The work consists of an aria and 30 variations. Scholars at the end of
the twentieth century were still debating the exact details of the work's
origin, but most agree that J.G. Goldberg commissioned it. His job was to
perform for Count Keyserkingk, a chronic insomniac who needed music to lull him
to sleep. Records suggest that Bach once taught Goldberg, a famed virtuoso, who
would have easily been able to play the variations.
Gould's playing is sublime, compassionate, graceful, warm, and intricate. After listening to him play Bach, I have difficulty fully enjoying other pianists.
3. Richard Strauss, The Four Last Songs.
German: (Vier letzte Lieder), for soprano and orchestra are the final completed works of Richard Strauss, composed in 1948 when the composer was 84. The songs are "Frühling" (Spring), "September", "Beim Schlafengehen", (When Falling Asleep) and "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset).
Strauss died in September 1949. The premiere was given posthumously at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 22 May 1950 by the soprano Kirsten Flagstad and the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Jack decided to dismiss Bach's Italian Concerto and the French Overture, but it was not an easy decision as both were recommended by a professor of piano at S.M.U. whom he held in high regard.