Partition Piano Such A Shame
Padre Harmon
The music commented and linked in Part I, as it shall continue to be the case here, in Part II, has ranged from works by J.S. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to those by Messien, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Zoltn Kodly. Adding to all that those of the Greats of Jazz, Fusion, Bossa Nova, Progressive Tango, Rock, Country, movies (e.g. Morricone and Korngold) and Rhythms and Blues, from such greats as Ray Charles or Aretha Franklin, to our very own USA National Treasure, Dolly Parton.
FIRST: Part I has been closed for further comments, so if one wants to reply to something posted there, this has to be done in a comment here, in Part II, with a link to the comment in Part I that motivates the reply. More generally, if one finds something in Part I that seems interesting enough to link here, in Part II, a full comment, or a YouTube video in a comment, one hast to do as follows:
And, finally as the golden brooch, a talk at Oxford University, England, by Uchida on comparing Beethoven, Mozart and also on herself as a performer and her thoughts of what, in her own experience, musicians need to find in their hearts when performing:
Light music as a genre has not had all that much of a following in recent years, but there is much that is excellent. I enjoy the music of English light music composer Ronald Binge, and here is a typical group of melodies, in traditional form.
On the other hand, I have a vinyl record of numerous songs sung in German by the Gunter Kallmann choir. Unfortunately I cannot find a compilation on YT but here is a single recording from that same record to show what a different and beautiful sound can be created.
Garth, Very strange: When I first used the link to the site with the list of works by Binge, I was blocked and asked to either disable my ad blocker or subscribe. I did that, closed the page returning to this one, clicked again on the link in your comment, again it blocked me and asked me to disable the ad blocker, although this was clearly disabled. (I checked that.)
Garth, Thanks: a very fine symphony; for what I know about Binge (not a lot) it is a pity that he might have preferred composing short pieces.
The orchestra Binge was conducting was most likely the Sddeutsche Rundfunk Symphonie Orchester that emphasized in its programming the works of modern composers.
I have to admit though, that all of the versions of Elizabeth Serenade, the one I like best is the choral version by the Gunter Kallmann singers, a very long-standing absolute favourite ever since the 1960s!
The Concertgebouworkest is delighted to perform once again for a live audience. To celebrate, the orchestra is presenting the city, the country and the world with the gift of an open-air concert on Dam Square. Weather permitting, this special programme will be performed in the heart of Amsterdam, the music spilling out into the streets, on 10 September at 8.30 p.m. Together, the musicians and the audience will be bringing the city back to life.
If you are referring to the blank lines between paragraphs, they are put in there automatically by the WorldPress software after the final period in a paragraph; besides that is how I always have written, in all my by now numerous comments on anything under the Sun, at AskWoody and elsewhere. You have been seeing, and sometimes reading, my comments for quite a while, so that should not be a novelty to you.
This is all very strange. I rather get comments on music, you know. My writing style and the way I separate paragraphs or how I like the line endings to line up is not really important, I would think.
Season 4 is said to be under development, but Netflix is remarkably mysterious about its premiere date; I am guessing sometime next year. It does not matter, really, because 1-3 are pretty much a complete narrative in themselves.
(*) Also a cadenza, played near the end: a show-off part, where the conductor puts his hands on his lap, the orchestra players put down their instruments and is just the soloist playing like there is no tomorrow.
As a possible further recommendation: Baeva plays a Stradivarius violin, one of 600 left and worth millions of dollars, because, it being a Strad, has the characteristically beautiful and robust sound that makes violin players dream with having one (**); she got the right to use and keep it, for as long as she remains an active performer, when she won the Grand Prix at the 2004 International Moscow Nicol Paganini Competition.
Secondly, more of a general recommendation, and that is any performance of Beethoven by Wilhelm Kempff. Here are movements 1 and 3 (sorry for leaving you out movement 2!) of his Moonlight Sonata, as that is something that everyone has heard and will be able to compare:
I wrote that about as an observation, not a criticism. What Verdi wrote and is interpreted in this flawless performance is not a Requiem, is a magnificent Grand-Opera style package with a religious theme inside, at least I have always considered it to be that.
A Mass of Requiem is more than music and singing and creating an admirable hour plus of sound, it is a performance aimed at provoking, terrifying and presenting to those who believe in Heaven, Hell, the Day of Judgement and the Resurrection of the Flesh, in the most direct way, if wrapped in the magic of art, and from a Catholic perspective, the tragedy and the fundamental horror and mystery inherent to the human condition: awareness of the inevitability of death and fear of what might come, or come not, after it (*). Mozart got it right. So did Faur (**). After all, no matter how much they believed or believed not (Faur in particular was pretty luke-warm about religion), both were Catholics, had learned the Catechism to take their First Communion as boys, plus Confirmation as teens and then Holy Matrimony; and the Latin lyrics and arrangement of the various parts are a Catholic thing. Maybe an Anglican High Church one too, with the lyrics translated to English, except for the Kirie, sang partly in Greek. Verdi might have been a Catholic, but he was into Opera first and foremost, and a good thing too!
Conclusion: I listen to this religious-themed opera once more, after many years, as I write this, and have a great time doing both, believe you me. Thanks for making the video available. I look forward to more contributions of this quality. Thank you.
(*) Libera me, Domine, de morte terna, Free me, Lord, from eternal death.
In die illa tremenda, in die illa. In that terrible day, in that day
Quando coeli movendi sunt, When the Heavens are moving,
Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra. When the Heavens and Earth are moving.
Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. And you come to judge the ages by fire.
When I am done writing and submit the finished comment, I have always had a functional link to the first comment in the one just submitted. But not now, at least not with the Part I comment I wanted to link here, in Part II.
This second one is impeccable in the orchestra performance and the singing by chorus and the three soloists (that are very good), but I think it is missing a little je ne se quoi, so it is my 2nd best (your opinion might be different):
Sofi Jeannin conducts Carmina Burana on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Radio France Choir. With the Matrise of Radio France and as soloists, Karen Harnay, Nicolae Hategan, Mark Pancek. Recorded on April 8, 2018 at the Auditorium of the Maison de la Radio (Paris).
There is a comment near the top of this thread that explains how to link whole Part I comments, or just some of the YT video URLs there, to a new comment here, in Part II. Use either of these two links to read this comment (or go to the top of this thread and scroll down a few comments, to get to it):
There is a video of a concert I like very much and suspect others here, on hearing it for the first time, if they have not done so already elsewhere, will probably share my pleasure in listening to, and watching it:
The American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein described the symphony as the first musical expedition into psychedelia because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature, and because history suggests Berlioz composed at least a portion of it under the influence of opium. According to Bernstein, Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral.
I am writing about someone who was truly a great singer and a great actress, who was admired and loved by many throughout the world, who was an artist that put her everything in the execution of her art.
Born in New York, died in Paris and her ashes, years later, were finally scattered over the waters of the Aegean Sea, as she had asked to be done. She was 53 when she died, but she was much older, having lived several lives in one.
Her voice had its up and downs, but it was the power, the magnetism of the singer, this slim and strangely beautiful woman that dominated the stage with her presence, that made her performances so moving and unforgettable, that reached with her singing in certain passages a transcendental quality that went beyond the physical to where words fail and the soul alone contemplates the sublime.
About Part I: For information and advice on how to find there comments on a certain composer or performer and links to videos, please see third comment from the top of this thread, or click here: #2385512 . To access Part I directly (it is a very long thread, so it takes a while to load), use this link: -i-arent-these-the-greatest-performances-of-classical-music/
For those who love the singing of Maria Callas, or just love great singing, period, there is another one like her, but not an opera singer, who was just as, or more, popular, while, for a time, both overlapped in their careers.
If she had been a singer in the USA, she would have been called a Torch singer. Hers was a fiery torch, one that burnt brightly within her and, in the end and largely for reasons beyond her control, its flame devoured her when she was 43.
b1e95dc632