Classical Listening

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I'm interested to hear what some of you classical buffs think of this.

[Emil Miller]

The longest fingers you ever did see, the face of an angel and fabulous artistry and control. This is definitely one of my favourite performances and at 2.05 I'm somewhere else.

http://youtu.be/p0L_pAqLAi0

[tonywalt]

Suo Gan - Empire of the Sun soundtrack. Brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To8vb...eature=related

[Emil Miller]

Seeing is believing.

http://youtu.be/R_WBdb4Hu_Y

[tonywalt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOA-2hl1Vbc

Pachelbel's Canon in D. One of the best classic pieces ever.

also John Barry's "Out of Africa" brilliant modern piece. Stunning cinematography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DANTm...eature=related
__________________

[Emil Miller]

In the previous video she was four-years-old now here she is three years later.

http://youtu.be/LwED9gYIa0o

[Charles Darnay]

I just picked up a record of JS Bach's cello suites, which I'm listening to now - so good!

[swannbeam]

I''m addicted to Rameau at the moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-QzU9EZUXE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0kidZRGKJw

[Emil Miller]

Here's Aimi Kobayashi at 14 playing Beethoven's Waldstein sonata.
This girl is destined to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. I doubt that Beethoven could have played it better.

http://youtu.be/hoTdKWOVGVs

[David Lurie]

I''m addicted to Rameau at the moment.

It's not an addiction, it's good taste in music

[Emil Miller]

And here she is at age 15.
I would love to see her play in London but I keep forgetting she is so young and will not be taking on the concert circuit until she is a little older. Although she has performed in New York and St. Petersburg, most of her engagements are in Japan. There are many brilliant young musicians coming out of Asia but this one borders on the supernatural.

http://youtu.be/eQbUJmy7yjY

[stlukesguild]

I'm interested to hear what some of you classical buffs think of this.

I have little use for the tradition concept of "classical music" as a style of music. The very term, excepting its use to describe the period of Mozart, Haydn, Boccherini, Gluck, etc... had nothing to do with defining a style and everything with suggesting aesthetic merit: the term was intended as a means to define the great music of the upper classes as inherently superior from the music of popular/mass culture as popular music began to assert itself as a result of recording technology.

What is "classical music?" It is impossible to define because we are speaking of dozens of musical forms, genre, and styles... everything from Byzantine chants:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFH8abHmO-o

to Sephardic songs and dances:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGAsvJvebwI&feature=fvst

to Plainchant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taanHO13WXE

to the Troubadors, Trouveres, and Minnesänger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG7prWBWC_E

to Polyphony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLwMEBlBBB4

to the Renaissance Madrigal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxcMZl6YwNs

to the Concerti-Grosso:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-dYNttdgl0

to the Cantata:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJcL-dSn5zo

to Opera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK1_vm0FMAU

to the quartets and quintets and chamber music as a whole:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtN1scGYJKA

to the symphony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6K_IuBsRM4

to the lieder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx3yior5CQM

to the operetta:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4hs7vW8SV0

to the Requiem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RSMcgQfM9E

continued............

[stlukesguild]

to the Ballet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gZbMOq_Ge8

to Gershwin's jazz-infused opera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDOEsQL7lA

to Minimalist Film scores:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jjLMm7C2EY

And all this barely scrapes the surface. The reality is that the term "classical music" is meaningless... or rather a misnomer. What the term intends to define is that music which has survived and continues to resonate with an audience. As such it might be better termed "Classic Music" because in all reality it doesn't define any single form or style or genre or tradition but rather that which has survived because of a perceived artistic merit. In all likelihood this will survive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyE9IN7JSVU

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE9...eature=related

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqNTltOGh5c&ob=av2n

and even this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGufQk9QOdM

this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5IOou6qN1o

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiAqGliq_pE

will outlast a hell of a lot of the music that is currently thought of as the "classical music" of today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXt4K...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13D1YY_BvWU

Having said this... I can certainly imagine that some of what Pat Metheny achieved... whether we call it "jazz" or "fusion" or whatever may certainly have the potential to survive and become a musical "classic". Having said this... I have long argued that 90%+ of all music is mediocre at best... and it is quite likely that that percentage is actually low when dealing with popular music. A great majority of it is cliche, uninspired, repetitive, and juvenile... but as is the case when we are arguing about any contemporary art, be it literature, film, painting, or music, we are all likely to differ in our opinions as to which artists and artworks fall within those few percentage points that represent artistic endeavors of real merit.

[stlukesguild]

I'm addicted to Rameau at the moment.

I love Rameau myself... although I lean toward his operas and choral music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOlX-...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvd4tMkFHc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9_93xtKup4

[stlukesguild]

And here she is at age 15.
I would love to see her play in London but I keep forgetting she is so young and will not be taking on the concert circuit until she is a little older. Although she has performed in New York and St. Petersburg, most of her engagements are in Japan. There are many brilliant young musicians coming out of Asia but this one borders on the supernatural.

She is phenomenal for her age... but you know as well as I do that such prodigy is meaningless. There are endless other pianists as good or better than her and only a few will ever have the passion and drive and talent to make it into the realm of the virtuoso performer. One thing she will need is the intelligence to broaden her repertoire beyond the usual warhorses that have been repeatedly recorded by pianists far, far greater. She will need to bring something original and unique. Many of the finest performers in classical music today are exploring repertoire that has long been ignored (think of Marc-Andre Hamelin recording Alkan and Scriabin) others have entered into the world of HIP (Historically Informed Performances) performing of period instruments (piano-forte or harpsichord). Competing in the usual realm of Romantic piano concertos (Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, etc...) truly limits the possibility that a performer will have any chance of success. The question every performer like your young prodigy must face is "Why on earth would I want to listen to her when I can listen to:

Claudio Arau
Martha Argerich
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Emanuel Ax
Glenn Gould
Murray Perahia
Angela Hewitt
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Alfred Brendel
Leon Fleisher
Walter Gieseking
Marc-André Hamelin
Vladimir Horowitz
Wilhelm Kempff
Stephen Kovacevich
Van Cliburn
Mikhail Pletnev
Ivo Pogorelić
Maurizio Pollini
Sviatoslav Richter
Pascal Rogé
Arthur Rubinstein
Rudolf Serkin
Artur Schnabel
Vladimir Sofronitsky
Yevgeny Svetlanov
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Rosalyn Tureck
Mitsuko Uchida
Alexis Weissenberg
Krystian Zimerman
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

and these are but a few of the great pianists who have already recorded much of the standard repertoire.