Classical Listening

[LitNetIsGreat]

This has just popped up on the 'you might be interested' sort of thing on youtube. It's a Bach jazz thing. Not sure myself, as it is neither one or the other, I don't think it really works, but I thought I would share it anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6jzKpqeuw

I am only 5 minutes into it though.

OK, I've got the 'jazz Bach bass solo' 11 minutes in and I've decided to go to bed...

[stlukesguild]

As a fan of both "Classical" and Jazz I quite love a number of these crossovers. I've owned Jacques Loussier's Goldberg Variations for years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvIMAQKi4kc

Of course there has long been a melding of Classical and Jazz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRqU9...VR1P4s6OXoacGE

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRDMKOMsyQ4

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

And of course as we start to get Classical Music in South America we get other popular music influences:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-93DqhKa8c

Of course some composers... like Ravel and Debussy internalized the influences from Jazz and other non-Classical sources to the point that such influences are less obvious.

The influence was a two-way street, with many Jazz composers building upon Classical:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYEl4EaCPJs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kSmLTmS1xI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c51puHTj7Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH3GSrCmzC8

And then there are Keith Jarrett's brilliant improvisations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmqbzZxVJ-0

Jarrett, like Benny Goodman before him, was a brilliant performer of Jazz as well as Classical. He was especially intrigued by the improvisational nature of the Baroque. Baroque music was often scored to allow for live improvisations of the performers (ie. Bach's 3rd Brandenburg Concerto). Jarrett's best works, in the opinions of many, are his live recordings where the music was almost wholly improvised... often with elements blurring Classical and Jazz.

A truly fascinating hybrid was developed by the group La Venexiana. Struck by the almost jazz-like aspects of some of Monteverdi's music from a collection known as Scherzi Musicali they pushed this element:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MOcUwHjS_4

They then took this even further with a disc entitled After M a pun on the title of the Jazz Classic, After Midnight and "After Monteverdi":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d83WpdINleE

Then we have contemporary composers such as Anouar Brahem whose music straddles the line between French Modern classical (Debussy, Ravel, Satie, etc...) Jazz, French folk music, and Middle-Eastern influences:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ud9LX8C09c

And what of Osvaldo Golijov... the composer who combines elements of Western Classical, Latin-American music, Middle-Eastern, Hebrew, Spanish, and Pop? He can compose works like this:

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

... a work that merges the classical aria with aspects of the Arab-Andalusian lament.

And then he turns around and offers a truly new idea of a musical "Passion" in honor of Bach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvTiWPV2da0

[Emil Miller]

This has just popped up on the 'you might be interested' sort of thing on youtube. It's a Bach jazz thing. Not sure myself, as it is neither one or the other, I don't think it really works, but I thought I would share it anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6jzKpqeuw

I am only 5 minutes into it though.

OK, I've got the 'jazz Bach bass solo' 11 minutes in and I've decided to go to bed...

The opening piece (Präludium Nr. 1 C-dur) is simply divine but while the jazz improvisation is all very clever, it feels like an unnecessary imposition on a great work. Loussier has been around for decades and had great success with his idea of using Bach's music in an updated form but one either takes it or leaves it according to individual temperament. Personally I have nothing against it as he is obviously a first rate pianist who knows his stuff but I don't attach much importance to it other than as an amusing diversion. I spent a good part of yesterday at the piano playing Bach and I wish I could play half as well as Loussier who would have made an excellent serious performer of Bach's keyboard music.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes I like Bach of course and I like a lot of jazz, however put the two together, like here, and it just doesn't sound right to me. I would rather listen to the original sounds of each. Maybe if I listened to it much more I would be, but first thoughts are that I just don't like it. I'm not questioning their artistic ability, just that it sounds a little odd. I agree with Emil the opening part there is fantastic, like a modern blend, but the soloing stuff sounds a little pushed. I like beer and I like wine, but put the two in the same glass and I would be sceptical. I have not listened to all of those links though, I will do when I get around to it (currently chess study is taking up most of my free time.)

All the best.

[Emil Miller]

Here's a particular favourite of mine:

http://youtu.be/Xgyz0XqDEEA

[LitNetIsGreat]

Here's a particular favourite of mine:

http://youtu.be/Xgyz0XqDEEA

Brilliant performance.

[stlukesguild]

Fleisher was... is a marvelous pianist. His performances of Beethoven's and Brahms' concertos with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra remain a standard by which all others are judged. Sadly Fleisher lost the use of his right hand, due to a condition that was eventually diagnosed as focal dystonia. Fleisher commenced performing and recording the left-handed repertoire while searching for a cure for his condition. In addition, he undertook conducting during this time, serving at one time as Music Director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in Maryland. In the early 21st century, Fleisher regained the use of his right hand through a combination of Rolfing and botox injections. Fleisher's recordings since regaining the use of his hand have garnered the highest accolades.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Wow what a story. Obviously a very determined and positive character.

[Emil Miller]

Wow what a story. Obviously a very determined and positive character.

The same thing happened to pianist Gary Graffman but he didn't recover and took over the Curtis Institute
to teach promising young players such as Yuja Wang.
I've just purchased a ticket for her next London appearance in Feb 2014 when she plays Rachmaninov's 3rd concerto.

Here's the little lady playing the Tchaikovsky No.1 in Finland.

http://youtu.be/Yue6Cb5OULM

[Emil Miller]

Sitting here with a whiskey and dry listening to Ravel's first piano concerto played by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli couldn't be better but I have taken up piano lessons again so that i am able to play the many pieces that currently elude me. My new teacher is a lady from Croatia who is a bit of a martinet but, with the way I play, that's what's needed. She has given me a transcription of Wagner's Pilgrims Chorus from Tannhäuser and here's how it should be played:

http://youtu.be/L_G7Q0DsP5w

[stlukesguild]

Over the Thanksgiving break I was able... needed to... clean up my den/office/library. The most daunting task that faced me was needing to shelve something like 700 CDs that were stacked in precarious piles all throughout the room in no particular order whatsoever. It took me some 6 hours+ but once again I have my entire music collection shelved in proper order so that I can see what I have and rapidly find anything. Embarrassingly, during the process I found some 8 or 9 discs that were duplicates! I also found myself "discovering" any number of discs I haven't heard in ages... or am wholly unfamiliar with. Having strictly curtailed new purchases as I set money aside for a needed second car, I've begun to spend a lot of time listening to what I already own. Admittedly, chamber music has long ranked low among my preferences which lean more toward vocal music (opera, choral, lieder, chanson, etc...), symphonic, concertos, and solo instrumental. Recently, however, I have set about to explore a lot of the chamber music in my library... including some truly marvelous music:

[chrisvia]

A couple years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Gent, Belgium for work. In my usual fashion, I planned the trip so as to have a day or two for exploration. During that time I happened upon the grandiose Sint-Baafskathedraal, just around the corner from my hotel (The Gent River Hotel):

church.jpg

Within this amazing architectural structure is the beautiful Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altarpiece:

altarpiece.jpg

Upcon inquiring about the construction of this organ, I was informed that a CD had recently been recorded, of Bach's work, played by a local Belgian on that very organ:

organ.jpg

So, without hesitation I paid the 25 Euros and walked out with my latest addition to my classical collection:

cd.jpg

It begins with BWV 564, Toccata, Adagio, & Fugue in C, which I have been stuck on for an hour or so now, having selected the repeat-one function and sat listening like an ascetic. That is, until I decided to share my wonderful afternoon listening with this forum.

P.S. If someone would like to share the trick to embedding the actual images in a post, as opposed to a link, I would be grateful.

[stlukesguild]

If you are linking to an image online at another site (hotlinking) such as Amazon.com... you right click on the image, select "copy image URL", then go to LitNet and select the icon for loading pictures (denoted with red arrow):



When the box opens select "From URL" and unselect: "Retrieve remote file and reference locally", then paste the image URL in the provided box and click OK.

If you wish to employ images saved to your own hard drive you need to upload these to an Image Host such as Photobucket (free). Once you have a Photobucket account you simply click "Upload" then "Choose photos and videos". This will allow you to browse through your files and select the image you want (be sure to reduce it to the size you want for posting). You then open the image on the site and click on the "Links to share this photo". Click either the code for URL if you want the full-size image or the IMGthumb which will give you a thumbnail image that when clicked will show the full-size image. Once you have selected these you just go to LitNet, right click, select "paste" and voila!. Once you get the hang of it, it only takes seconds.

By the way... I am probably the resident Bach fanatic here... but there are a number of classical music fans... most who haven't been posting as frequently as in the past... but these things happen in cycles from my experience. My favorite Bach organ piece is the great Passacaglia and Fugue in C-minor:

[Lykren]

I went to Yuja Wang's performance of Rachmaninoff's Third at the Disney Center in LA on Thursday, and was rather disappointed. Not because of the quality of the performance, but because our seats were behind the orchestra, while the lid of the piano was opened, of course, to direct the sound toward where the majority of the audience was located – in front of the orchestra. Sadly, this muffled the sound of the piano for us in the back.

However, the orchestra was fantastic throughout, both in the Rachmaninoff and in Stravinsky's complex but lively and joyous Petrushka.

[Emil Miller]

I went to Yuja Wang's performance of Rachmaninoff's Third at the Disney Center in LA on Thursday, and was rather disappointed. Not because of the quality of the performance, but because our seats were behind the orchestra, while the lid of the piano was opened, of course, to direct the sound toward where the majority of the audience was located – in front of the orchestra. Sadly, this muffled the sound of the piano for us in the back.

However, the orchestra was fantastic throughout, both in the Rachmaninoff and in Stravinsky's complex but lively and joyous Petrushka.

That must have been some disappointment. I have on a couple of occasions sat behind the orchestra at purely orchestral concerts and also found the sound enhanced by proximity to the musicians; also it's nice to see the conductor's face occasionally.
I'm going to see Wang play the same concerto in February with the London Symphony Orchestra; Petrushka is also the orchestral companion piece; of which she has made a celebrated recording of the piano score.

I take it that the orchestra was the Los Angeles Symphony Orch. that you saw.