Classical Crushes

[LitNetIsGreat]

Indeed. This one is not bad, Arianna Savall. She sings as well. You'll have to get passed Gandalf first though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUavm...eature=related

[Musicology]

Georges Bizet (1838-75)
Opera
Gypsy Song
'Carmen'
Elina Garanca (2008)

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

Anton Dvorak (1841-1904)
Song to the Moon
Opera
'Rusalka'

Renee Fleming (2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E6HQ...eature=related

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

[QUOTE=Neely;994614]...You'll have to get passed Gandalf first though.

Very funny !!! I nearly spit my coffee out when he appeared.

Elina Garanca (2008)

Anton Dvorak
Renee Fleming (2010)

Elina and Renee...very nice indeed.

.

[yanni]

As Poe would say in plain english:

περί άλλα τυρβάζεις, Gilliat!

[Emil Miller]

Now here's a very crushable lady:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP4b-vE78HQ

[Wilde woman]

Are there no ladies here who like classical music? Because this thread needs some men!!

I'm quite partial to Stephen Hough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TC2Wkv8IS8

I love Russians playing Russians, esp. Mr. Nikolai Lugansky tearing up some Rach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhLDse5R8dQ

One of my first classical crushes, whom I saw at the first live piano concerto I ever saw, about ten years ago. He's the little known Italian pianist, Alessio Bax:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJneD...eature=related

And my ultimate classical crush, a fellow Texan, the legendary Van Cliburn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7MAriotZyE

[stlukesguild]

Well.... for the women and the men there is always Anna Netrebko with the so-called "silver fox", Dmitri Hvorostovsky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36vm2VoXuXA

Robert... Elina Garanca! Yes indeed, and she's just come off a highly rated production of Carmen. Of course I love her here with Anna Netrebko where you get two gorgeous women with gorgeous voices for the price of one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u0M4CMq7uI

Brian... we're starting to note a fixation on Chinese women.

To throw out another lovely, here's Magdalena Kozena, one of my absolute favorite singers. She could sing the phone book, and I'd buy it:

I like this clever little video which plays with the fact that Bach was not permitted female singers as a result of the conservative church leaders whom he worked for, although we have some intimation that he wanted to utilize female singers after a visit to Dresden in which he witnessed the superior orchestras and the female opera singers at the wealthier court.

This is further related to the anecdote in which Bach was discovered in the organ loft with a woman... who was later top become his wife:

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5y6IQ2X9wA

[Emil Miller]

Brian... we're starting to note a fixation on Chinese women.

It goes back a long way StLukes, it's called the lotus blossom effect i.e Blue-black hair, ivory skin, slanting eyes and a delicacy not normally found in their western counterparts. A girl I worked with asked me what did orientals have that English girls didn't and I answered 'exoticism'.

Edit: I discovered today that Sarah Chang will be appearing in London on April 11th where she will be playing the Max Bruch, so I nipped over to the Royal Festival Hall and booked myself a seat four rows from the front.

Here she is showing total mastery in a truly stunning performance of the most romantic concerto of them all.

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

[Emil Miller]

Thumbing through the London Philharmonic Orchestra's current concert season booklet, I noticed this picture of the violinist Stefan Jackiw which I thought might make a suitable classical crush for the Litnet ladies.
Born in 1985 to physicist parents of Korean and German descent, Mr. Jackiw began playing the violin at age four. He holds a B.A. from Harvard University as well as an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory. He makes his home in New York City.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Edit: I discovered today that Sarah Chang will be appearing in London on April 11th where she will be playing the Max Bruch, so I nipped over to the Royal Festival Hall and booked myself a seat four rows from the front.

Don't forget to take her some flowers. You never know?

[Emil Miller]

Don't forget to take her some flowers. You never know?

I could never be unfaithful to Miss Yuja Wang

[LitNetIsGreat]

I could never be unfaithful to Miss Yuja Wang

Of course, of course, she is a pretty one indeed, soft and delicate and a not a bit scary like those lusty opera maidens. Still, it didn't stop you buying a fourth row ticket for the other lass did it?

[stlukesguild]

It goes back a long way StLukes, it's called the lotus blossom effect i.e Blue-black hair, ivory skin, slanting eyes and a delicacy not normally found in their western counterparts. A girl I worked with asked me what did orientals have that English girls didn't and I answered 'exoticism'.

Some one more cruel than myself might suggest a fear of a woman who is less of a "delicate" submissive flower and more bold...assertive..."lusty" Seriously, two of my studio mates are Asian: one Chinese and the other Korean, and as a result I have spent a good deal of time around their wives, girlfriends, and sisters without ever noticing a greater or lesser "delicacy" than might be found in their Western/American counterparts. Indeed, in spite of the fact that these cultures are commonly thought of as still being quite patriarchal, the women were often the strongest personalities.

[Emil Miller]

But consider yourself, the magic of these ladies apart from their physical attraction; one the greatest exponent of the violin and the other the geatest current performer of the concerto repertoire .

[stlukesguild]

But consider yourself, the magic of these ladies apart from their physical attraction; one the greatest exponent of the violin and the other the greatest current performer of the concerto repertoire .

I don't question this. Although I probably lean toward Anne-Sophie Mutter, Andrew Manze, Rachel Podger, as well as the older violinists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Jascha Heifetz, Arthur Grumiaux, and Nathan Millstein.

As for Yuja Wang... I'm not one to dis another's romantic fantasies... but considering that the girl has only recorded two discs that I can find as of today, it would seem an incredible exaggeration to proclaim her the current greatest performer of the concerto repertoire. certainly she faces some formidable competition from Murray Perahia (who may be the reigning master of the piano) as well as Angela Hewwitt, Mitsuko Uchida, Krystian Zimerman, Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Marc-André Hamelin (arguably the reining virtuoso), Alfred Brendel, and many more... although certainly she may be far more attractive that any of them.