Because Mahler didn't complete the Tenth Symphony, performance needs to be open ended, recognizing that we'll never know what might have been. What a conductor hears in the material is just as informative as what we might assume we know. That's why I found Riccardo Chailly's Mahler 10th with the Leipzig Gewandhaus at this year's Proms so fascinating. Chailly brought out aspects of the Eternal Feminine:...
There was one picture involving a bowl cut that I just couldn't put up. Sorry. As I prepare for ulnar nerve surgery this December, I am forced to reflect back on my experience with the cello. I had to sign a waiver telling them that it's not their fault if I wake up and am unable to use my left arm, and it put my stomach in a knot. Even if that is the (unlikely) case, looking at these pictures reminds...
I continue to find iPod shuffling to be one of the more creatively engaging ways to listen. Not only is shuffling fun in a "name that tune" sense, but it can so often spark unexpected connections. As I've written many times before, I think that finding interesting connections is basically what creativity is all about, and inviting random input can be a remarkably effective way to find such...
I have been reading a bit about Felix Mendelssohn's inadequate feelings about his Fourth Symphony, and how they mystified critics, like Donald Francis Tovey, who considered it a most perfect piece of music. I think that the answer is that Mendelssohn's feelings of inadequacy are simply on a higher level than the feelings of inadequacy enjoyed by most composers and most critics (particularly people...
I regularly troll around the various on-line music libraries in search of this piece or that. Lately, or at least for the past two years I have been hoping for a PDF edition of Fanny Mendelssohn's (or Fanny Hensel's) Das Jahr to pop up, and I can barely contain my excitement that the music for Das Jahr is in the Werner Icking Music Archive . The very kind person who did the computer engraving began...
[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; Chicago Sinfonietta; Paul Freeman; Cedille 90000 055 (2000)] “Woodstock Chamber tackles legends By JOSEPH DALTON, Special to the Times Union First published in print: Thursday, November 12, 2009 For at least two decades now multiculturalism has been a buzzword in the arts, as institutions have sought to present the works of artists of varied heritages and backgrounds....
I went from one extreme to the other today, ending up this evening very happy at the CSO concert with the delicious Mendelssohn Dream incidental music, the overture of which was written when he was seventeen. Impossible! Even more impossible...
P lay every concert like it’s your last; every phrase like it’s the most important thing you’ve ever said... Remember that the only reason you’re there is to make people cry and sweat and shiver, and give them that incredible sense of creation happening before your eyes [ears]. That’s the [only] reason to play. Otherwise there’s no point.” — Geoff Nuttall,...
Here is my Saturday November 7 Chicago Sun-Times review of the Thursday November 5, 2009, Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert with principal conductor Bernard Haitink and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Repeated Saturday at 8 p.m. and Tuesday November 10 at 7:30 p.m....
Having enjoyed all 25 hours of All Saints' Day (thank you day light savings time - see you in the Spring!) I'm wondering if we can just keep that extra hour in the day, every day, and while we are at it, add one extra day in the week? I could get SO much more accomplished! Great concert yesterday afternoon with Da Camera. In particular, the Mendelssohn Sechs Sprüche was a highlight for me, and...
If you are in the Edmonton Area - you might be interested in attending Da Camera 's first concert of the season. It is called "Bach and Mendelssohn" and features works by ... well, I'll let you guess. Date: Sunday, November 1st at 3 PM Place: First Baptist Church, Edmonton. The Featured works on the program are Bach's motet "Jesu Meine Freude" and Mendelssohn's "Hear My Prayer"...
Ein schwarzer Bock, Ein Besenstock, Die Ofengabel, der Wocken Reißt uns geschwind, Wie Blitz und Wind, Durch sausende Lüfte zum Brocken! Um Beelzebub Tanzt unser Trupp Und küßt ihm die kralligen Hände! Ein Geisterschwarm Faßt uns beim Arm Und schwinget im Tanzen die Brände! (A black goat, a besom broom, a oven spade, a pitchfork, rip us along with lightning and...
Martha Argerich and Cristina Marton play the Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Felix Mendelssohn, not a work that comes immediately to mind as suitable for piano four-hands. They do quite a good job of it, though, don’t you think? This was recorded last summer in Switzerland. Post from: The Arts Blog
If you were asked to think of a prodigy, who would jump to mind? I would suggest that that list would be topped by Mozart . Wee Wölfi began to play the harpsichord when he was 3. By 5 he was performing publicly and had begun composing. But were these early pieces any good? Well, good enough at the time but the earliest work by him that is still performed today is Exsultate, Jubilate K 165, written...
By Bram Heemskerk: Again a violincompetition till 27 year with Paganini, Ysaye and Bach in first 2 rounds and well known pieces in the final: -Bartók: Violin Concerto No.1+2 -Beethoven: D major, Op. 61 -Brahms: D major, Op. 77 -Prokofiev: D major, op. 19+ Tsigane Ravel -Prokofiev: G minor, op. 63 -Paganini 1 -Schostakovich: A minor, op. 99 -Sibelius: D minor, op. 47 -Tchaikovsky: D major, op....
Videos
