I'm surprised they haven't swiped it for more movies, like so many other pieces.
Gorgeous. I SO wish I could sing.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Four years ago, I listened to Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe, about which I knew nothing, and from which I had heard nothing. It didn't impress me nearly as much as, say, the Stratford Festival's performance of The Mikado (which, incidentally, someone posted in its entirety on YouTube a year ago here and here.) Still, I liked a few selections from Iolanthe enough to throw them into my playlist at the time, namely Loudly let the trumpet bray, If we're weak enough to tarry, If you go in, and its reprise in the finale.
Yesterday, I got a whim to try another Gilbert and Sullivan operetta about which I knew nothing and from which I had heard nothing. Pretty much at random, I chose a D'oyly Carte production of Patience. Again, only a few selections - namely I cannot tell what this love may be, The soldiers of our queen, and So go to him and say to him - grabbed my attention, but I might wind up throwing those into my playlist.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
No, I only saw them on video. I DID see a local (to me) performance of The Mikado. The performers were amateurs, but very good.
I remember in my early childhood my parents taking me to see HMS Pinafore performed on a ship.
Overhearing us, a nearby family came to us and said that they decided to go get dinner instead of staying for Act 2, and they gave us their tickets! I was all smiles again.
Decades later, my mother recounted the incident, commenting that family was probably impressed that such a young child could love music so much.
|
No, I only saw them on video. I DID see a local (to me) performance of The Mikado. The performers were amateurs, but very good.
I remember in my early childhood my parents taking me to see HMS Pinafore performed on a ship.
** spoiler omitted **
Re: pointless rambling: WHO does that?! Who sells tickets to one half of a show and holds Act 2 hostage until they get more $? Insane!
Re: the Mikado. I saw an AMAZING performance by D'Oyly Carte when I was about 13-14 years old (I think it was their touring show in the late '90s). My mom bought us tickets. One of my best theater experiences ever!
Also, some great amateur G&S on YouTube: of "Iolanthe" (I <3 "If you go in"). It lends itself to such antics!
|
|
I don't know if any of you sing, but I can tell you first hand, it is a tough experience for a rank amateur to do some of the G&S stuff.
I sang Mad Margaret's song from "Ruddigore" for a music class I was in. It's a pretty straightforward song but with a deceptive need for breath control! "Cheerily carols the lark"
I didn't even attempt "My eyes are fully open."
Note: first link is to the TV production starring Vincent Price!
Re: pointless rambling: WHO does that?! Who sells tickets to one half of a show and holds Act 2 hostage until they get more $? Insane!Maybe I was unclear on that point. The tickets for both acts were sold ahead of time, but people had the option of buying the tickets for Act 1, or for Act 2, or for both. But my parents hadn't understood that when they ordered the tickets.
I don't know if any of you sing, but I can tell you first hand, it is a tough experience for a rank amateur to do some of the G&S stuff.Both my kids were in a school production of Pirates of Penzance (Junior). Some of the kids had shown great talent in the school's earlier productions of other musicals, but when I saw their attempt at Pirates it became clear to me that it was a bit beyond their ability.
I sang Mad Margaret's song from "Ruddigore" for a music class I was in. It's a pretty straightforward song but with a deceptive need for breath control!
Since the rest of my post is pointless rambling, I guess there's no need for a spoiler tag...
I have no formal training in singing, but in my teens, I memorized "I am the very model of a modern Major General" and got to singing it pretty quickly (sometimes at the expense of hitting the notes inaccurately) and yeah, there's no way I could do a whole verse in one breath. It was absolutely necessary to stop and pretend to try to think of the last line.
When my kids were babies, I would sing to them lots of arias from Pirates and Mikado. In her early toddlerhood, my firstborn would imitate me, predictably mangling the words in funny ways. But she perfectly mastered the chorus "My object all sublime..." and sang it loudly, proudly, and repeatedly.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
In my piano playing, I decided to take a bit of a break for a couple of weeks with something easier than - and different from - my usual fare. So I played "Solace" by Scott Joplin.
Thanks.
Yeah, maybe I should have played it a tad faster.
Indeed. Here's a nice article about the man and his impact on the NYP.
And that's one of my favorite pieces to play or hear. :)
It's Christmas! Just in time for the Messiah! When I first went, my cousin says: "You'll love the Hallilujah Chorus, it always gets a standing ovation." Yeah, you're supposed to sing it standing up.
One of my favorite Christian bands came to town and preformed with the philharmonic earlier this month. I couldn't get tickets. So sad. We did have the annual church Christmas presentation today. There is a man in our bishopric who can really sing; I had to pick my jaw up off the floor.
I might get the hymnal thrown at me, but did anyone else see "Boychoir"? I liked it, but the plot was kind of weak. I did really like Josh Groban's song in the credits. I liked him before he was big, having discovered him playing on the stereo in a little tourist shop in a mountain resort town.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've enjoyed listening to many recordings with conductor Kurt Masur on the radio.
(And the New World Symphony is my favorite Dvorak piece.)
|
I've enjoyed listening to many recordings with conductor Kurt Masur on the radio.
(And the New World Symphony is my favorite Dvorak piece.)
There is something awe-inspiring about the 9th, although I love the 7th and 8th symphonies as well. Also the piano concerto (which no one ever plays) and the truly incredible Stabat Mater choral work.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Back in 2010, when this thread was not even 2 weeks old, Treppa mentioned imslp.org, and I suddenly found I had a ton of sheet music at my fingertips. Later that year, I decided to take up piano again, and with all that material available, the first piece I decided to study was "The Old Castle" from Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.
I later quit, feeling that one problem with the performing arts is that as soon as you get out of practice, there's nothing to show for all your work.
Last year, I started piano again, my new laptop encouraging me to record myself, so that even when I get tired of it and quit, I'll have some fruit of my labor. I immediately thought of many pieces I wanted to record, but "The Old Castle" wasn't among them. It seemed too simple technically, and I was thinking mostly of harder stuff, to show what I could do.
Last month, I tried a new piece, which I found so frustratingly difficult, I began to feel a certain aversion to the piece. I can't even bring myself to name it now.
So once again, I decided to take a bit of a break with some easier pieces, before I tried something ambitious again. And besides, it occurred to me that I had never recorded myself playing any program music before.
So in case you missed the first link, here's "The Old Castle" from Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I wanted to bring up a selection from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, but I feel I can't without mentioning book 1, number 2 in C-minor, which can be played with wonderful intensity, especially the Prelude. (And by the way, I intend to bring up a certain other Bach Prelude that can be played intensely soon in this thread. What can I say? I just can't discuss classical music for long without mentioning Bach.) Back in my college years, when I first bought a Well Tempered Clavier book, there was no doubt in my mind that the #2 was the first selection I would have to learn to play. And the fugue struck me as an archetypal fugue. When I took a course in Music History, our professor chose that one to illustrate what a fugue is.
However, I mention it because recently, while listening to the radio, I re-discovered another one that I keep wanting to hear again: book 2, number 12 in F-minor.
I decided to play just one more technically simple piece before moving on to more challenging material again.
And maybe I accomplished something with that simple piece by making a bit of a statement with it. Most performances I've heard sound calm. I wanted this piece to scream in fury and anguish. (You can judge for yourself whether I succeeded in making it do so.)
So without further ado, here's a Prelude by Bach.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Whew!
Well, I said I was going to move onto more challenging material, in playing the piano, and this latest piece I recorded certainly was that. Oh, it was very easy to MEMORIZE, but - Man! - I had a devil of a time getting the thing up to speed!
It was also different. In all my life, I have never before recorded myself playing anything like the Khachaturian Sabre Dance.
Also, I mentioned earlier in this thread that my father plays the violin. Lately, we've been playing - or trying to play - duets. Here's a sample.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This piece I performed marks a milestone, of a sort.
You may remember my raving, back in 2011, about the five-year-old Sora Watanabe's performance of this piece. In 2014, when I got my piano back and decided to start recording myself play, the first thing I recorded was that same piece to see if I could play it as well as Watanabe.
Since I couldn't, it was obvious that I wouldn't even approach the 11-year-old Watanabe. But I tried.
Of course, I played many pieces besides the ones Watanabe had done. Granted, I was impressed with her performance of the Minute Waltz. But really, I didn't want to play it just because she had. I wanted to play it just because... well, it's the Minute Waltz!
There was just one more piece that I wanted to play because of Watanabe. I don't even recall ever admiring that particular waltz (compared to any other Chopin waltz) until I heard her play it. Well, in case you missed the first link, here's my attempt.
It's like... wow. After my wooden performance, hearing the 9-year-old play it almost made me cry! Doesn't she sound beautiful? I'm glad I tried, because it increased my appreciation of what a GOOD performer can do with the piece!
Anyway, like I said, this marks something of a milestone. When I went back to the piano in 2014, I made a mental list of all the pieces I wanted to record myself playing. And with that waltz, I just crossed off the last piece on my original list! I now have more than enough recordings to fill an audio CD, if I ever want to make one.
But in recent months, I've gotten it into my head to try to play a few more things. Some of them may prove too difficult for me, but I intend to try. I've started on one particularly ambitious project already...
I've never heard a flute sonata I really liked, until now.
J.S. BACH: Sonata in E flat major, BWV1031
On the lighter side, when was the last time you heard a piece for typewriter and orchestra?
Or if you prefer, because sometimes you have to see something to believe it, here's a live performance.
And while on the subject of Leroy Anderson, I also discovered Bugler's Holiday as performed by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra.
And speaking of that orchestra, here's its performance of Tico-Tico no Fubá ("Sparrow in the Cornmeal") by Zequinha de Abreu.
|
|
The Leroy Anderon links made me think of some of my favorite pieces from the "pops" circuit:
Reinhold Glière's concerto for coloratura soprano and orchestra. The whole concept is a bit cheeky, and I love it.
The Warsaw Concerto (piano and orchestra) by Richard Addinsell. There was a WWII movie called Victory at Sea that the producers wanted to feature a score by Rachmaninoff. He refused, so they hired Addinsell to copy his style. Definitely sounds like a Rachmaninoff concerto.
Also, in honor of Aaron's successful Sabre Dance, here is another piece by Khachaturian: the waltz from his Masquerade suite.
|
|
Also, last weekend I went to a concert at Carnegie Hall which I had been awaiting for months (I purchased my ticket back in September). Renee Fleming singing (among other things) the Four Last Songs of Strauss.
Here is the third, my personal favorite. (The last three minutes or so are especially sublime.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Back in the 1990s, I wanted to record myself playing the piano, but wasn't happy with the recording equipment I happened to have at the time. Later in the 1990s, I remember studying one of my all-time favorite pieces, Bach's Sinfonia to his Cantata #29, and wishing I could play it, but felt I just couldn't do it justice with only one piano. (What's that you say? I'm obsessed with Bach? What ever gave you that impression?)
Fast-forward to 2014. I was on the verge of digging out my 16-bit Super Nintendo, craving some of those old games. But the very day I was going to dig it out, I got back my piano that I had loaned out. I thought: Well, I have a laptop with a microphone buit in. Maybe I should fulfill my dream of recording myself for posterity. So despite my frequent cravings for video games, I put that off, devoting what little free time I had to practicing the piano instead.
But despite a computer's obvious power, I didn't edit my recordings. I didn't speed them up, nor correct my mistakes. I wanted these recordings to be "live", so that in the future, I would know just how well (or badly) I played.
After about a year of this, it occurred to me that I could play something for two pianos by overdubbing myself. There could be no doubt which piece I would most like to play, with that setup. After a decade or two of wishing it, I could finally play that Sinfonia! And since I was kind of cheating anyway, I also sped up the recording. Well, at least I didn't edit out my mistakes.
That recording is also my swan song. There are many more pieces I want to play. (Most of them are probably too difficult for me, but I would love to find out which ones.) Unfortunately, some recent events have given me a certain aversion to the piano. Maybe I just need a break. Hopefully, the music bug will bite me again one day. In the meantime, I can finally play those old games again!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've never heard a flute sonata I really liked, until now.
Ah, I played that for state contest in... um... sophmore year of high school? Maybe 8th grade? Somewhere around there. I believe Bach had just published it. ;)
This was my senior year contest piece, sadly chopped for time and rearranged for piano accompaniment, not orchestra. :/ FUN piece to play. FUN FUN FUN! Though I didn't play it quite that fast. Our time limit was something like five minutes, so what I played didn't much resemble this 22 minute recording.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've been jonesing for Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral and listening to various versions of it on youtube. Though my favorite is the
"Elsa" is one of those pieces that gains tremendously in the enjoyment from performing it. While beautiful to the ear, it's fiendishly tricky to keep in tune and the long, sustained passages are great for strings - but this is a wind piece. You really appreciate this piece having suffered through rehearsing it.
And this is why I love music and musicians. While I won't read youtube comments anywhere else, I will for classical works. Here are the comments on Baylor's performance.
"Those tubas should get a medal for playing an E-flat like that."
"Where's the E-flat?"
"At the very end, that note is an E-flat."
"It's a fantastic note and it underlies the chord perfectly like omg.""My next ex-wife may have to answer the question of whether or not she knows this piece."
"She knows it, it's going to surprise you, and you guys are going to have an change of idea and be happy like sloths.""I love this tempo!"
"I agree! For a contrast, listen to the President's Own Band's interpretation.""Such perfect intonation! Oh my gosh, this band is far than superior their performance was speechless."
"The only recording that has ever made me want to cry. So beautiful."
"Lovely. I once had the privilege of playing (clarinet) this piece in a superb band, north suburbs of Chicago. Sitting right in the center, in front of the brass where your bones vibrate - made my spine tingle. One of those rare transcendent moments a musician gets to experience once in a while."
"Wow. This is one of my all time favorite pieces of music anywhere, any genre, any time, any place. I just think I heard the best version ever for wind ensemble. I can't imagine it being played better than this. Bravo times ten!"
"This is a great performance of one of the masterpiece transcriptions for the concert band. This performance makes your hair stand on end! BRAVO!!!"
"Excellent preservation of the long line. Sweet."
"The hardest most lovely piece of music i have ever played"
"Wilson is making them HURT! lol That amount of air they are putting thru their horns is crazy and WELL CONTROLLED! fantastic performance."
And for some reason: "Jesus Be A Fence!!!!!!!!" Mkay?
So you have a piece about a (kind of) forced marriage written by an old white male Nazi sympathizer, and the comments are about the beauty of the music and excellence of the musicians. If anything can bring the human race together, it's music. This gives me hope.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yesterday, I went to a concert by the Berlin Staatskapella of Bruckner's 6th Symphony at Carnegie Hall. It was an awesome experience (I may have cried a little).
I find Bruckner challenging, but worth it.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For s!+~s and giggles, here is a quarter tone composition for piano.
For s&&+s and giggles, here is a quarter tone composition for piano.
I quite like it.
|
|
For s&&+s and giggles, here is a quarter tone composition for piano.I quite like it.
I did too! Usually I find quarter tone pieces just a curiosity, but this one is kind of cool.
On a completely unrelated note, I took the better half to his first symphony orchestra concert. It was part of the NY Philharmonic's Tchaikovsky festival, featuring the 5th Symphony and 2nd Piano Concerto. I figured Tchaikovsky is a pretty palatable and accessible entré into that sort of thing, and he rather liked it! (I figured the Bruckner concert earlier this week would have been a bit like diving into the deep end...)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I remember once, years ago, getting angry and stressed out, for some reason I don't remember. I threw myself on a chair and turned on the radio, which happened to be playing In the Steppes of Central Asia, which calmed me right down.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
...the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra.
And speaking of that orchestra, here's its performance of Tico-Tico no Fubá ("Sparrow in the Cornmeal") by Zequinha de Abreu.
On June 30th, I mentioned that I was quitting the piano and taking up some other hobbies. When I returned to music, it was to compose some stuff that wasn't remotely classical, and therefore not suitable for this thread. And even when I returned to the piano, I started by playing some showtunes that were also... not exactly classical. (I played a few more duets with my father, but those were simple adaptations, not worth recording.)
But recently, I made an attempt at playing Tico-Tico no Fubá myself. Once again, I kept the recording "live", not speeding it up nor editing out the mistakes. (If you want to hear it at a speed more like its intended tempo, you can just adjust the Speed setting to 1.25 or 1.5.)
After that, I moved onto playing something else on the piano which isn't exactly classical. But I hope to play some more classical stuff in the future.
I've found that over the years my taste in music has moved towards earlier composers. Thaat I have listened to recently:
Hildegard of Bingen
Thomas Tallis
Orlado Gibbon
Henry VIII (yes, the one with six wives)
A drunken rewatching of Breathless led me to put on
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
While I keep bad-mouthing Mozart, I also keep discovering Mozart pieces I love, including his Clarinet Concerto. I remember discovering it while listening to the radio. The next time I visited my father I borrowed from him a CD with the piece, performed by the king of the clarinet, Benny Goodman. (This was back in the 1990s, before YouTube made such things unnecessary.)
You know, the clarinet plays a good role in many great orchestral pieces. I - and other posters - have mentioned several such pieces in this thread before. But as for pieces that spotlight the clarinet, I can't think of anything I like better than Mozart's concerto.
Now and then, I like to listen to Schubert's "Rosamunde" Overture.
Back on page 5 of this thread, I mentioned that I'm not a fan of Haydn, finding most of his music boring, but I added that I take a few exceptions, such as his Military symphony. That symphony - all four movements of it - was on my playlist for a while, about a decade ago.
I've been listening to Philip Glass. I've been listening to Philip Glass. Listening. Listening. Listening to Philip. Glass listening. Glass listening to Philip. Listening...
Yann Robin, quatuor à cordes n°3 "Shadows"
I don't know if I would necessarily listen to this for fun, but it was kinda fun to watch them make those sounds.