Category Archives: Classical music

How to Masterclass like a Sir: Schiff teaches Schubert

I’ve studied Schubert’s Op.90 E-flat Major Impromptu off and on for years, long before I was ready for it. In fact, I’m still not. With expert teaching, even novices can use the great repertoire to learn and develop technique as a complement to scales, pedagogical exercises, and short pieces. Up and coming pianist Martin James Bartlett has, at the age of 22, a mantelful of awards and a promising career ahead of him. This Impromptu is no challenge for his considerable technique. Nevertheless, Knight Commander András Schiff gently guides him towards bringing out the orchestral colors hidden in the piece, to bow a percussive instrument like a viol, and frees Bartlett’s voice without imposing his own will on the young musician. Schiff’s legendary dry wit never oversteps into unkindness, except of course to the very late Carl Czerny who often takes it in the shorts in Schiff’s Guardian Lectures on the Beethoven Sonatas. It is gratifying to see that the steps to improvement at ones own level often recapitulates those of experts. This is education at its finest.

Youtube Channel: Royal College of Music

Triple Point: N’Kaoua on Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner

Pianist Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua discusses the mutual influences of three renowned composers and Liszt’s dual role as creator and transcriptionist. Bugs and Elmer sneak around 10 minutes in … “O Bwunnhilda, you’re so wuvwee//Yes I know it I can’t help it…”

This revolutionary and/or romantic music is played in the baroque Grand Salon of l’Hôtel de préfecture du Rhône in the city of Lyon. The French know how to do government buildings. English subtitles available through the Youtube cc icon.

Youtube Channel: EFNKPiano

Eight Songs for a Mad King

I don’t like vocal music and I don’t particularly like this all that much. But, what a right proper anthem as the U.S. continues its descent into savagery with an unstable, unchecked Mephisto at the helm.

Eight Songs for a Mad King by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Performed by The Psappha Ensemble:

with Kelvin Thomas, soloist
Conrad Marshall – flute
Dov Goldberg – clarinet
Richard Casey – piano
Tim Williams – percussion / cimbalom
Benedict Holland – violin
Jennifer Langridge – cello

Youtube Channel: The Psappha Ensemble

A Major good time: ‘The Trout’ at RHUMC

From l to r: Benjamin Lash (cello), So-Mang Jeagal (piano), Kaelan Decman (double bass), Justin Woo (violin), Kevin Hsu (viola)

Amateur musicians are justifiably in awe of their professional counterparts. We struggle with rhythm, tempo, dynamics, intonation, and sight reading. They’ve mastered all that and more at an early age. It is all maddening especially the sight reading part. I’d do a deal with Mephisto in a heartbeat if I could do that without actually working for it. But, on the positive side, we schmoes reap the benefits of the pro’s superior talent and diligence in concert. The USC Thornton School sent five graduate students to Rolling Hills last Sunday for a rollicking ‘Trout Quintet’ to a packed and savvy house. Fine ensemble playing by a group that assembled and converged for this event. It was damned hard not to hum along, especially with the fourth movement. Video/audio to be posted if made available.

Happy Halloween: Ruggiero Ricci plays Paganini

I was fortunate to see Mr. Ricci give a couple of masterclasses in the early 2000s through the Jascha Heifetz Society. He was in his eighties and yet young violinists in and around Los Angeles received his patient, undivided attention over some long days. Here he is playing “Le Streghe (The Witches)” by the calculatedly diabolical Paganini. Piero Bellugi conducts the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Torino.

Youtube Channel: prbllg

Guilty pleasures: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar’s piano analyses

Youtube offers many channels with high quality classical music accompanied by synchronized scores. Ashish Xiangyi Kumar has an especially good one for piano fans. A large number of his videos feature two or more pianists interpreting the same work. To these, he offers his own thoughts on the pieces and the interpretations. A young Singaporean now studying law at Cambridge, Kumar brings to task a razor sharp mind and keen persuasive skills honed through a championship debate career. His notes read like chess matches analyzed by a grandmaster who can both understand and explain features large and small. He’s also a composer and if he can play what he writes, his chops must be first-rate.

The guilt? The recordings and scores come from somewhere…

For best results, start the videos, then click on the “Watch on Youtube” button and read the commentaries.

Channel: Ashish Xiangyi Kumar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kjX4YNy39M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVcfdwGlSXU&list=PLmdMr9Or9Em58wxArIIYr9X7u3YPYlF8T

Wayfarers rest

Wayfarers Chapel – Rancho Palos Verdes

First Movement from Mahler’s First Symphony. Reinhold Behringer and the Virtual Philharmonic Orchestra (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Mr. Behringer’s has been doing MIDI adaptations of classical scores for nearly 25 years. Visit About the Virtual Philharmonic for details. The MIDI world has come a long way from bloopity origins. The synthesized orchestral instrument samples are eerily impressive.

Elbphilharmonie opens

Congratulations and Big Ups to the City of Hamburg. Ten years after groundbreaking, the striking Elbphilharmonie opens for concerts in a hall designed by Yasuhisa Toyota and appropriate fanfare.

It’s an impressive construction project. Partial reality and full animations below.

About halfway: Youtube channel MKTimelapse