Mahler 5 on a blade of grass. Really.

May 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Steve DumaineThe video gem below comes care of Steve Dumaine, Principal Tuba of the National Symphony. Here, he shows his range — not only giving his high-end chops a workout by playing a well-known piece outside of the standard tuba repertoire, but also doing it on a rather atypical instrument.

Random other thoughts:

  • I like this video so much that I was willing to set aside my usual disdain for videos filmed in portrait mode.  (Really people, every video screen you watch — TVs, laptops monitors, etc. — is set up in landscape, so please hold your phone that way when you make your next film epic.  Or if you can keep your cinematic opus to just 6 seconds, use Vine, since it uses that social-media-friendly square format).

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An atypical pairing of good music

April 17, 2013 Leave a comment

LigetiNirvana-Nevermind
Saw links to the two videos below via Twitter earlier today, and I felt compelled to share both of them here.  If they seem like an unlikely match — well, what can I say, I have diverse tastes in music.

The first is Ligeti’s “Hungarian Rock (Chaconne),” originally written for harpsichord but arranged here for barrel organ(!)  by Pierre Charial.

The second is footage of the first-ever public performance of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana.  Today happens to mark the 22nd anniversary of this performance,  filmed at Seattle’s OK Hotel five months before the release of their seminal debut album, Nevermind.  To put that perspective, there are a year’s worth of people who can now legally drink alcohol in the USA who were born AFTER this video was made.  Yikes.

Props to Brandise Danesewich (Ligeti video) and Charles Noble (Nirvana video) for finding these gems and also having great taste in music.

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Ralph Sauer performs the Bach Cello Suite No. 1 on trombone

December 17, 2012 Leave a comment

Ralph SauerFor your listening pleasure on this Monday evening:

Ralph Sauer, legendary former Principal Trombone of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, performs this rare — dare I say, “unique” — rendition of Bach’s ubiquitous Cello Suite No. 1.

Yes, I know. . . . You’re welcome.

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Photo credit:  S.E. Shires Co. Inc

 

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Some much needed levity, of both high brow and low brow variety

October 29, 2012 Leave a comment

I was going to finish my review of this past Saturday’s Los Angeles Philharmonic Mahler 5 concert, or of András Schiff‘s sparkling take on Book 2 of The Well-Tempered Clavier before that, or the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s excellent organ concert before both of them.

Instead, I figured I’d post a couple of funny things to provide some mild comic relief to all of the weather woes being experienced by East Coast family and friends in the way of Stormageddon  2012 (BTW:  I haven’t heard it called that by anyone — did I really just make that up all by my lonesome??!!!).

I’ll get to those other reviews in the coming days.  In the meantime, I hope you get a chuckle from these two things, one very classical music oriented (care of the Pacific Symphony’s tumblr), and one very much NOT.

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Anna Prohaska sings “Exsultate, Jubilate” from this year’s Salzburg Festival

August 20, 2012 Leave a comment

Anna Prohaska, recently appearing as Zerlina in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s production of Don Giovanni, is seen here at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Salzburg Festival singing some different Mozart:

Exsultate, Jubilate (K. 165)

What makes the performance more impressive is that she was only given a few hours notice that she’d be performing it — which, until this concert, she hadn’t sung in twelve years.

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Photo Credit:   Patrick Walter / Deutsche Grammophon

 

 

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NEWSFLASH: CKDH actually manages to enjoy some Brahms, care of Fima Bronfman, Lionel Bringuier, and the LA Phil

August 3, 2012 Leave a comment

I have more than a few things to say about last Tuesday’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concert at the Hollywood Bowl, as usual.  But let’s get one thing out of the way, shall we?

Yefim Bronfman is a bad-ass.

Ok, perhaps this is old news, but even if that’s the case, it’s worth repeating.

So many reasons why this is true, not least of which because he happened to break his finger in the midst of playing the Prokofiev Sonata No. 8 last year — and still managed to play through the pain and finish the concert (read Rick Schultz’s very nice interview with him HERE where he discusses his broken finger and subsequent recovery).

Broken finger or not, Mr. Bronfman (AKA “Fima”) never ceases to amaze with his combination of refined taste, superior musicality, impeccable technique, and ferocious power that he wields like an AC-130 gunship — staying in the background until called for, at which time thunder is unleashed and woe be to those who dare get in the way.

To use another analogy, he treats piano works like Walter Payton treated defenders:  as appropriate, he can speed around them, he can pound right through them, or he can bob and weave his way through a thicket of obstructions — always making the right choice for the moment, and always with grace and class and dignity.

All of that is true on any given night, but last Tuesday, he managed to pull off something rather remarkable:  he managed to get me to truly enjoy a major work by Brahms.

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Misheard lyrics: “O Fortuna” edition

June 24, 2012 1 Comment

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Props to @jozjozjoz for pointing me to the video above, with apologies to Carl Orff.  It is one of the best and funniest “mis-heard lyrics” I’ve seen and heard, almost as good as the granddaddy of ‘em all:  this interpretation of Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter.

Make me fries.

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Happy Birthday to the great Martha Argerich

June 5, 2012 1 Comment

“Great” is an often overused and mis-applied word, but is unquestionably appropriate in describing Martha Argerich.

The great Argentinian pianist was born on June 5, 1941, which makes her 71 years old today.

Her appearances are always events, partly because they are relatively rare.  Every few years, her name comes up on a local program, but often she bows out instead of performing (or as  is frequently said, she is available for a limited number of cancellations).

So why do presenting organizations continue to schedule her when they can?  Because she is, in a word, great.

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Happy Birthday, Richard Goode

June 1, 2012 Leave a comment

The distinguished American pianist turns 69 years old today.

Click HERE to read my review of his performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic earlier this season, and watch the video excerpt below of him giving a master class at Bard College Conservatory in 2009.

RELATED POST:

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Photo credit:  Michael Wilson

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Who’ll be the next LA Phil Principal Cello? Two finalists emerge

May 30, 2012 5 Comments

The Los Angeles Philharmonic recently held auditions to find a new Principal Cello to replace Peter Stumpf, whose name still appears on their roster as being “On Leave” but who hasn’t been with the orchestra all season.  The required repertoire list for the audition included some excerpts that would be expected (Haydn Concerto, Don Quixote, La Mer) and some others that are a bit less expected (Mozart String Quartet, City Noir).  After multiple rounds of playing, two players emerged from behind the screen as finalists:  Julie Albers and Robert deMaine.

By all accounts, they are two very good cellist.  Neither has a prior connection to the orchestra.  They both have experience as soloists and chamber musicians.

Despite those similarities, there is one big difference:

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Turning pages: it can’t be that hard, can it?

April 18, 2012 4 Comments

Thoughts of this coming weekend’s concerts of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra conducted by their tech-loving Music Director, Jeffrey Kahane, reminded me of how he has increasingly taken to using iPads instead of regular sheet music, especially when playing the piano.  Among other reasons, it helps him avoid page-turning snafus.  Timo Andres also used one when he played with the orchestra last month.

Is page turning really fraught with that much danger?  Well, maybe.

There was the unfortunate page turner at Marino Formenti’s recital earlier this year.  In addition, I was reminded of the two videos below.   The first is definitely how NOT to do it.  The second works, but perhaps is not the approved solution.

Enjoy.

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Some Bruckner for your Good Friday

April 6, 2012 Leave a comment

Anton Bruckner wrote multiple settings of “Christus Factus Est Pro Nobis.”  This particular one is near and dear to my heart because it was the first Bruckner motet I learned to sing.  In fact, it was the first Bruckner work of any kind to which I was introduced.

Here’s a rendition by the Bristol Cathedral Choir.

Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.  Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen.

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Save Powell Hall — the video

March 30, 2012 Leave a comment

See for yourself what the St. Louis Symphony is up against. . . .The horror.  The horror.

Do your part today to help Save Powell Hall.

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Public service announcement: Actor’s Rags to Sequins Eurovision Dream (A.R.S.E.D.)

March 22, 2012 Leave a comment

“Every three seconds, someone in the world is cast in the musical, Les Miserables.  They believe they will dream the dream, but instead, are living a nightmare. . . .”

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Happy Birthday, Gioachino Rossini (with classic video footage)

February 29, 2012 3 Comments

On this leap day in 1792, the great Italian composer, Gioachino Rossini, was born.

He wrote over 30 operas along with many other works, but he is probably best known for The Barber of Seville. So in honor of Signore Rossini’s 220th birthday, I offer you The Barber of Seville the way most of us were probably introduced to it: care of Bugs Bunny and the absolute genius of Chuck Jones and Carl Stalling.

Below is the complete, unabridged classic, “The Rabbit of Seville.” (If the YouTube video is a little too grainy for you, click HERE for a much higher quality version on a different site that WordPress won’t let me embed directly into this post.)

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