35
   

Classical anyone?

 
 
JPB
 
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 05:11 pm
My daughter Kim has recently graduated from high school. She's been playing cello since she was 7 years old (her own request, not something we pushed her into). She'll be leaving for FL soon and then to college in the fall. I'll miss hearing her play. In honor of her talent and passion as well as her successful completion of high school I'm going to stack a few cello pieces for when I need a fix. Well done, Kim -- enjoy your next steps!

If anyone has an interest in the genre other classical favorites are welcome. This is not intended to be restricted to cello.

Vivaldi concerto for two cellos (Kim's ensemble piece from 2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIblSjokHyQ&feature=related

Dvorak cello concerto -- opening movement (Rostropovich)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxYbF-Yzdf0

Bach cello suite #2 (Kim played this last year as her solo piece)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ZVuV8Py24&feature=related

Haydn cello concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnzLEDDbANY&feature=related

Bach cello suite #1 - prelude (Kim's solo piece from 2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZn_VBgkPNY&feature=related

Paganini caprice no. 24 (Yo Yo Ma)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAurilSDXQ&feature=related
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Type: Discussion • Score: 35 • Views: 90,397 • Replies: 463

 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 05:32 pm
Baroque, yes.
Classical, not so much.

Anything performed by Anner Bylsma will make me weep.

Actually, I cry pretty much any time I hear a good cello solo.

~~~

I've been a season subscriber to Tafelmusik here for just under 25 years. I'm very lucky in the music and musicians I've been exposed to through them.

They did a marvellous program a few years ago based on Vivaldi's Four Seasons - with featured performances by a Chinese pipa player, an Indian sarangi player and Innu throat singers. The pipa and sarangi pieces were written at about the same time as the Four Seasons - and the instruments are descended from the same instrument as the viola and cello - the oud. Fascinating to hear the musical cousins on the stage together.
0 Replies
 
Shapeless
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 05:34 pm
YouTube has a wonderful collection of classical performance clips. Some of my favorites:

Luiz Guilherme playing a piano transcription of scenes from Stravinsky's Petrushka

Xiaotang Tan playing Prokofieff's Toccata in Dm (a true tour de force... this is one of those piano pieces that makes me wish I'd worked harder as a piano student)





More to come....
0 Replies
 
Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 05:51 pm
I was recently sent a catalog from www.thegreatcourses.com They have university level courses on CD, DVD, and sometimes tape. You can also download some courses.

The courses are rather expensive, but they have a deal where every month they put a certain number of courses on sale. Over a year, all the courses are on sale at one time or another.

Anyhow, my girlfriend clued me in that our library has some of the courses. I can order any thing in the county library system, and they will deliver it to me at my local library, and let me know when it is in.

Anyhow, I picked up a course at the library on the life of Tchaikovsky, and I was "hooked". It got me so excited, that I went to the library, and ordered a book on his life that the professor had mentioned during his lecture.

I then found a course on "concert masterpieces", which goes into depth about certain works. Instead of disco, which is my usual walking accompaniment, I am exercising while I am learning about the inner workings of some of the finest pieces of music.

Completely hooked, I went and bought the course of the History of Music. It has 48 45 minute lectures, and is totally engrossing.
0 Replies
 
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 05:55 pm
ehBeth wrote:
Baroque, yes.
Classical, not so much.

Anything performed by Anner Bylsma will make me weep.


Limited Youtube choices that aren't the same pieces as above. Here's another Bach Suite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kx0quzmzGg&feature=related
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 05:59 pm
Anner Bylsma's such an odd little gnome, but wow! you can tell he is a Casals competition winner.

I once bought tickets to see him three nights in a row. Wept each night.
0 Replies
 
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 06:00 pm
Shapeless wrote:
Xiaotang Tan playing Prokofieff's Toccata in Dm (a true tour de force... this is one of those piano pieces that makes me wish I'd worked harder as a piano student)


Indeed!

Serguei Rachmaninov's Concerto #2 is one of my favorites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RXnorFwfPA&feature=related
0 Replies
 
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 06:05 pm
A looong bit of Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 (1st Mvmt.) for Phoenix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk-D5VtfzEA
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 06:21 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHD70QEo6YI

This is from the Tafelmusik c.d. I picked up after a concert last week. The cellist, Christina Mahler, studied with Bylsma. His influence is quite evident in her approach.
0 Replies
 
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 06:28 pm
Thanks, ehbeth, that was great.

I different direction for Vivaldi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4GKIILF_U

I'd love to see this performed live.
0 Replies
 
Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Feb, 2008 06:29 pm
JPB- Thanks! Very Happy

One of the things that was mentioned on You Tube, was the fact that Tchaikovsky was gay. When I listened to the course that I had mentioned, I learned something fascinating.

Apparently, the man had a long string of gay lovers, although he had married. The marriage was a sham. At one point, he developed a relationship with a young man whose relative was a friend of the Czar.

The relative threatened to go to the Czar and complain, which would mean that Tchaikovsky would end up in Siberia, or worse. It seems that in those days, if you were homosexual, you could live your life as you wanted, as long as your affairs remained private.

A group of his old student buddies got together with Tchaikovsky, and it was decided that he had to do the "decent" thing, and kill himself. He took a bit of arsenic over a period of days. The symptoms of the poison were similar to that of cholera, so that during the days of the Soviet Union, which was very Victorian in its attitude towards things sexual, the reason for his death was suppressed.

Now, according to the professor in my course, after the fall of the Soviet Union, incontrovertible evidence emerged that Tchaikovsky indeed committed suicide. What is even more fascinating, was when I read the biography, which was written during the era of the Soviet Union, the author (Poznansky) refers to the suicide as a myth.
0 Replies
 
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 09:10 am
Some Sunday morning music

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 1st mov (Part 1 of 2)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HLe0T6Hsg2k&feature=related

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 1st mov (Part 2 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQTv12ymj4g

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 2nd mov
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hhpWhyTMn9w

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 3rd mov
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BJ0PCh9m8go

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 4th mov
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9GpcVrPKois
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 10:57 am
Bonnie Hampton
My daughter, Butrflynet, had a wonderful kindergarten teacher. Her daughter was Bonnie Hampton. Bonnie played a beautiful cello piece at her mother's wedding in Berkeley, which we attended. I baked a 2-tier wedding cake for her kindergarten students the week before the wedding so they could participate in their teacher's wedding. ---BBB

Bonnie Hampton leads an active life as a chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. Ms. Hampton has been involved in performances of new music since the beginning of her career and has been active in contemporary music groups. She has also been the cellist of the Francesco Trio for 32 years. A student of Pablo Casals, she participated for many years in the Casals and Marlboro Festivals. Ms. Hampton teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and, during the summer, at the Banff Centre and the Tanglewood Music Center. She has served as president of Chamber Music America.

http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/hampton.html
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 11:22 am
Great thread, JPB.

Phoenix, then if what you said is true, that would explain the sad lament.

None but the lonely heart
Can know my sadness
Alone and parted
Far from joy and gladness
Heaven's boundless arch I see
Spread out above me
O(h) what a distance drear to one
Who loves me
None but the lonely heart
Can know my sadness
Alone and parted
Far from joy and gladness
Alone and parted far
From joy and gladness
My senses fail
A burning fire
Devours me
None but the lonely heart
Can know my sadness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFVme4hxt4E
joefromchicago
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 11:58 am
JPB wrote:
Some Sunday morning music

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 1st mov (Part 1 of 2)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HLe0T6Hsg2k&feature=related

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 1st mov (Part 2 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQTv12ymj4g

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 2nd mov
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hhpWhyTMn9w

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 3rd mov
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BJ0PCh9m8go

Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major 4th mov
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9GpcVrPKois

Excellent choice. The Mendelssohn Octet is the first piece of chamber music that I ever really got excited about, probably because it is so orchestral in its form and sound. I "borrowed" a recording from the college radio station (I'm sure they never missed it) and listened to it for days on end. Now I'm a huge fan of chamber music.

As for the cello, the solo repertoire is not extensive. That's probably because there weren't a whole lot of cello virtuosi running around Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are, of course, the Beethoven cello sonatas (here's Rostropovich playing one). Beethoven wrote a triple concerto for violin, viola, and cello, which is really just a string trio with orchestral accompaniment. Brahms wrote a double concerto for violin and cello, but frankly that's not one of his better efforts.

Seems like a lot of composers wrote a work or two for the cello, maybe just to show that they could, but there was no equivalent of a Paganini (or even a Bottesini) for the cello. Luigi Boccherini may have come the closest. He was a virtuoso cellist, and wrote about three dozen cello sonatas and a dozen or so cello concerti. He also often gave a prominent place to the cello in his chamber works, e.g. his quintet for two violins, viola, and two cellos, Op. 28, No. 2, G. 308. If you like Haydn or Mozart, you'll like Boccherini.
0 Replies
 
Shapeless
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 12:45 pm
In the realm of nineteenth century chamber music, it's tough to beat Mendelssohn. My favorite is the D-Minor Trio. (Here's an amateur performance of the gorgeous second movement).

Other random chamber music gems on YouTube:

Poulenc's Sextet, first movement

Poulenc's Flute Sonata, first movement

Hindemith's Flute Sonata, first movement

Shostakovich's Trio No. 2, fourth movement

Bartok's String Quartet No. 4, fourth movement
Shapeless
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 12:52 pm
And now for something completely different:

Dudley Moore parodying a Beethoven sonata

The best is the miniature fugue at around 2:04, and of course the surprisingly accurate take on Beethoven's interminable codas.
0 Replies
 
InfraBlue
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 01:36 pm
Shapeless wrote:
In the realm of nineteenth century chamber music, it's tough to beat Mendelssohn. My favorite is the D-Minor Trio. (Here's an amateur performance of the gorgeous second movement).


Wow, those kids are very good.
0 Replies
 
Shapeless
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 02:26 pm
Phoenix32890 wrote:
Now, according to the professor in my course, after the fall of the Soviet Union, incontrovertible evidence emerged that Tchaikovsky indeed committed suicide.


I'd be interested to hear what this professor cited as incontrovertible evidence. Many Russian music scholars, in both the U.S. and Russia, do not believe that Chaikovsky's death can be incontrovertibly proven in either direction. Those who do believe the suicide theory usually cite as their primary evidence the decrescendo that ends the Sixth Symphony--a piece of evidence that, needless to say, is far from incontrovertible. There is also Aleksandra Orlova's biography of 1980, which espouses the suicide theory on the strength of fourth-hand accounts. Chaikovsky's personal correspondences in the last years of his life certainly don't support the image of a composer in emotional turmoil, unless one believes that any indications of self-peace are actually expressions of repressed turmoil; but that would take us into the realm of Freudian analysis, which isn't exactly incontrovertible either.
Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Feb, 2008 03:05 pm
Shapeless- I attampted to research the contention that Tchaikovsky committed suicide, but was faced with conflicting reports. The problem is, that I am not privy to the latest scholarly journals. I did find this, but there too is conflicting material.

Quote:
Neither the suicide hypothesis nor the fact of Tchaikovsky's homosexuality was even mentioned in the 1954 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, although there was one slanting allusion: ''Several sensational accounts of the composer's end were circulated and received credence, but ...'' However, the fact of Tchaikovsky's sexual problems has been widely accepted for some years; the argument that has now developed concerns the seal of approval given to the suicide theory in the recently published New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

In a greatly expanded article on Tchaikovsky, the British musicologist David Brown flatly states: ''That he committed suicide cannot be doubted, but what precipitated this suicide has not been conclusively established.'' Mr. Brown goes on to say that the composer ''almost certainly died of arsenic poisoning. The story that he died of cholera from drinking unboiled water is a fabrication.'' If Mr. Brown is right, the official story of Tchaikovsky's death can only have been a classic coverup, a conspiracy involving his brother Modeste, doctors and others close to the composer in his final days. Modeste, himself a homosexual, may have had a special interest in keeping his brother's secret.


Link to article

I suppose that, barring more information, I must conclude that there is still some question as to the veracity of the suicide.
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