[Head1]

Basil Poledouris - Conan the Barbarian: Riddle of Steel - Riders of Doom

Nic Raine / City of Prague PO

 

[Head1]

Piazzolla - Grand Tango - Gautier Capucon / Jerome Ducros

 

[Head1]

I would like to hear this one live one day. I might have posted it before but can't find a YT video any better than this.

Any recommendations out there for good recordings?

Absolute nectar to my ear (sweet and yet, not diabetes inducing)

Dvorak - Romance for piano and violin, Op.11

LM, there's the Isaac Stern version I posted a while back, violin with strings instead of piano. I think flute might also work..


Saint-Saens - Romance Op. 37 - Mauro Scappini / Anna Loro

 

[wskl]

Respighi - Roman Festivals
Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra

 

[Head1]

Congrats to Eric Lu, winner of the Leeds piano competition 2018. Apparently there were about 5 million viewers.



Replays of the top 3 can be found here.

 

[Head1]

Eduardo di Capua - I' Te Vurria Vasa - Bocelli

 

[Head1]

Amy Beach - Hermit Thrush at Eve - Christopher O'Riley

 

[Light - Man]

The Friday concerts are back but this video will likely only last until this Friday morning before being deleted.

The opening concert of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra's 2018-2019 season, live from the stage of the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

Mahler Symphony No. 2, 'Resurrection'

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Robert Trevino (conductor)
Orla Boylan (soprano)
Jennifer Johnston (mezzo soprano)*replacing Patricia Bardon
RTÉ Philharmonic Choir
Guest Chorus Master: Desmond Earley

The proper intro starts 6 minutes in............

https://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=b16_10934220_8861_14-09-2018_

 

[wskl]

Strauss - Death and Transfiguration
Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen



The tone poem describes the last hours of a dying man and is broken into four parts that roughly correspond to a series of steps toward death: A man understands he is dying, he physically experiences the battle between life and death, he sees his life pass before him and, finally, at the moment of death, achieves transfiguration.

I. Largo. “In a small bare room, dimly lit by a candle stump, a sick man lies on his bed. Exhausted by a violent struggle with death, he lies asleep. In the stillness of the room, like a portent of impending death, only the quiet ticking of a clock is heard. A melancholy smile lights the invalid’s pale face: does he dream of golden childhood as he
lingers on the border of life?”

The mood is quiet and there is a steady, yet syncopated, pattern played by the violins and violas. This is often thought to be the death motive, though it can also be associated with a ticking clock and a failing human heartbeat. Arching woodwind solos over horn and harp accompaniment signal a sad smile and thoughts of youth.

II. Allegro molto agitato. “But death grants him little sleep or time for dreams. He shakes his prey brutally to begin the battle afresh. The drive to live, the might of death! What a terrifying contest! Neither wins the victory and once more silence reigns.”

Harsh blows of the brasses and a faster tempo signify the struggle with death. Motives that describe this struggle, including a fast paced version of the death motive from the opening, are battered about the orchestra. Just as death is about to triumph we hear a glimpse of the transfiguration theme presented in the harp, trombones, cellos
and violas, the ideal that can only be achieved after death. But death has not yet come. The music settles again as calm returns to the room.

III. Meno mosso, ma sempre alla breve. “Exhausted from the battle, sleepless, as in a delirium, the sick man now sees his life pass before him, step by step, scene by scene. First the rosy dawn of childhood, radiant, innocent; then the boy’s aggressive games, testing, building his strength—and so maturing for the battles of manhood, to strive with burning passion for the highest goals of life: to transfigure all that seems to him most noble, giving it still more exalted form—this alone has been the high aim of his whole existence. Coldly, scornfully, the world set obstacle upon obstacle in his way. When he believed himself near his goal, a thunderous voice cried: ‘Halt!’ But a voice within him still urged him on, crying: ‘Make each hindrance a new rung in your upward climb.’ Undaunted he followed the exalted quest. Still in his death agony he seeks the unreached goal of his ceaseless striving, seeks it, but alas, still in vain. Though it grows closer, clearer, grander, it never can be grasped entire or perfected in his soul. The
final iron hammerblow of death rings out, breaks his earthy frame, and covers his eyes with eternal night.”

This section begins quietly with solos traded throughout the orchestra building to a more marchlike section that describes the man’s maturation to adulthood. The orchestra swells, and at the high points of phrases we hear the trombones and timpani proclaim the death motive. In the midst of the chaos the transfiguration motive is also heard, signaling that the end is near. Another outburst occurs, the final struggle with death, the storm and fury of the orchestra dying away and capped off with the sound of the
gong, the death knell, announcing the soul’s departure.

IV. Moderato. “But from the endless realms of heavenly space a mighty resonance returns to him bearing what he longed for here below and sought in vain: redemption, transfiguration.”

Beginning quietly, the transfiguration theme is presented and is, itself, transformed. The sound grows as instruments are added and the sound climbs higher and higher, with all of the symbolic imagery implied, to the uppermost reaches of the brass, woodwinds and strings. The work ends peacefully and tranquilly, with death having won the battle but with the soul’s deliverance and transformation surpassing all.

 

[Christer]

Strauss - Death and Transfiguration
Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen



The tone poem describes the last hours of a dying man and is broken into four parts that roughly correspond to a series of steps toward death: A man understands he is dying, he physically experiences the battle between life and death, he sees his life pass before him and, finally, at the moment of death, achieves transfiguration.

I. Largo. “In a small bare room, dimly lit by a candle stump, a sick man lies on his bed. Exhausted by a violent struggle with death, he lies asleep. In the stillness of the room, like a portent of impending death, only the quiet ticking of a clock is heard. A melancholy smile lights the invalid’s pale face: does he dream of golden childhood as he
lingers on the border of life?”

The mood is quiet and there is a steady, yet syncopated, pattern played by the violins and violas. This is often thought to be the death motive, though it can also be associated with a ticking clock and a failing human heartbeat. Arching woodwind solos over horn and harp accompaniment signal a sad smile and thoughts of youth.

II. Allegro molto agitato. “But death grants him little sleep or time for dreams. He shakes his prey brutally to begin the battle afresh. The drive to live, the might of death! What a terrifying contest! Neither wins the victory and once more silence reigns.”

Harsh blows of the brasses and a faster tempo signify the struggle with death. Motives that describe this struggle, including a fast paced version of the death motive from the opening, are battered about the orchestra. Just as death is about to triumph we hear a glimpse of the transfiguration theme presented in the harp, trombones, cellos
and violas, the ideal that can only be achieved after death. But death has not yet come. The music settles again as calm returns to the room.

III. Meno mosso, ma sempre alla breve. “Exhausted from the battle, sleepless, as in a delirium, the sick man now sees his life pass before him, step by step, scene by scene. First the rosy dawn of childhood, radiant, innocent; then the boy’s aggressive games, testing, building his strength—and so maturing for the battles of manhood, to strive with burning passion for the highest goals of life: to transfigure all that seems to him most noble, giving it still more exalted form—this alone has been the high aim of his whole existence. Coldly, scornfully, the world set obstacle upon obstacle in his way. When he believed himself near his goal, a thunderous voice cried: ‘Halt!’ But a voice within him still urged him on, crying: ‘Make each hindrance a new rung in your upward climb.’ Undaunted he followed the exalted quest. Still in his death agony he seeks the unreached goal of his ceaseless striving, seeks it, but alas, still in vain. Though it grows closer, clearer, grander, it never can be grasped entire or perfected in his soul. The
final iron hammerblow of death rings out, breaks his earthy frame, and covers his eyes with eternal night.”

This section begins quietly with solos traded throughout the orchestra building to a more marchlike section that describes the man’s maturation to adulthood. The orchestra swells, and at the high points of phrases we hear the trombones and timpani proclaim the death motive. In the midst of the chaos the transfiguration motive is also heard, signaling that the end is near. Another outburst occurs, the final struggle with death, the storm and fury of the orchestra dying away and capped off with the sound of the
gong, the death knell, announcing the soul’s departure.

IV. Moderato. “But from the endless realms of heavenly space a mighty resonance returns to him bearing what he longed for here below and sought in vain: redemption, transfiguration.”

Beginning quietly, the transfiguration theme is presented and is, itself, transformed. The sound grows as instruments are added and the sound climbs higher and higher, with all of the symbolic imagery implied, to the uppermost reaches of the brass, woodwinds and strings. The work ends peacefully and tranquilly, with death having won the battle but with the soul’s deliverance and transformation surpassing all.

Thanks for the link and nice to get the text as well.

A stunning piece by a still quite young composer who when asked on his own deathbed many years later, what dying was like,allegedly responded:
"Exactly as I composed it all those years ago."
My own favourite recording musically and interpretatively, is the 70s DGG by Karajan and the BPO coupled with Strauss's Vier letze Lieder

 

[Light - Man]

Last nights "Friday" concert. Note: that this video will likely only last until next Friday morning before being deleted.

It was a free event to celebrate "Culture" night in Ireland, so it attracted some people who would not normally go to a classical concert.

I was at the concert and did I noticed a little tension in Veronika Eberle's playing in the first movement of Mozart's Sinfonica which seemed to dissolve when the audience applauded after the first movement ended?

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra's (NSO), live from the stage of the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

Rossini: William Tell Overture
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra
Dvorák: Symphony No. 7 (after interval)
Nathalie Stutzmann (conductor)
Veronika Eberle (violin)
Amihai Grosz (viola)

https://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=b16_10936916_8861_21-09-2018_

 

[Head1]

Janacek - In the mists - Paul Crossley



I. Andante: 0:00
II. Molto Adagio: 3:35
III. Andantino: 8:13
IV. Presto: 10:55

 

[Head1]

Puccini - Madame Butterfly: Humming chorus - Hungarian State Opera

 

[Head1]

Granados - Valses Poeticos - Alicia de Larrocha

 

[Head1]

This famous piece was put together by Remo Giazotto, an Italian musicologist, purportedly from fragments by Albinoni which he found in the bombed out ruins of the Dresden state library after the destruction of that city by the allies in the second world war. There is a continuing scholarly debate about whether the alleged fragment was real, or a musical hoax perpetrated by Giazotto, but there is no doubt about Giazotto's authorship of the remainder of the work.

Adagio (Albinoni / Giazotti arr. Aspiazu) played by Denian Arcoleo