[Christer]

Indeed Luis she is very special and very natural and articulate in her interview!

This is the video that she referred to in that interview.

Written by her in 2016 and the video produced during the pandemic in 2020

"Farewell" composed by María Dueñas

Thanks Light -Man ,
just what I asked for.
But surprisingly short if this is the whole piece and video?
More of a miniature.
But VERY NICE well composed short piece and video nevertheless.
I wonder if that is also her playing her own piece on the piano in the video?
And she really shines on her violin. Or rather violins,she has got two, if my rusty Spanish got things right?
In the interview as you say."articulate" "yes ,but with an Andalusian accent which is not as clear and easily understandable as Alondra de la Parra´s Mexican Spanish to my clogged old ears.
Anyway ,what little Spanish I still know is mostly from my winters in Costa Rica.
My girlfriend in Madrid goes way back in time, late 80s early 90s
.But like my Costa Rican "novia" much later only 6-7 years ago, we mostly spoke English.Their choice not always mine.
Both wanted to practise their English more than teach me Spanish.And one of them was actually a Cost Rican University Spanish teacher!

Back on the main subject ;this truly amazing young woman just like Lea Desandre you also directed me to !
Her video partly reminds me of the "behind the scenes" Video of Khatia Buniatishvili´s SONY Schubert album where she also floats on her back in a white dress with a somewhat "fuller life-vest" up front than little Maria.
Maria reminds me more of Lea Desandre in that respect. More of a cute dark haired litte kitten, than full bodied Khatia, The video also partly resembles a scene from the classic film "Amadeus" ie the scene when she is running down those stairs
Disculpe pero , I just could not resist that second last one.
And Sorry I just can´t help it, but just one last personal comment .
Duenas? vaguely rings a bell .Could she be the daugther of my once upon a time Madrid chica,Maria?
Her looks indicate a remote but still possiblity?
But if so, not my daugher for sure, way too long ago. Nor would she probably look so truly Spanish as she does, if a blonde Swede had been her father.
"Nuff said from my inflated ego".
Cheers and keep them coming CC

 

[Luis Mad]

Thanks Light -Man ,
just what I asked for.
But surprisingly short if this is the whole piece and video?
More of a miniature.
But VERY NICE well composed short piece and video nevertheless.
I wonder if that is also her playing her own piece on the piano in the video?
And she really shines on her violin. Or rather violins,she has got two, if my rusty Spanish got things right?
In the interview as you say."articulate" "yes ,but with an Andalusian accent which is not as clear and easily understandable as Alondra de la Parra´s Mexican Spanish to my clogged old ears.
Anyway ,what little Spanish I still know is mostly from my winters in Costa Rica.
My girlfriend in Madrid goes way back in time, late 80s early 90s
.But like my Costa Rican "novia" much later only 6-7 years ago, we mostly spoke English.Their choice not always mine.
Both wanted to practise their English more than teach me Spanish.And one of them was actually a Cost Rican University Spanish teacher!

Back on the main subject ;this truly amazing young woman just like Lea Desandre you also directed me to !
Her video partly reminds me of the "behind the scenes" Video of Khatia Buniatishvili´s SONY Schubert album where she also floats on her back in a white dress with a somewhat "fuller life-vest" up front than little Maria.
Maria reminds me more of Lea Desandre in that respect. More of a cute dark haired litte kitten, than full bodied Khatia, The video also partly resembles a scene from the classic film "Amadeus" ie the scene when she is running down those stairs
Disculpe pero , I just could not resist that second last one.
And Sorry I just can´t help it, but just one last personal comment .
Duenas? vaguely rings a bell .Could she be the daugther of my once upon a time Madrid chica,Maria?
Her looks indicate a remote but still possiblity?
But if so, not my daugher for sure, way too long ago. Nor would she probably look so truly Spanish as she does, if a blonde Swede had been her father.
"Nuff said from my inflated ego".
Cheers and keep them coming CC

You never know but very unlikely! From what I have read she comes from a modest family in Granada. Her father is a policeman. The family is very much into classical music. I just found out she toured some Spanish cities playing Sibelius but unfortunately not Madrid!

 

[Christer]

You never know but very unlikely! From what I have read she comes from a modest family in Granada. Her father is a policeman. The family is very much into classical music. I just found out she toured some Spanish cities playing Sibelius but unfortunately not Madrid!

Otra vez Muchas Gracias!

Case closed "my" Maria was from Madrid, modest family too but not Granada.

Nor did I remember that Honeck actually played the Viola in the VPO.

I wrongly assumed he had played "second fiddle" there.

But I remember him from his days as conductor of our Swedish Radio Orchestra where I sometimes photographed during our annual "Baltic Sea Music Festival" at Berwaldhallen in August in those days.
But Salonen was still the BIG Star there .I have lots more shots of him.
And the Orchestra members seemed to enjoy their "OLD" still young former boss Salonen more than their then "new boss" from the "inside vibes" I picked up then.
But Honeck has definitely made quite a name for himself in the USA and I have some of his recordings as hi res downloads. But not Beethoven´s 9th.
If my memory serves me right Honeck was there for a few years after Salonen had left as head of that Orchestra.

Seeing "muy linda chica" Maria here again in this video interview ,her very beautiful face reminds me of young Martha Argerich.
Judging by her YT concerts I have now watched thanks to you and Light-Man Maria may very well be:
THE Ann-Sofie Mutter of today.
Still very young and amazingly talented. Hearing her play Beethoven with cadenzas of her own was quite an experience.
Were you present at that concert? I wish I had been there.
I read a comment about it :No hay palabras para describir la. But I would say both !Dios Mio!! and WOW.
Sorry my Swedish keyboard does not allow me to type more correct Spanish, or English .
But I DO know how she writes her name.
Will I get another consolation price for adding that lame excuse?
!Por favor! Mas Maria.
Montereo was good ,but she played that London recital with electronic sheet music which surprised me a bit.
And she has put on some weight since I heard and met her. It was actually in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia ,not Singapore, some years ago.
Cheers CC

 

[Luis Mad]

Otra vez Muchas Gracias!

Case closed "my" Maria was from Madrid, modest family too but not Granada.

Nor did I remember that Honeck actually played the Viola in the VPO.

I wrongly assumed he had played "second fiddle" there.

But I remember him from his days as conductor of our Swedish Radio Orchestra where I sometimes photographed during our annual "Baltic Sea Music Festival" at Berwaldhallen in August in those days.
But Salonen was still the BIG Star there .I have lots more shots of him.
And the Orchestra members seemed to enjoy their "OLD" still young former boss Salonen more than their then "new boss" from the "inside vibes" I picked up then.
But Honeck has definitely made quite a name for himself in the USA and I have some of his recordings as hi res downloads. But not Beethoven´s 9th.
If my memory serves me right Honeck was there for a few years after Salonen had left as head of that Orchestra.

Seeing "muy linda chica" Maria here again in this video interview ,her very beautiful face reminds me of young Martha Argerich.
Judging by her YT concerts I have now watched thanks to you and Light-Man Maria may very well be:
THE Ann-Sofie Mutter of today.
Still very young and amazingly talented. Hearing her play Beethoven with cadenzas of her own was quite an experience.
Were you present at that concert? I wish I had been there.
I read a comment about it :No hay palabras para describir la. But I would say both !Dios Mio!! and WOW.
Sorry my Swedish keyboard does not allow me to type more correct Spanish, or English .
But I DO know how she writes her name.
Will I get another consolation price for adding that lame excuse?
!Por favor! Mas Maria.
Montereo was good ,but she played that London recital with electronic sheet music which surprised me a bit.
And she has put on some weight since I heard and met her. It was actually in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia ,not Singapore, some years ago.
Cheers CC

Oh yes I was at the Beethoven concert with Maria Dueñas and she was amazing! She played like a grown up musician. She will be resident musician for the Spanish Radio and TV orchestra so I hope to see more of her the next year.
Funny you speak of the Swedish Radio Orquestra. I just attended today a concert of that wonderful orquestra with Daniel Harding conducting. I could not have choosen a better program. They played Brahms 2nd and 4th symphonies. Excellent concert. I was also very impressed with Harding‘s conducting. It just came out he will be back in Madrid next Autumn with the Concertgebouw, no less!
Maybe you have meet Harding Mr Christer? Have you photographed him with the orchestra? Today I was in the back part of the auditorium behind the orchestra and I could see him very well. I was puzzled he had some blue papers on the music stand but he clearly did not look at those or turned pages. I wonder what they were for? Back up ? Something else?

 

[Light - Man]

Always good to hear some banter from Our Christer as well as Luis!

I posted some of her stuff before but not sure what it was.

Julia Lezhneva: Handel - Da tempeste (From Storms) - Helsinki Baroque Orchestra)



Julia Lezhneva: Händel - Lascia la spina (Leave the Thorn) - Lezhneva, 2020

 

[Christer]

Oh yes I was at the Beethoven concert with Maria Dueñas and she was amazing! She played like a grown up musician. She will be resident musician for the Spanish Radio and TV orchestra so I hope to see more of her the next year.
Funny you speak of the Swedish Radio Orquestra. I just attended today a concert of that wonderful orquestra with Daniel Harding conducting. I could not have choosen a better program. They played Brahms 2nd and 4th symphonies. Excellent concert. I was also very impressed with Harding‘s conducting. It just came out he will be back in Madrid next Autumn with the Concertgebouw, no less!
Maybe you have meet Harding Mr Christer? Have you photographed him with the orchestra? Today I was in the back part of the auditorium behind the orchestra and I could see him very well. I was puzzled he had some blue papers on the music stand but he clearly did not look at those or turned pages. I wonder what they were for? Back up ? Something else?

Thanks again Luis, oh yes Daniel Harding came to the Orchestra right after Honeck if my memory serves me right. And I have photographed him as well during that Music Festival I mentioned.
I particularly remember a Schumann rehearsal with him telling the string sections of the orchestra ;

"Do not worry if it sounds a bit thick at times, it is after all Schumann".

For that very reason,Mahler took the liberty to re-orchestrate Schumann´s symphonies. But now you rarely hear those "slimmed down " versions.
But Swedish label BIS has recorded them for cd in Bamberg .
Like you,I also like Harding´s conducting style and he can be quite photogenic if captured at the right moment, but in his early years there he could also get a bit "temperamental" when the orchestra did not immediately play exactly as he wanted.
Another memory I have of him was red faced and grumpy during a break in sessions.
I did not photograph him then.
But I think they have grown much closer in more recent years.
I also remember the former Director of the Orchestra and Berwaldhallen telling me that initially they had wanted Gergiev after Honeck, but they had to settle for Harding. Gergiev was already in London with the LSO.But he used to come to the Baltic Sea Music Festival as did, and still does Esa Pekka Salonen.
And from what I have heard since Harding /SRO has turned into a "happier marriage" than the one with Honeck had been.
PS. Just being a bit naughty, but I think you missed an accent in her first name there? You know one of two in her name missing or hiding from view on my keyboard.
Pero no importa para mi. I can not do it on my keyboard. Very nice to hear news about Senorita Duenas, sorry again,that Spanish acccent is not on my keyboard at all.
And I would not be surprised if she gets to record something nice with Honeck in Pittsburgh for Reference Recordings. Keeping my fingers crossed it will happen before one of the still "Big" labels snatches her.
Since Getty Images turned all RF my music shots are on Alamy.com.
But even they are almost giving away our pics for free these days.No money in Stock Photography these days.
Anyway it was fun while it lasted, and now I m going to tune in to that Elbe Philhamonie video.
PS Those blue "papers" you spotted may actually have been an electronic score,very common nowadays.And whenever you find more Maria videos please post them.
And since I can´t help getting a bit personal your sentence "she played like a grown up musician" brings me back to Costa Rica when playing with my girlfriend´s sister´s 4 year old girl, la nina once looked up at her mum and asked : ero Chris es un adulto verdad?
I certainly was, but we still had great fun together and she very willingly taught me Spanish, so now you really know my level, and it even provoked my girlfriend once to Ask me " How does it feel to be SOO popular".
Cheers CC

 

[Christer]

Always good to hear some banter from Our Christer as well as Luis!

I posted some of her stuff before but not sure what it was.

Julia Lezhneva: Handel - Da tempeste (From Storms) - Helsinki Baroque Orchestra)



Julia Lezhneva: Händel - Lascia la spina (Leave the Thorn) - Lezhneva, 2020

Thanks for yet another Glowing Jewel, Light -Man.
No wonder Beethoven wrote about Händel ie Handel: "Er ist der grösste Meister aller Meister". If German feels as foreign a language as Spanish to anyone here:.
"Handel is the greatest Master of all Masters".
And this first video excellently sung aria by Julia, even makes me hear Handel possibly having influenced or inspired even Mozart? And not only Beethoven. Or was it as "Amadeus" so funnily implied actually Mozart´s own mother- in- law, Madame Weber,who provided inspiration to the Lady of the Night Aria in the Magic Flute?
Whatever is the case, I hear some coloratura parts in that first video that kind of makes me wonder? But unlike Mahler with Schumann, Mozart actually "fattened" Handel´s Messiah in his re-orchestration of it. But I prefer both in their original versions.
Cheers and keep them coming CC

 

[Luis Mad]

Rapsodia sobre un tema de Paganini’ - S. Rachmaninov - Behzod Abduraimov (Piano), Dir. Jaime Martín​

Some good shots of the pianist hands!
I missed this concert, a beautiful one!

Here you have an interview of Jaime Martin, so well known by Mr Light-Mann as the conductor of the RTÉ NSO. It is in Spanish but if you activate the automatic subtitles in English the translation is quite good except when he says the name of the pianist!

 

[Light - Man]

Last night's Friday concert NCH - FRIDAY 13TH MAY, 2022

Dmitry Sinkovsky, countertenor/violin/conductor
Luca Pianca, lute
Presented by Paul Herriott, RTÉ lyric fm

Rebel Le cahos, Chaccona & Caprice from Les élémens
Vivaldi Lute Concerto in D major, RV 93
Vivaldi Concerto per la Solennità di San Lorenzo in D major, RV 562
Handel ‘Qual nave smarrita’ from Radamisto
Handel ‘Furibondo spira il vento’ from Partenope
Mozart Symphony No. 38 in D major, ‘Prague’

Two outstanding talents come together to celebrate the decorative brilliance and animated high spirits of the Baroque with music by three of the period’s greatest exponents together with a Classical masterpiece by Mozart.

Multi-tasking as countertenor, violinist and conductor, Le Monde rightly declared ‘Dmitry Sinkovsky has everything’. Lutenist-extraordinaire Luca Pianca is a musician of ‘expressive playing and virtuosic mastery’ (Classical Scene).

Jean-Féry Rebel was one of the Baroque’s great innovators, as three excerpts from his ballet Les élémens (The Elements) thrillingly demonstrate. Basking in audaciously rich harmonic language, they are illuminated by orchestral writing of rare vigour and verve.

The three contrasted movements of Vivaldi’s D major Lute Concerto, composed for the instrument’s higher voice, move from filigree-delicacy to glinting cut-crystal sparkle with balletic gracefulness. His Concerto per la Solennità di San Lorenzo is an opulent display of Baroque, an arresting opening giving way to characteristic Vivaldian flamboyance.

A tale of lust, tyranny and noble love, Handel’s first opera for London, Radamisto, is marked by high drama and bewitching beauty, as in the yearning aria ‘Qual nave smarrita’ (Like a boat adrift). In radiant E major, it speaks exquisitely of the pain of separation at a moment of high jeopardy.

Partenope saw Handel treating the ambitions of three suitors for the affection of the titular Neapolitan Queen. ‘Furibondo spira il vento’ (Furiously blows the wind) is a blazing coloratura display of love at its most intense and dislocating.

Treating the orchestra as an ensemble of soloists, Mozart’s Prague Symphony (No. 38) is one of his most stirring and satisfying creations. Music-making on the grandest of scales, one telling detail after another inking in its magnificent ingenuity to spell-binding effect.

Presented by National Symphony Orchestra (NSO)

Intro starts at 2' 40''

 

[Luis Mad]

Anna Sułkowska-Migoń - La Maestra - @ARTE Concert​

Programme :
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Don Giovanni, ouverture
Alma Mahler – 3 Lieder, Die stille Stadt – Waldseligkeit – Bei dir ist es traut
Clara Schumann – Concerto pour piano en la mineur, 3ème mouvement Graciane Finzi – L’Existence du Possible (création mondiale)
Igor Stravinsky – Suite de Pulcinella

 

[Light - Man]

Under the Bahrain Sun Acoustic - Inspired by Marco Cirillo

Thu Le & Richard Hicks

 

[Quinto]

 

[Mink]

Anna Sułkowska-Migoń - La Maestra - @ARTE Concert​

Programme :
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Don Giovanni, ouverture
Alma Mahler – 3 Lieder, Die stille Stadt – Waldseligkeit – Bei dir ist es traut
Clara Schumann – Concerto pour piano en la mineur, 3ème mouvement Graciane Finzi – L’Existence du Possible (création mondiale)
Igor Stravinsky – Suite de Pulcinella

Another example of a live registration that sounds better than the majority of commercial classical recordings (CD or SCAD) you're paying big bucks for.
The instruments are so full bodied and true to life sounding.
The conductor is pretty good, she has a nice take on the Pulcinella suite, a bit less sharply edged as Stravinsky's own recording, but in certain parts a lot more refined and insightful.

 

[Luis Mad]

Ennio Morricone - Deborah's Theme (In Concerto - Venezia 10.11.07)​

Yesterday I watched the beautiful documentary film Ennio. Excellent with the marvelous music of the Maestro.

 

[FullBright1]