"The use of ostinato continues in Pâques (Easter). Here, in the shortest movement of the Suite, Rachmaninov invokes Russian Liturgical chant set against the repetitive pattern of church bells, to great cumulative effect. This is a strikingly original and powerful movement."

Totally.  I haven't been so affected by something I've recently heard ( Read more... )

I've been listening to a lot of Hummel lately - mostly b/c I saw it was a 'new' CD at the library (amidst the great B.B.B's...)  I grabbed it because I saw Steven Hough was the pianist and I remember hearing some Hummel somewhere along the line.

Hummel is basically a composer midway from Classical to Romance - Wiki gives an awesome bio, but I'm ( Read more... )

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Having ignored the piano in the 'piano room' as we call it - I felt bad and opened it again.  (We had taken it all part to clean it three/four weeks ago and I neglected to re-install my music/books/etc.)  Everything I learned from my 'works in progress' pieces is in shambles - which makes sense, since I haven't been practicing, heh.

So no surprise ( Read more... )

Pederewski: Why Haven't I Heard Him Fully Before?

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Since I haven't done one of these "Omgz, you must listen to this composer/piece/whatever" posts in a long time, I'm sure this is quite overdue.

Anywho - this is Pederewski.  Sound familiar? It should.  He was a politician, third Prime Minister of Poland, United Nations ambassador to Poland and whole ( Read more... )

I don't know if I've made an update about Respighi or not, but I think I have officially fallen in love with a dead man ( Read more... )

You listen to an earlier work of his - and become completely blown away:

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Beethoven's 4th, fourth movement., allegra ma non troppo.  Berlin Philharmonic - Claudio Addabo conducting - it's brilliant, isn't it?  I was listening to this on my way home this afternoon and I couldn't for the life of me figure out who the composer was! I knew it had to be ( Read more... )

I was doing something earlier this evening and ended up humming a little stanza of something that drove me crazy.

I just realized what it was (Beethoven's 7th, mvmt 2's recurring motive) and I'm just amazed all over again.

It's quite brilliant stuff, really.  God speaks to us all in different ways, don't you think?  Makes me wonder what exactly what ( Read more... )

Seriously.

Go HERE and read the post in it's enormity - but I've cut and pasted the entire thing if you don't feel like clickity clicking. :)

( Read more... )

Okay. I have to say this or I'm going to go absolutely crazy.  I can't help it, it's been in my mind for like...ever.  It's just a small comment somebody made a while back, but it's infuriating me.  Absolutely infuriating me.

SARASATE'S NAVARRA IS NOT SENSUOUS, NOR CAN YOU POSSIBLY FEEL ANY TYPE OF AMOROUSNESS FROM IT. AT ALL. IF YOU THINK THAT ( Read more... )

Yes, I broke out my trusty old Deutsch dictionary to find out what the proper term for the adverb, "amazingly" - yes I suck at remembering this stuff.

Anyways, what I say is amazingly epic, is Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.  Yes, I'm such a lame-ass to say that it moves me.  It really does, I just listened to the most wonderful recording (I'll found ( Read more... )