What are you listening to now?

[Schenkerian]

The Jussen Brothers are simply wonderful and more handsome than the law allows!!

Here are these talented musicians again, this time playing Schubert. Looks like it came from the same recital as the Mendelssohn, posted in the former thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J2WyyF_t2I

[Schenkerian]

Phenomenal Norwegian soprano Elizabeth Tiege sings Senta's Ballad from "The Flying Dutchman". This magnificent soprano came to my attention in the Kirsten Flagstad Jubilee Concert last year and I notice this has been removed from U-Tube. So, I had to find one from an actual production instead of a recital performance (in which she was simply devastating!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJdhIl7L8gM

[Sorrano]

@Quijote: Any chance that the playback of the film could interact with the pitch? I understand that sometimes films were "sped up" slightly, perhaps in places, with the purpose of fitting in time slots, such as for a TV viewing. Maybe I'm all wet on that. That was funny about the white key VS black key comment.

[Harvey]

This just arrived two days ago. Absolutley wonderful!


This is a beautifully packaged set in a clamshell case. No cheesy jewel cases. Disks in color matched cardboard slip covers. Each disk lists the piano concertos on it and the back of the slip covers have the full track listing. Disks color coded to the sleeves. The 68-page book is all in English and has 2 articles, Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and Personal Reflections on the Hammerklavier Sonata, as well as 2 brief discussions: The Pianos of Beethoven and The Badura-Skoda Collection (of the sonatas), photos of the pianos, track listings, The clarity is remarkable and I feel like I can hear the individual strings vs. a more blended sound from a modern piano. This set really makes the sonatas come alive for me.

[Schenkerian]

Paul Badura-Skoda was a wonderful pianist and I'd really like to hear these sonatas myself. The extras that you got with these CDs shows us that the real thing is actually superior to the internet for the connoisseur.

A few years ago I bought this: the Beethoven piano concertos on fortepiano played by Arthur Schoonderwoerd. I ended up giving this boxed set away to a friend because the orchestra is so small and thin that it all sounds just like chamber music, which it isn't meant to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvnxvk5n-o4

[Megan]

[Megan]

Eroica Variations in E-Flat Major, Op. 35: 15 Variations and a Fugue on an Original Theme in E-Flat Major, Op. 35, "Eroica Variations"Artist

Maria Yudina



I have just discovered Eroica Variations,
Wonderfully played by Maria Yudina.

[Quijote]

@Quijote: Any chance that the playback of the film could interact with the pitch? I understand that sometimes films were "sped up" slightly, perhaps in places, with the purpose of fitting in time slots, such as for a TV viewing. Maybe I'm all wet on that.

Hi Sorrano.
Regarding The Magnificent Seven, I don't think so because they are two different films: the first (starring Yul Brynner) was made in 1960 and the remake (starring Denzel Washington) in 2016.
I really have no idea why there is a key change, I'll have to look into it a bit more.

[Sorrano]

Hi Sorrano.
Regarding The Magnificent Seven, I don't think so because they are two different films: the first (starring Yul Brynner) was made in 1960 and the remake (starring Denzel Washington) in 2016.
I really have no idea why there is a key change, I'll have to look into it a bit more.

It was a stretch, anyway.

This past week I've been listening to the Russian Might Five as presented in Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin. He presented a lot of good music, some very familiar works and some not so familiar.

[Schenkerian]

Sorrano, drop "The Magnificent Seven"!! This opening title for "How the West was Won" is superior; influenced by Bernstein, yes, but definitely a better score and with wonderful counterpoint.

Newman was a master orchestrator and, according to many musicians connected to Hollywood, he ran the very finest orchestra. This score is actually far better than the film itself, populated as it is with jobbing actors and a mythological old-coots storyline. A disjointed film because it had 3 different directors and, consequently, lost its way. But it was also famous because of its "Cinerama" technology; sadly the two lines separating the different sections of the screen are still apparent on many prints. An excellent metaphor for the resulting film!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwPI80EALPU

One thing is enigmatic about this opening title music; the drums seem to drop the beat in the raucous sections and Newman couldn't have missed that himself.

[Schenkerian]

Correction: it was Lionel Newman who was the conductor of that finest of Hollywood orchestras, not Alfred. Too many Newmans; Emil, Lionel, Alfred, Randy!!

[Quijote]

For my ear-training course I've recently used a passage from the sci-fi film Interstellar to highlight the use of the minor 7th interval (the minor 7th that features in a dominant 7th [V7] chord).

Before all that, let me say how much I like this film, I'm a sucker for anything that has to do with black holes and relativity!

Anyway, I always try to place my ear-training into real-life contexts otherwise it's all theory, words on a page or some unimaginative teacher who just bangs out a bunch of intervals on the piano in the classroom in the hope that their students will somehow burn the intervals into their inner ear.

In the passage I use, the scene is set by Cooper (the hero) leaving home for an interstellar voyage to save mankind (the Earth is dying - very topical) and has to leave his 9-year-old daughter behind: cue a long sustained low C on the organ and low strings with a sustained minor 7th (B-flat) on the upper strings and winds.

The passage highlights repeated minor 7ths resolving to I6/4 chords and I must say I find the passage very moving.

https://youtu.be/yMpdgnUYVNo?t=259

[Schenkerian]

"Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis". I regard this as one of the greatest works of the 20th century; it's right up there. John Wilson is conducting the orchestra here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6pEIHtffqQ

John Wilson is best known these days as a conductor of music for film and the American Musical Theatre and he's also a superb musicologist who has transcribed a lot of the original recordings made by MGM's Freed Unit for his musicians to play. Since most of those musical artifacts were either lost or deliberately discarded by MGM, it's been a huge undertaking for Wilson to get them back into 'playable' shape, sounding exactly as they were, literally note by note. Of course, he acknowledges that there have been some mistakes - but the sound is remarkably similar to those original soundtracks, all thanks to him and his superb orchestra: and there's a huge audience for this music today! I have huge admiration for Wilson and the great musical legacy he keeps alive:

Listen to this superb performance of Korngold's score for "The Sea Wolf". Yet another film where the score is infinitely better than the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wosAtg05Hr0

On a personal note, I wanted to complete a PhD studying the wonderful works from the MGM Freed Unit. Three things stopped me; my age, family responsibilities and the lack of original source materials being available. But in the preliminary phases I certainly contacted a lot of people who knew this repertoire well and one even volunteered to do transcriptions of the type Wilson does as a matter of routine. Alas, it wasn't to be. But in my very small way I've helped keep alive the legacy here where I live, especially with regard to the great orchestrator Conrad Salinger.

[Peter]

Just discovered this wonderful youtube channel on Classical piano rarities https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF6...jaO1AwM1Y92XGw - I found it whilst searching for Gyorgy Cziffra. Here he is in the recordings made for the BBC in 1962/3 - the virtuosity is outstanding.

[Peter]

Now one of my favourite pianists Vladimir Sofronitsky playing Chopin's beautiful 3rd Impromptu in Gb.