What are you listening to now?

[Peter]

Hi Preston the 'Contessa Perdona' Act IV starts at the bottom of page 345 (marked Andante).

[Joy]

Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 ("Moonlight") with Pianist Alon Goldstein. A most beautiful piece indeed.

[Preston]

Hi Preston the 'Contessa Perdona' Act IV starts at the bottom of page 345 (marked Andante).

Peter, thanks a lot. Really appreciate it, .

[Peter]

Continuing to follow the proms with a very enjoyable performance tonight of Brahms 3rd symphony and Sibelius 5th with the European Youth orchestra - there's something very special I feel about top youth orchestras, the vitality and enthusiasm are palpable and make for a very exciting performance.

[Peter]

Erich Korngold's impressive Sinfonietta written at the incredible age of 14! Surely one of the most remarkable acheivements of one so young and indeed he impressed Mahler, Strauss, Ravel and Sibelius - he of course went onto great fame as a film composer for such classics as Robin Hood (Errol Flynn).

[Peter]

Interesting orchestration of Brahms's piano quartet in G minor by Schoenberg at the proms. Also Franck's Violin sonata arranged for 'cello.

[PDG]

Absolutely - a terrfic piece but so many performances fail to convey the ethereal last movement. I heard Paul Lewis live a few weeks ago and he left us firmly in our seats on earth - we should have been transported to another world and a far better one at that!

Yes, Peter, an astonishing movement. Beethoven in C major for ever, but we don't worry because we know our journey is safe in the hands of this safest of bus drivers (rather than conductors?!). Uplifting, exhilarating, unshackling, liberating. The next sonata? None came. How could it? Last chapter and verse observed already. Amen.

[Peter]

Magnificent BBC proms concert tonight by the amazing Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4457278.stm

[lvbfanatic]

Bruch's Kol Nidrei

More formally

Op. 47, Adagio on Hebrew Melodies for Violoncello and Orchestra.

Apparently, it is suggested that 'In the first bars of Beethoven's C# minor quartet, the opening theme of Kol Nidrei is recognizable.' see reference at

http://www.chazzanut.com/bruch.html

does anyone have any info regarding the possibility that lvb plunked kol nidrei into the C# minor qt (ie. qt 14 - most probably mvt 7)?

[Preston]

Magnificent BBC proms concert tonight by the amazing Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4457278.stm

How good are these youth orchestra's? I am 25 years old and struggle to even make the right chords, rhythm, etc., and then these children are just playing the instruments unbelievably, lol!!! It really baffles me. Natural talent is truly an amazing thing, truly.

[Preston]

Hi Preston - I can understand the appeal of such music (out of the John Williams mould), but this pandering to popular culture just isn't me. It probably sounds terribly pompous, but if I want to listen to good melodic music there are a whole host of composers from the 18th and 19th centuries who have done it so much better. I don't actually hear anything new or individual in this work in the way that we can easily identify the personal qualities of Bach, Beethoven or Wagner - that to me is the mark of a great creator - his own personal voice that sounds like no other.

Peter, I know I am replying late, really late. The reason why is because, I thought I understood what the word pompous meant but when I looked it up, I was wrong. I agree, that he is more than likely somewhat arrogant... fame got to his head, but his music is now about to take drastic change. The reason being is because he quit the company he used to work for (meaning that he is not in some unbelievably popular company) and is older and more mature and has basically started a company with several other members. So I imagine some change in Uematsu's... character and music, , thankfully. Just thought I would let you know. His music plays a part, only a part, in why I started listening to good classical music and other types of good music.

Best Regards,
Preston

[PDG]

Hey, Preston! Pompous is doing just fine - in fact we only lost 1-0 to Chelsea on Saturday. I expect us to beat Leeds though tomorrow, in the Coca-Cola Cup.

[Joy]

Today via radio Beethoven's Konzertsatz for Violin in C Major, WoO 5.

This is a movement which he created for a concerto early in his career that seldom gets performed nowadays. I wonder what some of think about it??

[Peter]

Today via radio Beethoven's Konzertsatz for Violin in C Major, WoO 5.

This is a movement which he created for a concerto early in his career that seldom gets performed nowadays. I wonder what some of think about it??

Only some 289 bars are Beethoven's - the work was left unfinished and no further sketches exist so it all depends on which completion you heard! The Spanish violinist Joán Manen [1883-1971], produced a version but there's too much changing of the original material. And there's an even earlier completion (minus cadenza) and quite dull by Joseph Hellmesberger. The best is by Wilfried Fischer recorded by Gidon Kremer with a great cadenza by the Japanese violinist Takaya Urakawa.

[Michael]

Only some 289 bars are Beethoven's - the work was left unfinished and no further sketches exist so it all depends on which completion you heard! The Spanish violinist Joán Manen [1883-1971], produced a version but there's too much changing of the original material. And there's an even earlier completion (minus cadenza) and quite dull by Joseph Hellmesberger. The best is by Wilfried Fischer recorded by Gidon Kremer with a great cadenza by the Japanese violinist Takaya Urakawa.

The new "cheap" Complete Beethoven Edition contains this work, but only the actual part written by Beethoven. It ends in mid air but at least you know all of it is genuine. The DGG Edition uses a completed version.