performed by Anne Queffélec, or below by Krystian Zimerman (cover image by Jez Timms) “…le plaisir délicieux et toujours nouveau d’une occupation inutile” (the delicious and forever-new pleasure of a useless occupation). Henri de Régnier, quote published on the piano … Continue reading Ravel: Valses Nobles et Sentimentales
performed by the Beaux Arts Trio, or below by the Joachim Trio (cover image by Aaron Burden) I’ve written my trio. Now all I need are the themes. Ravel, of his piano trio Ravel’s piano trio was written in 1914, … Continue reading Ravel Piano Trio in Am, M. 67
featuring Stefan Dohr, horn; Jun Märkl, guest conductor I must have forgotten how much I don’t like change. I didn’t sit in my normal seat today at the concert hall. Due to some unfortunately obnoxious and inconsiderate patrons, I’d been trying … Continue reading NSO’s Fragrance of France
I feel like we’ve been waiting for ages for this concert. And what a concert it was. Fazıl Say seems to be everywhere lately, literally and figuratively. He’s performing all over Europe, having recently played Beethoven’s Emperor concerto somewhere in Turkey, I … Continue reading TSO & Fazıl Say
featuring Pascal Rophé, guest conductor; Sharon Bezaly, flute; Taipei Philharmonic Chorus I’m not sure why Nielsen’s flute concerto was included in an otherwise decidedly French program. A Danish composer spent some time in Germany and Austria and wrote a concerto … Continue reading NSO’s French Masterpieces
… in which the audience voted for at least part of the program. The voting process for this evening’s program was announced last summer and began some months ago. Among the options included Bernstein’s overture to Candide, a Respighi piece, … Continue reading NSO’s New Year Concert
First, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta is a blissfully talented ensemble who gave us a stunning concert this evening, one of the best I’ve heard in a while. Secondly, I’d like to apologize to them on behalf of the audience tonight for … Continue reading Hong Kong Sinfonietta: Taiwan Debut
performed by Itzhak Perlman and the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta or in its original piano-accompaniment version, with Midori Goto as soloist, a must-watch: I left today’s earlier work for later in the week for a few reasons. For one, … Continue reading Ravel: Tzigane
performed by Viktoria Mullova and Bruno Canino (more about Mullova below), or below by Renaud Capuçon and (the outstandingly lovely) Hélène Grimaud Who would have thought the first violin sonata we’d tackle on this blog (after almost three years of pretty dedicated listening … Continue reading Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major
performed by the Emerson String Quartet I hope you listened to and enjoyed the very first post of July, Debussy’s string quartet. It’s one of the most famous quartets in the repertoire, I’d say, especially from a composer who lived … Continue reading Ravel String quartet in F major
I had started this article before the concert with a small introduction and basic thoughts. Scratch it all. But if you don’t get to anything else, look at the program and jump to the subtitle below. There’s something inexplicably magical … Continue reading Hélène Grimaud’s ‘Water Reflection’
I look here and there for good ‘beginner’ concerts, evenings with programs that would be really good for someone whose never set foot in a concert hall before. In thinking about that, I wrote yesterday’s post about what for me … Continue reading Concert Review: NSO- An Evening of Piano Concertos
Is it still called a concert if it’s an opera? I have a confession: this is the first opera I’ve ever attended, and one of only a few I’ve ever listened to from beginning to end. To my recollection, aside from L’heure Espagnole yesterday evening, the only operas I’ve ever listened to in their entirety are Wagner’s Das Rheingold (a few times) and Verdi’s La Traviata. That’s it, as far as I know. Anything else would be more like secondhand smoke than real listening. All of that being said, I have more than a few opera friends. While the real … Continue reading Opera: L’heure Espagnole
I’m speechless. I don’t know how I’d managed to get through as much classical music listening, reading, YouTube viewing, and concert going and not have heard of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. What initially struck my interest and sold me on the concert was one of the names below: It wasn’t Beethoven (x2), or Debussy or Ravel, but Boulez. In case you don’t know (and unless you know me personally, you probably don’t), I’ve been fascinated, obsessed, overwhelmed by the music of Milton Babbitt lately, and by extension, the concepts and ideas behind the serialist movement in general, and Boulez is a very … Continue reading Jean-Efflam Bavouzet: Piano Recital
The 2015 NTNUSO Concert: Phenomenon So, this is one of those concerts you go to for fun. I had the same feelings about a concert last month with the Taipei Symphony, and was blown away. The last concert we reviewed (last week) was the Taipei Symphony’s performance of Mahler 3 under Maestro Eliahu Inbal. This concert was the day after that. I was invited a few days ahead of time to go with a friend at the university who had tickets. I didn’t know anything on the program, but it was a nice opportunity to go, so I certainly didn’t … Continue reading Concert Review: 2015師大音樂系交響樂團公演: Phenomenon
…. and there isn’t a music critic around to… anyway.I have been in various series of discussions with various series of people in what is essentially a dead-end, highly subjective and rather useless dialogue with a few different people about… “what is art?”The ‘tree in the forest’ thought experiment is just kind of what comes to mind when you (‘you’ as in ‘I’) begin to think about defining something based solely on a person’s or people’s perception of it.I would embed this video in the actual post itself, but it wasn’t what actually started the debate, and it has nothing … Continue reading If a tree falls in the forest…
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado MYCU: Part 6 In one swift stroke of genius, I wrote a wonderful post about this piece, and then Blogger ate it. I am livid. Thankfully, I have most of it still in mind. Thanks for nothing, technologies. From Wikipedia: Ida Rubinstein, the inspiration behind Boléro. Portrait by Valentin Serov. I had to check with a friend to make sure this wouldn’t sound weird, but there’s basically two things you need to know about this piece, and they are as follows: It’s a fantastic treatise in orchestration It’s like, the sexiest piece of classical … Continue reading Ravel: Bolero
performed by Martha Argerich Not every piece of music has to be big and daring and overwhelming and complicated to be enjoyable. This piece is of quite small stature, coming in (with Ms. Argerich’s recording) at just around 11 minutes. … Continue reading Ravel: Sonatine
performed by Martha Argerich, with the Berlin philharmonic under Claudio Abbado (this link is of Argerich with her ex-husband, not the above recording with Abbado) I really like Ravel. Quite a bit. We’ve talked about Gaspard before. It’s stunningly gorgeous. … Continue reading Ravel Piano Concerto in G
performed by Pascal Rogé (from the two-disc Ravel: Piano Works from Decca) (link to a YouTube version, also a superb interpretation played by the fantastic Martha Argerich, whom I talk about below: 1. Ondine 2. Le Gibet 3. Scarbo AND … Continue reading Maurice Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit: Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand
Fugue for Thought 