For people who love opera, ballet, and classical music. A place to relax and enjoy the soothing sound of the masters. (Incept date, 0401.10)
Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music
Location: Earth
Members: 47
Latest Activity: May 10, 2017
Started by LuRob. Last reply by Joan Denoo Jul 7, 2016. 1 Reply 0 Likes
Do you like this style of plain chant?This is monody, no acccompaniment and no abrupt changes in the melody.Continue
Started by James M. Martin Jul 4, 2012. 0 Replies 0 Likes
When I was a bachelor at a…Continue
Started by Loren Miller. Last reply by Tony Carroll Apr 2, 2012. 1 Reply 1 Like
Words may not suffice here. The average choir may be ... what? Thirty, maybe 50 for a medium ensemble, and a large orchestra chorus might go one or two hundred. Worthy of note, Eric Whitacre's…Continue
Tags: Water Night, Virtual Choir, Eric Whitacre
Started by Loren Miller. Last reply by Loren Miller Dec 16, 2011. 2 Replies 1 Like
I sometimes like to think I have a way with words here and there. Today, having learned of the death of Christopher Hitchens, I find the words coming in fits and starts, but any attempt at giving…Continue
Started by Loren Miller. Last reply by Loren Miller Aug 10, 2011. 3 Replies 1 Like
It was a few years ago when I attended a Cleveland Orchestra concert which included Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony. Up to that time, I had been aware of his more popular works, such as his…Continue
Tags: Shostakovich Symphony No. 4, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Stalin, Shostakovich
Started by Loren Miller. Last reply by Loren Miller Apr 5, 2011. 3 Replies 0 Likes
When is a choir not a choir ... yet still a choir?When is an ensemble not assembled, yet is assembled?Ask Eric Whitacre. Some time back, he was sent a link on YouTube of a woman, singing a single…Continue
Tags: YouTube, Lux Aurumque, Virtual Choir, Eric Whitacre
Started by Loren Miller Apr 5, 2011. 0 Replies 0 Likes
On 7 April, 2011, Eric Whitacre will release his latest Virtual Choir project, with the performance of his work, "Sleep." This project involved the participation of no less than 2,051 voices from 58…Continue
Tags: YouTube, Sleep, Virtual Choir, Eric Whitacre
Started by Roy The Infidel. Last reply by Roy The Infidel Sep 22, 2010. 9 Replies 0 Likes
Archive of featured playlists on Classical Masters.Continue
Started by Loren Miller. Last reply by Loren Miller Sep 10, 2010. 2 Replies 0 Likes
Certainly, there is "Water Night," "Sleep," and the powerful "When David Heard." To this day I shed tears listening to some of this stuff.And then ... there's Eric's OTHER side ... the side which…Continue
Started by James M. Martin. Last reply by Steve Snyder Jun 19, 2010. 16 Replies 0 Likes
I hope this group will welcome from time to time discussions of conductors, as in some circles they are almost the auteurs of the work, usually those who get the rosettes in the Penguin Guide. But…Continue
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When I was in Italy (Tuscany) a couple weeks ago, I learned that Giacomo Puccini was born and lived in Lucca. While not an opera lover (but not a hater), I attended a concert with 5 "Puccini's" and 5 "others". A soprano, baritone, and pianist performed and were marvelous.
Amazingly, this little walled city has a concert EVERY night, this being the 3800th consecutive performance! It's held in a church, usually to packed audiences. Great accustics.
I also toured Puccini's home, now a museum. I sure learned a lot about the man and his music. If you ever go to Lucca, don't miss the concert(s) or the museum.
For anyone who is interested, I just updated my piece regarding the Shostakovich 5th Symphony, since the old link to Michael Tilson-Thomas' program no longer works, but one on YouTube does. I just watched this again the other day, and the power of the work and its impact is still clearly manifest.
Ha! Didn't know that. I may break out his Water Music later!
And today is Handel's birthday. May his music live on.
Handel! On my radio now! Genius! What more can I say?
In the car on Friday, I heard NPR news get their priorities completely backwards, reporting first on Nancy Reagan's funeral, and last on Keith Emerson's death. He'll be missed!
"And now for something completely different:"
The recent departure of keyboard master Keith Emerson reminded me of his intimate connection with classical music, which is what attracted me to him in the first place. He drew from it all the time, played with it, did variations on themes and created his own works ... and sometimes, he just let it RIP!
Thanks for the music, Keith.
This one's for Kelly. Grab a little glass of wine because this is a true vignette. Here's a general rule I made up about music: the more you learn, the more you'll enjoy what you're listening to. And it's a world as big as you care to make it.
Take Georges Bizet, for example. Great genius, but did you know he was the youngest student ever accepted at the Conservatoire to Musique de Paris—14 or so. He wrote the following at 23 and it has one of the most glorious duets you'll ever hear. It's called the “Friendship duet” from The Pearl Fishers.
What makes the following video so important (to me) is that I was there. I was one of the fans clapping their heads off. You don't hear applause like that at a baseball game. It's more intimate and there's a more deeper rapport between the individual artist(s) and audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBak0xdWopY
. The magnificent melody enters at 1:47. When I saw a live version of it, at that moment the back of the stage is softly illuminated to reveal the ballet dancing of the high priestess (la diesse in the duet) with her followers prostrate in prayer lying in rows at her sides. She wore a diaphanous Ceylonese costume and the image resided in my mind all these years.
Addendum: when my girlfriend and I got back to New Jersey, we told her father about the Carnegie Hall performance. He was a violinist in the New Jersey Orchestra and friend of Ferdie Grofe, writer of the Grand Canyon Suite. Quite knowledgeable. His response: “You see, they sure are a couple of Jewish boys from Brooklyn who made good.”
Addemdum II: Bizet had one of the saddest, most tragic lives of any of the major composers. But that's for another post.
As the Jews say: Enjoy.
Loren, I found this on the question about Stalin. We'll have to read between the lines a bit. It shows how scared DS was.
During 1936 and 1937, in order to maintain as low a profile as possible between the Fourth and Fifth symphonies, Shostakovich mainly composed film music, a genre favored by Stalin and lacking in dangerous personal expression.[24]
The composer's response to his denunciation was the Fifth Symphony of 1937, which was musically more conservative than his earlier works. Premiering on 21 November 1937 in Leningrad, it was a phenomenal success. The Fifth drove many to tears and welling emotions.[25] Later, Shostakovich wrote in his supposed memoirs, Testimony: "I'll never believe that a man who understood nothing could feel the Fifth Symphony. Of course they understood, they understood what was happening around them and they understood what the Fifth was about."[26]
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