The Big Foto » classical music

Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:33:39 +0000

Piano:Lang Lang
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra.
At Royal Albert Hall.

The Nutcracker ballet

admin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:42:09 +0000

The Nutcracker, Op. 71 is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”. It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on Sunday, December 18, 1892, on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky’s opera, Iolanta.

Although the original production was not a success, the twenty-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was.

However, the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the mid-20th century and is now performed by countless ballet companies.

Have a nice weekend.

Overture Ruslan and Lyudmila by Glinka

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:59:08 +0000

Ruslan and Lyudmila is an opera in five acts (eight tableaux) composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842. The opera is based on the 1820 poem of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin. The multi-authored Russian libretto was written by Valerian Shirkov, Nestor Kukolnik, and N. A. Markevich, among others. Pushkin’s untimely death in the famous duel prevented him from writing the libretto himself as planned.

The premiere took place in St. Petersburg on 27 November (Old Style) 1842 at the Bolshoy Theater. Four years later, the opera was given its Moscow premiere at the Bolshoy Theatre in 1846.

Ferdinand Ries – Symphony No. 2 in C Minor Op. 80 (1814)

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:59:35 +0000

Symphony No. 2 by Ferdinand Ries.
Conducted by Howard Griffiths with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

I. Allegro Ma Non Troppo – 00:00
II. Andantino – 8:32
III. Menuetto – Allegretto – 14:45
IV. Allegro Ma Non Troppo – 20:10

From that piece you can also enjoy a visualization of the 1st violin of the 2nd symphony, 4th movement by Ferdinand Ries in the shape of a rollercoaster. The camera starts by showing a close-up of the score, then focuses on the notes of the first violin turning the staves into the winding rail tracks of the rollercoaster. The notes and bars were exactly synchronised with the progression in the animation so that the typical movements of a rollercoaster ride match the dramatic composition of the music.

Client: Zurich Chamber Orchestra / Zürcher Kammerorchester
Agency: Euro RSCG, Zurich
Creative Direction: Axel Eckstein, Frank Bodin

Created by virtual republic animation and visual effects
Animation Direction: President M. Klein
Producing: Gerhard Vetter
Technical Direction: Martin Chatterjee
Modeling: Martin Sobott, Patrick Busse
Animation: Marco Kowalik, Christian Marschalt, Patrick Busse
Compositing: Steffen Dünner
Data Handling: Morris Willner

Dvorak – Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” – IV

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:52:17 +0000

Piece: New World Symphony by Antonin Dvorak.
Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker.
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.

Mendelsohn Symphony no. 4 in A mayor, the Italian

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:10:13 +0000

The Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, commonly known as the Italian, is an orchestral symphony written by German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847).

The Italian Symphony was finished in Berlin, 13 March 1833, in response to an invitation for a symphony from the London (now Royal) Philharmonic Society; he conducted the first performance himself in London on 13 May 1833, at a London Philharmonic Society concert. The symphony’s success, and Mendelssohn’s popularity, influenced the course of British music for the rest of the century.

The piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. It is in four movements:

Allegro vivace
Andante con moto
Con moto moderato
Saltarello: Presto

Mendelssohn remained unsatisfied with the composition, which cost him, he said, some of the bitterest moments of his career; he revised it in 1837 and even planned to write alternate versions of the second, third, and fourth movements. He never published the symphony, which only appeared in print in 1851, after his death.

Today we are going to show the joyful first movement, in sonata form, is followed by an impression in D minor of a religious procession the composer witnessed in Naples.

J. S. Bach – “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” BWV 147

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:06:46 +0000

Enjoy this weekend with the loved ones and Merry Christmas to everyone that patiently follow this blog.

Lohengrin – Overture and act III

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:40:25 +0000

Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself inspired by the epic of Garin le Loherain. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition.

The beautiful Overture

But probably the most famous and recognizable part of the opera is the Bridal Chorus, better known as “Here Comes the Bride”, often played as a processional at weddings in the West. (Starts at 3:20 after the prelude of act III)

The Enchanted Lake by Liadov

admin — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:13:34 +0000

In “The Enchanted Lake, Op.62″, written in 1906, Liadov takes up an episode from the finnish “Kalevala” saga, yet equally responds to the lonely beauty of the lakes of his Russian homeland. “How picturesque, how pure – all those stars and the secrets of the deep! But above all – no people, no entreaties and complaints, only dead Nature, cold, malevolent, but fantastic as a fairy tale.”
The score of “The Enchanted Lake” does without trumpets and trombones – the instrumental colors which recall human “entreaties and complaints” are thus absent. Instead, the horns lend forest atmosphere, creating their own dimension in opposition to that of the woodwinds. “One has to feel how much life and change of the colours, the air occur in the incessantly changeable stillness and seeming immobility.”

USSR Symphony Orchestra
Evgeny Svetlanov, conductor
Rec. 1970

Today you can discover this not a popular masterpiece.

Love for Three Oranges

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:20:55 +0000

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (23 April 1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His best-known works include the March from Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet, and Peter and the Wolf. He also composed amongst many other works five piano concertos, nine completed piano sonatas and seven symphonies.

Today we can enjoy Love for Three Oranges. I think the most popular part of the piece starts at 6:00.

Have a nice weekend.