Classical Convert

Moved

Ok! I’ve got internet dripping off of my eyelids again. I’ve got music streaming wirelessly from the ‘office’ aka ‘north wing’ aka ‘disaster recovery zone’ into the living room, courtesy of the software titan we love to hate: Microsoft. Yeah, I’ve been a hardcore free-software lovin’ flower child for the last ten years, but now that there is an XBox sitting underneath the TV it requires about three clicks and a few wireless password entries to get everything pumped out there. It makes me feel dirty, but it works so nicely.

Unfortunately it makes you feel that MP3/Classical culture clash like BAM.

Still, we had piping hot, fresh Saint-Saens plummeting into the room during our introductory househeating meal of eggplant parmesan and freshly picked cherry pie. Good old Saint-Saens. He’s the bloke that got me into the genre. We were actually listening to the very piece that did the dirty, the 2nd piano concerto:

But the one I really like is the 4th. Anyone got any hot youtubings of that one? It’s so sparse, I love it. It’s like Shostakovich CC2 (another fave), in that there are rarely lots of groups of instruments playing at once. I remember intially thinking “what a waste of an orchestra!”, like if you’re paying ‘em all to sit there playing you wanna get the most bang for your buck. Everyone, full blast, all the time. Now I relish these unpopulated pieces. They’re pensive, cautious. The phrasing is more like equations in a quantum mechanics textbook than the bloody emissions of a sore heart.

Tags: classical music, saint-saens, streaming, xbox, youtube

An old favorite – Saint Saens PC4

Here is one of my oldest favorites: the stunning two-movement piano concerto #4 by Saint Saens, with Stephen Hough performing. Protip: it gets (a bit) louder after the first ten seconds or so:

Part 1 (beginning of 1st movement):

Part 2 (end of first movement, beginning of second):

Part 3 (end of 2nd movement):

Tags: classical music, piano concerto 4, saint-saens

Repinionation

Some pieces of music go through climactic restructurings in appreciability as time passes. When first starting out in classical music, I was lead up and in via the Saint-Saens piano concerto number two. It was the first movement of that piece which suddenly, surprisingly presented itself open to me. Before too many cycles of listening and slapping the skip-back button on the stereo, the third movement also revealed itself in a tantalizingly delicious (yeah, I know that’s a little weird of a choice of words but my head is a bit sleep fuzzy) light.

However, the 2nd movement sounded frickin’ dumb.

Even after I had worked my way through the entire set of all 5 SS piano concertos I disliked that 2nd movement. It sounded like a bunch of pixies having a tea party and giggling about cupcakes or something. I remember coming across a comment (during my frequent googlings for people’s opinions on all the newly discovered music) by someone who stated that although they previously hated that movement, they had grown to love it. I also remember being pretty sure that probably was not going to personally be the case.

You can probably already be sure of what is getting written here next: I have grown to enjoy that movement.

Here it is (post initial mumblings):

Ones perceptions taking such a u-turn can be quite a shock to the past and future yous. It doesn’t sound like pixies anymore. Well, almost entirely not. Often the things which initially sounded so appealing fade away, and the previously faded things move into the focus. The depth of field pendulums.

And then again, some things are perennially the epitome of genius:

Tags: classical music, kinky boots, saint-saens

Speaking of violin hero…

Well, no sooner do I start blabbing on about violin hero, then up pops this cello hero style offering courtesy of the Berlin Philharmoniker. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to imitate the bow-strokes of “The Swan” using your mouse. It’s fun for about 20 seconds. What this really needs is some kind of fingering support, and the ability to do different sorts of stroke. It also needs a guitar hero type preview of what is coming up, rather than just that silly little arrow with no indication of speed.

Regardless of the flaws, I’m pretty sure playing this qualifies you to be a concert cellist.

Tags: cello hero, classical music, saint-saens