The Mystic Scriabin in the Himalayas

Sometimes music is all we need to dive into some special world of art, beauty and comprehension. But when music is enhanced by other senses – vision, smell and touch – a powerful effect is created.

We know Alexander Scriabin as the music master who developed the atonal music language putting major focus on mysticism. He had a very special and unique musical system where colors and harmonies played the central role. Alexander Scriabin is considered to be the main symbolist composer of Russia. His music was both innovating and controversial, its influence later stretched on Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Roslavets, among others.

Despite all the fame and appreciation, Scriabin was very soon forgotten after his death in 1915. However, years passed and his music was re-evaluated, his contribution re-acknowledged.

Yesterday I came across this trailer and then watched the entire unique performance - a tribute to the great Russian composer.

I applaud to the idea itself, it is such a great thing to embody what Scriabin would have wanted. The multi-sensory performance organized in the Himalayas is a well-thought event that puts all the necessary highlights on Scriabin’s music values. The colors, the sounds, the height, the sacred mysticism of the Himalayas  - all that creates a perfect setting for the music of the talented symbolist.

Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 is for Harpsichord

Brandenburg Concertos composed by Johann Sebastian Bach are without exaggeration the most notable orchestral works of the Baroque period. There are six of them all in all, each composed at a different stage of Bach’s life, but all joined in a set to be presented to the Malgrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt – Christian Ludwig – in 1721.

Bach playing organ

Brandenburg Concertos embrace a wide range of music instruments and were unprecedented in many ways, in scoring particularly. Bach himself being an outstanding organ and harpsichord played, gave special spotlight to the harpsichord. In fact, his Brandenburg Concerto No.5 is the first concerto where a solo keyboard instrument has such an important part.

Too bad that these unique concertos were not given to the rights hands: Christian Ludwig was not a big connoisseur of music, so the Brandenburg Concertos were left without the proper attention until they got re-discovered in 1849 by Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn who found them in Brandenburg archives.

Many notable orchestras have performed the six famous works. The concertos were also played as chamber works. The two most famous batons under which these pieces sounded were those of Herbert von Karajan and Karl Richter. The latter also did a stunning harpsichord solo of the 5th concerto that definitely deserves to be listened to (start at 6:30):

Adele Is Back, Hello!

She’s back and is as stunning as ever! A lot of fans worldwide have been waiting for Adele’s comeback for an eternity it seems. And she brought them the joy by presenting the new song “Hello” released in October 2015.

Adele in the music video to the song "Hello"

As we know, Adele took a pause in writing music having dedicated herself to the family and the new-born son. We also know that Adele doesn’t write songs without inspiration and huge personal involvement. This is why everyone was patiently waiting to hear the new hits from the new Adele so much. When you first hear the title of the new song – Hello – you may think that it’s just a symbolic “Hello, everyone, I’m back!”, but it’s definitely not.

The comeback song symbolizes a telephone conversation of Adele with the younger version of herself. It is a dialog with all those who used to be a part of the singer’s life and no longer are. An iconic song that once again stresses the importance of finding strengths to move on whatever happens in life. The vocals are stunning as always and the message as global as it can be, concerning way too many of us. Hello from the other side..

Hello is the lead single from the upcoming album by Adele under the simple title “25”. Let us hope that the new album of the ‘grown-up’ Adele is even more powerful as her previous work (due in November 2015, soon!).

The Eternal Ave Maria

Since early times, men of art have been dedicating a good part of their creative work to religious themes. Virgin Mary is perhaps one of the biggest religious objects of inspiration for painters, poets and, of course, musicians. The majority of greatest composers of all time have at least a piece dedicated to the Blessed Mother of God.

Despite the big number of such music compositions, there’s still one that can now be called almost unrivaled, and that’s the Ave Maria by Schubert (a music setting of "Ellen's Third Song" from Walter Scott’s poem “The Lady of the Lake”). This piece is recognized and played worldwide and is perhaps the major dedication to the Blessed Virgin.

So many versions of Ave Maria appeared since the moment of its creation. Both classical composers of the past and contemporary ones made their own arrangement of the piece. In order to present their own vision of the composition musicians have gone through various experiments. Here’s a video of the piece performed on musical saw. To me it sounds very harmonious and the high poignant ‘voice’ of the saw suit the image perfectly.

In fact, to my own surprise I found out that the size of the repertoire for the musical saw is quite extensive. Moreover, there were composers who created music specifically for this instrument (Penderecki, Minden, Enescu).

I believe that some eternal composition like Ave Maria are so refined that would sound admirably played on whatever instrument.

Taylor Swift's Intense Hit "Bad Blood"

They say that the best works in different spheres of art are mostly begot as a result of some sad, tragic or shocking events in a human’s life. The cases when enormous happiness became the reason for a masterpiece are tangibly less frequent. The anger, the anxiety, the offense seems to be a powerful creative driving force, especially among musicians.

Taylor Swift created a lot of mysticism on the eve of releasing her new single “Bad Blood”, and even more preliminary discussions took place right before the video was uploaded to her YouTube Vevo. Numerous Taylor’s fans are already accustomed to listening about the singer’s personal life in her songs. The long list of star boyfriends gave her a lot of inspiration for writing music. But it’s a different story with “Bad Blood”. This time the fan club was eager to find out why Swift wrote a song about a close friend’s betrayal and who was the female who had set her up.

The person whom the song is addressed to was never mentioned publicly but the journalists hurried to draw parallels and come to the conclusion that the only possible ‘friend’-subject of the song was Katy Perry and the incident with the concert sabotage that had taken place earlier.

No matter what pushed Taylor for it, the result managed to conquer the music arena no worse than the boyfriend stories. The team she gathered for the video is quite powerful, which also added to the intensity of the song. Should the fans thank Katy now?

Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major

If the desire to achieve something is too big – there is almost no way anything can stand in your way to achieve it. History remembers so many cases of amazingly strong will displayed. And I’ve forever been admiring those people who can proceed with their aims despite even the hardest hardships.

Below is the 1937 recording of the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein playing the Concerto in D Major composed by Maurice Ravel between 1929 and 1930.

The peculiarity of the piece is that it was written for the left hand only, specially for Paul who lost his right arm during the Second Word War. He was the one who commissioned this music work by his friend composer and the one who premiered it in 1932.

Ravel was deeply dedicated to ‘protect’ the original form AND meaning of the concerto – for left hand players only, for people like Paul. However, ever before the day of premiere, there were attempts to change it. Alfred Cortot made his own arrangement for a regular two-hand piano performance and orchestra. Ravel struggled to not let it get published and performed, and contacted many conductors on the matter. Only after the composer’s death, the two-hand arrangement resumed its public appearances and even got recorded.

Bruckner’s 8th, Perspective-Changing Symphony

As an organist and composer of a lot of choral music (both secular & sacred), Anton Bruckner had a special composing style that to some may seem quite complex and sophisticated. Composer’s works were always very original and most often monumental. It first of all regards his symphonies – there are 11 of them.

The crown of monumentalism is Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 which was his last work. It was not the last numerically (there’s also No.9) but it’s the last that he completed. The 8th was dedicated to the then emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I – composer officially asked for permission to make it so.

Sometimes one may find a nickname used for this epic work – it’s called “The Apocaliptic” (not by composer himself). The other day I’ve run into a short simple video that perfectly witnesses the truly apocalyptic character of this classical masterpiece. The amount of drama that emerged after the 8th was set as background to the video is just unbelievable! That’s the power of music that can instantly change the perspective, isn’t it.

 

Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol on Guitar

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was fond of Spanish motives which in 1887 inspired him for composing his famous work “Capriccio Espagnol” (literally ‘capriccio on Spanish themes’). Originally the 5-movement composition divided in 2 parts was meant for violin solo and orchestra. But the composer chose to make it purely orchestral in order to highlight the Spanish melodies.

When performed by an orchestra, the piece does sound so lively and cheerful. It was hard for me to imagine it played (and played no less beautifully) on a solo instrument. And even harder it was to imagine its sound on a guitar, solo guitar. Jorge Caballero’s guitar arrangement took me by surprise: so unexpectedly bright and melodic his arrangement turned out to be!  Below is the video of that flawless and I must say brilliant performance.

What’s Game of Thrones to You?

I’ve noticed that I start perceiving the simplest things through the prism of music. And things like movies, TV series and even animated cartoons are especially closely connected with music, for music makes a good part of their image, atmosphere and influence on the viewer.

I do not watch the Game of Thrones but I started reading the book, which lets me create even brighter scenes in my imagination. However, I could not ignore the widely recognized music theme from the series that is so loved by the millions-of-fans army around the world. The ‘mass’ is not always the right but in this case I understand why the main theme is so appealing. I got myself the piano score of Game of Thrones composed by the big film-music talent Ramin Djawadi and got down to learning to play it right away. The sheet music is not as complicated as I thought it would be and turned out to be a delicious piece to master. Now that I’ve finally practiced a decent enough performing I can realize how great the composer’s work is.

It never is easy to create the sound image of some work, and especially of a work as pretentious as Game of Thrones. Moreover, it should not be only your personal perception but the reflection of the full power of a twisted and complicated creation. The best reward for the composer’s hard work is the wide acknowledgement on the side of common watchers and fans who can relate to the theme music and say “That’s exactly what Game of Thrones sounds to me!”, as well as for musicians like me who would play the melody even out of context and be increasingly aware of its music depth and creative power.

Bach's Prelude and Fugue No.1 on Non-Instruments

The Well-Tempered Clavier is by far one of the most influential music works of all time (though I think it could easily be called THE most). Composed by Bach in 1722, this unique multi-purpose book of preludes and fugues was the starting point of many beginners as well a training material for music pros. The most popular prelude-and-fugue out of 48 compositions in the book is the first one – the one on the basis of which the famous Gounod’s setting for Ave Maria was made.

Now, since 1722, can you imagine how many times this prelude was performed? Incalculable, perhaps. Some play it indeed for studying purposes, others for sharpening the skills, and others for pure pleasure. And those who are always in search of new creative performances are trying to make something special even out of works as ‘over-played’ as this. I’ve just found a curious performance of Bach’s masterpiece on guess what – boomwhackers. How cool is that?

Eurovision 2015 Winning Song Score

Do you like to watch Eurovision? I’m personally a big fan of this song contest and I’m looking forward to it every year ready to vote for the best song. I know there have been a lot of rumors about the other side of this competition and the financial games behind it but that’s what happens, more or less, within any significant contest of such a scale. In my view, the most important thing in this case is the fact that in the end we do get some really great quality music product. The songs that sound on the stage become really popular among people, the nations get so knit together, for the time of competition at least, and the artists get a chance to deliver the result of their hard creative work to the listener who’s waiting for it.

This year was marked by another bright event and as a result brought us some really lovely music works. The winner of Eurovision 2015 – a Swedish singer Måns Zelmerlöw conquered the listeners’ hearts with his symbolic song “Heroes”. Now it can be played by any musician worldwide. I personally think that’s a very decent choice. Among other contestants that I believe could have shared the biggest prize are Belgium, Estonia, Russia… Though every contestant did a very good job representing his/her country.

Beethoven’s Ode to Joy Is Universal

Why do certain music works become the most performed in music halls of the world? To think about it, the list of such classical compositions is not that long considering the scale of the planet. So what made them cross the numerous borders and penetrate into so different cultures of the world? Let’s see how this happened at the example of one of world’s most well-known compositions to date – Beethoven’s SymphonyNo.9.

Since the bright premiere night of the symphony in Vienna in 1824, with Beethoven’s own rare appearance on the stage, the sounds of composer’s greatest work have been so widespread that there is hardly any hall – big or small – where it wasn’t performed. The symphony is known as ‘choral’ due to the vocals added to it: the final movement contains words from the poem by Friedrich Schiller “Ode to Joy”. This made a big novelty in classical music and made Beethoven (who was almost deaf at that time, by the way) the first composer to use voice in a symphony. Some experts criticized him for that but in the end many outstanding composers to come were deeply influenced by this work – Brahms, Bruckner, Dvořák, to name some.

The symphony became so iconic that a lot was measured by it. Just take the regular CD that was designed in such a way that it could be enough to hold the complete recording of the 9th.

Today, the 9th voices sound all over the world, words sung by so many different people from different cultures. Beethoven’s masterpiece is not just a symphony, it can be literally called an Ode to Joy in so many ways. The ‘ode’ used to sound as the Olympic Games anthem, it’s the Anthem of European Union and it’s been more than popular in Japan until now, sounding at all major symbolic events.

It’s something that’s already universal, no matter where it came from. The music legacy of humanity.

Rachmaninoff Performed by Lisitsa

Having a favorite composer, or two, or a dozen – is one thing. But even the most well-known and widely-recognized music masterpieces can be performed in so diverse ways. Thus having your favorite performer, I believe, can say a lot about a person. It’s all in the small nuances, and colors, and mood, and energy that are present in a certain performing style.

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is no doubt among my unchanging all-time favorites and I’ve listened to quite of a lot interpretations of this almost-piano-concerto. Those include the original performance of the master Rachmaninoff himself (as we know he often played his own works), the version of Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Rubinstein at the piano, of course, and my favorite perhaps – Valentina Lisitsa’s performance. Here she plays on piano Variation 18 from the Rhapsody. Isn’t it wonderful? It’s definitely one of Valentina’s brightest performances of Rachmaninoff to me. Just listen and enjoy.

Who’s your favorite performer now?

Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars: “Uptown Funk”

I always couldn’t help but agree that all the new stuff is just the well-forgot old stuff. Same in fashion, same in architecture, same in any form of art, including, of course, music! It all returns.

That’s what I thought when heard “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson, featuring Bruno Mars’ vocals. (The actual impression was that it was Bruno Mars’ song with Mark Ronson and not vice versa, but well). The good thing about this song is that it becomes one’s flashback into the popular cultures of the past and conveys them perfectly! The flavors of disco, funk, RnB and the entire spirit of the 80ies make you wanna groove from the very first chords. No wonder Ronson got a British Single of the Year award for it and during the first week Uptown Funk could be intensely streamed, listened and danced to all over the world.
Verdict: it worked just fine!

Here, take the score, and here, taste the video:

Sentence Me to Bach!

So I run into this short note on NBC News saying that a certain guy, Andrew Vactor by name, was listening to music too loudly in public and to be punished for that received a most curious sentence. Andrew could simply pay a fine of $150 but the judge thought of an alternative. She allowed reducing the fine ($35 instead of $150) on condition that the guy would spend 20 hours listening to classical music! How do you like that?

The idea is clear, of course – the judge simply wanted to show Andrew what it's like, to be forced to listen to something against your will and taste. But the fact itself made me wonder. How many of today’s teenagers would perceive listening to classical music as punishment? I’m afraid to know the answer, to be honest. It’s kinda sad that we are gradually losing that fragile sense of the beautiful that is brought up by classical music. Parents, please, if you like classics, try planting it in your kids from early childhood!

As for Andrew, he was an ardent fan of rap music so he chose to pay the full fine. The guy, however, mentioned that it was rather for the ‘lack of time’, not because the unbearable punishment.

LEGO harpsichord

I sometimes wonder how people get inspired for creating certain things. Isn’t it wonderful that at some point of your life you may get ‘hit’ by some crazy idea and find it embodied in real life after a while? I truly respect people who have courage and strength for both developing an idea and fulfilling it.

 Here’s an amazing example of how a guy called Henry Lim created a most beautiful harpsichord from as many as a hundred pieces of LEGO.  I’ve always found some special charm about harpsichords and that’s why this caught my eye. As you probably know, the harpsichord had two ‘birth times’. The original harpsichord era is the 18th century, when it could be heard in all courts and could boast of having a great patron – Bach, who loved it a lot and thus scored a lot of music works for it.

Unfortunately, by the 20th century harpsichord completely gave way to it more popular follower – the piano. And it seemed to have faded for quite a long time until Mrs. Landowska brought back to life again. And I’m glad we have it back, really! With the amount of music compositions for harpsichord that are abundant today, I’d definitely consider possessing one myself. And especially if it’s as original as Mr. Lim’s creation.

The most beautiful thing about this LEGO instrument is that it’s actually fully PLAYABLE! Considering that it’s fully made from those tiny LEGO pieces (well, but for the strings, of course), it’s a little miracle to me. There are, surely, a few tricks used to make it possible (like covering some pieces with special resonant tiles), but we are to face the fact: it cost a lot of effort, time and it works!