The Show Must Go On

The combination of these words has turned into a sort of a slogan that embraces a powerful message in it. We live freely and never know when the real tragedy might strike and take away the most precious we’ve got – our life. But that’s not as bad as the necessity to live with the knowing of the exact time and way of how you are going to leave this world. What would you do knowing that? How would you live the rest of your life in that knowledge?

Most people struck by the sorrow, panic and self-pity would most likely let their hands down and surrender to the misery and depression. But not people like Freddy Mercury. He know he would die from AIDS soon nut nonetheless he let the show go on. "The Show Must Go On" song is a strong symbolic tribute to the fight for life despite the inevitable. Too weak to perform the song with lyrics by Brian May, Freddy didn’t dodge – he hit a glass of vodka and with the words "I'll fuckin do it, darling!" proceeded to recording the song, handling the complicated vocal pattern skillfully.  The resulting track hit the charts equally well both when Freddy was alive and after his death too. This, is the hymn of the generation, an example of willpower and decisiveness.

Lady Ella Fitzgerald

The Jazz Queen would have had a birthday today which no doubt would have been widely celebrated not only in her motherland – the USA – but around the whole world, because this woman deserved a lot of praise and honors even after her death. “Lady Ella” was born today in 1917 to become the first lady of song and a remarkable personality in the world of music, particularly jazz. Let’s mark this event!

Lady Ella

When going through Ella’s bio one can’t but be astonished by the many hardships she had to live through but despite which she still managed to turn into American Jazz-Queen with impeccable diction and singing technique. Ella went through various phases, not to be the one who gets everything easy. She used to be married to a drug-dealer, was homeless, lost her mother when a child, was abused by her step father, had legs amputated and suffered from diabetes. But it didn’t stop her from becoming a strong woman. Music community can be thankful to destiny for discovering such a ‘rough diamond’ as Ms. Fitzgerald. A unique voice covering three octaves span got her a diverse repertoire: songs "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", "How High the Moon", "Sugar Blues" and many other are still up in the memory. During her almost 60-years career Ella’s albums were sold in 40 mln copies, brought her 13 Grammies and Medals handed by Reagan and Bush personally.

Happy Birthday, dear Lady Ella!

Moon River for flute, oboe and clarinet

The ever charming Audrey Hepburn is not only known for the angel look and remarkable acting skills but for her soft voice that, once heard, can’t be forgotten for its melodic sounding and innocent sincerity. She was and is the icon in many senses - appearance, figure, play, fashion, style, lifestyle in general. Let’s remember some of her brightest moments as a singer today – particularly Audrey’s role of Holly in 1961 movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and the theme song “Moon River”.

Audrey Hepburn

This phrase must be immediately evoking a mental picture of Audrey’s sitting at the fire escape exit casually playing her little guitar. So iconic the image and the sound was that this song was chosen as a sample of pop culture used in various tests for studies of people’s memory. The song was composed by Henry Mancini specially for Audrey’s vocal range and the lyrics are due to Johnny Mercer. During the film production it was first decided to skip the song leaving it out of the scenario at all. But the fragile Audrey Hepburn reacted unexpectedly sharply even using some strong words to express her most ardent desire to leave the song as it is. Who could resist the charming girl? The song remained.

“Moon River” became a hit, and not only did it beat the Billboards on both sides of the Atlantic, received an Academy Award and two Grammies, it even became the name of a street (in Johnny Mercer’s home town). No need to mention the endless list of names of artists who covered and arranged the song. Such a short piece of music with such a powerful influence.

When I Was Your Man

“What if?” is the major question of regret. We keep imagining what would have changed if we had behaved differently in this or that situation. But for the moment we have what we have and the only thing remaining is to face the reality the way it is. That refers to everything, but the brightest example is no doubt romantic relationships between a man and a woman. Once we lose someone we start looking at things differently and too often our eyes open for things we refused to see while the thing lasted.

Familiar situation, familiar thoughts and reflection for most of us, huh? Bruno Mars admits, too, that when righting this song he didn’t even need to concentrate much because the whole thing came from the gut so naturally that the piece was composed at once. That was another piano soul ballad as a result, a single from Bruno’s second studio album, even though the singer had said he was not going to compose any of the kind anymore.

The work was positively received both by the fans and by the music critics. “When I Was Your Man” is said to have elements from different styles and even epochs. Critics saw something from Frank Sinatra, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Michael Jackson and Billy Joel. Mars’ vocals colored the song with additional vulnerability and emotional load.

Ode to Joy – Beethoven’s pride

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is indeed one of the most significant music works in the Western-classical repertoire. Some critics even named it the greatest music piece that has ever been written. And there are definitely reasons why this could be a deserved title.

Beethoven conducting

By the time the symphony was premiered in Vienna in 1824 Ludwig Beethoven was almost deaf. However, he was almost ‘directing’ the piece himself, notching the time and actively gesticulating to musicians, rising and shrinking as long as the music sounded according to his calculations. The orchestra, though, was told to mildly ignore the great composer because of his deafness. They say that the Symphony was badly rehearsed (only two dress rehearsals before premiere), but it didn’t bother it to be received with grand applause. After the orchestra ceased playing and calmed down at the last sound, Beethoven was a bit off the track and kept conducting. They say that one of the singers (contralto) came up to him and turn the master face to the audience – so that he could SEE the ovations if not hear them.

This was a choral symphony (Beethoven’s first one of this kind) and the choral part of it deserves special attention. “Ode to Joy” is one of the most played things up to now. The lyrics was taken from Schiller’s poem and revised, reworked and redone many times by composer before it reached the present form. Interesting but like many later-to-become-masterpieces works are initially underestimated by their authors. Schiller, too, thought that his poem was a complete failure. But it wasn’t. And Beethoven’s usage of it in his Symphony 9 engraved the greatness of for another few centuries minimum.

Swan Lake, Pyotr Tchaikovsky

What can be better that a magic fairy-tale – a fairy-tale with a beautiful romantic story in its essence, a story that would embed the good and the evil, the love and the hatred, the tears, the caress, the happiness and the death. All that is what’s to be found in the legendary ballet based on Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s music “The Lake of the Swans”. For over years it’s been gathering full theaters being admired by vast audiences.

Even up to now it’s hard to say that there is an ‘original’ version of the ballet. The ballet was staged many times since the 1877 premiere and every time something was changed about it, whether in the music score, or costumes, or decor, or dance movements.  Tchaikovsky himself was not happy at all about the debut performance of his work at the stage, he liked almost nothing about it calling the whole thing poor. But the ballet enjoys great success now, how come? The version staged at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow was revived in 1895 for the Imperial Ballet and the score was thoroughly revised Riccardo Drigo. The choreography was improved along with costumes. That version, both musically and artistically, is now considered a basic starting point for everyone who would consider staging his/her own interpretation of the famous ballet – like this arrangement for oboe trio, for instance. A memorable dance of the fragile devoted creatures with a deep innocent purport.

Toreador Singing to Oboe

One of the most characteristic cultural features of mostly Spain and Latin America (though not only), bullfighting still remains a major attraction luring tourists on visit from all over the world. And that is a pretty rewarding experience, a powerful tradition lasting no less than three thousand years since the times of bull worshiping and sacrificing.

Arenas where traditional corridas are held accumulate a great amount of energy as they become a place of joint emotions transmitted through the interaction of the masterful toreador, the indestructible bull and the stirred audience. The people of art never missed a chance to reflect the strongest emotions through creative work, especially music. And as for the beautiful opposition of the torero and the mighty bull, probably one of the most successful music pictures of that was painted by Georges Bizet in his famous aria from the opera Carmen. Perhaps the ‘peak-est’ moment of the opera picturing all that happens in the bullring, the fight, the cheering, the resistance. Oboists have a chance to sing the bull-fighters song in a new manner now – an interesting arrangement for oboe quintet and an optional cor anglais is up there for corrida music fans.