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?