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Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:23 pm Posts: 512 Location: France
This is quite phenomenal playing of Chopin's 'Heroique' polonaise Op. 53 by Dong-Min Lim
Just listen to the left-hand ostinato passage in the bass starting at 03.15 to 03.43! The dynamic control of the gradual crescendo and the sheer stamina involved is absolutely unbelievable!!! It's even more incredible in the repeat. It makes my hand ache just watching him.
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:23 pm Posts: 512 Location: France
This is quite extraordinary too: Horowitz playing his own 'Variations on Carmen' at the White House in 1978 in front of Jimmy Carter. The conclusion of the piece, from 03.21 to the end, is the height of spectacular virtuosity allied to consummate showmanship. I know I said that virtuosity per se can be an empty experience but in the hands of a master musician it can also be utterly transporting, moving and thrilling!
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:23 pm Posts: 512 Location: France
A very fine, semi-staged performance of the penultimate scene from Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Rodney Gilfrey as the Don, Ildebrando D'Archangelo as Leporello and Andrea Silvestrelli as the Commendatore (the same cast as on the Archiv recording). It's not a typical performance (and the interaction with the audience at the end is a bit annoying) but the electricity is palable! John Eliot Gardiner conducts the English Baroque Soloists. Place yourself back in Prague on the evening of 29th October 1787 when Mozart conducted this piece for the first time. What an extraordinary cultural moment.
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:34 am Posts: 3898 Location: Idaho Falls, ID
Very nice indeed. The man almost convinces me that opera is a viable music form. (To be honest, the one and only opera I own is Don Giovanni, so I guess I'm at least partially convinced of the importance of this opera.)
_________________ "I learned more from a three minute record, than I ever did in school."
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:23 pm Posts: 512 Location: France
smileyman wrote:
Very nice indeed. The man almost convinces me that opera is a viable music form. (To be honest, the one and only opera I own is Don Giovanni, so I guess I'm at least partially convinced of the importance of this opera.)
Well if you're going to have one opera then Don Giovanni is a good choice!
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:24 am Posts: 13005 Location: London, England
rich23434565 wrote:
smileyman wrote:
Very nice indeed. The man almost convinces me that opera is a viable music form. (To be honest, the one and only opera I own is Don Giovanni, so I guess I'm at least partially convinced of the importance of this opera.)
Well if you're going to have one opera then Don Giovanni is a good choice!
Here's another good choice! The greatest finale from the greatest opera for you...
_________________ "If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:23 pm Posts: 512 Location: France
Ew. I jumped straight to the thrilling final chorus, in Beethoven's best tub-thumping manner. The rest of it would've sent me to sleep. Really, it's an opera I cannot bear to listen to. It's one really boring scene after another. I'll stick with Leonore III.
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:24 am Posts: 13005 Location: London, England
rich23434565 wrote:
Ew. I jumped straight to the thrilling final chorus, in Beethoven's best tub-thumping manner. The rest of it would've sent me to sleep. Really, it's an opera I cannot bear to listen to. It's one really boring scene after another. I'll stick with Leonore III.
The opening of the finale is performed a little sedately here (with a theme borrowed from Luchesi apparently), but considering all you have heard is Klemperer's performance, of which the whole of the opera is performed at half the required tempo or even slower, I'm afraid you are not qualified to comment on this music. The whole opera is full of 'tub thumping' moments performed correctly. But the last four minutes of Fidelio says more than the whole of Don Giovanni put together, so either way you are a winner with this youtube.
_________________ "If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin
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Well if you're going to have one opera then