The world is ugly. Downtowns smell like garbage and sound like diesel busses and jackhammers. People push, whine and don’t always bring something when they come for dinner. The news is filled with stories of our climate spinning out of control and too much groping at our airports.
The commercials on TV are too loud. Too many walls are painted beige.
Thank goodness for art.
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor is one of those classical pieces that has captured the imaginations of millions of classical music fans. And really, it’s no wonder. Right from the big brassy opening you know it’s going to be something special. Then the pianist starts galloping across the keyboard. It’s exciting stuff.
Music like this often transcends beyond the concert hall. It shows up in movies, TV shows… and razor-blade commercials.
Here’s a roundup of just a few places where the Tchaik’ concerto has reared it’s grandiose and lyrical head.
1) Monty Python
2) The Muppets (with Victor Borge)
3) Repulsive 1941 pop-ified version by Freddy Martin and His Orchestra (Tonight We Love)
I often wonder what Tchaikovsky himself would have to say about this…
Hear Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 played by Lang Lang and the Chicago Symphony tomorrow morning on Sound Ideas.
Though my housemates may disagree, listening to music in the morning is the best way to start the day.
Each evening before going to bed, I load my CD player with the music that will be the overture and prelude to the next day. Then, the next morning I wake up to music that is designed to energize me for the day. Without it, I feel like a coffee addict without his or her morning cup. But with it, I am inspired to get out of bed and get my day started.
I know that I’m not the only one to use music as a morning caffeine substitute. Each day, millions of Canadians wake up to morning radio shows or homemade iTunes playlists. All of this listening is not without its benefits. Researchers have long been studying the cognitive benefits of music. The results? It’s good for you. Just as one wouldn’t skip eating breakfast or brushing teeth, listening to the perfect morning music is the best way to drop the needle on the day.
What is your favourite morning music?
(Photo: sachman75)
You’ve seen him (or, in the all-to-rare occasion, her) standing in front of the orchestra madly waving the baton. But apart from looking good in tails, why does the modern orchestra need a conductor?
The cynic in me wants to say to give jobs to people who can’t play instruments, but that wouldn’t be very nice would it?
This video, from the TED conference, does a great job at highlighting just how important the conductor is.
It’s a tough job. The conductor is in charge of communicating a “musical vision” to the orchestra. This is everything from picking speeds and dynamics to cueing entries and cutting off endings. All of this, using only two tools: the baton and body language.
So what makes a good conductor? Well take a look at Leonard Bernstein conducting a movement from Haydn’s Symphony 88. Watch the way he uses a huge range of facial expression to show the orchestra exactly how he wants them to sound. There’s a great art to it, and surely nobody has mastered it as well as Bernstein.
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They say fine penmanship is a lost art. I can vouch for this, my handwriting can be mistaken for Egyptian hieroglyphics. As I was putting together today’s program I came across Beethoven’s sketches for his Pastorale Symphony. I don’t feel so bad now.
Classical music has many rules, most of which were broken at this past Saturday’s 1812 at Fort Henry performance by the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. The rule about audiences not being allowed to have fun at concerts? That was disobeyed as soon as the symphony began the first bars of the Flintstones theme. Then, the all important rule of not talking during a performance was literally blown away when a member of the Fort Henry Guard yelled ‘fire!’ cuing a set of musically-timed cannons. This is a Kingston tradition that is not your average night at the symphony.
The orchestra, under the baton of Glen Fast, along with Halifax chanteuse Jill Barber and the Fort Henry Guard refused to let any hail storm stop the festivities. The concert, which ran on Friday and Saturday night, opened up with a series of popular classics and movie music. Even the music of famously grumpy composer Johannes Brahms found its place– right after the familiar sounds of the Star Wars theme.
The second half of the program had Jill Barber take the stage along with her own band, and brand new backing band: the Kingston Symphony. Barber’s smoky folkie voice, along with the symphony’s smooth string section were perfectly suited for a packed parade square at Fort Henry. Her tunes echoed through the limestone walls as though it’s what they were built for. She left the stage with the audience wanting more, but nobody left unsatisfied after the main event. The grand finale was Tchaikovsky’s famous 1812 Overture, complete with gunfire, cannon blasts and fireworks. It was a total sensory feast.
In an era where aging and diminishing classical music audiences is a major concern for orchestras, bringing the orchestra outside of the concert hall may just be the solution. There was a real positive buzz from young and old as the audience was leaving the fort. The stuffy stigma that goes along with orchestra concerts was left behind and everyone was just there to have fun.
This is the perfect Kingston event. It takes advantage of a rich cultural heritage site, it showcases a community organization to a different clientele, and it is great for tourism. This is a unique Kingston tradition that I’m proud of. Besides, aren’t Kingstonians known for breaking a rule or two?
Michael Morreale
Sometimes you have to pick just one thing, and do it really well. Frederick Chopin never tried his hand at writing a symphony or string quartet, it was all piano music. And he was really a master at the craft. He had outgrown his musical life in Warsaw and set out to find his place of ultimate musical satisfaction. And he found it– in Paris.
But his career as a concert pianist didn’t work out for him. He found his music was too intimate and his playing too sensitive to excite listeners in large halls. Besides, he had wicked stage fright. However, he found himself perfectly at home playing with aristocratic surroundings and the sophisticated company of famous artists, writers and other musicians. So the bulk of his career was spend traveling around the fashionable world of Parisian high society, and did he ever live the part.
“This is my way of playing” he wrote, “and it also delights the ladies.”
One of his most famous pieces is his second piano sonata– otherwise known as the Funeral March. It’s a deeply misunderstood piece. Sure it has it’s sad and tragic moments, but there’s sun behind those clouds…and it sure shines through.
