Alongside the second and third piano concerti, Rachmaninoff´s “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini” is probably among his best-known. It has frequently been used as theme music for motion pictures.
In the comfort of his own Villa Senar on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, which he designed himself to be reminiscent of his family estate, Ivanovka, in Russia, Rachmaninoff composed the Rhapsody in 1934.
Here is an excerpt with the excellent pianist Mihail Pletnev and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Dudley Moore (1935 – 2002), was an English actor, comedian and musician.
Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s and became famous as half of the hugely popular television double-act he formed with Peter Cook.
His musical talent won him a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford and whilst studying music and composition there, he performed with Alan Bennett in the Oxford Revue. Bennett then recommended him to the producer putting together Beyond the Fringe, a comedy revue, where he was to first meet Peter Cook. Beyond the Fringe was at the forefront of the 1960s satire boom and after enormous success in Britain, it transferred to the USA where it was also a major hit. His fame as a comedic actor was later heightened by his success in Hollywood movies such as 10 with Bo Derek and Arthur in the late 1970s and early 1980s, respectively.
Moore was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award but lost to Henry Fonda (for On Golden Pond). He did, however, win a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy. In 1984, Moore had another hit, starring in the Blake Edwards directed Micki + Maude, co-starring Amy Irving. This won him another Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy.
In addition to acting, Moore continued to work as a composer and pianist, writing scores for a number of films and giving piano concerts, which were highlighted by his popular parodies of classical favourites. In addition, Moore collaborated with the conductor Sir Georg Solti to create a 1991 television series, Orchestra!, which was designed to introduce audiences to the symphony orchestra. He later worked with the American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas on a similar television series from 1993, Concerto!, likewise designed to introduce audiences to classical music concertos.
In 1987, he was interviewed for the New York Times by the music critic Rena Fruchter, herself an accomplished pianist. They became close friends. At that time Moore’s film career was already on the wane. He was having trouble remembering his lines, a problem he had never previously encountered. He opted to concentrate on the piano, and enlisted Fruchter as an artistic partner. They performed as a duo in the U.S. and Australia. However, his disease soon started to make itself apparent there as well, as his fingers would not always do what he wanted them to do.
In June 2001, Moore was appointed a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (CBE). Despite his deteriorating condition, he attended the ceremony, mute and wheelchair-bound, at Buckingham Palace to collect his honour.
This clip is from the 1950’s-60s British comedy group “Beyond the Fringe. Dudley Moore plays a very funny but also musically ambitious parody of a Beethoven piano sonata based on very odd yet well-known thematic material.
In December 2007 American pianist Leon Fleisher reached a high point in a remarkable career when he was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, D.C.
A child prodigy, Fleisher began studying the piano at age four, gave his first public recital at eight, and at nine was taken under the wing of the legendary Austrian pianist and teacher Artur Schnabel. Fleisher made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Monteux in 1944, and he ensured his place among the top pianists of the day when he won Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition in 1952. Thereafter, he was much in demand by orchestras, concert promoters, and record companies. Especially notable was his series of concerts and recordings featuring the concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
In early 1965 Fleisher began suffering from a malfunction of his right hand: the ring and little fingers curled uncontrollably to his palm. The problem was diagnosed in 1991 as focal dystonia, a condition related to repetitive-stress syndrome, which not infrequently affects musicians. Undaunted, Fleisher focused his energies on teaching and conducting. Eventually Fleisher began performing left-hand pieces for piano. (A number of such works—including compositions by Maurice Ravel, Sergey Prokofiev, Benjamin Britten, and Paul Hindemith—were written for Paul Wittgenstein, a gifted pianist who lost his right arm in World War I.) In addition, Fleisher commissioned or inspired new works from William Bolcom, Lukas Foss, Gunter Schuller, and several other notable composers. During his years of affliction, Fleisher sought relief in numerous treatments, including brain surgery; in the mid-1990s he discovered that occasional injections of Botox (botulinum toxin used as a muscle relaxant) combined with Rolfing (a type of massage therapy) ameliorated the condition. Fleisher returned to two-hand performance in 1995; his right hand steadily improved, although he did not abandon the left-hand repertoire. In 2004 he played a triumphant return recital at Carnegie Hall, and he made his first solo two-hand recording since the 1960s. A short documentary film by Nathaniel Kahn about Fleisher’s persistence, Two Hands, was nominated for a 2007 Academy Award.
Igor Stravinsky characterized Prokofiev as the greatest Russian composer of his day. Prokofiev was also an excellent pianist, and often performed his own works.
Some of his solo piano music performances were recorded for HMV in Paris in 1935, and he was also soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra in the first recording of his third piano concerto, recorded in London on the HMV label in 1932. These recordings are now available on CD on the Pearl and Naxos labels.
In this encore from a recital at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 2005, a young Hungarian ”rising star” pianist and Steinway artist Adam Gyorgy displays his sensitive interpretation with a steady yet lively rhythmic sense of repetition, cultivated contrasts and lovely clarity of articulation.
The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square in London is arranging a Dame Myra Hess Day on the 25th of November (2008). This annual event honours Dame Myra Hess who initiated, directed and performed a series of legendary concerts at the National Gallery during the Second World War.
This year’s concerts will take place in the Barry Rooms (Room 36), where the original concerts were also held. UK-based international pianist Piers Lane is the artistic director of the Myra Hess concerts, and the arrangement is supported by The Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation.
During the war years and the blitz, Dame Myra Hess organized over one
thousand concerts at the National Gallery. The Gallery had removed all
the paintings, keeping just one on display each month, and thousands of
people (many not regular concertgoers) came to listen, be inspired, and
possibly garner a little hope from these wartime concerts.
The concerts were a cultural oasis for thousands of Londoners during a time when the concert halls and theatres were otherwise closed. For Myra Hess, the concerts were a wonderful opportunity to “give spiritual solace to those who are giving all to combat the evil”.
Legendary English pianist Dame Myra Hess (1890-1965) studied at the Royal Academy of Music. She made her London debut in 1907, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 under Sir Thomas Beecham.
She first appeared in the United States in 1922.
Her playing was acclaimed in terms of both its virtuosity and poetic sensitivity.
Hess was most renowned for her interpretations of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, but had a wide repertoire ranging from Domenico Scarlatti to works by contemporary composers.
In this rendition of the first movement of Beethoven´s “Appassionata” Op. 57 from 1945, her modern sense of drive and virtuosity, which never overshadows the poetic vision of drama and contrast, is clear for all to hear.
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920 -1995) was an Italian classical pianist. He is considered among the most commanding and individualistic piano virtuosi of the 20th century, alongside names such as Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter.
Along with Ferruccio Busoni, he is often described as the most important Italian pianist ever.
He obtained his soloist’s diploma at the age of fourteen, and was immediately launched into his concert career. His extraordinary talent was recognized instantly and in 1939 he won first prize in the prestigious Geneva International Competition, under a jury headed by Ignaz Paderewski. His importance as a key figure among 20th-century pianists was confirmed when Cortot said:
“Here is a new Liszt”.
Michelangeli built a reputation as much on the frequency of his cancellation of concerts as on his piano performances.
He recorded for Deutsche Grammophon between 1971 and 1989, including four Mozart and three Beethoven concerti with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Carlo Maria Giulini. The Beethoven recordings are from live television broadcasts.
Heralded by critics and fellow musicians as one of the outstanding pianists of his generation, Argentine-Venezuelan pianist Sergio Tiempo has quickly risen to international prominence since his debut in 1986 at age 14 as part of the “Great Pianists” series at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
He now appears regularly in recitals and with orchestras in the great concert halls of Europe, North America, South America and Japan.
In Katie Hafner´s recent book; A Romance on Three Legs - Glenn Goulds Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (2008), the author has avoided well known and often exaggerated stories concerning Gould´s eccentricity. Instead, she focuses on Gould´s musical perfectionism, which was, of course, also quite eccentric.
The main characters in the book are Gould, the Steinway grand of his choice—instrument number CD 318—and his piano technician Verne Edquist. When it was in transport at one point in 1971, this grand piano was subject to a terrible collision and could never be properly restored.
Therefore, ironically, neither of the two Gould recordings of J.S. Bach´s Goldberg Variations (1955 and 1981) were made on Gould´s favourite instrument.
The Aria is played here on a Yamaha grand, shortly before Gould´s death in October 1982.
Glenn Gould´s contribution to to the world of Bach performance was rich and complex.
In addition to adding to the incipient popularity of original instrumental ancient music movement in the 1960s and 70s, Gould´s interpretations taught us about the potential of articulation and tempo (never indicated in Bach’s scores).
In this Aria, Gould uses a slower tempo than usual, giving an improvisational basis for the theme with time to experience both the importance of articulation, baroque decorations and the free, singing melody in a slowly moving harmonic context.
His experiments with time and musical meter truly changed our ideas of how to play Bach.
Leonard Marx, known as Chico and Arthur Marx (previously Adolph Marx), popularly known as Harpo Marx were two of the Marx Brothers.
Groucho Marx one time said that Chico never practiced the pieces he played. Before performances he would soak his fingers in hot water before going on instead.
He was known for “shooting” the keys of the piano. As part of the act he would play passages with his thumb up and index finger straight — like a gun (he appears in the film “A Year to Remember” (1948) playing an extraordinary “shooting” version of the famous Australian song ”Waltzing Matilda” to a group of Australian soldiers).
Another charming example of his keyboard flamboyance is found in the film ”A Night at the Opera”.
Critics’ choice was Arcadi Volodos´ Liszt recital on Sony, considered a stunning piano sensation in 2007. The recording session was held at the Berlin Teldex studio, which isn’t a particularly intimate venue, and thus the listener has the impression of a champion pianist playing for his own pleasure in a large recital room.
This video pick, however, offers a different acoustic setting altogether, with the grand piano on a boat in the Amsterdam canal. The water level placement of the instrument, the crowds seated all around, and the surrounding townhouses are clearly audible.
Arcadi Volodos performs Liszt´s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 at the Prinzengracht Concert in 2001:
What was once a free festival of classical music presented on the canal bank in front of the Hotel Pulitzer in Amsterdam has expanded into a five-day programme consisting of approximately 90 concerts attended by some 50,000 visitors each year.
Named after the canal on which it is performed, the Prinsengracht Concert has its focal pointon an open pontoon moored in front of the hotel. Crowds arrive on foot and by boat to savour chamber music drifting on the early evening air.
Organised by the Pulitzer Hotel, the performances by renowned musicians take place on the banks of the canal, on boats and on various bridges over the canal. The waterside trees are illuminated, creating a magical effect for the event. An alternative indoor venue is available in case of bad weather.
The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square in London is arranging a Dame Myra Hess Day on the 25th of November (2008). This annual event honours Dame Myra Hess who initiated, directed and performed a series of legendary concerts at the National Gallery during the Second World War.
During the war years and the blitz, Dame Myra Hess organized over one
