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Good classical music on YouTube

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Here's short quiet one with a another Birmingham and a Midland connection. The Birmingham connection is that it is the CBSO conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. The Midland connections are many because it is the 13th Variation from Sir Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations written whilst he was living in Worcestershire. But who is this mysterious number 13? Some say it was Lady Mary Lygon of Madresfield Court on whom he had a bit of a quiet crush, & who had just sailed off to Australia, & who as Lady Mary Trefusis became the first Secretary of the English Folk Dance Society. Others say it was Helen Weaver, to whom Elgar was once engaged, but she broke it off and sailed off to New Zealand, never to be seen again, or at least not by Elgar! :( The painting by the way is "Golding Constable's Kitchen Garden", c. 1815, by John Constable. Enjoy the mystery.

Maurice :cool:
 
Let's go vocal for a few minutes with Vilja from Franz Lehar's Merry Widow. This is a New York City Opera version.

Maurice :cool:
 
Christmas is far from over, especially in this part of the world. So here is some seasonal delight from my favourite orchestra, this time with their chorus and soloists, the Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra of Slovenia. And amongst the interesting facts about these concerts is that concert hall seats 1,500 people and the tickets sell out within just three minutes of ticket sales opening. Enjoy...........

Maurice :cool:
 
Thanks for that, Harry. I've listened to about ten minutes of it and will finish it off tomorrow. Again, a very pure choir of female voices.

Maurice :cool:
 
A short piece for tonight from my favourite orchestra - Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite. The conductor, Nejc Bečan, is a composer and is also the conductor of the 60-piece Slovenian Police Wind Orchestra. The Wind Orchestra perform at various official functions and have also given concerts all over Europe, including England. Married with a young family he lives in Ljubljana and his dog is, of course, a Dalmatian! Here's his day job:-
Slovenian Police Orchestra.jpg
Enjoy.

Maurice :cool:
 
I have many vivid memories of Classic music. My Dad (God bless him) was a concert pianist, we had a Bluthner grand piano in the front room and Dad was constantly playing all the classics. The Warsaw Concerto was his favorite I took Piano lessons for years, he even locked me in the room to practice, I HATED IT!!! Later on, after my two years in the RAF, I did take up music and started paying Alto Saxophone and clarinet. Of course, I spent hours playing the scales and getting proficient on the horns, I had already been interested in Opera, So I did have a good background in Classic music. This is one reason that I never became a JAZZ musician, I was always strictly a play the charts as written musician. But I still love classic and opera and also jazz now. When my Dad passed away my poor sister Joan had to dispose of the piano, when they tried to remove it FELL APART!!! from all the rot in the house!! Beautiful piano worth nothing. Dad would have looked down smiling I think!!!
 
A short piece for tonight from my favourite orchestra - Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite. The conductor, Nejc Bečan, is a composer and is also the conductor of the 60-piece Slovenian Police Wind Orchestra. The Wind Orchestra perform at various official functions and have also given concerts all over Europe, including England. Married with a young family he lives in Ljubljana and his dog is, of course, a Dalmatian! Here's his day job:-
View attachment 151483
Enjoy.

Maurice :cool:
Thats a lovely one Maurice, almost like Strauss in parts, and how beautiful is the sound of the harp
Lynn.
 
John,

A great story - it was your Dad's piano and I guess he tried to take it with him, but at least made sure no one else would! There's nothing wrong in playing the charts. I spent years getting my reading up to scratch when I was young. I would go to the library and come back with the maximum 6 volumes that you were allowed to take out at any one time, largely within my playing capability at the time. I would attempt to play straight through them just once. I would make mainly technical (fingering) mistakes and they were not that important if you were trying to improve your reading. The main thing is not to know what notes are coming at you!

Next day I would take them back and get six more. My reading really improved with backing cabaret in Bournemouth. Rarely did we get a rehearsal. The singer - Elaine Delmar & Lita Roza were a couple that I remember - would arrive, give you a pile of dots and that was it. If there was the odd bum note, that was the singer's problem - should have arranged a rehearsal, but I can't remember any time that it didn't go off OK, even if it might have been a bit hair-raising. The worst were bad hand-written copies, generally bits of a larger orchestral arrangement and we were only a quartet! Now there's all these notation programs that propduce the perfect printed copy. I have a couple myself, but I can still write quicker by hand even with my arthritis!

Jazz is a different kettle of fish and is something that develops with your playing. But there are still lots of good musicians that cannot improvise. I remember seeing Stephane Grapelli and Yehudi Menuhin together on something like Parkinson, and Menuhin, a very capable classical violinist, was struggling to improvise. Yet you had people such as Andre Previn who could do the lot, excellent composer, conductor, pianist (both classical & jazz). I loved that guy's performances whatever he did - always first class.

Opera is something that I enjoy too, especially Puccini or Verdi, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. I'll dig out an aria or two for this thread later on.

Lynn,

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the Emperor. More food for thought for this thread, but later!

Maurice :cool:
 
And finally for tonight another for maypolebaz - Sibelius' Finlandia with some lovely shots of Finland and its wild life.

Maurice :cool:
Lovely stuff ! Thanks Maurice.
My personal favourite version of "Finlandia" is the one played on Last Night of the Proms a couple of years ago. The conductor was Finnish. Incidentally, I chose "Be Still My Soul" for my mother's funeral, back in March.
 
maypolebaz,

I'm pleased you enjoyed it. I'm trying to include a bit of everything and not go to "highbrow". If it's got a few nice melodies, it will always appeal. There's generally a dozen versions of most things on YouTube. so I try to pick the best recording and one that has some visual appeal if possible.

Opera has been mentioned, and I'm spoiled for choice here with this one, as almost every soprano has recorded it. But I decided on Renee Fleming with the Berlin Philharmonic - Puccini's Oh my beloved father from his opera "Gianni Schicchi"

Maurice :cool:
 
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