The Chopin Currency - March 23, 2008

Today's Yundi Li Installment:

Yundi Li, pianist
Financial Times - London,England,UK

From the Financial Times, Yundi Li shares his fashion faves:

I wore this today because it's comfortable but tonight (in Hong Kong to accept the South China Morning Post and Harper's Bazaar Style Award for Performing Arts) I will wear a Gucci suit. I like Gucci because it's fashionable and modern. I also buy Dior Homme because it has a unique and special look that I love. A classical musician has no choice but to wear a traditional outfit when performing. Armani sponsors the tailcoat I wear for performances....

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Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews (Besides Yundi Li):

Frederica von Stade sings Pauline Viardot
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA

After all of the advance stories, a bona fide review of the Pauline Viardot program:

After performances in London and Paris, "Pauline Viardot and Friends" had its U.S. premiere Thursday at Herbst Theatre. With Marilyn Horne serving as armchair narrator and host, a la Alistair Cooke, the program unfolded as a genial, if sometimes labored, introduction to a figure who is surely new to most listeners. The emphasis landed where it belonged - on the variety of sweet-natured, charming, sometimes melodramatic and occasionally gripping music Viardot wrote.

Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, soprano Melody Moore and baritone Vladimir Chernov performed 14 selections by Viardot, and three by other composers. The Viardot pieces ranged from airy meditations on nature and a winsome Chopin mazurka transcription to a feverish "Incantation" and a love duet from her operetta "Cendrillon.

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Canadian piano virtuoso Louis Lortie performs Chopin Etudes on the ...
Ottawa Start (press release) - Ottawa,ON,Canada

Preview of the Canadian pianist's March 31 appearance in Ottawa...

Following a recital by Canadian pianist Louis Lortie of Chopin Etudes in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Financial Times wrote: “Better Chopin playing than this is not to be heard, not anywhere...."

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Review: Chopin Vodka

By cnull

From "The Essential Blog for the Discriminating Drinker:"

You’re a famous 19th century composer. What are the odds that someone is going to take your good name and turn it into a vodka 150 years later?

The connection is Poland, where Chopin lived and vodka was (allegedly) born. Chopin is a traditional potato vodka, from Polish potatoes. Despite the fancy, frosted glass bottle, it has a very traditional flavor for potato vodkas, too. ...

Drinkhacker.com - http://www.drinkhacker.com



eternal sonata

By david carlton

Another review of the video game...

I pretty much decided I had to play it as soon as I heard that it took place in the imagination of a dying Frederic Chopin; they didn’t do as much with that theme as they could have, but there were other compensating virtues. ...

malvasia bianca - http://malvasiabianca.org

The Chopin Currency - March 20, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Opera's elite celebrate music of Viardot
San Jose Mercury News - CA, USA

Another story on the Pauline Viardot stage show in San Francisco, with some fascinating insights from Marilyn Horne:

"She helped Wagner raise money for 'Tristan und Isolde.' She rewrote a lot of Chopin's music for voice - an entire book of mazurkas. Those were amazing things for a woman of that time."

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He fills halls and sells CDs, but marketing has triumphed over music
Globe and Mail - Canada

The Toronto critics continue to roast Yundi Li:

Chopin's Four Mazurkas, Op. 33 suffered the same insensitivities of style, with the addition of a failure to grasp the characteristic rhythm of the vigorous Polish dance form. Only the third of the four had any simplicity and command. All of these were accompanied by the subliminal but distinct sound of Arthur Rubenstein spinning in his grave....

He opened the slender first half of his program with Chopin's most shopworn Nocturne, the one in E flat, Op. 9, No. 2, and played it very badly indeed. ...
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Why Murray Perahia turned to Bach
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Nice article on peerless pianist Perahia's interest in JSB. Perahia notes he's not the only one:

Bach, as Perahia realises, had an impact on music not just in the 18th century, but throughout the Romantic era of the 19th and beyond. "Composers took Bach as their bedrock," he says, "whether it's Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann or Chopin.

"I don't think there was a day when Chopin wasn't playing Bach. When Schumann went into depression, he wrote fugues, and he always told his wife, Clara, to study Bach. It was an important part of their musical make-up....

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Betraying Bacon and Boating
By Jeremy Denk

Pianist and blogger Jeremy Denk (currently on the road with violinist Joshua Bell), waxes eloquent on Chopin's one-and-only Barcarolle:

Chopin writes a passage of drift which allows one motion to become another, a flight between ratios, a mysterious differential equation.

This transition is amazing partly because of its disengagement, because of the sensation that the foundations of the narrative have been removed. This transition is not essentially “musical.” It does not conform to the niceties of musical discourse, it does not attempt to be the smooth unnoticeable gearshift. Chopin deliberately removes us from the world of capital-M Music, in which he had allowed us to bathe.

I chose to program the Chopin Barcarolle (last week in lovely San Diego!) on the strength of a moment I wanted to seize, on a juicy crispy piece of bacon I once smelled in its interior. Ah, I remember the moment well: a student came in ...
- http://jeremydenk.net/blog

Eternal Sonata
By Kamisamaa(Kamisamaa)

An entry from Live Journal regarding Chopin's relationship with George Sand...

It is impossible to tell the story of Chopin’s life without the mention of this woman. George Sand was an extremely famous author in Paris who had already published numerous books. Her real name was Aurore Dudevant. ...
Recurring Reverie - http://kamisamaa99.livejournal.com/

Misc. Chopiniana:

Chopin Chorlton
By manchesterbars

Next time you're in Manchester, UK, ("the rock'n'goal capital of the world!") check out the Chopin Bar

Chopin - Manchester Road, Manchester, M21 9PG map classical music played in this new bar Hotels in Chorlton More bars in Chorlton, Manchester Top 10 bars and clubs in Manchester.
Manchester Bar Reviews - http://manchesterbars.wordpress.com/

The Chopin Currency - March 17, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Lauded opera legend Viardot honored in tailor-made show
Examiner.com - USA

Rave review for theatrical/music program dedicated to Chopin amie Pauline Viardot (see previous entry):

Their combined brilliance is astounding. Two of America’s greatest living mezzos, Frederica von Stade and Marilyn Horne, are about to join forces with superb Verdi baritone Vladimir Chernov, stage director and former San Francisco Opera General Manager Lofti Mansouri, fast-rising gifted soprano Melody Moore and San Francisco Symphony’s own Peter Grunberg to present two evenings of “Pauline Viardot and Friends.” These will be nights to remember.

So great was her artistry that Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, Gounod, Meyerbeer, Saint-Saëns, Schumann and Fauré all composed or dedicated works for her. ...
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Li builds slowly, dazzles fans in Troy
Schenectady Gazette - Schenectady,NY,USA

More of the Yundi Li - Lang Lang traveling road show. First, Yundi Li at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall:

"Chopin’s famous Nocturne in E-flat Major, known to every pupil who’s played Chopin, was interesting in his softer tone, blurred images and introspective mood. Rather than knock out the final page as most pianists do, Li spun out the notes with a fluid nonchalance but kept the dynamic within the pensive range. It was a rather lovely choice."

In four of Chopin’s Mazurkas from his Op. 33, his tone had a hard edge, but his pacing, technical cleanness, emphasis of the inner voices and pedaling were ...
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Subtleties to Showmanship: Pianistic Duality on Display
New York Times - United States

....and Lang Lang plays Manhattan:

A particularly telling example of this duality was Mr. Lang’s single encore, Chopin’s Étude in E (Op. 10, No. 3). He played its outer sections with a ...
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The Chopin Currency - March 16, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Chinese pianist hits all right notes in concert
Colorado Springs Gazette - Colorado Springs,CO,USA

Glowing review of pianist Joyce Yang's appearance with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic...

But it was her performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 that proved that she's also an assured and original interpreter. Above all, she's a master of ...
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MEET VIARDOT
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA

Preview of "Pauline Viardot and Friends," a full-length theatrical celebration of Viardot's life and art presented by San Francisco Performances and hosted by Marilyn Horne:

"...Pauline Viardot, the brilliant and charismatic mezzo-soprano who conquered the stages - and boudoirs - of 19th century Europe over the course of a long and varied career. Who knows of her today?

Her intellectual gifts - she spoke six languages fluently - brought her the friendship of many of the leading cultural figures of the day, including Chopin, ...
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Chopin a la Midi:

Etude #1 (Chopin) revised

MIDI version of Chopin's Op. 10 No. 1 Etude:

One more pass on this one, this time with an enhanced bass part. I don't know how I would percuss. this one, but I may revisit this in the future. Trying to work out the EQ and compression, but I am still new at the FL Studio controls. ...
bandamp - http://forum.bandamp.com/