Showing posts with label Lang Lang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lang Lang. Show all posts
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Lang Lang's early Chopin connection; Chopin's Affair of the Heart
Click Here for the Chopin Currency for Sunday, August 3, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
The Chopin Currency - April 18th, 2008
Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:
When Fame Can’t Cross the Atlantic
New York Times - United States
Fascinating story (and review) of Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov, lionized in Europe; barely known in America....
Classical music is supposedly universal. Language may still be a cultural barrier for writers and actors. Even visual artists, depending on the subjects they choose, won’t necessarily translate abroad. That Mr. Sokolov, whose talent is beyond dispute, disproves this notion should remind us not only of our persistent parochialism but also of our delusions about technology. The Web, on which he can be found on YouTube, giving astonishing performances, clearly doesn’t substitute for hearing him live. Neither do discs, which, as a perfectionist, he stopped issuing in 1995 (this partly explains his American situation), although years ago Mr. Sokolov’s recordings sent me hunting for a chance to hear him in person. On one of those discs he played Chopin’s 24 Preludes with great sensitivity. He played them again the other night. It was, like all concerts likely to stay in the mind forever, nothing that could ever be captured digitally. He gives about 60 solo recitals a year, so his manager told me; no chamber or orchestral music at the moment. He was born in Leningrad and won the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966, at 16. Emil Gilels headed the jury. For a while Sol Hurok promoted him.
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Zimerman’s ovation in Rome
Thenews.pl - Warsaw,Poland
Returning to Rome, Krystian Zimerman surprises with a switch to Chopin...
The second part was taken up by an all-Chopin programme, instead of earlier-announced Brahms and Szymanowski. The recital was Zimerman’s first appearance in Rome after a lapse of ten years. Some Poles in the audience remembered Zimerman’s concert and meeting with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican on Christmas Eve in 1980. Fifty two year-old Krystian Zimerman is the winner of the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1975. (mk) See all stories on this topic
Yundi Li: Prokofiev/Ravel
Times Online - UK
Review (mostly positive) of Yundi Li's attempt to break out of his Chopin sterotype, along with the inevitable Lang Lang comparisions....
There comes a time in any young piano virtuoso’s life when the need mounts for breaking out of the core 19th-century repertoire into the wide, wild world beyond. You can’t always be wrapped around Chopin and Liszt. Alongside oriental trinkets, that smiling Chinese onslaught Lang Lang has become an improbable concert interpreter of the thickets of notes in Tippett’s Piano Concerto. For his second concerto CD, Yundi Li, Lang Lang’s compatriot (born the same year, too, 1982), has been more cautious. He has chosen Prokofiev No 2, in a Berlin live performance from May. [...] The more Lang Lang’s performances drift into candelabra rhetoric – the Liberace style of playing – the greater the attraction of Yundi Li’s sobriety. Maybe this Prokofiev could be more tigerish, yet Yundi’s dizz dexterity and ability to shade colours within the composer’s dark and narrow band gave sufficient pleasure to me. To the Berlin audience also: the performance concludes with their roars of applause.
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Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The Chopin Currency: April 8, 2008
Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:
Though Hyde did appear, Lang Lang mostly Jekyll
Chicago Tribune - United States
Chicago critic decides there are two sides - or perhaps two personas - in the Chinese virtuoso:
More and more I am convinced there are two Lang Langs. Both commanded the stage of Orchestra Hall at the Chinese superstar pianist's sold-out recital Sunday.
There is Lang Lang the Maturing Musician, the 25-year-old artist who, under the regular tutelage of Daniel Barenboim , is learning to place his immense technical gifts at the service of art.
Then there is Lang Lang the Barnstorming Virtuoso, the compulsive showman who dazzles the gallery by playing things louder and faster than anyone else, simply because he can.
This Jekyll and Hyde act sometimes can throw up a barrier between the listener and the music, and one never quite knows which persona will pop up next.
For example, Lang Lang ended his program with a torrential tear through Chopin's "Heroic" Polonaise (A-flat Major, Opus 53) that only succeeded in vulgarizing the piece, although the crowd loved it. This was followed by an encore, Chopin's Etude in E (Opus 10, No. 3), that was similarly hectic in the middle pages but ineffably tender in the outer sections. Go figure.
Clearly, Lang Lang can deliver remarkably sensitive playing when he is in the mood to channel his inner poet. Fortunately, much of Sunday's recital found him in the mood...
Evgenia plays Chopin with both elegance and great subtlety
Huddersfield Examiner - Huddersfield,UK
"Our Correspondent" in Huddersfield likes how Evgenia Rubinova and the Opera North Orchestra work together..
Chopin’s First Piano Concerto is therefore something of a surprise, for its rippling delicacy and orchestral restraint.
Perhaps the latter factor is not unexpected. Chopin was, after all, a renowned pianist, and would have wanted the orchestra in a subservient role. Even so, the almost minimalist nature of much of the orchestral scoring is notable, and probably presents particular technical challenges.
Conducted by Frédéric Chaslin, the Orchestra of Opera North displayed admirable restraint and clarity of texture during Saturday’s performance of the Chopin concerto, although the musicians made the most of their opportunities, when announcing themes at the beginning of movements, for example.
The soloist was the prize-winning Evgenia Rubinova, who obviously has the full range of technical accomplishments, but she displayed no pianistic bombast in her performance. Instead she brought out the elegance and the improvisatory qualities of Chopin’s writing. It was a subtle performance, all the more musical because there was no hint of showing off.
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New York Times - United States
A New York Times review the considers both the performance, and the history of the ballet Chopiniana, as presented in by the Kirov Ballet...
“Chopiniana” in turn became the archetype of a whole 20th-century genre of ballet in which the prime subject was the music. Without its kaleidoscope of moods, the Chopin ballets of Jerome Robbins would probably have never happened; his “Dances at a Gathering” is its radical update. Balanchine’s “Serenade” and “Emeralds” are especially indebted to its Romantic groupings."Chopiniana" which opened the Kirov’s recent quadruple bill at City Center of ballets by Michel Fokine, is 100 years old this year. This is the plotless, Romantic dream-world, poet-muse ballet that used to be known — very well known — in the West as “Les Sylphides,” the title Diaghilev gave it in 1909 when he also gave it a different overture and a new décor, by Alexandre Benois. It was said to be Diaghilev’s favorite ballet, and for decades it was the epitome of what many dancegoers wanted from ballet: atmosphere, romanticism, poetry. [....] Though these Kirov performances weren’t ideal, they were in basic respects exemplary: no soppiness, just focused evocation of the changing moods of this moonlit nocturne. “Chopiniana,” by far the richest of Fokine’s pure-dance compositions, is brimming with history. He had been inspired by an all-Chopin recital given by Isadora Duncan on her 1904-5 visit to St. Petersburg, including some of the same music here; you can still feel her rapturous way of carrying gestures around the stage and her way of turning simple runs, walks and poses into images of inspiration. [...]
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Review: Illinois Symphony Orchestra performance a playful one
Springfield State Journal Register - Springfield,IL,USA
Meanwhile, another Springfield-based symphony (see yesterday's post) gets into the Chopin concerto swim with soloist Sa Chen..
Chen was this season’s latest guest-artist pianist who was a finalist or winner at 2005’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The technical oomph of Chopin’s concerto (the first he wrote but the second he published) could make it hard to channel its warmth, but Chen found incredible nuance even as the concerto grew impossibly fast.
Chen’s voracious approach was fitting given her pronounced pounce before each segment. Her force matched the concerto’s flourishes and each cascade was a stunner. Her lyricism truly dazzled in the larghetto movement, evocative of a love discovered. Bass-clef strikes sounded like shouts of affection, while trilled upper-register notes felt like heart flutters. Closing with a mazurka (a Polish folk dance), Chen proved her talent wasn’t just in amazing technique, but in the touches of emotion.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
The Chopin Currency - April 2, 2008
Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:
Project Launch to host Autism Benefit Concert
Woodlands Online, LLC - The Woodlands,TX,USA
A preview of a benefit concert by Dariusz Pawlas for Project Launch - a Texas-based organization that While the April concert centers on Autism, the overall target population of Project Launch includes children and adults with myriad conditions that significantly impair their ability to learn fully, encompassing those with ADD/ADHD; Dyslexia; Autism; Aspergers; Depression; Bipolar Disorder; Tourette’s Syndrome; Mental Retardation; Cerebral Palsy, etc.;
Now a teacher of piano at both Rice University and the University of Texas in Austin, Dr. Pawlas is famous for performing in Frederyk Chopin’s home at the Poland International Festival. Dr. Pawlas has performed in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Holland, Italy, and Chopin’s birthplace in Zelazowa Wola, as well as the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. He is the winner of the prestigious Estrada Mlodych Polish Piano Festival and recipient of the Frederyk Chopin Society of Warsaw scholarship.
Dr. Pawlas was born in Poland in the Silesian city of Rybnik, where he began his musical studies at age five. He graduated with the highest honors from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, and Rice University in Houston. Earning recognition internationally for his extraordinary talent, Dr. Pawlas has played with the Silesian Philharmonic of Katowice and Artur Rubenstein Philharmonic in Lodz.
Art Talk: Ax, von Stade show why live music is better than recorded
The Capital Times - Madison,WI,USA
More praise for Emanuel Ax's performance of the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Madison Symphony Orchestra....
But the heart of the MSO concert for me, a avowed piano fan, was Ax (whose picture by J. Henry Fairfax is at the top). The quicksilver fleetness of the notes, the delicacy of the articulation and lightness of the touch, the rich tone, the lyrical legato - it all made for an experience that was memorable and nothing short of extraordinary.
Participant extols virtues of festival; Amanda Salvati returns to ...
Orillia Packet & Times - Orillia,Ontario,Canada
"My parents can attest to the fact they have woken up to Beethoven and been lulled to sleep by Chopin on more than one occasion." She'll never forget being ...
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Lang Lang: Subtlety in absentia
Dallas Morning News - Dallas,TX,USA
L.L. Flails in Fort Worth, to the dismay of a Dallas critic...
Subtlety isn't Mr. Lang's forte. With Liszt's chattering and booming octaves sometimes pounded within inches of the Steinway's life, with the simple little tune so pushed and pulled that it was sometimes barely identifiable as such, this was vulgarity in excelsis.In the Chopin E major Etude, [Op. 10 No. 3] played as an encore, excessive rubato distorted the main tune, and the middle section was crudely banged. It sounded like a parody of Liszt parodying Chopin.
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:
Étude in E Opus 10 [No. 3]: Frédéric Chopin
By Ralph(Ralph)
Speaking of Lang Lang's encore...
The main theme to this work, popularized as "No Other Love," and the one translated into "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," are the two most well-known of Chopin's melodies. If you've never heard the lovely real thing, here it is. There was a time when I could play this thing, except for the middle part. Most avocational pianists will say the same thing.Days of Transition - http://daysoftransition
Pastor: Homenaje A Chopin for Guitar
By guitartuitionbooksdvds
Fresh posting of a piece by Spanish guitar composer Segundo Pastor.....
click here to learn more.
Guitar Tuition Books Dvds - http://guitartuitionbooksdvds
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Chopin Currency - March 27, 2008
Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:
Rubinstein Piano Competition / The heat that shuffled the deck
Ha'aretz - Tel Aviv,Israel
Bravos for the competitors, brickbats for the orchestra, in the latest dispatch from Tel Aviv:
Contestant Irina Zahharenkova, for instance, chose Chopin's Concerto No. 2. Based on her interpretation of the slow movement of Mozart's Concerto no. 23, a tender and unconventionally expressive performance which attempted to transcended plain technique, her interpretation of Chopin is likely to be more skillful and interesting.
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[...]
The one participant that no one feels like hearing at this stage any more, is conductor Uri Segal and the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Listening to Segal lead the solos was a nerve wracking experience as it sounded as if the musicians were walking on thin ice: Will they fall due to the incorrect balance? Can they get passed the missed entries, unstable tempo and lack of rhythm?
Ferdinand Hiller: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2 & 3
Musical Criticism - London,UK
Review of a new CD of piano concertos by Chopin contemporary Ferdinand Hiller, featuring pianist Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra:
Once again, Hyperion uncovers the work of yet anther 'unknown' composer who possessed deep ties with the great and the good of nineteenth-century music. Indeed, a highly curtailed biography of Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) proves to be nothing more than a gross exercise in name-dropping: pupil of Hummel, protégé of Cherubini, acquaintance of Rossini and Berlioz, friend of Liszt and Chopin, deputy conductor of Mendelssohn's Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and composition teacher of Max Bruch (amongst others). He was a vaunted pianist in an age of burgeoning virtuosity and a composer of great potential, though his creative legacy has now been largely forgotten.
[...]
Even the early, bravura F-minor concerto is full of deft wit and charm, its finale a magnificent and forward-looking crossbreed of waltzes by Chopin and Johann Strauss that allows Shelley to exploit his magnificent pianism to the full.
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Chopin FTW
By djsunkid(djsunkid)
More Chopin for Math geeks....
Hey, I think I like chopin! Check out these awesome reasons why! Mostly this is just a reminder to myself to get more Chopin. Woo!
raHr! - http://djsunkid.livejournal
Valentina Lisitsa Chopin 24 Etude Op. 25 No. 6
By www.japanvideogames.com(www.japanvideogames.com)
Embedded Video. This piece is soooo hard to play at that speed, if you've ever seen the notes on sheetmusicarchive.net, it's a straight killer, major SKILLS, insta-watch when DONE. Blogged with the Flock Browser.
Interesting Things For you Late @ Night - http://yayyuh.blogspot.com/
Lang Lang plays Chopin with an Orange!
Citrus-flavored performance of the "Black Keys" (Op. 10 No. 5) Etude...
The best musicians in the world have great sense of humor and tend to be pretty easy going. Here's an example.
Amore is in the Aire - http://prplppleater.multiply
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The Chopin Currency: March 22, 2008
Chopin & George Sand
Barre Montpelier Times Argus - Barre,VT,USA
A preview of a WordStage Vermont production of "Frédéric & George," — "an evening of letters, diaries, and memoirs penned by these two paradoxically matched lovers and some of their intimate circle."
"Mme. Sand, beware of Chopin! He is nothing less than a moral vampire!"See all stories on this topic
"You have no idea what Mme. Sand has managed to do with him in one summer! Consumption has seized that figure and turned it into a soul without a body. The poor creature does not see that this woman has the love of a vampire!"
Young Chinese pianist shows his reverence for the masters
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com - Newark,NJ,USA
A preview of Yundi Li's scheduled appearances in Princeton and Newark, NJ, where he shares his knowledge of "rival" pianist Lang Lang:
Although there have been hints of rivalry between Li and Lang Lang, Li says they "bumped into each other at Beijing Airport, and it was the first time we met, about three years ago. We said, 'Let's go and hang around next time when we have time.' I think he's a talented pianist with his own style."
Chopin to be performed at evening Dixie Forum ...
St. George Daily Spectrum - St. George,UT,US
A night of Chopin at Dixie State College in Utah, featuring DSC faculty member Dr. Nancy Allred and DSC alum Monica Hymas:
The duo will present “The Odyssey of Chopin’s Soul: The Four Ballades,” which will feature discussion on the history of these works. Hymas will perform Chopin’s "Ballade No. 1 in G Minor," and "Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major," while Dr. Allred will perform "Ballade No. 2 in F Major" and "Ballade No. 4 in F Minor."
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:
By LoGoRhythm(LoGoRhythm)
Blogger Lowri Blake muses on Chopin for cello in the south-west of France:
After a collection of short pieces and arrangements of music by Fauré, Debussy and Ravel, they played Chopin's Introduction and Polonaise Brillante Op.3. I was dreading hearing the usual souped- up fare (hybrid versions rewritten by various cellists who felt that the cello part was too unglamorous) but no, they gave a terrific account of the piece in its original form. Chopin's intention was to contrast the cello's beautiful melodic line with a more virtuosic piano part, not to compete with it.
brr brr brr...busy line - http://busyline.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The Chopin Currency - March 18th, 2008
Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:
Belbin, Agosto taking a classical approach
Boston Globe - United States
Chopin turns out to be the missing ingredient in the ice-dancing tandem's Quest for Gold....
[Tanith] Belbin and [Ben] Agosto are the most successful dance team the US has had, and the Olympic silver medalists seem to break new ground every season. But when coach Igor Shpilband suggested they consider a classical piece for this year's free dance, they worried it might be too much of a stretch.
They turned down some Bach he suggested. When he came back with Chopin, though, they agreed to try it, and the flowing, romantic program has turned out to be the perfect showcase for their skills. It highlights their chemistry, expression, and speed, their traditional strengths. But it has also allowed them to show a maturity and depth of emotion they didn't have three or four years ago.
Prince of the piano worthy of crown
Albany Times Union - Albany,NY,USA
Hey! It's another Yundi Li review!
"The 25-year-old piano prince then caught the audience's attention with his Chopin: four of the Mazurkas, followed by the well-known Nocturne in E flat and "Andante Spianato" and "Grande Polonaise." The Mazurkas are more relaxed and reflective pieces and quickly showed Yundi is more than a technically proficient virtuoso. He was particularly effective in the fourth number, which recalls the work of Robert Schumann, a friend of the composer."
The young Chinese musician won the International Chopin Competition some years ago, and has made four recordings for the prestigious Deutsche Gramophon ...
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Lang Lang delights, confounds with his individualism
Philadelphia Inquirer - Philadelphia,PA,USA
Hey! It's another Lang Lang review!
Sure, his recital of Schubert, Bartók, Debussy and Chopin was full of strangely mannered playing. But there's a trade-off: His ideas, all his own, are convincingly expressed...
....Here, on this night, marginalization of classical music was a specious myth. After a particularly convulsive and artless reading of Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major (Op. 53), "Heroic," an audience of seniors, teens, hipsters, nerds, 20ish Asian girls, aficionados, newbies, and a surprising number of 6- to 9-year-olds jumped to their feet. Whistles and cheers. Flowers. Flashbulbs.
Who else on the classical stage can claim as close a connection with as diverse a public? Right now, maybe no one.
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Chopin Videos:
Artur Rubinstein Plays Chopin Polonaise “Heroic”By admin
Lovely excerpt from the 1947 movie Carnegie Hall. Great close-ups of Rubinstein's fingers in action, though the music is quite obviously dubbed...
From picture “Carnegie Hall”. ShareThis.
Next VDO - http://nextvdo.com/
Literary Chopin:
♯Six
By Frederic Francois Chopin(Frederic Francois Chopin)
Another installment from the pianopoet...
[Private//Easily Hackable] I have been thinking about that world again....The world I once called just a passing dream. Traveling in that world, I faded faster than it. It was mostly due to my physical state more so than my mental state ...
The piano is his way of life - http://pianopoet.livejournal
Monday, March 17, 2008
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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Saturday, March 15, 2008
The Chopin Currency - Ides of March Edition
Chopin Video of the Day:
Kurikinton Fox - F.Chopin - fantasy impromptu in Guitar!!!
Not bad at all!
This is Fantasy Impromptu AKA Gino's piece. These guys did this in g-tar...Amazing:D.
music is everything, everything is music - http://fluteguitar.multiply
Concert pianist favourite returns
Huddersfield Examiner - Huddersfield,UK
Local favorita Evgenia Rubinova returns to play the Chopin First Concerto at the Huddersfield Town Hall...
In an evening full of festivity and celebration, she will be playing works by Shostakovich, Chopin and Prokofiev. Shostakovich’s Festival Overture premiered ...
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A Classic Contrast (Or So It Seems)
Washington Post - United States
Washington Post critic Anne Midgette weighs the consecutive recital appearances by Yundi Li and Lang Lang, and decide maybe they're not so different after all...
Tuesday's concert at the Kennedy Center bore out the idea (formed at several concerts over the past few years) that Lang Lang, after the stunning promise of his 2001 Carnegie Hall debut, has become one of the most maddening pianists on Earth. He can make any musical passage crass, coarse and bombastic. He can also create moments of breathtaking beauty. And a listener never knows which is coming next.....The Bartok sonata, played from sheet music with a spasmodic hysteria that produced the aural equivalent of dry heaves in places, and Chopin's A-flat Polonaise, of which he made an unequivocal hash, shredding the whole line of the piece in tantrums of pedal and fingerwork.
At Strathmore the following night, Yundi Li appeared a contrast indeed: well-bred, elegant, demure, the epitome of good taste, so sober as to be a little boring until he unleashed some virtuoso fireworks of his own. He opened with a supremely classical take on Mozart's K.330, crisp and light, and continued with a selection of his calling-card composer, Chopin, playing the Op. 33 mazurkas, the nocturne Op. 9, No. 2, and the showy Op. 22 "Grande Polonaise Brillante," with a detour into the Liszt/Schumann "Widmung" to underscore the lyrical singing lines of his playing. There is nothing effete about his Chopin; it is sensitive but strong.
.....
if both are expressing the same thing, Yundi Li is expressing it less colorfully. His program was the more conventional, the one we are supposed to like.But thinking it over afterward, I found I had, as a listener, been more engaged by my annoyance at Lang Lang than my distant approval of Yundi Li.
Another Chopin Video
Cecile Licad Playing Chopin Ballade G-Moll Op.23
Philippines' Finest Cecile Licad playing Chopin (pronounced as Sho-pan) Ballade G-moll Op.
Everyone Has a Dark Side... I... - http://alexskywalker.multiply
Chopin in the Blogosphere:
Celebrities play chess
By Nikita
Look at the company Fryderyk is keeping at the Chessboard..
Artists and musicians: Bono (U2), Madonna, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Guy Ritchie, Frank Sinatra, Salvador Dali, Ludwig van Beethoven, David Bowie, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Sting, Enrico Caruso, Ray Charles, Cher, Frederic Chopin, ...
Chessalee - http://chessaleeinlondon
♯Five
By Frederic Francois Chopin(Frederic Francois Chopin)
Another installment from the pianopoet...(must be 14 to enter site...)
Am I truly happy with what I did? Thinking back on it now, I'm not so sure I am. I understand what all of us went through, the trials and tribulations we surpassed to get where we were. Then for everything to finally reach the end...the ...
The piano is his way of life - http://pianopoet.livejournal
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Chopin Currency - March 14, 2008
Kicking against convention: a scene from The Concert, a clever and ...
This is London - London,England,UK
Another one of Jerome Robbins' famous interpretations of Chopin, from the New York City Ballet performance at the London Coliseum....(be sure to read the Comments for an opposing viewpoint)
The Concert, for example, is a clever and poignant take on Chopin that gently mocks the absurdities of ballet and the suggestibility of music. ...
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'I Think of Us as a Musical Species'
Spiegel Online - Berlin,Germany
Chopin is on the mind of noted neurologist and author ("Musicophilia") Dr. Oliver Sacks...
Oliver Sacks: A Chopin mazurka is coming to me. It is one in B flat major, and I feel an itch in my hands to play it. I can sort of see the keyboard in ...
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:
Lang Lang @ Kennedy Center
ionarts | Thursday, March 13, 2008
D.C.-area arts & culture blog weighs in on Lang Lang's Monday night recital: Praise for Bartok; horror for Chopin:
With the final work, Chopin's A-flat polonaise (op. 53), and the encores, Lang seemed to be making up for lost time, trying to inject a whole evening's virtuosity into the space of a few minutes. The Chopin came across like a Duchamp-esque rewrite of a familiar masterpiece, played so fast that all of Chopin's operatic relish of bel canto flourishes was simply steamrollered over in the process. The first encore, a Chopin étude (op. 10, no. 3), was calm and sad, with a blindingly fast middle section.
Martha Argerich Plays Chopin: The Legendary 1965 Recording
By admin0
Superlatives for a long-suppressed recording out on CD:
Lost is Found, finally
This Argerich Chopin performance, recorded by EMI in 1965 while she was actually under contract to DG is formidable for an artist so early in her career. Both the artistry and sound are superb and it’s a shame we fans had to wait so long for this recording to appear. These Chopin performances completely justify the competition judges decision to award her the grand prize at the 1965 Warsaw International Chopin Competition. It’s a collection must have!
Chopin himself would have gone into ecstasy listening to Martha Argerich play his music. It is impossible to find anyone else with such incredible, awesome, impossible ability to impart such emotional energy to a piano. ...
Seek & Buy Audio CD - http://vinylrecords.890m.com
♯Four
By Frederic Francois Chopin(Frederic Francois Chopin)
Another "journal entry" from our favorite poet of the piano....(note: must be 14 to enter site...)
So it would seem I have been using my days to find inspiration for my music, and have yet to come across any such inspiration on my part. It is rather down hearting to not be able to find anything I can use as inspiration for my music; ...
The piano is his way of life - http://pianopoet.livejournal
Friday, March 7, 2008
The Chopin Currency - March 7. 2008
Chopin News, Previews, Rants, and Reviews:
Yesterday we brought you two views of Yundi Li; today it's the "other" superstar Chinese pianist's turn. Mark Swed of the LA Times is both impressed and appalled:
Tuesday night, he [Lang Lang] returned to Walt Disney Concert Hall for a recital. The place was, inevitably, packed. The audience was antsy, wanting fireworks, and Lang Lang eventually delivered. First, though, he had to prove he was a poet.
"He is a poet. But he is an immature poet with a nuclear arsenal, and that makes him a very dangerous poet. The nuclear part of the weaponry is a killer technique. The threat is in the delivery system. He has the charisma to hold an audience in his power. Responsibility, though, is another matter...."Lang Lang has inherited Liberace's curse. Once the audience knows what he can do, he must give it what it wants. And each time, he must outdo himself. In the single encore, Chopin's Etude, Opus 10, No. 3, he outdid himself....
Read the Entire Story
Flashy pianist Lang startlingly graceful in Houston show
The headlines says it all...Houston Chronicle reviewer Everett Evans on the hand is pleasantly surprised...
"Lang Lang is renowned for flash as well as artistry — and he didn't disappoint fans on either count in his performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 Thursday night with the Houston Symphony. Yet the predominant quality that distinguished his performance was grace.
"The famous mannerisms, swaying moves and transported expressions — symbols of the artist not only performing but feeling the music — were present, but less frequent and more subdued than in some of his past performances. But then Chopin is not Beethoven nor Rachmaninoff and this work calls for a more quicksilver approach, more moments of delicacy and fewer of bravado."
Houston Chronicle - United States
By EVERETT EVANS Lang Lang is renowned for flash as well as artistry — and he didn't disappoint fans on either count in his performance of Chopin's Piano ...
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A preview of a Baltimore-area recital by Korean-turned-Columbia, MD resident Eun Joo Chung, which includes with a bravura piece of Chopiniana:
Chopin paired the serenely rippling Andante spianato with its extroverted and rousing opposite, the Grande Polonaise Brillante in E flat major, which was originally written for piano and orchestra..
While Sunday's program certainly requires virtuosity, Chung hopes that the audience will take away something more. "If the performer is able to invite me into the music, I feel that it is a very intimate conversation taking place as opposed to a show or a display," she says.
Baltimore Sun - United States
With the exception of the Chopin, the music on the program is based on variation; a short musical phrase is repeated and developed, becoming more intricate ...
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Chopin: Preludes; etc, Alexandre Tharaud
A more tepid review of the new Harmonia Mundi CD from the UK Guardian. Critic Andrew Clements likes the Chopin all right, but is less taken by the pairings...
He follows the Op 28 set of the 24 Preludes with a curious little sequence that interleaves more of Chopin's miniatures, including the three posthumous studies and the much more substantial C sharp minor Prelude Op 45, with three pieces by Frederic Mompou. Tharaud describes the Mompou as "a more recent, more intimate echo of the Chopin" and plays it with the same care and sensitivity he lavishes on the more famous works, without ever disguising the fact that it has very little real musical substance.
Guardian - UK
Though his repertory ranges from Couperin right up to Kagel, Chopin seems to be a speciality of Tharaud's. This disc of the Preludes follows an earlier one ...
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CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11; Piano Concerto No 2...
Nice review of Music & Arts reissue of pianist Paul Badura-Skoda's recording of the two piano concertos with Artur Rodzinski and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra:
"Badura-Skoda passes off Chopin’s roulades and tricky accents in the manner of an intimate series of etudes, here much closer to the Chopin who dazzled George Sand. Rarely does Badura-Skoda take a repeat in the same manner, always shading the rhythm or the harmony with subtle touches of diaphanous color. Formidable!"Audiophile Audition - USA
The Viennese tradition in Badura-Skoda pays elegant stylistic homage to Chopin, though we could argue that the performances are more of Hummel than the ...
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Popcorn Panel: The Other Boleyn Girl
A trio of Canadian film critics nominate historical films they like a lot better than the current Portman/ScarJo bodice-ripper..."Impromptu" gets the nod from one.... "an emo late-80s movie about the love affair between Chopin and George Sand. Hugh Grant is appropriately floppy-haired as Chopin, and Judy David is an extremely overwrought George Sand. And Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin are in it for no apparent reason."
National Post - Toronto,Ontario,Canada
Almost as much as I loved Impromptu, an emo late-80s movie about the love affair between Chopin and George Sand. Hugh Grant is appropriately floppy-haired ...
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The Chopin Currency - Feb. 27, 2008
Chopin Commentary, News, Reviews, & Previews
Celebrated neurologist and author Oliver Sacks responds to New York Times' readers queries about "amusic" migraine auras. Sacks recounts a passage from his best-selling book "Musicophilia..."
New York Times - United States
On the first, I was driving along the Bronx River Parkway, listening to a Chopin ballade on the radio, when a strange alteration of the music occurred. ...
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Lang Lang Plays Recital With LA Orchestra
Huliq.com, a new site of "citizen blogger journalism" prints full press release announcing Lang Lang recital at Disney Hall on March 4....
HULIQ - Hickory,NC,USA
He went on to win first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition and played the complete 24 Etudes of Chopin at the Beijing ...
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Nice profile of pianist Richard Goode in UK daily in advance of his next performance in London... "This season, he has taken on a role as the first associate artist at the Southbank Centre in London. Goode began his residency last autumn by giving a recital with soprano Dawn Upshaw that included Schoenberg's rarely heard song cycle The Book of the Hanging Garden. This month, he returns to London for a solo recital of Bach, Chopin, Mozart and Debussy, a series of masterclasses and a lecture recital devoted to Chopin. In May, he makes his final appearance in a piano duo recital with fellow American Jonathan Biss."
Guardian Unlimited - UK
This month, he returns to London for a solo recital of Bach, Chopin, Mozart and Debussy, a series of masterclasses and a lecture recital devoted to Chopin. ...
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Hungarian pianist Peter Petris emerges from artistic hiatus for a DC-area recital with mixed results...
Washington Post - United States
The three Chopin dances, including the famous C-sharp Minor and "Minute" waltzes of Op. 64, were rhythmically destabilized by a curiously eccentric rubato. ...
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More Chopin Currency:
Chopin calling card
By Administrator
The Chopin calling card offers crystal quality of connection and lowest overseas and domestic calling rates to multiple destinations. Chopin phone card provided by NTC telecom carriers and has Global Access numbers all over the world. ...
Telecom blog - Calling cards,... - http://phonebestcard.com/blog
Chopin in the Blogosphere
A musician's favorite Chopin? An inscrutable site.....
By Mark Alburger(Mark Alburger)
Frederic Chopin (March 10, 1810 - October 17, 1849) Nocturne in Eb (1830) Etude ("Revolutionary"), Op. 10, No. 12 (1831) Mazurka in Bb Major, Op. 7, No. 1 (1832) Preludes (1839) No. 1 in C Major No. 2 in A Minor No. 3 in G Major ...
Music History - http://markalburgermusichistory
Chopin anime?
They played chopin one minute waltz. yeah, its a famous song but i still love it cause it's chopin. Oh, and they also played Bhetoven's fur elise, which i hand mimicked along while watching (yay for finger muscle memory haha). oh, ...
Blogs - MyAnimeList.net - http://myanimelist.net/blog.php
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About Chopin2010
- The Chopin Currency
- ....is a roundup of all things Chopin leading up to the 200th anniversary of the matchless Polish composer for the piano in March 2010.
