Tchaikovsky: 5th Symphony, L. Bernstein

I have never paid much attention to the conductor. Oh, I've heard the names of the Big Boys, Toscanini, von Karajan, Seiji Ozawa - but I must say that I'm now hooked on Bernstein. His passion is visible; and when combined with the passionate work of Tchaikovsky, you have here a truly triumphant combination.

Mahler by Bernstein

As some readers may have been following my comments on LinkedIn, I recently experienced an "Alzheimer's moment" with a very recognizable musical theme.  After searching online through several "Name That Tune" engines, even enlisting the aid of my uncle, a musician par excellence with whom I used to play name-that-tune games, I came up short.  Could not identify that tune.  I stayed awake at night playing and replaying it in my mind, searching the memory banks.  Nada.  Silence.  Not a clue.  I wrote of my frustrtions on LinkedIn, and a brave soul offered to let me sing it to him, and voilà! He identified it! It was the finale to Mahler' First Symphony, the Titan. 

I pulled up several recordings of the 4th movement of the Titan on YouTube, but the one of which I am writing now is the one conducted by Leonard Bernstein.  I'm so glad that man doesn't use hair spray! He is one of the most expressive conductors out there! The entire clip is as much about him as it is about Mahler! Every note seems etched on Bernstein's face, every anticpated switch in tempo, every climactic crescendo - it's a pleasure to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA3RevCdZNs&feature=related

That Darned Melody!

I had downloaded some music to CD's, and was playing one of them in the car.  Problem was, I failed to list the contents of the CD.  Soon, a wonderfully energizing piece of music was playing, rousing trumpets, trombones and cymbals.  I was in heaven!  Wow, no wonder I downloaded this - it's wonderful.  I was singing; my husband was humming; I was conducting madly, my hair flying à la Seiji Ozawa.  But what is that tune?  I know it.  I can sing it.  My husband knows it.  It's familiar ... on the tip of my tongue ... no.  Nothing.  Alzheimer's.

That was five days ago.  That melody has been rattling around in my brain ever since.  I even called my uncle, a venerated member of my family who knows everything about music.  We used to challenge each other with Name That Tune in classical music in times past.  Surely, he would know?  No.  Sadly, he said he had never even heard it.  Now that's impossible.  It's too popular a theme!

Despair, frustration, agitation, I finally resorted to downloading one of those apps from the internet, where you sing a few bars, and poof! out comes The Melody with Name and Social Security Number, all nicely wrapped with a ribbon.  I used four such gizmos.  Sang my throat out to each one.  Sang it again, more melodiously this time.  Nada.  They produced a few names, but nothing remotely in the ball park.  Oh, what shall I do?  This is not possible!

Finally, in desperation, I turned to the Classical Music Group on LinkedIn.  I poured my heart out for all to see.  I told my story, expressed my chagrin, and begged for relief.

Lo and behold, someone appeared from the ether, much more musically educated than I, and together we put a name to that forlorn melody. 

The finale to Mahler's First Symphony.  I can sleep now.

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, Leonard Bernstein

I'm not always in the mood for Beethoven. His music sometimes seems overbearing, too intense. This is not one of those times. In listening to the 9th Symphony, it occurs to me that the music is downright sexual. Listen to the crescendos, to the "conversation" among the instruments, the highs and lows, the decidedly intense rise at 19:02, the subsequent tempering. It's akin to a young lover woeing a young woman, bringing her a daisy, her rejecting him coquetishly, he pursuing her with poetry, or a gift of a book, an invitation. It's beautiful -- and quite powerful. Listen, especially, to 59:30 for what I would consider the climax in this piece of music! Goose bumps! True Ode to Joy! At 59:50 and at 1:00:05 is a section of harmony that is simply exquisite (...vas di mode...). I'd love to have someone in the music world explain that one to me: I'm in thrall at those points.

It is quite impossible to pick one or two sections in such a resplendent piece of music. To think that Beethoven was stone deaf when he composed it is remarkable in itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3QtlrqKoTc&feature=related

Gabriel Faure, Pavane, Op. 50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz3vcaMulj0&feature=related

Maurice Ravel, Pavane pour une infante defunte

I suppose I'm in the mood for slightly dissonant tones this afternoon. Here is a magnificent example of such. The conductor, Seiji Ozawa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqAlMItkV44&feature=related

William Grant Still, Afro-American Symphony 1, Longing

This melody had been rattling around in my brain for years! It is intoxicating, moving, and truly represents longing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p5o99I2Quk&feature=related

Claude Debussy, Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune

Oh, my, the voluptuousness of this music! Crescendos, pianos, mingled with a solitary vista, a reverie, to evoke the passions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_7loz-HWUM&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL02A989191D4E8C25

Aram Khachaturian's "Adagio" from Spartacus

Here played as accompaniment to one of the loveliest spectator sports, ballet. The love theme between Spartacus and Phrygia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86v05kSTZ3Y

Mozart's Rondo alla Turca

I am grateful beyond measure to have been introduced to classical music at a young age. Another time when my mother and I went to visit the piano teacher, one of her students was playing Rondo alla Turca. I could not believe my little ears, could not imagine myself one day playing that heavenly sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4YB0-xji7k

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky Marche Slave

Back to my childhood in Israel. I wanted desperately to take piano lessions, and my mother and I went to see a piano teacher who had Marche Slave playing on the record player when we arrived. I fell in love there and then! Never did take those piano lessons, but the crescendos at the 2:20 mark still give me goosebumps at the age of 62!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5poSw7tFLB4&feature=related

S. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C-minor, Op. 18

This is why I call this blog Music Ecstasy! The crescendo and denouement right about at 7:00-8:00 is one of the most inspired musical segments ever written! Gives me goosebumps!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C050NimXDQU&feature=related

There are certain sounds that bring tears of joy -- and lots of goosebumps!

The Flower Duet, Sous le dôme épais, from Lakmé, by Leo Delibes.

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9gFBuYc0z0

Another heavenly Ave Maria

The incomparable Cecilia Bartoli.  Ave Maria by Charles Gounod who superimposed his own melody on Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C Major.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suZ4IYVLZbU

The Impossibly Tragic Tsunami and Ode to Joy

As a counterpoint to the tragedy that befell Japan last week, I offer this two-part Nagano Olympics opening ceremony "World Chorus" rendition of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, conducted by the revered Seiji Ozawa.  I don't know how they managed to train the audiences around the world to participate, but this is an extraordinary version.  Japan will now need to make Olympian efforts to rebuild.  May their efforts be an Ode to Joy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhg-Aw_zMW4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcCqGfVNKh8&feature=related

Ludwig van Beethoven's Egmont "Overture" Opus 84

The Egmont is a set of incidental music pieces for the 1787 play of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (of the famous "Commitment" poem).  It consists of an overture and nine separate pieces for soprano and full orchestra.  Beethoven wrote it between October 1809 and June 1810, and it was premiered on 15 June 1810.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e6tdcAjOnw&feature=related

Heitor Villa-Lobos - Bachiana Brasileira nº 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLZD0XplYrI

Mascagni, Pietro - Cavalleria Rusticana, Intermezzo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MqTvfXIzug

J.S. Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="194" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

When I was 11 years old, my mother and I were taking a walk on the streets of Paris, when was passed by a church where someone was playing the Toccata and Fugue.  We stopped in our tracks to listen.  Here it is played by Kurt Ison from Sydney Town Hall.  The geography does not matter: The magic does.