Donald Byrd ~ Cristo Redentor
Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
Michel Legrand ~ Phil Woods ~ Images
Legrand has composed more than two hundred film and television scores and several musicals and has made well over a hundred albums. He has won three Oscars (out of 13 nominations) and five Grammys and has been nominated for an Emmy. He was twenty-two when his first album, I Love Paris, became one of the...
Sibelius Violin Concerto
Jascha Heifetz made the first recording of the Sibelius concerto. Heifetz held it to be one of the great romantic concertos in the violin repertoire. What might be considered an authoritative interpretation of the concerto belongs to Ida Haendel. When Sibelius heard her perform it on the radio in Finland, he commented afterwards that she...
César Franck > Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano
The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano by César Franck is one of his best known compositions, and considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written. It is an amalgam of his rich native harmonic language with the Classical traditions he valued highly, held together in a cyclic framework....
Argerich > Kissin > Mozart Sonata KV 521
Mozart Sonata for piano 4 hands KV 521 __ Martha Argerich (born June 5, 1941 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine pianist. Argerich was born in Buenos Aires and started playing the piano at age three (the provenance of the name Argerich is uncertain: some say it is Catalan, while others maintain it originates...
Mitsuko Uchida ~ Mozart ~ Concerto No 20
The Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1785. The first performance took place at the Mehlgrube Casino in Vienna on February 11, 1785, with the composer as the soloist. A few days after the first performance, the composer’s father, Leopold, visiting in Vienna, wrote to...
Erik Satie > 3 Gymnopedies > Aldo Ciccolini > Entr’acte Film
Erik Satie – 3 Gymnopedies piano: Aldo Ciccolini 1. lent et douloureux 0:00 2. lent et triste 3:05 3. lent et grave 5:30 Film Footage from Entr’acte Entr’acte is a 1924 French short film directed by René Clair, which premiered as an entr’acte for the Ballets Suédois production Relâche at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in...
Elgar > Barenboim ~ Nimrod (from the Enigma Variations)
Daniel Barenboim with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, opening the 1997 season at Carnegie Hall in this gorgeously performed dedication to the recently deceased Sir Georg Solti. Solti was the previous music director of the CSO for many years. See Charles Dutoit conducting Elgar’s Enigma Variations Wednesday, January 30 – Friday, February 1 with the San...
Pergolesi – Stabat Mater
Born at Iesi in the Kingdom of Naples, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others. He spent most of his brief life working for aristocratic patrons like the Colonna principe di Stigliano, and duca Marzio...
Bach > Cello Suites > Yo-Yo Ma
The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach are some of the most frequently performed and recognizable solo compositions ever written for cello. They were most likely composed during the period 1717–1723, when Bach served as a Kapellmeister in Köthen. The suites contain a great variety of technical devices, a wide emotional range,...
Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2
Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2 1st mov. Barenboim, Celibidache, Munich Philharmonic Recorded live at the Gasteig, Munich, 1991 Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2 2nd mov Allegro Appassionato Sviatoslav Richter, Evgeny Mravinsky, Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Symphony Live recording, May 24, 1951 Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2 3rd mov. Andante Piu Adagio Piano: Edwin Fischer, Conductor: Wilhelm...
Beethoven > Triple Concerto
Excerpts from several versions of Beethovens anomalous concerto for 3 soloists. It’s fun to think about which 3 soloists you would put together for this piece (the more anachronistic the better). Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Mstislav Rostropovich, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter (note: there was some serious drama in the making...
