Classic F.M

[Harry Bloomfield]

I was in the middle of watching 'Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World'. Again. It never gets old, and i can't understand why it bombed at the box office yet audiences lap up endless sequels to Marvel movies. Baffling. Bach, Boccherini and battles to make your hair curl. Allusions to classic poetry and a diversion into the theories of Darwin being explored sixty years before he published Origin of Species...and two weevils.
If you have not seen it i beseech you, sir, in the name of King George and the Lord Nelson, to watch it with great glee and wonder at the deeds of the Royal Navy when Britannia did indeed, Rule the Waves.

It's on the quite select list of my all-time favourites.

 

[Odds]

For this video, a new edition was prepared from the original sources, prints and manuscripts for Vivaldi's music. In preparing this performing edition, we made the musicological decision that the indication for mutes in the Allegro ("con Sordine") for the violins is misplaced in the original print (there is no indication in the Manchester part books), and the mutes should be in the Largo (and, importantly, not in the final movement).

The mutes now provide a textural fence between the violas and the soloist. Vivaldi writes that the last movement is a rustic dance to the sound of bagpipes (“Zampogna”). So we also listened to some old style Italian bagpipes and added a few notes to the drones in Vivaldi's bass part to recreate this brilliant and special sound. Here is our new version, with the muted violins in the slow movement, and the vibrant, un-muted final allegro.

Italian bagpipes?

 

[berty3000]

I discovered this on Classic FM years ago. I used to listen to that station whilst driving.

Rodrigo - Spanish guitar for the warmer weather:

^^ this track part of:

 

[Odds]

Sand animation created by Ferenc Cakó.

 

[Odds]

This piece of music floated through my mind as i looked across the fields beyond the garden wall, bathed in summer sunshine.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis at Gloucester Cathedral, where in 1910, it was played and conducted for the first time by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

 

[Odds]

How do you follow up the innovative classic of the Fifth symphony?
With the Sixth. Obviously.
It took Beethoven around six years to complete, a pleasing symmetry for the only other symphony he named; 'the Pastoral', inviting the listener to join him on a leisurely ramble through the countryside. The opening refrain is never far away whenever i take a hike around the hills and this version is one of the finest. Take it from the top, Lenny...

 

[Odds]

Vivaldi's Concerto for solo baroque violin and strings in G Minor, "Summer" (L'Estate, RV 315), performed on original instruments by Cynthia Miller Freivogel and the Early Music ensemble Voices of Music.

 

[Odds]

I wasn't aware the Albion Band took their tune from this 13th century French fiddler...

...now i know, thanks to the Internet, which can still be a fantastic place to wander, far from the madding crowd who seem determined to pollute the bandwidth with their own brand of bullshine.

The audience for Classic FM has now reached 4.5 million; 13,000 new listeners every week. Join the fun and find a way to avoid the madness.

 

[Odds]

A rousing performance by the Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra under the baton of maestro Nejc Bečan in a packed Gallus Hall in Cankarjev dom Slovenia...

FunFact #99 - Astronaut Neil Armstrong took a tape recording of the New World Symphony along during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969.

 

[Odds]

No introduction necessary for this piece of music but did y'all know it began as a piece of an opera he was composing for comedian Francis Wilson called 'The Devil's Deputy'. While the opera was eventually scrapped, it was his band manager, George Frederick Hinton, that suggested revisiting the march with a new title after seeing a massive artwork depicting the Liberty Bell in Chicago.

 

[Mrs Ten Names]

No introduction necessary for this piece of music but did y'all know it began as a piece of an opera he was composing for comedian Francis Wilson called 'The Devil's Deputy'. While the opera was eventually scrapped, it was his band manager, George Frederick Hinton, that suggested revisiting the march with a new title after seeing a massive artwork depicting the Liberty Bell in Chicago.

Souasa had a habit of changing the dynamics in his pieces, on the fly. So each performance was always slightly different from others, of the same piece.
The dynamic markings in modern printed scores of his works are often recollections of his band members.

 

[Odds]

One Ring to Rule them all...once again Lord of the Rings is the numero uno of the Movie Chart.

 

[Mrs Ten Names]

One Ring to Rule them all...once again Lord of the Rings is the numero uno of the Movie Chart.

I love Howard Shore's music.
I think my favourite is the Flute melody In Dreams.
This is a nice arrangement with an interplay of the Flute and the Bass Flute.

One of my favourite arrangers is Philip Sparke.
Here's his arrangement of Mary's Boy Child with a Samba sound..
Again I love the interplay between the Bass clarinet and the Bb Clarinet.
The Tuba low solo towards the end is worth waiting for. It's only about 1 bar long.
Although in the first listed version, they've swapped that Tuba solo onto the Bassoon or Baritone Sax..
And the interplay at the end, they've swapped the Clarinet parts onto Flute. I prefer the original Philip Sparke's version. But the only one I found had faded out the Flute improvisation in the middle. I can understand why. It's devilish.

The original but with the Flute solo faded out.

 

[Nwgs2]

Jean Michel Jarre oxygene always takes me back to being a teenager and zoning out.

 

[Odds]

Jean Michel Jarre oxygene always takes me back to being a teenager and zoning out.

Still have the album. A classic. Vangelis is another artist i've kept in the collection - 'Albedo 0.39' and 'Heaven & Hell' are superb. For Zoning out, try 'The Dragon'.