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luís soares

Blog do escritor Luís Soares

The Age of Anxiety

The London Symphony Orchestra performs Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 - "The Age of Anxiety", under the baton of the maestro himself. A very young yet seasoned Krystian Zimerman at the piano provides a broad range of subtle dynamics and tonal coloring. A truly special rendering of the work. Performed in 1986.

Since Bernstein's death there has been a tendency to ditch the symphonic tag and subtext of his Second Symphony (1949, rev. 1965) after W. H. Auden's "The Age of Anxiety" making it an eccentric kind of piano concerto. But the jazz element suddenly surfacing in "The Masque" is atypical; elsewhere Bernstein owes as much to Shostakovich. The structure of Auden's original is crucial in establishing the pattern of the music until the very end. No easy optimism here, rather a Shostakovich-like assertion of the determination to survive. The soloist is Krystian Zimerman, still the most subtle pianist ever to champion this music. The work is not otherwise represented in his discography.

-David Gutman

Ma, Bernstein, Kennedy

Dez anos antes de eu nascer, no dia exato, aconteceu isto.

The New York Times reported that on November 29, 1962, a benefit concert called "The American Pageant of the Arts" was to be held with "a cast of 100, including President and Mrs. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Leonard Bernstein (as master of ceremonies), Pablo Casals, Marian Anderson, Van Cliburn, Robert Frost, Fredric March, Benny Goodman, Bob Newhart and a 7-year-old Chinese cellist called Yo-yo Ma, who was brought to the program's attention by Casals."

 

As biographer Jim Whiting noted, "the article was noteworthy in two respects. First, it included Yo-Yo's name in the same sentence as those of two U.S. presidents and eight world-famous performers and writers. Second, Yo-Yo had been identified in a major newspaper for the first time. It would hardly be the last. In the years since then, the New York Times alone has written about him more than 1,000 times."

Bernstein's Serenade for Violin and Orchestra

New England Conservatory celebrates composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein on the centennial of his birth. Here we have Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”) as performed by the NEC Philharmonia and violinist In Mo Yang ’17 AD and conducted by Hugh Wolff.

 

Serenade for Violin and Orchestra "after Plato's Symposium"

 

Phaedrus; Pausanias
Aristophanes
Eryximachus
Agathon
Socrates; Alcibiades

 

Composer: Leonard Bernstein
Conductor: Hugh Wolff
Ensemble: NEC Philharmonia
Artists: In Mo Yang (Violin)

La Valse

Myung-Whun Chung Orchestre - Philharmonique de Radio France

 

La Valse est un poème chorégraphique pour orchestre de Maurice Ravel, composé entre 1919 et 1920 et dédié à l'amie du compositeur Misia Sert, née Godebska.

L'œuvre fut créée publiquement le  par les Concerts Lamoureux dirigés par Camille Chevillard. Elle porte la référence M.72, dans le catalogue des œuvres du compositeur établi par le musicologue Marcel Marnat.

 

Leonard Bernstein - Orchestre National de France

Monday morning class.

Performing the first movement of Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic. Gould's performance begins at 18:03.

 

Originally aired on January 31, 1960 on CBS Television as part of its Ford Presents series, this program was entitled "The Creative Performer." The entire show is actually three performances — by Gould, the soprano Eileen Farrell (singing the "Suicidio!" aria from *La Gioconda*), & Igor Stravinsky (conducting the last three scenes of his ballet *The Firebird*) — punctuated with scintillating musicological lectures by Maestro-Professor Bernstein, who is arguably the star of the show.

 

Though I recommend watching the program in its entirety, here's a time-stamped playlist, in case you'd like to jump to any given section:

1. Leonard Bernstein, on the vagaries of score notations: 0:00 - 12:56
2. Leonard Bernstein, intro to Gould: 12:57 - 18:02
3. Glenn Gould: 18:03 - 27:08
4. Leonard Bernstein, intro to Farrell: 27:09 - 33:46
5. Eileen Farrell: 33:47 - 38:24
6. Leonard Bernstein, intro to Stravinsky: 38:25 - 40:05
7. Igor Stravinsky: 40:06 - 51:06
8. Closing Credits: 51:07 - 52:24

 

Thanks go to two intrepid Gouldians who did the heavy lifting to track down, acquire, & beautifully digitize this rare masterpiece. Without them, we wouldn't be here enjoying it.

Patricia Petibon hoje na Gulbenkian

É verdade que o programa do concerto de Patricia Petibon hoje na Gulbenkian gira, sobretudo, em volta da música espanhola ou de inspiração espanhola. Diz-se, na apresentação do mesmo:

A cultura espanhola intrigou e fascinou a soprano francesa Patricia Petibon desde a sua infância. Sentindo na criação artística espanhola uma forte expressão popular, a cantora integrou nos seus primeiros recitais reportório de autores espanhóis, mas também de latino-americanos. Foi essa a base para o seu álbum Melancolía, aqui parcialmente revisitado por uma cantora conhecida pela intensidade com que aborda as suas interpretações. «No palco», acredita Petibon, «o carisma é indispensável».

Diz-nos, contudo, a folha de sala, que o concerto acabara com Bernstein e uma das minhas áreas favoritas que compôs, 'Glitter and be gay' da ópera 'Candide'. Por isso era esse o vídeo que eu tinha de partilhar.

Mas já agora, o próprio Leonard Bernstein a dirigir a London Symphony Orchestra em 1989, com June Anderson cantando.