[Life] Classical Music Club

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Sorry people, due to personal reasons, there's gonna be a delay in updating the playlist. I'm sorry for that, but don't worry, all the slots will be full. Just not in these days.

 

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SPRING CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYLIST:

Spoiler:

Vivaldi - Spring
Brahms - Violin Concerto, Mov. 1
Debussy - Jardins Sous La Pluie
Sibelius - Suite for Violin and String Orchestra, JS 185: II. Evening in Spring
Mozart - Divertimento in D Major, K. 251: III. Andantino
Mozart - Flute Concerto No. 1 in G Major, K. 313: III Rondò e Minuetto
Grieg - Lyric Pieces, Op. 43 - No. 6, To Spring
Beethoven - Spring Sonata
Schubert - Serenade
Debussy - Rondes de printemps
Rachmaninoff - Floods of Spring
Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring

Hello everyone! It's finally Spring. Here I leave you with the last addition to the Spring classical music playlist: The Rite of Spring. It's a very interesting piece, which is widely known, and, especially, its story is very interesting! Here's a cool and very well made video on it!

Another thing: please answer the poll above, if you haven't already : )

 

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PINGS:

Spoiler:

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Hello everyone!
Finally here again to present you a new idea I have for the club! Every month I am going to make a post about a certain classical piece that I enjoyed and talk to you about it, telling you why I like it and why I recommend you to listen to it. Because of that, there's mostly gonna be violin music lol. I think it's a nice incentive to listen to new music and to maybe get to know more points of view. You're of course invited to discuss, express your opinions on the piece, even if you don't like it, and maybe recommend something as well.

And I'm gonna start from today with what's probably my favourite piece (which I might have talked about already lol, but what's better than this for a good start?): Vieuxtemps Violin concerto number 5!

Vieuxtemps is a not very well known composer, but some of his pieces are quite famous like his 4th and 5th violin concerto. He had been active from the first years of 1820 to 1873. This could put him into the Romantic and virtuosistic period. Indeed, not only he met composers like Berlioz, but Schumann also compared him to Paganini. Not only that, but it looks like Paganini himself was impressed by him. No wonder that Vieuxtemps was a very good violinist, because he could teach Ysaye, who is one of the greatest violinists as well, but he was also teaching in Bruxelles, where his class was then given to Wieniawski (another great violinist of that period). So, while it looks like Vieuxtemps' music is not as famous as Wieniawski's or Ysaye's, he was undoubtedly one of the greatest violinists of his era.

Talking about the piece, why do I like it so much? What I really enjoy is the 3rd movement, but I'm gonna get to it in a while! Let's start from the first movement: I really enjoy that there is an orchestral part that has a majestic tone, preparing for the arrival of the violin solist part. Indeed its entrace is so powerful and memorable that it just catches your attention and it keeps flowing throughout the entire concerto. It is very evident how virtuosistic the piece is: the violin solist part shows, from the beginning, a series of powerful sounds and techniques (not as much as other composers though). However, it's all connected by a great and heartfelt melody, that I really enjoy. An interesting detail I wanna add from the first movement is that one part of it has a section that is basically most of the third movement. I think this is pretty atypical for a violin concerto: indeed, I feel like each movement is somewhat different from the others, it's just like it evolves during the whole piece, but the changes between each movement are pretty evident. This violin concerto instead, seems to be more of a unique block, that simply keeps progressing, changing the tone during the movements, but it sounds like a unique block. It's hard to express what I mean by this, but if you listen to classical music, maybe you can see what I'm trying to convey.

Then we have the second movement. It has a beautiful melody that is present also in the first movement, but it's full of passion and it's just majestic and captivating. The great sound at the end prepares for the third movement, which is extremely powerful and full of building excitement.

The third movement is very particular: its very unique trait is that it's extremely short. Indeed it's only around 2 minutes! This is very unusual for classical music and for most violin concertos. While it is an uncommon choice for a third movement, I find it to be a perfect ending: it's powerful, it catches your attention so easily and it just keeps building to a final climax. It also has some interesting techniques and in my opinion this is when the violin sound reaches its full potential. In just 2 minutes, there's a nice melody, which is coherent with the rest of the concerto, that brings a nice melody and a great expression from the instrument. My absolute favourite part is , where there are four consecutive chords that are just so expressive and prepare for the final part of the whole piece. The integration between the violin solist part and orchestra works really well, leaving the most of the space to the violinist, while still not making it a solo violin moment. When I think about this third movement, I often think "this is how you end a violin concerto" lol

A final word about the different versions of the piece: I listened to many (almost all, probably). My favourite one is this one from Markov.

Spoiler:

I really like the virtuosistic interpretation, which in my opinion reaches its evident point at 0:41 of the last movement. That long note before the 4 consecutive chords, it's something I didn't hear other violinists do, but that works pretty well and it's really representative of the piece. I think it's also a little bit faster than usual, which is also interesting.

There are some versions that I like as well, such as Sarah Chang's, whose interpretation is more linear, clear and maybe more faithful to the score. Other good ones are from great violinists of the last century, like Heifetz (but i don't like the rushed beginning) and Kogan, who instead has a different but interesting approach to the last movement: it's a bit slowed down, especially the chords. It brings out the full sound of the chords, making them sound more powerful.

 

[Yellow Bommen]

I want to join this club, Angie. ^^

My favorite composers are Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.

 

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Hello everyone! Looks like it took me a while to past again... Anyway, here I am with another piece I really want to recommend. I am talking about one of those pieces that got me engaged into classical music in the last years! I am talking about Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

What I really like about this piece is of course it's main melody and then how it changes when it gets to the Friska (meaning fresh-fast). It is a very famous piece and I am really sure many of you listened to this before. It's a very good piece and it's especially a good one to get into classical music for first time listeners, despite being a little longer than one could expect!
It's also a very difficult piece to play on piano and I think it's pretty clear by listening to how complicated it sounds in the Friska part, especially.
What I like about this piece is that it's really playful, while having a very nice melody and I also like how faster and "richer" it gets as it goes on. I also like the parts where high notes are included, because I like high notes lol. I also really like fast passages. I remember that I was totally not expecting the piece to turn this way when I first listened to it for the first time!

Anyway, among the recordings, there's especially one that stands out to me: Valentina Lisitsa's version. Here it is:

There are also a couple of alternative versions that are interesting to listen to. The first one is an orchestral version, even though it wasn't originally planned by Liszt.

The other version I'd like to advice is actually a pretty interesting pick. This Japanese violinist plays the main melody of the piece on his violin. There are other videos of duos (piano and violin) playing the piece, but I like this one because the violin part is easier to listen to and it's pretty cool to watch as well, even though he might not be perfect in his playing all the time.