New video cartoon: the grievous life of a Soviet composer

March 6, 2013 by Norman Lebrecht 5 Comments Mieczyslaw Weinberg was the composer who was closest to Dmitri Shostakovich in every sense – friendship, style, adjoining apartments. Weinberg’s music is steadily gaining recognition, but his life story remains obscure. Canada’s Arc ensemble attempts to piece it together in an animated film, just posted on Youtube. You view it here first.

                 














Director James Murdoch, illustrations by Thomas Dannenberg. Image courtesy Toccata Classics
Sourse  http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/03/new-video-cartoon-the-grievous-life-of-a-soviet-composer.html

Famed Pianist Van Cliburn Dies

Texas pianist Van Cliburn performs to a packed audience in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in April 1958.

Yulianna Avdeeva’s Exciting London Recital

February 8, 2013
United Kingdom Bach, Ravel, Schumann. Yulianna Avdeeva (piano) Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. 5.2.2013 (RB)
Bach: Overture in the French Style in B minor BMV831
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
Schumann: Sonata in F sharp minor Op 11

Stress in Piano Playing - Richard Beauchamp - 1999

Stress in Piano Playing

What do pianists do?

Richard Beauchamp

Notes of a talk prepared for a BAPAM conference in Edinburgh in 1999 - aimed at physiotherapists and doctors

Some causes of Stress | Prevention of Injury | Sitting and posture | Practice technique | Building stamina | Playing technique | Minimising stress | Post injury programme | Categories of technique

What, and how much, do pianists practise?

JS Bach's Well Tempered Clavier Book I: Prelude and Fugue Eb major, BWV 852 - Philip Goeth - 2012

Originally published here  http://bachwelltemperedclavier.org/pf-eb-major.html

Well Tempered Clavier Book I: Prelude Eb major

The prelude in Eb major is special in the sense that it is itself a fugue, with a more complex architecture than many of the (“actual”) fugues of the WTC. The pair in Eb major thus consists of two fugues, namely a highly sophisticated double fugue, which is followed by a jubilant and rather straight forward fugue as the second piece of the pair.

Charles Rosen obituary - Ivan Hewett - The Guardian, Monday 10 December 2012

'Pianists are like tenors – we're very stupid; they like to feel their voices, we like to feel the ivory under our fingers,' said Charles Rosen. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe