Here’s one of my favorite concert videos. It features pianist Alexis Weissenberg playing Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka. The director is Ake Falck, and while he didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, the lighting and the camerawork here are superb. Notice
Bernstein: ‘Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs’
In the run-up to Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, I’ve been highlighting some of his lesser known music. Here’s his jazz/classical fusion piece “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs,” originally written, like Stravinsky’s “Ebony Concerto,” which it resembles, for Woody Herman’s big band.
Pacific Overtures: July
My monthly newsletter, with July concert listings, an interview with Anne Akiko Meyers, news about the orchestra, a playlist, a video and more … Pacific Overtures. July, 2018.
Stravinsky conducts ‘Pulcinella’
Composer Igor Stravinsky conducts the Toronto Symphony in the ending of his own ballet “Pulcinella.” This is in 1967, very late in his life, the latest I’ve seen him conducting on film. He would have been about 85 here. Stravinsky
Pacific Overtures: June
Pacific Overtures. June, 2018
That pounding bit in ‘The Rite of Spring’
Here are those 11 beats in Part II of Stravinsky’s “Le sacre du printemps” (today is the anniversary of its 1913 premiere) in 103 different performances. Warning: This is bizarre.
That time Igor Stravinsky was in a watch ad
I happened upon this photo the other day — the composer Igor Stravinsky with a cat. My son and I were curious about the watch — Stravinsky was always a dapper dresser — and we came upon this (click on
Video: Monteux conducts ‘Le sacre du printemps’
I was listening to this recording again the other night for the first time in a while and was struck by not only how good the performance was but also by how it must be quite close to how this
Lesson Eight: Motivation and nerves
My last piano lesson in the series. Recording coming soon. Lesson Eight: Motivation and nerves. OC Music and Dance blog, Aug. 31, 2017.
Audio: Stravinsky: Andante
Stravinsky’s music is often thought of as a relentlessly bold, spiky and angular, but he also wrote in gentle pastels. Here’s one such piece, his Andante for piano four hands (which I’m learning at the moment). And now listen to