In this page I will randomly (and rather chaotically) publish any kind of interesting links or media that fits my personal non-professional interests …

Music

Piano

Scriabin: Nocturne Op 9 and Impromptu op 12 no 2 – Soyeon Kate Lee
Two great pieces by Aleksander Skrjabin. Dreamy nocturne for the left hand and beautiful romantic impromptu.

Scriabin: Etude Op 8 no 12 – Eugeny Kissin
Probably, the most powerful and wild Scriabin etude. Unsurpassable music.

Lang Lang, to my point of view he is an unfairly critised pianist because of his exagerated manierisms at the stage. I do not care vision (!!!), just sound!

Scriabin: Impromptu op 12 n 2 – Soyeon Kate Lee.
One of the most beautiful and unknown Scriabin works played by an excelent and unknown pianist.

Scriabin: Fantasy op 28 – Igor Zukhov.
One of the most intoxicating Scriabin works played by one of the most unfairly forgotten russian pianist, Igor Zukhov.

Scriabin: Fantasy op 28 – Roberto Szidon.
Nice version by Szidon.

Scriabin: Prelude op 22 no 1 – Evgeny Zarafiants.
Dreamy prelude.

Scriabin: Piano concerto – Garrick Ohlsson
His piano concerto … a really good version!

 

Chopin: several works – Soo Jung Ann
One of my favourite pianists. The first time I listened her (some years ago at Maria Canals competition) just after 5 minutes listening her on first round I was sure she were going to win the competition … and she did! She will be a future piano star.

Bach: Tocatta BWV 911 – Glenn Gould
God in Devil’s hands. Love or hate it!

Mozart: Piano sonatas – Glenn Gould
Highly unorthodox, but just brilliant and revealing …

Bach: Keyboard concerto no 5 – Glenn Gould (Vladimir Golschmann)
Bach … beauty, genius and perfection are in the simplicity!

Goldberg Variations (1981), from “Gould plays Bach”a film by Bruno Monsaigneon
Hipnotising rendition.

Genius within: the inner life of Glenn Gould
Interesting documentary about Glenn Gould’s life.

Bach: Goldberg Variations – Joao Carlos Martins
Highly idiosincratic but great Bach piano works interpreter.

Bach: Partita no 3 for violin, Prelude – Henryk Szeryng
Bach. Perfection.

Bach: Partita in E Major – Lara San John
Now, with visual support. Bach is, also, visual and geometrical perfection.

Bach: Prelude and Fugue, BWV 543 – E. Power Biggs
When God speaks, the World stops.

Bach: Prelude and Fugue, BWV 540 – Helmut Walcha
Architectural perfection and power.

Bach: Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 542 – Lionel Rogg
More power and perfection.

Bach: Prelude and Fugue, BWV 548 – Karl Richter
The best Bach prelude and fugue for organ? …

Mozart: Piano concerto no 4, Andante – Daniel Barenboim
Nice and elegant Mozart …

Schubert: Impromptu D899 no 3 – Vladimir Horowitz
Precision and politeness in both the work and the player.

Schubert: Klavierstuke D946 no 2 – Alfred Brendel
Brendel and Schubert.

Schubert: Piano Sonata D959, second movement – Alfred Brendel
Romantic perfection.

Schubert: Impromptu D935, op 142, n 3 – Nikolai Lugansky
Delicious … even more delicious from 4:30 to 7:00.

Schumann: Symphonic etude, Posthumous Variation V – Stefan Vladar
Dreamy Schumann.

Mendelssohn: Gondellied (Barcarolle) in A major – Daniel Barenboim
Lovely miniature.

Ginastera: Danzas Argentinas, op 2 no. 2: Danza de la moza donosa – Daniel Barenboim
Another lovely miniature.

Liszt: Trascendetal etudes – Claudio Arrau
One of the best interpretations of Liszt Trascendental Etudes. Claudio Arrau, the piano poet.

Liszt: Consolation no 3 – Lang Lang
Lovely Liszt work by a lovely pianist.

Liszt: Romance – Lang Lang
Liszt by Lang Lang.

Paganini: Violin concerto no 4, movements 2 and 3 – Henryk Szeryng
Lovely violin concerto played by one of the most particular and warm violinists.

R Addinsell: Warsaw Concerto – Philip Fowke
Tasty candy …

Rachmaninov: Etude-tableaux op 33 no 8 – Nikolai Lugansky
Nikolay Lugansky, to my taste the best alive Rachmaninov player, playing one of his most nice etudes.

Rachmaninov: Etude-tableaux op 39 no 5 – Nikolai Lugansky
A powerful Rach etude.

Rachmaninov: Moment Musicaux op 16 no 4 – Nikolai Lugansky
One of the most passionate, powerful and intoxicating Rach works.

Rachmaninov: Cello sonata op 19, 3rd movement – Truls Mork, Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Pure Rach …

Andre Mathieu: Piano concerto n 3 – Yoav Talmi, Alain Lefèvre
Nice piano concerto

Andre Mathieu: Piano concerto n 4 – George Hanson, Alain Lefèvre
Fire!

Alain Lefevre: Solitude – Alain Lefevre
Simply, beautiful.

Ginastera: Piano sonata no 1, movement IV – Alexander Panizza?
Powerful.

Ginastera: Piano concerto no 1, movement IV – Dora de Marinis
Power and terror …

Bohuslav Martinu: Double concerto for two sstring orchestras, piano and timpani – Rafael Kubelik (Boston Symphony, 1967)
Powerful.

 

Choral

Morten Lauridsen: O Magnum Misterium – King’s College
Moving! … contemporary classical music.

Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus – King’s College
Mozart elegancy without the usual Mozartian language!

Bach, Knut Nystedt: Immortal Bach (Bach: Komm suesser Tod – BWV 478) – RundfunkChor Berlin
Nice XVIII and XX centuries mixing.

 

Orchestra

Bach: Mass in b minor BWV 232, Cum Sancto Espiritu – Philippe Herreweghe
Choral Bach. Perfect blending of rational contrapunctus and beauty freedom.

Strauss: Eiene Alpensinfonie – Herbert von Karajan
Magnificient work and a magnificient interpretation. The best and most exhilarating playing of the climax of “On the summit” I have ever listened to. Power and transparency are not incompatible. Karajan at his highest best!

Mossolov: Zavod (Iron Foundry) – unknown
Madness, power and steel!

Ginastera: Estancia Suite (Malambo) – Gustavo Dudamel
Energy! … (forget politics and national flags, do not look … just listen!)

Wagner

Die Walkure, Leb wohl du kunhes herrliches Kind! – Pierre Boulez, Bayreuth 1980
Great Die Walkure scene with an impressive interpretation by Boulez on Bayreuth’80. It is Wotan’s farewell to his daughter Brunhilde. She defied Wotan’s authority breaking his laws and, in order to preserve his power, he is forced to punish his own daughter. He accepts to plunge her in a deep sleep protected by a fire wall that will only cross the “hero that does not know fear”. Music show a marvelous mix of deep sorrow for daughter punishment and excitement for heroic feelings.

Die Walkure, Leb wohl du kunhes herrliches Kind! – Michael Schonwandt, Copenhagen
The same moment at Copenhagen Ring. Not so electric orchestra but very effective stage moment at the extremely chomatic chord at the orchestral climax (3:43-3:47) and the following chord dissolution (3:47-4:00).

Tristan und Isolde, Liebestod – Daniel Barenboim, Bayreuth 95
Liebestod of a mythical interpretation of Tristan und Isolde (Bayreuth, 95) directed by Daniel Barenboim. Tristan und Isolde is an unsurpassed Art work and an unrivaled story about impossible love. Infectious music difficult to get rid of. After listening Tristan und Isolde, you will never be the same, anymore. A music work that scarred me.

Wagner-Liszt: Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde – Primavera Shima
Reals tears by perfectly beautiful unbearable Music …

C.P.E. Bach, Solfeggio – Eugen Cicero
Jazz and classic fusion.

 

Audiophile

Tubes

Turntable

Loudness war

The distorsion of sound
How compressed digital audio formats and loudness war distort sound. Please, do not accept compressed audio formats (MP3 and similar) if you pay for it! (in fact, we should never accept them!)

 

Miscellania

IF – Mercedes AMG Petronas version
Nice Rudyard Kipling poem about resilience …

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!