|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
147.69.6.147
Music loving friends over last night and we looked at the two DVDs illustrated above.
The "Orchestra of Exiles" was purchased as a result of an earlier post here and related the exhausting efforts of violinist Bronislav Huberman to persuade Jews under the threat of the SS, to join him top form a new orchestra in Palestine. Bureaucracy nearly stopped the project in its tracks but it eventually triumphed with Toscanini conducting its debut. The success of the resultant Israel PO is history.
I thought to follow it up with the concert of Julia Fischer playing the Saint Saens Violin concerto no 3. It is a work none of us were particularly familiar with and we were not particularly impressed with the work so stopped it after movement 1 and moved on the Grieg's A minor concerto. Please note this was not because of lack of appreciation of the lovely Julia Fischer's superb playing but maybe our mood was somewhat dampened after the earlier documentary.
Now Grieg's A minor is a long favourite of mine and was the first serious work purchased as a callow youth on three 78 rpm shellac recordings with Walter Gieseking the artist. A kind lady in the record shop let me buy them one at a time and that purchase was inspired by me hearing the work at school. The audio via the wind up gramophone with steel needles was anything but hi-fi but jumping up and down every few minutes to turn the record over did not detract from the thrill of the music.
So my visiting friend, on hearing me relate this, asked what my current feeling was towards the work. My reply was I still liked it but it no longer raised the hairs on the back o my head.
Well that statement was prior to hearing Julia Fischer perform it!
What a riveting performance!! Made even more pleasurable by clever video work of the beautiful Julia playing.
But there was more. A long documentary of this superb artist discussing various forms of her art. As my friend commented - no wonder she was made a professor of music despite her young age at the time. Very, very impressive.
So to summarise, "The Orchestra of Exciles" was very interesting but is not a DVD likely to be viewed again. But the excellent Julia Fischer DVD will be looked at many times and I'll re-visit the SS Violin concerto. A lovely artist in all senses of that word. Bottom line, the Julia Fischer DVD is highly recommended both for her concert and the accompanying doco.
John
What can be more subjective than music? It reflects our individual tastes, says he enjoying many thousand albums on a Meridian Sooloos Server.
Follow Ups:
There's a really nice performance of Julia Fischer doing Grieg's Piano Concerto on YouTube..... I like this performance better than anything she's done on violin...........
Nobody can be a great violinist and a great pianist. Just impossible. Michael Jordan tried to play baseball, but only succeeded in making a complete fool out of himself.
Sure, lot's of people can, and have, played piano, and drawn a bow across strings. Heifetz himself could play a little piano. But, to be able to play at a high level, at a world class concert level...that's just impossible. There aren't enough hours in a day to practice both. To play at this level requires 8 hours or more of daily practice. Then, you also have to allow time for bathroom breaks, meals, showers, maybe even a brief walk outside.
I'm just flabbergasted...and in awe. And, I really just can't believe it. If such persons exist as that young lady, then they must superhumans.
were a violin and piano team who reportedly could exchange instruments very effectively. And let's not forget Mozart, who may not have been quite as good on the violin as he was on the piano, but I hear he was also a composer.
But - mastering a large repertoire on both instruments? That would be a tall order, I agree.
Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson, Jim Thorpe, Ron Brown, Bob Hayes, Rod Woodson.
Oh and Jackie Robinson. Better football player than baseball player
Jim Brown's best sport was lacrosse. He was also pretty good at American football.
His acting, however....
Happy listening,
Jim
"The passage of my life is measured out in shirts."
- Brian Eno
The pitcher named Babe Ruth once pitched nine shutouts in a season.......
Impossible no.
Dave
I was never enamored with Fischer on the violin..... For various reasons..... I think she's overrated as a violinist, but underrated as a pianist. I think piano might even be her better instrument. But I haven't heard a big enough "sample size" on piano to say for sure.
I realize this may seem like sacrilege to some, but I call 'em as I hear 'em.
I like Fischer's Mozart (violin) Concertos a lot.
I posted about the DVD myself shortly after it came out:
Thanks! for sharing- John & Chris.
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: