Many consider Dmitri Shostakovich the greatest composer of the 20th century. Born September 25, 1906, he might not have lived past his teens if he hadn't been talented. During the famines of the Revolutionary period in Russia, Alexander Glazunov, director of the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Conservatory, arranged for the poor and malnourished Shostakovich's food ration to be increased. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, his graduation exercise for Maximilian Steinberg's composition course at the Conservatory, was completed in 1925 at age 19 and was an immediate success worldwide. He was The Party's poster boy; his Second and Third Symphonies unabashedly subtitled, respectively, "To October". (celebrating the Revolution) and "The First of May". (International Workers' Day).
His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...
His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...
- 9/26/2016
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Clocking in at five-and-a-half-hours, Abel Gance‘s 1927 silent epic Napoleon has undergone a restoration that has been a decades-in-the-making endeavor. It’ll be heavily credited to the BFI, yet historian Kevin Brownlow “spent over 50 years tracking down surviving prints from archives around the world since he first saw a 9.5mm version as a schoolboy in 1954.”
BFI National Archive, Brownlow’s Photoplay Productions, and Dragon Di have restored the film — funding for 35mm elements came in 2000 — while Philharmonia Orchestra recorded the entirety of Carl Davis‘ score, and now it’ll see the light of day this November in the U.K. thanks to a theatrical and Blu-ray release.
Ahead of the release, we have a new trailer, which features quotes from both Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick, as well as a glimpse at the landmark triptych sequences. Amusingly, Kubrick did indeed call the film “a masterpiece of cinematic invention,” but he...
BFI National Archive, Brownlow’s Photoplay Productions, and Dragon Di have restored the film — funding for 35mm elements came in 2000 — while Philharmonia Orchestra recorded the entirety of Carl Davis‘ score, and now it’ll see the light of day this November in the U.K. thanks to a theatrical and Blu-ray release.
Ahead of the release, we have a new trailer, which features quotes from both Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick, as well as a glimpse at the landmark triptych sequences. Amusingly, Kubrick did indeed call the film “a masterpiece of cinematic invention,” but he...
- 9/23/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Now this film is a true classic! The BFI (British Film Institute) has announced a digitally restored re-release of Abel Gance's 1920's epic Napoleon, about the French conqueror. This project has been in the works for 50 years, with Academy Award-winning film historian Kevin Brownlow traveling the world collecting old prints of Gance's Napoleon in order to piece together this fully-restored version. The silent film runs a full 5 1/2 hours in total, and is accompanied by a live orchestra score. Ever since the previous restoration in 2000, the film version has only been screened 4 times in the UK. This announcement from the BFI is only for a UK re-release so far, but we also expect it to show up over here soon, too. It will premiere in November of 2016. The full press release (via The Arts Shelf) mentions that this new digital restoration of Napoleon will have its premiere screening with a...
- 1/28/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Although worthwhile restorations are unveiled on a semi-regular basis, some — such as Out 1, perhaps the greatest thing cinema offered last year — are in a league of their own. The most recent case in point is another hard-to-find, epic-length title of staggering ambition: Napoleon, Abel Gance‘s five-and-a-half-hour, 1927 silent epic whose most recent restoration has been a decades-in-the-making endeavor. It’ll be heavily credited to the BFI, yet historian Kevin Brownlow “spent over 50 years tracking down surviving prints from archives around the world since he first saw a 9.5mm version as a schoolboy in 1954.”
The fruits of that labor will be enjoyed soon: BFI National Archive, Brownlow’s Photoplay Productions, and Dragon Di have restored the film — funding for 35mm elements came in 2000 — while Philharmonia Orchestra recorded the entirety of Carl Davis‘ score, both of which are forming a U.K.-wide release that will roll out in 2016. When this will come to the U.
The fruits of that labor will be enjoyed soon: BFI National Archive, Brownlow’s Photoplay Productions, and Dragon Di have restored the film — funding for 35mm elements came in 2000 — while Philharmonia Orchestra recorded the entirety of Carl Davis‘ score, both of which are forming a U.K.-wide release that will roll out in 2016. When this will come to the U.
- 1/28/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Earlier this year, New York City's Lincoln Center held a concert titled Danny Elfman's Music From the Films of Tim Burton, which highlighted suites of the fantastical scores that the composer has created for the imaginative director. One of their best-known collaborations remains the brassy, triumphant main theme in Batman, which the Philharmonia Orchestra of New York performs in the above video, a clip from PBS' Live From Lincoln Center, which will air Friday. Close-ups of Burton's sketches for the movie's characters flash in the background.
Prior...
Prior...
- 10/27/2015
- Rollingstone.com
A major glossy magazine that used to be devoted largely to music -- but long ago fell under the spell of Hollywood celebrity -- still continues to cover music, specializing in listicles that seem designed mainly to provoke ire in those who care more about music than does said magazine (named after a classic blues song, in case you can't guess without a hint). This summer it unleashed a list of songs that, with that aging publication's ironically weak sense of history, managed to overlook the vast majority of the history of song. To put it bluntly, if you're claiming to discuss the best songs ever written and you don't even mention Franz Schubert, you're an ignoramus. My ire over this blinkered attitude towards music history festered for months, so I finally decided to do something about it by writing about some of the timeless songs omitted in the aforementioned myopic listicle.
- 10/25/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Big fork, little fork? Bradley Cooper and his girlfriend, Sports Illustrated model Irina Shayk, need to brush up on their royal etiquette. The Aloha star, 40, and Shayk, 29, attended an event at Buckingham Palace on May 26, and according to a source, they were at a loss over the cutlery. Following the dinner — which was hosted by Prince Charles in aid of The Prince of Wales' Charitable Foundation and featured a performance by Tenor Joseph Calleja and the Philharmonia Orchestra — Cristiano Ronaldo’s ex-girlfriend was [...]...
- 6/4/2015
- Us Weekly
Complete list of winners and nominees of the 2014 Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center on Sunday February 8. Winners will be updated as they're announced during the telecast and pre-telecast. Record Of The Year “Fancy,” Iggy Azalea Featuring Charli Xcx “Chandelier,” Sia **Winner** “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” Sam Smith “Shake It Off,” Taylor Swift “All About That Bass,” Meghan Trainor Album Of The Year **Winner** “Morning Phase,” Beck “Beyoncé,” Beyoncé “X,” Ed Sheeran “In The Lonely Hour,” Sam Smith “Girl,” Pharrell Williams Song Of The Year “All About That Bass,” Kevin Kadish & Meghan Trainor, songwriters (Meghan Trainor) “Chandelier,” Sia Furler & Jesse Shatkin, songwriters (Sia) “Shake It Off,” Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift) **Winner** “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” James Napier, William Phillips & Sam Smith, songwriters (Sam Smith) “Take Me To Church,” Andrew Hozier-Byrne, songwriter (Hozier) Best New Artist Iggy Azalea Bastille Brandy Clark...
- 2/8/2015
- by Donna Dickens
- Hitfix
In June 2014, moviegoers traveled to the village of Berk once again in How To Train Your Dragon 2. The film’s composer, John Powell, recently won Best Score – Animated Film for the movie at 5th Annual Hollywood Music in Media Awards.
Powell has scored films including Antz, Chicken Run, Shrek, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and X-Men: The Last Stand and has frequently collaborated with directors Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass, on films including the Bourne trilogy, United 93 and Green Zone.
His infectious score for How To Train Your Dragon earned him his first Academy Award nomination. Powell has also lent his voice to the score of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, and Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. Most recently, audiences heard his music on the scores to Rio 2, directed by Carlos Saldanha, as well as the Dragon 2 sequel.
With the latest adventures of Hiccup and Toothless released on DVD in November,...
Powell has scored films including Antz, Chicken Run, Shrek, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and X-Men: The Last Stand and has frequently collaborated with directors Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass, on films including the Bourne trilogy, United 93 and Green Zone.
His infectious score for How To Train Your Dragon earned him his first Academy Award nomination. Powell has also lent his voice to the score of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, and Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. Most recently, audiences heard his music on the scores to Rio 2, directed by Carlos Saldanha, as well as the Dragon 2 sequel.
With the latest adventures of Hiccup and Toothless released on DVD in November,...
- 12/1/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Is Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954) the greatest conductor ever? While there are some who, in preference to his highly inflected, interventionist style, would prefer a more straight-forward conductor such as his contemporary Arturo Toscanini, many cognoscenti believe that at the least Furtwängler, when heard in his favored 19th century Austro-Germanic repertoire, ranks supreme of his type in the pre-stereo era. The aforementioned Toscanini himself was an admirer; asked who aside from himself was the greatest conductor, he named Furtwängler, and also pushed for the German to take over the directorship of the New York Philharmonic when Toscanini relinquished its reins, though controversy prevented that.
While Furtwängler was a more versatile conductor than some observers give him credit for, his reputation is based firmly on his masterful conducting of the symphonies of Beethoven, Bruckner, and Brahms and the operas of Wagner. He said, "A well-rehearsed concert is one in which you have...
While Furtwängler was a more versatile conductor than some observers give him credit for, his reputation is based firmly on his masterful conducting of the symphonies of Beethoven, Bruckner, and Brahms and the operas of Wagner. He said, "A well-rehearsed concert is one in which you have...
- 12/1/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Dvořák (1841-1904), from Bohemia (at the time, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and later in Czechoslovakia) peppered his colorful, amiable music with folk rhythms. The Ninth, subtitled "From the New World" and inspired by and written during his time in the United States, is Dvořák’s most beloved symphony and contains both Bohemian and American influences. Prompted by the current exhibit of the work's original manuscript in New York City at the Bohemian National Hall, I have followed up my review of Jiří Bĕlohlávek's new Dvořák symphony cycle box set on Decca and his concert with the Czech Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall with a trawl through my collection of "New World" recordings, selectively augmented by streaming recordings available on Rdio.com.
There is much debate concerning the materials of the Ninth. The composer himself said that its middle movements were intended to depict scenes from Longfellow's narrative poem The Song of Hiawatha,...
There is much debate concerning the materials of the Ninth. The composer himself said that its middle movements were intended to depict scenes from Longfellow's narrative poem The Song of Hiawatha,...
- 11/21/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
I used to work at a store where some of us employees liked to dress up for Halloween. One year the young woman I worked with that day dressed in her full Goth regalia (this is someone with a spiderweb tattoo), and when one customer said to her, "I love your costume," she replied, coldly and seriously, "It's not a costume." Ever since then I have thought of Halloween as the one day each year when Goths "fit in."
From whence does "Goth" come as a description of this subculture? Not from the original Goths, Germanic barbarians who sacked Rome and later founded the kingdom that eventually became Spain and Portugal. Rather, it comes from "Gothic fiction," an English literary movement (so called in reference to the architecture of castles) that dates from Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.
Such famed literature as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,...
From whence does "Goth" come as a description of this subculture? Not from the original Goths, Germanic barbarians who sacked Rome and later founded the kingdom that eventually became Spain and Portugal. Rather, it comes from "Gothic fiction," an English literary movement (so called in reference to the architecture of castles) that dates from Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.
Such famed literature as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,...
- 10/31/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Lorin Maazel, who died at age 84 on Sunday, from complications of pneumonia, was a true Renaissance man of music: a child prodigy as a conductor and violinist, and later a composer as well.
Born in France in 1930 to American parents, he was raised in Los Angeles. His family was musical: one grandfather was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Lorin’s father taught voice and piano, and Lorin’s mother started the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. A child prodigy blessed with perfect pitch, Lorin was playing violin at age five and piano at age seven, but was especially captivated by conducting. Studying with Vladimir Bakaleinikov, the associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Maazel made his conducing debut at age eight with the University of Idaho Orchestra and quickly moved on to more prestigious ensembles. When Bakaleinikov became assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra the same year, the Maazel family went with him.
Born in France in 1930 to American parents, he was raised in Los Angeles. His family was musical: one grandfather was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Lorin’s father taught voice and piano, and Lorin’s mother started the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. A child prodigy blessed with perfect pitch, Lorin was playing violin at age five and piano at age seven, but was especially captivated by conducting. Studying with Vladimir Bakaleinikov, the associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Maazel made his conducing debut at age eight with the University of Idaho Orchestra and quickly moved on to more prestigious ensembles. When Bakaleinikov became assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra the same year, the Maazel family went with him.
- 7/14/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
We've banged on in the past about how 'silent film' was never really silent. But when we finally cracked the challenge of joining sound and pictures, live accompaniment naturally fell by the wayside.
It's made something of a niche comeback for revivals of silent movies - from the Pet Shop Boys doing Battleship Potemkin to Minima taking on Nosferatu - and in recent years there's also been an increasing amount of live accompaniment to the talkies.
Asian Dub Foundation made a splash with their 2001 live score for La Haine and the Royal Albert Hall has become the venue of choice for full orchestral concerts alongside a screening. There can be few better examples of how wonderfully this can work than Gladiator, Ridley Scott's 2000 epic.
We're not here to review the film. You know the (ahem) score. But to quickly summarise: They don't make 'em like they used to, except...
It's made something of a niche comeback for revivals of silent movies - from the Pet Shop Boys doing Battleship Potemkin to Minima taking on Nosferatu - and in recent years there's also been an increasing amount of live accompaniment to the talkies.
Asian Dub Foundation made a splash with their 2001 live score for La Haine and the Royal Albert Hall has become the venue of choice for full orchestral concerts alongside a screening. There can be few better examples of how wonderfully this can work than Gladiator, Ridley Scott's 2000 epic.
We're not here to review the film. You know the (ahem) score. But to quickly summarise: They don't make 'em like they used to, except...
- 5/29/2014
- Digital Spy
Carl Davis and Christopher Gunning claim synthesised orchestras are preferred to the real thing to save money
Two of Britain's leading film composers warn that the quality of music for film and TV is suffering because synthesised sounds are increasingly replacing real instruments in an effort to cut costs.
Carl Davis, whose scores include that for the World at War documentary series, said a synthesised soundtrack lacked "the heart" of symphonic or instrumental music.
Christopher Gunning, who wrote the Bafta-winning score for La Vie en Rose, about Edith Piaf, was even more critical: "A lot of television music has got to the stage where I have to turn it off. There's an enormous amount of programmes where I find the programme content really quite interesting, but can't watch because I find the music so blooming irritating. Part of that is, I am afraid, the poor quality of the musical composition.
Two of Britain's leading film composers warn that the quality of music for film and TV is suffering because synthesised sounds are increasingly replacing real instruments in an effort to cut costs.
Carl Davis, whose scores include that for the World at War documentary series, said a synthesised soundtrack lacked "the heart" of symphonic or instrumental music.
Christopher Gunning, who wrote the Bafta-winning score for La Vie en Rose, about Edith Piaf, was even more critical: "A lot of television music has got to the stage where I have to turn it off. There's an enormous amount of programmes where I find the programme content really quite interesting, but can't watch because I find the music so blooming irritating. Part of that is, I am afraid, the poor quality of the musical composition.
- 12/16/2013
- by Dalya Alberge
- The Guardian - Film News
Remember Me (review) is now available for purchase for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Players will step into the shoes of the memory hunter Nilin for an adventure they won't soon forget. Read on to watch the launch trailer.
From the Press Release
Capcom, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, confirmed that the third person action adventure title Remember Me releases today across North America and on June 7 for European territories. Available at retail for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC, the title will also be available to download digitally starting from today via the PlayStation Network Store and Steam, with a Games on Demand version for Xbox 360 to follow.
Developed by Paris based Dontnod Entertainment, Remember Me has garnered real attention since its announcement at last year’s Gamescom, receiving praise for its visual style, combat system,...
From the Press Release
Capcom, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, confirmed that the third person action adventure title Remember Me releases today across North America and on June 7 for European territories. Available at retail for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC, the title will also be available to download digitally starting from today via the PlayStation Network Store and Steam, with a Games on Demand version for Xbox 360 to follow.
Developed by Paris based Dontnod Entertainment, Remember Me has garnered real attention since its announcement at last year’s Gamescom, receiving praise for its visual style, combat system,...
- 6/4/2013
- by Amanda Dyar
- DreadCentral.com
Remember Me will release on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on June 4th. Composer Olivier Deriviere known for his work on Alone in the Dark and Of Orcs and Men has conduced an interactive musical score for Remember Me that will bring the game's futuristic story to life.
From the Press Release
Classically trained multimedia composer Olivier Deriviere (Alone In The Dark, Of Orcs And Men), whose distinctive soundtracks have been recognized by Billboard and The New York Times, has crafted a unique, electronically manipulated live symphonic score for the upcoming action adventure video game Remember Me developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Capcom. Deriviere's dynamic emotional score is intricately woven throughout Remember Me's innovative 'memory remix' gameplay experience and immersive futurist story set in Neo-Paris where personal memories are digitized, bought, sold and traded. Remember Me will launch on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in North America on June...
From the Press Release
Classically trained multimedia composer Olivier Deriviere (Alone In The Dark, Of Orcs And Men), whose distinctive soundtracks have been recognized by Billboard and The New York Times, has crafted a unique, electronically manipulated live symphonic score for the upcoming action adventure video game Remember Me developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Capcom. Deriviere's dynamic emotional score is intricately woven throughout Remember Me's innovative 'memory remix' gameplay experience and immersive futurist story set in Neo-Paris where personal memories are digitized, bought, sold and traded. Remember Me will launch on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in North America on June...
- 4/23/2013
- by Amanda Dyar
- DreadCentral.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Feb. 19, 2013
Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.98
Studio: Cohen Media/Entertainment One
Fantasy takes flight in 1924's The Thief of Bagdad.
Raoul Walsh’s 1924 film The Thief of Bagdad, a dazzling Arabian Nights adventure fantasy starring Douglas Fairbanks and set in the city of Bagdad, remains one of the most imaginative of all silent movies.
The classic film’s fantastical family-friendly story finds Fairbanks portraying the titular recalcitrant thief Ahmed who vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler (Sôjin) for the hand of a beautiful princess (Julanne Johnston).
Filled with Fairbanks’ acrobatic and energetic stuntwork, elaborate and lush settings, and backgrounds and massive sets by William Cameron Menzies (who would later design Gone with the Wind), The Thief of Bagdad was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Further, the American Film Institute’s 2008 poll of the creative community ranked the movie among the...
Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.98
Studio: Cohen Media/Entertainment One
Fantasy takes flight in 1924's The Thief of Bagdad.
Raoul Walsh’s 1924 film The Thief of Bagdad, a dazzling Arabian Nights adventure fantasy starring Douglas Fairbanks and set in the city of Bagdad, remains one of the most imaginative of all silent movies.
The classic film’s fantastical family-friendly story finds Fairbanks portraying the titular recalcitrant thief Ahmed who vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler (Sôjin) for the hand of a beautiful princess (Julanne Johnston).
Filled with Fairbanks’ acrobatic and energetic stuntwork, elaborate and lush settings, and backgrounds and massive sets by William Cameron Menzies (who would later design Gone with the Wind), The Thief of Bagdad was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Further, the American Film Institute’s 2008 poll of the creative community ranked the movie among the...
- 2/4/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
There's nothing quite like the sustained pleasure of immersing one's self in a huge chunk of a top-notch artist's output for a significant period of time. This was easily accomplished in 2012, because lately it seems like the classical arms of the major labels are trying to get all their best material into budget-priced box sets (in Europe even more than in the U.S., so check the imports, especially for Sony). And anything they aren't doing that with, another label would be happy to license. In that sense, it's a great time to be a classical fan. Nonetheless, I'm keeping this list shorter than my new releases list, because, well, there's too much to listen to all of it! So to make my list, these items had to make me very, very happy in 2012.
1. Hilliard Ensemble: Franco-Flemish Masterworks (Virgin Classics)
This eight-cd box is a delight for fans of choral music,...
1. Hilliard Ensemble: Franco-Flemish Masterworks (Virgin Classics)
This eight-cd box is a delight for fans of choral music,...
- 1/3/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Unreported World | Castle | 4Funnies: Uncle | James Bond 50th Anniversary Gala Concert | Jack Irish: Bad Debts | An Idiot Abroad
Unreported World
7.30pm, Channel 4
Ksenia Sobchak is about as well connected as one can get in Russia. Raised as part of the elite that got rich in the wake of the collapse of the Ussr, she was, until recently, best known as a socialite and Big Brother host. Then she started criticising family friend Vladimir Putin's government. Instead of appearing on mainstream TV, she now hosts a political discussion show on a small cable channel, and armed cops have raided her flat. Reporter Marcel Theroux and director David Fuller meet Sobchak, and look on as she records an interview with Pussy Riot's Katya Samutsevich. Jonathan Wright
Castle
10pm, Channel 5
A retired bank robber is found dead in his car, seemingly the result of an interrogation that went too far. Castle...
Unreported World
7.30pm, Channel 4
Ksenia Sobchak is about as well connected as one can get in Russia. Raised as part of the elite that got rich in the wake of the collapse of the Ussr, she was, until recently, best known as a socialite and Big Brother host. Then she started criticising family friend Vladimir Putin's government. Instead of appearing on mainstream TV, she now hosts a political discussion show on a small cable channel, and armed cops have raided her flat. Reporter Marcel Theroux and director David Fuller meet Sobchak, and look on as she records an interview with Pussy Riot's Katya Samutsevich. Jonathan Wright
Castle
10pm, Channel 5
A retired bank robber is found dead in his car, seemingly the result of an interrogation that went too far. Castle...
- 12/14/2012
- by Jonathan Wright, Phelim O'Neill, Ben Arnold, Martin Skegg, Ali Catterall, Julia Raeside
- The Guardian - Film News
1. The Philharmonia Orchestra’s Wozzeck Alban Berg’s compact shocker of an opera is about cruelty and despair, but the Philharmonia’s concert performance in Avery Fisher Hall on November 19 was a celebratory event. Rare as it is to experience the score in the flesh, it’s rarer still to hear it done with such a volatile mixture of vitriol and love. The libretto, which Berg adapted from Georg Büchner’s episodic and truncated 1837 play, crackles with disdain. “I saw you pissing in the street like a dog!” exclaims a doctor to Wozzeck, his human lab rat. “Haven’t I proved that the sphincter is subject to the exercise of the will?” The score can be ferocious, too, full of lurid chords and panicky rhythms, but in the right hands—the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen’s, say—it’s also a thing of garish beauty. Salonen balanced the opera’s lush and bitter sides,...
- 12/3/2012
- by Justin Davidson
- Vulture
Shortly after 9/11, and very definitely as a personal response to that event, I wrote an article about Requiems for Cdnow, where I worked at the time (just a few blocks away from Ground Zero; fortunately our workday started at 10 Am, so I wasn't there yet that day, but in the weeks that followed there were days where, if the wind came from the wrong direction, we would go home early, it made us so sick). In the years since, I have written about music composed in response to that tragedy, such as John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls. But now I find myself being drawn back to the Requiem idea. Here's a much-expanded take on it.
This roughly chronological list confines itself to works with a sacred basis, though the 20th century yielded secular Requiems, most notably Paul Hindemith's When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom...
This roughly chronological list confines itself to works with a sacred basis, though the 20th century yielded secular Requiems, most notably Paul Hindemith's When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom...
- 9/11/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Born August 22, 1862 in St.-Germaine-en-Laye, France, Claude-Achille Debussy was a child prodigy pianist who was admitted to the Paris Conservatory at age 10. Now generally considered to have been the greatest French composer, Debussy is proof that great art can come from terrible human beings. He was supremely self-centered and selfish. Two women -- one his wife -- attempted to kill themselves after he ended his relationships with them in cruelly casual fashion; his behavior was so beyond acceptable norms, even by bohemian French standards, that many of his friends turned their backs on him. In the midst of his greatest personal controversy, when he'd left his wife for a married woman and moved with the latter to England for awhile after to escape the constant recriminations, he wrote his biggest masterpiece, La Mer.
But, of course, there's nothing the French enjoy more than a controversy. Debussy's music was controversial as well.
But, of course, there's nothing the French enjoy more than a controversy. Debussy's music was controversial as well.
- 8/16/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Probably some of you were a little too busy with, er, other things on your mind while reading Fifty Shades of Grey to realize author E.L. James was giving you the perfect playlist for your very own, um, enjoyment. Or if you’re that great a multi-tasker, in between buying that complete set of restraints and riding crops, you’ve already downloaded all the Thomas Tallis, Bach and more that accompanies Ana and Christian’s adventures in and out of the “Red Room of Pain,” For the rest of us, Emi has actually compiled a bunch of those songs into Fifty Shades of Grey – The Classical Album (alas, that means no Britney Spears or Kings of Leon will be included).
“I am thrilled that the classical pieces that inspired me while I wrote the Fifty Shades Trilogy are being brought together in one collection for all lovers of the books to enjoy,...
“I am thrilled that the classical pieces that inspired me while I wrote the Fifty Shades Trilogy are being brought together in one collection for all lovers of the books to enjoy,...
- 8/7/2012
- by Sabrina Rojas Weiss
- TheFabLife - Movies
Mahler's Symphony No. 3 in D minor is his longest, a six-movement ode to Nature and the World. It includes a children's choir and a contralto soloist but is largely instrumental, using a quite large orchestra complete with posthorn, harps, English horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, bass trombones, and a lot more brass than usual. Mahler's nature is not exclusively a calm pastoral scene -- it's stormy, uneasy, sometimes threatening, with mysterious rustling and twittering, yet with rays of sunlight cutting through the shadows at times.
This work had a long and confusing path from conception to completion. Mahler wrote movements II through VI in the summer of 1895. The following year, he worked on a first movement, weaving in elements of the movements he’d written in '95. That movement kept growing and growing -- at least a half an hour long, by itself it as long as all of Beethoven's First Symphony.
This work had a long and confusing path from conception to completion. Mahler wrote movements II through VI in the summer of 1895. The following year, he worked on a first movement, weaving in elements of the movements he’d written in '95. That movement kept growing and growing -- at least a half an hour long, by itself it as long as all of Beethoven's First Symphony.
- 6/10/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Mahler's Fourth Symphony (1892/1899-1900) is his sunniest, vastly less concerned with existential questions and therefore less laden with angst than all his other symphonies. There are some shadows in the first two movements, but the lengthy slow movement is gorgeously lyrical, and the finale (originally written in 1892 for the Third Symphony) is a setting for soprano of "Lied der himmlischen Freuden" (Song of the Heavenly Life" from Des Knaben Wunderhorn), a child's amusingly prosaic description of heaven. It's also his second-shortest and much the shortest of his vocal symphonies (under an hour in most readings, and yes, by Mahlerian standards, that counts as short). Furthermore, it's in the most standard four-movement symphony form. All of these things combine to make it his most immediately accessible symphony. It thus has been many listeners' entry point into his highly personal sonic world. It was premiered on November 25, 1901 in Berlin, with the composer conducting.
- 11/25/2011
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
It's not often we get to see the process of symphony orchestras providing the soundtrack to video games, but if you happen to live near California State University Northridge, you have the chance to see -- and hear -- just that on May 9th, when Garry Schyman's music from both Bioshock and Dante's Inferno will be performed live in concert.
From the Press Release:
Garry Schyman's award-winning music from the video games BioShock, BioShock 2 and Dante's Inferno will be performed by the Media Composition and Studio Ensemble full orchestra at Plaza del Sol Performance Hall, California State University Northridge on May 9, 2011. The concert program also includes the first public performance of Schyman's Viola Concerto "Zingaro" (Second Movement) featuring renowned viola soloist Andrew Duckles.
"This year we are thrilled to have Garry Schyman, award-winning composer for video games (BioShock and Dante's Inferno) as our guest. The concert will include...
From the Press Release:
Garry Schyman's award-winning music from the video games BioShock, BioShock 2 and Dante's Inferno will be performed by the Media Composition and Studio Ensemble full orchestra at Plaza del Sol Performance Hall, California State University Northridge on May 9, 2011. The concert program also includes the first public performance of Schyman's Viola Concerto "Zingaro" (Second Movement) featuring renowned viola soloist Andrew Duckles.
"This year we are thrilled to have Garry Schyman, award-winning composer for video games (BioShock and Dante's Inferno) as our guest. The concert will include...
- 4/16/2011
- by The Woman In Black
- DreadCentral.com
Cinema Of Brazil: Music And Rhythm; Sound In Cinema – Music In Film: UK Portuguese Film Festival, London
One of the themes of this year's City Of London festival is the music of the Portuguese-speaking world, which is good news for cinemagoers, as these parallel festivals deliver more genres than you can shake a hip at. On the Brazilian side, there's the birth of bossa nova in the 1960s-set Os Desafinados, Crouching Tiger-style capoeira action in Besouro, or streetwise girl groups in São Paolo drama Antônia, plus documentaries on Tropicalia figureheads Arnaldo Baptista (of Os Mutantes) and Caetano Veloso, Wilson Simonal and Vinícius de Moraes. Representing Portugal, there's fado legend Amália Rodrigues in 1943's Fado, Story Of A Singer and Manuel de Oliveira's Buñuelesque Os Canibais.
Barbican Screen, EC2, Ritzy Picturehouse, SW2, Fri to 8 Jul, visit barbican.org.uk, picturehouses.co.uk
Steve Rose
Check The Gate: Hungarian Film Showcase,...
One of the themes of this year's City Of London festival is the music of the Portuguese-speaking world, which is good news for cinemagoers, as these parallel festivals deliver more genres than you can shake a hip at. On the Brazilian side, there's the birth of bossa nova in the 1960s-set Os Desafinados, Crouching Tiger-style capoeira action in Besouro, or streetwise girl groups in São Paolo drama Antônia, plus documentaries on Tropicalia figureheads Arnaldo Baptista (of Os Mutantes) and Caetano Veloso, Wilson Simonal and Vinícius de Moraes. Representing Portugal, there's fado legend Amália Rodrigues in 1943's Fado, Story Of A Singer and Manuel de Oliveira's Buñuelesque Os Canibais.
Barbican Screen, EC2, Ritzy Picturehouse, SW2, Fri to 8 Jul, visit barbican.org.uk, picturehouses.co.uk
Steve Rose
Check The Gate: Hungarian Film Showcase,...
- 6/18/2010
- by Steve Rose, Kathy Sweeney
- The Guardian - Film News
ROME -- The 2007 edition of the Cartoons on the Bay festival will feature 162 projects from 30 countries and the event's most international jury to date.
Organizers announced Friday that the April 19-22 festival -- held for the first time in the city of Salerno, rather than the smaller town of Positano -- will include eight competitive categories. Winners will be selected by a jury made up of Dutch writer Jan-Willem Bult, Italian director Maurizio Forestieri, Disney's Beth Gardiner, Celine Limorato from Frace 5 and German producer Wolfgang Wegmann.
Among the projects slated to unspool are the television special "Anna and the Moods", which features the voices of singer Bjork and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame; "Starveillance", which speculates about the lives of celebrities including Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore; and a new rendition of the "Peter and the Wolf" fable, featuring the music of Prokofiev performed by The Philharmonia Orchestra.
This year's event marks the 11th edition of the festival, which has become a key showcase for television animation productions.
Organizers announced Friday that the April 19-22 festival -- held for the first time in the city of Salerno, rather than the smaller town of Positano -- will include eight competitive categories. Winners will be selected by a jury made up of Dutch writer Jan-Willem Bult, Italian director Maurizio Forestieri, Disney's Beth Gardiner, Celine Limorato from Frace 5 and German producer Wolfgang Wegmann.
Among the projects slated to unspool are the television special "Anna and the Moods", which features the voices of singer Bjork and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame; "Starveillance", which speculates about the lives of celebrities including Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore; and a new rendition of the "Peter and the Wolf" fable, featuring the music of Prokofiev performed by The Philharmonia Orchestra.
This year's event marks the 11th edition of the festival, which has become a key showcase for television animation productions.
- 3/10/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- A new stop-motion animated feature version of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf -- produced by the U.K.'s BreakThru Films, Se-Ma-For Studios in Poland and the U.K. Philharmonia Orchestra -- has been picked up for exclusive international licensing by Columbia Artists Management, the parties announced here Monday. The film is to be broadcast in Britain by Channel Four, then released internationally via DVD and TV sales. Columbia Artists management will handle theatrical dates with a live orchestra. Directed by Suzie Templeton and produced by Hugh Welchman and Alan Dewhurst, the picture will have its world premiere at London's Royal Albert Hall in September accompanied by The Philharmonia Orchestra. It has an industry screening as part of MIDEM Classique here on Tuesday.
- 1/23/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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