I review a lot of Classical Music CD's - often before they are for sale to the general public. I get them via a special download link, listen to them (several times) and post reviews here on my blog Over the last year, I've moved, which means I spent the last 9 months working from my laptop, rather than my desktop. Not a problem. When my desktop crashed, I didn't think twice about restoring it to factory defaults. All of my personal files were stored on an external drive (or so I thought). Because I review so many CD's I generally don't have the time to go back and "enjoy" the previous CD's I've downloaded. - Well.... Nicola Benedetti is performing the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 tonight with the Pacific Symphony. I reviewed her recording of the same concerto last year. I thought the recording was on the external drive - but alas it's not! Her recording as well as many of the other amazing CD's I have enjoyed over the past f...
I'm not sure such a comparison by a composer is a wise decision (because performers are the people who ultimately perform our music and comparing performers means one tends to be favored and so the other may feel slighted and 'less inclined' to perform comparing composer's works). But that said, this blog is all about discussing what comes to mind - and reviewing the various violin music I've heard recently it only seems natural a comparison of the performers styles would happen. So, here I go.... Hilary Hahn has several glowing comments from me about her playing. I've listened to most of what she has recorded and find her style fresh and energetic. She likes to attack pieces and plays some of the fast sections faster than her contemporaries. This is not done at the sake of clarity, because during the Szymanowski the clarity of notes is always present, and yet the notes seems to fly at inhuman speed. Although, I think her rendition of Korngold's Violin Co...
I received a number of comments on this piece, most of them over email. After much discussion I've opted to put in both bar lines and time signatures. Sincere gratitude goes out to Patrick from Ligeti Quartet for his detailed comments. He went way above board in providing the information I needed to make this a playable piece. Here is both a recording and the sheet music. The Jig is Up by Chip Michael If you'd like to see the previous article and my original approach to this piece, click here .
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