Music Mockney's Classical Music Thread

KingEric7

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You could do far worse than typing Ludivico Einaudi into Spotify, Elvis. A genius of a composer.
 

Kristjan

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Samuel Barber - Agnus Dei


One of the most emotional pieces ever written probably.

Also known as Adagio for strings in the original orchestral version
 

Nani Nana

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As played by Rod Hell and Emo

i hate that version, marc andré hamelin's deserves much more praise imo


van cliburn, american pianist who managed to win the Tchaikovsky prize in Moscow in 1962 at the height of the cold war, one of the most gifted pianists of the 20th century


alfred brendel, a true purist, perhaps the most familiar pianist to Schubert
 

Nani Nana

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No it isn't. The mans a fool, but his technique is superb. Unlike, say, Lang Lang who gets lambasted by classical music snobs (who are, btw, some of the worst snobs around) for being showy, he at least displays a non robotic fluid quality in his performance, fully aware of the sytlistic and subtle nuances of the piece...his dress sense and ridiculous mugging are irrelevant...Ironically the kind of person who criticizes it is most likely the kind of person who, if born at the time, would have disliked Liszt himslef...and most likely Mozart too..Those showy young cocky bastards with their contempt for the stoic dignity of the genre...

etc etc etc

The fact the guy dresses like a punk to get more coverage simply shuns the implicit rules of concert clothing and signals he may also deem unnecessary to subscribe to the rules of music playing.

Concerning these concert clothing rules, all the pianists always subscribed to them, from Rachmaninoff to Horowitz, even Kissin does although he hates it as stated in this interview :

And concert clothing?’ I’m wearing what it’s customary to wear, even if it may not be the most comfortable attire.​


and now springs up this bloke who wears sleeveless shirts, for what reason? The one underscored by Kissin in that same paragraph, creating a specific image, for he doesn't manage to do so merely by playing the piano.

fantasy in outward appearance reflects, or rather mantles, lack of fantasy in playing.
 

Nani Nana

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Complete and utter sweaty hairy donkey bollocks. The words cover, book, judging and twat all spring to mind.
that's the standard reply of maksim fanboys who can't really argue much about his random piano technique. if there's anyone judging a book by its cover it's you bringing up Lang Lang where no Lang Lang is required, merely because the latter has some odd expressions and clothing style.

if you call "non-robotism" and "nuances" the fact he slows down cadenzas from 6:31 onwards, I think you're insulting most of the other pianists you can find playing this piece on youtube who would easily be able to reminisce that Richard Kastle-like style of play but choose otherwise for the better. indeed most pianists could play like maksim does but maksim could play only like a handful.

we all have different ears though, and apparently maksim has different ears to all of the following : horowitz, rachmaninoff, hamelin, brendel, cziffra, who play this piece on a completely different register much closer to how Liszt would have played in his virtuoso style, unlike what you infer.

a confirmation of this can be found in this video of Emil von Sauer, one of the very few Liszt's pupils, playing his paramount work on an entirely different pace and lid than maksim

 

Nani Nana

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I suggest you have a look at Godfather III at some point...
i'm not denying that but godfather 3 went out probably ten years after raging bull so to see this marvellous piece linked to coppola rather than scorsese is a bit of a pity
 

CantonasWife

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What? fecking what!?
i'm not denying that but godfather 3 went out probably ten years after raging bull so to see this marvellous piece linked to coppola rather than scorsese is a bit of a pity
It's featured in both those movies so I don't see your point. It's not the movie that is of essence, it's the piece of music itself, and considering the plot of Rusticana and the plot of The Godfather, I'd say it's not so weird that I linked it to the Godfather.. :confused:
 

Mockney

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i'm not denying that but godfather 3 went out probably ten years after raging bull so to see this marvellous piece linked to coppola rather than scorsese is a bit of a pity
what difference does that make? Godfather I & II predate most of the significant films in Scorsese's career and were a direct influence on almost everything he did post them. Coppola is also a far better director (in my opinion) ...Adagio for Strings was used to great effect in both Platoon and The Elephant man, it's appearance in either doesn't detract from its usage or poignance in either one...You make bizarre arguments most of the time Nana
 

mexos

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I'm just going to completely ignore what's happening in this thread
 

Mockney

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It's featured in both those movies so I don't see your point. It's not the movie that is of essence, it's the piece of music itself, and considering the plot of Rusticana and the plot of The Godfather, I'd say it's not so weird that I linked it to the Godfather.. :confused:
Great point, in fact far more of the Opera itself is featured in Godftaher III, it being the thing they have been watching before leaving the theatre in that scene...and as CW points out, it purposefully paralels plot elements, and is set in Sicily ..Whereas Raging Bull just uses it for dramatic aesthetic affect

In fact it was also used in the intro cutscene for Actua Soccer 3, which I've decided is far more important than either of those films, and it's a sad day, nay a disgrace, that it is being remembered for it's association with these two hack directors when it should rightfully be remembered for it's association with a semi popular video game franchise
 

Nani Nana

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The Lang Lang comparisson was a fair one....Classical muso's hate him for many of the same reasons you hate this fella...i.e, non conformist attitudes to playing fecking music.
that's completely simplistic as his critics are rather bashing the fact he tends to sprint through his playing, on a completely opposite note to maksim but not any less questionable. To them Lang Lang is the product of such a pressurized industry that you can have the impression he is trying to show how quick and dexterous his hands can be rather than arousing any sort of musical expression whatsoever.

Then again his outward appearance might be seen as a mantle for this lack of musical ingeniousness, but to hear people say he is criticized because of his non conformist attitudes rather than his non conformist playing is mistake riddled.

Bizarre statement. where have I once claimed he was the greatest performer of this peice, or that he is in anyway my favorite pianist or anything like that...simply that you are being a bit of a knob in claiming it rubbish based, from your previous posts, mostly on his clothing...interpretations is one of the great things about art in itself...If we all just conformed to how certain people wanted things done, in both dress and style of performance, we'd go backwards as a civilization.
well then it's my mistake as i thought you'd have chosen one of the most famous piano pieces with greater care and that according to you this was the best entry to have a first listen to.

I haven't inferred anything...
you have, as quoted talking of maksim

fully aware of the sytlistic and subtle nuances of the piece..​

as if the other pianists one can listen to on youtube are not fully aware of the subtle nuances of this piece, that would in that case loosely boil down to slowing down cadenzas after half length and not pressing pedals in critical moments. that's not only an insult to the other pianists in question, but also to Liszt whose work is vastly undermined.

pertaining to rachmaninoff, i wholeheartedly agree with you and if you listen to the 5 versions I quote, his is the most akin to maksim's in terms of pace... however he does not need to modify candenzas to try and give it some extra dramatic effect.
 

Mockney

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We haven't had any Ludvig Van yet have we?...interesting, well I'll get some famous ones out of the way then

 

mexos

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And Beethoven is by far the most good looking of the classic rat pack.
 

Mockney

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fully aware of the sytlistic and subtle nuances of the piece..​

as if the other pianists one can listen to on youtube are not fully aware of the subtle nuances of this piece, that would in that case loosely boil down to slowing down cadenzas after half length and not pressing pedals in critical moments. that's not only an insult to the other pianists in question, but also to Liszt whose work is vastly undermined.
Where have you gotten this "as if..." bit from?? that clearly isn't what I inferred....i was, in that instance referring soley to Lang Lang, who's lack of "subtle nuances" you have mentioned yourself above...you seem to spend a lot of time arguing against things which you think have been inferred....they haven't.

I also don't claim to be any great shake when it comes to classical music performances...I couldn't really give a shit. If it sounds good, it sounds good.
 

Nani Nana

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Where have you gotten this "as if..." bit from?? that clearly isn't what I inferred....i was, in that instance referring soley to Lang Lang, who's lack of "subtle nuances" you have mentioned yourself above...you seem to spend a lot of time arguing against things which you think have been inferred....they haven't.

I also don't claim to be any great shake when it comes to classical music performances...I couldn't really give a shit. If it sounds good, it sounds good.

you can hardly say people criticizing maksim would have hated liszt or mozart without backing up your statements, if you think his performance sounds that good then all is well, all I did was suggesting elvis to listen to some others, which was the gist of my initial commentary even before i edited it as i knew you would come up with that clothes theme to make me come across as a musical snob for saying maksim's performance is lame
 

Rado_N

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They are two of the songs played by the Korean pianist in the episode 'Han', I think its season 5..