Sunday, June 28, 2015
This will cheer you up...
This will cheer you up, if you have the ears to hear it.
You probably came here expected to read something about politics, but I'm too depressed, too surly, too...
...is there a French term that means "easily annoyed by everything"? Well, there ought to be.
The point is, I'm just not in a mood to study the news today. Time for some Prokofiev!
Originally, I had hoped to embed the final movement of the Fifth Symphony. That's the one where the Great Robot Factory goes completely out of control. But the only YouTube performance I really like is in a video of the entire symphony, and I had hoped to draw your attention to the last ten minutes.
That's why I've embedded, above, the final movement of the Sergei Prokofiev's First Symphony, the "Classical" -- so nicknamed because it uses a small orchestra of the sort that Mozart or Haydn might have recognized. You are supposed to dance to this music -- an extremely rapid and strenuous dance of your own invention. This will kill you (if you do it right). But you'll die happy.
Your conductor is Valery Gergiev. In Prokofiev, you're not likely to find better.
As for the wicked, wicked world -- well, I'd tell it to go to hell, but it seems to be finding its way there without my help.
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8 comments:
You can embed youtube videos in a way which causes them to start at a certain point in the video, if you want to post something but can only find it in a bigger video.
I didn't know that! Thanks!
But if someone out there is new to classical music and open to giving it a try, the last movement of the First Symphony really is a good place to start. Please understand, though, that you do have to play this music loud, and you have to try to dance to it. The first heart attack should kick in about when the development section starts.
Prokofiev's 5th should be beamed to outer space to communicate with higher intelligence. Many of the recordings are murky, mushy, and moribund. Don't be fooled. Indeed, Joseph, the sense at the end of a runaway machine resonant with the Sorcerer's Apprentice is inescapable.
Gergiev is the bee's knees! His Rite of Spring is orgasmic. It's like punk rock!
'...is there a French term that means "easily annoyed by everything"?'
You mean besides 'French'?
Here's something cheering and musical. Kiev-born pianist and Ukrainian patriot, Valentina Lisitsa, recently banned in Toronto for her opposition to the Canadian supported Ukraine Nazi regime, playing liberated Donetsk on June 22, the 74th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Russia.
How ironic that the brave-hearted people of Donbass are still fighting Nazis, this time from Western-backed Ukraine.
I think you'll agree this is something special and inspiring.
https://youtu.be/1eJXty3AIIY
Yes, Mr. C., now that’s class – with sweet savoir-faire! ;) j
Here's an example of jumping to a particular section of a video - note the minute and second specs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaiXIdncA7M#t=37m50s
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