My Classical Notes » Podcasts

An Interview with Pianist, Berenika

hank — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:18:33 +0000

It is always inspiring to see more artists come onto the classical music scene! As the well-known, established giant musicians of today get older, we have to have the next generation of musicians ready to take on the rigors of travel, study, and performance. It is a challenging life; but when one has passion for music performance, all else takes a back seat.

On February 17, 2010 I met pianist Berenika, after she completed three concerts in the Santa Rosa, California area. While I was unable to attend her performance, I wanted to meet her, and talk about music and her career.

Berenika turned out to be delightful person: Expressive, confident, excellent communicator, with a strong sense of her professional direction.

Please click on the bar below to hear the interview, and here’s a picture of me with her.

Podcast 3: On Conductors

hank — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:09:17 +0000

This is the third in my series of talks on Great Music and Great Musicians. In this podcast, I talk about orchestral conductors. Please click on the black arrow below to hear Podcast 3:

It is interesting to see the great conductor, Carlos Kleiber, in Rehearsal. Yes… he is a young man at that time. Watch carefully, as he asks the Clarinet player (in German) to try to imitate a crying sound, while not *forcing* the instrument’s sound…

And below you can see Kleiber again in Brahms 4th symphony: At a point he becomes impatient, and he seems to say: “Now folks, here’s a very clear downbeat; kindly come in on the beat…”

Podcast 2: On Expressiveness in Music

hank — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:37:58 +0000

You may also hear this podcast at iTunes by clicking on the following:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=337927692&subMediaType=Audio

A wonderful example of the use of expressive melody is the Sarabande from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Solo Cello Suite number 1. Click below to enjoy Mischa Maisky’s performance.

Here is the way that another amazing composer, Johannes Brahms, was able to use “Expressiveness in Music”. This is the opening movement of Brahms’ “A German Requiem”. He composed this work in memory of his mother. Click to start:

Your thoughtful comments are welcome.

My Classical Notes Podcast-1: Mahler

hank — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:09:33 +0000

In this first podcast, I talk about Gustav Mahler: The Man and his Music

For the past 98 years since the death of this influential composer, many biographies,musical studies, PhD Theses, and other books have been written and read about Mahler, the man and his compositions. As such, I really feel somewhat humbled to be adding to this body of work, in particular because it is in the form of a podcast that lasts only a few minutes. However, every great part of history has both very long and somewhat shorter contributions…

Yes… I could talk with you about Mahler for several days. But let’s get started so that I can tell you some basics, and a few new things that you may not have known before…