Hidden Talents

[Guest Dabeagle]

Yes, I'm biased.

I will be the first to admit that Kale grew on me slowly and now there is a special place in my heart for him. I enjoyed seeing into his secret heart, seeing him in a moment where he reaches for someone in both the physical and emotional sense.

They are a beautiful couple.

[Nick Deverill]

Yes, he's becoming a quite complex young man. A very enjoyable tale.

While is a bit odd for a deaf person to suggest music (I wasn't deaf for the first 35 years of my life), the thought of him coming out as a pianist with a spirited rendition of Liszts Hungarian Rhapsody number 2 would be just the ticket for a future story. That piece of music features in the 1947 award winning Tom and Jerry short, Cat Concerto and is also the music featured in the piano duel in Roger Rabbit. It's hard to play well, and appreciated by non-musicians as it is rather a piece with keyboard fireworks. True of a lot of Liszts works really, he was a piano superstar of his day.

[Cole Parker]

Very much like the film matinee idols of late years. A huge figure in society as well as music.

C

[Guest RBartlett]

Yes, he's becoming a quite complex young man. A very enjoyable tale.

While is a bit odd for a deaf person to suggest music (I wasn't deaf for the first 35 years of my life), the thought of him coming out as a pianist with a spirited rendition of Liszts Hungarian Rhapsody number 2 would be just the ticket for a future story. That piece of music features in the 1947 award winning Tom and Jerry short, Cat Concerto and is also the music featured in the piano duel in Roger Rabbit. It's hard to play well, and appreciated by non-musicians as it is rather a piece with keyboard fireworks. True of a lot of Liszts works really, he was a piano superstar of his day.

I was thinking something along the lines of Sonata No. 23 in F minor Op. 57 Appssionata by Beethoven.

[jnwrx1]

I'm probably gonna fall in the category of people who might be able to appreciate ballet...

But I agree with Kale... Everything really does sound better on the piano, and I wish I had someone who could do that for me.

And everyone knows Beethoven was the original rock musician, so if Kale played something from him, that would really be coming out in style.

[Cole Parker]

Everything doesn't sound better on the piano. A perfect example is the suite Pictures at an Exhibition written for piano by Modest Mussorgsky. It's probably his best know work and is a wonderful piano composition.

But, it's far, far better known as adapted for orchestra by Maurice Ravel, and is more satisfying to hear.

Many symphonies have been reduced to piano scores, and almost none of them are superior to the orchestral version.

C

[jnwrx1]

Everything doesn't sound better on the piano. A perfect example is the suite Pictures at an Exhibition written for piano by Modest Mussorgsky. It's probably his best know work and is a wonderful piano composition.

But, it's far, far better known as adapted for orchestra by Maurice Ravel, and is more satisfying to hear.

Many symphonies have been reduced to piano scores, and almost none of them are superior to the orchestral version.

C

I may have to change my opinion on that one, and Kale definitely needs to come out of the closet and join an orchestra.

[Nick Deverill]

I was thinking something along the lines of Sonata No. 23 in F minor Op. 57 Appssionata by Beethoven.

Not a piece known to me, but reading up on it suggests it would be good. However, is it one of those pieces where to really appreciate it, one needs to be a bit of a musician oneself? My suggestion is one of those that would even impress the tone deaf I think!

Everything Everything doesn't sound better on the piano. A perfect example is the suite Pictures at an Exhibition written for piano by Modest Mussorgsky. It's probably his best know work and is a wonderful piano composition.

But, it's far, far better known as adapted for orchestra by Maurice Ravel, and is more satisfying to hear.

Many symphonies have been reduced to piano scores, and almost none of them are superior to the orchestral version.

I agree. For the most part, to sound superior on a piano, it has to be written for one in the first place. It's actually less limiting than might appear as many composers use a piano as part of the writing process, so arguably some orchestral pieces were written for the piano, just that they are not known as piano pieces.

[Merkin]

I admit to being very moody about music, and there are times when all I want to listen to is a piano well played. But at other times it is the violin that moves me most deeply. It all depends. Don't even get me started about the flamenco guitar...

[DesDownunder]

Pictures at an Exhibition has also been orchestrated as a piano concerto. It seems as if there are at least two versions, but my favourite is the 1977 version by composer and conductor Lawrence Leonard. I don't particularly like the orchestration with Émile Naoumoff, 1994.

Here is part one of the 1977 orchestration:

Here is 'Piano Concerto' Pictures at an Exhibition PART 2 of 4 - TAMÁS UNGÁR

[DesDownunder]

Here is 'Piano Concerto' Pictures at an Exhibition PART 3 of 4

PART 4 of 4

[Cole Parker]

You really should include a version of the orchestral adaptation by Ravel. That's how the piece is generally known.

C

[DesDownunder]

There are many recordings of the well known Ravel orchestral version. The orchestration, in my posts above, as a concerto for piano and orchestra is not as well known and is why I brought it to attention here. Youtube listings show many orchestrations (arrangements) including one for two harps!

[Cole Parker]

Here's a good example of what I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e17WPBxzPDI

Vs.

[Guest RBartlett]

Who knew a one line comment about the superiority of the piano would spark such a lively discussion.

[Guest Dabeagle]

I'd like to think this would be a discussion Kale would have enjoyed.

[jnwrx1]

Who knew a one line comment about the superiority of the piano would spark such a lively discussion.

Guess that's my fault, since I agreed with Kale on it. Once I give a listen to the posted videos, maybe i can make a more clearheaded judgment.

I'd just love to have a guy like Kale around all the time, though, cause I just love listening to solo piano playing. Couldn't be a guy who's shy like Kale, however, cause I've already got the shy part down.

[Paul]

I've just watched and listened to Cole's "Beethoven - Symphony No 5 in C minor, Op 67 - Thielemann".

Another thing I noticed with this really superb performance; I didn't spot any female musicians which is quite rare these days.

Rick

That's because it's the Vienna Philharmonic, a privately-held organization that maintained a strict males-only policy until a few years ago. I just read a forum article from someone who reports having seen four women in the orchestra during the broadcast of their traditional New Year's Eve concert the other day.

BTW, I have the Blu-Ray disc that video comes from, and my only gripe is that Thieleman plunges headlong into the opening before the applause stops, which kind of vitiates the impact of the da-da-da-daaaaaaaaaah.

[Cole Parker]

I was unimpressed with his directing. I've of course heard that played many times with many directors. He did a very pedestrian job of it and didn't elicit the excitement and energy that makes it really special.

I've never heard of him. My partner, who plays in orchestras, hasn't either. That doesn't mean too much, of course. There are many fine orchestras around the world these days. But the Vienna doesn't have the reputation today it had several years ago.

C

[Guest RBartlett]

So aside from the music did you guys like anything else about the story? Anything at all?

[DesDownunder]

I have been told, in my long lost youth, that conductors have indeed fallen from the conducting platform and that eventually provoked the installation of a guard rail.

I have not been impressed with the mechanics of Thielemann's conducting. Good conductors of yesteryear tended to rise up through the European opera houses where they learned to understand and evoke the drama in the music. Today's modern conductor's tend towards a more head rather than heart interpretation, but I have heard some recent younger conductors returning to more emotional renditions. Sadly I can't remember their names. Modern conducting is also influenced by digital recording techniques, but that is a subject in itself; suffice it to say that perfection does not reside with the technicians displacing the art of the recording producers.

Carlos Klieber is generally considered to be the best Beethoven 5th conductor. Before him, his father was said to be the best.

Here is a recording (no video) of Carlos Klieber with the Vienna Philharmonic.

I have loved this performance ever since I first heard it. It has excitement with subtleties and nuances not usually audible from a full scale romantic symphony orchestra. Please give it a hearing.

[Cole Parker]

Yes, Rob, it was fine. We got to know Chase better. He's seemed to have been left out, a fringe figure mostly. I can easily identify with him more than some of the others.

C

[Merkin]

Yes, Rob, it was fine. We got to know Chase better. He's seemed to have been left out, a fringe figure mostly. I can easily identify with him more than some of the others.

C

I agree with Cole, Rob. It's so easy, in a series of buddy stories like these, to pick a favorite character and then read focussed on that one individual and see the others as supporting cast. Chase was in danger of fading into the background, I think, and you've managed to breath life into him and give him dimension. That's a wonderful contribution to this saga.

[Guest Dabeagle]

Y'all are thinking of Robin, who anyone can be forgiven for thinking about But Ryan actually wrote this.

Wait, is Rob his secret identity? Have I just pushed him out of the...um...

[Cole Parker]

No, my bad. I just get names screwed up sometimes. I tend to get them correctly by looking at email addresses. And then some guy uses a first initial, like R, and I have to firgue it out, and screw it up because remembering isn't my greatest asset. Ryan. Ryan. There, maybe I have it now. My apologies.

C