george’s Comments (group member since Feb 06, 2008)

george’s comments from the Classical music lovers group.

"It sounds kitsch?"

It sounds like instance divorce. ;)

The love duet sung at Manon's wedding in the film 'Manon des Source'. It sounds like Fauré to me but may be by Jean-Claude Petit. A simple, idealistic song of love and dedication (if I understand the French!)

MP3 here: http://www.brightcecilia.com/forum/sh...

"Queimada with Marlon Brando, perhaps?"

Thank you! Possibly, I'll check. :) But I think it may have been a French film set on Haiti about the famous slave rebellion led by Toussaint L'Ouverture (who managed to defeat French, British and Spanish armies, causing the British one of their worst military defeats). Wordsworth celebrates him in his Ode to Toussaint L'Ouverture:

Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There’s not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man’s unconquerable mind.

Maybe someone here can help me. I saw a film about twenty years ago, set on a Caribbean island at the time of slavery. The film was about a slave rebellion, based on fact, and the brutal way the plantation owners and government suppressed it. So not exactly a bundle of laughs, but it wasn't meant to be. But the music was fantastic. Mostly Bach's St Matthew Passion. Very moving as the slaves, who had justice 100% on their side, were tracked down and hanged by the slave drivers, determined to protect their investment. And then moralised at the remaining slaves for upsetting the 'natural order.'

But can I find the film? Anyone?

Do the French still try to claim him as a Frenchman?

@ Robert

"I'm wondering if anyone can recommend any on-line radio services. I'm fond of Accuradio, (especially their avant garde channel) but recent concerns over copyright have put a big dent in their playlist."

The best list I've found:

http://www.streema.com/

Click on "Radio" and there are pages of obscure digital radio stations from around the world. Lots of dross, of course, but I found some gems, e.g. two dedicated 24/7 baroque music internet stations:

AVRO Baroque
Otto's Baroque Musick

:)

It's darn cold in London and a gale is forecast for next week. (Oh, the Englishman's love of discussing the weather! Less fun now with the internet because you risk an American popping up who's just survived a tornado.)

I sat outside a cafe at lunchtime for a cigarette and was pleased to be wearing longjohns.

Damn. I thought it was the CIA.

"The Bach was tastefully restrained, for the most part letting the music and notes speak for themselves..."

Searching for Leclair youtube vids just now for the Bach thread, I was reminded of how much I hate some musicians. You click on a link, and there’s a group of musicians waiting to start, but then the lead violinist starts WHITTERING. Trying to FORM A RELATIONSHIP with the audience. The others sit there, trying not to look embarrassed. The audience shuffle in their seats, wondering when they can escape to the bar. On and on AND ON she goes, telling you stuff about the composer you could read in a book, simpering at the audience, fiddling with her hair, repeating herself, wrecking the music she’s about the play. GET ON WITH IT WOMAN!* PUT A SOCK IN IT! THIS ISN’T ABOUT YOU! The same applies to over-interpretation. Just let the music speak for itself. Don’t insult the composer by trying to re-invent what he wrote.

* I know men do it too.

Perhaps music is considered subversive on a book forum?

"Plus the prelude hardly sounds churchy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPfZVf...

I agree. It’s joyful. But it’s still not fully secular (to my ears). There’s an underlying seriousness and an intense discipline. “Ve must take enjoyment seriously, yah!” Bach’s project was religious. Leclair was a man about town.

"Are there examples of his [Leclair’s] stuff to be had on the web?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XoWnF...

"Leclair just sounds like Vivaldi to me, anyway. "

* Rolls eyes *
* Tunes Rita’s radio to Classic FM *

One fascinating thing about Leclair is he’s positioned at the centre of the French high Baroque, and can do all the mournful, droopy French stuff, yet is stuffed with Italian and German influences. So he out-bombasts Vivaldi and does disciplined, mathematical, German stuff also. When he puts his mind to it his contrapuntal material is easily as good as Bach. So he’s much better value than Bach. You get more bang for your buck.

NB Leclair was murdered, possibly by relatives of his second wife.

I'm not being deliberately provocative, I love Bach, have played him, and listened to him, for years, will never stop doing so, etc. etc., but he's so darn CHURCHY. Compared to Telemann or the glorious Leclair, Bach's detached from normal life. Fine, if you're on your deathbed, or about to become a nun, or go into combat and sacrifice your life for your comrades, I’d listen to Bach, but he's very bad at normal, prosaic, everyday life expressed through music. Some would regard that as a strength. I think it's a weakness. I'd rather have Leclair to supper. He was such a live wire he got himself murdered (while Bach was practicing on a spinster in the attic). Sorry..... no offence.....

"Emma Kirkby"

I remember when she first was making a name for herself, listening to her with a traditional 'big noise' soprano who became visibly upset at the sound Kirkby was making, and started muttering:

'Disgusting... like a choir boy... no depth... where's the vibrato...? shameful display for a professional musician...' etc etc

Very funny in retrospect. What reputable director would now use a belle canto soprano for, say, a Bach Cantata or Vivaldi's Gloria? It would be like walking through treacle.

Anything with Simon Standage playing Vivaldi. Some people claim Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 10,000 times. Even a casual listening to Standage would change their minds.

Flute. The 'King of Instruments' in the eighteenth century (Frederick the Great was a keen player, and had CPE Bach - JS's second son - as his court harpsichordist for 28 years). The libraries of Europe are stuffed with unpublished Baroque flute music.

The famous film of the young Martha Argerich playing Chopin's Polonaise N°6. I like her duff notes - none of them matter - and how she just walks off at the end. No Nigel Kennedy "forming a relationship with the audience" guff for her!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSEwf...

What are your favourites?