Einaudi Plays Piano on an Iceberg ...

... as an Arctic glacier crumbles around him

By Tim Edwards, Classic FM London

Italian pianist premiered a new piece in Svalbard to publicise Greenpeace’s battle to save the Arctic.

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Greenpeace has persuaded Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi to play on a specially built ‘iceberg’ within 100m of a crumbling glacier as part of their campaign to save the Arctic.

Listen to the best of Einaudi on Composed >

In the video, Einaudi is seen performing his minimalist music in the breathtakingly beautiful surroundings of Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway. As he plays one descending scale, huge chunks of ice calve off the glacier. To get to the spectacular location, Einaudicaught a ride with the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise (you can see how the film was made in the video at the bottom of the page): 

Einaudi premiered his new composition, Elegy for the Arctic , as governments gathered in Tenerife to consider a proposal to protect 10% of the Arctic Ocean.

According to Greenpeace, three countries - Norway, Denmark and Iceland - oppose the measure. The Arctic is becoming vulnerable to exploitation for fishing and oil drilling because the extent of sea ice covering the ocean has fallen to record lows in recent years.

Einaudi performs 'Elegy for the Arctic' on 'iceberg'

Best Movie Adaptions of Books

 Andrew Collins showcases the best films inspired by literature.

This Saturday, Andrew Collins will be marking Independent Bookshop Week, which aims to celebrate independent booksellers in the UK and Ireland.

Andrew will be playing music on Saturday Night at the Movies from great film adaptations of books. And he'll be including many of your suggestions of works of literature that you think have most successfully made the transition to the big screen.

Among the classics, such as Rebecca , there's a chance to hear music from the recent Jane Austen movie, Love & Friendship . And modern literature gets a look in too, including Atonement , The English Patient and High Rise .

And then there's the whole world of fantasy literature to choose from, including a certain boy wizard and the exploits of the Bagginses of Bag End.

Giacomo Puccini - Opera Medley Instrumental

13-year-old Laura Bretan's NESSUN DORMA raises deep concerns

13-year-old Laura Bretan’s Nessun Dorma ‘raises deep concerns’ says singing teacher

By Elizabeth Davis, CLASSIC FM LONDON

A 13-year-old singer has wowed audiences with her performance of Puccini’s iconic aria – but some in the classical world have a very different view. Now opera singers and music specialists have voiced concerns over a promising young singer forcing herself to mimic much older voices

Since the clip of Laura Bretan singing Puccini’s famous ariaappeared online a few days ago it has been viewed millions of times. But it’s fair to say it has divided the classical music world.

Laura this weekend won Romania's Got Talent and is still in the running to win America's Got Talent.

Here's the clip that has caused such controversy:

While some cheered to see classical music reaching a mass audience – and to see millions of people sharing and enjoying Puccini’s music, others raised concerns over Laura’s technique and her choice of repertoire.

An open letter from an opera singer

Opera singer Heidi Moss wrote an open letter to the young singer on Facebook saying: “There are things I heard in your sound that concern me. True classical training takes years of hard work, and forcing a sound that isn’t truly your own is dangerous.

“Over time, the irritation of singing that way can cause swelling or even worse, nodes or popped vessels.”

 

A singing teacher's point of view on Laura Bretan

Claudia Friedlander, a voice teacher from New York, took a more positive approach in an article on her blog and soon to be published in Classical Singer Magazine . She said: “Bretan delivered an earnest, authentic outpouring of passion, and she allowed it to flow through her voice with steadfast courage and commitment…

“But a young singer’s instrument is not yet even a fair facsimile of the voice they will late access as an adult. Thus there can be no true operatic prodigies. The young voice simply has not physiologically matured to the point that it is capable of projecting a healthy, balanced sound over an orchestra.

“This is why Bretan’s performance raises such deep concerns for experienced opera singers and voice teachers. She possesses both a promising voice and strong musical instincts, but most of the sounds she is producing are the result of effortful, unsustainable manipulations of a body that is not yet mature enough.”

Are they just jealous?

But Claudia goes on to say that jealousy may partly account for the classical world’s knee-jerk negative reaction to Laura’s performance – after all, this clip has made the news around the world precisely because it's rare to see an audience react so enthusiastically to a performance of an opera aria.

She asks: “Does our desire to correct Bretan’s fans about the nature of opera make us snobs?”

Meanwhile, one opera fan has started a crowd-funding campaign to raise money to ‘Send Simon Cowell to the Met’ …

Can You Solve These Fiendish Composer Riddles?

Can you work out the name of the composer from a set of picture clues?

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