Thursday, February 21, 2019

A 12-year-old pianist played Flight of the Bumblebee...

... at 325bpm – and Twitter went mad for it...

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A young Indian pianist appeared on The World’s Best, and impressed everyone with a prestissimo rendition of ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’.
Lydian Nadhaswaram, a 12-year-old pianist from Chennai, India played three versions of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, at increasingly fast metronome markings.
He played the piece at its original marking (160bpm), before challenging himself to play it at 208bpm and 325bpm.
His performance, broadcast on TV talent competition The World’s Best, impressed judges Drew Barrymore, RuPaul and Faith Hill, as well as host James Corden.
Lydian Nadhaswaram is from Chennai, India
Lydian Nadhaswaram is from Chennai, India. Picture: The World's Best
‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ is a notoriously difficult piece of music which the composer wrote as an orchestral interlude for his opera, The Tale of Tsar Saltan. It is meant to mirror the chaotic flying pattern of a bumblebee.
After the show, Corden tweeted a video of Lydian’s performance with the caption: “This is genuinely one of the best things I’ve ever seen live”.
Lydian was applauded by fellow Indians and viewers in Chennai, including actress Aishwarya Rajesh, former cricketer Sreesanth, and Better Call Saul actress Rhea Seehorn.
We predict great things for you, Lydian (and added kudos that you share your name with a mode!).

Someone has made a techno-pop remix of ...

... The Marriage of Figaro – and we’re very confused


A techno mash-up of Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro exists, and it's interesting.
A techno mash-up of Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro. Picture: Ayda Classics
By Sofia Rizzi, ClassicFM London
Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro gets a retro make-over in this cover of ‘Non so più’.
Classical music can be heart-breaking, awe-inspiring – and will sometimes leave you completely lost for words.
We think the latter is an appropriate description for this new-age take on Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro.
So, what’s happening here?
Well, it’s a fresh – and frankly, slightly perplexing – take on ‘Non so più’, an aria sung by the character Cherubino in Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro
One vocalist has replicated herself singing to create vocal layering in a techno-pop remix of the aria. She has added in an 80s-inspired backing band of drums, bass guitar, electric guitar and even a retro keytar (a keyboard guitar) to create a synthetic disco sound.
The vocals are layered to create a harmony on the main melodic line, and there’s even a counter-melody whose vocals are (dare we say?) reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme.