Piano Duel - Yuja Wang vs. Khatia Buniatishvili

Yuja and Khatia entrance fans by their looks - but more importantly, by their music. Which do you prefer? Round 1 - Intro piece 0:04 Scriabin: Prelude Op. 11 No. 11 (Yuja) 1:42 Chopin: Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 in c# minor (Buniatishvili) Round 2 - Technique 4:58 Prokofiev: Toccata Op. 11 in C (Yuja) 8:46 Liszt: La Campanella (Buniatishvili) Round 3 - Musicianship 12:47 Rachmaninoff-Kocsis: Vocalise (Yuja) 16:33 Schubert-Liszt: Ständchen (Buniatishvili) Round 4 - Finale 23:04 Scriabin: Etude Op. 8 No. 9 (Yuja) 27:29 Ravel: La Valse (Buniatishvili) Bonus number - 36:47 J. Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Piano 4 hands)

Franz Lehár - Adria Walzer (Adria Waltz)

Ein eher unbekanntes Stück von Franz Lehar. Mehr als wert, neu entdeckt zu werden! In diesem hinreissenden Walzer sind Lebenslust, Fröhlichkeit und Beschwingtheit mit einem Hauch des Südens vereint.

Bacharach Medley - Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra and Choirs

Gimnazija Kranj Christmas Concert 2016 - American Night. In sold out Gallus Hall (Cankarjev dom, Slovenia) The Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra and United Choirs perfomed biggest hits of legendary american composer Burt Bacharach and lyricsts Hal David and Carole Bayer Sager. 1. The Look of Love; 2. Walk on by; 3. Never Fall in Love Again; 4. Do You Know the Way to San Jose; 5. This Girl's in Love; 6. That's What Friends Are For Concert and film director: Primož Zevnik (primoz.zevnik@gmail.com) arrangement: Tine Bec solo singer: Dina Arapović, Neža Čadež, Eva Štirn, Žana Robič, Anja Kleindienst solo saxofon: Jan Kus (http://www.jankusmusic.com/) (https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jankus) slovenian translation: prof. Biba Kodek

In Memory of Burt Bacharach

In loving memory of Burt Bacharach and the many beautiful songs he has gifted to generations of music lovers. I was blessed to record A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Richard Balcombe as part of "The Music of Burt Bacharach" album I recorded with Graham Bickley, Mary Carewe and Sarah Lark. Long may his music live on. BURT BACHARACH MAY 12, 1928 - FEB 9, 2023

12-year-old Ukrainian refugee lands a place studying piano at the Junior Royal Academy of Music

Kateryna is now studying at Clifton College during the week, and the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior programme on Saturdays. Picture: Анна Пышнюк / Daniel Robson

By Sophia Alexandra Hall, Classic FM

@sophiassocials

 

After fleeing her home country last year, Ukrainian refugee Kateryna Pyshniuk is now studying on a full scholarship at the UK’s oldest conservatoire. 

A 12-year-old Ukrainian refugee has said that getting a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music was “like the best birthday present I could ever imagine”.

Kateryna Pyshniuk fled her home country with her mother, Anna, in April last year. At the time, she was a student at the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum, one of Ukraine’s top specialist music schools, studying piano.

But when the war broke out, she stopped practising due to everything going on around her.

“In Ukraine, it was so hard to forget for even two minutes about all the bad and dangerous things going on around me,” Kateryna told Classic FM.

After spending some time in Slovakia, Kateryna and her mother were able to acquire UK visas. And within three weeks of arriving, the talented young pianist had secured a full scholarship place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music’s junior department.

“She is jaw-droppingly good”

After attaining her place at the Academy, Kateryna also successfully auditioned for a full scholarship to Bristol private school, Clifton College.

The school’s head of music, Daniel Robson, told Classic FM that Kateryna is “jaw-droppingly good” and “absolutely amazing for her age”. 

After listening to her play her first audition piece, in the summer of 2022, Robson left the audition room to fetch the school’s headmaster, telling them, “you have to hear this musician”.

The young pianist now also receives piano lessons at school, plays in a school string trio, and has vocal lessons with the head of music.

Alongside her studies at Clifton College and the Academy, Kateryna does a virtual Ukrainian school in the evenings, and finds time to practise between three and four hours a day on weekdays, and five hours on a Sunday.

Kateryna Pyshniuk. Picture: Анна Пышнюк

“When she started playing, the room just fell silent”

When Kateryna arrived in the UK, her host family at the time suggested she audition for the prestigious junior programme.

While it is usually highly unlikely that junior conservatoire programmes in the UK will take on new pupils during the school year, Kateryna had an exception made for her due to the circumstances.

John Hutchins, director of the Junior Academy, recalled the day Kateryna came down for her audition – coincidentally, the day of the pianist’s 12th birthday.

“I like to be in every audition,” Hutchins said, “and Kateryna’s face just lit up when I took her into a room with two grand pianos – she couldn’t believe she actually had the choice of which one to play. When she started playing, the room just fell silent.”

After her standout audition, Kateryna was awarded a scholarship on the spot. The Royal Academy of Music’s junior programme has nearly 500 students, and has trained some of the UK’s greatest musicians, including Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jacob Collier, and Elton John.

Around 70 percent of students on the junior programme will go on to study music at conservatoire or university following their time on the junior programme.

“I owe everything to my piano teacher”

At the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum, where Kateryna was studying when the war broke out, she took lessons with piano professor, Maryna Savchenko.

“I owe everything to my piano teacher,” the young musician said of Savchenko. “She was a really important part of my musical and piano life; she will truly remain in my heart always”.

Kateryna is one of over five million people who have been displaced from their homes into Europe since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.

Before she managed to flee her home country, the young pianist recalls her home being damaged so badly that playing the piano was almost impossible, as the instrument was in a room so cold, “it felt like I was playing on ice”.

Kateryna and her Ukrainian piano teacher. Picture: Анна Пышнюк

Kateryna’s place at the Academy has been funded by the conservatoire’s Ukraine Response Fund, a fund available to students of all ages that was set up to support students impact by the conflict.

A spokesperson for the Royal Academy of Music said they “wanted to ensure that talented musicians impacted by the conflict who needed a way to continue their musical education could come and study with us in London”.

“In some cases, we’ve been able to offer early admission to provide some sanctuary and protection to students who have been forced to flee their home country.

“We have also supported a number of younger Ukrainian students who were in the UK to train with Junior Academy. This includes supporting with tuition fees and travel costs, helping them to access the best training.”

Kateryna, who has now been a student at the Academy for over half a year, told Classic FM that she sees her scholarship “as a present from the people of England to me”.

Music of the Night

Music of the Night · Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Intimate Dinner Date Valentine's Selection: Strings & Piano

Yuja Wang: Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue [HD]

Camerata Salzburg conducted by Lionel Bringuier Salzburger Festspiele, Aug 12 2016 #YujaWang #Gershwin #RhapsodyInBlue #LionelBringuier #SalzburgerFestspiele #CamerataSalzburg Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... This recording is provided by Yuja Wang Archives http://yujawang.nicerweb.com/ 王羽佳存庫

The Impossible Virtuosity of Yuja Wang

In this episode we take a look at the incredible piano virtuoso, Yuja Wang. 

Rick Beato

Rick Beato

3.34M subscribers

Ennio.Morricone.Concerto.Arena di Verona.Live.2002

Love is in the Air - Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra

Gimnazija Kranj Great Spring Concert 2012 in Gallus Hall, Cankarjev dom. 20.th concert aniversary. Music, Rhytm and Dance. 10 years of Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra. Also celebration of 20th year of our lead sponsor: Hranilnica Lon bank. They performed disco legend: Love is in the Air. Arrangement: Nejc Bečan. Sold out concert and amazing performance.

Theme to Exodus / London Pops Orchestra

A stirring rendition to the soundtrack of the film Exodus, directed by Otto Preminger, originally composed by Ernest Gold.

Jean Sibelius - Finlandia

10,004,925 views Jul 23, 2012

Finlandia, Op. 26 is a symphonic poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The first version was written in 1899, and it was revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, as the last of seven pieces, each performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes anywhere from 7½ to 9 minutes. A recurrent joke within Finland at this time was the renaming of Finlandia at various musical concerts so as to avoid Russian censorship. Titles under which the piece masqueraded were numerous, a famously flippant example being Happy Feelings at the awakening of Finnish Spring. Most of the piece is taken up with rousing and turbulent music, evoking the national struggle of the Finnish people. But towards the end, a calm comes over the orchestra, and the serenely melodic Finlandia Hymn is heard. Often incorrectly cited as a traditional folk melody, the Hymn section is of Sibelius's own creation. Although initially composed for orchestra, in 1900 Sibelius arranged the entire work for solo piano. Sibelius later reworked the Finlandia Hymn into a stand-alone piece. This hymn, with words written in 1941 by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, is one of the most important national songs of Finland (though Maamme is the national anthem). With different words, it is also sung as a Christian hymn (Be Still, My Soul), and was the national anthem of the short-lived African state of Biafra (Land of the Rising Sun). Created by Wild Scandinavia / Wildes Skandinavien / (2011) Directors: Oliver Goetzl Writers: Oliver Goetzl Cinematography: Ivo Nörenberg, Jan Henriksson and Rolf Steinmann Gulo Film Productions http://www.gulofilm.de/en/wildes-skan... "This film shows animal behaviour that has never been filmed before: Oliver Goetzl and Ivo Nörenberg got the first ever made shots of a wild lynx in the finish wilderness, they did highspeed shots of Goldeneye chicks jumping out of their tree nest, they filmed exciting encounters of bears and wolves. The documentary was shot with more than 650 shooting days."

Kylie Minogue & Paul McCartney - Dance Tonight

Kylie Media

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers" A one of a kind rendition

This one of a kind version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" first aired in July, 1978 on WGN radio's Roy Leonard Show in Chicago. For several weeks Leonard and his producer, Pete Marino, had played Neil Diamond's solo recording of the song. Shortly thereafter, Barbra Streisand's new "Songbird" album was released and it included her rendition of this beautiful ballad. When Marino heard the Streisand recording he came up with the idea of creating a duet. He went into one of the WGN radio studios with an engineer and a record turner. Streisand's album was placed on one turntable and Diamond's on another. They started with Barbra's vocal, immediately followed by Neil's voice overlapping hers. The two superstar voices blended magically and beautifully together. As they repeated the romantic lyrics back and forth, what came out of the studio speakers was jaw-dropping. There weren't any actual edits and it was mixed in one take. Even after the official Columbia Records version was released, WGN radio listeners continued to request the Roy Leonard Show version. The song became an instant classic and Leonard and Marino were each presented with a Gold Record for one million copies sold. Eventually, the song went Platinum. On February 27, 1980, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand brought the house down at the Shrine Auditorium when they made a surprise appearance at the 22nd Annual Grammy Awards where they performed the duet "Live" for the first time.

The Lure of Light Music

by Maureen Buja, Interlude

Sometimes you get tired of the details, tired of the intricate formal structure, and you just long for a piece of simple music. This is where Light Music plays a role. Starting in the 18th century, light music was the contrast to absolute music. Here was music that was simple and that, as one writer put it, satisfied all the Ts: Tunes, Tonality, Triads, and the Tonic. No complicated excursions to far keys, but rather an emphasis on the melodies and the rhythms.

A work such as a movement from Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Aviary, gives us a key to the genre: simple, melodic, and engaging. 

Malcolm Arnold’s sets of English Dances, created at the invitation of his publisher who wanted a response to Antonín Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances. Jollity mixes with melancholy here, and at the same time, is capable of brash brass statements, as in No. 4 of the first set of English Dances. When the BBC used this as the theme for a radio program, people phoned in to find out about that intriguing piece they’d just heard.

Saffron Blaze: Castle Combe, Cotswold

Folk dances figure largely in this genre, not only for their emphasis on melody and rhythm but also because they have a local familiarity, even when they’re new to the listener. Philip Lane’s Suite of Cotswold Dances, which takes its name from a second of central-southwest England, carries the designation of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

Many of the great British composers of Light Music had careers in the film and television business and so much of the familiarity we have with their music comes not from the concert stage but the glowing screens in our living rooms, such as the music of Geoffrey Burgon. The name may be unfamiliar, but the melodies aren’t. The music for the BBC series Brideshead Revisited is an excellent example of the evocation of an England of the past in a 1981 piece of music.

Brideshead Revisited , Jeremy Irons (Chales Ryder), Antony Andrews (Sebastian Flyte), and Diana Quick (Julia Flyte), 1981

A similar theme was used for the Miss Marple films in the 1960s, and reused for the television series in 1985 with Joan Hickson. The composer, Ron Goodwin, is probably better known for his film scores for movies such as Where Eagles Dare, Force 10 from Navarone, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Of Human Bondage, and Hitchcock’s Frenzy.

Joan Hickson as Miss Marple

Eric Coates made his name with his Knightsbridge march, but it was By the Sleepy Lagoon, written in 1930, that gave him long-lasting fame. This slow waltz for orchestra was discovered and lyrics were set to it (with the composer’s permission) it became a popular music hit for Glenn Miller, trumpeter Harry James, and singer Diana Shore. It also has been the theme for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 1942.

Eric Coates

Another side of light music is humour. For the 1956 Hoffhung Music Festival, Malcolm Arnold wrote A Grand Grand Festival Overture, but the 4 soloists are not on the typical musical instruments but perform on 3 vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher.

Gerard Hoffnung: The Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra

Gordon Jacob made free with the music of Rossini in his 1960 overture The Barber of Seville Goes to the Devil.

The heyday of Light Music really happened in the mid-20th century. It was such a popular subgenre of classical music that the BBC even had an entire radio channel, the BBC Light Programme, for this music that ran from 1945 to 1967, whereupon it was replaced with BBC Radio 2 (older pop music) and BBC Radio 1 (current pop music). Ease of access seems to have fallen to the self-importance of modern music but it’s all still fun to listen to!