It's all about the classical music composers and their works from the last 400 years and much more about music. Hier erfahren Sie alles über die klassischen Komponisten und ihre Meisterwerke der letzten vierhundert Jahre und vieles mehr über Klassische Musik.
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.
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?”
It's one of Disney’s best-loved films and the music, written by Alan Menken, is an iconic film score.
In fact Menken won the Oscar in 1993 for Best Music – and it was this song, written with Tim Rice, that got the song-writing duo a double-header at the Academy Awards – with the Oscar for Best Original Song as well.
But how well do *you* remember the words, street rat (as Jafar might say…)?
It's worth starting this off with a bit of a doff of our music geek cap to the pop superstar. The music video to Lady Gaga's 2009 hit Bad Romance begins with Johann Sebastian Bach's Fugue in B minor from the Well-tempered Clavier Book I:
And, err... Fugue
So Gaga is clearly someone who likes a bit of Baroque point-on-point action. It's therefore quite appropriate that a YouTube notesmith has taken the theme to her 'Bad Romance' and turned it into a brilliant Bach-inspired fugue.
And the pop superstar was lovely enough to get in touch with us and tell us how much she liked this contrapuntal rendering of her melody.
So that's nice.
Let's close with a brilliant 'orchestration' of this fugue, cunningly assembled by another YouTuber.
We know Prince was a master of many genres, but this video shows more.
The multifaceted singer-songwriter was known for skipping merrily through a whole variety of genres, sometimes in a single song, but this intimate (for a stadium) soundcheck shows that he knew his way around a Gershwin number too.
Sarah Neufeld knows all about pushing the boundaries of her instrument: as a violinist with Canadian indie rock titans Arcade Fire and equally as an experimental solo artist, she's become a torchbearer for expanding listeners' minds. So who better than her to provide us with a superb playlist of modern works that will rewire your brain a bit?
Here's what she's picked for you:
1. Some - Nils Frahm
2. Atomos XII - A Winged Victory For The Sullen
3. Never The Way She Was - Colin Stetson, Sarah Neufeld
4. Parry: Interruptions (Heart And Breath Nonet): VI French Guitars -yMusic, Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, Richard Reed Parry
5. The Candlelight Vigil - Jóhann Jóhannsson
6. Harmonium - Max Richter
7. Part IV - Nico Muhly
8. High Above a Grey Green Sea - Colin Stetson
9. Nijùshichi - Sylvain Chauveau, Stéphane Garin
10. Where The Light Comes In - Sarah Neufeld
11. Ogives/Redisributed - Eluvium
12. Apreludes (In C Sharp Major) - Stars Of The Lid
We stumbled across this stunning arrangement of the exposition ofBeethoven’s famous 5th symphony, as you might hear it in a 19th century Parisian salon. This Beethoven/Chopin mix-up may be a touch surprising, but what’s not to like?
Undoubtedly, the arrangement from YouTuber Syd R Duke has gone down a storm, but we still believe this is worthy of more views. One YouTuber commented, “It’s as if Beethoven and Chopin met in an alternate universe to create a lovechild.” We'll leave that image with you - but do take a listen to this gorgeous arrangement...
Read more at http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/news/symphony-5-style-of-chopin/#MRLMFpYjVVGmOZJg.99
Have a soppy and indulgent listen to the most romantic pieces of music imaginable - from anguished relationships to new-found love and most things inbetween.
If you have a moustache or are in any way British or emotionally repressed, all you have to do is stick this piece on the stereo, stand awkwardly in the corner and wait for the object of your desire to shower you with kisses. Guaranteed*. (*Not even slightly guaranteed.)
Puccini - O soave fanciulla, from La Bohème
Let Pavarotti do the talking. Singing. Whatever. Either way, Puccini does romance, anguished or joyful, better than most, and this aria is one of his most charged duets.
Rota - Love Theme, from Romeo and Juliet
So the story itself didn’t end all that well (whirlwind holiday romance goes insanely wrong, teens take drastic action etc), but the music inspired by Shakespeare’s most famous romance is so affecting, so purely emotional, that you’ll probably want to visit the apothecary as well (not really).
Mascagni - Intermezzo, from Cavalleria Rusticana
Oh, can’t you just feel it ruddy well oozing out of you? Romance, that is. Blimey, just one blast of this at full volume is guaranteed to melt absolutely anyone.
Handel - Ombra mai fù, from Serse
Simple, sweet, plaintive, innocent. This is the sound of love beginning, a perfect choice if you’re cooking for a date and want to appear both intelligent and emotionally accessible.
Rachmaninov - Symphony No. 2, 3rd movement
It’s sort of like the cooler, less famous cousin to Tchaikovsky’s super-slushy love theme from Romeo & Juliet. Stately, restrained and, when it finally lets go, absolutely shattering.
Puccini - O Mio Babbino Caro
Date advice: do not attempt to sing this song to your partner to make them like you more or to make up for a lack of Valentine’s Day presents. Leave it to Renée Fleming instead. Always leave it to Renée Fleming.
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Read more at http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music/romantic-classical-music/#D1b5QRmMjoWr75Et.99
By Classic FM London Gig the sun stream in – and we think it doesn't get any better than this one…
Classical music is full of great rousing tunes for the morning – things to get you going and feeling good. But good-morning-music advocates More Music Breakfast and Yakult want to bring you an extra-special sunrise...
Composers from Haydn to Grieg and beyond have penned musical depictions of sunrises – but we think this is the most epic. It's the opening full orchestral fanfare to Richard Strauss's tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra .
It's a wonderfully evocative, dramatic piece that you can't help air-conduct.
So how does he do it?
It begins with a sustained double low C on tremolo double basses, contrabassoon and organ. The brass enter with that now iconic motif – a fifth rising to an octave. These first few notes form the natural overtone series (if we're getting technical) – and that's why these notes feel so natural and inevitable. The full orchestra enters with major, then minor chords, with the timpani pounding away.
The motif is repeated but this time in the full chords. And minor turns to major as the sunlight streams through.
Then it's back to the low C before the brass enter for the final time – this time the orchestra erupts in the glorious major-key fanfare, ending on a long, stained major chord – full organ blazing – as the day has dawned.
Such a simple piece, but so iconic and effective, and used to such great effect in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Now I need to hear it.
We'll leave you here in the very capable hands of Gustavo Dudamel to bring you into glorious sunshine this morning.
And if you've got time, the rest of the piece is pretty epic too…
