Lea Salonga--Disney Medley (Hercules, Tarzan, and Mulan)

4,851,408 views Mar 13, 2013

Artist: Lea Salonga Songs: 1:22 - Go The Distance (Hercules) 3:35 - You'll Be In My Heart (Tarzan) 5:37 - Reflection (Mulan) Album: Lea Salonga Live! Year: 2000 Other Info: Concert was held at The Philippine International Convention Center *Lea Salonga was named a Disney Legend in 2011 for her work with The Walt Disney Company.

Beethoven | Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major "Triple Concert

1,412,295 views Jan 8, 2014

Español: Concierto para violín, chelo y piano en Do mayor, Op. 56 1st Movement (Allegro) 0:53 2nd Movement (Largo (atacca)) 19:00 3rd Movement (Rondo alla Polacca) 24:10 Work: Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Op. 56 Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Orchestra: Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Violinist: Giora Schmidt Cellist: Zuill Bailey Pianist: Navah Perlman Conductor: Itzhak Perlman Place: Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Taken from Concert For George)

82,664,523 views Jan 26, 2018

Music video by Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton performing While My Guitar Gently Weeps. (C) 2018 Oops Publishing, Limited Under exclusive license to Craft Recordings, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc. http://vevo.ly/bmz4BH

Music1 songs

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Live)

Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton

Concert For George (Live)

Lola - Mariage d'Amour (Live with Orchestra)

1,249,101 views Mar 4, 2025 #relaxmusic #relaxingpianomusic #pianist

​‪@LolaAstanova‬ Mariage d'Amour Live performed by Lola. Orchestral arrangement by Lola. Sheet music: https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic... Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/album/mari... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7CeTkn... Originally broadcast on ‪@SitelTV‬

Lea Salonga - Bayan Ko

Southern Philippines Medical Center

 MCEI extends its heartfelt gratitude to Southern Philippines Medical Center for the incredible opportunity to be the welcome performers for Fr. Pedro Tramontin, MI, at the St. Camillus de Lellis Chapel-SPMC. It is both an honor and a privilege to share our cultural heritage through music and dance, creating an atmosphere of warmth and celebration as we welcome a distinguished servant of faith and compassion. Our performance is a humble offering, symbolizing unity, gratitude, and the deep spiritual connection that binds our community.

As we extend our warmest welcome to Fr. Pedro Tramontin, we also recognize his invaluable mission in service to others. May his visit bring renewed inspiration and blessings to the entire SPMC community and beyond. Once again, thank you, SPMC, for this meaningful collaboration. We look forward to more opportunities to share our artistry in service of faith, culture, and community.

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31You, Vincent Paul Lucero and 29 others

3

William Busch Chamber Music

 

William Busch Chamber Music

by Maureen Buja  March 10th, 2025

The British composer William Busch (1901–1945) studied music internationally. His first music lessons were in the US, followed by piano and music lessons in Berlin. In May 1924, he returned to London, where he had piano lessons with Benno Moiseiwitsch and composition lessons with Alan Bush, John Ireland and Bernard van Dieren. He was also friends with Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson.

William Busch

Initially a pianist, Busch took seriously to composition only in the 1930s, first writing songs and then his acclaimed Piano Concerto. His small output mainly consisted of small forms: songs, piano music, and chamber music, although he did write a cello concerto (1941) and left a violin concerto incomplete at his early death, age 44.

This recording of Busch’s chamber music brings together many of his small ensemble works, including the Passacaglia for violin and viola (1939), a Quartet for piano and strings (1939), his Suite for cello and piano (1943), Three pieces for violin and piano (1943-44), the Elegy for violoncello and piano (1944), and A Memory for violoncello and piano (1944). The works are performed by members of the Piatti Quartet (Michael Trainor, violin; Zahra Benyounes, viola; and Jessie Ann Richardson, cello) joined by Simon Callaghan, piano, and Ashok Klouda, cello.

Piatti Quartet

Michael Trainor

Zahra Benyounes

Jessie Ann Richardson

Simon Callaghan

Ashok Klouda

In his obituary by John Amis, the writer noted that Busch’s music was ‘distinguished by its sensibility and warmth with a strong sense of form and a fine texture, linear rather than harmonic’. It is this emphasis on line that comes out in works such as the Elegy. Written for cello and piano, the cello assumes the ascendency, first with an extended soliloquy and then with dialogues with the piano.

William Busch: Elegy for Violoncello and Piano (Ashok Klouda, cello; Simon Callaghan, piano)

Other works, such as A Memory, written for Elizabeth Poston, also for cello and piano, bring a hazier side to the fore. It’s about memory but also about reminiscence and nostalgia. The opening is filled with a sense of distance, but the memory, in the end, is troubled and sorrowful.

The heart of the chamber music is his piano quartet. Written for piano and strings, his innate lyricism rings through but is constrained by the conciseness of each movement. The first movement gives us a contrast of two themes, one energetic and the other more tranquil. The second movement is based on a lament, with the solo violin rising to the fore. The scherzo changes character with an impetuous theme and a quieter contrasting trio. The last movement, a theme with 12 variations, gives Busch an opportunity to show what he can do with a ‘solemn, stately theme’. To round out the work, the first bars of the first movement are repeated at the end, leading to the triumphant conclusion.

William Busch: Quartet for piano and strings – IV. Andante non troppo, con solennita (Piatti Quartet)

The abbreviated life of William Busch and the potential shown in these chamber works, particularly in this series of new recordings on Lyrita (already issued: Songs, Complete Piano Music, and the Cello and Piano Concertos) brings this all-too-soon forgotten master back into the limelight.

Chamber Music of William Busch
Members of the Piatti Quartet’; Simon Callaghan, piano; Ashok Klouda, cello
Lyrita Records SRCD 439

Official Website

How Conductors Explain Conducting

by Janet Horvath, Interlude

When audiences are transported by a concert, they imagine that a kind of magic happens onstage attributed to the conductor. Sometimes that is true. But many other attendees wonder: what does a conductor actually do?

We’re in luck. Several conductors have shared their theories about how to conduct. Richard Strauss for example, who was not only a wonderful composer but also an exacting conductor, published these instructive Ten Golden Rules for the Album of a Young Conductor in 1927. We published them in 2015 but many of them bear repeating here:

• Remember that you are making music not to amuse yourself, but to delight your audience.

• You should not perspire when conducting. Only the audience should get warm.

(My teacher Janos Starker used to say, “Don’t be so moved. Move your audiences.”)

• Never look encouragingly at the brass except with a brief glance to give an important cue.

(Richard Wagner quipped, “Never look at the trombones…It only encourages them.” This quote is also attributed to Strauss!)

• But never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight. If you can hear them at all, they are still too strong.

• It is not enough that you yourself should hear every word the soloist sings. You should know it by heart anyway. The audience must be able to follow without effort. If they do not understand the words, they will go to sleep.

• When you think you have reached the limits of prestissimo, double the pace.

Some conductors do accelerate to unplayable tempos. I’ve experienced it! Strauss later, in 1948, changed his mind: Today I should like to amend this. Take the tempo half as fast.

Conductor and legendary pianist Daniel Barenboim seconds that notion:

“The tempo is the suitcase. If the suitcase is too small, everything is completely wrinkled. If the tempo is too fast, everything becomes so scrambled you can’t understand it.”

Herbert von Karajan, the famed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic added, “Quick music sounds dull unless every note is articulated.”

Renowned composer and conductor Gustav Mahler agreed, “If you think you’re boring your audience go slower not faster.”

Gustav Mahler

There are a lot of opinions on how to interpret music and there are often differences in timing and tempo. Take Beethoven’s famous opening to his Symphony No. 5. I think you’ll be surprised by the versions of the first four bars from Carlos Kleiber, Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan, Pierre Boulez, Bruno Walter, and John Eliot Gardiner. Carlos Kleiber with Vienna plays in a refined style, while Pierre Boulez leads a diabolically slow opening to the 5th.

Comparing 5 conductors VERY different openings of Beethoven 5th Symphony (& why they chose that) 

Aside from being a timekeeper, what more does a conductor do? During an interview when asked this question, Sir Simon Rattle responded, “It’s one of the great fake professions…We are nothing without the orchestra…”

Sir Simon Rattle

Simon Rattle | What Does A Conductor Actually Do?

South Korean pianist and conductor Myung Whun Chung recently elaborated,

“A conductor almost by definition is a strange animal; he is the only musician on stage that makes no sound, yet he is responsible for everyone else’s. I often would like to think of myself as just a colleague or collaborator with the other musicians, but ultimately, we must come together to be the truthful messengers of the composer we play – and make their music come alive!”

Like other professions, sometimes there’s a domineering and controlling boss. We orchestral players have been subject to heavy-handed conductors, ones we disagree with, or even incapable ones we must ignore.

We’re surprised that Herbert von Karajan, the maestro with a legendary sound, who was an autocrat, once said, “The art of conducting consists in knowing when to stop conducting to let the orchestra play.”

And this is fascinating. Simon Rattle on Karajan:

Simon Rattle on Herbert von Karajan 

Leonard Bernstein, who was the music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1957-1970 and recorded with them until the end of his life, puts it in a nutshell,

“Conducting is like making love to a hundred people at the same time.”

The wonderful thing about music-making is that each orchestra has a personality and will sound different depending on the maestro in front of them. And we can tell from the first upbeat in the music whether the leader is any good. One conductor will inspire a refined, polished sound while another will coax a more robust and aggressive quality, and everything is reflected through the different people onstage.

Conducting gestures vary. The stick or hand technique is essential, but every gesture, facial expression, and overall body language matters.

Here’s an illustration:

Breaking down orchestra conducting gestures to show you what they mean 

Many conductors have an affinity to certain music and a predilection for conducting those works. Our former music director Osmo Vänskä, for example, was terrific with the works of Jean Sibelius but not comfortable with French music. The Minnesota Orchestra’s complete recordings of all the Beethoven Symphonies are considered one of the best, especially of the 4th and 5th symphonies. Other wonderful interpreters include Otto Klemperer, Riccardo Chailly, with Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, and Carlos Kleiber. Wilhelm Furtwängler’s Beethoven No. 9 performance at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus live in 1951 is notable, and Karajan of course.

Watch this rare live video of excerpts of Beethoven Symphony No. 9 being rehearsed and performed by Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker. It’s their New Year’s Eve concert of 1977 and was the first ever to be broadcast live.

Excerpts of Beethoven’s 9 rehearsal and performance by Herbert von Karajan (1977) 

Some composers inspire controversy, and Maher was certainly one of them. Gustav Mahler, the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Opera conductor from 1898-1901 and beyond, is quoted as saying, “A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.” Admired Mahler interpreters include Leonard Bernstein, who was critical in reviving Mahler’s music.

Claudio Abbado, Klaus Tennstedt, Rafael Kubelik, and Sir Simon Rattle, who says, “The Mahler virus is incurable,” are also noted Mahler interpreters. But here’s a caveat from von Karajan.

“Mahler’s music is full of dangers and traps, and one of them, which many fall into, is over sensualizing the thing until it becomes sort of …kitsch.” (‘Kitsch’— when art is considered in poor taste due to garishness or sentimentality.)

From Maestro: Encounters With Conductors of Today
Helena Matheopoulos book “Maestro” consisting of interviews with the world’s twenty-three top orchestral conductors.

Conductors tend to disagree on this subject too. One’s tasteless interpretation is another’s deep revelation.

Strauss even said so, “Must one become seventy years old to recognize that one’s greatest strength lies in creating musical kitsch?”

You might ask, can an orchestra play without a conductor? Of course we can.

I recently came across an outstanding orchestra that plays without a conductor. Now don’t get me wrong. There is a long tradition of smaller ensembles, chamber orchestras, that play without a conductor. In fact, we have one here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul—the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Their stellar performances often lead me to say, “they must be psychic!” as they do not only relegate themselves to so-called classical repertoire of Haydn and Mozart, but they play challenging contemporary works such as Bartók Divertimento, with aplomb and brilliance.

The Going Home Project Orchestra based in Korea plays large-scale works without a conductor including, Stravinsky Rite of Spring, an exceedingly complex work with difficult rhythms and tempo changes. Uncanny. I was flabbergasted at their brilliance as well as their impeccable ensemble. The famous bassoon opening is gorgeous, and the playing of the orchestra throughout is virtuosic.

Self-conducted Live Performance of “Le Sacre du Printemps” 

But the maestro can make magic happen onstage and then it’s inexplicable even to us. Whatever the interpretation we agree with von Karajan,

“To be involved professionally in a thing as creative as music is a great privilege and we have a duty to make in such a way that we can help bring pleasure and a sense of fulfillment to those who are not so fortunate {to be able to play music}.” From Osborne’s Conversations.

I hope this explains conducting. But if you’d like to know more, here is a delightful interview with Simon Rattle, who speaks candidly about his art.