ballet_n00b

So if I understand correctly, in ballet romanticism preceded classicism?

This is surprising to me as in music it is the other way round.

It's also funny because musically all the ballets mentioned are comfortably within the romantic period/style.

Being relatively inexperienced when it comes to ballet, I never picked up on a difference in style.

Does anyone know why she switched from Semenyaka to Grachyova?

I was over the moon when I heard she (as my current favourite) would be learning from my all time favourite (Semenyaka).

Shame it didn't last.

Not a pianist I particularly cared for. It's amazing that someone with his pedigree (he studied with Rosenthal afterall) could be so cold. I guess "cerebral" might be a nicer way to say it.

Having said that he did write some fine books.

That's terrible! Poor Lunkina, she's one of favourites and I was hoping she'd be on the Bolshoi's upcoming tour to Australia.

She's my favourite, I just love her. Gilda is a movie I don't actually watch very often, I prefer my Rita in movies like Cover Girl and You'll Never Be Rich.

We'll have to agree to disagree, Patrick. Rogers was good in drama even if she occasionally bit off more than she could chew. 'Stage Door' has great ensemble acting and the faceoff between Hepburn and Rogers is memorable and funny. It's a fine film.

I agree; great cast and solid acting all around. I actually quite enjoy Roger's flicks w/o Fred, especially the Major and the Minor (although it's not drama). I thought her performance in Kitty Foyle was excellent. It's a bit too much of a tear-jerker for me to like unequivocally but I certainly couldn't fault Ginger.

Fred and Ginger were the ne plus ultra of hollywood musicals and no other dancer (even my beloved Rita H) could match the chemistry that Rogers had with Fred. Despite his continued success later in his career, I don't think Fred ever improved on his RKO flicks and I have a general dislike for those garish MGM musicals (though I can tolerate the garishness of the Bandwagon, mainly because I have Cyd to distract me ).

Irene Dunne was also fabulous in Roberta. She was supposed to be cast in Follow the Fleet but Harriet Hilliard (Nelson) ended up doing it. I can't help but feel that Dunne would have been much better.

Happened to come across this.

And to make up for another Argerich no-show, Deutsche Grammophon has just released “Argerich Plays Chopin,” a CD of recently discovered early broadcast recordings she made in Germany. It begins with her setting afire Chopin’s First Ballade in a studio in Berlin in 1959, when “the exceptionally attractive Argentine pianist,” to quote the CD booklet notes, was an impressively impulsive 17.

The remainder of the disc contains performances from 1967, two years after Argerich won the Chopin Competition, which turned her into a star. According to DG’s breathless prose, that win proved more dazzling than such 1965 news as a Soviet cosmonaut’s first walk in space, Louis Armstrong’s first East Berlin appearance or the first woman to win the Peace Prize from the German Publishers Guild.

I have this cd, it's quite good. I also love the quote about DG's liner notes; the endless hyperbolic extolment of the recording artist's virtues in sleeve notes is something that irritates me to no end.

Incidentally, Schumann's bicentennary was a couple of weeks ago.

Anna Moffo did a great version of Kern's "Smoke get's in your eyes", though I'm not sure how many other show-tunes she recorded. For the most part I don't like mixture of Jazz and Classical. As far as crossover artists (classical/pop) are concerned, I can't say I've listened to many but the few I am familiar with (Maksim et al) appealed to me as much as 7 straight Andre Rieu specials.

I found it enjoyable, that is unless you're interested in accuracy (which is why I hate biopics in general).

The pianist was wonderful. (I don't have my program to identify him by name.)

His name is Koji Attwood and he's tremendous. I hope he starts getting better known; he deserves it. He's a great transcriber too, he did transcriptions of Schubert's Death and the Maiden and Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra which are fabulous.

Much of Chopin probably does require a very delicate sensibility, nevertheless, and maybe an introvert more than an extrovert sometimes to bring out these 'intimacies'. Such considerations are also to be found in Debussy, who is a more important composer to me personally. All the intricacies of his Etudes were all worth it to me. One thing curious about the Chopin Etudes is how little they work the left hand (for the most part, there are exceptions--but the Double Thirds are all in the right hand in Chopin's, whereas they are in both in Debussy's, although the Octave Etude does work out both hands for octaves, the Revolutionary, of course, but Opus 10, No. 2, is only for the right hand fingerwork and is always extremely difficult, thought some can really toss it off. There's been lots of talk of how Chopin's Etudes are 'not just studies, but poetic works in their own right', but I think Debussy's are more so, and Chopin's poetry comes out more in his other works. Ofcourse, the E Major Etude in Op. 10 is as lyrically beautiful as possible, I'm never been really sure what it's an Etude for.) The E Major Scherzo is a great favourite of mine, and is extremely difficult to get the lightness it needs.)

Interesting comment about the Debussy etudes, which as I'm sure you're aware aren't nearly as popular as alot of his other music (the preludes for example). I'm not particularly familiar with most of them. You're right about the RH bias in Chopin, which is why Godowsky liked to transcribe them for the LH. Chopin liked to give the LH arpeggio figures, like the "cartwheel" figurations of the E minor posthumous waltz (incidentally, I think Schumann imitated this idiosyncrasy rather well in Carnaval). Personally, I think the Preludes are Chopin's best set (Cortot's is my favourite version). Btw, I also love the E major Scherzo, Wild, Richter, Petrov and Ashkenazy all play that brilliantly although I think I like Wild the best. I also agree with what you wrote about introverts, even though people like Rubinstein were most definitely extroverts, the music is itself often introverted. As far as Argerich is concerned, I can't say that she's an artist after my own heart, I have a F minor concerto video from the 80s which she bangs out rather obnoxiously. Nor am I particularly taken by any of her early Chopin. I hate Blechacz, he plays Chopin like it's all perfumed drawing room music, his playing is also incredibly boring imo. Rubinstein I love in everything he plays, his Chopin is great but it's hardly the ne plus ultra imo. Dirac's suggestions are good especially Cortot. Ashkenazy I like better when he was young, his recordings from the Chopin Competition (where he placed 2nd) are fabulous. It includes the best 25/3 I've ever heard. Cortot is always great musically although there lots of wrong notes. There's a rather rare live etudes set from Pollini when he was 14 which is very interesting for the amazing mechanism he had at such a young age, (though unfortunately it is pitched sharp which I find irritating). I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my favourites Sergio Fiorentino and Josef Hofmann who were both great chopinists, as well as Horowitz whom I love in just about everything he played. Rachmaninoff is also amazing, the B flat sonata recording!! fabulous pianist. Ignaz Friedman's recordings are extraordinary, for example the third ballade where he plays this ascending scalar run at least TWICE as fast as every other pianist, producing an amazing effect. There's also the ending of 25/6 where he harmonises a descending double note passage in A major (basically a Neapolitan cadenza leading to the tonic G sharp minor) in the RH with an added A major scale in the LH. Beautiful. Kissin's concerti age 12, I have the video of the E minor and he was a real wonder child; ethereally beautiful, feeling the music with every ounce of his being and communicating this to the audience. Really there are so many pianists who play Chopin wonderfully, and so differently too! In any case I'll be listening to lots of Chopin come Monday.

I quite like his Gershwin concerto (incidentally a favourite of mine), he made lots of changes in the orchestration although most are quite innocuous. His transcriptions of Gershwin and Rachmaninoff are also pretty good. He did like to play a lot of "frivolous" music but he did it well. He was always good for a quote such as "Lang Lang is the JLo of piano" and (my personal favourite) "Banging is for the bedroom".

Last night I watched the Paris Opera Ballet "La Dame aux camelias" for the first time, and I was impressed by the choreography applied to piano works of Chopin that I wouldn't have thought were possible to choreograph. I can be a bit touchy about the use and abuse of classical music, but not on this occasion. I went to bed with a head full of music I'd like to see John Neumeier have a go at. Chopin's Barcarolle came to mind immediately for inclusion in a 'new' version of "La Dame", or as the centrepiece of an entirely new ballet.

As for extended works to be used in their entirety, the mind boggles at the possibilities, but as a chamber music fan, I'd love for someone to have a go at Mendelssohn's Octet. I could get really touchy about any abuse of Schubert's Octet, but if "La Dame" is anything to go by, I'd happily entrust it to Mr. Neumeier's capable hands.

Which pieces are including la Dame aux camelias ? It'd be interesting to see what choreography could be done to the Barcarolle (incidentally one of my fav Chopin pieces). It would have to be as written though, I don't think I could handle an orchestrated version. I have to admit though that I'm somewhat sceptical about setting the piano repetoire to dance; there was a horrendous Liszt sonata danced by Guillem and Le Riche on youtube, just the most perfunctory playing imaginable, which I hope wasn't as a result of having to "accompany" the dancers but rather the pianist's own lack of musicality. Perhaps the piece could work well, it certainly has programmatic elements to it (even if Liszt insisted there was no programme). I also saw an orchestrated version of the Schuman's Carnaval danced by Obraztsova and Shklyarov. I actually quite enjoyed the dance, Obraztsova was terribly cute. The piece itself worked rather well as a dance at times however there were instances (Paganini) where it was completely bent out of shape to accommodate the cheoreography (or was it just because of the poor orchestration?). There was also a setting of the Prokofiev 2nd which a lot of my pianist friends thought was hilarious (since removed).

I agree with the suggestion of Saint Saens Danse Macabre that one would work well. I think programme music would work well in general - I'd be interested to see Ravel's Gaspard danced and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition to name a couple of examples.

Sorry, I simply cannot take him seriously (nor, I'd imagine, can any other hardcore classical aficionados). He's only one rung above Maksim, Clayderman and Abel. His is "classical" music for the uninitiated/novice (a niche which he shrewdly exploits). If anything it's unfair to compare Somova to Rieu whom I have a feeling is rather the Lang Lang of ballet.

A rehearsal setting video of the movement or a still of the position - front and side views (and back might be nice too)

A performance video example of the same movement (with information about the performance)

This is exactly what I would like too; a comprehensive video library of the moves. I've found the fact that I speak French to be of little help when it comes to working out what the moves involve, e.g. épaulement - obviously something to do with the shoulders but beyond that I have no clue. The ABT one is pretty much what I would hope for, but comprehensive.

There's a lot of artistry that can be found in entertainment, some examples being Richard Tauber or Georg Ots in any operetta, Jan Peerce singing "You'll Never Walk Alone", Thomas Hampson's "Music of the Night", Arthur Fiedler's recordings, Ella Fitzgerald and Maria del Mar Bonet, Frank Sinatra -- the list goes on and on. Rieu's "schmalty pop music" was good enough for Balanchine to have used for four movements of one of his masterworks, "Vienna Waltzes".

A chacun son gout.

ou dégoût

I by no means meant that the two are mutually exclusive - of course they're not! Rather one doesn't listen to Rieu for artistry any more than one watches Somova for taste. Nor did I mean that the music itself (i.e. strauss waltzes) is inherently schmaltz, rather the setting for the music is pure kitsch. Rieu is selling an image, that's it. Some people like it, I don't.

That's fine. It's all just a matter of what you're looking for; entertainment or artistry.

I can't stand this charlatan and his schmaltzy pop music.

I'm going to avoid this like the plague; I can't stand Nicole Kidman.

Is this still available to listen to online?

Thank you for posting, ballet_n00b. Do you have a preferred recording of Davidsbundlertanze?

probably Cortot, I really like his Schumann.

I'm still very new to ballet, but the dancers I've been particularly taken by are Obraztsova, Vishneva, Guillem, Osipova and Nikulina. It's very depressing, however, that without youtube I wouldn't have been exposed to their art as I live in a country where major companies seldom tour (it's as if the world ends at the equator). Obraztsova is the one I'm keenest on, I'd love to see her Juliet live but I doubt that'll ever happen.

I haven't heard her in the Davidsbundlertanze but in other repetoire I haven't been terribly impressed. Musically she doesn't do anything for me, I couldn't understand how she made the finals of the last Cliburn.

Rachmaninoff's recording of this (in Siloti's transcription) is the best, so beautiful. He could really make the piano sing.