My dear sister-in-law challenged me, and this is the fine video I created. I hope you will enjoy it. As you can see, from now on I won’t be in an optimal state to dump water on my head.
Tchaikovsky-Marche Slave cover (Rahter)
This week, I’ll have a bit of a study of Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave or “Serbo-Russo March”, with which I have no previous familiarity, in name, and I’m curious if I will recognize any themes, it being Tchaikovsky after all.
Modern-day Commentary
There’s not a lot of note going on with this one. Pretty straight-forward. I remember some elements of this experience, but much more about the day itself and less about the game.
Webern-Im Sommerwind cover image (Carl Fischer, 1962)
Well, here’s a piece that I hadn’t even heard of until a few months ago when I stumbled upon a New York Philharmonic performance of it courtesy of InstantEncore. I’ve since learned that it was composed in 1904 and didn’t receive its premiere until 1962, by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy.
I learned recently about the death of one of my classmates from college. Chris’ was a combination of talents like I’d never seen, which I may never see again. I imagine there are dozens of blog posts and Facebook statuses being written this month that will try to make heads or tails of this strange occurrence (someone dying naturally before his fortieth birthday), and which will regret the musical world’s loss. I hope these writings will help their authors to grieve and come to terms with the situation.
Modern-day Commentary
Finally, I’ve found a school paper for my Rewind Series which is totally truthful. This is a tour of my bedroom, a glimpse of my home life in seventh grade.
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring cover image (Muzyka, 1965)
This past week as I listened to some archived Tanglewood broadcasts on the Boston Symphony website, I came to the realization that I did not own a recording of Stravinksy’s Le Sacre du printemps, a bit of a surprising oversight given the breadth of scope that my media collection has taken on in recent years. And so I decided at that point to regain familiarity with this piece, taking a deeper dive, so to speak.
It’s been an unusual week for me. I hesitate to use words that come easily like “terrible” or “worst ever” because I know that there are people with whom I’m quite close, even, who have equally challenging weeks on an all-to-frequent basis. I do have it in perspective, but I still can recognize the fact that there has been more stress than I am accustomed to, or desire.
Modern-day Commentary
As with nearly every reflective essay I’ve highlighted on my Rewind series, this one stretches truths nearly to the limit.
Liszt-Les préludes cover (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1885)
This week I have begun to study Les préludes by Franz Liszt, a very popular orchestral work which, once again, has somehow managed to escape my eye for many years. This is what has made my symphonic journey such a pleasure, week after week. In many disciplines, you may find yourself dreading continuing, but from the start I knew this would work because it is an evolving project, with something new every week. I constantly find new works for myself, and the satisfaction only seems to grow.