Results tagged “messiaen”

Efforts by mainstream media and Hollywood to use a Saint Bernard to replace Beethoven in our hearts and minds have failed, despite numerous attempts. As part of the Colburn Celebrity Series, Andras Schiff is halfway complete on his journey to perform all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. 16 were performed last year in four concerts and he starts again this Wednesday for our classical pick of the week. This week includes some of Beethoven's greatest works, including the "Tempest" and the "Waldstein." These works are often performed, but rarely done well (recommended performances include Alfred Brendel, if you can overlook a mistake here and there). Andras Schiff is considered one of the consummate performers of Beethoven and Mozart. You will be hard pressed to find anyone with the same level of musicality and technical precision for these sonatas. Having attended several of his previous performances (and performances of just about every pianist the last few years), LAist has noticed that he gets some of the loudest and most enthusiastic responses from the crowd with his flawless performances. If you happen to be in New York, he has been performing the same cycle at Carnegie Hall. There are many tickets left for this show between 40 and 100 dollars. If you buy his CD (at the gift store there), he usually does a CD signing right after the show.

This week’s classical pick doesn’t really have anything to do with erotica, unless you reason that Beethoven’s "Eroica" Symphony ushered in the Romantic Era of classical music, which was said to have encouraged intimate and passionate (erotic?) feelings inside the listener. Anyways, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is performing this heroic third symphony (Eroica means heroic in Italian) and continue the year long celebration of Messiaen.

Jaws. Star Wars. Indiana Jones. ET. Jurassic Park. Harry Potter. These are some timeless tales that captivated our youth (and for some people, their lives). The memories should be flooding back now, reminding you of the good ol’ days, when big blockbuster movies were held together not just by special effects, but with memorable characters, plots (!), and most of all, the music. The minor second motif from Jaws will always run through your mind when you’re jumping into the beach, or even the pool (or at least now it will). The music composed by John Williams has been ingrained into our minds, and has managed to reach a global audience, a difficult feat for anyone not named Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart. The classical pick of the week has John Williams conducting several of his masterpieces with the American Youth Symphony next Sunday on the 23rd.

2008 marks the 100 year anniversary of the birth of French composer Olivier Messiaen, best known for his masterpiece Quatuor por la fin du temps ("Quartet for the end of time"). Piano Spheres is commemorating his birth with a concert at Zipper Hall this Tuesday featuring pianists Mark Robson and Joanne Pearce Martin.