Here’s my not-to-be-missed latest YouTube-report with brilliant pianist Valentina Lisitsa talking about and playing the Rachmaninoff / Warenberg “5th” Concerto. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Part One
Part Two
The complete raw footage of Valentina’s playing of Rachmaninoff / Warenberg in Amsterdam
My edition of Concertzender’s 60-minute radioprogramme Wereldmineralen on 2 September 2010 features recent releases of African and Asian world music. You can listen to the programme via www.concertzender.nl , broadcast time is 19.00-20.00hrs (dutch time). After broadcast you can listen ‘on demand’ via this link.
In the first half hour there’s African music, starting with the album ‘La Difference’ of Salif Keïta from Mali, followed by the album ‘Télévision’ of Baaba Maal from Senegal. Then there’s a selection of recently released seventies Afrobeat-music from the sampler album ‘Nigeria Afrobeat Special’. In the second half hour the programme features new releases with music from Asia, starting with the album ‘He who travels far’ (release in September 2010) of Chinese-Mongolian band Hanggai. This group blends rock with traditional Mongolian music and overtone singing. The final part of the programme features music from the album Stringstruck by sitar maestro Purbayan Chatterjee.
An article on Purbayan Chatterjee’s recent fusion projects / In: Hindustan Times, August 15th, 2010
With his band Stringstruck Purbayan Chatterjee created an album of fusion music that earned him in July 2010 the award of ‘world music album of the year’ in India. Pleasant and striking surprises on Stringstruck are Purbayan Chatterjee’s singing and his playing on the dwo, an electric sitar.
Playlist of Wereldmineralen:
Titel: La Différance
Tijdsduur: 04’04
Uitvoerende: Salif Keïta
Componist: Salif Keïta
Album: La Différance
Label en Jaar: Universal Music 000422 88240266 ; P en C 2010
Titel: Papa
Tijdsduur: 06’58
Uitvoerende: Salif Keïta
Componist: Salif Keïta
Album: La Différance
Label en Jaar: Universal Music 000422 88240266 ; P en C 2010
Titel: Télévision
Tijdsduur: 07’04
Uitvoerende: Baaba Maal
Componist: Baaba Maal, B. Reynolds
Album: Télévision
Label en Jaar: PALM BEC5772521 ; P en C 2009
Titel: International
Tijdsduur: 03’11
Uitvoerende: Baaba Maal
Componist: Baaba Maal, B. Reynolds
Album: Télévision
Label en Jaar: PALM BEC5772521 ; P en C 2009
Titel: Who’re You?
Tijdsduur: 08’42
Uitvoerende: Fela Ransome Kuti
Componist: Fela Ransome Kuti
Album: Nigeria Afrobeat Spexial
Label en Jaar: Soundway SNDWCD021 ; C 2010
Titel: Hankuri
Tijdsduur: 04’18
Uitvoerende: Madman Jaga
Componist: Madman Jaga
Album: Nigeria Afrobeat Spexial
Label en Jaar: Soundway SNDWCD021 ; C 2010
Titel: Cha
Tijdsduur: 03’53
Uitvoerende: Hanggai
Componist: Hanggai
Album: He Who Travels Far
Label en Jaar: World Connection WC 039 ; P en C 2010
Titel: Dorov Morlaril
Tijdsduur: 05’30
Uitvoerende: Hanggai
Componist: Hanggai
Album: He Who Travels Far
Label en Jaar: World Connection WC 039 ; P en C 2010
Titel: Golden bangle
Tijdsduur: 04’06
Uitvoerende: Hanggai
Componist: Hanggai
Album: He Who Travels Far
Label en Jaar: World Connection WC 039 ; P en C 2010
Titel: Dwo Bickram Ghosh Mix
Tijdsduur: 05’45
Uitvoerende: Purbayan Chatterjee
Componist: Purbayan Chatterjee
Album: Stringstruck
Label en Jaar: Times Music 885444227394 ; C 2010
Titel: Shadowlights
Tijdsduur: 08’22
Uitvoerende: Purbayan Chatterjee
Componist: Purbayan Chatterjee
Album: Stringstruck
Label en Jaar: Times Music 885444227394 ; C 2010
Samenstelling: Pieter de Rooij
In the press she’s been called (Gillian) ‘Welch’s lost young daughter’ 🙂 Bluegrass-country-folk songwriter Sarah Jarosz – a Texan teen, born in 1991 – is still very young and a huge talent. Her breakthrough album ‘Song Up In Her Head’, released in the summer of 2009, was now given a five star ‘top of the world’-review in Songlines (September 2010) by reviewer Rose Skelton who uses superlatives like ‘supertalent’, ‘fabulous moments’ and ‘exceptional piece of work’. On YouTube I found this track from Sarah Jarosz’s celebrated album, titled Shankill Butchers, a song she covered from The Decemberists. All the other tracks she wrote herself. Great to hear this new young talent.
Natacha Atlas is a great singer. I remember her solo debut album ‘Diaspora’ was one of my favourites in 1994. Through the years she made a lot of other great albums and now there’s a new one on its way, to be released in September.
I look forward to the release of Mounqaliba, where – as is explained in the video below – she explores links between Western classical music and Arabic classical music, ‘blending Middle Eastern, African and European sounds. Mounqaliba features new songs written in classical Arabic by Atlas and collaborator Samy Bishai, who learned violin from Russians and Armenians in Egypt. Atlas’ multicultural background – half Moroccan/Egyptian/Palestinian and half British and largely raised in Belgium – plays out in her genre-bending music, with its appreciation of Western electronic music and pop alongside a thorough grounding in Arabic musical traditions. For the new record, Altas had ambitious intentions: “What I hope I have achieved is to match the lyricism of classical music with the inherent poetry of Arabic… To create a melange of ideas and examined opposites.” Mounqaliba will release 21 September via Six Degrees Records.’ (quoted text from: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/30/2992535/riff-report-new-music-this-week.html#ixzz0yE48cYHU )
Natacha Atlas explains about the upcoming release of Mounqaliba
One of Natacha Atlas’ lovely dance hits, Mon Amie La Rose
“Liederen uit de hele wereld klinken in de huizen. Wie heeft er nog aandacht voor een traag oud lied, dat vroeger de lange winteravonden kortte of een eindeloze werkdag op het land?”
Op 23 juli 2010 is op 84-jarige leeftijd de Nederlandse radiomaker en volkskundige Ate Doornbosch overleden. Hij is op 29 juli gecremeerd. Doornbosch presenteerde van 1957 tot 1993 dertienhonderdzestien keer het populaire radiopogramma ‘Onder de Groene Linde’ waarin hij overal in Nederland mensen thuis bezocht en opnamen maakte van door henzelf gezongen, mondeling overgeleverde liederen. Doornbosch legde op die manier zo’n 5000 traditionele liederen vast. Zijn inspanningen leverden een imposant archief op dat in Amsterdam wordt beheerd door het P.J. Meertens Instituut.
Ate Doornbosch ontvangt in 2009 een Edison voor zijn werk
I don’t think any of the world’s best classical pianists has ever done this… but she does. Out of loyalty and gratitude to her worldwide following Valentina Lisitsa is running a live webcam inside her practice studio at home until the 4th of July (midnight to be exact).
Buffy, one of Valentina’s cats, joined in at some point and started a piano duet… what a treat! 🙂
The use of technology to connect with an audience, like no other pianist Valentina Lisitsa knows how to do this. Her live-rehearsals involve working on recital and concert programmes that she has to perform next month. The number of pieces she’s working on in these rehearsals: 55 ! That’s FIFTY-FIVE, yes, and more than half of the material is Continue reading
Now Listen to this!
Valentina Lisitsa plays the theme of the Rachmaninoff/Warenberg ‘5th’ Piano Concerto’s 2nd movement, recorded in Amsterdam. A very beautiful interpretation, that imho combines and fuses a poetic delicacy with soulful temperament and powerful passion that only Valentina can bring out to the listener. I’m sure you’ll enjoy her playing here as much as I do.
This piano concerto is an arrangement by Alexander Warenberg of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Symphony. The recording presented here is used with permission and part of video-material shot by Alexei Kuznetsoff (Valentina’s husband) in Amsterdam, May 2010, that features Valentina playing piano solo parts of the Rachmaninoff/Warenberg Piano Concerto #5.
Valentina was performing in The Netherlands in May 2010. On 29 May 2010 I did a video-interview with Valentina in Rotterdam on the Rachmaninoff/Warenberg 5th Piano Concerto after she played the concerto with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on 28 May 2010.
Me and Valentina after the interview in Rotterdam
I will present this interview in a video-report later on this year combined with the video-material, shot in Amsterdam, of Valentina playing piano solo parts of the ‘5th’ concerto.
On Saturday 22 May 2010 electrifying world class classical pianist Valentina Lisitsa is performing in Leiden, The Netherlands. She’s gonna play an exciting and daring programme: two Beethoven Sonatas (the ‘Mondschein’ and the very complicated ‘Hammerklavier’) and all(!) 24 etudes of Chopin. For more information on the location and sale of tickets, click here. On Friday 28 May she will perform the Rachmaninoff / Warenberg 5th Piano Concerto (European premiere) with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Both concerts are really a must for evry lover of classical piano playing.
Valentina Lisitsa during a rehearsal in the Abbey Road Studios, London, December 2009 (photo: Pieter de Rooij)
I consider Valentina Lisitsa a once-in-a-generation pianist and one of the best classical pianists ever. To illustrate my words I’ll present below ten videos of Valentina that show the immense range of her musical powers. Most of these videos are from her Youtubechannel, which is actually the world’s best visited channel of a classical pianist. I also would like to refer to my Youtube video-documentary on Valentina’s Rachmaninoff recording project with the London Symphony Orchestra that can be found on my Youtubechannel, along with other videos I made last year in London of Valentina talking and playing. If you live in Holland and you like classical piano then don’t miss this great opportunity to hear the one and only Valentina Lisitsa live on stage in May 2010 in Leiden and Rotterdam.
1. Rachmaninoff / Etude Tableau Op 39 No. 6 “Little Red Riding Hood“
2. Liszt / Totentanz
3. Rachmaninoff / Piano Concerto No.2 minus orchestra, 2nd movement
4. Rachmaninoff / Piano Concerto No.1, 1st movement, Cadenza (my recording)
5. Chopin / Etude Op 25 No.12
6. Chopin / Etude Op. 25 No. 6
7. Chopin / Etude Op 25 No.7
8. Schubert/Liszt / Schwanengesang #13, Die Taubenpost
10. Robert Schumann / Traumerei