Happy 2013 everyone! My blog has been pretty quiet, and one of my New Year’s resolutions is to do more writing! I have a number of thoughts on music I want to share, and of course my continuing adventures in learning the violin.
For now, though, this is the first of a weekly ‘Sunday Spotlight’ where I’ll highlight an interesting/inspiring YouTube video or two, as well as share any news I might have.
While the advent of recorded music has had a long and continued change on performing musicians (a topic for another day), YouTube is, among other things, an incredible resources for musicians. It’s amazing (and extremely useful) to be able to watch/listen to just about any orchestral piece I get asked to play. And one of the best ways to develop one’s ‘palate’ and sense of phrasing is to listen to great musicians.
For me, I find in general that pianists and singers are the most useful. The piano has a lot of similarities to the harp, including that you have an attack and then no control over the sound save to stop it. Both the piano and the harp are very percussive, in a way. It’s all about where in time you’re placing each note – and the space between the notes.
A good singer reminds us of that long line – that we should be hearing each note connected to the next as if we were singing.
For today’s spotlight I thought I’d highlight The Art of the Piano/Truecrypt. Truecrypt’s channel has a wonderful collection of (older) Russian pianists. Lots of Sviatoslav Richter, of course, but also many other, less well known pianists. I have great respect for Richter, even if he doesn’t always play things as I would. And in general I love listening to older pianists (most of my favourite musicians are dead).
But for me the true highlight of the channel are ‘Truecrypts’ own recordings. I don’t know who Truecrypt is, but I particularly love these apparently live recordings of Chopin. Well worth listening to – I have a hard time finding people playing Chopin as I want to hear it – and these are captivating.
Well, hope you enjoy this first Sunday Spotlight :) I have a fun episode planned for Harp Tuesday – I’ll see you then!
Cheers,
Josh