Ordered at Amazon a few days ago and now already playing here in Amsterdam: Valentina’s Chopin-recital (released on 28 November 2011).
Great! 🙂
Category Archives: Western Classical Music
When things need a bit longer : John Cage’s Organ²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)
Take it easy, relax and take your time, for instance to enjoy “Organ²/ASLSP(As SLow aS Possible)”, the slowest and longest piece ever, by the late John Cage. The performance started in 2001, but if you only join in now, don’t worry, you haven’t missed much. How come? Well, performing the piece will only take 639 years, it’s nowhere near of a start yet, you’ve just missed 10 years at most. The playing, done by a Church Organ in Halberstadt-Germany, joyfully started on September 5th, 2001 and – if it doesn’t get too tired of this – is scheduled to end in the year 2640. Click here to hear the current sound!
The piece’s 11th Klangwechsel on August 5th, 2011
From a different angle once more the 11th Klangwechsel, in a 4’33” length video 🙂
The board chairman of the John Cage Organ Foundation in Halberstadt and involved in this project, Rainer Neugebauer, says that the performance is a rebuke of hectic modern life: “Everything does not need to happen so fast. If something needs a bit longer then it can give us an inner calm that is rare in normal life.”
Oh yes, that makes sense, but I also think ‘our normal lives’ could do with ‘a bit longer’, as they run out of time so fast. 🙂
From SD to HD: facelift for a Valentina Lisitsa promo video
My video Valentina Lisitsa: a somehow impossible combination of Backhaus and Argerich, published in March 2010 – and having more than 47.000 views on 13 November 2011, when this message was published – deserved a remake, a promotion from SD to HD.
Here’s the ‘makeover’, published on YouTube on 12 November 2011. Play the clip in 1080p to see the best result in High Definition.
Debussy’s orchestral glimmer of colours and light in the Faun-prelude beautifully catched on piano
Debussy – PrĂ©lude Ă l’aprĂ©s-midi d’un faune from Kunstderfug on Vimeo.
Here’s a beautiful piano-transcription of one of the most beautiful orchestral works in western classical music. The piece’s glimmer of colours and light is beautifully retained in this transcription and performance. For good pianists this arrangement must be (or perhaps has been already) a delightful challenge.
Valentina Lisitsa plays in Delft and Haarlem (The Netherlands) in January 2012
Good news for classical piano fans in The Netherlands. Valentina Lisitsa will play at least two recitals on dutch soil in January 2012:
on 22 January in Delft in theatre De Veste and on 27 January in the Philharmonie in Haarlem.
Valentina Lisitsa in London, April 2009 (photo by Pieter de Rooij)
Unterwegs mit Bach(‘s Toccata and Fugue in D minor)
Rachmaninoff #3 on a beautiful Sunday afternoon
Valentina Lisitsa, filmed by me on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in December 2009, Abbey Road Studios, London. Valentina plays a segment from the 1st Movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3. (Play in HD).
The beauty of Barbara Bonney’s singing
An example of the captivating beauty of Barbara Bonney’s voice, here interpreting this gem of Richard Strauss in a phenomenal way, with great accompaniment by Geoffrey Parsons on piano.
Valja’s ‘wake up’-call! :)
Deep commitment and musical depth during Valentina Lisitsa’s Rachmaninoff Project, but there was also lots of funny moments… here’s just one of them. Filmed by me in London, December 2009, Abbey Road Studios.
Valentina Lisitsa’s unmatched ‘Totentanz’ over 500.000 views in less than a year
This superb electrifying performance has now over 500.000 views and shows Valentina Lisitsa’s deep connection with Liszt’s Totentanz. Total control and commitment combine in the best way and Valentina’s performance is unmatched in its display of musical brilliance. Videos on her YT-channel now have over 28 million views! Subscribers: more than 34.000. Very telling!