Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

A couple of days ago – on 18 December – Valentina Lisitsa published on her YouTubechannel a wonderful performance of Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’, transcribed for piano by Liszt. In the comment on her video Valentina made this suggestion: “If you feel creative, please go ahead and make better visuals – or just use it as a soundtrack for a self-made Christmas card (..).” As I was planning to make a Christmas & New Year-video, I took my chance and combined Valentina’s awesome playing with some footage that I thought would fit in nicely and so on the evening of Thursday 22 December I made this video… and oh, don’t forget to play in HD. 🙂

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

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Raga Unveiled – ambitious cinematic effort to grasp the essence of Hindustani classical music

I reported earlier on ‘Raga Unveiled’, an ambitious cinematic effort to take a look at the history and essence of the Hindustani classical music system. In this film – directed by Gita Desai and released in 2009 – scholars and great artists of today unveil the raga and demonstrate evrything you always would have liked to know about Indian classical music.
Here’s the trailer:

For anyone interested in raga music this 260 minute-film is a ‘must’ and of course it’s needless to say that you should see and buy the film on dvd in much better quality.

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The exceptional musical energy of Magma exemplified in ‘Zombies’

Earlier on I highlighted Christian Vander’s Magma here on my website. I thought it would be nice to share another fine example of the band’s exceptional energy. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and highly admired the music of Magma since my high school days. Christian Vander’s music, mostly created in the 1970’s, sounds unique and timeless. For those unfamiliar with the band, watch this powerful performance of ‘Zombies’ – recorded in 2005 – and you’ll probably grasp what’s so special about Magma.

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Gluck’s ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ in a mesmerising choreography of Pina Bausch

This performance – at the Palais Garnier in Paris in 2008 – of the ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’, from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’ (1762), is of an immense, mesmerising beauty. It’s from the famous production of world renowned German choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009), with excellent musical support of The Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock.

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Valentina Lisitsa’s new release: Chopin-recital (CD+DVD)

Ordered at Amazon a few days ago and now already playing here in Amsterdam: Valentina’s Chopin-recital (released on 28 November 2011).
val-chopin-recital
Great! 🙂

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