Cello Appreciation Day

All of you long time readers of Nichevo are very familiar with my love for the sound of the Cello.  With this in mind I created this little holiday known as Cello Appreciation Day just to celebrate the music made by this fine instrument in the hands of a master.  For Cello Appreciation Day, I gathered videos of some traditional and some not so traditional compositions for the Cello and other instruments.  To start with I have two passages by the duo of Cellist Ivan Andrews and Pianist Eric Stevens; the Song of Birds by Pablo Casals and Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninoff.   Then we have a video by a young man by the name of Wells who, when he did not have a violinist to record with, learned the violin part himself.  The composition he plays is The Impossible Duet: Handel-Halvorsen Passacagilia for Cello and Violin.  Wells plays both parts in split screen, amazingly well done and expertly recorded.  Following next is a beautiful performance by Cellist Seeli Toivio and her brother, pianist Kalle Toivio performing Franz Liszt (1811-1886) "Liebestraum" at Festival Servais 2007 at the Halle Basilica, Belgium, June 6, 2007 Festival Concert for the Bicentennial Commemoration of the Belgian cello virtuoso Adrien François Servais (1807-1866).  The next video asks the question: "What if the coolest song ever written for one cello were instead written for eight?" Steven Sharp Nelson performs Johann Sebastian Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suite Number 1: Prelude in his own arrangement.  Nelson added some original material and seven more cello parts stacked on top to create a quite beautiful piece of music.  Nelson plays all parts on this video and then is joined by pianist Jon Schmidt in the final video whose own description says it so much better than I can. "After our Taylor Swift Coldplay mash-up, lots of people wanted more song combos. This led us to the creation of a cool hip hop/classical mash-up, but again we could not get permission. Instead of scrapping the great ideas, we used them to create an original tune. You will hear influences and inspiration from other artists. Try and guess them.  On the recording, Steven Sharp Nelson laid down over 100 tracks including cello textures never known possible. Every single sound on the video was made using only the instruments shown: piano, cello, mouth percussion and kick drum. We utilized some cool effects on lots of stuff...for example the U2-style delay on Steve's pizzicato at the beginning.  The extra string on the electric cellos (the black cello has an extra high string and the white cello has an extra low string) allowed us to cover the full range of the orchestra. The deep bass drum sound is a bump on the body of the cello with a little help from some effects. The shaker sound was created by Steve rubbing rosin on his bow. The record scratch is Steve scratching a quarter on the strings...you get the idea."  All the videos together exhibit the beauty and versatility of the cello and how easily it it paired with other instruments to create truly beautiful music.  Now no holiday here at Nichevo, self declared or not, would be complete without some photographic celebration of the art of the male form.  Once again I am not one to disappoint my loyal fans when it comes to eye candy.  Today we have lots of hunky guys strutting their stuff in this edition of Men In Jeans.  Have a fabulous day, thanks for coming and come back tomorrow for more music, men and more. Until next time as always, Enjoy!