Welcome to the Weekend and your Saturday Evening Concert. As you can tell, I am running a tad bit behind due to the continued Chaos in Cowtown that is the Stock Show and Rodeo. It is still technically Saturday Evening, so it's all good and I swear to you it will be worth the wait. The concert footage I have for you tonight features the works of contemporary composer Max Richter whose fusion of the classical form with contemporary instrumentation has created the 'Contemporary Classical' genre. Add modern musical influences along with his own unique style and you have the formula for magical performances of spectacular music. Here is the review of tonight's concert by Music Critic Tom Huizenga:
"Can't take another moment of Vivaldi's ubiquitous Four Seasons? Neither
could Max Richter, a London-based composer who deftly blurs the lines
between the classical and electronic worlds. Long ago he loved it the
piece but like some of us, he grew tired of the overplayed warhorse,
which can be found in no fewer than 250 recordings on sites like
ArchivMusic.
So instead of writing off the piece forever, Richter rewrote it. He discarded about three quarters of Vivaldi's original, substituted his own music and tucked in some light electronics for a total Four Seasons makeover. It sounds a little hipper — lighter on its feet in places, darker and more cinematic in others. Still, Richter's remodeled version retains the basic shape, and much of the spirit, of the master's original four violin concertos — each about ten minutes and in three movements, sequenced fast-slow-fast.
Richter recorded his rejiggered Seasons with violin soloist Daniel Hope and together they brought the project to (Le) Poisson Rouge, the Greenwich Village music space, where we had our cameras set up and ready to roll.
In Richter's reimagining, you'll recognize more than a few weather-related signposts like the violin's shivering figures in "Winter" and bolts of thunder in stormy "Summer." Yet in other places the music is heavily disguised. The cheerful birdsong that opens Vivaldi's "Spring" emerges as mere shards of the original, backed by moody pedal points in the electronic low end, lending it a movie music feel. And Vivaldi's violin horn calls in the finale of "Autumn" morph into a comforting minimalist blanket of warm double basses and electronics.
The revamped Vivaldi is about as "classical" as Richter gets. For a taste of his more electronic side, the second half of this concert features selections from Infra, dance music he wrote for London's Royal Ballet, based on T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. For this music, Richter pares down to just a piano, his laptop and a string quartet, but he weaves in many unusual sounds. Here you'll find a dusty treasure-trove of old shortwave radio signals, industrial rumbles, clicks and pops serving as the underlying bed for Richter's gritty and forlorn soundscapes."
Tonight's Program has Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Recomposed by Max Richter) and Music from Infra. The composer is joined in this performance by Ensemble LPR under the baton of Tito Muñoz. Tonight's other live performance over on my tumblr features The Royal Orchestra & Daniel Barenboim conducted by Michael Schønwandt courtesy of Danmarks Radio in their performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto Number 5 in E Flat Major 'Emperor'.
So instead of writing off the piece forever, Richter rewrote it. He discarded about three quarters of Vivaldi's original, substituted his own music and tucked in some light electronics for a total Four Seasons makeover. It sounds a little hipper — lighter on its feet in places, darker and more cinematic in others. Still, Richter's remodeled version retains the basic shape, and much of the spirit, of the master's original four violin concertos — each about ten minutes and in three movements, sequenced fast-slow-fast.
Richter recorded his rejiggered Seasons with violin soloist Daniel Hope and together they brought the project to (Le) Poisson Rouge, the Greenwich Village music space, where we had our cameras set up and ready to roll.
In Richter's reimagining, you'll recognize more than a few weather-related signposts like the violin's shivering figures in "Winter" and bolts of thunder in stormy "Summer." Yet in other places the music is heavily disguised. The cheerful birdsong that opens Vivaldi's "Spring" emerges as mere shards of the original, backed by moody pedal points in the electronic low end, lending it a movie music feel. And Vivaldi's violin horn calls in the finale of "Autumn" morph into a comforting minimalist blanket of warm double basses and electronics.
The revamped Vivaldi is about as "classical" as Richter gets. For a taste of his more electronic side, the second half of this concert features selections from Infra, dance music he wrote for London's Royal Ballet, based on T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. For this music, Richter pares down to just a piano, his laptop and a string quartet, but he weaves in many unusual sounds. Here you'll find a dusty treasure-trove of old shortwave radio signals, industrial rumbles, clicks and pops serving as the underlying bed for Richter's gritty and forlorn soundscapes."
Tonight's Program has Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Recomposed by Max Richter) and Music from Infra. The composer is joined in this performance by Ensemble LPR under the baton of Tito Muñoz. Tonight's other live performance over on my tumblr features The Royal Orchestra & Daniel Barenboim conducted by Michael Schønwandt courtesy of Danmarks Radio in their performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto Number 5 in E Flat Major 'Emperor'.
Finally for tonight is some yummilicious young studs who are all Naked or Nearly So to give you some visual stimulation while you are mesmerized by Max's Music. Be sure to check out the Hottie of the Day!, Alex Maxim over on my tumblr also. Thanks for sharing part of your Weekend with me, see you again on Monday for another week of Music, Men and More! Until next time as always, Enjoy!
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