Saturday Evening Concert

Welcome to the Weekend and your Saturday Evening Concert.  As I wander around You Tube in my searches for great musical moments, I keep finding these live performances which stretch the bounds of Classical Music and do so fabulously!  Case in point, Vivaldi's Four Seasons is one of the world's most popular and widely recorded collections of music, a set that instantly became an international hit after it was first published at part of the composer's Opus 8 in 1725. No doubt it was its imitative directness -- extra musical occurrences/phenomena evoked in an extremely suggestive manner and even written into the score, such as 'the barking dog' or 'the drunkards' sleep' etc. -- that caused such as sensation in its time, effortlessly bridging the gap between the salons of the highborn and the alehouses of the lowly. Today nothing has changed: the concerti are performed both by great violin virtuosos and famous hard rockers; they are works that are constantly being presented in new guises through the re-imagining and re-working of the musical score.

Such is the standpoint adopted in this performance from The Hague by Erik Bosgraaf.  Hailed as one of the most gifted and versatile Recorder players of the new generation, Erik Bosgraaf has a colourful past in a rock band and as an oboe player. He believes that good music is irrespective of style and feels equally at home in early and contemporary music as well as commissioning new works including several concerti incorporating new media.  He has chosen here to adapt the Violin part for Recorder, explaining how 'the Violin part can be played on the Recorder with surprising ease, without many changes. In some ways it works even better than concertos Vivaldi wrote specifically for the Recorder!'  Bosgraaf's aim is to make the four legendary concerti sound as if they had been written for the Recorder in the first place -- and the results are laudable, with the contrasts between the wind instrument and the accompanying strings revealing previously unheard stratifications and details. As the soloist himself puts it, 'Listen to Vivaldi with fresh ears and enjoy!'  In tonight's performance Erik Bosgraaf and The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with DJ DNA play an adaptation of the Four Seasons in what is a truly unique musical arrangement.  

Bosgraaf awakens the Four Seasons to life with an arsenal of Recorders (which he makes between seasons) in this special musical outing with DJ DNA (Arjen Peace Urban Dance Squad). In a musical adventure they make a connection between the old Venice of Vivaldi and The Hague of today. DJ DNA makes it a spectacle with an arsenal of 12 turntables and his entire record collection of bird sounds.  Recorded in Trojan Horse on December 6, 2014 by Dutch television broadcasting company AVRO TROS.

For a different fusion of two genres of music, just head over to my tumblr where I have something really special for this evening's concert with an excellent example of “East Meets  West”.  In days gone by (ie…when I was young) it was Yahudi Menuhin & Ravi Shankar. Today it’s Joshua Bell and Ravi’s daughter Anoushka in concert.  Tonight’s performance was recorded live at the Summer Music Festival in 2007 in Verbier, Switzerland.

Last but not least, there is beau coup beauty au natural in the Naked or Nearly So post down below and in the Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr.  Thanks for sharing part of your Weekend with me, see you again on  Monday for another week of Music, Men & More! Until next time as always, Enjoy!