№ 831. Bruce Liu – Ravel: No. 3, Une barque sur l'océan, Miroirs, M. 43

Ocean's Embrace

№ 804. Arthur Rubinstein

 

 

If there was an award for the pianist who came closest to the artistic ideal in the widest repertoire, it would almost certainly go to Rubinstein. Whether playing Fauré or Brahms, Albéniz or Beethoven, Ravel or Schubert, the results were sublime. Yet he is most celebrated for his Chopin. That composer's aristocratic poise and elegance found a perfect match in Rubinstein’s own interpretative genius. 

His golden tone, exquisite sense of timing and sensitivity to phrase and structure were tailor-made for Chopin's nocturnes, waltzes and mazurkas. Yet remarkably he sustained that same level of musical intuitiveness and profound eloquence throughout the more heated virtuosity of the concertos, scherzos, ballades, preludes, sonatas and polonaises. 

There was seemingly nothing that Rubinstein could not play at the highest levels of distinction. This ranged from concertos and solo recitals to forming two ‘million dollar’ piano trios, first with Jascha Heifetz and Emanuel Feuermann and then with Henryk Szeryng and Pierre Fournier, with whom he made outstanding recordings of Brahms, Schubert and Schumann.

Incredibly, as witness sublime video recordings of concertos by Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Chopin, Beethoven and Brahms, he was still playing like an angel in his eighties. Rubinstein was one of the most widely recorded of pianists. That said, his love affair with the gramophone got off to a shaky start. He refused to record for the early acoustic process as he felt it made the piano ‘sound like a banjo’.

№ 799. Music Therapy

History of Music

 

№ 796. Pasko 2025

 

№ 777. “Instruments of a Beating Heart”

№ 734. Beethoven's 9th Symphony

Robert Loves Pi

№ 711. Leron Leron Sinta from Sweden

 

№ 643. Little Brown Jug

 

№ 642. The Day the Music Died

To deal with its length, McLean’s record company had a clever idea. The first half of the song appeared on the A-side of the single, while the second was consigned to side B. The result turned the A-side into a cliffhanger the listener had to see through to the end. The subsequent demand forced AM radio stations to play both sides. At the same time, FM radio – whose mandate was to go deeper and play longer – was reaching its commercial apex at the time. Issued at the end of 1971, American Pie hit No 1 by January of 72, where it stayed for a full month. For 49 years, it held the record for the longest song to hit No 1 – until Taylor Swift’s 10-minute cut, All Too Well, broke it.

Condenaststore

 

 

№ 637. Rachmaninoff

My English Club

 

№ 609. Memories

   

№ 578. Intermission

 

Hope is created at the intersections of 1) passion – a desire for something vital, 2) perseverance – the need to prevail against great odds, and 3) faith – the belief that there could be something greater beyond those odds. When a leader, organization, or even country is facing its darkest days, like the ones we are in today feel like, hope is what gets us through. And while leaders can’t just “give hope” like a pill or “click here for hope” icon, what they can do is create the safe conditions in which people can discover it for themselves.

№ 571. John Prine "Jesus The Missing Years"

 

Cagle

№ 547. "Life is more important than a concert"

№ 466. New York City on My Mind

№ 429. Make Your Own Kind of Music

№ 400. Man Music & Machine

The fear that machines will replace human labor is a durable one in the public mind, from the time of the Luddites in the early 19th century. Yet most economists have viewed “the end of humans in jobs” as a groundless fear, inconsistent with the evidence. The standard view of technical change is that some jobs are displaced by the substitution of machines for labor, but that the fear of total displacement is misplaced because new jobs are created, largely due to the technology-fueled increase in productivity. Humans have always shifted away from work suitable for machines and to other jobs. This was true in the 1930s, when the shift was away from agriculture, through the 1990s and early 2000s, when the shift was largely out of manufacturing.

However, the expansion of what can be automated in recent years has raised the question: Is this time different?

№ 376. Theology after Carmina Burana

In this great fiat of the little girl Mary, the strength and foundation of our life of contemplation is grounded, for it means absolute trust in God, trust which will not set us free from suffering but will seift us free from anxiety, hesitation, and above all from the fear of suffering. Trust which makes us willing to be what God wants us to be, however great or however little that may prove. Trust which accepts God as illimitable Love.” ---- The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander

'The Reed of God' depicts the intimately human side of Mary, Mother of God, as an empty reed waiting for God's music to be played through her.

Bento Box:

A friend who belongs to a Catholic religious order posted the passage above.

I thought, it is such a beautiful love letter to God composed by a devotee.

№ 361. Freedom

№ 350. Death of Binary Archetypes

Binary Archetypes