Stay classy, GRB

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[sighyoung]

The pianist Lars Vogt died of cancer yesterday at the age of 51. This is a recording from earlier this year, performing Brahms' Intermezzo in A major, op. 118 no. 2.

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Since I'm president of the local chamber-music society (it just means that I do most of the clerical work for the non-profit), I helped provide transportation for the Takács Quartet, one of the top string quartets in the world today.

I met the group's violist, Richard O'Neill, an outstanding performer who has been nominated for Grammy awards three times, and who won a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo back in 2019.

He was the nicest person you'd want to meet, and a terrific player.

So I thought I'd post his performance of Rebecca Clarke's viola sonata, which shows off his technique.

By the way, the accompanist is the pianist Jeremy Denk.

[sighyoung]

[Radbird]

This is from “The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos” is a 2008 nature documentary that explores the great gathering of lesser flamingos which occurs every year at Lake Natron in Tanzania and along the salt lakes of the African Rift Valley. It was the first film released under the then-new Disneynature film label through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. You can find it on Disney+



The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech: Filharmonici města Prahy) is a classical orchestra, predominantly composed of Czech classical, jazz and guest musicians. They specialize in film soundtracks and you can find them on Spotify.

The history of the orchestra goes back to the Film Symphony Orchestra (FISYO), which was founded shortly after World War II, in 1947 as the in-house orchestra for the huge Barrandov Film Studios. After separating and fully privatized it initially performed under the name Czech Symphony Orchestra, but had problems with unauthorized use of the name by other Czech ensembles for themselves. Finally in 1992, after the Velvet Revolution, music producer James Fitzpatrick came up with its current name.
The orchestra is drawn from musicians of the State Opera and the Czech National Theatre, and most of its concerts take place at the opera house.

[sighyoung]

This is a setting of The Lord's Prayer in French by the mid-20th century Swiss composer Frank Martin. It's part of a much larger choral work entitled In Terra Pax (Peace on Earth), composed during the Second World War.

I'm really interested in the setting because, while the choir sings a chorale almost reminiscent of Gregorian Chant, the music underneath in clearly so anguished and longing for the world desired in the prayer.