Bach; Beethoven; Scarlatti; Mozart: Piano Sonatas

Melodious Mozart, perfectly played

Advantages: Excellent performances in a perfect setting
Disadvantages: Very minor quibbles

to continue her career... As children, Mozart and Nannerl had toured over Europe under the strict supervision of their father - primarily to show off their skills and hopefully make money from the aristocratic audiences in whose palaces, castles and stately homes they would perform. It was during that period that Mozart composed his first violin sonatas. He would play violin (his small sized child's violin can still be seen in Salzburg) and Nannerl would accompany on the keyboard. However, these early sonatas followed the style at the time - which was for the main musical interest to be almost always in the keyboard part, while the violin merely provided a fairly innocuous accompaniment. Nowadays the early Mozart violin sonatas are considered juvenilia and are rarely to be heard in the concert hall. However, as Mozart grew up ...

Maestrolover 26.02.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mozart: Violin Sonatas (DVD)

The Dangers Of Family Scarlatti

Advantages: Good Characters and a pretty decent plot
Disadvantages: A little too much back information and at times the pace is a little slow

Having read the Bourne trilogy by Robert Ludlum, I chose to try something a little bit different from his other books. He is very much a writer of good Thrillers and the Bourne series were a good example of this. This time round I went for The Scarlatti Inheritance; there was no real reason for this other than choosing it at random from the book shop shelf. I hadn't heard anything about it but the back made it sound quite interesting and so I took a bit of a gamble on it as the last gamble seemed to have paid off. The book is set in and around the two World Wars. It starts towards the end of World War 2 with the news of a High ranking Nazi Commander ready to defect to the Americans with vital Nazi war secrets. The only catch is he wants a top secret file on the Scarlatti Inheritance. The book then skips back in time to give details ...

Andy.mack 04.09.2005 · Read full review
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Review of The Scarlatti Inheritance - Robert Ludlum

THE PIANO TEACHER - (LA PIANISTE)

Advantages: Excellent physcological study of character.
Disadvantages: Grim, brutal, shocking scenes of a sexual nature.

Haneke is well known for implementing the shock element into his films. He likes to leave his audience felling unsettled. Cinematography is brilliant with subdued colouring reflecting the drabness of Ericas life, and the greyness of the storyline. I have watched this film a few times now, and with each viewing I am stunned by the perfection of Isabelle Hupperts performance. Annie Girardot as the mother also gives a strong, convincing performance with the elements of smothering, and control in the right balance. In my opinion, I think this is a great film. It won many awards, and well deserved accolades. The Piano teacher has a very basic storyline,contains subtitles, and is very graphic in it's content, so it will not be to everyones taste. The musical score is brilliant throughout with the of sonatas Schuman, Schubert Bach ...

Morning_Becomes_Electra 20.01.2008 (25.01.2008) · Read full review
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Review of The Piano Teacher