Trust Maurizio Pollini to put an unexpected spin on Schumann's towering Kreisleriana. ... more
Schumann himself didn't think much of his Op. 8 Allegro: "The author amounts to more than this work," he disparagingly wrote. And hardly anyone knows Gesänge der Früh...
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Trust Maurizio Pollini to put an unexpected spin on Schumann's toweringKreisleriana. ... more
Schumann himself didn't think much of his Op. 8 Allegro: "The author amounts to more than this work," he disparagingly wrote. And hardly anyone knowsGesänge der Frühe(Songs of Dawn), which was his final work for piano. The way Pollini plays it, the Allegro's sumptuous textures and wayward impulses have nobility conferred on them; and in his hands theGesängereally do feel like a farewell, with a brief burst of exaltation yielding to declamatory hopelessness. ButKreislerianaemerges in its full magnificence. There are moments when Pollini's trademark perfectionism seems to preclude the breathless excitement Schumann calls for, but I have never heard the slow movements played with such sad grace. Alfred Brendel may get closer to the playfulness of the final movement, with its extraordinary offbeat rhythms, but in its serene eloquence and its warmth without a trace of ingratiation, this recording can have few peers. --Michael Church
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Advantages: I am glad I was introduced to this one. Disadvantages: One dodgy track could have been omited.
Auf Der Maur were a band that I had not heard of before last week. It was not till I read a review by one-true-ben that they came to my attention. I was interested enough to investigate their web site and was very impressed and I downloaded the four available video's from there and have been listening to them for days while I have waited for the album to arrive.
I am writing this as I listen to it for the first time because I wanted write it now to get my first impressions. I haven't even opened it yet.
It says on the cellophane wrapper,
'Le premier album de Mellisa Auf Der Maur en collaberation avec les meilleurs musiciens du rock nord-american'
The album arrived from CDWoW via airmail from Hong Kong, actually faster than the royal mail would have delivered it from next door, but that is beside the point. I am trying to ...
Advantages: Great cast, conductor and orchestra, top notch production Disadvantages: None, to be honest
all things are relative!?
Anyway, once you get around the issue of people singing most of the time, I have to say that the vast majority of operatic plots do deal with situations that are actually very realistic in terms of human nature - love, treachery, war, ambition, envy etc - and this is definitely the case with Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" ("The Rose Kavalier".) The main aspect which has to be explained right at the start is that the character of Octavian - a male - is sung by a woman. Why? Because he is supposed to be only 17 years old and having a middle-aged tenor just wouldn't cut it dramatically. For me it is no different from the female Principal Boy in pantomimes.
Richard Strauss wrote the opera to a libretto by his long-time collaborator Hugo von Hofmannsthal and it was premiered in Dresden in 1911 ...
Situated in the immediate vicinity of the Alte Pinakothek (art of the Old Masters to the 18th century) and the Neue Pinakothek (art of the 18th and 19th centuries), the Pinakothek der Moderne forms a troika with its predecessors.
The building itself, designed by the American architect Stephan Braunfels, is worth a visit, it has received only enthusiastic critiques. It?s an almost white building shell made of exposed concrete, it?s unobtrusive, when you get near you have the feeling that it belongs, it has to be just the way it is. It?s not show-offy and puts its neighbours into second file, although it has almost twice as much room value as the Alte Pinakothek, it seems much smaller, 1/3 of the museum is placed underground.
Let?s get in. The interior is all white, white and light. We cross the floor of the rotunda, 30 m in ...
![Haus Der Luege [Remastered] - Einsturzende Neubauten](http://imagesa.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/450/Haus_Der_Luege_Remastered_Einsturzende_Neubauten__6019450.jpg)
