The Classical Music Guide Forums

This year I have explored the YouTube website for some fascinating musical gems. They also brought back some fond memories, such as a video of Mason Williams performing his Classical Gas in 1968. I was only 11 years old at the time, and only dimly aware of classical music. Classical Gas of course isn't really classical, but its purely instrumental format and its use of an orchestra were quite an ear-opener for my young mind. That led me to explore more music in orchestral guise, which in turn led to my ongoing explorations of the length and breadth of the classical music literature, and so I'll always have a fondness for Classical Gas. (Note: Also in 1968 I saw the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and its use of genuine classical music in outer space captivated me.)

I. Classical YouTube

Here are some extremely diverse classical samples from You Tube. Note: depending on your internet connection speed, you might need to let each video load completely before you play it.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Tuba Concerto in F Minor: II. Romanza (the soloist is a music student in Hong Kong; the orchestral part is in an effective piano reduction)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzblU8i3uxE
(Surely this is the most beautiful piece of music ever composed for tuba. It IS beautiful. And don't call me Shirley.)

Harpo Marx performs Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtc9a4TgRus
(this is from A Night in Casablanca, and I have a much better copy of this movie on DVD)

Andres Segovia performs Isaac Albéniz: Asturias
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efHwnFAkuA

Artur Rubinstein, Jasha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky perform Felix Mendelssohn: Trio No. 1 in D Minor: I. Molto allegro ed agitato
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFb8FnsGs6k
(when Piatigorsky leans over to the camera and briefly announces the music, I can almost imagine him saying, "Okay youse guys, listen up. Me and da boys is gonna play da D Minor Trio of Mendelssohn. Got it? Good.")

Incidentally, the Rubinstein-Heifetz-Piatigorsky trio did not last long because Rubinstein and Heifetz both insisted on first billing on their programs, whereas Piatigorsky really didn't care, good sport that he was.

Leopold Stokowski conducts Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor: IV. Finale
From the movie One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8_zMzYAfdw

Yehudi Menuhin performs Max Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor (with Ferenc Fricsay and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra):
I. Vorspiel (Allegro Moderato)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDFhrUj_XaE
II. Adagio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQLqF5lgTik
III. Finale (Allegro energico)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj6SSqm5W8Q

Julia Varady sings Richard Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder (with Kurt Masur and Gewandhaus-Orchester Leipzig):
I. Frühling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-StP1OS-q-w
II. September
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR3OcwoDMBQ
III. Beim Schlafengehen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCo25Cpbj4
IV. Im Abendrot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k44UQlfrN5U

In addition, the many videos of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould are also a barrel of laughs.


II. Just Plain Fun Classical Music on YouTube

Peter Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach in Houston: We Have a Problem (trailer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoAnU0JDXMQ

Allan Sherman: Camp Granada video (the original music is of course Dance of the Hours from the opera La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli, but you knew that)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiqB0nWHNF4

Leslie Nielsen performs an Hilarious Violin Scene in the Movie Wrongfully Accused, 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHXiE4vtBrA
(this violin showpiece was apparently composed by Bill Conti, who is credited with the music for the movie)

Leopold Stokowski's big scene with Deanna Durbin
from One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVejINN4vMs

The plot concerns Patsy (Deanna Durbin), the daughter of a struggling musician (Adolphe Menjou) who forms a symphony orchestra made up of his unemployed friends. Through persistence, charm and misunderstandings, she manages to get Leopold Stokowski (Leopold Stokowski) to conduct them in a concert that leads to a radio contract.

In this pivotal scene at the end of the movie, Patsy has come to apologize for telling a newspaper that Stokowski would conduct her orchestra of jobless musicians. Stokowski was of course peerless as a conductor, whereas his acting ability ran the whole gamut of emotions from A to B. Nonetheless, it's wonderful to watch Stokowski in front of an orchestra.

Leopold Stokowski (as himself): "But why did you do it? You must have had a reason."
Patricia "Patsy" Cardwell (Deanna Durbin): "Oh, yes! I had a hundred reasons! Would you like to hear them?"
Stokowski: "I certainly would." [Uh oh, he's in for it now!]
Patricia: [Goes to the door of his study and counts:] "One! Two! Three! Four!"
[Stokowski suddenly hears an orchestra perform Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 inside his own house! Evidently Stokowski has no concept of home security. Anyway, he and she go out onto his spacious balcony above the entryway. The musicians are standing on the stairway, playing.]
Patricia: "Those are my reasons. I thought you'd like to hear them."
[Stokowski listens until the piece is nearly over, and then starts conducting the musicians with his bare hands.]

Incidentally, Deanna Durbin's vocal coach was Andres de Segurola, a former Metropolitan Opera bass who had sung with Enrico Caruso. Leopold Stokowski recorded the classical music in the film with the Philadelphia Orchestra (of which he was still co-conductor) at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, on a multi-channel sound system, the first time one was ever used to record music in a film. The musicians seen in the film, however, were Los Angeles-based players miming to the pre-recorded soundtrack.

"We-e-e-ll doggies, Jed! Stoky sure has his-self a nice house in the movie. Where's his cee-ment pond?"

Dave

PS. Leopold Stokowski was famous for conducting only with his hands and without a baton. However, many of these videos show that this was not altogether unusual. For example, Kurt Masur and Ferenc Fricsay also conducted without a baton.

And speaking of Stoki and the Philadelphia Orchestra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSWLqHDtVfo

Lauritz Melchior sings Grieg's Yie elska die [Jeg elsker Dig, I Love You]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he2XO4sJlB0

This except is from Thrill of a Romance (1945), and Melchior is accompanied by Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra.

Best known as one of the finest Heldentenors of the early 20th Century, Danish tenor Lauritz Melchior (1890-1973) also performed as a supporting actor in 5 musical films for MGM and Paramount Pictures in the 1940s and 1950s, and he appeared as himself many times on television. YouTube also has links to other Melchior videos from those television appearances.

Brahms D-Minor Concerto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TC2Wkv8IS8

Barry - a surprise was in store. Not Stoki himself, but one of his orchestral transcriptions - conducted by Herr Sawallisch.

And thanks, also, for the Stephen Hough link. I'd never seen him perform and, in the beginning of the video at least, he appears to be a student of the Andre Watts School of Facial Grimaces. I'll admit that he dispense with those as the music intensifies. Great stuff!

Here is Boulez conducting a full ballet performance of Le Sacre (check out the horses):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QjpgUfehk0


Here is Ligeti's Poem Symphonique for 100 Metronomes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCp7bL-AWvw

One of my favorite works - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini - done to perfection by Mikhail Pletnev/Claudio Abbado + mystery orchestra (the BPO?).

There are three parts to the entire performance. Here is the first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Z-HCq5 ... ed&search=

The second and third parts appear as links just to the right of the video screen.

The magnificent 18th Variation begins Part III of the video - meltingly beautiful.

Frank,
I was thrilled when I came across that video of Sawallisch conducting Stoki's Bach. I saw them do it live at least once. Sawallisch made a point of returning those transcriptions to the Philadelphia Orchestra's repertoire when he arrived as music director. I'm fairly sure Muti wouldn't have touched them with a very long pole.
I have to say that facial expressions aside, I like Hough a lot more than Watts (whose gramacing always gives me a kick!).

Another Sawallisch/Philly/Stoki Transcription:

Debussy's Claire de Lune (Stokowski) from Japan.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BzeCUlZz5aE

Bob

Check out this Mozart vln cto cadenza...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmjGDBWZZFw

Koji Attwood playing Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPFvgSMS4bM

Here is a recent music video of a famous singer from the 70's and 80's. Sad to see how far he has fallen (warning R rating)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLQRv0RjBBM

Here are some more video and audio files by and about Glenn Gould, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

CBC: Glenn Gould: Variations on an Artist
http://archives.cbc.ca/300c.asp?IDCat=6 ... &IDMenu=68

1. A rising star
2. Gould on his eccentricities
3. Bernstein and Gould don't see eye to eye
4. Quitting the concert stage
5. Gould as a radio composer
6. Hamming it up Gould-style
7. Gould's sudden death
8. Remembering Gould
9. Gould's cult-like status
10. Medical clues about what made Gould Gould

The video of the Bruch concerto with Menuhin does indeed show Fricsay conducting with his bare hands. But I thought I remembered him using a baton in the only concert of his I ever saw, an all-Bartók program in Vienna's Musikverein in 1961 (also with Menuhin in the Concerto #2). My memory could be wrong, I'm mistaken often enough. But the publicity photo on http://homepages.ipact.nl/~otterhouse/ shows him with a baton.

That jpg will be gone when Rolf changes his recording of the week, and CMG's forum software doesn't allow for uploading images as part of messages. So whoever may read this post next week will have to take my word for it. <grin>

Just came across this promo video for the upcoming release of Rattle and the BPO performing Bruckner's fourth. It includes clips from either a rehearsal or recording session and some interesting comments on Bruckner's music by Rattle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEDkpYZipao

Are most of you familiar with the version of Liebestraum composed by Fliszt?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LWqFaGwNCMU

great thread; thanks everyone! The youtube search is good, but it somehow hadn't occurred to me to use it this way.

A young Shostakovich performing the end of his first piano concerto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYOpnq6h_Ms

Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray: Argument to Beethoven's 5th
from "Caesar's Hour", 27 December 1954
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEhF-7suDsM

André Previn attempts to perform the Grieg Piano Concerto
on the Morecambe and Wise comedy show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQNYUJIW4sw

Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic in a run-through of Brahms Symphony #4, finale, last 5 minutes (London, 1948). They don't make 'em like that any more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYbb5KZYDg

Agreed. That's probably my favorite video clip of Furtwangler conducting.

Forever in your debt, Dave. Absolutely priceless.

I've been avoiding this thread until I got my high-speed connection. Now I've had a look and realize that you folks have opened up a vast area of entertainment. I can hardly wait.

BTW my sister has reminded me that I can now take the live feed from Vermont Public Radio, giving us something in common again (I introduced her to the whole concept of public/classical radio many years ago). I know we've been back and forth many times on this and I get XM over satellite TV, but this is going to be fun, so let me have my fun.

Congratulations, and there was me, not too long ago, worrying that you were on your way to becoming a Luddite...

Now, all you need is that I-Mac you have been coveting...You Tube looks so much nicer on a Mac...

Congrats, John! Welcome to the world of instant downloads.

Careful what you say, many downloads are far from instant...

You are very welcome. One reason I have not posted nearly as much as before is because I've been reading many fascinating old books and magazines which have been ditigized for download, such as a huge collection of Beethoven's letters, Berlioz' Mémoires, Saint-Saëns' Mémoires, Ives' Essays Before a Sonata etc. etc. etc. I have shared some of these here in the forum but don't know whether anyone is really interested. I've also been enjoying many music DVDs and CDs. Some feature musicians taking about the music as well as playing it. So, I've been learning about music directly from the musicians' pens and mouths, and it's mighty good stuff.

Here are some excerpts:

Arnold Schönberg: Fantasie for Violin and Piano, Op. 47
Yehudi Menuhin and Glenn Gould
Discussion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av2XTNgA72w
Performance - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmf4Z9HsnFQ

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Interviews: Yo-Yo Ma (12 parts)
(Silk Road project, performing with the CSO, etc.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQw5cCnGswA&

Dudley Moore, Alicia de Larrocha and Michael Tilson Thomas
discuss Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ramMUDUG_QQ&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy1oFrmt_UI&

Speaking of Dudley Moore, it's also fun to see comedy in music:

Beyond the Fringe: Dudley Moore: Beethoven Sonata Parody
(based on Kenneth Alford's Colonel Bogey March,
Moore alludes to this in his discussion with de Larrocha, above)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GazlqD4mLvw&

Jack Benny and his magic violin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjP8wYBtFeA&NR=1

Dave

Glimpses into the classrooms:

Jorge Bolet Master Class (1983): Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor (14 parts)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnyvFpP30bs

Pablo Casals Master Class: Bach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP5OUxyEOhk

Plácido Domingo Master Class (1982) (7 parts)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi3L4qIfk1U

Itzhak Perlman Master Class: Ravel: Tzigane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkUqsqf_np4

Andrés Segovia Master Class (1965)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjNXuGQaAE

Jorge Bolet Interview (1983)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vrXvNVMoHQ

Fascinating stuff. In a post-master-class interview, BBC announcer Robin Ray asked Jorge Bolet how he responded to criticism that perhaps sometimes he let his virtuosity deviate from the Urtext. Bolet did not accept that criticism, and insisted that he had the greatest respect for the printed score. He explained that the composition process, the creative process, was one of the great mysteries of the arts. However, a composer might spend a month on a piece of music, or 3 months, or a year, and then move on to something else. By contrast, Bolet said had studied certain pieces of music for his entire lifetime. It sounds presumptuous, but in certain cases, he might understand a piece of music better than the composer himself. It is a bold statement, but with a great deal of truth.

This reminds me of a statement by Aaron Copland, when asked about the meaning of one of his own pieces. Copland replied, "That's really not for me to say. André Gide, in the preface to his book Préludes, expressed my meaning perfectly when he wrote: 'Before explaining my book to others, I wait for them to explain it to me. To wish to explain it first would be to restrain its meaning prematurely because even if we know what we wish to say, we cannot know whether we have said only that. And what interests me especially is what I have put into my book without my own knowledge...' Gide was referring, of course, to the unconscious element in one's work."

Bolet expressed much the same sentiment, from the perspective of a very gifted pianist.

Dave

PS. Personal note: From my own modest perspective as a would-be composer, I've noticed the same thing. During rehearsals, when musicians asked me how I intended certain passages to be played, or what my intended effects were, the conductor could usually answer much faster than I could, and I wrote the doggone piece! I can't expect to create masterpieces, but I'm having a grand time exploring music from the inside. Statements like these from Bolet and Copland lead me to believe I've unlocked a few secrets along the way.

Horowitz had big hands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1hgzvuR-tk&mode=related&search=

Rachmaninoff, Concerto #3, finale; Vladimir Horowitz, New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta conducting, in 1978 (Horowitz was 75).

Hi everybody,
This is a link to Cliburn YouTube Channel. A lot of ineresting videos including
movie The Cliburn 2001: Playing on the edge.

http://www.youtube.com/vancliburnfoundation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RCe7wmHdzY

There you'll also find info on The Cliburn's Amateurs 2007 which is going on currently.

So many great videos. And one of the wonders of technology is that we can download the audio for our iPods! What a time to be alive!!!!