YouTube Symphony Winners Announced

Congratulations to the winners of the YouTube Symphony competition, who will now travel to New York to perform in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra on April 15 (ticket info here). And a special congratulations to Tino Balsamello, who was chosen as the orchestra's pianist. Here is his winning video of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata:

YouTube Symphony Piano Audition Videos Part 2

Voting is underway at the YouTube Symphony Orchestra page and runs until February 22nd, after which the winners will be announced on March 2.  Just click on the "Vote" dialog button when you get to the main page, select the instrument you would like to vote on, then go to the videos and vote thumbs up or down. What I find odd is that for the instruments I checked, there were only a handful of available videos. Is Google randomizing the test groups so that only a handful of videos show up for each individual user? Or have these videos already passed a pre-screening process?

Below are three Waldsteins that I came across on the voting page.

Sera:



Harvest Zhang:



Yes, all you Eastman aficionados, Harvest was playing in Howard Hanson Hall.

Tino Balsamello:

Previously on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

YouTube Symphony Piano Audition Videos Part 1

The LSO's John Alley on the Tan Dun Symphony Piano Reduction

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra

Piano Audition Rep List for the YouTube Symphony

For those interested in auditioning as a pianist for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, the site now lists some piano audition information.  After selecting "Piano" on the drop-down menu, there are links for both the online mashup competition and the Carnegie Hall auditions.

The Video 1 link shows a piano part pdf file, but download it and you'll find only a full score without any piano part listed in the orchestration. What's with that?  The Video 2 link shows a rep list for the Carnegie Hall competition, of which applicants are to choose one or two:

• Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 Traumerei
• Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331, Mvt. III, "Alla Turca" - Allegretto
• Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 21 In C, Op. 53 "Waldstein" Mvt. 1 Allegro con brio
• Brahms: Intermezzo In A Major, Opus 188, No. 2

Apples and oranges.  The Waldstein movement is in a much higher difficulty league than the other pieces, with only the Brahms Intermezzo coming close.  I can see Traumerei being the most performed of the four because of its short length and ease of execution.  The Mozart is an often overplayed work but can still show sparkle, stylistic integrity, and detail work in fine performances.  

Best of luck the pianists in the competition!  Email me if you've made a video worth sharing.

Rare Footage of Gwendolyn Koldofsky Playing in Lotte Lehmann Master Class

In the short time that I studied with Gwendolyn Koldofsky at the Academy of the West, she often spoke fondly of her longtime collaboration with Lotte Lehmann. I was very glad to have recently found a six-and-a-half minute YouTube clip of a 1961 Lotte Lehmann master class, in which she coaches Jeannine Wagner singing Brahms' Sonntag with none other than Koldofsky herself at the piano. This master class dates from the time after Lehmann had stopped singing professionally, however, she still sings one of the more convincing performances of Sonntag you'll ever hear, an octave lower than written. For all those who knew Lehmann and Koldofsky, here's a rare moment to see them in their prime over 45 years ago...

Richter and Oistrakh Play Brahms d minor 4th movement on YouTube

Here are David Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter playing the fourth movement of Brahms' Sonata in d minor Op. 108.

It doesn't get any better than this...

Robot Pianist on YouTube

Take a look at this robot pianist designed for use in "affective interaction of the elderly" (why not use human pianists?). Conditioned as we are to hear biologically viable pianists of the human variety, here are some points I couldn't help but observe in the robot's playing:

• Erect posture but with complete rigidity of the torso and upper body, which could me symptomatic of tension issues.
• Excellent independence of the fingers, but a relaxed wrist and introduction of arm weight could create greater tonal variety.
• Stable rhythmic pulse, but more attention is needed in matters of phrasing and balance.

(Via WTB)

Here's another notable non-human pianist: Piano Kitty!

Pipe Dreams Redux

I received yet another round of the famous email hoax about the Animusic Pipe Dreams video this morning. For those of you that haven't heard of it yet, here's how the email reads:

Read this first before opening the video. Turn your sound up!

This is almost unbelievable. See how all of the balls wind up in catcher cones. This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between The Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa.

Amazingly, 97% of the machines components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa. Right first time - Farm Equipment!

It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video but as you can see it was well worth the effort.

It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Evidence on Snopes.com proves that Pipe Dreams is really a computer-animated video from Animusic and that the corporate/educational collaboration never happened but may have been intended as a viral marketing ploy.

Anyway, it's still an amazing video:

Bathroom Divas Clip from Season 1 on YouTube

This clip from the first season of Bathroom Divas recently showed up on YouTube. This excerpt is from the semi-final round held at Bloor Street United Church in Toronto. Chris Burton is at the piano.

YouTube of The Dresden Dolls' Coin-Operated Boy

One of my piano students recently introduced me to the music of the Dresden Dolls, a goth Brechtian punk cabaret duo whose music is very much influenced by the world of Kurt Weill, the Weimar cabaret, and its recent successor, dark cabaret. Here they are in Coin-Operated Boy, a heavily piano-flavored song that is by turns post-Weillesque, pop, and punk.

The Dresden Dolls Companion (Piano/Vocal/Guitar) By The Dresden Dolls. Piano/Vocal/Chords Songbook (Arrangements for piano and voice with guitar chords). 192 pages. Published by Cherry Lane Music. (2500915) See more info...

YouTube of Talk to the Hand from Jerry Springer the Opera

No comment.

Star Wars Fantasy w/Anderson and Roe Part II

A few weeks ago, I posted about the first part of duo pianists Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Roe's Star Wars Fantasy. The eloquently arranged and played second part is based on the Force theme. A wikipedia commentator also notes that:

...the Force theme is most consistently developed and, consequently, most difficult to attach a specific meaning. This theme variously represents Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi and the Force from which they draw their power, as well as more abstract ideas such as fate or destiny. In general, its appearances mark moments of significance in the films -- due in part to its portentous minor mode and upward-striving melody.

“Good relations with the Wookies, I have.”

--Yoda

Stephen Sondheim Coaches "Not Getting Married" from Company

Here is an interesting video of Stephen Sondheim from a masterclass at Guildhall (in the early 80's?) as he coaches, with varying degrees of response, the "Not Getting Married" trio from Company. BTW, anyone know who the hotshot pianist might be?



(Via Roger Bourland)

No Wonder Classical Music is Popular These Days

If you've ever been concerned about sound quality on recent recordings of popular music, especially on mp3 files, you should definitely check out Robert Levine's The Death of High Fidelity in Rolling Stone, which spells out the technical reasons for audio compression--the practice of ironing out dynamic levels at the expense of sonic image and detail.

Might the reason for classical music's newfound popularity be as simple as a reaction against the bland audio quality of many popular releases in favor of listening to a genre of music that contains both loud and soft sections?

Consider one of my favorite recordings, Shostakovich's 8th Symphony as played by the Leningrad Symphony under Mravinsky. I find listening to this recording difficult unless I'm in a place and situation where I can appreciate dynamic contrasts that range from the tenderest transcendental sounds to the most terrifying, corpse-grinding Stalinesque volume imaginable from an orchestra.

Take a look at The Loudness War, a YouTube clip that focuses on the opening and drum entrance from Paul McCartney's Figure of Eight to demonstrate how compression can often ruin a recording that once relied on extremes of dynamic for its effect:



Then again, perhaps I'm wrong about all of this. Perhaps the reason why classical music is proving so popular these days is that it doesn't suck the way a lot of popular music does. I spent 20 years buying LPs and CDs of popular music, only to find that for the most part only two or three songs on an album were listenable and the rest were filler. Maybe that's why the downloading phenomenon is draining the profits of the recording industry. Back in the LP and CD ages, mediocre content could still move huge amounts of product as long as there were a handful of hits. Nowadays consumers bypass the dreck on albums and download only the handful of good songs, resulting in lower revenues.

Buy or download any decent recording of classical works such as Beethoven's Sixth Symphony and you'll be able to hear an album-length, high-quality work that you might not understand the first time, but will come back to in order to get more out of it. Over time, your understanding of the music will actually enhance your listening experience. Very few popular albums have ever risen to this level--Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and U2's The Joshua Tree are some that did.

Better yet, realize that recordings can give you but a taste of what the true musical experience is all about: the live performance, which is alive and well these days, as Jon Terauds writes in the Toronto Star. Whether you're listening to mp3's on an ipod or vintage LP's on a tricked-out audiophile system, the real deal is happens in the concert hall or arena, no matter what kind of musical style you favor. Spending the time and money to attend concerts can enable the experiences of live music that can be life-changing, and although the live music experience won't have the permanence of the recording, the ephemeral moments of the concert hall are often what we remember the longest, and with the most fondness.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas as recited by Laura Landauer as......Céline

The other day I was looking for a seasonally appropriate video to post, and what happened to arrive in my inbox but a YouTube holiday video card with a recent clip of Bathroom Divas Season 2 finalist Laura Landauer aka Gypsy Miller as Céline in a récitation of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.



Merry Christmas from the Collaborative Piano Blog and I'll be back in a few days.

YouTube of Willie Hall Playing Violin in The King of Jazz

This astonishing video features the American trombonist/violinist Wilbur "Willie" Hall in a vaudeville performance from the 1930 film The King of Jazz. Watch for the insane bow tricks not often attempted nowadays. I would love to know who the off-camera crackerjack pianist is--his ragtime arrangement of The Stars and Stripes Forever piccolo solo in the bicycle-pump section is pretty spectacular.

YouTube of Gyorgi Ligeti's Artikulation w/Score

This recording of Gyorgi Ligeti's Artikulation features a score created by Rainer Wehinger that graphically realizes the sounds in the work for tape. YouTube user d21d34c55 then synchronized score and recording, resulting in a much more coherent reading of the work for most listeners.

Star Wars Fantasy w/Anderson and Roe Part I

Duo pianists Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Roe have previously developed a wide audience for their YouTube performances Piazzolla's Libertango, Barber's Pas de deux, and the Blue Danube. Their latest foray into the world of duo pianism: a Star Wars Fantasy. Here's the first part, with a mashup of the Cantina Band from the Mos Eisley spaceport ("that wretched hive of scum and villainy" in Episode IV) with other well-known themes from the Star Wars series.



"Do or do not. There is no try."

--Yoda

Jean Stilwell and Patti Loach Perform Taylor the Latte Boy on YouTube

I've had the pleasure of seeing Jean Stilwell and Patti Loach perform the showstopping Taylor the Latte Boy (from their Carmen Unzipped show) several times at Tapestry events. Here are Jean and Patti w/Rex Harrington (sporting a cool new tattoo) at The Academy of Spherical Arts in this October 2007 performance of the Goldrich and Heisler classic.

Goldrich and Heisler - Songbook, Volume 1 Lyrics by Marcy Heisler, music by Zina Goldrich. Songbook for voice, piano and guitar (chords only). 320 pages. Published by Hal Leonard. (HL.313288) See more info...

Hilarious Gerald Moore Interview from 1951

Gerald Moore talks about balance, critics, and transposing in this audio-only clip from a 1951 broadcast. Wait for the great pianistic punchline in the last minute.



(Thanks, Patti!)

Teresa Berganza Sings de Falla's Polo w/Gerald Moore on YouTube

Gerald Moore hardly breaks a sweat in this 1960 film of Polo from de Falla's Siete canciones populaires españolas with soprano Teresa Berganza. One of the harder songs of the set, the second verse features some tricky repeated note passages. Take a look at how Moore's high hand position allows him to execute those passages with ease.



Ay!