Harvey Van Cliburn

[Apex]

I only just now thought to check on this, I had known he wasn't well, but I forgot to follow up, and did not see this in any news online or TV at the time:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ ... story.html

from Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Cliburn

Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn, Jr., July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013, was an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958, at the age of 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow at the height of the Cold War.

When it was time to announce a winner, the judges were obliged to ask permission of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to give first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked. "Then give him the prize!"

[Webb]

I always thought Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto was a little over the top.

You be the judge.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M7M4UoqBpA[/youtube]

[Apex]

That era of classical music had a lot of over the top stuff. As a classical musician, I only deal with Bach era stuff. As a rock musician, anything goes.

Pianists like Van Cliburn and Glenn Gould are getting to be a thing of the past. Van Cliburn's selections are not my thing, but Gould playing Bach is.

[Fozzer]

Glen Gould and dear-old Johann Sebastian are always my favourites when it comes to the Classics...

....especially when I play them on my Hammond B-3 draw-bar Organ.... ...!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrPrJ0ih8Kc

Paul....Bach goes to town!... ...!

[Apex]

The Goldberg Variations, in the link posted by Fozzer (thanks for that), named after a friend of Johann's, were among Gould's first major recording projects, and also his last recording project.

Notice the chair in the video. It was built by Gould's father, Glenn took it with him to every recording or concert event of his, and enabled him to sit very low (14 inches) at the piano, one of his many eccentricities. It now resides in a glass case at the National Library of Canada.

Here's Glenn playing Bach's Partita Five, recorded in 1954. Just listen to him rip through the Preambulum at an inhuman tempo. Gould had the uncanny ability to read through a piece of piano music off the piano, and then play it without the music. His piano technique, at least when playing Bach, was very harpsichord-like, fast, flawless, right to the point, and not greatly influenced by contempory (1950's-60's) conventional piano technique. He did it his way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ9EUBXckB8

[Webb]

As I recall, a fugue is five parts. This is a "little" fugue.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2p7I3zmcfc[/youtube]

[Fozzer]

Many thanks for that You Tube link, Webb....

A perfect start to my day!

The Magic of Bach!..... ...!

....(and the musicians who play it!).

He never ceases to amaze me!

Paul.... ...!

[Apex]

A fugue can be as few as 3 parts. I once attended a lecture at the Univ of Miami given by Morton Gould (no relation to Glenn). Morton asked 3 people in the audience, picked at random, to give him 3 different notes, any 3 notes, then proceeded to "cold-improvise" a fugue based on those 3 notes. Very impressive.

Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1 and Book 2: All prelude/fugue compositions, 24 sets in each book, spanning all keys, the objective being to prove that it wasn't necessary to re-tune the keyboard in order to play in all keys. The fugues are mostly 3 part, some 4 part, and each book has at least one 5 part fugue.

Bach's compositions for keyboard are for harpsichord, clavichord, and pipe organ. Bach did not specify harpsichord vs clavichord for the harpsichord/clavichord part of his repertoire, they are interchangeable and can also be played on organ, however, his pipe organ compositions, mainly because of the pedal bass involved, are best left to pipe organ.

[Jean Loup]

I am enjoying inmensely this section with such excellent musical selections

[Webb]

Thanks for the info, Apex. I never know how little I know about music.

This is the first prelude and fugue from The Well Tempered Clavier.

If you listen carefully you will hear that the prelude sounds a lot like Ave Maria.

That's not surprising since later authors (Gounod, Schubert) felt free to steal it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BeDWnmCYZc[/youtube]

[Apex]

You're most welcome, Webb.