March 2008

O Four Tuna

March 9, 2008 15:48

Sorry for consecutive blogs-just found a movie to share with y'all.

Someone took the (Latin?) lyrics of "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana and put words and pictures to them in English. It is really funny-heres a link.

http://carmina.ytmnd.com/

2 replies | Archive link

Schubert Quintet - Pros and One Con

March 9, 2008 15:44

This was a great day. My friend, who is the cellist in my string quartet, and I got together with three others to play the Schubert Cello Quintet.

We are all from the American Youth Philharmonic, and everyone, besides me, are principals of their section, so naturally they are amazing. Here they are:

Anna Wuttig-1st Violin, Concertmistress

Brian Hong-2nd Violin, WAY back of first violin.

Alex Grimes-Viola-Principal Violist.

Alex Glaubitz-2nd Cello, one of my best friends, and a fabulous cellist, one of the principals of AYP.

Stephen Serene-1st Cellist, Principal Cellist of AYP, such a mature player.

Our first read through was great. Everyone had great intonation (I don't know about me), and everyone was tuned in to each other.

It was like driving one of the BMW M series-so responsive.

Unfortunately, one of the players in my quartet is very upset with us for playing in this quintet. I think that she is feeling left out.

We are all figuring out some dates to perform the Schubert-we are going to play it on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. We are going to try to get into a masterclass with the Pacifica quartet as well.

O shoot-my quartet is in that masterclass! I hope the other members won't be mad!

Does anyone have any tips for telling the other person that you don't mean to leave her out? She has been sending me text messages and e-mails saying how mad she is at us.

3 replies | Archive link

My Journey with Mozart

March 8, 2008 21:08

Whew-my first blog. Actually, I had nothing to write about, but seeing as I am a huge fan and (hopefully) a huge member of V.com, I thought I had to write a blog.

Two days ago, my violin teacher gave me several assignments. I was to learn the Bruch Violin Concerto's second movement, perform Bach's G minor fugue in a month, take my barber concerto to a masterclass, learn Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and, to top it off, learn Mozart's Concerto No. 5. This, I was especially excited about. Ever since first hearing it several years ago on a recording with Itzhak Perlman, I fell in love with it. Since then, several more recordings have followed Perlman's into my 5 year old, 60 GB Ipod photo. These have included Kremer's, Mutter's, Bell's (I love this one), Manze's, and Biondi's.

As soon as I first looked at it today, my enthusiasm was dampened considerably. I am using the Barenreiter Urtext, because I love more period oriented performances (Check out Kavakos' vid of it on Youtube-very baroque like and stunning). I spent several hours fingering and bowing the first page. My favorites I put in dark pencil, and I put, in some cases, four or five more options in parentheses.

I glanced at the clock-12:00 PM. I had started practicing the Mozart at 10:00 AM. I couldn't believe that I had been excited to do the piece. Even the day outside reflected how I was feeling. Ironically, while I was diligently doing my scales and etudes, the day was bright and sunny. 5 minutes after starting Mozart, it got windy. One hour later, the sky darkened, and so did my mood.

Thankfully, I finished fingering and bowing it today, and finally worked on it. I will need help from my teacher, no doubt, but I will work hard on coming up with my own musical ideas.

I am also planning to write my own cadenza for the first movement-the Joachim is too romantic for my taste, and the Franko is crap. I will keep you posted on this.

Sorry if my first blog was really long, spelled out, and boring. I will hopefully be able to put pictures of my progress on the cadenza (if I work on it), and so forth.

Please comment on what I can do to make my blogs more interesting!

Brian

8 replies | Archive link

More entries: April 2008 •