A very small story

August 26, 2009 at 10:56 PM

I must be blog-ignorant because I had bigger plans for how post would work, and I was totally caught off guard when this entry showed up in the "top blogs" part today. I had links to other videos but I couldn't figure it out, but there was a story to the videos I was going to post. Here it is:

I found a video of Renaud Capucon playing the Gluck Melodie and posted a link to it as my facebook status yesterday. I was caught off guard when I got a comment from my friend saying how great the piece was. Somewhat dumbstruck, I replied somewhere along the lines of : "you really watched it?" Her response was that even though she knew nothing of "violin...istry", she just stopped everything she was doing and just listened. I thanked her for the simple act of listening and I said it was OK that she didn't know classical music- that many others would say it was dumb or nerdy.

Here's what she said next: "Why would someone cast it as dumb or boring? The piece is simply inspiring and I wouldn't understand how anyone could watch it and cast it as stupid. Only those with unintelligent minds."

How awesome is that? As classical musicians, we have to deal with people's perception of our art- that it is boring, for geeks and nerds (though we all may be :) or for the over 55 crowd. But, we ourselves must also struggle with the idea that those who don't listen to it aren't willing to give it a try.

Korngold Violin Concerto, French Radio Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Renaud Capucon

From Tom Holzman
Posted on August 27, 2009 at 2:34 PM

Thanks.

From Giancarlo L
Posted on August 27, 2009 at 2:57 PM

love this performance.

From Giancarlo L
Posted on August 27, 2009 at 2:58 PM

very odd, though, that he did not play a solo work as an encore, rather a work for violin and piano minus the piano part!

From Michael Avagliano
Posted on August 27, 2009 at 8:28 PM

Capucon plays wonderfully! I also appreciated getting to watch Dudamel with Mahler. As a young conductor, he amazes me with the expression of his gesture.

From Michael Divino
Posted on August 27, 2009 at 8:32 PM

Here is the other video:

Franck Sonata in A major, Capucon and Thibaudet

The sonata is actually after Kim Kashkashian playing Kurtag. That's worth watching too.!

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