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Islamey
''Islamey: Oriental Fantasy'' (russian: Исламей: Восточная фантазия), is a composition for piano by Russian composer Mily Balakirev written in 1869. Harold C. Schonberg noted that ''Islamey'' was "at one time…considered the most difficult of all piano pieces and is still one of the knucklebusters." Its difficulty has led to the creation of numerous ossias (alternative passages) and made it popular as a virtuosic showpiece. Composition Balakirev, a committed nationalist whose music was influenced by Russian traditions, was inspired to write the piece after a trip to the Caucasus, as he relates in a letter: ...the majestic beauty of luxuriant nature there and the beauty of the inhabitants that harmonises with it – all these things together made a deep impression on me... Since I interested myself in the vocal music there, I made the acquaintance of a Circassian prince, who frequently came to me and played folk tunes on his instrument, that was something l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mily Balakirev
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (russian: Милий Алексеевич Балакирев,BGN/PCGN transliteration of Russian: Miliy Alekseyevich Balakirev; ALA-LC system: ''Miliĭ Alekseevich Balakirev''; ISO 9 system: ''Milij Alekseevič Balakirev''. ; – )Russia was still using old style dates in the 19th century, and information sources used in the article sometimes report dates as old style rather than new style. Dates in the article are taken verbatim from the source and therefore are in the same style as the source from which they come. was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor known today primarily for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers, notably Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He began his career as a pivotal figure, extending the fusion of traditional folk music and experimental classical music practices begun by composer Mikhail Glinka. In the process, Balakirev developed musical patterns that could express ove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolai Rubinstein
Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein (russian: Николай Григорьевич Рубинштейн; – ) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer. He was the younger brother of Anton Rubinstein and a close friend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Life Born to Jewish parents in Moscow, where his father had just opened a small factory, Rubinstein showed talent at the keyboard early on. He studied piano first with his mother, and while the family was in Berlin between 1844 and 1846, he studied piano with Theodor Kullak and harmony and counterpoint with Siegfried Dehn; during this time both he and his brother Anton attracted the interest and support of Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer. When the family returned to Moscow, Nikolai studied with Alexander Villoing, who also toured with him. He studied medicine to avoid army conscription, graduating from Moscow University in 1855. As a result of his playing, Rubinstein was welcomed in all the fashionable artistocratic houses in Mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Réminiscences De Don Juan
''Réminiscences de Don Juan'' (S. 418) is an opera fantasy for piano by Franz Liszt on themes from Mozart's 1787 opera '' Don Giovanni''. It is extremely technically demanding and considered to be among the most taxing of Liszt's works and in the entire repertoire. For this reason, and perhaps also because of its length and dramatic intensity, it does not appear in concert programmes as often as Liszt's lighter and more popular pieces, such as the ''Rigoletto Paraphrase''. As Ferruccio Busoni says in the preface to his 1918 edition of the work, the ''Réminiscences'' carries "an almost symbolic significance as the highest point of pianism." Liszt wrote the work in 1841 and published a two-piano version (S. 656) in 1877. The two-piano version bears a structurally strong resemblance to the original. The piece begins with music sung by the Commendatore, both from the graveyard scene where he threatens Don Giovanni ("''Di rider finirai pria dell'aurora! Ribaldo audace! Lascia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ossia
() is a musical term for an alternative passage which may be played instead of the original passage. The word ''ossia'' comes from the Italian for "alternatively" and was originally spelled ''o sia'', meaning "or be it". ''Ossia'' passages are very common in opera and solo-piano works. They are usually an easier version of the preferred form of passage, but in Mily Balakirev's ''Islamey'', for instance, the urtext has ossia passages of both types (simpler and more difficult). Bel canto vocal music also frequently uses ''ossia'', also called ''oppure'', passages to illustrate a more embellished version of the vocal line. On the other hand, an ''ossia'' marking does not always indicate a change in difficulty; the piano solo music of Franz Liszt is typically full of alternative passages, often no easier or more difficult than the rest of the piece. This reflects Liszt's desire to leave his options open during a performance. Many of his ''ossia'' passages are cadenzas. An unusual u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaspard De La Nuit
''Gaspard de la nuit'' (subtitled ''Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand''), M. 55 is a suite of piano pieces by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. It has three movements, each based on a poem or ''fantaisie'' from the collection '' Gaspard de la Nuit – Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot'' completed in 1836 by Aloysius Bertrand. The work was premiered in Paris, on January 9, 1909, by Ricardo Viñes. The piece is famous for its difficulty, partly because Ravel intended the Scarbo movement to be more difficult than Balakirev's ''Islamey''. Because of its technical challenges and profound musical structure, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire. The manuscript currently resides in the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Etymology The name " Gaspard" is derived from its original Persian form, denoting "the man in charge of the royal treasures": "Gaspard of the Night" or th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed in a relatively tonal, late Romantic idiom. Later, and independently of his influential contemporary, Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a much more dissonant musical language that had transcended usual tonality but was not atonal, which accorded with his personal brand of metaphysics. Scriabin found significant appeal in the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk as well as synesthesia, and associated colours with the various harmonic tones of his scale, while his colour-coded circle of fifths was also inspired by theosophy. He is often considered the main Russian Symbolist composer and a major representative of the Russian Silver Age. Scriabin was an innovator as well as one of the most controversial composer-pianists of the early 20th century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lang Lang
Lang Lang (; born 14 June 1982) is a Chinese pianist who has performed with leading orchestras in China, North America, Europe, and elsewhere. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and some top American orchestras. A ''Chicago Tribune'' music critic called him "the biggest, most exciting young keyboard talent I have encountered in many a year of attending piano recitals". Lang is considered by many as one of the most accomplished classical musicians of modern time. Early life Lang Lang was born in Shenyang, Liaoning, in 1982 to a family of the Manchu Niohuru clan. His father Lang Guoren is a musician, playing the erhu. The ''Tom and Jerry'' episode ''The Cat Concerto'', which features Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2., motivated two-year-old Lang to learn the piano. He started lessons with Zhu Ya-Fen at age three, and won first place at the Shenyang Piano Competition and performed his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Berezovsky (pianist)
Boris Vadimovich Berezovsky (russian: Борис Вадимович Березовский; born 4 January 1969) is a Russian pianist. Biography Berezovsky's original name was Elyashberg, Boris Vadimovich. His parents changed the last name to Berezovsky when he was seven years old. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Eliso Virsaladze and privately with Alexander Satz. Following his London début at the Wigmore Hall in 1988, ''The Times'' described him as "an artist of exceptional promise, a player of dazzling virtuosity and formidable power." In 1990, he won First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. In May 2005, he had his first solo recitalJean-Pierre Thiollet, ''88 notes pour piano solo'', "Solo nec plus ultra", Neva Editions, 2015, p.51. . in Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and played in the same venue in January 2006 with the Orchestre National de France. In January 2007, he played seven recitals "Carte Blanche" in the Louvre. In May 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Pletnev
Mikhail Vasilievich Pletnev (russian: Михаи́л Васи́льевич Плетнёв, ''Mikha'il Vas'ilevič Plet'nëv''; born 14 April 1957) is a Russian pianist, conductor and composer. Life and career Pletnev was born into a musical family in Arkhangelsk, then part of the Soviet Union. His father played and taught the bayan, and his mother was a pianist. He studied with Kira Shashkina for six years at the Special Music School of the Kazan Conservatory, before entering the Moscow Central Music School at the age of 13, where he studied under Evgeny Timakin. In 1974, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, studying under Yakov Flier and Lev Vlassenko. At age 21, he won the Gold Medal at the VI International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978, which earned him international recognition and drew great attention worldwide. The following year he made his debut in the United States. He also taught at the Moscow Conservatory. Pletnev has acknowledged Sergei Rachmaninoff as a parti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivo Pogorelić
Ivo Pogorelić (also Ivo Pogorelich; born 20 October 1958) is a Yugoslav-born Croatian pianist. He is known for his sometimes unorthodox interpretations, which have brought him a sizable following and both praise and criticism from musical experts. A musician of wide repertoire, his recordings include works by a variety of composers from the early 18th through 20th centuries. Early life Pogorelić was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to a Croatian father and a Serbian mother. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Pogorelić became a Croatian citizen. He received his first piano lessons when he was seven and attended the Vojislav Vučković Music School in Belgrade until he was 12, when he was invited to Moscow to continue his studies at the Central Music School with Evgeny Timakin. He later graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Vera Gornostayeva and Yevgeny Malinin. In 1976 he began working intensively with the Georgian pianist and teacher Alisa Kezhe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The word "piano" is a shortened form of ''pianoforte'', the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from ''clavicembalo col piano e forte'' (key cimbalom with quiet and loud)Pollens (1995, 238) and ''fortepiano''. The Italian musical terms ''piano'' and ''forte'' indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuan Hern Lee
Shuan Hern Lee (simplified Chinese: 李宣恒; traditional Chinese: 李宣恆; pinyin: Lǐ Xuānhéng); born 19 July 2002) is a Chinese-Australian classical pianist. Early life Shuan Hern Lee was born in Perth, Western Australia to parents Yoon Sen Lee and Ivy Chan. Both his parents are also pianists, his father (Yoon Sen Lee) from Singapore and mother (Ivy Chan) from China. Shuan started his musical journey when he was just 2 and a half years old. He was quick to pick up playing piano, and was one of the semi-finalists of Australia's Got Talent in 2010, at the age of 7, and Voice Kids Australia in 2014, where he sang Pie Jesu. When he was 9, he had obtained his Associate Diploma of the Trinity College of London ( ATCL) in piano performance then went on to obtain his Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and the Licentiate in Music, Australia ( LMusA), both with Distinction in piano performance, at the age of 10. When he was 14, he obtained the Fellowship in Musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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