Tuesday, December 19th
One-word review: Wow!
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), Lachrymae (1950); Yuri Bashmet (viola), Sviatoslav Richter (piano), live
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Tag: Yuri Bashmet
2016
Saturday, April 9th
So bleak, so beautiful—like life.
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), Viola Concerto (1985), live, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Valery Gergiev, cond.), Yuri Bashmet (viola)
#1
***
#2
***
#3
*****
lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), Palisades, N.J., 1958
2015
Monday, December 7th
The more kinds of music you love, the more chances you have to make wonderful discoveries, as happened yesterday when I heard this for the first time (Oberon Ensemble, Art Institute of Chicago).
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor; Martha Argerich (piano); Gidon Kremer (violin), Yuri Bashmet (viola), Mischa Maisky (cello), 2001
#1
#2
#3
#4
**********
lagniappe
reading table
You don’t hear the sound; you go into the sound—you and the sound become one.
—Seung Sahn, Only Don’t Know
2013
Thursday, February 7th
1 + 1 = infinity
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), Sonata for Viola (1975); Yuri Bashmet (viola), Ksenia Bashmet (Yuri’s daughter, piano)
This is the last thing Shostakovich composed before he died.
**********
lagniappe
Here’s another take on the last movement, with a younger Yuri Bashmet and Sviatoslav Richter.
#1
#2
2012
Tuesday, 11/27/12
Some instruments seem made for certain seasons. Take the viola: it seems most at home when days are getting shorter, shadows longer, nights colder.
Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-), Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1996)
Yuri Bashmet (viola), WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (Semyon Bychkov, cond.)
#1
#2
#3
#4
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
I am a religious Russian Orthodox person and I understand religion in the literal meaning of the word, as re-ligio, that is to say the restoration of connections, the restoration of the legato of life. There is no more serious task for music than this.
music clip of the day 