Sweet dreams!

I don't know how or why, but during an evening with friends this trio popped up in my Spottify and charmed everyone. A sweet, romantic lullaby for you!

Story of an old Cossack

Taras Bulba and his two sons, Andrei and Ostap, join the Tsar troups in Ukraine and go to war against Poland. This symphony is the unfortunate tale of three deaths - Andrei in the 1st Movement, Ostap in the 2nd and Taras Bulba in the third - immersed in and surrounded by high ideals of love for the homeland, of orthodox faith and of family ties.

Taras Bulba (Janàček), RSO and Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Home sweet home :-)

Today I heard the RSO play, and as much as I enjoyed it, they woke a dormant nostalgia for my friends in Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Just as well, when he wrote this Cello Concerto, Antonin Dvorak had been living in the U.S. for quite a while, and put his attachment to the "old continent" into music. The melodies you hear, in fact, are from popular slavic, mediterranean, russian music...but (fun fact :-) also from gospel and cotton-fields songs. Enjoy!

http://pappanoinweb.telecomitalia.com/racconti/23gennaio

Sorry, no words :-S

I might have said this already, but this is one of my favorite pieces :-) I tried to think of a few introductory lines for you, but no, sorry: this time I am just full of Music and empty of words. I don't know if a recording drags your heart beat along with its rhythms as much as a live performance, or if the fourth movement makes you just wanna jump restlessly like as if you had to get rid of the devil that took you over...but while we wait for this quartet to be scheduled in some concert-hall nearby, let's give it a try here ;-) Just make sure you don't miss the last movement, ok?

II. Intermezzo. Allegro ma non troppo. Trio. Animato. (= Intermission. Cheerful but not too much. Trio. Lively)

III. Andante con moto (="On the go with motion")

IV. Rondò alla zingarese. Presto (="Roundabout at the Gipsy way. Quickly")

"E lucevan le stelle" (=And the stars were shining)

Try to imagine the following scene: Mario Cavaradossi is a painter, and he's in love with Tosca, the protagonist of the namesake opera. Our painter is imprisoned at the heart of starry Rome, waiting for his execution to be performed. He is so full of love that his last words reflect no other regret than spoiling the chance to stay with Tosca. He concludes: "I die despairing! And never was life so dear to me, no never!". Apart from the expressiveness and melodramatic content, I just would like you to notice the conductor and to recall our embarrassing adventure within the walls of Musiikkitalo today :-P

This one you'll have fun conducting :-)

It took Beethoven the longest period in his career to ultimate the 5th Symphony. It was a turbulent time, innerly and historically (still Napoleonic wars, couple years before the Egmont). "Here is the destiny, knocking at the door", he said to interpret the first four lapidary notes. And it is a destiny that, within this very piece, he fights and wins in the name of the human reason.

II. Andante con moto (1st part)

II. Andante con moto (2nd part)

III. Allegro (1st part)

III. Allegro (2nd part) and IV. Allegro (1st part)

IV. Allegro (2nd part)

Hero against oppression

"Egmont" is a sequence of pieces written by Beethoven during Napoleonic Wars - this is the Overture (="Opening"). Napoleon had just crowned himself Emperor, and this was such an outrage to the eyes of Beethoven, that he put his disappointment into music: Count of Egmont's story exalts a nobleman who sacrificed himself by taking a valiant stand against oppression. Fun fact of this overture, it became an unofficial anthem for the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.