Great Performances-Music That Inspires Me
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis-Ralph Vaughan Williams
Scored for a string orchestra. Lush, beautiful, expressive. To play this music is to experience heaven on earth.
Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48. mvt 4-Finale-Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Performed by the Teresa Carreno Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. This work is normally played by smaller string orchestras, but the passion and power of this performance (and it's a youth orchestra!!!!!) is infectious.
Symphony No. 9 (New World Symphony) mvt 4, Allegro con fuoco-Antonin Dvorak
"Con fuoco" is Italian for "with fire." This is a performance conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, one of the great modern conductors. He also personifies "con fuoco" quite well!
Interview with violinist Joshua Bell
One of the great violinists of our time. In this interview, he talks about his famous Metro station performance/"experiment" and the state of classical music, as he sees it. Inspiring to me as a violinist and a teacher.
Zigeunerweisen-Pablo de Sarasate
A gypsy-inspired work performed by the great violinist Itzhak Perlman. Simply amazing.
Symphony No. 7, Mvt. 2 Allegretto-Ludwig van Beethoven
Haunting and beautiful. Beethoven had already gone deaf when he wrote this symphony. His genius lives on in his music.
Fiddler Roy Thackerson performing "Orange Blossom Special"
When he was six, Roy Thackerson lost fingers in his left hand and sight in his left eye as a result of a dynamite cap explosion. Even with these "limitations," he has become a prolific fiddler and guitarist. Absolutely fascinating to watch.
Fiddler Casey Driessen speaking about and performing "The Heartbeat Kid"
This is Casey Driessen's TED talk about his inspiration for "The Heartbeat Kid" and how he came up with the various layers of sound. Cool technological stuff!
2CELLOS-"Thunderstruck"
2 classically trained cellists who perform various genres of music, they are best known for their covers of rock songs. Yes, strings can rock!
Mars, The Bringer of War from "The Planets"-Gustav Holst
Angry and ominous,this movement represents the Roman god of war. See if you can figure out what time signature this movement is in (hint-it's NOT 4/4).
"A Flat," Black Violin
Black Violin is an American hip hop duo from Florida made up of two classically trained string instrumentalists, Kevin Sylvester (violin) and Wilner Baptiste (viola). They became friends in high school, went to different colleges, then teamed up to form Black Violin. The fusion of classical strings with hip hop gives the group a unique style all their own.