SUNDAY MORNING CLASSICS AT TBP – The Burning Platform

A collaboration of: “The Classic Music Mafia”
Anthony Aaron and Steve C.

Steve C / Classical Music Mafia: Here is the image of “The Classic Music Gangsters”, a whimsical and imaginative group of classical musicians with a playful gangster twist. The scene is set in an old-fashioned music hall with a rich, vintage decor, where the musicians perform in stylish gangster attire from the 1920s. The atmosphere is mysterious yet sophisticated, capturing the unique blend of classical music and a light-hearted gangster theme. – aka.attrition

Every Sunday morning we present a selection for our TBP family to enjoy.

We present symphonies, ensembles, quartets, octets, etc.

Not all of our music is strictly ‘classical’. We may be straying a bit, but we strive to make all of our selections ‘classy’.

We will give tips on proper ‘symphony etiquette’ and even some selections that are a bit light and fun, aimed at a younger audience. These pieces will be pointed out as such, and can be a great way to introduce children to a world of music that they may not have been exposed to or may consider old and ‘stuffy’.

A full symphony is as long as it lasts. We don’t want to keep a symphony short. However, we do have a number of shorter pieces that we try to keep under fifteen minutes. You can listen to each piece and hopefully you will find one or more that you like.

We hope you enjoy our Sunday selections.

Steve C.

Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite no.1 and no.2 – Bjarte Engeset (op. 46, op. 55, op. 23)

Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg

Conductor: Bjarte Engeset

Concertmaster: Adrian G. Selfjord

Peer Gynt:

Suite No. 1 Op. 46

Suite No. 2 Op. 55

Fragments from the incidental music opus 23

00:00 I. Prelude: At the Wedding (I brudlaupsgarden) op. 23
05:30 II. The Abduction of the Bride. Ingrid’s Lament (Bruderovet / Ingrids klage) op. 55
10:24 III. Dance of the Mountain King’s Daughter (Dans av Dovregubbens datter) op. 23
12:21 IV. In the Hall of the Mountain King (I Dovregubbens Hall) op. 46
15:28 V. The Death of Åse (Åses død) op. 46
20:14 VI. Morning Mood (Morning Mood) op. 46
24:39 VII. Arabian Dance (Arabian Dance) op. 55
29:42 VIII. Anitra’s Dance (Anitra’s Dance) op. 46
33:31 IX. Peer Gynt’s Homecoming (Peer Gynt’s hjemphart) op. 55
36:30 X. Shipwreck (Skipsforliset) op. 23
38:19 XI. Solveigs lied (Solveigs sang) op. 55

The following piece was created thanks to Anonymous.

Schubert Symphony No. 8 B minor Unfinished Trevor Pinnock Chamber Orchestra of Europe

A bit of classic submission.

This one was made possible thanks to Ursel Doran.

HAUSER and Aida Garifullina – Habanera (Carmen) LIVE at the Royal Albert Hall

Carmen Habanera = BEAUTIFUL performance by Hauser and Aida Garifullina

Anthony Aaron

Bruckner Symphony No. 6 in A major

Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The former are considered emblematic of the final phase of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strong polyphonic character, and considerable length. Bruckner’s compositions helped define contemporary musical radicalism, with their dissonances, extemporaneous modulations, and wandering harmonies.

From an interview with conductor Simone Young…

The first Bruckner symphony I ever conducted was the Sixth with the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz. I was fascinated by it even then and it is still my favorite. It is full of surprises and very dark. I also have a thing for sixth symphonies – whether they are those of Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Martinů or Schubert!

I’m drawn to No. 6 because, like No. 7, it’s so nakedly emotional. It’s as if Bruckner is living out in the music everything he didn’t live out in his life. I find that very attractive, although there’s a certain sadness in it. There’s that great German word Wehmut, which defines a kind of melancholy, but then again it doesn’t; it’s more like nostalgia, with a smile and a tear at the same time, and I think that’s what colours the Sixth Symphony all the time.

The slow movement is one of his masterpieces; it has brilliance, depth, passion, tragedy – it’s all there!

Typical of Bruckner are the silent pauses that occur in this work. If you compare the first version of the last movement of his Second Symphony with the revision, you will see that the first version sometimes actually has four-bar rests that are spelled out, while the same passage in the revised version is notated as a one-bar rest with a fermata over it. It is clear that the pauses in Bruckner’s mind when he conceived them had a metrical function that was just as important as the melodic lines and harmonic structures. This brings us back to his organ playing, where rests would have framed the sound because of the long decay time of the instrument. It is a serious mistake that both opera and symphonic conductors make when they fail to appreciate the substance that is in a silence. Silence is not a vacuum, it is not the absence of sound – it is a suspension of sound, which is something quite different. These fermatas are not dots, they are more like ellipses.

When you start with Bruckner, you quickly get caught up in the details. The big picture is what carries these symphonies – they’re painted on a grand scale. I keep coming back to his organ playing and I remember hearing the organ played for the first time at St. Florian’s Monastery, where he was the organist – it was the sound world he knew when he was starting out as a composer. It’s interesting that most conductors who feel at home with Bruckner tend to come from a keyboard background. When I asked Daniel Barenboim why that is, he said it’s because as keyboard players or organists we’re used to carrying a vertical weight through a horizontal line. That’s a beautiful summary of how you should structure a Bruckner symphony.

Munich Philharmonic conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

Recorded at the Philharmonie am Gasteig, Munich

November 26 – 30, 1991

1. Maestoso
2. Adagio. Very dear
3. Scherzo. Niece Schnell-Trio. Langsam
4. Finale. Moving, but not so fast

5 minutes later… Debussy – Clair de Lune | Daniël Barenboim

What makes Debussy’s Clair de Lune SO GENIUS?

“Clair de Lune”, Claude Debussy

Pascal Rogé, a master of the French piano repertoire, performs Debussy’s immortal “Clair de Lune” at Steinway Hall in New York City. The celebrated movement from Debussy’s “Suite Bergamasque” was originally called “Promenade sentimental”; Debussy’s suite was inspired by the poetry of Paul Verlaine.

Keith Jarrett & Chick Corea – Play MORZART #12

The Piano Concerto No. 10 in E flat major for two pianos KV365 (361a)

Konzert in E flat for zwie Klaviere KV365 (361a)

3, Rondo Allegro 2/4 – encore

Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea

Play MORZART with The New Japan Philharmonic

Tokyo Music Joy at Yu-Port Kani Hoken Hall in Shinagawa-Ku Tokyo

February 1, 1985

The New Japan Philharmonic

Conductor: Yoshikazu Tanaka

Steve C.

Bizet – Carmensuite no. 1 | Sylwia Janiak-Kobylińska – conductor, aMuz Symphony Orchestra

Sylwia Janiak-Kobylińska – conductor

aMuz Symphony Orchestra of the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, Poland

0:00 Prediction
1:13 Aragonese
3:44 Snack
6:18 Follow
8:09 The Dragons of Alcala
9:52 The Lovebirds

Recorded at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music Concert Hall in Gdansk, January 18, 2024

Georges Bizet, Carmen Suite No. 2, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

1. Marche des contrebandiers 00:32
2. Havanese 04:44
3. Song of Toreador 07:00
4. The Mountain Ranger 09:42
5. Dance Bohemian 12:18

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hall Birmingham, October 2019

Conductor, Anja Bihlmaier

Bizet – L’Arlésienne Suite No. 1 & Suite No. 2 / Nathalie Stutzmann

Georges Bizet: L’Arlésienne Suite No. 1 & Suite No. 2 / Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor

Recorded at Stockholm Concert Hall, October 2014.

0:00 Suite No. 1 • I. Prelude
6:52 •II. Minuet
9:50 •III. Adagietto
13:30 •IV. Carillon
5:20 PM Suite No. 2 •I. Pastoral
23:15 •II. Intermezzo
28:30 •III. Minuet
33:00 •IV. Farandole