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.

Anthony Aaron

Keith Jarrett Sun Bear Concerts — Kyoto

This is another one where we can’t load it directly. You will have to copy and paste the URL to see/hear it. – Steve C.

As you may have noticed over the months I’ve been here, I have some very favorite artists… and Keith Jarrett is probably at the top of that list.

His ‘Sun Bear Concerts’ was a series of 5 concerts in Japan in 1976 and was released in 1978 on the ECM label.

From the ECM website: Sun Bear Concerts – documenting five complete solo performances by Keith Jarrett in Japan – stands as a landmark in the history of jazz recording. As Down Beat wrote on the occasion of its original release, Jarrett’s improvisations “are the inventions of a giant, overwhelmingly intimate in the way they can draw in and hold a listener. Jarrett has once again entered the cavern of his creative consciousness and unearthed music of surprising power, majesty and warmth.” Rich in incident and detail, the music … revealed Jarrett as a player of boundless creativity, unique in his ability to find new forms in the moment, night after night. “These marathons revealed Jarrett to be one of the greatest improvisers in jazz,” wrote Ian Carr in his biography of the pianist, “with a seemingly endless supply of rhythmic and melodic ideas, one of the most brilliant pianistic techniques of all, and a capacity for projecting complex and profound feelings.”

1. Kyoto, November 5, 1976, Part 1 – 0:00
2. Kyoto, November 5, 1976, Part 2 – 43:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN69ybdNGDQ

The next two come to us courtesy of Ursel Doran.

John Henry – Bruce Springsteen (live at LSO St. Luke’s, London 2006)

Toby Keith – Don’t Let the Old Man In

This is a must-have for all other geriatric patients!

Anthony Aaron

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3

Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943) wrote his third piano concerto in 1909 at the Ivanovka estate, 550 kilometres southeast of Moscow. Rachmaninoff spent the summer months here from 1890 until his emigration to the United States in 1917. The three movements of the piece are reminiscent of the structure of typical Romantic solo concertos. Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 was premiered in New York on 28 November 1909 by the New York Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Walter Damrosch. Rachmaninoff, who had practiced the concerto on a silent piano during his Atlantic voyage, played the solo piece himself.

Born in 1987 in Tbilisi, Georgia, pianist Khatia Buniatishvili was considered a child prodigy. She began playing the piano at the age of three and gave her first concert with the Tbilisi Concert Orchestra at the age of six. International performances followed at the age of ten. In 2008, she made her American debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. Since then, Buniatishvili has been invited to many high-profile festivals and has performed in the world’s most renowned concert halls, including Vienna’s Musikverein, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Berliner Philharmoniker. She has twice won the highly respected Echo Classic Award.

Khatia Buniatishvili, Neeme Järvi and the Verbier Festival Orchestra perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 at the 2011 Verbier Festival.

Musical toys (no. 1, 6, 11 and 14)

Sofia Gubaidulina, born in 1931 in what was then the USSR, now the Republic of Tartarstan, is one of the world’s foremost composers, with a catalogue of compositions running to pages and a list of awards and honors to match. She was interested in music and spirituality from an early age, and had to hide the latter from the world around her until she was in a safer political climate. Her gift to children is these 14 pieces, of which we hear only 4, which are so imaginative and evocative, expressing the joy and curiosity of childhood in her own unique voice.

Musical toys, a collection of piano pieces for children

1. Mechanical accordion
6. Song of the Fisherman
11. Sleigh with small bells
14. Forest Musicians

Steve C.

Schubert: ‘Lebensstürme’ – Lucas & Arthur Jussen

Lucas and Arthur Jussen play Schubert’s ‘Lebensstürme’ Allegro in A Minor, D 947.

Live recording – December 4, 2023, Concertgebouw Amsterdam

Mozart: Concerto for Two Pianos KV 365 | Lucas and Arthur Jussen | WDR Orchestra | Christian Măcelaru

Lucas and Arthur Jussen perform Mozart’s famous Concerto for Two Pianos KV 365 with the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christian Măcelaru.

Recording date: November 5, 2021 in Kölner Philharmonie

Mendelssohn: Andante & Allegro Brilliante – Lucas & Arthur Jussen

Lucas and Arthur Jussen play Mendelssohn’s ‘Andante & Allegro Brilliante opus. 92’ during a mini concert they gave in De Doelen in Rotterdam.

Fauré: Dolly Suite for piano four hands – Lucas & Arthur Jussen

Lucas and Arthur Jussen play a selection from the ‘Dolly Suite’ by Gabriel Fauré.

1. Berceuse
2. Mi-a-ou
3. Dolly’s Garden
4. Not Spanish

Recorded on July 22, 2016 in Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

The Classic Music Mafia – Adding some class to this tent every Sunday.

May heaven help us…