Sibelius - Violin Concerto / De Falla - Nights In The Gardens Of Spain

Starring: Maxim Vengerov, Placido Domingo Dvd Release: 31st July, 2000 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Full Screen, PAL, Region 0 Encoding

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Sibelius is a scorewriter program. Named after the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, it was created by a specialist company Sibelius Software Ltd which was founded by British twins Ben & Jonathan Finn & first launched on the Acorn Archimedes computer in 1993. Since then, it has grown to become the worlds most widely-used scorewriting package, currently in version 3. The launch of Sibelius significantly heated up the home & professional scorewriter market, previously dominated by Finale. Sibelius has also made inroads into the online music publishing market with its free score reader & web browser plugin, Scorch, allowing publishers & individual users of Sibelius to securely publish their music on the internet. Printed music can be scanned into Sibelius using a separate program called PhotoScore & music can be played back at high quality & burned to CD using the optional program Kontakt Player Gold. Popular belief has it that the name Sibelius was a pun on the inventors surname of Finn. However, the inventors maintain that while this may have been the reason, they cant really remember.

Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish composer of classical music. He was born in Cádiz. From the late 1890s he studied music in Madrid, studying piano with Jose Tragó & composition with Felipe Pedrell. It was from Pedrell that de Falla became interested in native Spanish music, particularly Andalusian flamenco, the influence of which can be strongly felt in many of his works. Among his early pieces are a number of zarzuelas, but his first important work was the one-act opera La vida breve. He spent the years 1907 to 1914 in Paris, where he met a number of composers who had an influence on his style, including the impressionists Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy & Paul Dukas. He wrote little more music, however, until his return to Madrid at the beginning of World War I There he composed several of his best known pieces, including the suite for piano & orchestra Noches en los jardines de España & the ballets El amor brujo & El corregidor y la molinera which, after revision, became El sombrero de tres picos.

Sibeliuss solitary concerto is one of the most passionate tests for the violin virtuoso, one to which Maxim Vengerov is more than equal; he captures the works passion & its occasional quirky patches of the spookily sublime. His performances of the Sarabande from the Bach Second Partita, & the Ballade from Ysayes Third Sonata, are admirable encores demonstrating his range & his elegant control.

Barenboims performance of the de Falla Nights is equally virtuoso, bringing out the works structure as well as its local colour; Domingos conducting is solid & serviceable. Barenboim ends the concert with three de Falla orchestral showstoppers, the Farruca from The Three-Cornered Hat & the Magic Circle & Ritual Fire Dance from Love the Magician; the Chicago Symphony perform throughout with their usual vigour & fine orchestral colour, but are particularly remarkable in these three encores.

On the DVD: The DVD comes with the usual subtitles in standard European languages.

Maxim Vengerov is a violinist. Born in the Western Siberian capital, Novosibirsk, Vengerov was five when he received his first violin lessons from Galina Turtschaninova. He later studied with the legendary violin teacher Zakhar Bron & was still only ten when he won the Junior Wieniawski Competition in Poland. Recital engagements in Moscow & Leningrad followed & he was soon appearing as concert soloist with such well-known orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic & the USSR State Symphony Orchestra. In 1995 his recording of the Prokoviev & Shostakovich violin concertos won Gramophone awards in the Best Record of the year & the Best Concerto Recording categories, later also garnering two Grammy nominations. His 1997 recording The Road I Travel chronicles some of his best work to date, with one new track, Meditation from Thais. his rousing performance at the Hollywood Bowl in July was followed by another virtuoso performance in September, when Vengerov took the stage at the season opening of the New York Philharmonic with Maestro Kurt Masur.

Editors Choice: Berlin Philharmonic, View DVDology

Plácido Domingo is a famous Spanish opera singer, well-known for a voice that is versatile, strong & possessed of a ringing & clear tone throughout its range. Plácido Domingo was born in Madrid, Spain & moved to Mexico at age 8 with his family, who ran a zarzuela company. In Mexico City he studied music at the National Conservatory. He provided backup vocals for Los Black Jeans in 1958, a rock-and-roll band lead by César Costa. He learned piano & conducting, but made his stage debut as a tenor in Monterrey, Mexico, first in the small role of Borsa in Rigoletto in 1959 & then as Alfredo in La Traviata in 1961. In 1962 he joined the Israeli National Opera & first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on September 28, 1968, in an Adriana Lecouvreur with Renata Tebaldi. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1967, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1968, at both La Scala & San Francisco Opera in 1969 & at Covent Garden in 1971 & has now sung at practically every other important opera house & festival worldwide. Posters Of La Traviata

Editors Choice: La Traviata, La Scala, The Three Tenors In Paris, Verdi, Otello, Royal Opera House, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, View DVDology

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