Sarah's Key

This is one of those books that kept showing up on lists all over the internet, receiving many rave reviews, and I just picked it up from our school library one day, not knowing anything about it at all.  Even when I started reading it, I still didn't know what it was about in the least except that it had some foundation in World War II and involved a character who was a child. 

This is one of those stories that involves characters in two different periods of time.  One is Sarah, a girl in France at during WWII, and Julia, an American married to a Frenchman and living in France, working for a magazine.  She gets assigned an article for a 60 anniversary of some event she has never heard of.  In her research, she discovers Sarah's story, which leads her to question several aspects of her own life and redirects her life efforts in a different direction. 

This story starts with tragedy, but knowing that it is WWII, the reader should expect that.  I know there are reviews out there that explain, even the back of the book does a bit, but not knowing and just reading I think creates the more authentic reading experience.  It is an incredibly beautiful story, written well.  I did wish that one of the two storylines could have carried through more, but I understand why it didn't.  I love Sarah and come to love Julia and found myself wishing the book was longer just so I could spend more time with them.  This is an incredibly beautiful book that if you haven't read, it must be moved to the top of your reading list, now. 

Halo

I saw this book on my Amazon recommended list and I completely admit that I developed a fascination and interest in the book purely because of the cover.  Yes, I completely judged this book by it's cover and knew that I had to at least give it a chance based solely on that.  I tell you, whoever did the artwork on this book, I sure hope they are getting a pretty penny.  I did have some hesitation when I looked up the author though.  You see, she is 18, and while there are others who have had success in their teens, there is something a little frustrating about teen writing.  But then I looked at the cover again and knew that she deserved a chance. 

This is a story about Bethany, an angel who came to earth with two other angels to help a small community fight against the evil, dark forces that are trying to gain power.  She has never been to earth before, unlike the other two angels, and the Adornetto does a good job catching her experiences, both with a new body and dealing with significant innocence that makes it obvious she is not like normal teenagers.  She quickly becomes involved with a boy, which she is NOT supposed to do, and the forces that seemed to be distant to the quaint town she is in permeate faster than expected.  Bethany is conflicted between her responsibilities and her new feelings.

Adornetto is a pretty good writer, I have to give her credit.  Granted, there were times when I knew the author was very young, but at the same time, she does a great job really capturing the emotions of a teenager without being overly dramatic in an effort to create tension, or too vague due to time removed from such experiences.  This book is total brain candy - not a hard read at all, but an enjoyable story.  I have the interest in following the rest of the series, not merely because of a curiosity concerning the storyline, but also to witness the development of Adornetto as an author.  Enjoyable, memorable and fun.

Last of the Classical Music

This about rounds it out.  I have thought about doing the same thing with soundtracks at some point in time - we'll see.  Hope your holidays are fantastic, that you aren't stressed and that your spouses and children and roommates are keeping the teasing/tormenting to a minimum.  In the meantime, if you are going with a must listen to from this list, consider the Anvil Chorus, The Ashokan Farewell and A Lark Ascending. Incidentally, they are all pretty relaxing.  Go on, you deserve it.

 

Tarrega  - Recuerdos de la Alhambra

 

Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto #3, The Nutcracker Suite, 1812 Overture, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Marche Slave

Ungar – The Ashokan Farewell

Verdi – La Traviata, Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (Nabucco), Anvil Chorus (Il Trovatore),  Dies Irae (Messa Da Requiem), La donna è mobile (Rigoletto), Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera

 

Vivaldi – Four Seasons, Guitar Concerto 

Wagner - Overture (Tannhauser), Ride of the Valkyries, Overture (The Flying Dutchman) 

Webber – Invocation 

Williams, John – Call of the Champions

Williams, Ralph Vaughn -  A Lark Ascending, 5 Variants of 'Dives & Lazarus', Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis, Fantasia on Greensleeves

Rachmaninoff to the Strausseseses (yup, there's two)

Rachmaninoff  and Saint-Saens round out my top five composers (Liszt, Chopin, Beethoven are the others).  There is so much emotion in Rachmaninoff's compositions - beautiful and powerful.  Saint-Saens would maybe restore my faith in French composers, but the rest don't sound like him, which is probably why I like him.  You must experience his 3rd symphony where you have good stereo and surround sound.  

Rachmaninoff– 2^nd and 3^rd Piano Concertos, Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Prelude in  C# minor, G minor and B flat minor, Elegie, Op. 3, No. 1 (piano, not vocal), Symphony No. 2

Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade (there is a really cool interactive site teaching all the different parts of the story here), Flight of the Bumblebee

Rossini – William Tell Overture

Saint-Saens – 3^rd Symphony, 2^nd Piano Concerto, African Fantasy, The Carnival of the Animals (especially The Swan), Piano Sonata in B, Dance Macabre, Bacchanale

Schubert – Symphony No. 9

Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor,

Shostakovich – 2^nd Piano Concerto,

Sibelius – Finlandia, Romance Op. 24 No. 9

 

Smetana - Overture  and Dance of the Comedians (The Bartered Bride)

Stravinsky – The Firebird Suite, Rite of Spring

 

Strauss, Richard - Thus Spoke Zarathustra,

 

Strauss, Johann - By the Beautiful Blue Danube (orchestral)

Khachaturian to Prokofiev

Seriously, how many blog posts can start with that title?  Within this grouping, there is probably my top five piano composer, Franz Liszt.  He was quite the showman - would throw his green velvet gloves off at women in the audience during performances - kindof a rockstar of classical music - if there is such a thing.  His works are ridiculously impressive - I suggest taking the time to hear all the Hungarian Rhapsodies, but put down my favorites.  And if you were to see the sheet music of La Campanella while listening to someone perform it, it just doesn't seem possible.  

 

Mozart is here, but relatively small.  I think most people have heard more Mozart than they know, and it would just take too much time to put all the works of his that are impressive, so I did a top five.  

 

Khachaturian – Sabre Dance

 

Lecuona - Malaguena, Córdoba, Gitanerias

Liszt – Piano Concertos 1 & 2, Hungarian Rhapsodies 2, 4 and 6, Sospiro, La Campanella, Liebestraum

MacDowell – Hungarian Op. 39 No. 1

Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E minor, Concerto for Two Pianos,  Symphony #4

Mozart – Clarinet Concerto, Ave Verum Corpus, Symphony No. 40, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Marriage of Figaro

 

Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain, Pictures at an Exhibition

 

Offenbach – Barcarolle

 

Orff – O Fortuna (Carmina Burana)

Pachabel – Canon in D (strings)

Paderewski – Piano Concerto, Polish Fantasy

Parry -  Jerusalem

 

Puccini – Nessun Dorma, Humming Chorus (Madame Butterfly)

Prokofiev - The Montagues & Capulets (Romeo and Juliet)

 

Probably just one or two more posts on this subject matter - then on to other witty ideas :)

 

Composers C through J

Sorry for the delay on the rest.  I had the goal of posting them every other day, but just had my other foot surgery and was working on that...percocet free I'm happy to report.  Of course, it hurts more, but I can think - decent trade-off I think :)  Lots of contemporary works in this group of composers, but I don't think any of them enter the weird phase.  And apparently blogspot hates me right now and the formatting is very strange...not sure how to fix without doing an intensive html overhaul...sorry.

Copland
Fanfare for the Common Man, Appalachian Spring

Capua & Capurro
O Sole Mio

Davies 

Farewell to Stromness

 

 Debussy 

Cake Walk, Clair de Lune

 

Delibes
Lakme

Dukas
The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Dvorak 

Humoresque in G-flat minor, Symphony No. 9, Piano Concerto in G minor 

 

Elgar
Cello Concerto, Enigma Variations, Violin Concerto in B minor

Faure
Cantique de Jean Racine

Grieg
1^st Piano Concerto, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, In the Hall of the Mountain King & Morning (Peer Gynt Suite - I have horrible memories of trying to earn Anita's Dance from this - still hate it)

Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue (orchestral), Piano Concerto in F

Handel
Zadok the Priest, Music for the Royal Fireworks, Messiah,Water Music

Holst
Mars & Jupiter (The Planets - You should probably listen to the whole work at least once, but these are my favorites - Neptune really drives me a bit mad...) 

Jenkins 
Benedictus  

Joplin 
Elite Syncopations, The Entertainer, Maple Leaf Rag - really his works are all quite impressive

A Whole Post for Chopin

Chopin is one of those composer names that many people know even if they don't really know music.  Part of that, I think, is because it is a name that isn't pronounced the way it is spelled and that tends to come up in conversation lots.  Chopin is also a composer that has many works familiar to even the most naive classical listeners because they watch cartoons.  

Chopin is a tricky fellow.  He's kindof like Beethoven in that when you hear the music, it doesn't always sound like it's very complicated and I suppose that is part of the brilliance in his compositions is that when it is learned well and performed well, it sounds easy.  I promise it isn't.

I suppose my loyalty to Chopin partly involves from being a pianist, because most of his works are for piano.  But he is able to express power and beauty, simplicity and passion with little white and black keys that you just have to push to make sound.  He was truly astonishing.  He is also the best thing to happen to the key of C sharp minor EVER.

So here are my favorites, grouped by kind of work - this is maybe a quarter of what he wrote.  

 

Piano Concerto

1 and 2 (Two is my favorite between these two and I'm partial to the live recording of these by a 9 or 10 year old Evgeny Kissen - talk about double brilliance) 

 

Polonaise 

A major (Op 40 No 1) 

C-sharp minor (Op 26 No 1)

A flat major (Op 53) when my mom performed this in a pageant, the poor emcee didn't really know music and instead of pronouncing it like the name of the letter, he pronounced it like the article a.  Made it sound like the piano  had been tuned down to that key.  Ha ha ha!  Hmm.  That might not be funny to everyone else. 

 

Waltz 

D-flat major (Minute Waltz) Bugs Bunny could perform it in 30 seconds.

E-flat major (Grand Valse Brilliante)

C sharp minor (Op 64 No 2)

 

Nocturne 

E-flat major (Op 9 No 2) This is the song that Sharon, pretending to be Susan, plays when she is fighting with her dad in the original Parent Trap when he asks when she learned how to play the piano

B-flat minor (Op 32 No 1)

C sharp minor (Op 72 No 2 Posthumous) If you have seen the movie The Pianist, this is the nocturne that is played throughout

D flat major, (Op 27 No 2) 

 

Prelude 

D flat major (Op 28 No 15)

A major (No 7)

 

Rondo  

for Two Pianos My mom and I are currently working on performing this one - hopefully in March?

 

Fantasy Impromptu C-sharp major 

 

Etude 

C minor (Revolutionary)

 E Major (Op. 10 No. 3)

 

Ballade in A flat Major

 

Scherzo 

B-flat minor (Op 31)

B minor (Op 20)

C-sharp minor (Op 39)

 

Sonata in B-flat minor (Op 35) The third movement of this work has what is often called the Funeral March - I know you have heard at least part of this if you have ever watch a Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes commercial where someone has (for the very brief moment) died.  Maybe in Alfred Hitchcock somewhere too.

 

I hope you and Chopin can become friends.  It's been a great relationship so far.

Music is in the Air

I think it is known by most people who read this blog that I have a certain level of nerdiness.  Two to three hundred years ago, it probably would have been the norm, but I probably would have also died because of my strong opinions that I feel inclined to express often, so I'll stick with being a nerd.  But what I know about most nerds is that many of you are closet nerds.  The next several posts will be for you.

I LOVE classical music.  I listen to this station every morning in my classroom when I prep (Confession - I hijacked an England post code to be able to do this - I keep waiting to feel guilt about it, but I don't.)  But I also have many works that are on both computers, own multiple discs with great works on them, etc.

Over the last few months, I started a list of my favorite classical works.  This was not a small project. When I first thought about uploading this list here, I realized it is so HUGE that if someone were to want to dabble in the classical realm, they would be completely overwhelmed.  So I kicked in some of my OCD and organized the list in alphabetical order by composers last name.  Not all the letters are equally represented, and I skipped the A's altogether (my favorites, remember?  If you like some of the A's, make your own list).

So today, I present to you my favorite classical works written by composers with the last name of B.  There are lots.  Beethoven alone could have taken up a page, but I've tried to make it concise and easy to read/find/experience/criticize/whatever.

Bach 

Concerto in D minor for two violins

Air on a G String

Toccata and Fugue

Cello Suite #1

Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor – Badinerie

Piano Concerto No. 1

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

 

Barber 

Adagio for Strings

 

Berlioz 

The Damnation of Faust

Symphonie Fantastique

Bizet 

Carmen

Pearl Fisher’s Duet

L'Arlesienne Suite

 

Brahms

Piano Concerto No. 1 & 2

Rhapsody in G minor

Britten

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

Bruch 

Violin Concerto No. 1

Scottish Fantasy

Concerto for Two Pianos & Orchestra

Beethoven 
Symphonies (Love them all - favorites are 4, 5, 7 & 9)
Moonlight and Pathetique piano sonatas
Piano Concerto (Again, all are amazing - favorite is No. 5
Choral Fantasy
Turkish March
Egmont Overture

As always, I would love to hear your favorites and if you think I left someone or something off the list that absolutely should be there.