Hollywood, Bollywood, Classical and Other music

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Danza Espanola No 5, by Enrique Granados

Enrique Granados i Campiña (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916) was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism. Enrique Granados was also a talented painter in the style of Francisco Goya.

From Youtube:

"Danza Española No. 5 is Granados' most celebrated piece and in my opinion deservedly so. Apart from the beautiful and evocative melodic invention, the subtle shifts between minor and major tonalities create a simple yet most dramatic tension. Many of the harmonic modulations are pure Andalusian in character, yet the piece conveys through its value of proportion and elegence the spirit of the eighteenth century - a period in the history of painting and music that Granados admired very much." (J. Bream 1982)

More about Francisco de Goya here.

Saturday, 24 September 2011

Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

From Wikipedia:

Swan Lake (Russian: Лебединое озеро, Lebedinoye ozero) ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales ^[1] and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger. The ballet received its premiere on March 4 [O.S. February 20] 1877^[2]^[3] at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, billed as The Lake of the Swans. Although it is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their stagings both choreographically and musically on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on January 15, 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised^{[clarification needed]} by the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre's chief conductor and composer Riccardo Drigo.