Wojciech Kilar was a Polish composer who composed classical music and film scores. He is best known for his film scores for films such as Dracula, The Ninth Gate, The Pianist, and the Portrait of a Lady among other films. Kilar won many awards for his film scores, including the score for the film Ziemia obiecana (The Promised Land), and an award for his film score for Dracula, his most successful film score.
Katica Illényi ( 1968 – )
Katica Illényi is a Hungarian violinist, theremin player, singer, and dancer. She is a classically trained musician, but also plays folk music, klezmer music, and gypsy jazz. Katica has a very popular YouTube channel, and has recorded many albums including: Tango Classic, Theremin Christmas, and Reloaded Jazz Violin. In this YouTube video, Katica Illényi (violin) with Rita Termes (piano) play a beautiful violin/piano arrangement by Rezső Ott of Wojciech Kilar’s Waltz from the film Promised Land (Ziemia obiecana). Enjoy.
Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli are known today for their collaboration together as part of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Django Reinhardt was the top jazz guitarist of his time, and one of the greatest jazz guitarists in history. Stephane Grappelli was a famous jazz violinist who and also a very high-powered jazz pianist. Before becoming famous as one of the top jazz violinists of all time, Grappelli busked on the violin as a kid. He played jazz piano early in his career, playing with a big band. One night, The band leader Grégor learned that Stephane used to play the violin. He borrowed a violin and asked Grappelli to play a tune. Grégor then encouraged Grappelli to take up the violin again. In 1931, Stephane Grappelli met Django Reinhardt while playing a gig with Grégor’s big band. The rest is history as they say.
Here is a rare recording with Django Reinhardt playing the guitar, and Stephane Grappelli playing the piano (instead of the violin). The duo plays the tune “If I Had You” by James Campbell and Reginald Connelly. This recording is from 1938. I hope that you enjoy it.
Johannes Brahms was a German Romantic composer, pianist, and conductor. He wrote solo piano music, chamber music, symphonnies, piano concertos, a requiem, and organ works. Some of his first compositions were written for the pipe organ. Brahms had a dream of becoming an organ virtuoso, but abandoned that idea because he struggled to play the organ well. Instead, Brahms became a piano virtuoso. He gave the premiere performances of his piano concertos. Brahms music is full of various rhythms, meters, and counterpoint. His introduction to Hungarian and gypsy folk music at a young age influenced his compositional style, and explains his fascination with irregular rhythms and use of rubato (robbed time) in his music. Brahms’ music was traditional in the sense that he used traditional classical forms when writing his music. His music was a complete contrast to the bombastic, showy “modern” music of the time such as that of Franz Liszt. Liszt apparently thought that Brahms’ music was too “hygienic”, and Brahms disapproved of Liszt’s music, apparently falling asleep during one of Liszt’s piano recitals during a performance Liszt gave of his b minor piano sonata.
Julius Katchen (1926-1969)
Julius Katchen was an American pianist who is especially well known for his recordings of Johannes Brahms’ piano music. He made his debut performance when he was 10 years old, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in d minor. Conductor Eugene Ormandy heard about young Julius and invited him to play in New York with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Julius Katchen studied music with his grandparents Mandell and Rosalie Svet until he turned 14. His grandparents taught piano at the Moscow and Warsaw Conservatories. In 1947 Katchen toured Europe and moved to Paris, France. He died of cancer at the age of 42 in 1969.
Julius Katchen’s solo piano recordings of the works of Johannes Brahms are very popular among pianists, and those recordings are often described as one of the best recordings of Brahms’ piano works.
In this recording, Julius Katchen plays Brahms’ Intermezzo Op. 118, No.2 from his Op. 118 six pieces. I hope that you enjoy this beautiful piano piece.
Ignacy Paderewski was a Polish pianist who was born in 1860 in Kurilovka, a village which at the time was part of the Russian Empire (but is now part of Ukraine), and died in 1941 at the age of 80. He was one of the great pianists of the 20th Century. He was known for his stage presence, his looks (especially his incredible hair), and his charisma. Paderewski was the first musician to perform in Carnegie Hall. He recorded many piano rolls in the early 1900s before making recordings on LP records. These early recordings (like many early recordings) have a lot of background noise in them, but musicians in the early 20th century took more risks in public performance and tried to tell a story when interpreting the music they played or sang, which isn’t always the case today with competitions and music schools churning out note perfect musicians who forget that music isn’t about perfection but about conveying emotion through sound.
Here is a recording that Paderewski made of Chopin’s Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2 in 1930. He plays the piece very differently to how a pianist today would play it, and instead of playing it in at a strict speed throughout, he lingers on notes in the melody, and plays the LH accompaniment like a melody. The two hands are not playing together at the same time, and he wouldn’t win a competition if he played like that today, but I think there is an expressive musicality and charm to his playing. Today’s pianists could learn a lot if they only listened to earlier players like Paderewski. Enjoy.
Rex Stewart and his Feetwarmers was a jazz group formed by Trumpeter Rex Stewart. It featured Rex Stewart on Cornet, Barney Bigard on Clarinet and Drums, and Billy Taylor on the Bass. The members of the group were all part of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra. The guest artist is guitarist Django Reinhardt (of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France). These rare recordings (made in 1939) are swing jazz at its best. This recording comes from an album called “The All Star Sessions” which features Django Reinhardt on 4 out of the 16 tracks.
Here is a piece called Finesse (Night Wind) which contains wonderful ensemble playing and some great solo work by all of the musicians. Enjoy.
Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian Baroque violin virtuoso and composer. He was an important musical figure in the development of the sonata and concerto, for his development of a style of violin playing, and bringing together modern tonality and functional harmony. His Concerti Grossi were published in 1714, and had a major impact on the next generation of baroque composers. These works were written for a small group of solo instruments and a string orchestra with basso continuo accompaniment (a harpsichord or organ and another instrument.) Unfortunately Corelli never lived to see these works published.
Voices of Music Ensemble
The Voices of Music Ensemble is an Early Music instrumental ensemble based in San Francisco that performs baroque music on original instruments (instruments from the time that the music was written). Here is a clip of the ensemble playing Corelli’s Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.4 in D Major. On my website robertjandukarm.com I have arranged the first movement of this Concerto Grosso (Adagio-Allegro) for 2 violins and harpsichord. If you are interested you can purchase the complete score with both violin parts or the score only. Enjoy the music.
George Frederick Handel is a famous German baroque composer. He is best known today for his oratorio Messiah (which he composed in 24 days). Handel also wrote many other oratorios, operas, keyboard music, violin sonatas, and concertos for organ and orchestra.
Jonathan Scott
Jonathan Scott is an English organist and arranger. Together with his brother Tom who is a pianist, Jonathan has made a very successful YouTube channel recording many of his own arrangements. Here is Jonathan Scott playing his organ arrangement of Handel’s popular anthem Zadok the Priest. I hope that you enjoy it.
James Sanders is a classically trained violinist who developed an interest in jazz and Latin music after graduating from Yale University with a Masters Degree in violin performance. He has a Latin jazz group called Conjunto which is based in Chicago. The group has been performing for a long time (nearly two decades) in clubs, festivals, and concert halls. They perform a wide variety of music: classic Cuban tunes, Latin arrangements of jazz standards, fusion, the Great American Songbook, and original material by James Sanders and members of his group.
Here is a classic Cuban tune called Tres Palabras performed by James Sanders and Conjunto. It was written by Osvaldo Farres (who wrote several hit tunes including Quizás, Quizás, Quizás (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps). I hope that you enjoy it.
Stephen Heller was a Hungarian pianist and composer. He showed musical talent at an early age. When he was 10 years old his father took him to Vienna, Austria where he studied piano with the noted pianist Anton Halm. He toured Germany and lived there from 1830-1838. Composer Robert Schumann heard about him and wrote about him in his music journal (Schumann was a music critic for a time). Heller then went to Paris, France which was a major hot spot for artists, writers, and musicians. He met Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, and other important figures of the time and in a short period of time built up a reputation as a pianist and piano teacher. Stephen Heller wrote mostly for the piano. He had a gift for writing beautiful melodies. In many pieces there is a grace and sunny character.
Gerald Moore (1899-1987)
Gerald Moore was a famous British piano accompanist. He accompanied many of the great singers and instrumentalists of the 20th Century including: Victoria de Los Angeles, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau, Yehudi Menuhin, Josef Hassid, Jacqueline Du-Pre, and others. Here is a rare recording of Gerald Moore playing Stephen Heller’s Etude in E Major, Op. 45, No. 9. It was recorded in 1949. Gerald Moore is his best recordings played with a singing tone, fluidity, and natural timing. I hope that you enjoy this simple but nice little piano piece.
Władysław Lidauer (1890-died in 1940s during nazi occupation)
Władisław Lidauer was a Polish/Jewish composer who wrote one of the most popular Polish tangos of the late 1930s: Graj, skrzypku, graj! (Play, violin, play!). The lyrics of the tango were originally written by Zdrojewski and translated by Biderman. The composer, Władisław Lidauer died in the Warsaw ghetto.
During WWII, the recording I have included in this blog post was sent to Tel Aviv. The musicians on the recording are singer Olga Mielszczuk, pianist Hadrian Tabeçki, violinist Grzegorz Lalek, and Bassist Wojciech Pulcyn. I hope that you enjoy this music. I find it to be quite a catchy tune.
Musical Treats 