Musical Treats Blog

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Here you will find posts featuring well known classical and jazz musicians, composers known and not very well known, and performances and recordings of extraordinary musicians that are known and not very well known.  I hope that you will find the posts interesting and educational and will visit my blog often. Here is a beautiful Japanese song by Tamezō Narita (1893-1945) called Hamabe no Uta (Song of the Seashore) which I recorded on the violin and piano.

Album: Favourite Requests for Violin (Walter Mony, Violin; Anna Bender, Piano

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Walter Mony (1929-2009)

Walter Mony was a violinist, violist, conductor, and music lecturer. He was born in Canada, had his first music lessons there, and then studied in the United States and London, England. He studied under several top violinists including, Albert Sammons, Max Rostal, and Henryk Szeryng. When he was in his 20s, Walter was the Assistant Principal (assistant concertmaster) of the London Symphony, and also a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. Walter was a member of the internationally famous Nederburg Harp Trio with which he made many recordings on major record labels. Walter also made many chamber music recordings and recordings as violin soloist with orchestras, including recordings of contemporary music written especially for him. He moved to South Africa and became Head of Music at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Apart from his regular teaching, for many years Walter taught music to poor African children in South African Townships for free, even lending them his expensive violin bows and violins to play on (not knowing if he would ever get them back). In 2005, Walter Mony moved to Victoria BC, Canada and became the Head of Strings at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where he taught students of all levels, including students in the post-secondary Music Diploma Program. I was privileged to be one of his students from September 2006 to December 2008 for the first two years of my Bachelor of Music majoring in violin performance and teaching. Walter Mony passed away in January 2009.

Anna Bender (1919-2004)

Anna Bender had a remarkable career of over 60 years as a pianist in South Africa during the late 20th Century. She performed and made recordings with some of the world’s most famous musicians between the years 1950 and 1970. Anna travelled all over South Africa and former Rhodesia working as an accompanist. She also did a solo piano recital in Prague in 1992. Anna received a Fellowship from Trinity College of Music in London for solo piano. She got a degree in Cultural History from the University of Pretoria and published five volumes of Afrikaans Art Songs. Anna Bender passed away in 2004.

Here are two pieces from an album that Walter Mony and Anna Bender recorded together called, Favourite Requests for Violin. The album was released in 1960. The links provided are from a streaming service called Boomplay. The album was available for a short time on YouTube, but seems to have been taken down. I am providing a link to two pieces, Souvenir by Frantisêk Drdla and the Waltz in A Major by Johannes Brahms (arranged by David Hochstein), plus a link to the whole album if you wish to listen to more of it. Enjoy.

https://www.boomplay.com/songs/193348524 (Souvenir)

https://www.boomplay.com/songs/193348522?from=artists (Waltz in A Major)

https://www.boomplay.com/albums/103410955?from=artists (Whole Album: 11 tracks, 39 minutes)

Making Adjustments to a Grand Piano before Performance

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Many musicians such as flute players, violinists, violists, cellists, trumpet players, trombone players, and tuba players can carry their instruments to and from rehearsals and performances. Pianists unfortunately cannot carry their instruments around with them as they are not portable like the instruments I mentioned above. The pianist usually ends up playing an unfamiliar piano in an unfamiliar acoustic space, be it a concert hall, or some other space such as a school theatre or senior’s residence. This presents a huge challenge because the pianist has to change the way they play to figure out how to coax the best sound out of an unfamiliar instrument, and also adjust to the acoustics of the performance space (which may be a completely dry acoustic or a very wet and echoey space). The piano itself may also be in pristine condition, be almost unplayable, or sound bad.

Virtuoso pianist Anton Kuerti (1938 – ), who is well known in Canada, demonstrates in a short 6 minute video some of the things that can be done to fix tonal defects and regulate the piano action to make it easier to play before a performance. This is not recommended as something the average pianist should do, as it takes special knowledge about pianos, and most theatres and concert halls would not allow a pianist to mess with a piano unless they were a qualified piano technician.

Niccolo Paganini: Sonata Concertata Op.61 for Guitar and Violin: Rondeau

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Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840)

Niccolò Paganini is one of the most famous violin virtuosos of all time. His compositions and playing style made a major impact on modern violin playing. He is best known today for his 24 Caprices for Unaccompanied Violin which are some of the most difficult pieces ever written for the violin.

A little known fact about Paganini is that he was not only a violin virtuoso but also a guitarist. Paganini used his knowledge of guitar techniques such as arpeggios, triple stops, and pizzicato and expanded the technical capabilities of the violin by incorporating these techniques into his violin etudes and concertos. During his concerts he often played both the violin and guitar. Sometimes he played the guitar as a soloist, and other times he played it in duet with another instrument. Niccolò Paganini composed a lot of music for violin and guitar duet. He famously did a tour where he played several of his violin/guitar pieces as the violinist with a guitarist, and also toured playing several of his violin/guitar pieces as the guitarist with another violinist. These pieces, unlike several of his 24 Caprices for unaccompanied violin and concerto movements, are very tuneful and pleasant to listen to. They are not screechy, scratchy and shrill like some of the Paganini pieces violin virtuosos often play.

Gil Shaham (1971 -)

Gil Shaham is a world renowned violin virtuoso known for his impeccable musicianship and fabulous playing technique. He is in great demand all over the world as a soloist and recitalist, and has appeared in concert with many of the world’s great orchestras.

Göran Söllscher (1955 -)

Göran Söllscher is a world renowned classical guitar virtuoso who has a very wide ranging repertoire. He plays everything from J.S. Bach to music by the Beatles.

In this recording, violinist Gil Shaham and guitarist Göran Söllscher play a movement from Paganini’s Sonata Concertata in A Major Op.61 for Guitar and Violin. This is the Rondeau from that sonata, which is a lively little piece. This recording is from Shaham and Söllscher’s album entitled “Paganini for Two.” Enjoy.

Franz Schubert: Seligkeit, D. 433

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Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer who lived during the late classical and early romantic eras. He wrote chamber music, piano music, symphonies, operas, but it is for his around 600 lieder (art songs) that he is best known. For those songs Schubert used poems written by the top poets of his time. He not only composed beautiful melodies, but also wrote piano accompaniments that were very ingenious in the way they helped to tell the story behind the poems.

Here is one of Schubert’s most beloved art songs called Seligkeit (which means bliss). This is a lively charming little waltz tune. In this recording it is sung by Soprano Kathleen Battle and accompanied on the piano by James Levine. On the homepage of my website I have put a link where you can purchase my arrangement of this song for piano solo. Enjoy.

Wojciech Kilar: Waltz from the Promised Land

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Wojciech Kilar (1932-2013)

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 Reinhart and Stephane Grappelli – If I Had You

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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.

Brahms Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2

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Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

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. 

Paderewski plays Chopin Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2 (a recording from 1930)

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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 (with Django Reinhardt, guitar)

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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.