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New York Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
In Just a Few Minutes, This Music Will Change Your Day
Take a few minutes and listen to this piano piece. Paul Lewis, piano (Harmonia Mundi) In 1890, when Johannes Brahms turned 57, he told a friend that his career as a composer was probably over, that he'd done enough. The next year, he wrote his will. But before he died, in 1897, he had a final burst of creativity, including writing four sets of short pieces for solo piano. They contain introverted, quiet, thoughtful music. Brahms called a lot of these little pieces intermezzos — suggesting that he was just having a brief word with the listener between grander statements. This one, though, he called a romance: a tender, intimate song without words. Listen to the whole thing. Then listen to this moment, to the lines in the pianist's two hands — the melody, higher up, in the right hand, and that calm, regular flow of notes in the left: Listen to the second section, which Brahms put in a different key for a different mood — swifter, airier, perhaps a memory of a freer time: Listen to the way that the pianist trills — making a sound that's like quivering — to get from that second section back to the music from the beginning: Do you hear the return of that original music in a new way after the contrasting middle section? With Brahms, at the end of the 19th century, there is often a sense of lateness, or maybe a better word is afterness. His music gives the feeling that he thought he was living and working long beyond the time of true greatness, of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert. That gives his music, especially these pieces near his death, an autumnal quality, a sense of things drawing to a close. That doesn't mean they're treacly. (Think of Rembrandt's late, russet-colored self-portraits, ever more unsentimental as they gaze deeply on the aging face.) This romance is wistful but not weepy, deeply emotional but dignified. The music is simple; what it's expressing is not. There is a lot of music that cries. I associate Brahms's music, though, with holding back tears, with not confessing to your ex that you're still in love, with gazing back without lingering, with a stiff upper lip that — like that trill — is ever so slightly quivering.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
MSO: Forbidden Love
The Romanian-born pianist Alexandra Dariescu brings the teenage Clara Schumann's piano concerto to life in a concert that celebrates some of opera's greatest lovers. Against her patriarchal father's wishes, the brilliant and prodigious pianist Clara Wieck fell in love with the composer Robert Schumann when she was still a teenager and had just composed the piano concerto featured in this unique concert. Her older paramour waxed poetically after the work's 1835 premiere: 'Here white yearning roses and pearly lily calyxes inclined their heads; there orange blossoms and myrtle nodded, while alders and weeping willows spread out their shadows.' Accepting his hand in marriage the following year meant Clara, while continuing to tour as a concert soloist, would have precious little time to write music in between raising eight children (with all but one reaching maturity) and enduring the stormy seas that was her husband's ever-declining metal health. 'I once believed that I possessed creative talent', Clara wrote despairingly, 'but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose – there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?' Having established a titular award for an outstanding performance of a work by a female composer at the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition, Alexandra Dariescu states 'The classical music world has made significant strides in recent years to address the gender balance, but there is still much work to be done.' Hence she delights in giving what is the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's premiere performance of Schumann's lyrical and suitably brooding Romantic-era concerto. This concert's guest conductor Fabien Gabel, newly-appointed as the Music Director Designate of the Austrian Tonkünstler-Orchester, leads the musicians of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in music from the opera stage depicting similarly ill-fated yet fictional lovers such as Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde and Claude Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande. Travelling to Cornwall to marry a king to whom she has been betrothed, Isolde falls for her handsome escort mid-journey, thanks to her servant's love potion, with deadly consequences. Pelléas too pays the ultimate price for his passion of Mélisande, murdered by the cuckolded Golaud. Musically, these works also share the distinction of making great strides both thematically and harmonically, establishing both these composers as revolutionary artists. Recorded live in concert at Hamer Hall, Narrm/Melbourne, on October 5, 2024 by ABC Classic. Producer Duncan Yardley. Sound Engineer Russell Thomson. Program Deborah Cheetham Fraillon: Long time living hereClaude Debussy arr. Alain Altinoglu: Pelléas and Mélisande: SuiteClara Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.7Florence Price: The Goblin and the MosquitoRichard Wagner: Tristan and Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten: Symphonic Fantasy
CTV News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
‘It's unreal … a dream come true': Edmonton concert pianist performed at Carnegie Hall
An Edmonton concert pianist still finds it somewhat hard to believe that he had the chance to perform at the famous Carnegie Hall music venue in New York. Emilio De Mercato was born into music in Italy, his mother is a pianist and passed her love of the piano on to her son. De Mercato has performed in many venues, including a number across Alberta since he moved to Edmonton in 2012, but none quite like Carnegie Hall. 'This is a legendary place … so for someone like me, who devoted his life to learning the piano, becoming and pursuing a career as a concert pianist, it was definitely a milestone,' he said 'To be on the stage of one of the most important venues in the world … it can be scary, it can be intimidating.' Emilio De Mercato Emilio De Mercato playing at Carnegie Hall on Friday, May 9, 2025. (Dan Wright Photography) He performed several pieces on May 9 in the Weill Recital Hall, including Après une lecture du Dante and Pictures at an Exhibition. 'I sat at the piano, I started playing, then I was immediately immersed in the music, and there was a great sense of relief and joy because I kind of forgot where I was, I felt at home,' De Mercato said. 'The audience was responsive, warm and loud, so they made me feel great. 'It's unreal … I'm still, sometimes, in a sort of dream, realizing I did it. This was definitely a dream come true.' Like many musicians, De Mercato is often critical of his performances, but said he was 'pretty happy' with this show. 'When you're working at recording, you want to get the perfect product, but the beauty of a live performance is giving life to music at the moment, with the emotions that you feel at the moment, every time is different,' he said. 'It's a compromise, a balance between control of technique, playing the right notes, and at the same time feeling free to convey and deliver emotions and connect with the audience.' Emilio De Mercato Emilio De Mercato playing at Carnegie Hall on Friday, May 9, 2025. (Dan Wright Photography) De Mercato said his favourite moment of the show was the encore after seeing the crowd, which included friends and family who travelled from Italy and Canada to see his performance, give him a standing ovation. 'That was incredible, to receive this honour at Carnegie Hall, it was totally unexpected, and then to perform an encore … I truly enjoyed it.' De Mercato said the concert may be the highlight of his career, but he doesn't plan to stop performing any time soon. 'It's about being satisfied and happy with what you achieved and then trying your best to continue to grow … so we'll see what happens next,' he added. 'I like to think that I can continue to perform anywhere, hopefully at the beautiful stages in Europe and America. I still have many dreams.'
Arab News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Emirati artists perform in showcase at London's Kensington Palace
LONDON: 'If we do not tell our story, someone else will. And they will get it wrong,' said Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo, founder of the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, following a performance in London on Friday that brought Emirati talent to a major international platform. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ Emirati artists took to the stage at Kensington Palace to present a night of operatic performances. Fatima Al-Hashimi, Ahmed Al-Housani, and Ihab Darwish performed in multiple languages including Arabic, Italian and English. The performance was part of the Abu Dhabi Festival's Abroad program in collaboration with the Peace and Prosperity Trust. The event was intended to promote Emirati cultural expression through classical music and cross-cultural collaboration. Alkhamis-Kanoo said an event like this is vital for cultural diplomacy and is not a one-off, but a commitment to placing Emirati talent on the world stage. 'It's about creating understanding, building dialogue, and showing the world the strength of our cultural identity through music,' he explained. 'We invest in the young, we partner with the world, and we build cultural legacies that last.' The evening also included the premiere of Darwish's latest composition 'Ruins of Time,' which blended orchestral arrangements with traditional Arabic elements. 'Music is the fastest way to reach people. It creates peace, it creates understanding,' Darwish told Arab News. 'Music removes boundaries. It creates a shared language, a dialogue of coexistence, peace, and tolerance. When people from different cultures come together to create music, it naturally fosters mutual understanding.' Al-Hashimi explained the intention behind adapting a classical repertoire to reflect Arab identity. 'Even while singing in Italian, I included Arabic lyrics to keep our signature present,' she said. Al-Housani described the event as a 'professional milestone,' adding: 'Performing here is more than a concert, it's a message. We're here to show the world the strength and beauty of our culture.'
New York Times
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
David Cope, Godfather of A.I. Music, Is Dead at 83
David Cope, a composer and pioneer in the field of algorithmic composition, who in the 1980s developed a computer program for writing music in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and other Classical masters, died on May 4 at his home in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was 83. The cause was congestive heart failure, his son Stephen Cope said. Before the proliferation of A.I. music generators, before the emergence of Spotify and the advent of the iPod, before Brian Eno had even coined the term 'generative music,' Mr. Cope had already figured out how to program a computer to write classical music. It was 1981 and, struggling with writer's block after being commissioned to compose an opera, he was desperate for a compositional partner. He found one in a floppy disk. The process was straightforward but tedious. Mr. Cope started by quantifying musical passages from his own work, rendering them as numbers in a database that could be analyzed by a pattern-identifying algorithm he created. The algorithm would then reassemble the 'signatures' — Mr. Cope's name for the patterns it found — into new combinations, and he would convert those combinations into a score. It wasn't the first time someone had used a computer to create music. In 1957, Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson had employed a five-ton supercomputer at the University of Illinois to compose 'Illiac Suite,' widely considered to be the first computer-generated score. But Mr. Cope's program took things a step further: By scanning and reproducing unique signatures, his algorithm could essentially replicate style. After years of troubleshooting and fine-tuning, the program, known as Experiments in Musical Intelligence, was able to produce a full opera in a matter of hours. EMI, or Emmy, as Mr. Cope affectionately called it, was officially born. It was one of the earliest computer algorithms used to generate classical music. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
