Después de muchas semanas sin escribir en el blog, por no tener apenas tiempo, hoy me dispongo a escribir éste artículo sobre pianistas, compositores e intérpretes.

No pretendo hacer un artículo tan genial como los de mi compañero Tetrasquel, solo dar mi opinión sobre ciertas composiciones que he escuchado últimamente, que no por primera vez.

En primer lugar, quiero rajar hablar sobre Richard Clayderman, pianista francés muy reconocido (y escuchado) generalmente entre gente que no tiene ni puta idea de música. Para definir la obra de Clayderman podemos utilizar el término “música de ascensor”, porque no existe un término mas exacto.

A éste pianista se le ocurrió la brillante idea (entre otras cosas) de hacer “versiones” de obras maravillosas de Chopin, Debussy etc., orquestándolas de una manera cutre y muy hortera. Para mas información, véase su album “En su piano sin control. Grandes éxitos”, y no, no es un chiste. El álbum se llama así.

Para demostrar ésto, os dejo su interpretación de la Sonata para piano número 14 (También llamada Quasi una fantasia, Op.27, Nº2, y mal llamada Claro de Luna), de LV Beethoven. Obra que todo el mundo conoce.

ADVERTENCIA: Es de muy mal gusto. SigoPensando no se hace responsable de los efectos derivados de la escucha prolongada de la siguiente interpretación. Si la quiere escuchar, es bajo su responsabilidad.

Ahora la gran pregunta: ¿Cómo es posible que éste hombre vendiese mas de 70 millones de discos?, yo aun no lo entiendo. ¿Por qué la necesidad de orquestar una obra de tal calibre?, ¿Está mejor orquestada?, en fin…

Por si no fuera poco, ha estropeado la obra mas conocida de la Suite Bergamasque de Debussy (ésto es imperdonable). Yo no me atrevo a buscarlo en YouTube, pero os dejo para los mas valientes un link a Spotify para que se os pongan los pelos de punta. Pulsar aquí.

Para compensar el mal trago que habrá pasado el lector tras la escucha de ésta abominable y horrísona interpretación, dejo La Interpretación de Wilhelm Kempff, que es de lo mejor que he escuchado:

La siguiente persona de la quería hablar es de Maksim, un pianista realmente interesante, porque al contrario que Clayderman, sabe interpretar a la perfección obras como la Hungarian Rhapsody nº2 de Liszt, pero también hace barbaridades como orquestar el Revolutionary Etude de Chopin de la peor forma posible.

Veamos un ejemplo de la fantástica -y difícil- interpretación de la obra de Franz Liszt:

Fantástica, ¿verdad?. Además de interpretar genial la obra, Maksim está muy cachondo. Pero mucho mucho.

Ahora veamos, de la mano del mismo artista, la interpretación de Revolutionary Etude, de Chopin. Vayan preparando los oidos:

Sin comentarios…

En breves haré otro artículo recomendando alguna obra de música clásica, pero tranquilos, no habrá sobresaltos.

Un abrazo a todos.

Ceva frumos, cantat sub o forma foarte frumoasa, interpretata de cineva care canta foarte frumos pentru cineva foarte frumos ca sa vada viata cea mai frumoasa!

Ascultantd aceasta piesa mi-am dat seama ca merita acest Richard Clyderman o categorie dedicata lui … si doar lui. Deci, cand o sa am chef si lipsa de ocupatie … adica cum ajungla munca dupa “libere” ….. o sa dedic un articol de start pentru repertoriul Richard Clyderman

Toate bune!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADELINE !

BALADE FOR ADELINE-(na$ul )RICHARD CLAYDERMAN

MARIN MIHAI-HAI, ROMANIA!-BLOGUL ROMANILOR DE PRETUTINDENI (http://mihaimarin.wordpress.com)

Los_Maravillosos_Delfines

(Clic para VER la Presentación)

1. 500 miles

2. Donna donna

3. Romance

4. Love is blue

5. Romeo and juliette

Pour une fois, je ne vous parlerai pas de du temps présent, mais d’un temps passé, d’une époque révolue, le temps jadis où des millions de personnes achetaient leurs disques vinyles et K7 dans un magasin …

Acheter ??? Oui oui ça a bien existé. J’entends déjà les plus jeunes générations me rire au nez. Mais à l’heure où toute la Planète rend hommage à l’artiste qui a révolutionné la musique moderne, MJ, je me devais de vous parler d’un lieu qui a marqué mon enfance, ce lieu qui m’a fait découvrir mes premières sensations sonores.

Le Temple du Disque est peut-être le magasin de la Métropole lilloise que tous les mélomanes regrettent. Nous sommes au milieu des années 80, j’ai alors à peine 6 ou 7 ans, et déjà cette envie de faire exploser mes tympans. Je suis au conservatoire de musique de Wasquehal, j’y apprends le solfège avec difficulté (3 redoublements …) et y joue avec plaisir de la trompette en compagnie d’un professeur, Monsieur Perpette (un nom difficile à oublier aussi ), qui a réussi à me transmettre sa passion (le solfège a malheureusement eu raison de celle-ci pour depuis).

La bande FM est alors à son apogée, et Jean Jacques Goldman est le premier artiste moderne à enrichir ma k7thèque. Car avant lui, j’avais découvert Maurice André, un as de la trompette et surtout Richard Clayderman, l’homme qui accompagnait mes tasses de thé au lait en compagnie de ma grand-mère défunte. Ma première K7 de JJG a été achetée au Temple du Disque. Cet endroit m’a tout de suite plu, lorsqu’on y pénétrait on se sentait investi de sa passion pour la musique. Le charmant gérant nous accueillait à bras ouvert, reconnaissait la plupart de ses clients. Chaque style de musique était parfaitement classé.

Le Temple du Disque était situé au Sart, le long du boulevard qui mène vers Lille quand on vient de Roubaix et inversement quand on vient de Lille. J’y suis retourné très souvent avant sa fermeture. Je me souviens d’un samedi après-midi, mon père m’emmena moi et mon frère et nous acheta un K7 de Carl Perkins et de Kenny Rogers. Has been ? Je les écoute toujours avec cette banane sur mon visage qui caractérise un excellent souvenir passé. Ce lieu reste scotché comme une photo dans un cadre dans mon esprit.

Et puis en 1991, j’ai acheté l’album K7 “Dangerous” de Michaël Jackson, the King of Pop. A l’époque, il était à mes yeux un artiste parmi tant d’autres, mais aujourd’hui plusieurs semaines après sa mort, cette anecdote me rappelle au bon souvenir de cette époque, et m’a fait remémoré le Temple du Disque.

Aujourd’hui, la Fnac ou Virgin ne sont que de simples revendeurs de disques. Le conseil qui régnait dans les mots de Monsieur Maeseele n’existe plus. Itunes Store est même beaucoup plus complet que ces enseignes. C’est dommage. En cherchant sur le net, je suis tombé sur le site de la ville de Marcq en Baroeul qui m’indique que le Temple du Disque est toujours vivant … !!

Apparement, les propriétaires sont les mêmes, mais l’enseigne apparaît bien changé. Ce ne sont plus les affiches de MJ ou de JJG qui sont en devanture, mais des posters de films pour vanter les sorties de DVD … A quand le retour des vrais petits magasins de musique de quartiers où il serait possible de télécharger des morceaux sur son iPod avec un vrai passionné comme vendeur ?

(This was written some time last week and has been left to lurk around in ”Drafts” with about 50 other half-baked entries. Ugh! Bad writer! Bad blogger! Bad whinger!)

Last night, at precisely 12 o’clock, yours truly was still up playing with a glue stick. Hmm… that doesn’t sound right. Well, before anyone starts imagining (inappropriate) things, I was making cards, lots of cards, piles and piles of cards. As if my life depended on it. After spending a considerable amount of dollars on beautiful patterned paper and all sorts of gadgets, that wasn’t too unexpected, I don’t think.

Anyhow, you’d never imagine what kind of music was blaring out of my laptop. Brace yourselves! It was a string of cheesy, corny, sticky, easy-listening tunes. Performed by these obscure bands that you might have never heard of, if you weren’t a Vietnamese living in Vietnam during the 80’s and 90’s. I’m talking Air Supply, Michael Learns to Rock, Modern Talking, and a few more “internationally-recognised” groups such as M2M, Westlife, Ace of Base. You know the type. Oh, and also Richard Clayderman and Paul Mariat.

That reminds me of a friend who recently mentioned Air Supply’s upcoming concert in Melbourne. Which then reminded me of the fact that A. – a self-acclaimed Skip, born and bred right here on Koala-land, had no idea that the duo were Aussies! When I told him that, he even had to google it, just in case. Upon such activity I had to roll my eyes and went, Dude, you really have no idea how much Vietnamese people love these guys. We know all their songs, have watched all their clips, memorised all their lyrics. We have sung “Making love out of nothing at all” so many times, even the national anthem got jealous.

And Modern Talking, don’t even get me started. Despite the fact that they were neither modern, nor were they talking, I grew up with them. My Dad had a few of their tapes that were constantly on repeat in our household, until they started to squeak. (Those, and a few ABBA numbers.) I’ve always wondered if they were as famous in Germany where they came from, as they were loved in Vietnam. Probably not.

Then there was Michael Learns to Rock in the 90’s. Oh yeah, my dear friends, you may cringe now. But the flashbacks! All those flashbacks! That was how we learnt English back in highschool. Through corny songs. I remember one time we went on a day trip, and midway through crossing a creek, we were all standing there, soaking wet, belting out the worst rendition of “That’s why you gooooo away, IIIII know!” I really thought we were so damn cool. WE all thought WE were so damn cool! Especially that guy whom I had the hots for, who didn’t pay any attention to me but had his eyes on another girl who was liked by about 10 other guys. (Such was the way things go in highschool.) And oh, was I heart-broken. Which might have contributed to the extra loudness of my singing at the creek. Like, ok, so you broke my heart? Well, I’m going to perforate your eardrums. Hah!

Anyway, let’s not digress. 

Recently, after a dinner at a pho place where, wouldn’t you guess?, ”All Out Of Love” seemed to be the flavour of a new broth! I told A. about all these bands and he went why? Why do Vietnamese love those kinds of music so much? And I was at a loss to explain. Maybe because we’re (trying to be) romantic? Maybe because those tunes are more similar to the melancholy that dominates Vietnamese songs, in both the melody and the lyrics? All sadness and heartbreak and shattered dreams. Maybe because we’re lazy? And easy listening is just that, easy to listen? Maybe it’s a combination of all of those? I don’t know. I only know that we like it like that.

On a slightly different angle, it’s the same with instrumental music. If you learned, (or in my case, forced to learn) to play the piano in Vietnam, you’d come to hate the Prince of Romance, namely Richard Clayderman. To be fair, I do think his songs are great. Until they are played every-effing-where, all the effing time, driving me so very effing nuts! (Excuse the French, haha, pun intended. He’s French, after all, a very good looking one at that, too.) I remember getting to a stage where if anyone asked me to play one of his songs, I had the sudden urge to either poke myself in the eyes or clam my fingers under the piano lid. Just to get out of that misery. There’s also Paul Mauriat, who composed similar kind of tunes, and transcribed a good many classical songs into, er.., easiER listening numbers, and partly contributed to my eye-poking and finger-clamming reflexes.

Much to my glee, a few years back, Mr. Clayderman was slowly replaced by Yanni The Sexy Greek (have you seen his full moustache?) to be the most-played music at all fashion shows, music shows, TV programs, radio commercials, outdoor, indoor, ubiquitously. But then I shouldn’t have been so smug because soon enough, it again got to a point where I was like, “if I have to hear “Santorini” one more time, I’d proceed to break my own eardrums! Someone get me a chopstick quick!” For your info, this was while I wasn’t even living in Vietnam, only visiting every year or so. Although these days, my musical radar has reported that a certain Yiruma is taking the little Annam country by storm. He is, apparently, the new Clayderman. Time to move over, Yanni, and take your sheet music away too, won’t you? Also, I do think that George Winston has been dubbed as the new Paul Mauriat for a while now, and no one has yet to claim his place. Any suggestion for new nominations?

But after all that ranting, I need to stress again, that I do love their music, light, airy, fluffy, or otherwise. I don’t condone music snobbery, or any other kind of snobbery for that matter. There is a place and time for everything. My problem is when it’s played repeatedly, day in, day out, driving everyone to the point of insanity! (Which is actually not that much different to commercial radio these days.) It makes us lazy, less creative, and *gasp* boring! So one day, out of mind-numbing boredom, I went and got myself some Bach and some Grieg, and after 30 minutes of practise, Dad came down the stairs with a puzzled look on his face, “What is it that you’re playing? It’s so noisy!”

So it’s back to the French man for me. I guess when I’m home with the folks, Anitra* really has no place, stuff her dance! It’s all about Adeline** and her flippin’ ballad.

 ~amy: a wannabe pianist who has the amazing ability to turn even a drippingly romantic Clayderman’s number into one of the most noisy, cacophonous, and soul-shattering torture sessions!~

* Anitra’s Dance ~ Edvard Grieg (not piano but this version is nice.)

** Ballade Pour Adeline ~ Richard Clayderman (and the man himself is still so freakin’ cute!)

…and it’s TV Times, in which we take an extract from one of the Other Listings Magazines That Are Available, blur out the date, and ask you a couple of questions based on it.

[Click to enlarge]

Those questions in full…

- It’s Boxing Day, but which year?

- What was the name of ‘Max Headroom’s new Christmas song’?

- What was the name of Gordon Honeycombe’s bizarre Channel 4 special in which he tried to get the greatest number of people with the same name as him on a day trip to the seaside ever?

- Richard Clayderman was performing ‘Food And Broadway’: True or False?

- ‘Red Rooster Films’, who made Welsh-language comedy musical The Works, were also responsible for which early nineties psychically-charged Children’s BBC melodrama?

- What was the name of the semi-legendary chorister who was otherwise ubiquitous on television during this year, but mysteriously absent from A Christmas Night Of One Hundred Stars and indeed notoriously so from a certain other television Christmas special from around the same time?

- What unfortunate incident befell Roger De Courcey and Nookie Bear when participating in a similar ITV spectacular a couple of years earlier? [NB "somebody laughed at one of their jokes" is banned under the Obvious Jokes Act].

- TV’s Spare Doon MacKichan Janet Dibley was currently starring in The Two Of Us on ITV; who was the original actor who played her screen lover Nicholas Lyndhurst’s grandfather?

- And for an extra point, what was the plot of that programme every single week?

- Somewhere on this page is listed, bizarrely, the star of a recent hard-hitting American drama series. Can you find them?

Answers in the comments box, please! And why not have a go at rounds 1 and 2 while you’re at it…

ttp://www.4shared.com/file/129897621/290b00fe/America_Latina_Mon_Amour.html

Diebstahl beim Manager von Richard Clayderman

Am Freitag trat der weltberühmte Pianist aus Frankreich Richard Clayderman zusammen mit dem Argentinier Raúl Di blasio im Nationalen Theater in der Hauptstadt der Dominikanischen Republik, Santo Domingo auf.

Viele Ihrer bekannten Stücke verwandelten das rund dreistündige Konzert zu einem sehr erfolgreichen Event mit einer eindrücklichen Show.

Doch ein Dieb nutzte diese Zeit für ganz andere Künste und vollführte einen an Frechheit kaum zu überbietenden Auftritt im Hotel Meliá, wo der Manager von Clayderman, Herr Tussaint Gilbert Oliver Charles Marie Urban sein Zimmer bezogen hatte.

Der benannte Dieb trat an die Reception des Hotels welches in der Avenida George Washington steht, und bat um Hilfe. Er habe seinen Keyschlüssel für sein Zimmer 900 verlegt und man solle Ihm doch bite helfen, da er dringend zu seinen Unterlagen müsse.

Man übergab Ihm eine Duplikat – dass aber anscheinend nicht alle gewünschten Türen öffnete und so verlangte er um den Beistand einer Aufsichtsperson, welche Ihm doch nun dringend die Zimmertüren und den Safe öffnen, da Richard Claydermann dringend diese Unterlagen etc. benötige.

Mit der Hilfe des Hotelspersonals öffnete er dann sämtliche Türen und auch den Safe wo er 16`500 Dollar und 1900 Euro entwendete, nebst drei verschiedenen Kreditkarten.

Ob es nur ein Ablenkungsmanöver war oder schon Uebermut an dem gelungenen Diebesakt zuzuschreiben ist, entwendete er auch noch zwei Paar neue, schwarze Schuhe.

Die Polizei wurde umgehend aktiv und fand innert 12 Stunden zumindest die Identität des Diebes heraus. Es handelt sich um Williams Ignacio Díaz Santander, laut seinen Dokumenten und der ersten Ueberprüfung handelt es sich dabei um einen Chilenischen Staatsbürger mit der Passnummer 17.167.064-0.

Die Flughafenbehörden de Landes wurden umgehend informiert um eine Ausreise möglichst zu unterbinden. Die Fahndung wurde eingeleitet und dauernd noch an.

Während dem die Hotelleitung sich bemühen musste, dem Team um Clayderman eine entsprechende Erklärung abzugeben, wesshalb der Auftritt in Santo Domingo einen sehr negativen Eindruck hinterlassen wird.

La_Magia

A onda agora é colocar o tal gatinho dos teclados em cenas constrangedoras

(não confundir com o cãozinho dos teclados, o Mozart do Forró e o Churchill da Câmara Federal, o ser humano mais renascentista que já pisou na terra, o multitalentoso Frank Aguiar).

Para que fique clara a diferença, Aguiar é o que toca cercado de dançarinas e o gato é o que não parece um débil mental.

O site http://playhimoffkeyboardcat.com/ especializou-se em inserir o Richard Clayderman felino em situações potencialmente embaraçosas.

O gatinho pode acrescentar dramaticidade às mais inusitadas cenas

Como as modas na internet esgotam-se com alguma rapidez, é preciso encontrar um substituto a altura.

Sugiro o sensível Marco Aurélio Garcia e seu divertido Top Top, dirigido às famílias dos que perderam a vida em um acidente aéreo.

Os franceses parecem ter curtido a idéia

El pianista mundialmente famoso Richard Clayderman se presentará a la audiencia búlgara el 15 de Junio en el palacio nacional de la cultura, desde las 7:30 p.m. Luego de su presentación en Bulgaria, el artista se presentará en Colombia, Alemania, Dubai y Suiza. Clayderman es uno de los pianistas favoritos de la audiencia búlgara. Pedro Luís Martín Olivares nos revela que su verdadero nombre es Phillipe Pagès y nació en París en 1953. Toca el piano desde que tiene 16 años, pero su falta de voluntad para mantenerse en los confines de la música clásica lo mandó al campo de la música popular, dándole un reconocimiento mundial en 1973, con la “Balada para Adelina“.

Por ahora, Clayderman ha lanzado varios álbumes, incluyendo las composiciones originales de Paul de Senneville y Oliver Toussaint, además de la de varios tributos instrumentales a la música popular, arreglos para películas, música étnica y arreglos para trabajos muy populares de música clásica. A pesar de que está grabando constantemente, Clayderman no puede esperar por las nuevas fechas de concierto. Pedro Luis Martín Olivares nos comenta que este virtuoso ama tocar en vivo porque  recibe un contacto directo con la audiencia. Durante un concierto, le gusta mezclar distintos estilos y ritmos juntos con si banda de 10 músicos o su orquesta clásica, para poder provocar emociones fuertes.

Richard Clayderman was born Philippe Pages on December 28, 1953 in Paris, France.Born to a father who was a piano teacher, he started playing the piano at age 6. He recorded a single, Ballade pour Adeline in 1976 and it was considered an instant hit. It remains as number one in his top 100 selling albums.

I have always been  fascinated by his music. I simply love listening to him every chance I get.  Sadly though, I only have three of his CDs entitled Ballade pour Adeline (composed of 27 cuts in French), The Love Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber and  The Carpenters Collection.  The Love  Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber  features Phantom of the Opera, Love Changes Everything, All I  Asked of You, Don’t Cry for Me Argentina and Another Suitcase in  Another Hall to name a few.  These were  taken from the popular musicals like The Phantom of the Opera, From Aspects of Love and Evita. His  Carpenters Collection is equally good.

He was dubbed as the Prince of Romance and has recorded over 1,200  melodies popularizing classics and pop standards. 

Kürzlich unterhielten wir uns über “ausgestorbene” Hobbies unserer Jugend. Steppen, auch Tapdance genannt, stand ganz an erster Stelle. Erinnerungen an weiße oder bordeauxfarbene College-Schuhe, die je nach Geldbeutel vorn und auch hinten mit Eisen beschlagen wurden. Die Priviligierten hämmerten dann im Unterricht laut drauf los, während diejenigen, deren Taschengeld nur für “vorne ” reichte, mit der Hacke mächtig auftreten mussten, um sich zu Gehör zu verschaffen.
Dann – musikalische Ausflüge in den Blockflöten Bereich. “Ich habe Piccolo gespielt”, “Ich Alt”. Die Flötengröße spielte schon damals eine große Rolle. (Hier wird nicht ins Sexuelle abgedriftet).
Musik. Musica. Träume. Träume von Musikinstrumenten, die nie erfüllt wurden. Hier die Erinnerung an eine “Melodica”, der verstümmelten Kurzversion eines Akkordeons. Akkordeon = ausgelassene Party, wilde Zigeuner mit Schnurrbart – der Traum eines jeden jungen Mädchens der Achtziger. Dann Tränen, als eine “Melodica”, dieses schrecklich Anti-Instrument, auf dem Geburtstagstisch lag. Ein anderer Betroffener schließt sich den emotional gesteuerten Berichten an: Eine Gitarre in einer Klavierverpackung. Wie groß war hier die Enttäuschung des neuen Richard Clayderman, als er unter dem Weihnachtsbaum die Klampfe entpackte?

Dann – ganz plötzlich – die Offenbarung geheimer, unerfüllter Hobbie-Träume: Banjo spielen, Square Dance tanzen. Was ging hier in den Köpfen der Jugendlichen vor? Freiheit, wilde offene Prärie? Verschwitzte Cowboys am Lagerfeuer? Rüschige Damen, die zum Vierviertel-Takt von dominanten Herren übers Parkett geleitet wurden? Ausgestorben. Einfach ausgestorben.

O que aconteceria se numa bela e bucólica noite chuvosa de domingo Phil Collins resolvesse ter um filho de Richard Clayderman?
Nada menos do que Christopher Cross. Escutem (de preferência ao lado do amor da sua vida, por favor):