Russian winners of the Queen Elisabeth competition play Grieg on Spotify

…is a less fabricated topic for a playlist than you might think at first. Actually, when browsing Spotify for past winners of this prestigious piano and violin competition in Brussels, many fine interpretations of music by Edvard Grieg could be found. Dennis Kozukhin’s (winner, 2010) CD with piano concertos by Tchaikovsky and Grieg was universally praised for the Grieg concerto. It even made it to editor’s choice in the Gramophone magazine. Boris Giltburg (winner, 2013) excels in the often overlooked piano sonata in e minor op 7 by the same composer. Violinist Vadim Repin (winner, 1989) concludes this playlist with a glowing and warm performance of Grieg’s 2nd violin sonata in G major, showing Russian passion in this Nordic composer…

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907):

-Piano concerto op 16 in a minor 

Dennis Kozukhin, piano
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Vassily Sinaisky, conductor

-Piano sonata op 7 in e minor

Boris Giltburg, piano

-Edvard Grieg: Violin sonata no 2 op 13 in G major

Vadim Repin, violin

Nikolai Lugansky, piano

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/3Lx2K949ZEwieHxTMIYl7b

(Link for if you want to use the Spotify web player)

Scandal at the Queen Elisabeth competition Vladimir Sverdlov on Spotify

Queen Elisabethcompetition 1999 and a young brat called Vladimir Sverdlov played the Schubert of his lifetime. Awesome, inspiring, poetic. Everybody was convinced he would win or, at least, be in the top three of the competition. When his *sixth* place was announced (see the video here) he was so upset that the handshakes and flowers were tossed away…

Sverdlov, nephew of pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, by the way, sort of apologized and went on with his career. The very individualistic approach continued as well, working very well in Chopin’s mazurkas and nocturnes, rather less in the sonata, but what stays is the inheritance of the magnificent Schubert sonata D784 Sverdlov played in 1999, luckily preserved on Spotify!

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

-Piano sonata in a minor D784

(live, Brussels, 1999)

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

-Mazurkas op 68 no 2 and op 33 no 4

-Nocturnes op 27 no 2 and op 48 no 1

-Preludes op 28 no 15 to 24

-Ballade no 1 op 23

-Sonata no 2 op 35

-Prelude op posthume

Vladimir Sverdlov, piano

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/4KgDFo36IHZYbX5Mm0BvoF

(HTTP link, if you want to play the list on the Spotify Webplayer)

One angry young man...

Easy Sunday Sextettes on Spotify

Your Sunday snooze button on Spotify…

Instruction manual:

Get up, put activate list, go back to bed and enjoy a

Dreamy Boccherini

Playful Mendelssohn

Catchy Janacek and turn up the volume for a really

Awesome Korngold Sextet!!

Luigi Boccherini  (1743-1805)

Sextet No.4 for 2 violins, 2 violas & 2 cellos in F major Op 23 No 4 (1776) 'Opera Grande’

Europa Galante

Fabio Biondi

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Sextet for violin, two violas, cello, double bass and piano in D Major op 110 (1824)

Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)

Mlàdì (Youth) for flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, horn and bassoon (1924)

Prague wind quintet

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)

Sextet for 2 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos in D Major op 10 (1914-16)

Flesch Quartet with Ian Humphries, viola and David Bucknell, cello

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/3TQVG1xfeI7Uw9t9s3F7Ec

(HTTP link)

Queen Elisabeth competition Elisabethwedstrijd 75 years on Spotify

And yes, sooner than I expected the circus of the Queen Elisabeth competition ( #kew2016 on Twitter) has started again! For me, in 1983, it was the first time I ever came across classical music. If you think the Eurovision song contest is alienating, try the full week of piano madness when you are in your early teens ;-) 

Especially the winner of that year, Pierre-Alain Volondat, with his robot-slow-bows is for ever imprinted in my memory… 
The nice thing about the 75 years of QEC CD box is that not only the winners are on it, but also some fine 2nd or 4th place performances, just like on the CD box with the violin performances.

Hope you will enjoy the list, also notable for the inclusion of conductor Belgian conductor Franz André, who’s LP’s are often well sought after collectors item. 
All recordings are live recordings from the competition!

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/6wb2exli6NhAqzx5h82zxC

-Pjotr Iljitsj Tsjaikovski

Piano concerto no 1 in Bb major

Valery Afanassiev, Russia, 1st prize 1972

Orchestre National de Belgique

Rene Defossez, conductor

-Franz Liszt

Piano concerto no 1 in Eb major

Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russia, 1st prize 1956

Orchestre National de Belgique

Franz Andrér, conductor

-Franz Liszt

Piano concerto no 2 in A major

Pierre-Alain Volondat, France, 1st prize 1983

Orchestre National de Belgique

Georges-Elie Octors, conductor

-Sergei Rachmaninov

Piano concerto no 2 in c minor op 18

Wolfgang Manz, Germany, 2nd prize 1983

Orchestre National de Belgique

Georges-Elie Octors, conductor

-Sergei Rachmaninov

Piano concerto no 3 in d minor op 30

Andrei Nikolsky, Russia, 1st prize 1987

Orchestre National de Belgique

Georges-Elie Octors, conductor

-Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano concerto no 4 in G major op 58

Frank Braley, France, 1st prize 1991

Orchestre National de Belgique

Ronald Zollman, conductor

-Johannes Brahms

Piano concerto no 1 in d minor op 15

Leon Fleisher, USA, 1st prize 1952

Orchestre National de Belgique

Franz André, conductor

-Johannes Brahms

Piano concerto no 2 in Bb major op 83

Denis Kozhukhin, Russia, 1st prize 2010

de Filhamonie

Edo de Waart, conductor

-Sergei Prokofiev

Piano concerto no 2 in g minor op 16

Anna Vinnitskaya, Russia, 1st prize 2007

Orchestre National de Belgique

Georges-Elie Octors, conductor

-Sergei Prokofiev

Piano concerto no 1 in Db major op 10

Malcolm Frager, USA, 1st prize 1960

Orchestre National de Belgique

Franz André, conductor

-Frédéric Chopin

Piano concerto no 1 in e minor op 11

Jeffrey Swann, USA, 2nd prize 1972

Orchestre National de Belgique

Rene Defossez, conductor

-Frédéric Chopin

Piano concerto no 2 in f minor op 21

Cécile Ousset, France, 4th prize 1956

Orchestre National de Belgique

Franz André, conductor

Discover weekly Classical Music and Jazz on Spotify

If you use Spotify, you probably will see endorsements for “Discover Weekly”, a list of suggestions based on your personal listening behavior. But, as you can read in the comments here, it works quite wel if you’re a hip hop, house or indie fan, but the suggestions almost never include Classical Music or Jazz! Even if you play them those tracks than popmusic. So, as an antidote, here are a couple of Classical and Jazz tracks:

April 12th this year violinist Alan Loveday died, 88 years old. For me, his 1970, playful (recorded under the influence of alcohol!) version of Vivaldi’s 4 seasons with Neville Marriner as conductor is still the best version around. In 1967, Leonard Bernstein recorded George Gershwin’s cross-over with Jazz Rhapsody in Blue with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra which make a nice bridge to John Coltrane’s finest album Giant Steps from 1959. Last on the list is the Polish Jazz violinist Zbigniew Seifert. searching for Jazz violinists a couple of months ago I stumbled on this name and his 1976 album Man of light has been on my playlist many times since. Zappaesque Jazz with some of the finest musicians of that period. Sad to find out Seifert died very young in 1979…

Wonderful though to have his legacy on Spotify. 

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Four Seasons Quattro Stagioni

Violin concerto’s op 8 1 to 4

-Spring in E major

-Summer in g minor

-Autumn in F Major

-Winter in f minor

Alan Loveday, violin

Academy Of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

Neville Marriner, conductor

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

-Rhapsody in Blue

Columbia Symphony Orchestra

Leonard Bernstein, piano and conductor

John Coltrane (1926-1967) - Giant Steps

-Giant Steps

-Cousin Mary

-Countdown

-Spiral

-Syeeda’s Song Flute

-Naima

-Mr. P. C.

Saxophone - John Coltrane

Bass - Paul Chambers

Drums - Art Taylor, Jimmy Cobb

Piano - Tommy Flanagan, Wynton Kelly

Zbigniew Seifert (1946-1979) - Man of Light

-City Of Spring

-Man Of The Light

-Stillness

-Turbulent Plover

-Love In The Garden

-Coral

Violin - Zbigniew Seifert 

Bass - Cecil McBee

Drums - Billy Hart

Jasper van 't Hoff - Electric Piano, Organ

Piano - Joachim Kühn

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/06lzq47XwwdNILjqxC71qN

(HTTP link)

(Martine Mussies)