Spiros Makris's Blog (11)

Pianist Anatoli Vedernikov. I happened to buy a vinyl of him playing mozart, Haydn and Schumann. Soviet musician, the record printed in the USSR in 1987 (I think?). Excellent condition, very high quality recording and a very clear, precise style, it is classical yet has some emotional touches to it, keeping a very good balance, everything Mozart needs and I admit, his sonata no. 11 did make a good impression on me (it's one of those sonatas by mozart that i actually like, lol). I wonder what…

Some months ago I had gone for a walk to the junk shops downtown. Among other things, those places are pure heaven for getting vinyl records. So while browsing through, I stumble upon this 21 record colection of Beethoven's piano works (all of them), played by no other than the mighty Alfred Brendel. "How much", I ask. "1 euro each. You want them". "Damn yes I do.". The package included the record notes and the box, and 21 records in pretty much good to excellent condition. The most curious…

Oh my. It's quite the beast. It trully is revolultion. In everything. At the same time it is like a textbook written for the piano-everything you can do with it is in that sonata. Every possible range of the clavier, every dynamic, is there. The music has so many layers that makes you wonder, was he perhaps planing a symphonic work?  

And the spirit of the music. So forceful and vigorous, yet unstable, sometimes overjoyed and pompous, sometimes strugling, shouting in agony. Pure…

I hope you like it. Quite wonderfull.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LuyrqeoH40

For the past 2 days the city is a freakin' huge and crazy party. 

Greeks may not have money but the sure know how to blow some steam. 

I found this floating around on the internet http://www.eastern-piano.com

Very good move, covering some quite interesting material. A bit of a "verbose" take on the improvisations, but still, of great quality. I do wish it covered some theoretical knowledge as well, it would make it much more informative for those that can't read the greek books available on the subject, and offer a piano specific prespective on the traditional greek/eastern…

Beethoven's symphonies are propably of the most performed. Given this range of recordings it would seem easy to find the ONE, that with which you agree the most, which you believe has captured the essense of the piece as much as possible. Yet, it is trully hard. Don't get me wrong, there are wonderfull performances out there. But Gardiner and his Revolutionary orchestra just struck me from the very first moment. 

I was listening to the web radio of a USA station and I hear "and next…

http://youtu.be/JO4UmbcBprw

There are some recordings that amaze me.
Usually I would not choose a Rubinstein performance for a Beethoven piece-don't get me wrong, I love Rubinstein. When he plays Chopin. He has that "over-romantic" touch and aesthetic that I think does not fit to Beethoven. 

But this recording is a whole other story.

So for today I will just share with everyone this guy 

http://www.youtube.com/user/Mr4ilios

I came to learn his name by a song talking about police violence in Greece, but then I found out this little gem 

Have a listen, I think it's worth it.

As to my thoughs?…

So, what am I thinking? What pops first to my mind is the nasty burnt back I got from the sun today. But it will pass I suppose. When I touch it it hurts though, I wonder how I'll manage to get some sleep tonight. 

So the other day a friend of mine came by the house, asking for some help with a song she had written a couple of years ago but never finished it. I manged to slip in some more chords than the I-V she had there, but hell, I couldn't get her to put in a nice…

This is the first blog bost I write here, so I believe some kind of introduction is in order...Nah, screw that, I bet you already know my name, it is somewhere around the page you ae reading right now.

Writing down thoughs is what I pan to use this blog space, starting with this post. Read at your own risk-I am not to be held responsible for any exessive boredom this posts cause.

I just fired up a beethoven sonata while thinking about this blog post, the 13th,…