Produced, filmed and featured in a silly lil "(Un)hlepful Guide to Classical Music" for all my k-pop loving besties who are open to learning more about classical music.
Inspired by Cunk on Earth (& Between Two Ferns thanks to all the shade my friends threw at me).
Made in partnership with Apple Music Classical! Download for free here~ https://apple.co/ReactToTheK
Pictures at an Exhibition (Modest Mussorgsky orch. Maurice Ravel):
1 Submission
Last win – Sleeping Beauty Suite (Tchaikovsky)
not sure any propaganda is needed bc the work speaks for itself but honestly Ravel's orchestration is incredible. The choice of instruments is perfectly thought through and elevates what was already a beautiful composition to begin with. It's an incredibly picturesque and varied suite!
The Planets Suite (Gustav Holst):
2 Submissions
Last win – Peer Gynt Suite no. 1 (Grieg)
The Bakshi Lord of the Rings set "Mithrandir" to the theme from Jupiter! It's very touching :)
honestly magical. dramatic start, Jupiter both breaks my heart and makes me feel alive, the fading chorus at the end is like floating away into space. I don’t have a favourite recording. However I should mention that Melodica Men did a wonderful rendition of Jupiter that I’d like to share (they did Mars too but I like this more):
OTD in Music History: Important Russian “nationalist” composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881) is born into a wealthy and land-owning Russian family.
Mussorgsky began receiving piano lessons from his mother (a trained pianist) at the age of six. He progressed rapidly, and, at the age of ten, he and his brother were taken to Saint Petersburg to continue their studies (which included music) at an elite school.
Mussorgsky's parents had also planned the move to Saint Petersburg so that both their sons would renew a longstanding family tradition of military service. Accordingly, Mussorgsky was duly enrolled in the Cadet School of the Guards at the age of 13. Unfortunately, the school was a brutal environment – and it probably instilled in young Mussorgsky the drinking habits which would ultimately lead him down to the path to terminal alcoholism. (According to another former student, the Head of the Academy at that time "was proud when a cadet returned from leave drunk with champagne.”)
Mussorgsky’s considerable skills as a pianist made him popular with his fellow-cadets, however, and he spent many evenings playing popular dances interspersed with his own improvisations.
In October 1856, the 17-year-old Mussorgsky met the 22-year-old physician Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887) while both men were serving at a military hospital. Even more portentous was Mussorgsky’s introduction just a few months later to Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1813 - 1869) – who at the time was the most important Russian composer after Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857).
Dargomyzhsky was so impressed with Mussorgsky's pianism that he invited Mussorgsky to attend his soirées, and it was there that Mussorgsky met Cesar Cui (1835 – 1918) and Mily Balakirev (1837 – 1910) – and, through Balakirev, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908). Thus the core constituency of the historically important Russian “nationalist” school of composers known as “The Mighty Five” was formed…
PICTURED: A c. 1920s real photo postcard showing the middle-aged Mussorgsky, with a very solid mullet.
By Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 – 1912) a London born, mixed-race composer – referred to as the “African Mahler” – I have Uncovered Vol 1(Piano quintet etc); British Light Music: Suites: Hiawatha, Othello. I don’t recall how I came across Coleridge-Taylor but I was happy to discover him. Can you name any black, classical composers? (Maybe Beethoven – whom Coleridge-Taylor believed was…
Pictures at an Exhibition (Modest Mussorgsky orch. Maurice Ravel):
1 Submission
Last win – Carmen Suite no. 2 (Bizet)
not sure any propaganda is needed bc the work speaks for itself but honestly Ravel's orchestration is incredible. The choice of instruments is perfectly thought through and elevates what was already a beautiful composition to begin with. It's an incredibly picturesque and varied suite!