Culture

Best Thing Of The Day

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

The award for Best Thing Of The Day on this Tuesday, 17th September goes to a television commercial from Thailand that is sure to bring a lump to the throat:

 

The organisation Americans Against The Tea Party (AATTP), whose political outlook and objectives are clearly not naturally aligned to my own, but on whose website I happened to stumble upon this video, described it thus:

Sometimes you don’t need a two or three-hour movie to tell a story, make a statement and move people.  Sometimes you can do it in three minutes with little dialog and a minuscule budget.  Sometimes simple imagery does it better than any special effects or big production pieces.  Sometimes you find such artistry in the most unexpected places – you know – like maybe within a television commercial.

In a three-minute commercial called “Giving True,” a Thai telecom company does just that and, while it may seem to be a bit crass to put the company out there as some major philanthropic organization, the end product is an excellent morality tale.

It tells the story of a man who does a good deed with no expectation of repayment and, who many years later, is repaid many times over for his kindness.  In three minutes this mini movie tells a touching story and elicits a strong emotional response.  If it does not move you and, at the very least, bring a lump to the throat then there is something wrong . . . you have no heart.

Those tearjerker commercials will get you every time, though I can’t help thinking that True Move, the company behind the ad, has certainly set the bar very high for themselves in terms of their own behaviour, corporate governance and customer service!

Music For The Day

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

A very different feel in today’s Music For The Day, quite a marked contrast from the frenetic and technically challenging piano music of the past few days. Today we feature the finale from Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”, incorporating the well-known Shaker melody “The Gift to be Simple”.

 

The close harmonies in both the strings and the woodwind are delightful, and of course are so much a part of Copland’s unique American sound.

This recording was performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, though my all-time favourite version remains the orchestrally slimmed-down original arrangement in the excellent recording by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer himself.

Music For The Day

Samuel Hooper2 Comments

Continuing the theme from yesterday’s example of fiendishly difficult music to play on the piano, here is the third movement (marked ‘precipitato’) of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata no. 7, performed by the ever-popular (and indisputably gifted) Chinese pianist Lang Lang:

 

If yesterday’s Alkan “Allegro Barbaro” doesn’t finish a pianist off, this piece is quite likely to do the job. Here is a version with the score playing along in the YouTube video (performance this time by Maurizio Pollini), to really give a sense of the technical demands on the pianist:

 

I can also highly recommend Glenn Gould’s recording of the same work, if you are able to find it; Gou;d’s unique style lends itself quite well to Prokofiev.

Music For The Day

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

 

The fearsomely difficult Etude No. 5 in F Major “Allegro Barbaro” by French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan (a much-neglected composer, in my opinion), performed here by the wonderful British pianist (and renowned George Gershwin interpreter) Jack Gibbons:

I wasn’t exaggerating when I used the adjective “fearsome” to describe this piece – just to glance at the sheet music for this work would be enough to induce a nervous breakdown in a lesser performer, and as you can see from the way in which Gibbons’ hands turn into a blur as he performs the piece, it demands extraordinary technical abilities and endurance from the performer, especially given the short nature of the piece.

Here is a version with accompanying score:

 

From Ronald Smith’s “Alkan, The Man, The Music”:

The arresting title Allegro barbaro can give little idea of the fierce impact, even on twentieth-century ears, of Alkan’s fifth study with its harsh textures, pounding rhythms and jagged outlines. Whether or not Bartok heard Busoni play this electrifying octave study in the early 1900s there can be little doubt which Allegro barbaro is, at once, the more barbaric or the more disciplined. Although written and sounding in F major Alkan cancels every B flat, the piece remaining stubbornly on the white keys, its rondo structure etched out in a series of contrasted modes. Phrygian, Aeolian, and Dorian episodes, in turn, confront the Lydian subject, rousing it to ever increasing ferocity until with a final stampede of semiquavers it explodes into numbed silence.

I have always counted the Jack Gibbons recital I attended at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London nearly a decade ago (in which he focused exclusively on the music of George Gershwin) as one of the most enjoyable, entertaining and intimate performances that I have ever attended. His superb recording of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto reveals a wonderful command of phrasing and dynamics which, for obvious reasons, the Alkan Etude has no need for.

If you are not familiar with this pianist, I heartily recommend a visit to his website here.

Best Thing Of The Day

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

If you have not already discovered TED Talks, the online channel featuring short, insightful lectures by prominent people from all fields and walks of life about topics that interest them, I highly encourage you to take a visit, either to their YouTube channel or their homepage.

For those who don’t know: With the slogan “Ideas Worth Spreading”, TED began as a conference for people from the worlds of technology, entertainment and design (hence the acronym), but has since expanded to cover just about every conceivable topic. One of the principle outputs from the TED conferences, which take place in cities all over the globe, are the TED Talks, in which an expert in their given field must give an informative, entertaining talk in eighteen minutes or less.

Which brings me to this excellent example from Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, whose work is notable for using sustainable building materials such as cardboard tubes and paper. As well as their obvious usefulness in terms of providing temporary shelter and accommodation during humanitarian disasters, these principles can also be applied to longer term constructions, as Ban’s talk demonstrates:

 

I had no idea that it was conceivably possible to construct multi-story structures out of such materials, and much as I love watching the rise of the new steel and glass skyscrapers in my home city of London, it is wonderful to appreciate these radically different, more natural structures too.

Pushing the boundaries of possibility even further in another TED Talk, architect Michael Green proposes building safe, multi-purpose structures such as skyscrapers out of wood:

 

As Green says (and I am in no position to refute despite my love of the steel frame skyscraper):

“Every time I go into my buildings that are wood, I notice that [people] react completely differently. I’ve never seen anybody walk into one of my buildings and hug a steel or a concrete column, but I’ve actually seen that in a wood building, I’ve seen how people touch the wood. And I think there’s a reason for it. Just like snowflakes, no two pieces of wood can ever be the same, anywhere on Earth. That’s a wonderful thing.”

Definitely my best discovery of the day.