Music For The Day

The first two movements of “Five Piano Pieces”, Op. 3, by Richard Strauss, performed here by Glenn Gould:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP4BRPqHE5Y

Some beautiful stillness and reflection for a Wednesday afternoon.

Music For The Day

The second movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, performed by Leonard Bernstein and accompanied by the Orchestre National de France:

 

I have never been a tremendous aficionado of Bernstein’s piano performances – a great (if variable) composer and conductor, he simply spread himself too thin to have made himself one of the greats. But this is a superb performance, very well conducted from the keyboard.

It is also interesting to see Bernstein (partly through necessity) adopt the pre-Liszt piano/orchestra configuration.

Music For The Day

Bach/Busoni, Chaconne in D Minor, BWV 1004.

 

French pianist Hélène Grimaud is at the keyboard in an excellent live recital recording from the Berliner Philharmonie.

Music For The Day

Scheherazade, by Rimsky-Korsakov:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQNymNaTr-Y

 

A fine performance of the full work by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the LSO’s principal conductor, Valery Gergiev.

More on the background of the piece here.