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Category Archives: Guide To

The Pulse: checking music’s beating heart

The music that’ll be on our minds in coming weeks - and should be on yours

So much going on but so little time. That’s what we’ve experienced here in the office and you must feel the same, so we’ve pulled together what we think you’ll like to see, hear, attend and buy. It’s our first one and we’d love to know what you think of our selection.

Contents

The cinema: Can Dario Marianelli make it two Oscars?

Ever since Keira Knightley confirmed she would be playing the title role, all eyes have been on director Joe Wright’s forthcoming period drama Anna Karenina. Knightly plays opposite Jude Law in Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Tolstoy’s epic love story but beyond the starry cast expect an Oscar-contender soundtrack, too, with composer Dario Marianelli looking to add to his previous success on Wright’s Pride and Prejudice, and Atonement.
Universal. Released 7 September

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Classical connections #1: Minimalism meets Pop

Here at Sinfini we want to explore how classical music connects with non-classical and demonstrate that when these two worlds meet, that actually, they’re not too dissimilar and are quite integrated.

David Bowie 1978copyright Getty Images

Minimalism is one area which can frighten the expert as well as the novice. So we asked an expert, Liam Cagney, to tell us more about minimalism and how deeply it has worked its magic on pop heroes such as David Bowie, The Who and many more. Read Liam’s article below and you really need to listen to the YouTube examples to appreciate his points.

Firstly, what is Minimalism?

Minimalism, music stripped to its essentials and with the repetition of simple melodic or rhythmic ideas at its heart, developed in the second half of the last century. Its chief flag wavers were American composers La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, John Adams and Philip Glass. Its apparent simplicity disguised an often very real complexity, a fact which helped the minimalists garner serious respect from all quarters, not least from the pop world which itself boasted a rainbow of bright, creative geniuses who knew a good idea when they heard one.

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When jazz meets classical

What happens when jazz and classical collide? We put this question to Philip Clark who spent the evening at the Barbican last week to see the virtuoso trumpeter Winton Marsalis perform with the LSO. He explores further with ten stunning examples of great collaborations in his video list, at the bottom of the article. Scroll down to see his selected ten.

Wynton Marsalis


Photo by Clay Patrick McBride

The night before his gig with Mr. Bean at the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Simon Rattle and Team LSO took gold on stage at the Barbican in a synchronised jazz/classical relay. Conceived originally for the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, Wynton Marsalis has described his Swing Symphony as a symphonic history of jazz; a journey beginning with New Orleans marching bands that, an hour later, lands us at the 1950s birth of bebop.
Almost as soon as jazz existed, jazz musicians were itching to play with classical ensembles, while classical composers binged on the music’s fresh palette of harmonies, rhythms and timbres. Scroll down this page and you’ll find ten stirring, inspiring, stunning examples of great musicians – George Gershwin to Mike Westbrook via Aaron Copland, Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis – who have crossed the divide. But how did Rattle and Marsalis’ collaboration match up to acknowledged classics of the genre?

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Beethoven: His life through his music

The video, the playlist, the performance – all you need to know about Beethoven in one blog post. Well, not the whole story but hopefully a starting point to inspire you to find out more. 

Click on the image below to start the animation

The video Designed and directed by Felix Massie who sets out to show the composer’s defiance in the face of adversity. Tell us what you think about the film.

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Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989): music’s action man

Herbert von KarajanTo coincide with our four-part series of reviews of the new Herbert von Karajan 82 CD box set, we thought you’d like to glimpse the man behind the musician. Running the world’s greatest orchestras, flying planes, driving fast cars and even joining one of history’s most reviled organisations – nothing was too much for classical music’s superhero.

On the podium

  • Appointed Germany’s youngest music director by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1935, aged 27.
  • Performance of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde with Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1938 declared a huge success. Signs to record label Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Becomes conductor for life of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1955
  • Over the following years turns the BPO into the most recorded orchestra of all time. Sells over 200 million records.

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Barenboim much more than a musician

With his CD project Beethoven for All, aimed at inspiring everyone to discover and enjoy the master’s music, his live appearances this week  at The Proms and a world tour, Daniel Barenboim is all over the classical world. But who is he beyond the musician  we see and hear? 

© Felix Broede / DG

© Felix Broede / DG

Our guide to Barenboim, including some amazing archive footage, reveals the many sides to one of the most prolific and exciting artists of all time.

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Sinfini’s Guide to Gustavo Dudamel

Last weekend people flocked to London’s Southbank to be in the presence of a very special man. No, not the Dalai Lama but an artist who increasingly feels like his equivalent in the classical music world. We bring you up to speed with the great Gustavo Dudamel’s life and achievements, and bring you the video of his sell-out concert.

He may only be 31 years old but there’s a lot riding on the shoulders of the young conductor from Barquisimeto in Venezuela. For one thing, the future of classical music. That at least is how it seems whenever Gustavo Dudamel shows his face in the concert hall or at events such as the Southbank’s Sounds Venezuela 2012.

No doubt about it, people flock to be in the presence of the messianic conductor, a man whose energy, talent and capacity to unite people in appreciating and making great music is almost unrivalled.

ON DEMAND: The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela conducted by Gustavo Dudamel at the The Southbank Centre
26.06.2012

He shot to fame at the 2007 Proms when, with his band the Simon Bolvar Youth Orchestra, an orchestra created under Venezuela’s El Sistema music charity founded by economist and musician Jose Antonio Abreu,  he wowed the audience and the millions more watching on TV around the world with performances of South American music. The critics had never seen such electrifying music-making before and a legend was born.

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