Rss    Facebook

A wonderful moment

Sunday 10th January 2010 12:37 in Music, Society | No comments

A wonderful moment in Spain featuring music from Verdi’s La Traviata

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player

Strauss: Final Trio from Der Rosenkavalier

Saturday 2nd January 2010 13:30 in Music | No comments

I recently saw Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House here in London. It was a lavish production and a very enjoyable evening.

Strauss’ music often lacks any obvious motif or melody: being of the Germanic Romantic style it is very similar to Wagner’s. All is not lost, however, because this style of music meanders around, washes over you, and occasionally reaches great crescendos of considerable emotional intensity. One such moment is below.

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player

David Gray: Alibi

Thursday 31st December 2009 13:42 in Human Relations, Music, Society | No comments

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player

So much for songs which make light of rehab.

Eudaimonia: Political Correctness is Killing Us All

Wednesday 16th December 2009 15:04 in Music, Politics, Religion, Society | No comments

This time last year I made a song capturing the zeitgeist of political correctness in the UK. Here it is.

A magnificent evening at the Cadogan Hall

Tuesday 10th November 2009 23:37 in Music | No comments

Wagner’s Liebestod (“Love Death”) from Tristan & Isolde must surely be one of the most intense and profoundly moving pieces in the entire classical music reportoire. This evening I heard it performed live, along with Strauss’s Four Last Songs, which are also extremely beautiful (especially Im Abendrot), and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2.

I can’t say I have ever been to a performance quite like this evening’s. The Orion Orchestra, which performed conducted by Toby Purser, is comprised of young musicians who were highly competent. The sopranos (Alwyn Mellor and Susan Gritton) were experienced and absolutely excellent, both turning in flawless performances.

The Liebestod is a unique piece of music: powerful, meandering, haunting. It is like being carried by a sea – it lulls and soars. It is Wagner at his most epic, most tragic and – I think – most moving. I can’t show you film of this evening, so I have placed below an acclaimed performace by Birgit Nilsson instead.

It felt like something of an honour to be there this evening listening to this music and it will stay with me forever.

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player

Toby Keith: The Taliban Song

Sunday 1st November 2009 17:52 in Music | No comments

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player

Sisters of Mercy: Dominion

Friday 29th May 2009 17:03 in Music | No comments

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player

Talk Talk: Life’s What You Make It

Sunday 10th May 2009 10:32 in Human Relations, Music, Religion, Society | No comments

This content will be updated soon.

“Fate” is a notion propounded by cowards to in order to evade responsibility for their own lives.

Nice lyric

Monday 20th April 2009 11:03 in Music, Society | No comments

“If it’s so good in the city why don’t anybody smile?”

- Toby Keith – It Works for Me

Jack Ingram: That’s a Man

Saturday 18th April 2009 18:39 in Music, Society | No comments

Here’s a song I like, as it is an antidote to the nihilism embraced by many non-believers, and instead it asserts strong and decent values.

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player

It is truly a shame it is so often left to the faithful to endorse these kinds of values, while one gets the impression that the typical atheist liberal would be more likely to admire Russell Brand or, indeed, he who is beyond any criticism whatsoever, hallowed be his name, St. Stephen of Fry, the paragon of virtue for all self-respecting liberals.

Mozart: Laudate Dominum

Friday 17th April 2009 12:27 in Music | No comments

This content will be updated soon.

One of the most beautiful and sublime pieces of music ever to have been wrtten. If you like it, search out the version by Kiri Te Kanawa.

Brad Paisley: I’m Still a Guy

Friday 10th April 2009 15:23 in Music | No comments

This content will be updated soon.

Kenny Chesney: Don’t Blink

Friday 13th February 2009 14:44 in Music | No comments

No-Man: Wherever There is Light

Saturday 17th January 2009 11:27 in Music | No comments

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player

OMD: Universal

Tuesday 13th January 2009 16:55 in Music | No comments

Oops! The latest free Adobe Flash Player™ is required to view this content.

Get Adobe Flash Player



Earlier posts »

Powered by WordPress. RSS Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS. Copyright © 2010 Gavin Orland.  ^Top^