Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2 (Sheba Blake Edition)

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French Suites 4, 5 & 6

French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816: I. Allemande (Original Version)

Kneeling Before Giants

Swan Lake (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act II: No. 14a, Pas de deux.
Album:  Times and Styles by Gulan (aka Andrei Gulaikin)

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act II: No. 14a, Pas de deux

Recorded at Slowdeath Studios Ltd.

Soloist: Felipe Hernández.

The 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1, were written by Niccolò Paganini between 1802 and 1817 and published in 1819.[1] They are also designated as M.S. 25 in Maria Rosa Moretti and Anna Sorrento's Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Niccolò Paganini, which was published in 1982. The caprices are in the form of études, with each number studying individual skills (double stopped trills, extremely fast switching of positions and strings, etc.)

Edition Peters first published them in 1819; Ricordi later published another edition in 1821. When Paganini released his caprices, he dedicated them "to the Artists" rather than to a specific person.

Unlike many earlier and later sets of 24 pieces, there was no intention to write these caprices in 24 different keys.

Caprice No. 1 in E major - Andante: Nicknamed "L'Arpeggio", this composition matches chordal playing with ricochet across all 4 strings. The piece opens in E Major and then quickly transitions into an E minor development section, where descending scales in thirds are introduced.

Caprice No. 2 in B minor - Moderato: The second caprice in B minor focuses on detache with many string crossings across non-adjacent strings.

Caprice No. 3 in E minor - Sostenuto - Presto - Sostenuto: Caprice No. 3 is a slurred legato exercise with octave trills in the introduction and conclusion.

Caprice No. 4 in C minor - Maestoso; Caprice No. 4 is an exercise featuring passages with many multiple stops.

Caprice No. 5 in A minor - Agitato: This caprice focuses on fast ricochet bowings. It begins and ends with a section of ascending arpeggios followed by descending scales.

Caprice No. 6 in G minor - Lento: Nicknamed "The Trill", the sixth caprice exploits the use of left-hand tremolo on the violin by quickly alternating between different notes in the chord in one of the voices. A melody is played in one line with a tremolo occurring on another.

Caprice No. 7 in A minor - Posato: This caprice focuses on slurred staccato passages, featuring many long slurred scales and arpeggios.

Caprice No. 8 in E-flat major - Maestoso: Caprice No. 8 focuses on sustaining a lower note while playing a higher melody at the same time, meanwhile incorporating many trills and double stops.

Caprice No. 9 in E major - Allegretto: Nicknamed "La Chasse" or "The Hunt", the violin's A and E strings imitate the flutes ("Sulla tastiera imitando il Flauto"), while the G & D strings imitate the horns ("imitando il Corno sulla D e G corda"). Primarily a study in double stops, with ricochet occurring in the middle section.

Caprice No. 10 in G minor - Vivace: This caprice is primarily a study in up-bow staccato, with staccato notes punctuated by chords, trills and distant string crossings.

Caprice No. 11 in C major - Andante – Presto – Andante: The eleventh caprice starts and ends with sections that require multiple voices, containing a passage that consists of many dotted notes rapidly jumping up and down the scale.

Caprice No. 12 in A-flat major - Allegro: This caprice consists of a slurred pattern of a melody on an upper string alternating with a drone note on a bottom string, forcing the violinist to stretch great distances while keeping a finger on the drone string.

Caprice No. 13 in B-flat major - Allegro: Nicknamed "The Devil's Laughter", this solo violin piece starts out with scale like double-stopped passages at a moderate speed. The second part consists of high speed runs that exercise left hand flexibility and position shifting, and right hand high speed string changing and detache bowing. The piece then repeats back to the beginning and ends right before reaching the second part for the second time.

Caprice No. 14 in E-flat major - Moderato: The 14th caprice displays the violin's ability to voice chords. It contains many triple and quadruple stops. Stylistically, the piece imitates brass fanfares.

Caprice No. 15 in E minor - Posato: Caprice 15 starts with a short passage of high parallel octaves, continuing on to ascending arpeggios, descending scales, and broken thirds.

Caprice No. 16 in G minor - Presto: The first part shows the theme, requiring a player's ability of right-hand and left-hand bow control as it consists of arpeggios using either alternate adjacent strings or string jumping. The former requires the player the mastery of upper register, as it is difficult to control especially with the distance. The latter on the other hand requires the performer to master string skipping, where a player jumps from one string to another, rapidly over adjacent positions. The over-all required technique is detache.

The second part is continuous —the earlier part is a consequent passage. The next area differentiates itself by the continued use of a quieter feel, with chromatic passages executed in slur phrases. By analysis, the second part is smorzando legato. It returns with a series of up and down arpeggios and scales increasing in intensity until the caprice's conclusion. The caprice appears to be brief since its entire length is executed in presto.

Caprice No. 17 in E-flat major - Sostenuto – Andante: The "A" section contains numerous thirty-second note runs on the A and E strings that converse back and forth with double stops on the lower two strings. The middle section is famous for the incredibly difficult octave passage.

Caprice No. 18 in C major - Corrente – Allegro: The introduction to caprice 18 demonstrates playing on the G string in very high positions. This is followed by a rapid display of scales in thirds.

Caprice No. 19 in E-flat major - Lento – Allegro Assai: Here are a lot of octaves at the beginning; then there are string crossings between G and A strings; this is followed by quick changes of position on the G string.

Caprice No. 20 in D major - Allegretto: Caprice 20 is famous for the use of the D string as a drone, backdropping a lyrical melody on the A and E strings, imitating a bagpipe. This is followed by a rapid sixteenth note passage with trills and flying staccato.

Caprice No. 21 in A major - Amoroso – Presto: Caprice 21 begins with a very expressive, aria-like melody played in double-stopped sixths. This is followed by a section of rapid up-bow staccato.

Caprice No. 22 in F major - Marcato: Caprice 22 explores many types of double and triple stops with louré bowing, then implementing various elements of slurred staccato, slurred tremolos and strings crossings.

Caprice No. 23 in E-flat major - Posato: Caprice No. 23 begins with a melody in octaves in E-flat. The middle, contrasting section is a formidable exercise in string crossings: it requires the violinist to play patterns of 3 sixteenth notes on the G string and then cross quickly to play one on the E string, and then back to the G string, all at a quick tempo.

Caprice No. 24 in A minor - Tema con Variazioni (Quasi Presto): Caprice No. 24 in A minor is the final caprice of Niccolò Paganini's 24 Caprices, and a famous work for solo violin. The work, in the key of A minor, consists of a theme, 11 variations, and a finale.

It is widely considered one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the solo violin. It requires many highly advanced techniques such as parallel octaves and rapid shifting covering many intervals, extremely fast scales and arpeggios including minor scales in thirds and tenths, left hand pizzicato, high positions, and quick string crossing.

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Niccolò Paganini - 24 Caprices for solo Violin, Op. 1.

The End

The Gift of Soothing Piano

Ludwig van Beethoven – Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59 – “Für Elise"

Jazz Suite No. 2: VI. Waltz 2

1ère Gymnopédie.

Live video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZd4BYOzXBo

Lent et douloureux.
Slow and sorrowful.

"Oblique et coupant l'ombre un torrent éclatant; Ruisselait en flots d'or sur la dalle polie; Où les atomes d'ambre au feu se miroitant; Mêlaient leur sarabande à la gymnopédie."

"Slanting and shadow-cutting a flickering eddy
Trickled in gusts of gold to the shiny flagstone
Where the atoms of amber in the fire mirroring themselves
Mingled their sarabande to the gymnopaedia"

- Contamine de Latour

The instrument is a Clavia Nord Stage 2 using a sampled Yamaha C7 with a generous amount of reverb and phaser, and a thin layer of strings.

Video

Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No. 1 [phaser]

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Beethoven and Chill

Moonlight Sonata, quasi una fantasia Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, Op.27 No.2: I. Adagio sostenuto

Classical music performance and arranging by Andrei Gulaikin (aka Gulan). New Age & ambient music composing.