Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 3, Prokofiev Piano Concerto no. 5 & Bartok Piano Concerto no.2

Emil Gilels, piano

New Philharmonia Orchestra, Maazel

on Tchaikovsky no. 3

Sviatoslav Richter, piano

London Symphony Orchestra, Maazel

on Prokofiev no. 5

Sviatoslav Richter, piano

Orchestre de Paris, Maazel

on Bartok no. 2

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Justin Taylor's La Premiere Neige D'Hiver

Justin Taylor born 1984 Brandon, MB CANADA

I am proud to call myself a friend and fan of Canadian born composer Justin Taylor. Taylor lives in Toronto, Canada and is quite visible in the modern classical world. He cites his main inspirations as most of the French and Russian composers of the 20th century. Taylor seems paticularly enamoured with Darius Milhaud and his experiments with polytonality.

This is not his latest work, but it was written in September of this year for conductor Alun Francis. It is a piece which is very much appropriate this time of year "La Premiere Neige D'Hiver" (The First Snow of Winter). He posted the demo of his orchestration along with a video he animated with manager Julio Colorado on YouTube recently:

Stravinsky-The Firebird/The Rite of Spring

Igor Stravinsky

The Firebird/The Rite of Spring

BRT Philharmonic Orchestra

Alexander Rahbari

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Arthur Honegger 1892-1955

Symphonies 4 & 5, Pacific 231



Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse

conducted by Michel Plasson

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Quotes:Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon is a composer born in Brooklyn, New York in 1962.

I won't start a piece until I meet with the person, hear them play and hear what they like.

Quotes:Justin Taylor

Justin Taylor born 1984 is a composer born in Brandon, Manitoba Canada and currently living in Toronto.

I tend to embrace both the English and French parts of my homeland, but that is out of sheer love for our culture and diversity of its peoples. But if one were to ask if I write music that is predominately Canadian, I'd give that a resounding no. My music reflects my own personal tastes.

Quotes:Michael Colgrass

Michael Colgrass is a composer born 1932 in Chicago, currently living in Toronto, Canada.

I’m not trying to pull any tricks or dazzle anybody. I’m trying to make a music which convinces me, and which is interesting to me. It’s as simple as that.

Quotes:Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky born 17 June 1882– 6 April 1971 was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor.

Music, by its very nature, is essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature, etc…. Expression has never been an inherent property of music. That is by no means the purpose of its existence.

Quotes:Elliot Carter

Elliott Carter born December 11, 1908 is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City.

I began to be interested in many of aspects of composition besides the harmonic structure. I felt that if I used a very - not simple, but easily manipulated harmonic structure then I could focus on other aspects of composition, like the spacing of chords and musical characterisation.

And you see one of the very basic problems of all this is I'm really writing contrapuntal music so that these chords are seldom notes played at the same time. And already this ends up causing a conflict of purpose. The problem has always been for the me the desire for a kind of contrapuntal and polyrhythmic structure, which couldn't sound the chords as simultaneous attacks. It involved all kinds of intellectual conflicts. I mean if you have one line going one way and another line coming against it, how do you decide which of the intervals you consider part of the structure?

Honegger Symphonies 1-3

Arthur Honegger 1892-1955

Symphonies 1-3



Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse

conducted by Michel Plasson



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