Amazing Classical Music Concerts Available on YouTube

[audreyh1]

Wow - we really had a nice concert night at home today. I ran across a couple of performances on YouTube that were worth bringing up on the big TV and surround sound system. Just fantastic video and sound, you almost feel like you’re at the concert except that you get closeup views of the performers.

It’s really incredible what you can experience in the privacy your living room these days.

An amazingly intimate video recording of a fantastic organist playing the huge pipe organ in the Berlin Cathedral. Reminds us of our organ concert experience in the Karlskirche in Vienna. The whole building interior is the soundbox, so the organist has to slow it down a bit to accommodate the reverb.

A performance of Vivaldi’s Winter like I’ve never heard! Amazing violinist, and outstanding chamber ensemble on baroque instruments.

 

[splitwdw]

Thanks. Vivaldi is one of my favorite composers.

 

[imoldernu]

Re: Bach
Just seeing the magnificent organ sent chills. An incredible creation.

The Tocatta and Fugue in D minor brought back memories. Circa 1956, and studying music, I can vividly recall sitting in the music room with headphones, for many hours... Parsing the Bach Fugue on paper. Going back again and again to pick up repeats, inversions, and a lot of terms I can't remember. I use Alexa to get this to help me to sleep.

A quick look for parsing the piece brought up this YouTube piece. For anyone who hasn't experienced the fun of parsing music, this might be interesting.

That anyone could play that is beyond my comprehension. Arpeggio, anacrusic, doloroso... and a full encyclopedia of terms that have long since passed this old memory.

https://www.musicnotes.com/now/tips/glossary-of-musical-terms/

Thanks for the memories...

 

[Midpack]

Thanks. Vivaldi is one of my favorite composers.

+1. Four Seasons is one of my favorite works.


Thanks for sharing Audrey.


I don't think some people have caught on to how much great content can be found on YouTube these days. It's not low res videos of cats playing toy pianos anymore. I watch YouTube more often than broadcast TV these days.


It's almost time for my annual post of the impromptu Ode to Joy video, also great video and audio, worthy of a large TV with good audio. That one still brings tears of joy to my eyes, wish I could have been there unaware of what was coming.

 

[audreyh1]

Re: Bach
Just seeing the magnificent organ sent chills. An incredible creation.

The Tocatta and Fugue in D minor brought back memories. Circa 1956, and studying music, I can vividly recall sitting in the music room with headphones, for many hours... Parsing the Bach Fugue on paper. Going back again and again to pick up repeats, inversions, and a lot of terms I can't remember. I use Alexa to get this to help me to sleep.

That anyone could play that is beyond my comprehension. Arpeggio, anacrusic, doloroso... and a full encyclopedia of terms that have long since passed this old memory.

https://www.musicnotes.com/now/tips/glossary-of-musical-terms/

Thanks for the memories...

Very cool visual representation of the piece.

Growing up I heard my mother play that toccata and fugue many times on the big cathedral pipe organ. It’s always a thrill.

As a youngster I became addicted to Bach, who was my mother’s favorite composer. The intricate patterns, counterpoint, repeats, etc. Just beautiful complexity and yet sounding so good.

If you enjoyed that organ performance, here is a really neat video recording of the same organist playing Bach on a much older organ from the 1720s. You really get a great look at the organist’s footwork, and later in the piece they even have some video from inside the bowels of the organ while it’s being played!

 

[audreyh1]

I don't think some people have caught on to how much great content can be found on YouTube these days. It's not low res videos of cats playing toy pianos anymore. I watch YouTube more often than broadcast TV these days.

Well I hadn’t quite caught up, even though now and again I would stumble on a musical performance (any genre), and realize it was worth playing on the home theater/sound system, and then sit back and really enjoy the beautiful music and watching the performance on a large screen.

I just hadn’t been proactive in seeking those performances out. That is now going to change! I occasionally wish we were in Vienna or some similar major city and I could easily get to a great concert. But really, finding the performances on YouTube is almost as good. Not the same as actually sittting in the concert hall, feeling the performance. But gee - finding that caliber of performance available, getting tickets, and traveling serious distances to get there is a lot of work!

 

[lucky penny]

One of my favorites on youtube is this performance of Bach's cello suites -- commercial-free & it's my "background music" almost every day. It always takes me back to a concert I saw by Yo-Yo Ma at St Ignatius Loyola Church in NYC. One of the great joys of my life. Breathtaking. Unforgettable.

(Youtube has a nice version of Ma performing the suites but it's interrupted by discussions. Sometimes you just want to hear the music.)

 

[Bamaman]

As a young woodwind player in Nashville, Tennessee, my musician friends and I would hit the classical concerts that came to town, like the New York Promusica. I always loved the brilliance of the pipe organs.

Every time I listen to such music in my retirement years, I'm relaxed and I nod off to sleep.

But when I open YouTube.com and put Lola Astanova on, I'm fully awake and in awe of her virtuosity and sense of "style."

 

[imoldernu]

Back to talk about my secret love... Sarah Brightman. Jeanie knows about this so I have to be careful.

I still have and listen to some 200+ MP3's that I downloaded back in the days of Napster. If I were ever to go to a concert that wasn't free, it would be Sarah's. Chicago on Feb 14... pit tickets last I checked were $480 to $540. Imagine frugal me paying $1000+ to go to a concert!

She's as beautiful as her music... fantastic range to E6 and the emotion-perfect
presentation is awesome. She speaks/sings in 11 different languages. She has been professionally singing since 1973 and now at age 58, she continues on the concert tour with an entourage of hundreds. She has now collected over 180 gold and platinum record awards in 38 different countries. With Andrea Bocelli, her "Time to Say Goodbye" album sold 12 million copies.

 

[Midpack]

I’m guessing the OP has also watched Summer by the same baroque ensemble.

https://youtu.be/RvDt_KtOzbc

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Perhaps a little grim, but in my Dad's last days here on earth, I am certain that many of these fantastic YouTube concerts made his quality of life and passing a little better. Before he got ill, he would spend HOURS watching these performances and telling stories of seeing many of them live "back in the day".

Eventually when he was bed ridden, I would play these on a large TV and he would watch and smile for hours...thankfully, he had a nice, long playlist so there few "repeats". It did get to the point that when he fell unconscious and the family had said their last words, we played the music 24/7 and he eventually passed...very peacefully. I do think that his absolute love of those classical wonders made it a little easier for him.

 

[deserat]

Perhaps a little grim, but in my Dad's last days here on earth, I am certain that many of these fantastic YouTube concerts made his quality of life and passing a little better. Before he got ill, he would spend HOURS watching these performances and telling stories of seeing many of them live "back in the day".

Eventually when he was bed ridden, I would play these on a large TV and he would watch and smile for hours...thankfully, he had a nice, long playlist so there few "repeats". It did get to the point that when he fell unconscious and the family had said their last words, we played the music 24/7 and he eventually passed...very peacefully. I do think that his absolute love of those classical wonders made it a little easier for him.

I did something a bit similar for my Mom - she was in a group home very briefly before her death and there was a TV with cable. The care person had put on a station that was really not my Mom. I visited and changed it to classical music, which she had always loved. I like to believe that it helped ease her way to her death and it made it more 'her' room and experience.

 

[audreyh1]

I’m guessing the OP has also watched Summer by the same baroque ensemble.

https://youtu.be/RvDt_KtOzbc

No not yet. I was plannng to hunt down the other seasons and hoped they were available. Thanks!