Members of the EPO have been meeting on Zoom every week to share individually curated programs of music off YouTube. Please enjoy the selections by yourselves or with friends. We usually meet for 10 minutes before the concert for a chat, go off and listen to the first half, return for a drink at the interval, and then listen to the second half before checking in for a final connect.
When I lived in Freiburg, I connected with a guitarist who played Zigeuner jazz and taught me how to improvise–never quite like Grappelli, but it made a change from Bach. We would pile into his Citroen 2CV and head across the border to France, to Colmar, where we met up with the Basssist–drinking cheap red wine, playing Django tunes, in his kitchen–local kids sitting in the windows listening. It felt as if I was in a film!
You may have noted Django's two fingers and be astounded by the speed of his runs. He lost them in a fire.
I had a flatmate in London who played this late Beethoven sonata for about five hours a day. Surprisingly, I never tired of it.
Mendelsshon wrote this when he was just sixteen – the age, it seems, of some of these players. The joy of this performance and the way they communicate it is astonishing.
Mozart's Magic Flute Overture, Riccardo Muti & Vienna Philharmonic
Liszt's Les Preludes, conducted by Daniel Barenboim and The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Alternative choice: Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 with Emmanuel Axe, piano, conducted by Bernard Haitink with the ECO.
Zoom conversation between Arthur Ozolins (pianist), Matthew Jones (conductor) and Mark Whale (concertmaster) about Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2
Canadian pianist, Arthur Ozolins, socially distancing behind his piano, performs the opening of Brahms' piano concerto no. 2, horn solo and all.
"Arthur Ozolins burst onto the Canadian classical music scene in the early 1960s. The Latvian-born virtuoso, who arrived in Toronto via Argentina in 1958, came with dazzling technique and genuine charisma. He's appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra more than 50 times and won Canada's first Juno Award for best classical recording. He built an international fan club thanks to concerts with leading orchestras all over the world. — D.B.
Essential recording: Rachmaninov, Willan: Piano Concertos (CBC Records)"
The 25 best Canadian classical pianists
https://www.cbc.ca/music/read/the-25-best-canadian-classical-pianists-1.5086510
Mark Whale, Concertmaster, shares his favourite tune from Brahms' Piano Concerto
EPO's 1st violinist, Katrina Grieve, shares some thoughts from lockdown and is clearly still practising!
Jessica celebrates the first performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the all important bass part!
Website compiled and created by Mark Whale