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For the week concluding Saturday, January 4th, 2009.

Itsumo Nando – Symphony Orchestra of India

The title says symphony orchestra, but it’s actually a quartet, and quite lovely!  They play the ending theme from Spirited Away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwOTmKeonkE

Yo-Yo Ma & Itzhak Perlman – Humoresque, Dvorak

There is one performance that should never fail to bring tears to your eyes, and that is this wonderful, lush and beautiful performance of Dvorak’s “Humoresque”, featuring Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman soloing while Seiji Ozawa leads the orchestra behind them.  It is one of my favourite videos that I watch at least a few times a week, wishing that I could have been in that hall, absorbing that beautiful sound.  I can play the piece of the piano, yet it can never match that mesmerizing quality produced by the musicians in this video.  It cannot even reach a hundredth of that….

Joshua Bell plays “Ave Maria” by Schubert

The piece is well known for its haunting melody – here the lyrics are left behind and Joshua Bell brings out the melody alone with his fantastic skills…it is a very beautiful sound indeed.  Definitely one of my favourite performances of the piece.

“Inner Light”, The Beatles, featuring Anoushka Shankar

I don’t know much about Beatles music, but this was composed by George Harrison, who apparently had the greatest Indian influence (he was friends with Ravi Shankar).  This video is from a tribute concert after his death.  The lyrics are taken from the Tao Te Ching while the instruments are Indian classical instruments (Anoushka Shankar plays the Sitar).  It is quite a lovely piece of music.

Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos – Argerich and Baldocci

Not much to say here…..just a great performance of a magnificent piece by two fine pianists.