This is a idea that I’ve decided to do, which is have a weekly post which will include youtube videos and music that I’ve found interesting or have discovered over the past week. I won’t plug my own youtube videos (my account is prsnth1111).

Here are my picks for this week:

Martha Argerich Plays Ravel’s “Jeux D’eau” (Water Fountains)

This is a fantastic performance and interpretation of this piece, the most evocative and watery one I have heard on youtube.  Of course there’s a few complaints I have – namely I felt the ending was a bit too fast, as I have always preferred to savour that mesmerizing cadenza which closes the piece.  I also felt the climax which culminates in a pentatonic glissando was a bit rushed.  However, without a doubt this is the definitive performance of this piece.

Duet with Chinese Pipa Soloist and Indian Sitarist

A cross-cultural duet featuring Chinese pipa artist Gao Hong and Indian sitarist Shubhendra Rao (accompanied by Ty Burhoe, an American, on the Indian tablas). I absolutely love the deep and melidious tones of the sitar drifting through the Indian raagas as well as the skillful performance by Hong on Chinese pipa. The performance starts out relatively peaceful and calm. Once Burhoe comes in on the tabla, they begin to start building slowly… At 8:21 they begin a sort of call-response pattern, a similar sort of thing sometimes comes up in orchestral music between different sections of the orchestra. Rao plays a melodic tune and Hong, accompanied by the tabla will respond with her own take on it. The call and response patterns become shorter and shorter until they finally converge into a breathtaking and utterly satisfying climax at 9:00 that sends shivers up my spine every time I hear it…And I like how they’re all grinning at each other at around 9:21 =)

Oscar Peterson (Canadian!) plays “The Gentle Waltz”

Oscar seems to be past his prime in this video but his delicate playing is as enjoyable as ever.  This is one his own compositions and it is quite a charming piece.

Oscar Peterson and Andre Previn duet

Previn is more of a classical oriented musician but he certainly seems to have the chops for jazz.  I think it would be worth it to study jazz just to be able to understand what is going through these musician’s minds as they pull off a performance like this.  It is just wonderful.