Playlists to Inspire and Nurture You
June 17, 2020
If you're like me, your first exposure as a child to Classical music was by way of Looney Tunes. Who can forget the brilliance of Fritz Freleng's opera-inspired episodes like the "Rabbit of Seville" or the Wagnerian-themed "Kill the Wabbit"?
The first classical music concert I attended was at the age of 10 when my beloved elementary school music teacher treated me and my twin sister to a performance of Grieg's Pier Gynt Suite by the New York Philharmonic conducted by a very young Michael Tilson Thomas. I was reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit at the time and to my ears Greig's suite was the musical story-book version.
My favorite childhood entertainer was the insanely talented Danny Kaye. Remember his hilarious and charming The Little Fiddle? For a Danny Kaye fix, I enthusiastically recommend his engaging live concert from 1981 in which he conducts the New York Philharmonic. And what a conductor he is! If you want kids to fall in love with music, watch this together. Better yet, grab a pencil or a chopstick and conduct together!
Listen with fresh ears to the old stand-bys! Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is an orchestral storybook. In a similar vein is Camille Saint-Saëns phantastical Carnival of Animals. Each of the 14 movements represents an animal, including a lion, donkey, and elephant, as well as fossils, an aquarium, and an aviary. Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade (his setting of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights), and his spicy Capriccio Espagnol are appealing to kids of all ages. And so what if it's June? Listen to the Nutcracker Ballet and dance!
When my son was a little boy we used to crank the Toreador Song from Bizet's Opera Carmen and pull out a beach towel and take turns playing bull and matador. The overture packs a punch because it includes lots of themes from the colorful opera.
Create your own art gallery with young listeners. Pull out the paint set and make your own "Pictures at an Exhibition" while listening to Mussorgsky's masterpiece in the original piano version or Ravel's orchestration, or try something new like a track from our friends from the Formosa Quartet's acclaimed From Hungary to Taiwan album.
Finally, because kids most love to see kids making music, I leave you with the best children's performance anywhere online. So pure. So perfect. Goes right to the heart. Enjoy!
I miss you all!
Karen Kevra
If you're like me, your first exposure as a child to Classical music was by way of Looney Tunes. Who can forget the brilliance of Fritz Freleng's opera-inspired episodes like the "Rabbit of Seville" or the Wagnerian-themed "Kill the Wabbit"?
The first classical music concert I attended was at the age of 10 when my beloved elementary school music teacher treated me and my twin sister to a performance of Grieg's Pier Gynt Suite by the New York Philharmonic conducted by a very young Michael Tilson Thomas. I was reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit at the time and to my ears Greig's suite was the musical story-book version.
My favorite childhood entertainer was the insanely talented Danny Kaye. Remember his hilarious and charming The Little Fiddle? For a Danny Kaye fix, I enthusiastically recommend his engaging live concert from 1981 in which he conducts the New York Philharmonic. And what a conductor he is! If you want kids to fall in love with music, watch this together. Better yet, grab a pencil or a chopstick and conduct together!
Listen with fresh ears to the old stand-bys! Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is an orchestral storybook. In a similar vein is Camille Saint-Saëns phantastical Carnival of Animals. Each of the 14 movements represents an animal, including a lion, donkey, and elephant, as well as fossils, an aquarium, and an aviary. Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade (his setting of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights), and his spicy Capriccio Espagnol are appealing to kids of all ages. And so what if it's June? Listen to the Nutcracker Ballet and dance!
When my son was a little boy we used to crank the Toreador Song from Bizet's Opera Carmen and pull out a beach towel and take turns playing bull and matador. The overture packs a punch because it includes lots of themes from the colorful opera.
Create your own art gallery with young listeners. Pull out the paint set and make your own "Pictures at an Exhibition" while listening to Mussorgsky's masterpiece in the original piano version or Ravel's orchestration, or try something new like a track from our friends from the Formosa Quartet's acclaimed From Hungary to Taiwan album.
Finally, because kids most love to see kids making music, I leave you with the best children's performance anywhere online. So pure. So perfect. Goes right to the heart. Enjoy!
I miss you all!
Karen Kevra
May 28, 2020
~The bells of Montpelier
There has been much discussion about the extra bell-ringing in Montpelier recently, to the delight of some and irritation of others. I was lucky enough to live on Cherry Avenue in Montpelier in my perch high above town for over two decades. By my calculation the bells rang about 195,000 times while I lived there! Years ago, I passed a summer afternoon on my porch in the company of my beloved teacher Louis Moyse. He misted over when he heard the bells and said to me, "You know, you are lucky to live here. If you can hear the sound of the bells, then you are blessed."
So with bells in my head, and my heart I bring you a playlist of music inspired by bells.
I wish you blessings whenever you hear the bells.
Karen Kevra
There has been much discussion about the extra bell-ringing in Montpelier recently, to the delight of some and irritation of others. I was lucky enough to live on Cherry Avenue in Montpelier in my perch high above town for over two decades. By my calculation the bells rang about 195,000 times while I lived there! Years ago, I passed a summer afternoon on my porch in the company of my beloved teacher Louis Moyse. He misted over when he heard the bells and said to me, "You know, you are lucky to live here. If you can hear the sound of the bells, then you are blessed."
So with bells in my head, and my heart I bring you a playlist of music inspired by bells.
- First on the list is the life-affirming "Harmonious Blacksmith" Variations of Handel. It opens with a glorious "hammer striking the anvil." This warm and playful rendition by Murray Perahia might just be the best ever.
- Next is the Asian-inspired theme from Louis Moyse's Introduction, Theme and Variations. Pianist Paul Orgel and I are playing here. Louis instructed me to produce deep dark bell sounds, while Paul provided chains of tinkling bells.
- Big Russian bells ring out in the first movement of Rachmaninoff's famous Piano Concerto #2 in this exciting live performance by pianist Lang Lang.
- Debussy's Prelude "La Cathédrale engloutie" is played by the poetic pianist Krystian Zimerman. Douarnenez Bay, off of Brittany, is the supposed location for the mythological sunken city which inspired Debussy's musical evocation of a ruined cathedral under the sea.
- Bohuslav Martinů was the son of the village bell-ringer and was literally raised in an apartment in a bell tower in Czechoslovakia. And it shows! The first movement of his flute sonata is teeming with bell sounds performed here by Marina Piccinini-flute and Eva Kupiec-pianist.
- Ravel's 'La vallée des cloches' is performed here by the young Parisian pianist Bertrand Chamayou. It makes me think of the bells ringing in the valley in which Montpelier sits. Lou Harrison's unsual Chaconne from the Suite for violin and American Gamelanis mesmerizing.
- This past January, many of us were treated to an unforgettable and moving performance by pianist Jeffrey Chappell of Pictures at an Exhibition. The final "picture" is "The Great Gate of Kiev" included here as recorded by Alfred Brendel.
I wish you blessings whenever you hear the bells.
Karen Kevra
|
I've created a Spotify playlist for you which includes some of my favorite things: Claudio Arrau's perfect Chopin Nocturnes, Murray Perahia's poetic Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations. You'll hear Saint-Saëns evocative "Swan" from his Carnival of the Animals, Mozart's heart-breakingly beautiful Adagio from the G major Violin Concerto #3, Jeffrey Chappell's very own Aphrodite, so sultry and gossamer...and much more. The set opens with Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma's sublime Stephen Foster lullaby, Slumber, My Darling, one of the most beautiful things I know.
Hoping this brings you peaceful moments and sweet dreams. LISTEN HERE If you don't have a Spotify account you can open one for free using this link: Free Spotify Be safe. Be well. Be home. And keep listening to music. Karen Kevra Founder and Artistic Director |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|