Schubert: String Quintet - 2nd movement (Benjamin Zander - Interpretation Class)

[@andrewknight8778]

Beautiful how he draws these terrific musicians into more deeply exploring the music and its meaning. You can see in their faces how much they love and enjoy the process.

[@littlebuddhakl]

I don't usually comment ... But there are no such things as terrible musicians. All musicians, whether students, hobby musicians or professionals are great people who are all on the same path, even if it is not the same way ... We should all be grateful that there are people who give us pleasure with their music. thanks

[@mrgrimmer7997]

@@littlebuddhakl He surely meant terrific in the good sense. Also you are conflating goodness of heart with competence, its best to accept that some people have put more work and effort (and also have different degrees of natural aptitude) in a particular area than others.

[@raymondhummel5211]

Such a beautiful piece of music! String quartets have such a magnificent sound when the violins, violas, cellos play together. Such dissonance in the music. Conveys a feeling of desperation. Music done in three's each time louder and louder. Good constructive ideas from Benjamin Zander.

[@gieripaucar9454]

Every People in this world would have to see this lesson for life.

[@ryanlimpus9202]

I love how hands on he is with the performers. You can tell his effectiveness at literally changing their body expression to fit the music.

[@RochestersGotTalentbyPaulRefic]

perfect just the right mix the bass is awesome its the foundation well done perfect blend like a perfect cup of coffee

[@caltamino]

I love Benjamin Zander, and I have become a great fan of these classes and of Zander after I discovered these classes more or less by accident. He has done some extraordinary transformations with young musicians in these classes. Here too, he greatly improved on what this quintet did initially with this marvelous music. But I feel that for the first time Zander at least partially failed. And I think he failed because he did not tell this first violinist especially, and the rest of this group what this music is all about. He talks about despair, and yes there is despair in this music, but he does not tell them why. And that is essential to play this music right. So I think that even at the end, which is much much much better than at the beginning they still do not play this music right, because they still do not understand what it is all about.

[@madraven07]

Phenomenal. I just had a spontaneous buried memory come to light listening to their coached version.

[@gieripaucar9454]

I can´t believe my ears, so beautiful!!!!

[@inekehickin3402]

I sob my eyes out when I play this, oh my heart breaks

[@sirwholland7]

Wow, when they first started it was like 5 individuals dying of anaemia all shouting atonal epithets at the fading light and not listing to the anguished pleas of the others... by the end it was orchestral unity conveying the emotion and beauty so perfectly my eyes and my heart welled up.

[@erringman]

Zander starts at 8:39

[@sedatakkas8427]

After the moment that he separated violinist lady, i had goosebumps

[@arasswara1651]

I'm speechless 💔

[@RochestersGotTalentbyPaulRefic]

this is the blues, sad i am learing a lot from these lessons

[@averywilliams1427]

4:15 I love how he's noticed the kid wanted to look at the sheet music and canted it a little to share.

[@RochestersGotTalentbyPaulRefic]

see you have the blues in classical storm, sad storys,,,thats the blues

[@Twinhouse1950]

I love Zanders approach to classical music. He have taken the trouble to think as the composer. Imagine if we had the same possibility of guidance in other fields of music. Jazz, Rock and Pop. Music of the future is based on musical history. Why not with an approach that covers all music styles. So, where are you - the future master of music?

[@mmccrownus2406]

jazz rock and pop are mostly surface level, shallow, unworthy. A lot of it is MK Ultra psychic domination by evil.

[@RochestersGotTalentbyPaulRefic]

thats how you play the real blues

[@caltamino]

The first thing for me is that this group starts out with no idea what this music is all about. I am a violinist, and I played this piece many many times, as well as listened to the greatest interpretations of it available. This is the most beautiful and deepest music ever written. It's emotional content is extraordinary, and this group just does not get it. They play the npotes, and play them well but they do not understand what they mean. And so their interpretation while not ugly falls very far from what this music is all about. This music is about LOVE and DEATH. Schubert wrote it just a few weeks before dying of syphilis at the age of 31 I write this while listening to their initial performance of this marvelous music. I will comment further as I finish listening to what Zander does with them.

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

So people still perpetrate that myth that Schubert died of syphilis? He actually died of typhus. Which is basically a blessing for him. Had he lived longer he would have probably ended up like Schumann who died of brain degeneration (progressive paralysis) caused by syphilis, very much like Smetana who first turned deaf and then mad as his brain was turned to goo by the illness.

[@shuanggeng4833]

agree

[@caltamino]

Zander likes to insist on a unifying tempo. But the greatest musicians that played this music do not take the turbulent middle part in the same tempo as the serene opening and end of this piece. They play the middle part faster. So in my opinion, this is a mistake that Zander makes here. Listen for example to the extraordinary performance of the Emerson quartet with Mstislav Rostropovich kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpO9n5aaa9mmiMU Listen to it with a metronome and you will see that 1. They constantly change the tempo with Rubato 2. And that they take the middle part substantially faster This music, in my opinion, REQUIRES this change in tempo, even if it is not indicated in Schubert's score. Music is interpretation. It is impossible to play it right, unless the interpreter tries to understand what the music says. It is as if the heart beat accelerated with what is being expressed. As it does in real life...

[@brodhax6148]

Its boring if everybody plays it the same way. I thought Zanders interpretation was beautiful

[@dancroitoru364]

There are two approaches here. One is the emotional approach: serene is slow, hurting is fast. The second is more dialectical: serene but prefiguring the storm so when that comes it elevates the serene part to a new meaning.

[@aqvaice]

Eek, they are very not in tuned as a quintet :/

[@inekehickin3402]

😢😢😢😢

[@maiarho]

Okay, I wasn't moved by the interpretation of this group. However, what shocked me most was the statement of Zander, that adding a 2nd cello to the quartet makes it an orchestra. Is it because he is cellist, or because he had a bad day? Turning a string quartet into something like an orchestra does not need a 2nd cello, but a double bass. I am really sorry that Schubert didn't add a bass. But, who knows? I know that the level of bass playing changed all the time, and maybe Schubert didn't make good experiences with bassists. However, in his famous Trout Quintet, he added a bass. So he most probably did not have the idea of a small orchestra in mind, but a quartet with 2 cellos.

[@aidanmccormack5443]

He merely said the compositional use of the second cello could easily be given to a bassist.

[@jarodatkinson5306]

This poor guy... No-one told him his singing is awful, so now he makes those horrible noises in front of everyone!... Reminds me of a good mate of mine who teaches high school music... He sings all the time while jamming at home, but no-one has the heart to tell him how bad it is, so he keeps doing it....

[@garrysmodsketches]

He is perfectly aware that his singing is terrible. He is not a singer after all, he is a conductor!

[@matthewbaker2325]

I love the string instruments are so beautifully played and those ladies are so talented, but that old geezer is ruining it for them and if I was there I would tell him to shove off