Sibelius: Valse Triste (Benjamin Zander - Interpretation Class)

[@TechTomVideo]

Sanders always: 1. Beautiful, bravo, i loved it. 2. i like you to consider - not seen as a critic, but 3. "do you know the background of the composer..." and then...... corrections, tips, suggestions, more corrections, ... essentially half an hour of dismantlement and rebuilding the player 4. perfection

[@cush6827]

Sanders ??

[@raymondhummel5211]

As usual I am so pleased in the way Benjamin Zander instills enthusiasm in his students. Always positive, even dances and sings! So multitalented! I thought the way he worked with the students was so good in the fact that he changes dynamics softens and increases volume on certain lines they were playing. Giving them a new idea on how to count out the measures.

[@togoth1]

every time the peice sounds fantastic the first time... then after 15mins of direction it some how sounds even more beautiful!! Amazing teacher

[@bonnerbill]

Zander - so diplomatic, gentle and persuasive

[@cliffjamesmusic]

Just started the day with this. Wonderful! Thanks.

[@martinwest2538]

The lady on the vibraphone not to be forgotten, she plays very elegantly the rather difficult instrument! She manages the pedal really well, and her hitting accuracy is splendid! About the tempo, I'm sure Sibelius had not in mind such a big difference in tempo between the two parts - in fact he didn't note any tempo changes at all. In this performance the first part might perhaps have been slightly faster, while the fast one correspondingly quite a bit slower. I don't like the strong attack on the first notes after the end of the "turmoil", either (at 4:03). It's "meno f" with mf in the accompaniment, so a lighter touch would be appropriate. Like a "sigh", floating out into the last breath of the poor woman in the story (see the answer of JP dJ to Ziwei Miao here in the comment section 2 years ago for more details). The arrangement for mallets is very good, by the way!

[@nuppup]

So beautiful!! Thank you Mr. Sibelius❤️

[@Hotsk]

Way to go, John! Absolutely beautiful.

[@MsMoniss]

Mr. Sander isn't a conductor, cellist, teacher or Maestro. He is a music.

[@TechTomVideo]

that is the job of a conductor, when he is not conducting, so that he later can conduct his work in front of an audience.

[@diegogamba2601]

Straordinari!

[@chad4149]

that was amazing music.expressive

[@bastiatintheandes4958]

Hypnotic

[@theluher]

This is beautiful, is there a recording?

[@whoknowsknight9628]

Ahhh music ... this waltz is featured in the italien 1976 animation movie « Allegro ma non troppo « in a beautiful way. Check it out

[@nakedmambo]

Surely the young lady is playing a vibraphone? Though who would notice considering he hardly commented on her great performance while lauding the young fellow.

[@plumjam]

It seems the young guy wrote the arrangement, so that was why Benjamin concentrated on him.

[@maximaxoo]

Definitely a vibraphone indeed

[@gab2550]

This class usually is some student performing with some accompaniment. In this case he is the student and she's the accompaniment, shes probably already a professional

[@williamland2646]

John is a protege of Zander. He is focused on him for purposes of featuring a wonderful musician he has in his ensemble, BPYO.

[@matthewv789]

@@gab2550 Yes, I think Rainice (who is from Hong Kong) was doing postgrad studies at NEC and BU at the time.

[@raisinbrahms5872]

Worst possible place for an ad 18:58 :(

[@HuangShang010]

This music is so cuuuuute!!

[@jpdj2715]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valse_triste_(Sibelius) "The background to the music as it functions within the original play is expanded upon by the programme notes for the production: It is night. The son, who has been watching beside the bedside of his sick mother, has fallen asleep from sheer weariness, Gradually a ruddy light is diffused through the room: there is a sound of distant music: the glow and the music steal nearer until the strains of a valse melody float distantly to our ears. The sleeping mother awakens, rises from her bed and, in her long white garment, which takes the semblance of a ball dress, begins to move silently and slowly to and fro. She waves her hands and beckons in time to the music, as though she were summoning a crowd of invisible guests. And now they appear, these strange visionary couples, turning and gliding to an unearthly valse rhythm. The dying woman mingles with the dancers; she strives to make them look into her eyes, but the shadowy guests one and all avoid her glance. Then she seems to sink exhausted on her bed and the music breaks off. Presently she gathers all her strength and invokes the dance once more, with more energetic gestures than before. Back come the shadowy dancers, gyrating in a wild, mad rhythm. The weird gaiety reaches a climax; there is a knock at the door, which flies wide open; the mother utters a despairing cry; the spectral guests vanish; the music dies away. Death stands on the threshold." Here "death" means a personification as if that person is coming to take her away. These days, movies have a music score. Around 1900, a stage play could have something like that: incidental music. The title of the stage play is "death" in Finnish (Kuolema).

[@premchand828]

Is this a lullaby?

[@thekillerpenguin4721]

Does anyone know where i can buy this

[@annbellgrau]

This is really beautiful but I don't know why it's named Kuolema, meaning death, it doesn't sound like that at all😂

[@sampatterson3909]

Hey Sorbet, It was originally incidental music for play called Kuoloema but the actual name of the piece is just Valse Triste (or Sad Waltz)

[@annbellgrau]

@@sampatterson3909 Oh, okay! Thanks for the clarification :)

[@rv706]

"Più pianissimo" isn't Italian. That should be "ancora più piano" (= even more "piano")

[@emilianohernandez2456]

rv706 È lo stesso

[@rv706]

@@emilianohernandez2456 No. Btw I'm Italian.

[@corretto9647]

@@emilianohernandez2456 Assolutamente no, ma a Zander si perdona tutto.

They're already playing in pianissimo, and they're supposed to play even more pianissimo. May not make sense linguistically, but as a musical pointing, it is about as clear as it gets.