Ceea ce mă enervează la micuţul nostru pre - emo este că, pe lângă setul infinit de întrebări, nedumeriri şi angoase ale păcătoasei noastre existenţe zilnice, el am mai adăugat vreo câteva sute. Asta e... De acum este prea târziu să mai putem repara sau ascunde ceva. Răul a fost săvârşit, doamnelor şi domnilor. Mergeţi în pace la casele voastre şi plângeţi pentru că a existat un astfel de om, o astfel de pată pe (i)maculata noastră conştiinţă.

...hm, dar poate că totuşi s-ar putea inventa ceva care să ni-l facă plăcut. De ce să fim atât de pesimişti, de... kafkiani? E de ajuns unul ca el, nu mai vrem altul. Au trecut anii şi, iată, am ajuns în epoca blog-ului, a singurătăţii, a imposibilităţii de a comunica cu cel de lângă noi (chiar dacă avem Net de 10 M/s sau ultimul Nokia, care are opţiunile vorbeşte în plus / vorbeşte singur / vorbeşte degeaba), a democraţiei culturale... Uraaaaa. Mă simt ca într-o nuvelă a autorului nostru. Ce s-ar putea inventa?! Cum am putea să ne delectăm cu fostul funcţionar de la Generali? Unii au compus muzică, alţii au făcut desene animate (pentru adulţi, of course), alţii au măzgălit comics, iar cei mai neinspiraţi şi netalentaţi au făcut filme. Toate pornind de la vreo idee de-a lui... ştiţi voi, nu mai repet.

Astăzi mi-am propus să vă prezint câteva din aceste creaţii.

Animaţie

Koji Yamamura - Un medic de ţară (2007) [după Franz Kafka - Ein Landartzt]. Muzica: Hitomi Shimizu.

Unul dintre cele mai bune filme de animaţie pe care le-am putut vedea în existenţa-mi. Coloana sonoră este excepţională!

Dumala Piotr - Franz Kafka (1991). Muzica: Janusz Hajdun.

Film

Estevez Seven - metamorfosis. Inspirat după povestirea cu acelaşi nume a autorului nostru.

Muzică

Nigel Kennedy - Kafka (1996).

Stilul: Progressive fusion / jazz / etno.

Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks (2004).

Stilul: Electronic / Modern Classical / Neo-Classical / Ambient.

Un CD extraordinar, având în vedere că pasajele muzicale se intercalează cu lecturi din operele lui Kafka sublim citite de Tilda Swinton (oh, chiar ea!).

Dave's True Story - Unauthorized (2000).

Stilul: Jazz / Vocal Jazz.

Piesa numărul patru se numeşte: When Kafka Was the Rage. Ohooooo, nu vreau să-mi imaginez momentul :-)

Philip Glass - Solo Piano (1989).

Stilul: Classical / Minimalism / Modern Composition / Avant-Garde.

Cred că Glass nu mai are nevoie de nici o prezentare... Dacă aveţi nevoie de câteva info în plus, puteţi consulta Net-ul.

Acesta este un CD inuman! Ireal! Primele 5 piese se numesc Metamorphosis, toate fiind inspirate din povestirea lui nea' Franz. Extraordinar. Sau, cum spun americanii: a must have! Ascultându-l, mă gândeam: nu cumva geniul nostru, Kafka adic', s-a inspirat din muzica lui Glass? De ce nu, la o adică? În universul kafkian totul este (im)posibil.

Thomas Koppel - Mass for a case (1994)

Stilul: Avant-garde / Electronic / Prog-Rock / Art Rock / Experimental.

Adaptare liberă după Metamorfoze.

Lustmord - Zoetrope OST (2002).

Stilul: Dark Ambient.

Fraţilor, am ajuns şi la Lustmord. Aveţi grijă să închideţi bine geamurile, gazul, să ascundeţi lamele de ras, cuţitele de / din bucătărie... înainte de a asculta albumul. Kafka ar fi fost, probabil, unul dintre mega fanii acestui grup.

În sfârşit cineva a realizat că Franz nu a scris doar Metamorfoze ci şi Colonia penitenciară. Rânjesc gândacii din bucătărie... În curând pe marele ecrane!

]]> http://doctorstainforth.wordpress.com/?p=1626 Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:09:17 +0000 R.A.D. Stainforth http://doctorstainforth.da.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/british-conductor-father-of-fand-dies/

I’ve just read that Vernon Handley has died. I feel very shocked, as although he has been in poor health for years I didn’t realize he was close to death.

Tom Service pays tribute.

The Telegraph obituary
The Independent obituary
The Times obituary

He was at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool this year and I really enjoyed his rendition of Vaughan Williams’ Fifth Symphony. He was on sticks at the time but I didn’t know he was close to the end. His inability to appear with Nigel Kennedy at the Proms was a more disturbing sign. I trust there will be some sort of tribute when the RLPO’s new season opens on Friday.

His death all but closes the door on a school of British conducting which appears to have no younger exponents. After that bad crash, there were many who thought he’d never conduct again, so we should be grateful that he managed a return, even if only a brief one (though busy enough on the recording front).

One of the great things about Tod Handley was that he understood completely how the orchestra works, and how to structure both an efficient rehearsal and a persuasive performance. He never just rehearsed a band for his own ego, or because he didn’t really know the score, which alas is the case with many other conductors. And of course, as many others will say, he did plenty for British music, though some may remember the interview on CD Review, I believe, when he did put in a case for the considerable other repertoire he knew and had conducted all over.

I met him once and we spent about an hour together but his regular taxi driver told me about how he converted him to classical music by producing a different tape every time he had a journey and explaining the music as they traversed hill and dale, the driver reckoned he was one of the kindest and unpretentious men.

I was on the train from Manchester to Wales with my young friend Melissa. There was a rather confused deaf old git in the carriage who couldn’t hear the announcements of where we where so when we got to our destination I told him we had arrived. So off we tip from the train.

We get to station forecourt, no taxis! Deaf git says he will phone his son to pick him up. Telephone kiosk out of order (this is a one-horse Welsh town), so I spot an elderly gent with a mobile phone. I said “Can you call his son?” which he does. Then I ask elderly gent, “Do you have any local taxi numbers on your ’phone?”

Well, Handley (for it was he) called and the local cab firm had all been out on the piss (but it was late at night) but he had his regular driver booked. So the cab turned up for him and we agreed we share (otherwise we would be marooned) and so we set out, but to his place first as he lived opposite directions. Cabbie stopped outside Spar Shop for Handley to pop in, cabbie kept referring to him as “The Doctor”. I said, “Oh, is he from the hospital then?” No, he was Vernon Handley just returned from recording the last Bax symphony at Manchester. So, we got to his and his lovely dogs wagging a greeting but he told me the Matthews brothers (Col and Dave) were the ones to watch out for. Not totally convinced of that.

In fact, it was quite surreal. I have all Bax symphonies conducted by Handley and of course Elgar’s Violin Concerto with “Kennedy” but nothing else.

It was mentioned on BBC Radio 3 this morning that Tod felt his reputation as a conductor of English music had damaged his career. I think this is true – he was a fine musician who was capable of conducting anything. It certainly limited him.

Lovely bloke.

R.I.P. Vernon George Handley 11.11.1930 – 10.9.2008

Elgar’s Symphony No. 1
BBC Proms 22 July 2008
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Sir Roger Norrington

I enjoyed this – not having heard the work for a while, it was great to hear such a fresh and committed performance, and, even through the usual Lancashire murky FM reception, loads of detail and colour, although I could have done without the applause after the slow movement, which ruined what for me is always a magical moment, with the ominous start of the finale emerging from the silence.

Today I caught the BBC iPlayer presentation: Part Two of the Prom begins with some of Norrington’s pre-Prom talk at the Royal College of Music about the work, in which he mentioned that when Richter gave the premiere (announcing it as the “greatest modern symphony” to the orchestra as he began rehearsals), Elgar was called to the platform after each movement, and showered with applause. I’m told by a friend in London who attended that Norrington was actively encouraging applause between movements.

I find this applause tiresome and really on the borderline of discouraging me from attending concerts. If it ever tips over into jazz-style applause and cheering during the actual playing I will retire with my CD collection. If Norrington is really encouraging applause between movements then I’ll consider myself forewarned and just not go to any of his concerts. It seems a peculiarly arrogant thing for someone like him to do. It’s the kind of behaviour that I expect from someone like Nigel Kennedy – who actually had the cheek to ask for rounds of applause for the conductor and the orchestra after his performance of Elgar’s Violin Concerto – which rather suggests he presumed we were applauding him exclusively before that point!

Norrington is perhaps on a mission. It seems that this mission might be to rescue Elgar from the English.

Elgar was an outsider twice over – as a Roman Catholic and as a piano-tuner’s son in a country where music was a polite pastime of the rich. He was a whole-hearted European, teaching himself with reference to the music of Beethoven and Schumann, and was recognized as a modern on the European mainland. His closest musical associates were German – Richter, who declared the First Symphony the greatest symphony of modern times, and Jaeger. And he wrote music of direct emotional power, which was a deeply un-English thing to do (compare it with the oh-so-nice post World War I pastoral meanderings that people seem to want at the Proms instead of, well, Beethoven and Schumann).

So, Norrington and his German orchestra played the symphony that Elgar wrote – the work that Strauss celebrated as modern, that Richter celebrated as the greatest symphony of modern times. It was a performance that stripped away all the accretions of sentimental, parochial Englishness. No warm beer and spinsters cycling to mass here. No imperial echoes. Just music. Music of raw emotion, cleansed of knightly orotundities. Music with uncomfortable edge and power and presence. The English don’t like that.

Nigel's Quintent line up was from Poland :

•  Nigel Kennedy violin
•  Tomasz Grzegorski saxophone
• Piotr Wyleżol piano
• Adam Kowalewski double bass
• Paweł Dobrowolski percussion

for more details about Nigel Kennedy, visit his official website

for more details about the BBC Proms 2008 visit the official website ,  worth an experience.

Nigel Kennedy play his own summer-cadenza in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Polish Chamber Orchestra. I love it:

[audio http://falkeskjul.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/nigels-mozart-kadence-2.mp3]

I dag, da kold beregning er en dyd, er det en særlig fryd at høre musikere, som evner at røre os med sensuel varme, ligefremt og naturligt. Den engelske violinist Nigel Kennedy er en af dem, der kan det. Og jeg kan ikke lade være med her at dele min glæde ved hans spil. Hør her et eksempel fra hans herlige lyrisk frimodige kadence i første-satsen af Mozarts 4. Violinkoncert. Klik startknappen i afspilleren herover.

Med sine teatralske påfund og et musikalsk format, der stækker sig fra klassisk til punk og pop, er Nigel Kennedy berømt som det klassiske musikivs bad boy - arrangørerne af årets BBC Proms kalder ham sågar for "Maverick violinisten". Og dagens nyhed er, at Nigel Kennedy er blevet udelukket fra Classical Brit awards. Han passer ikke ind i det glamourøse show.

Sandt nok er traditionens glatte omgangstone med klassiske mestre på bonede gulve heller ikke rigtig ham, og så spiller han jo også jazz og folkemusik. Når han poserer for pressens fotografer med sit punker-look, er det rigtignok heller ikke lige til at se, men altså: Nigel Kennedy har god smag! Og han er så god en violinist, at selv det mest snerpede publikum ikke kommer udenom ham. - Selv forklarer han:

"Folk kan kalde mig en klassisk violinist, hvis de har lyst til det, men jeg har altid anset mig for at være en musiker, der spiller musik - ikke kun en bestemt del af den."

Oprindeligt støttet af en klassisk mester som Yehudi Menuhin er Nigel Kennedy ret beset en af de betydeligste engelske violinister nogensinde. Og så har han en egenskab, jeg sætter meget højt: Med et maksimum af følelse for alt, hvad han vælger at gøre, fylder han sit virtuose spil med liv og sjæl. Hvor ofte hører man ikke det modsatte - virtuositet uden sjæl, som han anser for værdiløst. På sin fornemme indspilning med Det polske Kammerorkester får han Beethovens Violinkoncert til at lyde, som om den var komponeret i går og ikke for 200 år siden. Og i Mozarts 4. Violinkoncert udfolder han sig frit og kreativt i forbløffende kadencer, hvor Mozart befries fra sine noder og flyder sammen med os i vores nutid. Tid og sted fortoner sig, og frisk luft strømmer ind fra Nigel Kennedys egen verden. Mozart lever i stærke håndslag fra historisk tid til nutid, fra menneske til menneske.

For 21 år siden fik han i den konservative englænder Elgar's Violinkoncert et afgørende internationalt gennembrud ved en Prom-koncert i London. For første gang siden da vender han tilbage ved BBC's Prom 2 den 19. juli, og igen spiller han Elgars koncert med dirigenten Vernon Handley. Det skal blive interessant at høre den nu 51-årige Nigel Kennedy igen. Læs mere om Prom-koncerten her.

• Videoer med Nigel Kennedy på YouTube her.
• classicalmusic

These past few days I have been immersing myself in the essence of the spring; completely soaked in the intoxicating scents lingering after the rain, the blossoming trees, freshly cut grass. As much as the sun has been generous with its light this spring, it has been callously stingy with warmth, so one is forced to go out, find a nice, quiet, sunny spot and take the bull by its horns. Basking in clear sunlight, with eyes fully closed, I’ve been trying hard to think of something more important to do.

The spring is my favorite season. It has the power to make me feel obsolete in my own skin. And that is always good. I watch (with my eyes fully closed) as the people walk by, some engaged in conversation, others lost in their own thoughts. Lazily, I crawl back to my basking spot, my nest, my shelter, and rinse all thought out of my overbearing mind with more of this day’s beautiful, sunny, fluid nothingness. I’m almost there, nirvana.

I’ll get there, eventually. And when I do, I’ll be radiating ultraviolet rays of heavenly bliss, which will transform everything around me, inside out. It will be the beginning of a new, liberating era in the history of mankind, celebrating kind men and forgiving women, and the creative power of their children to instigate an unbound future, for everyone.

So until I get there, leave me to my basking, please.

¿Música, ruido, empatía? No se sabe muy bien qué busca el público que va a un concierto. De entrada hay que recordar que esta palabra registra dos acepciones musicales. En la que se refiere a función, nunca, hasta hace unos treinta años, se aplicó a otro tipo de música que no fuera la clásica. Uno recuerda singularmente el primer cartel que rompió la tradición, porque le llamó mucho la atención. Anunciaba Concierto de rock y amor, y lo ilustraba una fotografía de Miguel Ríos llevando a un bebé a cuestas. Desde esta propuesta ligeramente pretenciosa a esta parte, aquí hasta el que hace sonar la carraca dice que hace conciertos. No desesperen, algún día lo verán, como si fuera una diva exclusiva de Emi o de Hispavox: Esmeralda Clamores en concierto.

Cree el Duende haber leído alguna vez de un músico eminente que despreciaba el rock., reduciéndolo a un repertorio de ruidos de mal gusto. Muy audaz debe de ser, pues de lo que no hay duda es de que este tipo de música ya tiene una larga historia, y arrastra multitudes. Ante fenómenos así, los que ya tenemos una cierta edad debemos ser prudentes. Cuando uno observa que la tarde de un sábado El Corte Inglés está a tope de gente y lo que más aborrece precisamente es pasar la tarde allí, lo correcto es pensar que el rarito es él, y no los demás. Y cuando abre el frigorífico, sale de los yogures el Chikilicuatre cantando y más que un premio lo considera una pesadilla, lo cabal es autoconvencerse de que ya habita en la marginalidad total.

El Duende hubiera agradecido que la música pop se pudiera escuchar a la cuarta parte de volumen que uno soporta en auditorios, discotecas o salas de concierto. Pero no, desgraciadamente el exceso de decibelios parece que es tan importante para ella como el contrapunto para Bach. Muy frecuentemente nos paramos en un disco y a nuestro alrededor varios coches atruenan con bakalao, música techno o no se sabe qué clase de tortura para los tímpanos. Luego se habla del alcohol o la droga, pero ¿hay quien haya calculado el efecto destructor de los decibelios en el cerebro de los jóvenes?

Cuando el Duende se lamentaba del divorcio entre la música pop con la clásica, ha tenido la suerte de descubrir a un genio llamado Nigel Kennedy, que hace una semana tocaba en el Auditorio de Madrid con la Orquesta de Cámara de España el Concierto nº 4 para violín y orquesta de Mozart y el único que para este instrumento escribió Beethoven. Kennedy sale a escena vestido de rockero, peinado de punki y con una gestualidad más propia de hincha del Aston Vila –equipo del que es forofo-que de un virtuoso del violín. El hombre se mueve sin cesar, ensaya torpes pasos de baile, saluda al público enfervorizado, lanza besos, baja al patio de butacas y vacila con el público. Y, entre medias, aprovechando las cadencias –espacios que los compositores clásicos dejaban para la improvisación y el lucimiento del solista- reinterpreta a Mozart en clave de jazz o al genio de Böhn como si fuera Elton John. Kennedy fue alumno predilecto de Yehudi Menuhin, a quien el Duende alcanzó a escuchar en directo interpretando el de Beethoven. Pero, aupado en su virtuosismo, se toma la música de los clásicos con tan entusiasmo y desenfado que magnetiza incluso al público tan estirado que llena los conciertos de los abonos caros.

No se cuándo volverá por aquí, pero si pueden, no se pierdan a Nigel Kennedy. Es para cerrar los ojos y volar o para abrirlos y divertirse. Es música de siempre interpretada por un genio de nuestro tiempo. Música y empatía que invita, nada más y nada menos, a sentirse feliz malgré tout..