Discover Classical Music Online
Kate Rockstrom looks at ways to learn more about classical music online - through talks and rare videos of performances.
With the emergence of YouTube as a way to access and listen to classical music, more and more people are uploading rare clips of composers who have long since passed away. This is a terrific way to become more informed about classical music.
Here are just a few clips I found of various composers talking about and performing their own work. I’ve also included recordings of their most famous compositions so you can go listen to their musical genuis.
is still considered a genius and while his ego was possibly of a similar size, it has meant that there is a large library of his fascinating discourses on music.
is the finale from some lectures he gave at Harvard in 1973. The magnetic strength of his personality is immediately apparent and his words concise but heartfelt. A must to watch for all music lovers.
Of course famous for his West Side Story, Bernstein also wrote a Mass and is was considered one of the greatest conductors of the 20th of Century.
wrote that seminal work, 4'33”, for solo piano. If you don’t know it, it’s a piece that is simply silence.
In this interview Cage talks about ‘Silence with Music’ and what ‘sound’ means to him. It’s been re-edited with a solo piano piece underneath his narrative.
Giancarlo Simonacci is currently working his way through the solo piano music of John Cage and with Volume 4 out at the moment, this is a great introduction to this extremely influential composer.
changed the face of classical music forever.
This amazing four and half minute interview
should not be missed as he talks about music, religion and life. There’s a humour there that I never realised he had but shouldn’t have been surprised at the depth of character this composer shows.
There were riots in Paris the day Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring premiered and he wrote so many works of genius it’s hard for me to choose. But do check out his ballet Petrouchka and Firebird (this particular recording is by Bernstein).
is an excerpt from a documentary about
with him performing McGuire’s Kick, a folk tune. You can see the suppressed energy in his playing and it looks like he’s going to explode in a frenzy of movement.
Grainger was known for his arrangements of folk tunes for the piano and this recording by Marc Andre Hamelin is a terrific example of Grainger’s skill.
was the German composer who created the Twelve Tone Technique.
is interesting as the creator has put artworks painted by Schoenberg up on the screen.
Schoenberg is particularly well known for his Pierrot Lunaire, still one of the most inspired works ever written.
Benjamin Britten and his partner, Peter Pears
were very keen on recording both their productions and their rehearsals.
of a Nocturne, ‘On a Poet’s Lips I Slept’.
Many of Britten’s operas, with Pears in the main role are available including Peter Grimes and Billy Budd
Unfortunately for us English speakers who don’t speak French, Italian, German or Russian, there are a number of interviews with amazing composers, Prokofiev, Pizzaolla and others where there is no English translations. However if you simply want to see them in the flesh and hear their voices it’s still guaranteed to give you goosebumps.
