Daniel Murray plays Villa-Lobos

Comments

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  Bernhard

  June 20, 2011

  Daniel Murray has been playing at lot of modern works recently including performances of Arthur Kampela (PhD in composition): 1, 2

  To hear what Arthur Kampela is really about, you can check out Kampela playing some of his Percussion studies.
  Wow!

  The percussion studies are definitely recommeded, if you’re doing a doctorate in performance, or looking to win some compositions; because the gestures of the work are an absolute stunner which require top-level dedication and virtuosity.

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  Bernhard

  June 20, 2011

  On modernism:
  While one can play ultra-hard virtuostic STUFF such as Brian Ferneyhough’s notorious “Kurze Schatten II” (part 2) one needs to realize that Ferneyhough is just constructing difficult shit on purpose, which is neither idiomatic to the instrument (and its charms), nor is it idiomatic to music as an expressive medium.

  Kampela on the otherhand writes ultra-hard virtuostic MUSIC (Percussion Study), which – even if it is hard (and flirts a bit with difficulty) – definately stems from his expressive inner self… it is idiomatic to the instrument and to expressiveness (albeit modern expressiveness).
  So definitely: Thumbs up for Kampela!

• 

  Bernhard

  June 23, 2011

  On the otherhand… and on second listening…

  while the Percussion Study as played by Kampela himself does show stunning gestures and modernistic expressive potential…

  some other works seem to be bogged down and fail, because they seem to stem only from “weirdness” recipe. This performance for example really has nothing interesting to it. Kampela just seems to want to show that he’s the superman. Terrible. (And in end the composer fails to shake the last members hand!! Rather insulting!)

• 

  Brent

  June 25, 2011

  For a very good use of color in creating an interesting performance… see this performance of Walton’s 2nd Bagatelle:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAR3IEx-UnQ&feature=player_embedded#at=15
  Superb!