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Johnny Weir & Victor Voronov got married on New Year‘s Eve, 2011 ! Congratulations !!

2012-01-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year !

Here is the article with Johnny’s interview ,( on December 30’ 2011 )

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111229&content_id=26244748&vkey=ice_news

Johnny : "I'm getting married on New Year's Eve,"

he said. "His name is Victor [Voronov], he's kind of everything that I've ever looked for and aspired to be in a relationship with. We've known each other for a long time and we reconnected over the summer, and it's just been a whirlwind. “

"I'm very happy with my personal life and also my professional life, and I thank God I can be exactly where I'm at."

Then in December 31, New Year Eve,

Johnny’s tweet,

http://twitter.com/#!/vitya_zvesda/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FKM10HptM

My comment :

Surprise surprise , OMG, soooo fast !

I was hearing about his partner Victor Voronov ( Johnny calls him Vitya in twitter ) and Johnny started dating each other around this September, and in October, Victor proposed Johnny for marriage, and Johnny said yes, tweeting about it.

So I knew they are going to married soon, but didn’t expect it so fast.

Wow, How passionate they are !

Great !

I’m very happy to hear that news.

Article, Question : When asked for more about Victor:

Johnny : "He's wonderful. He's totally not in my field at all. He didn't even know I was a figure skater when we first met or even when we reconnected. He is Russian. He worked in [New York City] for a long time, and then he went back to Atlanta to do work for his family, and in a couple of weeks he's moving back up to New York. He's a lawyer. He's in the legal field, completely separate from all of my razzle dazzle.

"He's here tonight [watching show in Philadelphia]. He loves watching me perform and seeing what I actually do, because he was kind of sheltered from it for a little while."

Question : Was he a big figure skating fan?

Johnny : "Absolutely not. I met the in-laws, I flew to Moscow for one day and then went to Atlanta, and then had [Disson Skating's] Improv on Ice in Greenville, and then went back to Atlanta for a couple of days to sit down and really meet his family.

I've never done that before so it was a very interesting situation to be in, but of course it is a Russian family and I've dealt with Russians for quite some time now, so I knew what to expect and that made it a lot easier. Everything is going perfectly.

"He is moving to Jersey. We will be [living in] metropolitan New York. I can't picture myself living anywhere else."

My Comment :

Sounds like Johnny found a partner who really fit with his ideal person. Victor sounds really care for Johnny, even I can feel his full of love to Johnny. And it’s so clear Johnny’s happy face since the end of this September.
Johnny looks happiest now since I’ve known him.

I believe Johnny created this reality and happiness by himself !

Until about a year ago, he was saying he is married with his work, whether you are Justin Timberlake or whoever you will never be in my first place. Or something like that in Joy Behar ‘s TV show.

Then around this early summer ( around May to June ? ) , he was tweeting “ Please find someone for me, I’ve been single for about 5 years. My type : taller than me, handsome, wise, fit, straight acting man. “ and sounded lonely.

Soon he was announcing he will marry with Meg. ( joke or serious, who knows ? ) started calling her as his future wife. Then went to a vacation.

After that, Johnny started talking about Vitya.

But sounds like Johnny and Vitya already knew each other, but not knowing Johnny Weir is so famous until they reconnected ??

Anyways, I think since Johnny started seriously wishing to get a true love, things started happening.

There are many kind of happiness, but I love the quotes below,

“ Happiness is to love and to be loved “ - George Sand

From research, and including my experience, it seems that the common things for long time happy marriage, love birds, couples may be that besides loving each other, the other key points are having same interests, similar view of life and having similar tastes for many topics.

These seem to be the key to have a successful happy marriage. If the interests are different, then later, the couple may start doing things separately to fulfill their interests.

They would simply be being themselves.

Congratulations, Johnny & Victor , Wishing you two will have happy marriage forever !

My favorite things in 2011

2011-12-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

http://gallery.xemanhdep.com

My top favorites are selected from my new discoveries of this year, whether it’s new or old, no limit.

Top 10 Music

1. Rondo Krakowiak ( by Frederic Chopin )

2. Hungarian Rhapsody #2 ( by Franz Liszt )

3. Danse Macabre ( by Camile Saint Saens )

4. Etude Opus 25 N.11 Winter Wind ( by Frederic Chopin )

5. Nocturne N.1 in B flat minor ( by Frederic Chopin )

6. Piano Concerto #2 ( by Frederic Chopin )

7. Liebestraume ( Love Dream ) ( by Franz Liszt )

8. Valse Sentimentale op. 51/6 ( by Tchaikovsky )

9. Piano Concert No.4 in C minor ( by Camille Saint Saens )

10. Symphony No. 3 in C minor ( by Camille Saint Saens )

This year I’ve been into Classical music, Rondo Krakowiak by Frederic Chopin is hands down my top favorite.
I just fell in love with this unbelievably beautiful music ( brings tears ) , which even chills my body.

Top 5 Classic Composers

1. Frederic Chopin

2. Franz Liszt

3. Camile Saint Saens

4. Pyotr Tchaikovsky

5. Jules Massenet

Until I listened to his Rondo Krakowiak, all these genius composers were tie breaker for me, but now, Frederic Chopin may be my top.

Other musicians / singers

1. Katy Perry

I was interested in her music and found out one of her heroes is Freddie Mercury, and her favorite song is his composition “ Killer Queen “.

The most inspiring people

1. Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt inspires me all the way, his talent and his personality and his life.

One of the reasons I admire him maybe because he was a giver ( rather than a taker ) , a very sweet, passionate artist. No calculation. Original.

Also he was an amazing challenger who had confidence in himself. He is a mystery person who is really different from me.

2. Howard Schultz

“ Dream more than others think practical “

“ This is not a transaction, not a calculation , no, it’s a passion ! and it’s about communication with people, with heart ! “ - Howard Schultz

Definitely the most inspiring business marketer. Unique! I’m very convinced by his life and his way of living.

3. Frederic Chopin

How not to admire a person who made music like “ Rondo Krakowiak “ ? The most beautiful music I’ve ever heard in my life.
Not to mention his nocturnes, piano concertos and many others.
He is definitely an incredible genius composer.

4. Pyotr Tchaikovsky

He is one of the most successful composers in history, now, and while he was still alive. He achieved everything he wanted. There are so many talented artists out there who wish to have a talent of luck as well.

Favorite present pianists

1. Yukio Yokoyama

2. Yundi Li

Since we figured out who the pianist was who plays Chopin’s Etudes - the Revolutionary and Winter Wind - in the movie Desire for Love was Yukio Yokoyama, he became my present favorite pianist.

His performances of these legendary etudes are breathtakingly emotional, fiery, passionate and beautiful.

Favorite Movies in 2011

1. Desire for love

2. Sound of music

3. Shine

Favorite Books in 2011

1. Franz Liszt - biography by Alan Walker

2. Conversations with god 1 - 3 - Neal Donald Walsh

3. Home with god - Neal Donald Walsh

4. Wishcraft - Barbara Sher

5. Chopin’s personal Letters

Favorite Quotes in 2011

"If you could only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world." - Emmet Fox

“The aim of music is to picture the many various emotions of the soul. “ - Tchaikovsky

"Anyone who pursues physics far enough is eventually forced into metaphysics, because if we examine matter closely enough it disappears,
and we find nothing but a frequency of vibration." ~ Albert Einstein

Favorite Food in 2011

Pumpkin Pie

Favorite Drink in 2011

Ice Cappuccino with many crushed ice

Favorite Photographs in 2011

http://gallery.xemanhdep.com/2011/06/wonderful-world-of-photography/

Favorite moments in 2011

* When we purchased our new car.

* While listening to Chopin’s Rondo Krakowiak

* Cuddling, playing and talking with Ray

* Delicious dinner, drink, beautiful art, movie ,

The best things which made me feel great and smile from others

* Johnny Weir found his love of his life, and happiness

http://twitter.com/#!/vitya_zvesda/status/152103389692575744/photo/1

* Miki Ando won a World gold medal

Mystery of Chopin’s love

2011-12-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

After watching the movie “ Desire for Love “ about Chopin several times, I started searching more about Chopin’s life to solve some mystery parts, even though it may be impossible to find what is the real truth.

This movie ( Desire for Love ) is so thinkable, and while checking about both Chopin and George Sand ‘s bio, I’m also into George Sand and her life story.

I would never have known about her or cared about her if I didn’t get into Chopin’s bio so much. But without knowing about her, we can not know the truth.
Chopin & Liszt are the most interesting heroes for me right now . I don’t know why, but if genius is the only reason I’m into them, then there are many different kinds of geniuses in many different subjects , so it must not be the only the reason.

It’s very curious , there are several speculations about Chopin’s love, some information tells like as if it’s the fact that for Chopin, George Sand was always his love of his life, while for George Sand he was one of her lovers in her life.

George Sand published a book called “ Lucrezia Floriani “ which seems to be known as her fiction story account about her relationship with Frederic Chopin.

Karol ,who is a Prince , is the character she created to depict her fictional Chopin , and for George Sand , the fictional character is Lucrezia Floriani, a rich Italian actress.

And I found there are many views for it , some people think it’s the truth about their relationship. Some think it’s a complete fabrication.

And some think George Sand is all about calculation , no love and a cold person.

To try and figure it all out, we purchased this book Lucrezia Floriani and we also bought Chopin’s personal letters book.

Seems like after George Sand published the book, she got many enemies, especially from many of their friends who knew both of them.

There is a quote about George Sand from Franz Liszt, who was a friend of hers and Chopin.

Liszt said the following in his later years :

"Madame Sand would catch a butterfly, cage it, and feed it with herbs and flowers. That was the period of love. Then she put a pin through it and it struggled, for it was always she who broke off first.

Afterwards she vivisected it and prepared it for her collection of heroes for her novels. In was trading in souls who had given themselves to her that finally made me sicken of her friendship."

Again, "She has warmth soley in the works of her imagination, and an utterly cold heart."

Probably, this quote was made after Liszt attended Chopin’s funeral , and noticed George Sand was not there, and he knew Sand hadn’t been visiting Chopin or even contacting him in his final year.

He might also have read her book by that time, and realized that Prince Karol was meant to portray Chopin in a bad light, and he might have been really angry about it.

In Franz Liszt’s Bio book by Alan Walker, there is information that Liszt was really upset about Sand after reading George Sand ’s book Lucrezia Floriani, and hearing that the fictional character Prince Karol in the book, was about Chopin.

And this Liszt quote above, gave me chills when I read it. He was a friend of both of them, and he had introduced George Sand to Chopin.

We can also see that Liszt was a huge fan of Chopin as well, besides being a friend, as he often played Chopin’s music in his concerts.

Here is another quote about George Sand from someone who knew her,

Jules Sandeau, another one of her lovers whose name she used for her nom de plume, commenting on Madame Sand:

"She is a walking graveyard."

It may be true that until she met Chopin, she was using men for her novels and it might have been her calculation to have love affairs with them.

She was getting anything she wanted until she met Chopin, but from the beginning, Chopin was hard to get for her.

Even after they had close relationship, and from her book it seems that they had a passionate affair for awhile, she might not have been sure that Chopin really loved her.

But in actuality , what was in George Sand’s mind about Chopin when he passed away ,only she herself knew it.

Until she met Chopin, her relationships continued no longer than 2 or 3 years, and it could be possible she may have been having love affairs for her novels.

But she and Chopin’s relationship continued for about 10 years.

Another point to consider, is that in the last few years, medical health researchers have noted that it’s quite possible that Chopin’s illness was not tuberculosis, as had long been thought.

But rather, the more likely cause of his suffering was Cystic Fibrosis.

Because this disease more closely matches all the symptoms that Chopin had.

Also, Cystic Fibrosis is not contagious. Instead it is genetic, and may run in families.

But in Chopin’s time, Cystic Fibrosis was not well known, and so it was not suspected.

Tuberculosis was quite common with some of the same symptoms.
Besides, at that time no one could know for sure what Chopin’s illness was, some people were scared to catch his illness, but Sand was with him.

If her purpose to be with Chopin was only for her novel , would she have taken such a risk, besides for 10 years ??

I feel that she really loved Chopin.

The reason why they broke up, might be caused by both her children’s issues.

It seems that the main reason for their breakup was that Chopin sided with Sand’s daughter ( Solange ) and her husband, in a family argument.

Strange thing is Chopin was writing about Sand’s book “ Lucrezia Floriani “ to his sister in his letter to her calmly, explaining some of the content.

Chopin and Sand were still in communication with letters to each other until around autumn in 1847.

But after Sand knew Chopin and her daughter Solange and her husband had been often keeping in touch with each other, she might have thought Chopin is on their side, and their relationship ended.

This is so weird.

What was the problem that Chopin was nice to Solange and her husband ?

I have good impression with Solange’s husband as well.

Sand was jealous to whoever was nice to Solange, her own daughter ?

In 1847, while Chopin and Sand were still in touch with each other , there is also Chopin’s letter to his sister, where he writes “ Pani Delfina Potocka ( for whom I have a real affection ) was to have called on me with her, but went to Nice a few days ago. “

Through the years, Delfina was always not available ( married for some time , and also apparently she had some fear of getting Chopin’s illness, which everyone thought was tuberculosis ) but it sounds to me Chopin always had a real affection to her.

He dedicated several music to her as well. While there is no information about that he dedicated any music to George Sand.

And So far, what I found is after his break up with George Sand, Frederic Chopin met a lady called Jane Stirling who was his student and also later he met Jenny Lind who was a famous Swedish Opera singer.

Apparently, at some point Chopin was actually engaged with Jenny Lind to be married, because there seems to have been a marriage application certificate.

My personal review for her book “ Lucrezia Floriani “

I actually couldn’t believe what Sand wrote , and if she wrote this as based on her love life with Chopin and his personality, I think what she did was cruel. And I can really understand why Franz Liszt got so angry to read it.

I wonder why she wanted to write like that, which created many enemies for her, tarnished her image and almost ruined her career, by trying to destroy the image of the famous composer Frederic Chopin ?

Until I read this book, I was starting to be interested in her as a person with some respect for her braveness and her controversial personality.

If she had never written this book, she might have been known as a great woman author who was Chopin’s girlfriend , and who helped his life.

And all this would have left a great impression about her forever.

And although it seems that she was a very intelligent woman in many ways, however, I found that psychologically, she was not smart. Not really perceptive.

This book was written unfairly, and in it, she’s only guessing what Chopin was feeling, which in actuality, no one can really know what another person is feeling.

It’s like a fiction story and by doing this, she could protect her pride.

It sounds to me that Chopin was not loving who she was.

Chopin always had his own fantasy dream world, and in that world, there was his ideal lady in it.

From the very beginning , George Sand was never his ideal lady in his dream world.

There is a famous quote of Chopin from when he first met her “ I met the famous author George Sand, and there is something about her that repulses me. “

I feel Chopin was a real artist who was super sensitive for anything, to protect his fantasy world.

And that’s one of the reasons the world has his beautiful music.

He loved beauty and elegance.

This is why all his music is so beautiful.

He didn’t want to imagine anything which would ruin his world.

George Sand wanted to believe that Chopin was cold to her because of jealousy.

Chopin apparently didn’t like to hear about George’s stormy past life.

But I suppose George Sand was not understanding why he got upset whenever she told about her past life, past lovers , and she took it as it’s all from his jealousy.

She didn’t consider that because of his serious illness, he may not have had as many opportunities for past loves and romances as others more healthy than him. And this may have sometimes made him irritated.

And although in the book, she talks about how she was so dedicated in tending to his illness, yet at the same time, she doesn’t consider how Chopin’s serious illness might have affected him psychologically and emotionally.

She puts herself as a victim , not the person who is seriously ill, and she writes that she did everything she could but he was cold because of jealousy.

I wonder that this kind of “ a heroine of sad story “ was loved by many people in 19th century ?

One of Franz Liszt’s girlfriends , Marie’ d agoult also published similar kind of “ a heroine sad story” at the same time.

George Sand and Marie D’Agoult both had issues with their boyfriends, Chopin and Liszt, from feelings of lack of love from them.

George Sand described Chopin as that he was jealous of everything.
Emotionally cold, because of his jealousy.

But I feel George Sand herself was the one who had that part , cold because of jealousy.

It’s more cleared up after reading " Chopin’s personal letters book " .

In 1847, there are some Chopin’s letters to George Sand, which their conversation sounded fine and peaceful, Sand and Chopin were sending sweets to each other.

And suddenly something went wrong with them and the cause was her daughter Solange and her husband.

Since Sand knew Chopin’s communication with Solange and her husband, she started being against Chopin.

Her jealousy towards her daughter seems to be the biggest reason of their breakup.

There is a scene in the movie where, since Sand found out that Solange fell in love with Chopin, she hired a new servant girl who was actually a call girl to seduce Chopin , and tried to make Solange forget about Chopin.

This actually didn’t work at all, it just made Solange’s passion for Chopin even more, and she announced to her mother that she wants to marry Chopin.

Sand said to Solange “ Don’t be crazy, Chopin doesn’t love anyone, only his music “.
Solange answered “ No, it’s only you he can’t love ! “

This may be the real truth, and along with Sand’s jealousy of Solange, may be the reasons Sand broke up with Chopin.

And Sand became like a slave of her son Maurice, who had a mother complex, spoiled , who wanted to hold her , and she was afraid of losing him.

From reading Chopin’s personal letters book, he was fine with breaking up or leaving from Sand any time if she doesn’t love him anymore , but Sand always stopped him by saying “ I can’t live without you. “

Looks to me Sand took her son Maurice‘s side, and Chopin didn’t care which side or not, just he had sympathy for her daughter, Solange, and wanted treat her right. Then Sand cut the relationship.

Nobody knows the real truth but them.

His student, Jane Stirling rented a beautiful apartment ( although it may have been actually paid for by Jenny Lind ) for Chopin, upon his return to Paris.

And this was the place Chopin spent his last days, surrounded by close friends, famous musicians, painters and artists, and by people who he loved , including Jenny Lind who may have had a relationship with him after he broke up with Sand, also Delfina who he also had a real affection for, and who often came and sang for him, besides his dear sister, Ludwicka, and Solange and her husband Clesinger.

And he left a large amount of incredible music for the world.

It doesn’t have to be looked at as a whole big tragedy that some seem to make it out to be.

It looks happy ending to me.

My Review - Movie - “ Desire for Love " about Chopin

2011-11-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

We have been curious to see the movie “ Desire for Love“ about Chopin and finally we watched it last weekend.

This story is about the relationship between Frederic Chopin and George Sand and her children.

The title “ Desire for love “ exactly fits with the story.

This is not a full bio about Chopin’s life and his music, ( although the soundtrack is absolutely awesome, with masterful performances of Chopin’s music by top pianists ), but mainly focuses on Chopin’s life after he met George Sand and their relationship.

But Ray and I both actually really enjoyed it and watched it three times already.

It’s impossible to show all the details of Chopin’s life, and even his relationship with George Sand within 2 hours.

For casting, we both thought all the casts they used for this movie was good with great acting, except for Franz Liszt.

And this is my only Con for this movie is that the actor they used to play Franz Liszt did not fit him at all.

IMO, his image doesn’t fit with Franz Liszt’s image and his personality and character. Liszt was known as a charismatic, charming, handsome gentleman artist, and the world‘s first rock star.

Also, the actor who plays him has dark brown hair, whereas Liszt had blond hair, and Chopin had dark brown hair, but the actor who plays Chopin has light brown, almost blonde hair.

However, the scene where Liszt plays Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude was awesome !!!

And the reason is because of the pianist they used for the soundtrack.

Wow !!!

I’m wondering which pianist played that part ?

In the movie it shows how when Chopin first arrived in Paris, he had great difficulty selling his music, no one wanted to publish his compositions ( this is really unbelievable. ) .

His music style was too original, and not what was the music trend at the time. And his servant suggested Chopin to share the stage with Liszt or Thalberg in concert for the public to get to know him better.

But Chopin was really depressed and frustrated and saying “ it’s wont work !“.

Somehow, maybe secretly, his servant arranged with Liszt , for Liszt to play Chopin’s Etude Revolutionary in a concert and Chopin was invited to the concert.

It was a big surprise, suddenly it was announced that Liszt will play Frederic Chopin’s composition the Etude Revolutionary .

And Chopin was shocked and started looking at the reaction of audience with fear but soon Liszt’s playing was so confident and he played so perfectly the Etude Revolutionary that Chopin relaxed and took it all in.

Also, Liszt playing was so emotional that it made Chopin to picture the horrible scenes of Poland’s struggle with Russia, the war scenes, his family, and his house, his piano.

Liszt played it excellently and got a standing ovation and when he finished Chopin praised Liszt a lot, hugged and thanked him.

Then the lady announcer of the event, asked Chopin to play next, she said “ it’s your turn “. Chopin was shocked

and said “ After Liszt ?? !! But you said I won’t have to play in this concert ! “

She answered

“ I changed my mind. A woman’s prerogative. This is a great opportunity for you to play your music. Anyways, someone has to play after Liszt. ”

Then Chopin agreed.

And since then, Chopin’s music started becoming well-known. Liszt and Thalrberg were already famous pianists at that time.

I must also special thank to Liszt and whoever set up to play Chopin’s music in the concert.

Because without that opportunity, Chopin’s music might not be legendary as it is now. Besides being an amazing concert performer, Liszt was a naturally great marketer as well .

No matter how amazing the music, but without great marketing, it will never sell. (IMO)

Another great part in this movie was the camera work and images they used , the scenery was beautiful.

I love 19th century’s European street scenery and people’s fashion. Everyone looked elegant.

Also Chopin’s music they used really fit with the story.

It’s a thinkable movie to me as well.

We can see how feelings of lack of love can easily make trouble.

However, I’m still not sure why Chopin and Sand broke up.

I’ve read that they met each other at a party hosted by countess Marie d;Agoult, who was Franz Liszt’s girlfriend and George Sand’s friend.
And Franz Liszt introduced Chopin to George Sand.

In the beginning Chopin was not interested in George Sand ( whose real name was Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin), and didn’t have good impression of her, as she was wearing man’s outfit ( for her work as an author, this helped her career as it was really men's world at that time , ) and had a somewhat manly personality.

George became a fan of Chopin after attending one of his concerts and started approaching Chopin directly, also through Liszt, Marie D’Agoult and also Chopin’s servant.

She was sending letters and books but Chopin was not interested in her and ignored her approach. But she didn’t give up and continued sending an invitation with flowers.

However, in the movie Chopin says to his servant “ Man wants to win the woman , but not to be won . “ and he declined her invitation.

Sand looked like she became even more burning fire with her love for Chopin, after his rejection, and she said she will do anything to get his love.

And when Chopin’s health issue got worse from his disappointment by many things which happened to him, such as rejection of marriage from his fiancee’s parents. ( wish they would have shown more about this lady ) he was starting to be more interested in George Sand , and seems that his servant told Sand to come over to Chopin‘s house.(?)

George Sand visited Chopin’s place and started making home remedy soup in the kitchen.

I was interested in the soup which has herbal formula she made for Chopin. In the movie, George Sand said it was a 300 year old ancient remedy which contained about 20 herbs in the soup.

And after he ate it, he was feeling better.

Sand seemed to have many herbal recipes for many illness.

I’m wondering if maybe she saved Chopin’s life with these herbal formula ?

I want to know her herbal recipes secrets.
Sounds very interesting.

Through all of Chopin’s health condition, which was always going up and down depending on the weather, and his feelings and the effect on his psyche from the situation he was facing, it’s amazing he could survive until the age of 39, and he created so many high quality compositions within a such a short time, and with such a tough health condition.

This is really amazing.

But I feel he did everything he wanted that he had set out to do in his life , especially with his main focus, music.

A short but fulfilled life.

I have read about that every person has their own purpose to come to this world before we were born.

And while their life purpose has not achieved yet, people tend to live long enough to complete it.

And even though many people think long lives are better, Chopin achieved so much.

Chopin experienced a time period in Paris when there was a cholera epidemic, and death and gloom was all around.

And during an especially depressed state of mind, when it seemed that all of Paris was dying of cholera, Chopin was saying in the movie, “ why am I still alive and have not caught cholera, while everyone is dying around me ? “

His sister died when she was 14, and Chopin also caught the same illness ( no one seems to know for sure what illness, maybe tuberculosis ? ) , but Chopin recovered.

When I think about it, the opportunity of Chopin and George Sand’s meeting may have also been a destiny for both of their personal improvement.

Not sure that without George Sand, if Chopin could have lived until 39.

Now I would like to revisit a little bit the part about Sand giving her original soup which has a 300 year old secret herbal formula.

In the movie, it seems that Chopin started to be interested in Sand since then, and that Sand’s desire for love was achieved.

This may sound silly but the soup seemed to work like some kind of love potion as well ? lol

Although on the other hand, I’m not really sure whether Chopin really loved George Sand or not ?

Information from George Sand fans and information from Chopin fans have different facts, and it sounds to me they each have bias for their heroes, so some of the information sounds like Chopin was crazy for Sand and she was the love of his life and muse.

But I’m wondering about a very close friend that Chopin had, her name was Delfina Potocka, she was a friend of his from the time he was 20 year old , and their friendship continued until his death.

She was with him in his final days before he passed away, and she sang for him.

He dedicated to her his Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64, No. 1, the famous "Minute Waltz".

He also dedicated his incredible Piano Concerto No.2 to her.

Chopin dedicated his first set of piano studies, called Etudes, including the Revolution Etude to his friend Franz Liszt.
He later dedicated another Etude set to his other friend Charles Valentin Alkan.
But I can’t find any information about Chopin dedicating any music for George Sand.

Why ??

On the other hand, there is a George Sand portrait drawing of Chopin. I can see Sand really loved him so much.

Also whatever George Sand wrote or said about Chopin later, these actions and what she said about Chopin after their break up sounds more like she felt hurt by him, which came from feelings of lack of love to her from him.

In the movie, when her daughter Solange told Sand she loves Chopin,
Sand said to her daughter,
“ Chopin doesn’t love anyone but music. “

If that is how Sand was feeling from him, she might be feeling lack of love from him to her.

He was ill.

I suppose he was frustrated and irritated from many things because of his illness.
He could not handle anything else except taking care of himself and his health condition, and his music.

In the movie he said that he envied all healthy people.

One needs to truly consider what Chopin‘s situation and condition was.

He wanted love.

But I wonder if because of his illness, was he able to give enough love to George Sand and her children ?

His illness may have forced him to focus more on himself than he would have otherwise.

When one has serious illness, and often struggling for health, and struggling to catch their breath, how can one care any other things more than themselves ?

George Sand was giving love to Chopin like a nurturing mother, but she was in the middle between her son and Chopin. She was careless for her daughter.

About George Sand’s son Maurice,

Her son Maurice was a real pain to watch.

Her teenage son was feeling lack of love from his parents already since his parent’s breakup.

Then seeing his mother’s love affair with Chopin made him overly sensitive maybe understandable. It can be the most difficult time for kids.

Also about the scene when Sand was asking Chopin about her son’s work ( paintings ) , she asked him this question at a bad time.

Chopin was frustrated for many things at that time ( especially - the piano where they were staying didn‘t work ! ).

The more Sand was hiding her feelings towards Chopin, to her son, her son became even more upset.

I wonder was her son not interested in any other girls around him ?

George Sand was giving him love, trying to make him confident but didn’t teach him about independence and giving love, not only receiving.

Also it looked too much spoiling him, and she looked weak to him.

After 10 years past, her kids grew and her daughter started falling in love with Chopin.

Her daughter had been feeling abandoned from her mother , and started hating her.

She started trying to take everything, someone or something which belonged to her mother.

Her son was often spying on Sand and Chopin, and also spying on his sister’s actions to Chopin, and was trying to find a way to kick Chopin out of the house.

Jealousy occurs when one has no self confidence and it comes from fear.
The son wasn’t loving himself.

Eventually, when Chopin realized that Sand’s son didn’t want him living there anymore, he told Sand “ whatever your son wishes” and agreed to leave.

It was not an actual break up, but more like getting away from each other for awhile.

Now here’s a funny scene.

Chopin loved Chicken white breast, and hot chocolate.

He didn’t like Chicken legs, but mistakenly Sand gave him chicken legs on their final day together, that night at dinner, and gave the chicken breast to her son, and Chopin was hurt by the action because maybe he thought she did it on purpose (?).

So he suddenly left the dinner to his room with anger, and Sand followed him, and asked him what was wrong , Chopin didn’t tell anything in the beginning , but Sand asked him again by saying “ Say something ! “, then Chopin said while shaking “ you gave me the leg ! And your son got the breast ! “.

We thought Chopin was hilarious.

Sand apologized to him by saying she was distracted for it. And her son came in the room and after hearing why Chopin left the dinner from Sand, he started teasing him, “ so you will break up with my mother over Chicken legs ? “

But they all soon forgot about it. No problem.

Then later Chopin said his farewell to everyone, and George promised to visit him soon.

A few weeks (?) after Chopin left the house, Sand’s daughter found a boyfriend. He was a sculptor and made Sand’s statue, and he was much older than her daughter.

Her daughter and her boyfriend asked Sand to give them 8,000 Francs for dowry for their marriage.

But Sand and Maurice didn’t accept it. Maurice told him aggressively their disapproval , then they had a big fight , and when daughter’s boy friend slapped Sand’s cheek some times, Maurice got his gun and tried to shoot him, but he missed. .
Then Sand shouted to them to get out of there, and they did.

And then from the window, Sand saw them leaving in the coach which was owned by Chopin.

Sand and Maurice thought Chopin is on their side by seeing it. (?)

( Chopin often felt sympathy for the daughter from seeing how she had been basically ignored by her mother who favored her son )

That’s one of the reasons of their breakup besides her son Maurice‘s issue ?

This whole soap opera drama between Chopin and Sand and her son, and her daughter, looked like a disaster.

I don’t know what I would I do if I was Chopin, ? If I was George Sand ?, if I was Maurice ?, If I was Solange ?

All this caused by lack of love and or feelings of lack of love, and unbalance.

Overall, we think this is a very well made movie. Beautiful photography and music and great acting.

We will surely watch it over and over.

And I will purchase Chopin’s personal letters to get to know more about him.

Feeling so happy - While listening to Chopin

2011-11-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

Happiness.

There is a famous quote which said

“ Happiness is within “ by …Martin Yan

“ Happiness is a choice “ by Barry Kaufmann

I agree with these quotes. I can be happy without doing anything, and getting happiness from my imagination.

And there is also happiness we can naturally feel when doing something we love.
Surrounded by all my favorites makes me extremely happy.

One of them is listening to the beautiful sounds of music.

For this month so far,

I’m crazy about another Frederic Chopin’s music again !

There are several new music I discovered from compositions which Chopin created when he was a teenager.

Especially, this CD, ( the image below) “ Chopin Complete Piano Music * Volume 15 “ with pianist Idil Biret,

and the “ Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Robert Schakowsky ".

These are Chopin compositions when he was 18.
It’s unbelievable he created these amazing compositions when he was only 18 !

My favorites in this CD are

1. Rondo a la Krakowiak Op.14 : Andantino quasi allegretto and Allegro non troppo
2. Theme de Charles Kurpinski : Allegretto.

3. Air: Juz miesiac zaszedi : Andantino.

Rondo a la Krakowiak is tearingly beautiful !!!

There are amazing water flowing sounds in " Rondo a la Krakowiak" and also in “Juz miesiac zaszedi : Andantino “ and it‘s been spinning in my head.

There is a letter from Chopin where he writes about his first performance of Rondo a la Krakowiak.

He wrote that when he showed up to perform it, he was surprised to see the orchestra were all frowning at him, and he later found out that apparently they were upset that he, such a young pianist at the time ( only 18 ), wanted to perform his own composition for his debut, and that they had great difficulty reading his score, also, they didn’t like the conductor.

But after the performance, the audience was very enthusiastic and clapped loudly, and then finally the orchestra looked pleased.

Music like his Rondo a la Krakowiak and Piano Concerto No.2 and No1 ,makes me feel like I really fell in love with the music.

Just like a crush on someone.

Am I the only person who feels like that and is it possible to have a crush on music more than human ?

It’s difficult to describe my exact feelings and can’t find the best words for this feeling.

It’s so strange, but I’m fortunate to experience this feeling through music.

And I have a huge appreciation to Chopin who created such incredible compositions.

Also, in another CD called, “ Chopin Favorite Nocturnes” with Hungarian pianist Sandor Falvay at the Piano, there are so many beautiful music there and we love all these nocturnes.

I already knew some of the pieces in this CD , and there are some which are new to me.

Ray and I both especially love the “ No 1 in B Flat Minor, op.9 No.1 : Larghetto. “ !

It’s very romantic and sentimental when listening to on rainy days or cloudy days. Soooooooo beautiful !

We were wondering since when Chopin started creating such high quality music, and we also purchased a CD showcasing compositions Chopin created when he was 15 called “ Rondos and Variations” .

And that CD is great too, but finally I could see he is also a human being, and there was a time when he was still getting ideas or training time to create his later amazing compositions.

Some pieces reminds me of Mozart’s music, some parts remind me of Austrian folk dance music, some pieces remind me of some Liszt’s compositions when Liszt sounded like he was still putting together ideas.

It’s amazed me how quickly Chopin became a master composer within such a short time, from 15 to 18.

He is definitely a one of a kind genius composer. I really understand why he has so many fanatic fans who are attracted by his compositions. Big impact.

While I’m listening to Chopin, I say Chopin is the greatest !

When I listen to Saint Saens, I say Saint Saens is the best !

When I listen to Tchaikovsky , I say he is the most emotional and deepest.

When I listen to Liszt, Liszt is the most amazing, mysterious composer.

So I can’t pick who is the greatest, when I think about all their best compositions, and all of them are my top favorite composers.

While I was listening to Tchaikovsky’s piano compositions, I realized that except for two pieces, which are two of my top favorite music, “ Valse sentimentale, op.51/6 “, and “ The Seasons, op 37a Barcarole ", I felt most of his other piano compositions are almost like jazz music which are not my taste.
But I love many of his orchestra, ballet music.

Liszt’s case, I’m picky for many of his music so far, because of the huge variety of his music. Hungarian Rhapsody #2, La Campanella, Liebestraume (Love dream), piano concertos, are my favorites.

Saint Saens, we are still in the process of discovering all his music, but my top favorite music is still his amazing composition “ Danse Macabre.”

As a result, so far these are all my top favorites :

Saine Saens - “ Danse Macabre “

Chopin’s - “ Rondo a la Krakowiak”, Piano concerto #2, #1. ( there are many more and more but these are the music I’m crazily loving.)

Liszt ‘s - “ Hungarian Rhapsody#2 “, “ La Campanella“ , “ Liebestraume(Love dream)”

Tchaikovsky’s - “ Valse sentimentale, op. 51/6”, “ Piano concerto #1in B flat minor, “ Swan Lake”, “ The sleeping beauty “, “ Nutcracker”.

For Chopin’s music , I’m not so picky , I love almost all his compositions.

That maybe the difference from other composers.

Powerful Home Remedy for Stomach flu - Cinnamon & Honey

2011-11-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

The combination of real cinnamon & raw honey, this formula works amazing for Stomach flu !

It was my husband Ray’s birthday, however he had to stay in bed from illness which he might have caught at his work place.

Seems like there are so many people who are having flu at his work place.

We were already celebrating his birthday, a few days before his birthday because of his work schedule, with some presents, eating pie, and some more his favorite foods.

It was really peaceful and we were having a great time .

But somehow Ray got some kind of stomach flu.

It looked really hard.
He couldn’t even stay in bed calmly.

His tough condition continued until early in the morning , while I was giving him some herbal remedies.

I’ve read about the Benefits of Cinnamon which said that it is a

* Powerful antibacterial, works against E. coli, best at onset of illness.
* Intestinal astringent, dries excess mucus, while warming and notifying.
* Decreases diarrhea and symptoms of nausea and vomiting.

Actually I wanted to try ginger first, which also works for these illnesses, but it was not available at home, so I gave him powdered cinnamon which is McCormick’s Ground cinnamon.

Then he looked slightly feeling better, but every 30 minutes he woke up and taking the powdered cinnamon until early in the morning.

Then I realized that I was keeping some bar cinnamon sticks which I purchased in whole foods store a few month ago.

And again I checked about cinnamon and it said bar cinnamon works much better than the powdered cinnamon which is sold in super market.

I also know honey and cinnamon ’s formula for many illness, ( but didn’t know it also works for stomach flu ) so, I made a cinnamon & raw honey drink.

By doing the steps below,

1. Grating the bar cinnamon sticks to make powder. ( about one tea spoon )

2. Put it in a tea cup.

3. Pour mineral water into the cup and heat up to make warm water. ( but not too hot. )

4. Put a tea spoon of raw honey into the cup and mixture with it until it melts down.

After Ray drank that formula, soon he fell asleep deeply until noon and woke up with much better feeling.

He still can’t eat except honey and cinnamon and milk and some juicy fruits. But he started going to work with fine condition since yesterday.

For lunch, I made honey & cinnamon bread. Plus the drink for honey & cinnamon drink.

I’m very impressed with this powerful formula.

When we cannot eat anything, these formula can save your body, it has a lot of important nutrition, variety of vitamins and minerals.

It gives energy, maintains blood sugar levels, muscle recuperation, glycogen restoration after a workout.

It strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacterial and viral attacks.

Both raw honey and cinnamon have anti-bacterial power, so it gets stronger power with this combination.

I have posted about benefits of this formula in one of my past posts at the link below,

http://miho-entwistle.blogspot.com/2009/03/power-of-honey-cinnamon.html

“ The mixture of honey & cinnamon cures most of the diseases and illness , such as cancer, arthritis, bladder infections , eczema, heart disease , immune system , stomach upset, cold and cough, infertility , bad breath, influenza. And it also good for cholesterol, hair loss, weight loss, toothaches etc... “

But the image I was using for them was from regular ground cinnamon powder and the honey was not raw organic honey.

Real ones are much stronger.

It has to be real cinnamon which is bar or stick and also organic raw honey from wildflower to get the powerful result.

Fortunately, I have never experienced stomach flu, but I learned in the winter season when there are so many viruses out there, it’s good to take raw honey and cinnamon to strengthen our immune system every day to protect our body from virus.

For Ray’s recovery,

Besides raw honey and cinnamon,

Ginger soup,
Juicy fruits plus yogurt and raw honey.

Health is a treasure.

Johnny's Glitter and Ice

2011-11-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we were hanging around in a new shopping mall.

Looking around many stores,

Lovely coach's handbags.

I like the hot pink one.

There are also some rock style fashion.

　
Then... suddenly, a gorgeous model in a large poster caught my eyes.

Hm ?

Mac ?

Awwwwwwwww, it’s Johnny !!!!
　
I remember Johnny was tweeting something about Glitter and ice of Mac cosmetics.

But I didn't expect or think he was the main model in such a big poster at the shopping mall.

Too cool.

Nice expression.

and the image and theme are creative.

I love the make-up.

Johnny’s skin looks naturally very beautiful in the poster.

I know he has beautiful skin, but that looks even more, Porcelain skin ?

His poster made me interested in Mac’s foundation.

I was looking for a new foundation recently, so it was a good opportunity.

I have very sensitive skin which doesn’t fit with most of cosmetics.

But since reading it's made of water instead of oil, it may okay for my skin.

I will try.

On the way home, the mountain view from our car was really beautiful.

Happy !

Amazing high music technology, but who has real music talent nowadays ?

2011-11-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ray was showing me a music goods catalog last night.

I may be a little late to realize that there’s all this music high technology now, but it really amazed me there are so many kinds of software to help create many kinds of music nowadays.

For example,

Software with all the tools needed to create and publish quality scores !

Also , software for personal orchestra. One can get amazingly realistic orchestra sounds and textures. One can design a uniquely voiced string quartet or re-create the New York Philharmonic !

I love the sound of the piano , and there are virtual piano instruments and sound-design plug-in software.

I’m not advertising these items here, but this makes me feel like even me, who has no idea how to create music, can create great music if I want to.

But one may need at least some kind of arranging talent at using these tools, how to use the software, some creativity for melodies. And it still may be difficult for most people.

It must be really fun to create music as a hobby.

There are also “ Pitch -shifting and time- stretching plug in " software for singing.

“ The aim of music is to picture the many various emotions of the soul. “ - Tchaikovsky

On the other hand, while technology has developed and everything we do is getting easier and easier and more convenient, more practical, if there is no emotion in every note that we create, it can end up being just cold music, with no feeling or human quality to it.

Until the19th century, when there were no recording tapes, all composers had to use their brain, to memorize every note, writing down on paper whenever they got an idea.

I suppose because their brains were often used for memory, imagination , those generation’s people’s brains were sharper than nowadays.

It may be fun to create my own music, these kinds of tools look very convenient and are interesting.

And for my dancing music, I’m fine with computer music.

But as a listener, I prefer music which is not computer type music.

But knowing this high technology, I wonder who has the real creative music genius nowadays ?

From the feeling, we can get emotion from music. I trust my feeling when listening to music.

I care about these things.

My review - Johnny Weir’s new ice show number “ Meditation “ from Thais by Jules Massenet

2011-10-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Johnny Weir’s new ice show number “ Meditation “ from Thais by Jules Massenet at Ice Theater of New York , Gala at Chelse Pies on October 24' 2011

Johnny has so many wonderful magical performances which hit my heart and this new number is another great one !

One of the reasons I really love this number is the music !

I would like to thank Johnny for selecting this music for his new number.

Secretly, I was making a list of music which I wish Johnny and some other skaters would skate with and Massenet’s Meditation was one of them for Johnny and it‘s one of my favorite music !

So when I heard that his new number’s music is “ Meditation “ , in the beginning I was not sure if it’s by Massenet’s “ Meditation from “ Thais” ? or some other music by other composers.

I’m really happy to watch the performance in youtube.

Needless to say the awesomeness of his usual artistic natural beautiful movements , and I love the choreography.

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111026&content_id=25797614&vkey=ice_news

According to the ice network article above, he choreographed himself.
Within a very short time, he did really great and I love it.

I felt this music is similar to Saint Saen’s The Swan when I first time listened to it. ( I love both of them, but maybe I love Meditation from “ Thais” more than The Swan. )

We can see he loves to often change his costumes and his looks.

I also would love to see him to change the choreography style, from different choreographer.

He can also create another version of this number.

For this music , I can imagine many stories.

It’s so beautiful world. I’m sure Johnny can, as well.

I was thinking about if Johnny would skate with Tom Dickson’s choreography someday. Because I was impressed with many of Tom Dickson’s choreographies in the past. Johnny can get different idea by working with someone he has never worked with.

Just my thought.

Only thing is I feel there must be some costumes that fit better with this program and the music.

Maybe he is planning to have a new costume for this new number ?

What comes my mind for this number is the costume from his Trio number Fallen Angels costume.

Also the black swan costume which he skated in the finale Skating with the Stars show. He didn’t wear both of these costumes much but I really loved them. It would be great if he wears these costumes again.

Johnny’s costumes,

Am I the only one who feel his costume taste started changing since last Olympics ? I actually loved almost all his costumes until Vancouver Olympics.

After Vancouver Olympics, I love Bad Romance costumes with gold and black , and also his Skating with the Stars finale’s costume, the (black swan ?, it also looked like a sexy vampire ).

I love glitter, elegance, and beautiful costumes which make his body look slender and show his body line beautifully.

My favorite Johnny’s costumes

1. Yunona I Avos ( 2007 - 2008’s SP )
2. Otonal Black & blue ( Torino Olympics )
3. Poker Face ( first one )
4. The Swan
5. Bad Romance ( first one, gold & black )
6. My way
7. Fallen Angel ( 2009 - 2010 FP ( Vancouver Olympics ) )
8. Rondo
9. Nature Boy ( purple & pink )
10. Maxim Marvica
11. Skating with stars’s finale costume ( black one )

Make up

1. Fallen Angels Trio number with Melissa & Denis
2. Bad Romance ( Skate for hope )
3. Mac Photos ( 2010 )

Hair style

1. Rondo & Otonal time period
2. Otonal & The swan time period. ( Kathleen Bang’s photos )
3. Vman’s fashion ice show in 2009, when first time showed his Poker face number.
4. Korean fan’s meeting in 2009

Just saying.

Happy Birthday Franz Liszt !

2011-10-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Franz Liszt !

It was Liszt’s 200th birthday on October 22, so we were enjoying listening to all his music from the morning.

His piano concertos , Hungarian Rhapsody #2, Fantasia , Sonata B Minor, Totentanz, etc..

One of the top present pianists Lang Lang was performing with Philadelphia Orchestra for Liszt’s celebration.

He also published his original Liszt’s music audio CD for this celebration year. Lang lang’s hero seems to be Liszt.

http://articles.philly.com/2011-10-20/news/30301770_1_simulcast-philadelphia-orchestra-verizon-hall

Lang lang and Yundi Li are two of the top present pianists right now.

Other great articles about Liszt’s 200th celebration,

How Franz Liszt became the World’s First Rock Star

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra to celebrate Liszt's 200th birthday with concerts

On the other hand, I found there is a bitter article on Liszt’s celebration day from an unknown pianist who is criticizing Liszt’s creativity, but the unknown pianist is unknown and his original composition is as well. He put the following title.

“ Still Wondering If Liszt Was Any Good “

It’s painful to read and difficult to understand the writer’s psychology.
Why did this writer want to write that kind of bitter article with the title “ Still Wondering If Liszt Was Any Good “ on Liszt’s celebration day ?

On the other hand, he does show some interest in Liszt in commenting as the quotes below,

“ My own interest in Liszt has always been sustained by his sometimes bizarre balancing act between fulfillment and insufficiency, between genius and empty gesture.

Like the novels of John Cowper Powys, Liszt’s works often occupy a no man’s land between greatness and disaster; you never quite know in which direction each will eventually turn, or perhaps turn back again. “

According to Wikipedia information, this writer is a pianist from Scotland , who plays Liszt, Alkan's music.

This writer was pointing out only quotes from famous composers's negative comments about Liszt, completely disregarding their positive quotes about Liszt.

That’s what he wanted to write on Liszt’s celebration day ?

It’s easy to find some positive comments from Saint Saens, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Chopin about Liszt as well.

But the writer chose not to.

Liszt’s own quote about music critics,

“ These music criticisms are made by people who are unsuccessful musicians who are being successful by bashing other musicians and composers. "

Liszt must have been receiving this kind of bitter criticisms many times when he was alive as well.

These music critics, it came from their lack of confidence, or it came from a complex about their music career ?

So by bashing other composers, they can feel better ?

Anyway, these carbon copy type critics are not nice to read.

Bitter reviews from music critics were not only directed against Liszt, but also to many others as well, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, were also severely criticized and bashed by music critics.

Chopin and Mendelsohn passed away early, so they didn’t know Liszt’s great compositions which he created after they had passed away.

Clara Schumann was commenting nice things about Liszt when they were young.
But later years both Robert Schumann & Clara Schumann had issues with Liszt personally ,and during a party, Liszt complimented another composer, comparing with Mendelssohn, saying the other composer is more original.

Then Schumann suddenly grabbed Liszt’s shoulder area, aggressively defending Mendelssohn.

Long time relationships may have many things depending on the situation , and if one points out only the comments from the worst situation, the person’s impression may be different.

Hector Berlioz had issues with Richard Wagner. Actually, according to the information I‘ve read, none of the famous composers seem to have liked Wagner except for Liszt.

And Berlioz was one of them, and Berlioz ended up staying away from Liszt since Liszt was often with Wagner.

No matter what music critics said, Liszt is a legendary musician, composer, as well as an amazing performer.

Every composer 's compositions can be reviewed as great or empty as well based on the one's taste , but some critics only point at Liszt.

I don't agree with what that writer said about all the Wagner and Verdi's music are beloved by everyone.

Even Chopin's music, which I love almost all his music I've ever listened to, is not beloved by everyone, there are always people who feel boring or empty for Chopin or any of the other great composers.

It's Liszt's celebration day, so I would like to put some nice comments from people who were alive at the same time as Liszt and what they said after seeing him perform.

About Liszt's piano playing,

Mendelssohn:

"I have heard no performer whose musical feelings, like Liszt's, extended to the very tips of his fingers."

Saint-Saens :
Saint-Saëns said after hearing Liszt perform a piece of music called Saint Francis of Paula Walking on the Waters:

"Never again will there be seen or heard anything equal to it."

Chopin :
When Chopin was sick he would sometimes feel frustrated and not able to play how he wanted, and when he heard Liszt playing his etudes which he dedicated to Liszt, he said -

" How I would like to play my own Etudes the way Liszt plays them"

Ernest Legouvé the Revue et gazette musicale:

"Liszt performed marvels of power, of precision, and of soul! The translation was as beautiful as the poem.. We have heard nothing greater."

Charles Hallé:

"Chopin carried you away with him into a dreamland, in which you would have liked to dwell for ever. Liszt was all sunshine and dazzling splendour, subjugating his hearers with a power that none could withstand... never harsh, never suggesting thumping."

Princess Cristina Belgiojoso (contrasting Liszt with his rival, Sigmund Thalberg):
"There is only one Thalberg in Paris, but there is only one Liszt in the world."

Mendelssohn:

"I spend almost all my time with Liszt. How marvelous is his playing! Now daring and wild, and again so delicate and ethereal that it surpasses anything I ever heard...Every day Liszt appears greater to me. Today he played again in such a way that we all trembled with emotion and delight."

Clara Schumann:

"We have heard Liszt. He can be compared to no other virtuoso. He is the only one of his kind."

"When I heard Liszt for the first time...I was overwhelmed and cried aloud, it so shook me... how heavenly it is when he plays tenderly."

Clara Schumann in 1851, after hearing Liszt play some of his Harmonies poétiques et réligieuses:

"He masters the piano like a demon (I can't put it any other way...)

Anton Rubenstein ( another piano master )at the height of his career said :

" In comparison with Liszt, all other pianists are children."

Clara Schumann:

"After hearing Liszt, my own playing seems so boring and haphazard to me now. I've almost lost the inclination to go on tour again. After hearing and seeing Liszt's bravura, I feel like a student. Sometimes you think Liszt is a spirit sitting there at the piano. “

Robert Schumann (1840):

"I have never found any artist, except Paganini, to possess, in so high a degree as Liszt, this power of subjugating, elevating, and leading the public...We are overwhelmed by a flood of tones and feelings. It is an instantaneous variety of wildness, tenderness, boldness, and airy grace; the instrument glows under the hands of its master....

Richard Wagner said to Liszt:

"I am now convinced that you are the greatest musician of all times."

On Liszt's Character,

Reisenauer (a pupil of Liszt):

"I consider Liszt the greatest man I have ever met- a man with mental grasp, splendid disposition and glorious genius. Liszt`s personality can only be expressed by one word: colossal."

Sitwell:

"The unselfishness and the true humility of his life are without parallel."

Wilhelm Kukh, Czech pianist:

"His personality was an extraordinary one. On all subjects an excellent conversationalist, he was extremely witty, possessing a keen sense of humor; his manners were, as all who knew him can testify, most fascinating; while his literary ability was indeed remarkable.

And when I come to speak of his generosity, words altogether fail me to indicate that striking phase of his genial and kindly nature. Not only did Liszt give concerts and recitals for charity in the cause of helping to stop suffering and distress, benefiting institutions in whatever town he found himself, but out of his pocket he assisted all who appealed to him to the fullest extent of the means at his disposal."

Mendelssohn:

“Liszt is "fundamentally a good, warm-hearted man and an admirable artist."

Burnand:

"I truly believe that there never was a human being more revered and loved by those who knew him than Franz Liszt was... a perfect gentleman and kind-hearted. “

Fanny Lewald:

"When he looked about him, he seemed to appear as a man to whom the world belonged; and who was born to this role, so that it suited him naturally. His head possessed so much nobility that he ..had as much influence upon sculpture as did the classical beauty of the Countess d'Agoult."

George Sand:

"A powerful artist, sublime in the great things, always superior in the small ones, yet sad, and troubled by a secret wound."

Heinrich Heine:

"His insatiable longing for Light and the Deity is ever praiseworthy;"

George Eliot, novelist, on Liszt:

"Genius, benevolence, and tenderness beam from his whole countenance, and his manners are in perfect harmony with it... For the first time in my life I beheld real inspiration."

Countess Marie d'Agoult, mother of Liszt's children, said the following words, long after they had parted:

"Inexpressible charm: It is still him and him alone who makes me feel the mystery of life. With him gone, I sense the emptiness around me and weep."

Happy Happy Birthday, Franz Liszt !

Franz Liszt’s magical piano concert performance

2011-10-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

More about Franz Liszt !

Because it’s Liszt’s 200th celebration year and Liszt’s 200th birthday ( October 22 ) will be coming very soon !

Liszt was

Sun : Libra
Moon : Sagittarius
According to his astrology sign.

He grew up as an only child.

While looking for more about Franz Liszt, I found an incredibly detailed description of how Liszt looked and how he performed in concert, and why he could hypnotize his audiences at the link below.

http://www.blogger.com/www.oldandsold.com/opera/music-2.shtml

It's from a music magazine in the early 1900's.

Their memory of Liszt was more recent and clear, because it wasn't too long ago at that time, so it's a very interesting description.

“ There was something weird and magnetic about his playing. He was very tall, about six feet two inches, slender, with piercing eyes, very long arms, and small hands.

He played without the need of any score in front of him, and amid the most frightful difficulties of execution, he would sometimes keep his eyes fixed upon this or that person in the audience.

He moved about at the piano very much in the exciting parts, not, apparently, because of the difficulty of it, but from innate fire and excitement. As for technical difficulties, they did not exist for Liszt.

Everything that the piano could do, seemed to be at his service, and the only regret was that the instrument was not better able to respond to his demand.

In the fortissimo passages his tone was immense, and his pianissimos were the most delicate whispers.

In these, his fingers glided over the keys with inconceivable lightness and speed, and the tone fell upon the ear with a delicate tracery with which no particular note was lost by reason of speed or lightness.

This wonderful control of the piano went equally well with his own compositions, especially adapted to his own style of playing; or with the works of the old school, which he transfigured as they had never been played before .

The essential novelties of the Liszt technique were the bravura cadenzas.

The other sensational features, such as carrying the melody in the middle range of the piano with surrounding embroidery, the rapid runs and the extravagant climaxes, were all more or less performed by the three representative virtuoso piano writers of this time period, Liszt, Chopin and Thalberg. “

His piano playing performance sounds very original and unique, besides his effortless technique plus strong emotion with expressive passionate movements.

I guess no one performs like Liszt.

We have several Liszt’s same music played by different pianists, and each one is different.

I especially wish I could hear Liszt himself playing Liebestraume ( Love dream ), La Campanella, Hungarian Rhapsody #2, Sonata B Minor and also Chopin‘s Etude ‘ Revolutionary ‘.

I feel anyone who was able to see his live piano performance was extremely lucky.

I’ve read that some of the highest level of genius pianists and musicians / composers like Liszt and Chopin, can hear the music in their head by just reading the notes, soon after reading it without even needing to play it .

When Chopin gave Liszt the music score of his Etude “ Revolutionary” which Chopin dedicated for Liszt, Liszt was so excited that right away he played it in front of him and all their friends that happened to be there.

Liszt played it excellently and Chopin was thrilled and his face became pale while watching his playing.

In Chopin’s case, when Schumann sent a score of his new composition music to Chopin, Chopin could hear the music by just reading the notes easily, and said to his friend that he didn’t like that particular piece.

I’ve never impressed much with Schumann’s music, maybe just different taste, so I understand Chopin’s feeling for it.

But I’m really impressed with this amazing ability to be able to hear the music by just reading the music notes, without playing !!

I believe Saint Saens also had this ability as well.

About Liszt’s looks ,

The article says “ He was very tall, about six feet two inches, slender, with piercing eyes, very long arms, and small hands. “

Franz Liszt

But I think as far as his hands were concerned, after seeing photos of Liszt’s hands, and from reading many other descriptions of him, it’s clear to see that they were long and narrow with long fingers.

Pianist’s hands are often described as delicate looking with long, narrow hands with thin long fingers.

And I’ve read that this classic image of a pianist’s hands came from Chopin and Liszt, because they had this type of hands.

Chopin’s hands might have been slightly even more delicate though, from seeing the photo.

And I have often heard that big hands with short thick fingers are more for athletes or worker’s hands.
I often admired pianist’s hands like Chopin and Liszt’s.

I was very surprised to know about Liszt's height. 6’2 !!!

Especially during 19th century, it’s really tall !

With his handsome, charismatic face and character, such a tall cool man, he must have been a really stunning impact person, just walking on the street, even without knowing his music talent and performance.

Although I’m not a big fan of tall men, or of height itself, I care more for total balance of the body shape.

But Liszt looks to have had a very balanced appearance.

He was also very fashionable who cared his original style including his hair.

I was wondering that no other composers hair was like Liszt.

Chopin and Mendelssohn look alike to me. And many composers hairstyles were really similar to each other except Liszt.

A hairstyle similar to Liszt’s was very popular around 1996 to 1998 in Japan.

He really looks like a king of romantic era including total fashion.

Also, around 1980‘s, in Japan, a new romantic fashion was one of the trends at that time and many fashionable men were wearing designer’s brand’s fashion which are based on new romantic which looked like a robin hood, with hat and feather.

Especially we could see these fashionable people in the popular Disco every Friday and Saturday.

Trend fashion is often repeating every 20 to 30 years.

It would be great if romantic fashion comes back again.

But anything which is related to beauty and elegance , I would love them.

Classical music and heavy metal music - Liszt's Sonata in B Minor

2011-10-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

I love both, classical music and classical heavy metal music.

Classical music and heavy metal music have certain things in common such as requiring high technical musical instrument skills to be able to play.

I have posted about “ Musical taste shows personality “ in one of my past posts ( September, in 2008 ) at the link below,

http://miho-entwistle.blogspot.com/2008/09/musical-taste-shows-personality.html

Liszt’s “ Sonata in B minor “ initially took me a little while to warm up to it.

Then recently, I had a dream in which I was listening to Liszt’s “ Sonata B in Minor “ in it.

And while listening to it in my dream, I had some discovery, I really enjoyed listening to it, and so the more I listen to the music, the more I’m deep into it.

http://gallery.xemanhdep.com/2011/07/14-beautiful-art-photos/

And I found that this music can be heavy metal music.

And really understand why Liszt has many fans who are heavy metal musicians.

When the first time I listened to his “Sonata B in Minor“, I wasn’t so crazy for the music, and thought it’s more of technical music rather than imagination, the more of a math type of music.

But since reading about genius composers such as Camille Saint-Seans and Richard Wagner who both were really loving this music and hailed it as a masterpiece , very high level music, I was wondering what they were getting from this music which I haven’t yet.

Both Camille Saint Saens and Richard Wagner were definitely highly imaginative persons.

Camille Saint Saens seems to have been one of those rare individuals whose right side and left sides of the brain were quite balanced, as he was also great at math and science.

He could get inspiration from his imagination or get more mathematical type of ideas.

And for Richard Wagner, from what I’ve read so far, the impression I get is that he was more of a right brain person, who made music mostly from his imagination, he also sounded like he was living in his fantasy world after reading about him.

And it seems that his fantasy world was so strong, that he eventually achieved a lot of his dreams.

I read that once while Richard Wagner was visiting at Liszt’s house, Wagner woke up from sleep and heard the piano playing, he heard Liszt playing his Sonata B in Minor in one of the other rooms.

He was curious where the music was coming from so he quietly went to the edge of the room where the music was emanating from, and without going into the room at first, he could hear Liszt was playing for a small group of visitors, and Wagner listened intently, peeking through the door, and he was really impressed with Liszt’s composition for the music.

After Liszt finished playing, Wagner rushed to him and hugged and praised Liszt, and thanked him for such a heavenly performance of this masterpiece.

But I’m glad I’m finally getting the music and understanding more and more why these two genius composers valued this music so much.

Liszt has many music like that, in the beginning, not so big impact like Tchaikovsky and Chopin’s music , but it’s strange, while listening to them, I became crazy for them, never bored.

Someone said, Liszt was actually the original source of heavy metal music, not Black Sabbath, Ozzy or Led Zeppelin.

One of my long time favorite hard rock/ classic heavy metal music group The Alfee’s music was like that.

My top favorite music, Saint-Saens “ Danse Macabre” can be listened to like heavy classical metal music as well.

I found myself, I often love complicated elegant classic heavy metal music.

Many people imagine heavy metal is just one big noise, but classic heavy metal music is different.

And while I was checking classical music information, I also discovered that , somehow, some heavy metal fans are also fanatic Franz Liszt fans ( rather than only classical music fans ).

Some of them are interesting because when looking at profiles,
for example, “ your favorite music “ section , they listed many heavy metal music groups, or hard rock groups names, but they were also including Franz Liszt’s name alone as the only classic music composer .

Sounded like originally they are not classical music fans except for Franz Liszt.
I wonder why only Liszt, and not Chopin or Rachmaninov who are also considered as legendary pianists in the world ?

Anyways, anyone who loves Liszt and his music sounds very cool to me.

All your favorites is who you are.

All my favorites are who I am.

I’m always interested in people’s favorite things, because that’s how we can know the person.

The Greatest Piano Concertos, Chopin & Liszt ( and others )

2011-09-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

I love Chopin & Liszt !

Recently, I’m so loving to listen to my old CD of Chopin which I purchased when I was still in my 20’s. ( Over 20 years ago .)

It has Chopin’s Piano concerto No.1 in E Minor, Op 11 and also his Piano Concerto No.2 in F Minor, Op.21.

Performed by

Pianist : Samson Francois
Orchestre : National de L’Opera de Monte-Carlo
Conductor : Louis Fremaux

This was recorded in 1965.

This music is so fantastic !!!

I wish some great figure skaters would perform with them also.

Seems like Chopin created both of these music masterpieces when he was around 19 years old !

How could he create such incredible concertos at such a young age ?

Except for one other music piece, these are the only music compositions he created for Piano with Orchestra .

Almost everything else he wrote was for solo Piano, except for some chamber music with piano and viola.

At the time I originally bought this CD, I wasn’t listening to it much because I was more loving to listen to another CD of his music which has his Nocturnes and Fantaisie Impromptu, Walzes, etc..

I love almost all his music but after listening to these two concertos again, they are something different from my impression of many of Chopin’s other music.

And it’s a new discovery for me !

And also I found that Rachmaninov might have been influenced by one of Chopin‘s compositions, the Piano Concerto No.2 F Minor. Op.21, I.Mov.

Because there are parts of this music that remind me of Rachmaninov’s Piano concerto No.3.

There is one part especially which is really similar to Chopin’s Piano concert No.2.
And I love both of them.

But I realized just how much Chopin was very original and unique.

I feel his music has influenced some other composers as well, besides Rachmaninov.

The first time I listened to Tchaikovsky’s piano piece called “ Valse sentimentale, op. 51/6 “ without knowing the composer of the music was Tchaikovsky, I had thought it ‘s Chopin’s composition.

But I was surprised to see it was created by Tchaikovsky !

Tchaikovsly‘s “ Valse sentimentale, op. 51/6 “ is one of my top favorite music same as Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens and Hungarian Rhabsody No.2, La Campanella, by Liszt .

A wealthy widow named Nadezdha von Meck, who was Tchaikovsky’s biggest supporter of his music, and who also loved Chopin’s music, wrote many letters to Tchaikovsky, and in one of them she pointed out that in her opinion Chopin’s music is similar to Tchaikovsky’s music.

It looked like it was reply to a letter from Tchaikovsky in which he was not especially flattering about Chopin’s music.

But in fact, there are some similarities.

For example, Chopin loved Mozart , same as Tchaikovsky, which was different from their music style.

But I can guess why they both loved Mozart’s music.

They all have in common music which is elegant and beautiful and which gives a certain bourgeois, high class impression.

Chopin and Tchaikovsky also share in common a tendency to create music which can be intensely emotional and personal.

Another of my recent favorite CD’s is “ Best Liszt 100 “ which was made for Liszt’s 200th anniversary this year.

It has 6 CD’s and there are many of his music I’ve never heard, so it‘s really new for me.

Liszt actually created over 1,000 compositions while he was alive , which is an unbelievable amount !

I’ve read that Saint-Saen’s created over 300 compositions, and this is known as an amazing number of compositions, so Liszt’s over 1,000 is so crazily incredible.

I wonder , was he not sleeping much ?

But it’s not only about time, but his focus and ability and effort to make such a large number of compositions, which no one made in history.

While Chopin created his two Piano Concerto masterpieces , when he was only 19 years old, Liszt took over 26 years to create and finish his own two Piano Concerto masterpieces, having started when he was also only 19 years old, as he kept going back to them and revising them until he was completely satisfied.

It almost sounds as if Chopin had his own music spirit guide who gave him direct access to a beautiful music universe in which Chopin could easily be inspired with ideas , so that he could hear the music whenever it came to his mind naturally.

Same as Tchaikovsky who once said

“ I sit down regularly at the piano at 9 o’clock in the morning and Mesdames les Muses have learned to be on time for that rendezvous. In the early days, sometimes they were late, but now they know the time of the appointment “.

But in Liszt ’s case sounds like he was more the effort type for the composition, he trained by himself, taking time to get the ideas for music.

That’s why some music took such a long time to complete them, I suppose.

And I’m so loving and respecting that part of Liszt, his incredible effort, amazing focus and determination.

I’m still a newbie fan of Liszt and his music and just beginning to know about 100 of his music on this CD, and haven’t listened to many of his more than 1000 music.

I also found Saint Saens quote about Liszt’s Sonata in B minor !

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16459/16459-h/16459-h.htm

" Liszt's great Sonata in B minor. With all its power and in all its delicacy, when played in a masterly way, it is one of the finest sonatas imaginable. But such a performance is rare, for it is beyond the average artist.

A perfect understanding of style in general and of the style of this composer, Liszt, in particular, are the qualifications needed to perform this work.

To play it, one needs the strength of an athlete, the lightness of a bird, capriciousness, and charm. It is far too difficult for most virtuosi, however talented they may be. "

This was Saint Saens’ ( who was also a great pianist ) advice on how to play Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.

From reading about Saint Saens, his musical abilities seemed effortless, but even he said this piece is so difficult to play.

I thought in present pianists, Yundi Li was playing great with this music.
Liszt’s Sonata in B minor is very long, so it may be really hard to complete it perfectly.

But I don’t know which one is the most difficult piano piece to play.

Depending on the pianist , it may be different as well.

Liszt’s
Sonata in B minor,
La Campanella,
Hungarian Rhapsody#2, and so many other compositions.

Chopin’s Etude Revolutionary, Ballade N 1 in G minor

Also Rachmaninov ‘s Concerto #3,

I’ve also heard about that Charles Valentin Alkan’s Etudes in the minor keys are some of the most difficult as well.

While reading about many of composers who were with Chopin and Liszt, I’m also interested in Alkan and his personality and his music.

Alkan sounded like genius composer and a pianist as well but he was a hermit type of person so he wasn’t well-known except among master pianists.

He was friends with both Chopin and Liszt. Alkan started out with a promising career as a pianist, same as Chopin and Liszt.

Liszt said that Alkan possessed one of the finest piano techniques he had ever seen.

But I’ve read that Alkan lost some of his confidence as a performer after seeing Liszt’s performance, although he continued to compose.

A few years later, Alkan became very bitter after he was maneuvered out of a good job, a professorship at a music conservatory, and since then, he was living in a second floor of his apartment and never meeting with anyone.

Alkan’s concierge was instructed to tell any visitors, when they arrived at the first floor of his apartment, to tell them that nobody was home.

One of Alkan’s visitors persisted and asked the concierge
“ Well then, when will he be home ? “

The concierge answered “ Never “.

I’ve not had the opportunity to hear Alkan’s music yet, but he sounds like a very mysterious and sensitive artist.

I look forward to hearing his music someday.

So far, my favorite Piano Concertos are :

Chopin’s Piano Concerto N.1 in E minor

Chopin’s Piano Concerto N.2 in F minor

Liszt’s Piano Concerto N.1 in E flat major

Liszt’s Piano Concerto N..2 in A major

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto 1 in B flat minor

Saint Saens’ Piano Concerto N.4 in C minor

Saint Saens’ Piano Concerto N.2 in G minor

Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto N 3 in D minor

Rachmaninov’s Concerto N 2 in C minor

For Tchaikovsky , I haven’t heard his other piano concertos, only No.1. Must hear his other two piano concertos, too.

This classical music world is so fun !

Franz Liszt’s dangerous love

2011-09-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

Franz Liszt was quite tall in his generation, standing 6 feet, 2 inches tall, long blonde hair, piercing, sharp eyes, pianist' long narrow and delicate hands and fingers. His body build was very slender.

People who knew him described his personality as full of charm, charisma, and very knowledgeable. And he loved brainy women.

He was the consummate artist.

It seems that Liszt loved dangerous love, which thrilled him and gave him excitement rather than a stable, peaceful , safe love.

Franz Liszt

While reading about his biography, I was wondering why he fell in love with two princesses who were already married.

Marie D’Agoult
He seems to have had a lot of love affairs in his life, someone found out that he had at least 26 serious relationships in his life ( besides countless other affairs ) but the only ladies he thought about marriage was with these two princesses , Marie D’Agoult and Carolyne Sayn Wittgenstein ?

Charlotte Von Hagn

Lola Montez

Carolyne Sayn Wittgenstein

One of my favorite of Franz Liszt’s music is Liebestraum ( Love dream ), especially the version played by Hiroko Nakamura in the Franz Liszt greatest hits Audio CD.

Depending on the pianist, I get really different impression and I’m wondering how the composer himself Liszt played it, such a romantic , sentimental beautiful music, Liebestraum.

And I started checking to find out who was Liszt thinking about when he composed this music ?

I originally thought he composed this music for his long time girlfriend Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein , who was one of the Russian Princesses.

But it was not.

Agnes Street Klindworth

Liszt made it for his secret lover Agnes Street Klindworth who was 28 years old at that time. Liszt was 42.

And Liszt and Carolyne’s relationship was still very much alive even though they were not living together at that time.

Liszt and Agnes fell in love with each other within months of their first meeting. Agnes was the daughter of master spy George Klindworth Metternich , who had the ear of Emperor Franz Joseph and Tsar Nicholas I.

Liszt apparently knew of Agnes’ double life all along, and it seems this only added to make her even more intriguing to him , and their subsequent passionate and emotional affair was one of the best-kept secrets of the Weimar years . Agnes was central to Liszt’s life in the mid-1850s.

From the music Liebestraum , it’s so clear to hear and feel his serious love for her, his strong emotion, burning love for her through the music.

His Liebestraum is the most beautiful romantic music for couples I’ve ever heard.

On the other hand , he could be dry in some ways. His main partner was always Carolyne.

They were unable to get married because of outside forces out of their control.

When Carolyne discovered Agnes’s letters to Liszt, Carolyne eventually forgave him because she thought Agnes is a temporary affair and she, Carolyne, was in the top position of his life.

Liszt and Agnes continued their affair for awhile but he advised Agnes not to write to him anymore since Carolyne found out and he destroyed all the letters from Agnes.

However , Agnes kept Liszt’s letters to her, sorted by date, in a box. She didn’t want to lose the evidence she had an affair with Franz Liszt.

When Agnes realized that Liszt would stay with Carolyne, and he wouldn’t marry with Agnes, Agnes got married with other guy.

But Liszt was not upset with Agnes’ marriage and was happy for her.

I wonder in Liszt’s world, did he experience no jealousy ?

Or did it come come from high pride ?

Also, had he never experienced rejection from any ladies ??

According to Pyotr Thaikovsky’s review of Liszt’s final concert which he attended and which was held when Liszt was 70 years old, Tchaikovsky described Liszt as being “ surrounded by a bouquet of ladies “ after the concert.

I only knew popular idol stars being surrounded by ladies when they were young, and rarely saw these idol stars surrounded by ladies in their senior years.

Liszt sounds like a very charming person.

He had students who admired him even when he became over 70’s, and Lina Schmallhousen was taking care of Liszt’s in his final year.

According to Liszt’s bio site Wikipedia , one of his other talented students Olga Janina had a short affair with Liszt, but later she was so jealous she tried to kill him.

Author Alan Walker didn’t think Olga Janina and Liszt had a love affair, although she was his student for awhile, but there is no evidence they had such an affair.

Maybe people thought they had affair from Olga’s fiction story book she made and published which became a scandal for Liszt ?

Liszt was like an ocean.

A huge and charismatic personality.

His life was very colorful and flamboyant, as were his clothes, as was his music.

He composed a very wide range of music, with a huge contrast of styles, both loud and soft, stormy and peaceful.
Very variety.

From reading all his ladies stories, Carolyne was the most serious partner who cared about him, and Liszt trusted her as well.

Just they were no match with each other in many ways, different views of life and many topics and had some big arguments.

It was sad to read she was unable to be with Liszt when he passed away.
Only a few months after Liszt’s death, Carolyne also passed away, from depression of it.

I think this type of man is good to see from far away. lol

Like many idol stars.

One of my other heroes, Freddie Mercury once said “ My love is dangerous” and he wrote a song about it.

When asked why he wrote a song with that title,

he said “ Why ? Can you imagine if I wrote a song with the title “ My love is safe “ it will never sell ! “

Actually all my favorite and interesting people have similar parts. Their love sounds not stable.
And their views of relationships are original.

Ray’s favorites are similar to mine.

Personally , I feel that stars are wonderful and interesting but it’s good to see them from far away, otherwise, you may get burned.

Each of Liszt’s love affairs sounds serious and genuine to me. Even though he had many relationships.

And despite it all, Liszt’s strikes me as somehow innocent and also cute and funny.

“ Storms are my métier- storms are my forte." - Franz Liszt

2011-09-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Franz Liszt's bio book #1 by Alan Walker

Franz Liszt’s long bio books by Alan Walker arrived here several days ago !
and we are still in the process of reading them.

Each volume has over 480 to 600 pages and the author Alan Walker’s research about Liszt’s life is fabulous !

Franz Liszt's bio books #1, #2, #3 by Alan Walker

We found many new discoveries about Liszt as a person, as a pianist & composer and his life, and his views.

He was a storm, a very expressive, passionate, unique, charming artist.

Kindhearted, very generous, caring, temper, high pride, a social person , enjoyed being on stage or with a group of people.

However, he did not sacrifice his originality and uniqueness in order to be with a group ( check out his long hair and unique sense of fashion, some kind of mixture of robin hood, zorro and pirate ) and he had a deep passion to promote great music.

Ray is saying Franz Liszt is like the Bruce Lee of piano playing.

Many composers ( and people in general ) usually care only themselves and their families, their fame, but it seems that Liszt cared more for the music than anything.

He was thinking about the future of music and besides composing music and playing it, he also liked to promote other great composers who he felt could influence future generations and future music in a good way.

Very wide scale of view.

For example, Liszt promoted Saint Saens’ and Chopin’s music and he wrote the world’s first biography of Chopin.

Also, I was surprised to read that Liszt was helping Richard Wagner financially many times and also when Wagner was struggling.

Some parts of his dealings with Wagner made me feel like why was it that Liszt wanted to help someone like Wagner, who seems only cared for himself.
Is it because Wagner was a genius composer who created great music ??

Whenever Liszt found new wonderful composers he was always excited to talk about them to other composers who were his friends, because he cared uppermost for music, but other composers such as Wagner, Berlioz, Schumann, had some feelings of rivalry and didn’t always enjoy hearing Liszt praise the music of other composers.

One of the mysteries about Liszt is how he could be always be so confident performing on stage.

He was the inventor of the solo Piano concert , and he toured alone, seemingly without getting stage fright which many pianists have.

I’ve read about that most performers of any kind, whether it be pianists, theatre, ballet, acting, athletes and etc…get some form of stage fright, even if they trained or practiced excellently.

Even such an amazing pianist & composer as Frederic Chopin had that issue.

But Liszt seems to have never had the issue and could not understand his students feeling of fear to perform in front of music elites.

Even his most talented students would get nervous and one of them stopped playing in the middle of an important recital.

In general, people may not understand things which they have never experienced.

And in Liszt’s case, since he seems to have not experienced stage fright, he simply could not understand why anyone else would, and he didn’t seem to know how to help his students out of it.

The more I know about Liszt’s character, the more I found he is so different and far from my personality and feel very mystery, but very interesting person.

And while reading it, I feel Chopin’s personality may be similar to me in many ways.

For Liszt, seems like Chopin type of person is mysterious.

I really feel Chopin described Liszt’s image and character excellently through his music “ Revolutionary Etude “ which Chopin dedicated to Liszt ( Chopin dedicated the whole set of his first etudes, including the “ Revolutionary “ to Liszt.)

In this music, left hand side requires constant moving, fast as a storm, the music is very powerful and impressive.

Also I believe it’s one of the most difficult pieces to play, needs to be performed well balanced between emotion and technique, with almost no break time for left hand.

Like this music , the “ Revolutionary Etude “ , Liszt seems always constantly moving ,with expressive gestures using both hands.

It was hilarious to read about when Liszt started orchestra conducting, he was conducting the orchestra using his whole body including arms, hands.

From eyewitness accounts, his expression seems to have been really dynamic, so much so, that the audience was watching Liszt more than the orchestra .

When the music demanded forte, Liszt would outstretch his body fully upright with arms high above his head, with dramatic movements.

When the music called for orchestra to play softly, Liszt would crouch the upper part of his body down low on the podium, as if peeking from the podium with only eyes showing.

There is a hilarious cartoon of that time period ( the image above ), which shows the above description of his conducting.

I suppose his piano playing performances may have been no different, must have been huge impact just from watching his movements during the performance.

Very passionate artist.

I’m still in the process of reading, and there are so many things I want to write about Liszt and his life.

Top Timeless Classical Music Composers

2011-08-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

200 - 300 years later from now, who do you think will be the timeless composers ?

I was checking keywords popularities of famous classical music composers ,
and realized that, it’s so amazing the number of searches for all these classical composers !

and the present results show below,

The keyword ( Global monthly searches from English sites)

Johann Bach - 301,000
Franz Liszt - 201,000
Frederic Chopin - 165,000
Ludwig Beethoven - 165,000
Richard Wagner- 165,000

Wolfgang Mozart - 135,000
Robert Schumann - 135,000
Franz Schubert - 110,000
Giuseppe Verdi - 110,000
Antonio Vivaldi - 110,000

Igor Stravinsky - 110,000
Joseph Haydn - 90,500
Johann Strauss - 90,500
Gustav Mahler - 90,500
Richard Strauss - 74,000

Claude Debussy - 74,000
George Handel - 60,500
Johannes Brahms - 60,500
Edvard Grieg - 60,500
Camille Saint-Saens - 40,500

Antonin Dvorak - 40,500
Felix Mendelssohn - 40,500
William Walton - 33,100
Georges Bizet - 33,100
Hector Berlioz - 33,100

Peter Tchaikovsky - 27,100
Jean Sibelius - 22,200
Dmitri Shostakovich - 22,200
Sergei Prokofiev - 22,200
Sergei Rachmaninoff - 18,100

Modest Mussorgsky - 14,800
Alexander Borodin - 8,100
Jules Massenet - 8,100
Aram Khachaturian - 9,900
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - 3600

But depending on the composer, many people are also searching with only their family name.

If they are searching composers by family name, the results are below,

In Bach's case, he has family members who were also composers, so we can’t know for sure that the Bach keyword is only for Johann S Bach.

Same goes for Strauss.

In Tchaikovsky’s case, there is only one famous composer by this name, and people usually search by his family name only.

So the below results more accurately reflect the number of searches.

And this is only from English site, so depending the country, it must be different.

Bach - 11,100,000
Mozart - 4,090,000
Wagner - 4,090,000
Handel - 4,090,000
Strauss - 3,350,000

Beethoven - 2,740,000
Verdi - 2,740,000
Chopin - 1,830,000
Walton - 1,830,000
Schubert - 1,500,000

Haydn - 1,220,000
Schumann - 1,000,000
Vivaldi - 1,000,000
Liszt - 673,000
Sibelius - 673,000

Mahler - 673,000
Tchaikovsky - 550,000
Brahms - 550,000
Dvorak - 550,000
Debussy - 450,000

Mendelssohn - 450,000
Grieg - 301,000
Stravinsky - 301,000
Rachmaninoff - 246,000
Bizet - 201,000

Shostakovich - 201,000
Prokofiev - 165,000
Saint-Saens - 135,000
Borodin - 135,000
Massenet - 90,500

Mussorgsky - 74,000
Rimsky-Korsakov - 49,500
Khachaturian - 40,500

And I suppose these classical composers search will continue forever, 400 years later, 500 years later and so on.

This is actually really amazing things that people are searching about them , as they are not contemporary people, but from 200 - 400 years ago.

In some of classical music fans world, seems like it’s always the following three composers are people’s number one favorite composers and they consider them as the greatest composers. ( or one of them )

1. Johann S Bach
2. Mozart
3. Beethoven

I feel they may be the most famous composers in the world who everyone knows.
But I think who are the greatest composers is actually decided by one’s personal taste, when it comes to all the top composers, rather than they are famous or not.

And I noticed that the Romantic Era ‘s music ( 19th century ) are less popular than baroque period and classic Era ( 17th and 16th centuries ).

The first classical composer I knew was , Beethoven and his music “ Symphony No. 5 in C minor “, when I was a little girl.

I think he was the most well-known classical composer in my area and the music was used in so many occasions.

And somehow, next ones I heard of were Schubert , Mozart, Bach.

Out of these four composers, I like Mozart’s music the most.
His music is good to hear when I want to feel something easy going. His music makes me feel happy always.

But when I was growing up, to this point, I actually wasn’t impressed with any of classical music , at that time, even though I knew Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Bach .

That is, until I heard Chopin’s music, and also Liszt’s La Campanella . Also Tchaikovsky.

Because, soooo beautiful !!!

Their music just hit my heart!

Back to what I was saying earlier, between Beethoven, Bach and Mozart, Bach’s baroque music would be my second selection that I would choose, after Mozart.

Sometimes when I listen to music, I like something which reminds me of a particular generation, and Bach’s music has that baroque generation feel.

Vivaldi’s music is great and it also has that baroque feel.

Handel is not my cup of tea music, though it also reminds me of that generation. I can picture their life style from the music and my imagination.

Beethoven ’s music is still not my cup of tea , but sometimes good to listen to some of Beethoven ’s music while listening to the CD collection of many composers, but I don’t listen to a CD which has only his music.

So far, my top favorite composers are below,

(These top 4 are in no particular order. All of them are my greatest composers .)

1. Camille Saint- Saens
1. Franz Liszt
1. Pyotr Tchaikovsky
1. Frederic Chopin

After these top four, the following are in order of preference.

5. Jules Massenet
6. Aram Khachaturian
7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
8. Felix Mendelssohn
9. Johann Strauss
10. Johann Pachelbel
11. Antonio Vivaldi
12. Edvard Greig
13. Sergei Rachmaninov
14. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
15. George Bizet
16. Claude Debussy
17. Johann Sebastian Bach
18. Franz Schubert

There are more composers I ‘m curious to listen to such as French composer Hector Berlioz, who was in the same generation as Liszt and Chopin. Also want to hear Gabriel Faure who came a little later.

A famous genius violinist Paganini also considered Berlioz as a genius composer.
Haven’t heard Paganinni’s music and want to hear it too.

I wonder why many of French composers are not so well-known now a days ?? ( except for Chopin, who was half French and half Polish ).

I say this, because the more French composers I hear, the more impressed I am, there are many truly wonderful music there.

I’ve read about that Massenet was a famous composer during 19th century, but he is not so well-known composer now, and almost no one talks about him.

Ray is guessing , one of the reasons may be that many classical music communities and the media, are for some reason, always promoting Bach, Mozart and Beethoven…

I didn’t include some great composers who I don’t wish to listen often to their music, even though I feel their music is good, such as Dvorak, Wagner, Beethoven.

Wagner’s music reminds me of background music of science fiction movies such as Star Wars and others.

Sometimes his music sounds very nationalistic, almost like political music and not personal. I prefer more personal music which make me feel good and up.

Dvorak’s music always makes me feel lonely even if my original mood was feeling happy, so I don’t love to listen to his music.

His music is direct to my heart and feel sad and lonely , and the music reminds me of sunset time.
I don’t love music which makes me feel sad or down.

Same goes for Mussorgsky’s “ Night on Bald Mountain “. It’s a great music and I can clearly picture the story of the music. But it makes me feel scary and not really uplifting music.

Tchaikovsky’s music is different for me. Although his music is also direct to my heart and personal, I can put myself as an audience of his dramatic world , like watching a theatre or story, and makes me tears from the beauty of it.

I think for sheer depth of emotion, Tchaikovsky’s music has the most of any other composers.

Many times when I have listened to new classical music which I had not heard before and which touched my heart, and was curious to know who the composer of this music was, it was by Tchaikovsky.

Some people don’t like Tchaikovsky’s music by saying because it’s too emotional and dramatic.

But I feel that’s the true art, made by a human being who has heart.

This is why my favorite composers are Tchaikovsky, Liszt ( although some of his music are similar to Wagner but Liszt’s music is very variety and personally emotional for me. ), Chopin and Saint Saens.

In this mechanical , digital generation, I noticed that emotion is not valued by many people.

Sometimes humans became like robots who have no heart and emotion ??

There is an old quote by Leibniz.

“ Music is an unconscious exercise in arithmetic in which the mind does not know that it is counting “

It’s amazing to me to find that there are actually many people who view music this way!

Okay, back to my earlier topic about my impressions of composers’ music.

Of course, these composers are all incredibly high level musicians, and there is nothing correct or incorrect, it’s just personal taste.

Largest number of searches, does not mean, those are the best.

In the end, popularity comes down to bias, who was promoted by the most wealthy sponsors, by how many people who are just copying and following what others are saying are the greatest , and also by personal taste. IMO

The Sound of Music - The most popular timeless classic Movie !

2011-08-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Recently, we had an opportunity to watch the famous timeless classic movie “ The Sound of Music “ which I had been wishing to watch.

I had watched the movie when I was around 14 to 15 years old, from my step father’s recommendation ( the sound of music was his top favorite movie ).

I remember I was very impressed with the amazing beautiful scenery in Salzsburg in Austria which I’d never seen at that time.

It was like a beautiful scenery painting.

Also the music,

I love almost all the music in this movie.

Until now I didn’t know the famous music “ Edelweiss “ was made for this movie.
Because the music was in our school ( elementary school or junior high school) in the music text book.

Also the story, an innocent type of story, was based on a true story.

This movie makes our mind clear up.

I think it’s an uplifting movie !

I guess I’m a very dreamer and I’m always attracted by beautiful nature scenery and historical buildings.

Because maybe I grew up in a place which was surrounded by modern buildings in a big city, Tokyo, Japan.

So I was always curious and interested in completely different world from Tokyo.

So I really love the movie “ The Sound of Music “ , and also many other movies which have gorgeous natural scenery with delicious foods.

When I became 20s, it became my goal to travel by myself to see these places which I was impressed by movies or books or magazines which are Salzsburg in Austria , Versailles palace in France, Schlob Neuschwanstein ( castle ), Rotenberg, Hameln in Germany, Prince Edward Island , Rocky mountain in Canada, Cotswold in England.

And for one of my European trips which I took Euro train for the traveling places I wanted to go instead of airplane, was started from Berlin - Hameln - Frankfurt - Rothenberg - Hussen - Munchen ( Germany ) - Wien - Saltsburg ( Austria ) - Stuttgart (Germany ) - Paris ( France ).

My travels were like a back packer , even though I wasn’t carrying back pack.

I went to the Mozart concert in Wien, Austria, and also Mozart museum, souvenir chocolate for tourists has Mozart image in each chocolate.

Also have been to the places which were used by the movie “ The Sound of Music “
Something very romantic, beautiful place, in a different way from Paris in France, or Venice in Italy, or even Rocky mountains in Canada.

My favorite place in Austria was the street called “ Getreidegasse “ in Saltsburg.

My husband Ray grew up in Europe ( Belgium ) so he’s been to many places in Europe including Saltzburg, Austria and he also watched the movie when he was a child.

Common things we remember for that movie was, beside its beautiful scenery, and music, the actress who played the oldest daughter in it was very pretty and attractive. Lol

And the scene which was in the ornate pavilion in their backyard where there was a lake, tree, and bench nearby, was soooo beautiful and romantic !

That scenery reminds me of “King Arthur”.

The total balance of the scenery they took was amazing like a painting !

Ray said the father’s character was in some ways like his real father, who was like Army captain, and all his kids had to follow. The father’s looks ( the actor ) also quite similar, especially his serious, stern facial expression.

For other part,

I love the scene which Maria and the father do folk dance with Austrian folk music in the party. The music and the dance are always nice to see.

And since we had an opportunity to watch the movie again for free, we ended up deciding to purchase the dvd of the movie because it was soooo good, and such a timeless movie.

And when I checked the movie “ The Sound of Music “ in keyword checker which we can see the global monthly searches from English sites, I found that the keyword “ The sound of music “ has 5,000,000 searches every month !!

It shocked me, Over 5,000,000 !!!!!!

How popular this movie is ?

Here are some Timeless classic movies ( and TV show ) from before 1970 ( the global monthly searches from English sites ),

The Sound of music- 5,000,000

The God father - 1,830,000

Mary Poppins - 823,000

Twilight zone - 450,000

Gone with the wind - 368,000

Breakfast in Tiffany - 301,000

The sound of music is unbeatable number of the searches. There are much more, but I couldn't find the other classic movies which are higher monthly search than The sound of music.

It's amazing, it's more than “the god father “!

The movie is good for kids as well.

My favorite classic movie so far is besides “ The Sound of Music “ , “ Gone with the wind “.

I also read the book " Gone With The Wind " which has series 1 to #5. Loong story but I was really crazy about the story and the movie when I watched the movie.

We also watched another classic Rodgers and Hammerstein “ South Pacific “

But soon we got bored, only good part in that movie was beautiful scenery of which have south island ocean, trees and sky, cloud, and actress France Nyuen.

In general, I think actors and actresses need charisma and humor, beside the story and music, and scenery.

What’s your favorite classic timeless movie ?

Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin’s friendship - Part 2

2011-08-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

Continued from “ Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin’s friendship Part 1”.

On 26th of April, 1841 Chopin gave another concert in Salle Pleyel in Paris on which Liszt wrote a long review, published in the Revue et Gazette Muscale, that left itself open to varying interpretations.

While Liszt expressed his admiration for his fellow artist, Chopin and his circle of friends, and his family members, were upset about some parts of his review.

They were upset by the fact that Liszt did not praise Chopin as a composer, and failed entirely to mention the opus 38 Ballad in F major, opus 40 Polonaise in A major, and opus 39 Scherzo in C sharp minor, all of which Chopin had performed as part of the program.

At the same time, Lisztomania was spreading like wildfire.

Wherever he performed, audiences were awestruck by Liszt’s breathtaking virtuosity and style, and the audiences reveled and raved, quite beside themselves with wonder and enthusiasm.

Very few artists are able to achieve such successes or bathe in the glory of idolization.

It seems quite possible that Chopin’s self-imposed seclusion was motivated at least in part by jealousy, as he was never able to excite an audience in quite the same way, partly because of his physical condition (he was often sickly), but more importantly because of his terrible stage fright.

He was undoubtedly aware of this when he said to Liszt,

“I am not suited to give concerts, I, who is made timid by the audience… in front of unfamiliar faces I go mute.
But this is your calling, for if you cannot win the audience, you have something with which to strike it dead.”

But Liszt may well also have been jealous of Chopin.

He found unbearable the thought that he was only seen as a piano virtuoso but that his compositions, unlike those of Chopin, were not receiving the same high amount of praise.

It’s interesting that even these two genius artists, who achieved the loftiest heights of musical creativity, composition and performance, were still human, and at times experienced feelings of rivalry, envy and even some moments of self doubt.

But ultimately, they did not let these feelings eclipse their friendship and admiration for each other.

Frederic Chopin

The two artists met for the last time in December 1845.

In November 1849, a few weeks after Chopin’s death, Liszt had a statue made in memory of Chopin, the first in the world, and also began writing the world’s first biography on Chopin’s life and work.

One of Franz Liszt's pianos and his painting from Franz Liszt museum in Hungary

In his decision to write a book on Chopin, Liszt was motivated by several factors.
With the deaths of Chopin and Mendelssohn , the generation of early Romantics lost two of its greatest figures.

By the end of the 1840s the artistic movement associated with the names Schumann, Hiller, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt seemed to be ending.

One of Frederic Chopin's pianos

Liszt slowly came to feel himself alone, one of the last remaining representatives of a romantic trend.

Recognition of the place of the arts and the calling of the artist was not widespread in public thinking at the time.

As Liszt’s earlier writings make clear, the notion of artistic heritage was always central to his thinking, as was the teaching of the arts and music and the circumstances and social role of the artist.

It was Liszt’s intention to free the artist from all limitations and constraints so that artists would be able to follow the promptings of inspiration.

He demanded, almost obsessively, that artists be given the appropriate reverence, and respect, because only then could be realized the romantic philosophy .

Liszt’s book about Chopin should be considered, not so much as a regular biography, but more importantly, as a portrayal of a great artist and admired friend.

Liszt’s inspired depiction of Chopin and the world in which he lived and moved is captivating.

It teems with romantic flights of fancy, like a painting, visions of landscapes, and literary quotations.

His book shows the influence of the spirit of French Romanticism of the age.

Using references to works by Dante, Petrarch, Tasso, Shakespeare, Goethe, Byron, and Miczkiewicz, proverbs and adages, and works of the visual arts, Liszt expresses not only the ideas he sought to put into words, but also the fundamental inspiration of his own compositions.

Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein worked together with Liszt on the book, helping primarily with descriptions of the Polish historical background.

The book was published in installments in the February through August 1851 issues La France Musicale and in 1852 later as a book by Escudier.

In 1874 Breitkopf Härtel suggested that it be published again in a revised format.
Breitkopf & Härtel suggested that it be published again in a revised format.

Liszt entrusted the task of reworking the text to Carolyne.

Given that he spent the vast majority of his time traveling, Liszt was unable to check the second edition, which was significantly expanded between 1876 and 1879 and hardly resembled the first, so its publication was cause for later misunderstandings.

He was understandably unable to make any unambiguous remarks concerning his girlfriend’s role in writing the book, but he did comment to Friedrich Niecks that the second edition “was written by Carolyne.”

The new Hungarian edition published by Gondolat Kiadó in 2010 in honor of the bicentennial of Chopin’s birth and of the upcoming bicentennial of Liszt’s, is a reprint of the translation of the original 1852 edition.

One of Franz Liszt's pianos

The style may seem a bit difficult to a reader of today, but the text nonetheless bears the most affinities with the spirit of Liszt’s era, the romantic world of which Liszt and Chopin were two of the leading artists.

It is a captivating book that will be particularly fascinating reading for those interested both in the life and art of Chopin and Liszt.

_________________________________________________________________________________

The biographical information is from the article linked below. Keep in mind, the original article is a translation from Hungarian and may be difficult to read.

http://www.hungarianreview.com/article/liszt_on_chopin

Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin’s friendship Part 1

2011-08-06T20:18:00.001-07:00

Frederyk Chopin

I’m a long time fan of Chopin’s music since when I was a teenager. Started loving his music from hearing his Polonaise, then Noctunes, Etudes …

Frederyk Chopin
I was using one of Chopin’s Nocturnes as my background music for my answering machine when I was in my 20s.

In Japan, many of his music is famous and used in many TV dramas, commercials, movies, and mostly wealthy bourgeois family scenes.

My image of many of Chopin’s music that I’ve listened to is of a cozy, bourgeois world. From almost all his music I’ve ever heard, I often pictured an elegant, wealthy family’s world or a story about a family who are living in a luxury antique style house.

Many of Mozart’s music reminds me of a social life in an older generation, a story about bourgeois world in a gorgeous luxury palace.

For Liszt’s music, his music is very variety, ranging from an image of a sweet passionate love story for couples, all the way to nightmare horror story type of music, and for this wide range of styles of music, I think the only way to describe Liszt’s music is to describe each of his compositions individually.

I feel it also shows their own world and personalities from their music.

There must be many more Chopin’s music I’ve never listened to, so I can’t definitely say that all his music will give me same impression or not, but most of his famous music are already familiar to me since as I said earlier, many of his music are used in so many occasions, movies, TV drama, TV commercials, etc..

So for a while I’m taking a break from his music right now but it will never change that he is one of my all time favorite composers.

Franz Liszt

Since I started getting into Franz Liszt’s life and music, there are many discoveries about Liszt and Chopin’s friendships which I never knew.

Franz Liszt
Although I knew them, I never checked their life stories and their friendships until recently.

We are ordering Franz Liszt’s long bio books written by Allan Walker now, and look forward to reading them.

Until then, from what I have researched so far, the impressions I have about them are the following :

I’ve read about that similar frequency level spirits are often attracted each other,
And in Liszt and Chopin’s case, both are amazing geniuses, and kind-hearted,
but with different personalities.

Many people who have ever read about their bio have said that Chopin and Liszt are two of the sweetest , most kind-hearted music composers in history.

They were good rivals and also were good friends with each other.

I suppose they also pushed each other to improve even more of their natural talent that they were born with.

It seems to me,

For Chopin, his composing talent, his creativity sounded effortless, and unlimited. I get the same impression with Tchaikovsky and Saint Saens.

In Chopin’s case, after he imagined the music in his mind, there then followed much effort in writing it down.

His girlfriend, Amantine Dupin ( author name George Sand ), describes scenes where Chopin would be walking in a park, suddenly get inspiration of a complete music composition, and rush home, to make sure he did not forget some of it.

After arriving home, a tedious but determined process of writing the music score for what he had imagined, began.

If he forgot any part of the music, he would pace back and forth, fretting and worrying that he had forever forgotten some beautiful piece of music.

Then, upon, remembering it again, he would rush back to the piano, play it and write the music score.

Chopin, ever being the perfectionist, would not stop this process until every single music note was exactly as he had imagined it.

Sometimes he would shut himself in his room for days, frustrated but determined, breaking pens, going over and over the music score until it was as perfect as he had envisioned it.

For performing in public, when Chopin was healthy, he could hold an audience spellbound.

And although he was a piano playing virtuoso, there were times when he was not feeling healthy or was sick he would sometimes feel frustrated and not able to play how he wanted, and once when he heard Liszt playing his music,

Chopin said -
" How I would like to play my own Etudes the way Liszt plays them"

For Liszt, his virtuoso piano playing and performing in concerts are legendary. His talent and ability to wow an audience sounds really amazing.

On the other hand, sometimes Liszt may have felt a little envy at Chopin’s seemingly effortless talent at composition.

Liszt said this to Carl Reinecke, composer-conductor, after he had finished playing Chopin's Etude in E major, Op. 10, Liszt said rather sadly,

"I would give four years of my life to have composed those four pages." (1848)

But as Camille Saint Saens also said, Liszt was not only an amazing performer and a pianist but also an absolutely fantastic composer as well.

Just I suppose Liszt felt that his imagination with music coming to his mind was not quite as effortless like Chopin.

However, it’s clear that when Liszt was inspired he could compose music as beautiful and timeless as any.

They both envied each other for what each felt the other may have had more of, or what each felt they didn’t have as much of and what the other had.

They are both very interesting music geniuses.

Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin

Here’s a little bio about each of them and their mutual admiration and frienship.

Chopin was born on 1st March, 1810 in, Zelazowa Wola, Poland.

His father was Nicolas Chopin , a Frenchman from Lorraine, France who had emigrated to Poland in 1787 at the age of sixteen.

While living in Poland, he used the Polish form of his given name, Mikolaj.

Chopin’s mother was a Polish lady, Justyna Krzyżanowska.

Chopin's father played the flute and violin; his mother played the piano and gave piano lessons.

Franz Liszt was born on October 22, 1811, to Marie Anna Lager and Adam Liszt , in the village of Doborjan in the Kingdom of Hungary.

Liszt's father played the piano, violin, cello, and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolauss II Esterhazy and he knew Haydn, Hummel and Beethoven, personally.

Both Chopin and Liszt grew up in supportive families.

Their parents quickly realized their sons’ unusual talents and made sure that the young prodigies receive the appropriate education and training.

The two families were also willing to make sacrifices in order to support the boys’ talents.

The fathers, Adam Liszt and Mikolaij Chopin, purchased musical instruments, which was expensive under the circumstances in which they lived, and they paid for first-rate private instruction.

In search of the finest music teachers , Chopin’s family ended up sending the boy to Warsaw to study with Zywny and later Elsner.

These two composers / music teachers, of whom Chopin always spoke with the greatest veneration, shaped his approach to music and his relationship to the arts.

Liszt’s parents spared no expense in their strivings to ensure their brilliant son receive only the finest music instruction.

Liszt thus became the student of Carl Czerny, from whom he learned foundations of music and piano technique that were to last him a lifetime.

Yet if one compares the early years of Liszt and Chopin’s education, Chopin’s schooling could perhaps be said to have been more favorable.

Until the age of twenty he was able to learn and develop in familiar surroundings without interruption or upheaval.

Though his father was French, he always held a passionate attachment to his Polish roots.

He had a thorough knowledge of Polish literature and poetry, as well as Polish folk music.

Liszt, by contrast, was quickly swept up by the lifestyle of a musical prodigy, which made it impossible for him to study or learn anything (except piano performance) like a regular education.

Liszt realized this early on and as a result he became a voracious reader, and became self taught, reading many books, and so despite his lack of a normal education, he was well known as a person with impressively broad knowledge.

From age sixteen Liszt lived in Paris, so French literature and culture played a significant role in shaping his interests.

French quickly became his most natural language of self-expression.

As he had no relatives or friends remaining in Hungary with whom he might have maintained a relationship, the Hungarian language and any sense of Hungarian cultural identity were pushed into the background until the floods of 1838, after which he began to rediscover both his own Hungarian identity and Hungarian folk music.

Chopin and Liszt performed in public as child prodigies and the contemporary press immediately began to compare them.

According to a review printed in the January, 1823 issue of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung of Leipzig of a concert held by Liszt in Vienna on 1st December, 1822,

“ it seems a young virtuoso has fallen from the heavens, who moves us to the most profound state of wonder, and considering his age, this boy’s performance borders on unbelievable.”

A few months later a review printed in the Kuryer dla Peci Pilknej of a concert held by Chopin in Warsaw on 24th February, 1823 read,

“After this evening we certainly no longer need envy Vienna for her Hochwohlgeborener Herr Liszt (sic!), since our capital boasts his equal, or perhaps a pianist more perfect: the Hochwohlgeborener Herr Chopin.”

Liszt and Chopin later met in Paris. Liszt attended Chopin’s concert of 26th February, 1832. This was Chopin’s first performance in the Salle Pleyel.

From that point on, they often appeared together in concerts and as part of events organized for charity, and their performances were always the center of attention.

Reviews refer to them as the two greatest virtuosos of the day, artists ,

“both of whom have attained the same lofty standard and sense with equal depth the essence of art.”

Both were frequent guests of the famous Parisian salons.

They performed together for prince Adam Czartorisky, perhaps the most important figure of circles of Polish emigrés, in the salon of countess Delfina Potocka, and for the Austrian ambassador to Paris, Antal Apponyi.

As their relationship as friends and fellow artists developed, they always held shared admiration for each other’s talent.

The letter written by Liszt, Chopin, and Auguste Franchomme to Ferdinand Hiller in June 1833 offers an example of this.

Chopin at one point writes,

“I hardly even know what my pen is scribbling, since at the moment Liszt is playing one of my etudes and distracting my attention from my thoughts. I would love myself to acquire from him the manner in which he plays my [etudes].”

In another famous letter written to Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein , twenty-seven years after Chopin’s death,

Liszt wrote, “no one compares to him ( Chopin ): he shines lonely, peerless in the firmament of art.”

In 1835 the relationship between the two artists suffered when, according to anecdote, Liszt used Chopin’s lodgings during his friend’s absence for an affair with Marie Pleyel.

Chopin was a close friend of Camille Pleyel, Marie’s mother, so Liszt’s conduct left him in a very uncomfortable position.

After Liszt moved to Geneva in the summer of 1835 and then to Italy, the friendship between the two grew a bit more distant.

Changes in their personal lives also did not help make closer ties.

A rivalry began to form between their girlfiriends, Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, ( better known by her author nname George Sand ), and Marie d’Agoult, ( otherwise known by her author name Daniel Stern) , and the two women both used the composers as a kind of trump card against each other.

There is an interesting parallel between the lives of George Sand and Daniel Stern.

They each traveled to an abandoned monastery on a romantic island, Sand to Valldemossa and Stern to Nonnenwerth, with their young lovers, Sand with Chopin, and Liszt with Stern.

When their relationships with the composers had ended, both women wrote novels about their famous romances , taking care to deny all responsibility for any issues, and put themselves in a favorable light.

The biographical information is from the article linked below. Keep in mind, the original article is a translation from Hungarian and may be difficult to read.

http://www.hungarianreview.com/article/liszt_on_chopin

Continue to Part 2.

My review - Franz Liszt “ Greatest Hits Liszt “

2011-08-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

This year 2011 is Franz Liszt’s 200 years celebration year (Liszt was born in 1811 ) and many top pianists and also Liszt fans and also Chopin fans community will be celebrating for it.

Last year was Frederic Chopin’s 200 years celebration. He was born in 1810. They were born only one year apart.

We are glad we are getting into Liszt at such a celebration time.

My impression of Franz Liszt,

“ He was not only challenging to be a top pianist, he was challenging to be far above the top of the piano world, like paganini was in the violin world .

He wasn’t depending on his talent, but was constantly challenging to improve his talent into a limitless level.

That may be the most inspiring thing about him. “

Recently we’ve been enjoying listening to this CD called “ Greatest Hits Liszt “ every day.

On this CD , My favorites are

Hungarian Rhapsody#2

La Campanella

Liebestraume ( Love dream )

Some long time Liszt fans said many newbie Liszt fans always love Hungarian Rhapsody #2. And they sounded already a little tired of it.

They want to talk about his many other music pieces.

It’s something funny, newbie fans ( for almost any hobby ) almost always start to love something from the most popular one (?) in the beginning.

My favorite rock group musicians also always play their biggest hit songs in every concert for their newbie fans.

But...... I can’t help it ,

I really looooooove Hungarian Rhapsody#2 !!!!

Love, love, love love, love !!!!!

This music makes me SO happy every time I listen to it.

I also realized that I’ve heard some parts of this music in some TV dramas or movies. It was also used in a Tom & Jerry’s animation story which used this music as well.

But I didn’t know this music was composed by Franz Liszt.

This music is very imaginative and I have been picturing many scenes and scenarios. and mainly I imagine a story about Eastern Europe, in the beginning part makes me imagine an old castle at the sunset time.

Vampire story also comes my mind, then many vampires are having masquerade party.

This Hungarian Rhapsody #2 is the version Liszt composed for orchestra, it was fantastic, but I’m also looking for his piano version.

For Liebestraume, in this CD , it was played by Hiroko Nakamura, a Japanese pianist and she plays it excellently.

I get a mixture of feelings which are warm and sentimental , so beautiful and very emotional.

We have one more Liszt’s CD called “ Liszt Lovers “ , and Liebestraume in that CD is much more light and is not so emotional like Hiroko Nakamura’s performance.

So I like Hiroko Nakamura’s piano playing much better.

This music was used in some love story movies and I think I’ve heard this music in some of Japanese commercials.

Ray is saying that his Mom loved many of Chopin’s music, but her favorite music of all was Liszt’ Liebestraume. And I understand why. This music is so romantic, beautiful, warm music. Many women love it.

According to the description of “ Liszt Lovers” CD, It said

“ While most composers created music after their love affairs were over, Liszt wrote while the fires were still burning. We hear the ardent emotions and ecstasy of love in his hypnotic “ Liebestraum “ which became his most famous encore.

Liszt’s own arrangement of this love song begins with a gentle murmur recalling a past love. Gradually the dream of love is relived in all its intensity as the music rises to a passionate climax before returning to the opening strains ; a quiet , yearning meditation on love. “

This music has been spinning in my head. It’s very memorable music , that‘s for sure.

For Etitude N3 in G sharp minor “La Campanella“ , it was played by Kazune Shimizu. Incredible technique and very imaginative.

Only climax part ( ending part ) , I prefer Yundi Li’s playing but I love all the other parts how he played. I just love this piece so much.

La Campanella was always used in the movies or drama in the story about top level pianists.

One thing though, it would be great if Liszt‘ “ Consolation No.3 in D flat major “ was included in this Greatest Hits CD. This is also very, very beautiful.

Maybe I should make my own greatest Liszt .

Liszt’s music has super variety, and his world sounds very wide, it’s extremely difficult to know what kind of person he really was.

He sounds like a very complex person, as was Chopin.

In this CD,( Greatest Liszt CD ), I also love " Hungarian Fantacia fo piano ad orchetra ", and also "Allegro maestoso from piano conerto No.1 in E-at major".

Camille Saint Saens friendships with other composers

2011-07-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

More about Camille Saint Saens. This is Part 2.

Camille Saint Saens was close friends with the legendary composers Franz Liszt and Pyotr Tchaikovsky as well as with another renowned French composer , Gabriel Faure .

As mentioned in my last post about Camille Saint Saens, Liszt was a huge help in promoting Saint Saens music, by including Saint Saens music in his own concerts, by staging concerts of Saint Saens operas, and in general doing all he could to help the younger composer.

When Saint Saens was 50 , he began composing another symphony in the early part of 1886.

He had scarcely begun, however, when he received word of the death of Franz Liszt. The news affected Saint-Saëns deeply and he immediately decided to compose his new symphony as a tribute to Liszt, and to dedicate the work to his memory.

The inclusion of a prominent role for the piano was part of this tribute.

Tchaikovsky first met Saint-Saëns during the Frenchman's concert tour to Moscow in November 1875, and the two composers struck up an immediate friendship.

Tchaikovsky praised Saint Saens for his musical mastery and said that another thing that he found so appealing about Saint-Saëns was his briskness, wit, and originality.

Tchaikovsky attended a concert in Moscow in1875 which included performances of Saint Saens music.

Tchaikovsky wrote a review about this concert.

Here are some excerpts of Tchaikovsky’s review :

You can find his review here.

“ At the fourth symphony concert, which took place last Friday, everyone's attention was riveted on the famous Parisian musician Camille Saint Saens, who was making his first appearance here in the threefold capacity of virtuoso, composer, and conductor.

In his homeland of France, Saint Saens belongs to a avant-garde circle which is made up of the most talented contemporary French composers - Massenet , Dubois, Paladilhe, and Bizet (Bizet was an exceptionally gifted composer who died this summer when he was just 36).

In the capacities of virtuoso and composer Saint Saens has made several concert tours in Germany and England. He is very productive as a composer.

Saint Saens made his début here as the soloist in his own G minor concerto. This work is extremely beautiful, fresh, elegant, and rich in delightful details. It reflects both a remarkably thorough knowledge of the classical models, , and also a highly original creative individuality.

All the appealing traits of his nationality—sincerity, enthusiasm, fervent cordiality, intelligence—make themselves felt all the time in the works of Saint Saens. These qualities also pervade his virtuoso performance style, which is full of elegance, thoughtfulness, and careful phrasing, and is free from any affectation whatsoever.

Our public, which is so spoiled in terms of the opportunities it has to hear splendid virtuoso performances, expressed its emotions for Saint Saens through stormy and unanimous applause, both at the end of that concerto of his and after he had finished playing several shorter pieces at the end of the concert.

Saint Saens 's piano concerto is very original in its form: it does not have a slow central movement. Instead he wrote a charming, extraordinarily poignant Scherzo in which (as in the Finale, too) he displays a remarkable mastery of instrumentation, a great deal of humour, fantasy, as well as skill.

Everywhere in this concerto we sense a splendid musician . I would like to draw my readers' particular attention to the appealing artistic individuality of Saint Saens .

Also, where brilliant sound effects are appropriate, Saint Saens definitely knows how to use them with remarkable skill.

In his symphonic poem Danse macabre ,which the audience liked so much, we can clearly discern a creative fantasy that is incredibly rich in resources and which is able not just to invent an original musical idea, but also to present it in a most alluringly beautiful form.

This piece, which seeks to give a tone painting of that very same Dance of Death on which Liszt based one of his most important works (a work which I discussed in detail on an earlier occasion ), belongs, by virtue of its beautiful principal theme, its truly outstanding instrumentation, and the great taste with which the author chooses his orchestral effects, to the most remarkable symphonic works of the new school of music.

If one were to compare it with Liszt’s work on the same subject, then it would be the latter which wins out in terms of depth, power, and staggering pathos, but Saint Saens's is certainly not inferior as far as its beauty and brilliance are concerned.

It is a great pity that our public is not familiar with Saint Saens's other works of this kind, amongst which I would like to point the Russian Musical Society's board of directors to the symphonic poem Phaëton which would surely be a valuable new acquisition for our repertoire.

Review by Pyotr Tchaikovsky 1875 "

Saint-Saëns was greatly saddened by the news of Tchaikovsky's death in 1893 and he wrote a letter to the Russian Embassy in Paris shortly afterwards:

"I would be much obliged to you if you could let people in Russia know the extent to which I share in the grief felt by the friends of the great composer whose talent I admire enormously and towards whom I had been bound by friendship for a long time—a friendship which increased further this summer in England, where I had the good fortune to meet him and spend a few days in his company. His death is a great loss for the art of music.

Camille Saint Saens "

Saint Saens also praises the musical genius of another French composer, Jules Massenet in his 1919 book Musical Memories, but he also states in the same chapter that he had no use for Massenet personally.

More info about Saint Saens Musical Compositions

He composed more than 300 music works, in all genres, including

- 13 operas (including Samson Delilah )

- 5 Symphonies (best known No3 the Organ symphony )

- 3 concertos for violin and orchestra

- 5 concertos for piano and orchestra

- 2 concertos for cello and orchestra

- many pieces for the piano

- approx 100 songs

- chamber music

- organ music

- sacred music including a Requiem

- numerous transcriptions

The following is one of many letters from Franz Liszt to Camille Saint Saens.

You can also find many other Liszt's letters here.

Hanover, October 2nd, 1876

"To Camille Saint-Saens

Very Dear Friend

I am sending you today the transcription for piano of your "Danse macabre," and I beg you to excuse my unskilfulness in reducing the marvelous coloring of the orchestra score to the possibilities of the piano. No one is bound by the impossible. To play an orchestra on the piano is not yet given to any one.

In sincere admiration and friendship,

Your very devoted

Franz Liszt "

Who are the Greatest 20th - 21st century’s pianists ?

2011-07-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

I realized there are so many great top level pianists all over the world and I still need much more time to see all the greatest pianists.

And I found that once the highest levels of piano playing are reached, at that point who you think is the best or is your favorite all depends on one’s taste and how the pianist performance and personality touches you.

Personally , I love mixture of a dynamic performer, wild and also with sensitivity plus elegance with masterful technique and emotion and musicality.

I’m surprised that it’s so different impression with same music depending on who is playing it , and also depending on the pianist’s mood at the time of the performance.

So far, my favorite pianists of the 20th to 21st century are below,
( no particular order )

Here is the list :

* Agustin Anievas (USA)

* Vladimir Horowitz (Russia)

* Lang lang ( China )

* Yundi Li ( China )

* Tomas Vasary ( Czech Republic )

* Sviatoslav Richter (Russia)

* Isador Goodman ( Australia )

* Aldo Ciccolini ( Italy)

* Kazune Shimizu (Japan )

* Martha Argerich (Argentina )

* John Browning ( USA)

* Arcadi Volodos (Russia )

I’ve seen and read about people’s opinions about pianists, but mainly, my favorites were selected by my natural feeling and my taste.

The point for me is always, “ makes me feel good or not. “

For the most recent pianists,

I’m impressed with two Chinese pianists, Yundi Li and also Lang lang.

For Yundi Li, I really love his expressive, passionate playing. Very musical and entertaining.

I love his playing of Liszt’s La Campanella.

Actually perfection for me for that piece may be

Yundi Li + Lang Lang divided by 2 = the best

Also I watched Yundi Li Chopin “ Revolutionary Etude ” , and also Liszt’s
“Sonata in B minor“.

Especially his Liszt' Sonata in B minor is a breathtaking performance.

I haven’t seen him playing Hungarian Rhapsody #2 yet though ( because I couldn’t find it ) I’ve been very impressed with his performances, and all things considered, he may be my favorite right now.

Everything is so balanced and his performances really touch my heart every moment.

For Lang lang, his technical ability looks effortless, the way he plays piano and how he uses his hands and fingers looks like a great artist painting, easily , beautifully done.

He can make it seem like besides what he’s playing, there’s a second set of piano sounds hovering over the first set.

He plays differently with same music depending on his mood.

However, I’m not always loving how he shows his musicality and especially his expression and also emotion.

It sometimes doesn’t look natural and looks weird and arranging from original version and not always how I like, but I really loved his La Campanella and also the beginning of one of his versions of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2.

For Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2,

I’m still looking for pianists who can play Hungarian Rhapsody #2 , because I haven’t been completely satisfied yet for that piece.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

I must also write about Rachmaninoff who is considered as one of the piano masters & composers.

I’ve listened to him ( at least it’s claimed to be him ) playing his music “ Piano Concerto Number 3 “ on you tube at the link here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA0kXDMKiLg&feature=related

- Rachmaninoff plays Piano Concerto #3

I also watched his Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody #2 “ on Youtube.

It seems to have been recorded in 1939, so sound may not be so good, but ….

Honestly I can’t believe it’s really such a legendary pianist playing, because whoever was playing in that video, I wasn’t so impressed with his playing emotionally, and musically in that video.

If it was really played by the real Rachmaninoff, then I feel like maybe he was a better composer, than piano player. (?)

Because I really like his music “ Piano Concerto Number 3. “

In the music that is played on that youtube video, the pianist doesn’t use pedal, and some people say great pianists don’t use pedal, pedal is for pianists who want to hide their lack of technical ability. But I don’t agree with that.

Great sounds contribute to great artistry and depending on the part, it’s good to use pedal to express their musicality and emotion even more. How to use the pedal well is a part of technique.

Of course, using pedal all the time also doesn’t make great artistry, but
playing with no pedal sounds too dry to me and can be boring.

There are also some reviews of a Rachmaninoff’s CD on Amazon which is said to be performed by Rachmaninoff.

I didn’t buy this CD and so I’m not sure, but some of the reviews are writing about almost same feeling as I felt when I first time watched and listened to whoever was playing piano on that you tube video .

One of the reviewers said, it’s not even him playing, because he said he had the real Rachmaninoff on a CD which he had purchased in London, and he said the real Rachmaninoff is really passionate and emotional, and you can hear it in the “London” version of this CD.

I must purchase that CD if I can find the import from London. Because the other one, if it’s the same as on that you tube, I really didn’t feel it’s amazing or even performed by Rachmaninoff, a legendary master.

It looks to me many people seems watching his “ fame “ ? and not even listening from their own soul.

While reading the many glowing reviews, I felt like in the twilight zone, until I read the review by the one I mentioned above talking about the real Rachmaninoff playing the same music, but full of dynamics and passion on the London CD.

Anyway, I need to listen to that CD from London , until then I will hold his piano playing review because it's still not sure.

It's so fun to see pianists world and listening to beautiful music everyday !

We've just purchased Franz Liszt's greatest hit CD today. It's a CD for newbies to Liszt.

There is orchestra version of Hungarian Rhabsody #2, and also La Campanella played by Kazune shimizu.

They are really awesome !!!

Amazing !! La Campanella by Franz Liszt performed by Yundi Li

2011-07-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

My passion and interest went to pianists world now, especially Franz Liszt !

He is magic, the more I know about him the more I’m deep into him.

It’s never happened such a thing in my life almost like crush on someone who is not even a contemporary person and in fact, I'm losing all the other interests.

I’ve seen many legendary people's photos and have read about them but I was always seeing them as the historical people, never thought about it.

Besides his genius talent, a part of it may also be that no one looked like Liszt. .

Actually for music, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Saint Seans are all tie breakers for me.

If we consider for the greatest pianists who were also great composers, Liszt and Chopin are tie breaker for me. and it seems so difficult to have both fantastic talent as a pianist and performer and also as a composer.

That's what makes Liszt and Chopin so special to me. However, Saint Saens and Tchaikovsky were both fantastic pianists as well. But they are more well known as composers.

Ray is also a huge fan of Liszt now.

Ray and I seem to always get same new passion at the same time, and this time is no different.

While we often love to listen to classical music, we also love a variety of kinds of music and that will not change, but now we're into Franz Liszt and his music and his life.

Next interest was finding the best present pianist who can play Liszt’s music, La Campanella and Hungarian Rhapsody #2 as close as Liszt did. ( who can guess ? )

Somehow, Ray heard about Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos and a Chinese pianist Yundi Li, but he never listened to their performances until recently.

Here is Yundi Li playing Liszt's La Campanella.

I was listening to several pianists and my favorite present pianist is “ Yundi Li “ after watching him playing Liszt’s La Campanella.

He is really incredible !!!

We are so so so excited and amazed by his piano performance !

I also like his facial expression while playing.

We can see that depending on the pianist, it’s really different, some pianists have no emotion, just care for technical part, whereas emotion is needed, and need to have a balance of dynamics and grace, expression, how pianists use their hands, fingers and arms .

Best of course would be to watch Liszt himself playing, but that's impossible, so I wanted to find the best pianist who can play Liszt’s La Campanella.

Yundi Lin is so far my favorite present pianist that I’ve ever seen.

( also I will check his Hungarian Rhapsody #2. ) Seems he won so many times in the piano contests, and is the youngest ever Chopin contest winner.

La Campanella is so difficult, it’s funny, comments are saying that Piano is a sport.

Especially when one challenges to play top level of piano music and Liszt’s La Campanella is one of the most difficult and hard to play, maybe it’s like a marathon (?).

It’s still my new world, and I’m newbie to this world, very enjoying with it.

For a while I will be deep into it in my free time.

Camille Saint-Saens - Genius French composer of the Romantic Era - Part 1

2011-07-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns ( 1835 – 1921)

Calimille Saint-Saens is my favorite French composer of The Romantic Era.

However my discovery about him was late, I discovered about him since I started watching figure skating.

Even though I had heard his famous music “ The Swan “ before, I didn’t know Saint Saens was the composer of this beautiful music.

I had thought this music was by Tchaikovsky, and that it was a part of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet music “ Swan Lake “.

I don’t know why I got such an idea and had been believing that without checking who is the composer of “ The Swan “.

Maybe I was making my own original story in my mind about “The Swan“.

The first time I discovered about Saint-Saens was since I watched Johnny Weir’s 2004 - 2005 short program performance “ Rondo Capriccioso “ , this program is one of my top favorites of his performances ( 2004 TEB France) and I really loved the music, so I finally checked the composer of the music and learned that it was composed by Camille Saint Saens.

And soon after I found out that “ The Swan” was also composed by him, not Tchaikovsky.

Later in 2009 Skating World championship , I saw Miki Ando’s great World’s performance to Saint Saens “ Organ Symphony “ and also Yu Na Kim’s awesome winning performance to the incredible Saint Saens composition “ Danse Macabre “.

I started thinking, who is this great composer that I’ve never heard of before, and why isn’t he more well known ?

So I started researching about him.

Here is what I found,

His music and interests

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French Late-Romantic composer, pianist, organist and conductor.

He is known especially for The Swan ( from his musical suite called Carnival of the Animals ), Danse Macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No 2 , Cello Concerto No 2 ,Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and his Symphony No 3 “ Organ Symphony “

He was close friends with composers Franz Liszt, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Gabriel Faure.

Saint Saens possessed huge talent as a musician and he devoted himself to almost every aspect of music during a long life of 86 years.

Saint-Saëns' music is technically very difficult and requires the skills of a virtuoso.

He composed a huge number of works in almost every category of music ( piano, chamber, choral, ballet, song, opera, symphony, concerto, etc ).

He was active as a pianist, organist, conductor, teacher and critic.

He also wrote poetry and plays and had lively interests in languages, history and science.

His remarkable piano playing was marked by extraordinarily even scales and passagework, great speed, and demonstrated a remarkable fluidity of phrasing and a lucid tone.

He was one of the most skilled orchestrators of the 19th century, and had a masterful feel for orchestral color .

His superb piano technique even excited the admiration of legendary piano virtuoso, Franz Liszt.

Saint-Saëns was also a multi-faceted intellectual. He was an expert at mathematics. He was also a prolific writer and produced poems, works on science, astronomy, travel and history.

Beginnings of a Music Prodigy

At about age two, Saint-Saëns was found to possess perfect music pitch, and his mother and aunt started teaching him piano.

His first public concert appearance occurred when he was only five years old, when he accompanied a Beethoven violin sonata.

At ten years of age, Saint-Saëns gave his debut public recital with a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto N 15 in B - flat major, and various pieces by Handel, Kalkbrenner, Hummel and Bach .

As an encore, Saint-Saëns offered to play any of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas from memory. This incredible concert made news around Europe and across the world , even as far as the United States where an article about it appeared in a Boston newspaper.

Danse Macabre

Saint Saens composed one of his most famous pieces , Danse Macabre, opus 40, in 1874

In this piece Saint Saens makes use of unique and unusual chords and tuning.

The opening melody is played by a solo violin with its E-string tuned to an E-flat in an example of scordatura tuning.

Later in the piece, the full orchestra joins in on the main melody on the descending scale.

The piece becomes more energetic and climaxes with the full orchestra playing very strong dynamics.

Strongly influenced by Franz Liszt, whom he met in 1852,
Saint-Saëns was among the earliest admirers of Liszt to compose a symphonic poem, and the Danse Macabre is perhaps the best-known of his four works in the genre.

Liszt was so impressed with this piece that he made a virtuoso transcription of Danse Macabre for piano, from memory, shortly after hearing Danse Macabre for the first time in 1874.

Lizst was a great friend to Saint Saens and promoted his music— for example, Liszt often played Danse Macabre in his concerts and also arranged for “ Samson et Dalila” to be staged at Weimar —and Saint-Saëns introduced much of Liszt’s orchestral music to French audiences for the first time.

Liszt dedicated his Second Mephisto Waltz to Saint-Saëns, who wrote his Third Symphony for Liszt, and dedicated it to his memory.

His personal Life

In his personal life, Saint-Saëns married Marie Laure Emile Truffot in 1875. They had two sons, both of whom died in 1878, within six weeks of each other

In his later years he traveled around the world, visiting exotic locations in Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. Saint-Saëns wrote about his travels in many popular books.

He wrote under a different name as an author, using the name, Sannois.

Saint-Saëns died of pneumonia on 16 December 1921.

My fascination about Saint Saens

When it comes to Camille Saint Saens, this amazingly multi-talented person sounds like everything was easy for him, whatever he tried, and it seems apparent that both his left brain ( logic ) and right brain ( imagination, creativity ) were really well-balanced.

He almost sounds like an out of this world person, like coming from another dimension or something.

How is it possible that this kind of multi-topic talented genius existed ?

If I could find something about his struggle to create something, doing hard work, I could feel more like he is also human being, but it’s actually difficult to relate to this type of genius.

His music gives me great power for my life, especially his " Danse Macabre " gives me incredible power and energy, but as a person he may be too genius to relate to.

Composing incredible music sounds easy for him, he once said “ I produce music the way apple trees produce apples “.

Some of his music sounds playful and almost like teasing, and his creativity sounds effortless.

Another thing about him is that he looked very healthy in every photo and painting I’ve seen of him from the time he was young to older. And he also lived the longest of all the other famous composers.

He must have been very smart at living, too.

My favorite Saint Saens music so far :

Danse Macabre

The Swan

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

Violin Concerto No 3 in B minor

Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor

Piano Concerto No 4 in C minor

Symphony No 3 in C minor

Samson and Delilah

Lisztomania - Franz Liszt’s killer charm

2011-07-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Recently I’m very interested in Franz Liszt’s life, his music and his musical talent and while reading about his life story, I found that his popularity was even much more than I had imagined !

His killer charm made so many ladies crazy, to the point that they created a word for it, it was called “ Lisztomania “ which had never happened before at such an intensity.

In fact, it was so intense, that people thought it was some kind of disease, a “ fever “, and they had people who suffered from this “fever “ go to the doctor to see what it was and how to “cure “ it.

And the funny thing is they couldn’t figure out why this “ fever “ was only caused by one person - Franz Liszt.

What is Lisztomania ?

Here is the link for the explanation about Lisztomania,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania_(phenomenon)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Franz_Liszt

“Lisztomania or Liszt fever is a term used to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward Franz Liszt during his performances. This frenzy first occurred in Berlin in 1841.”

“The word is a portmanteau of "Liszt" and "mania". Lisztomania was characterized by intense levels of hysteria demonstrated by fans.”

“Author Dana Gooley argues that Heine's use of the term "Lisztomania" was not used in the same way that "Beatlemania" was used to describe the intense emotion generated towards The Beatles in the 20th century.

Instead, Lisztomania had much more of a medical emphasis because the term "mania" was a much stronger term in the 1840s, whereas in the 20th century "mania" could refer to something as mild as a new popular fashion or craze.

Lisztomania began to be seen as a real medical condition that was contagious, and critics tried to take measures to immunize the public against the condition “

Unlike nowadays, my image of 19th century is very traditional, conservative generation and ladies were more like waiting for men’s approach rather than approaching actively to men by themselves, especially in the bourgeois world.

But according to this information, these ladies became crazy and their action sounds very aggressive and passionate when it comes to Franz Liszt.

“ Lisztomania was characterized by a hysterical reaction to Liszt and his concerts. Liszt's playing was reported to raise the mood of the audience to a level of mystical ecstasy.

Admirers of Liszt would swarm over him, fighting over his handkerchiefs and gloves.

Fans would wear his portrait on brooches and cameos. Women would try to get locks of his hair, and whenever he broke a piano string, admirers would try to obtain it in order to make a bracelet.

Some female admirers would even carry glass phials into which they poured his coffee dregs.“

So it means, until Liszt appeared , there was no one who made these kind of fanatic fandom who was characterized by a hysterical reaction ?

This is amazing.

What makes these ladies act like that ?

Was it his skill ?

It’s not like you can take a class and learn how to attract tons of people like crazy , and if it’s easy, why so many other talented people or people who have good looks can not attract many people like Liszt ?

Popularity is one of the things I’m very interested in.

In present time, “ fandom “ is not so unusual thing anymore, since we have been seeing fanatic fans reaction for Beatles and Presley, ( they might be the next biggest one after Lisztomania. ).

But it still amazed me when I actually saw and heard the fan’s reaction , for example in figure skating world , rock star skaters such as Johnny Weir, when I heard Johnny Weir fans reaction such as burning the expensive ticket while crying because he was unable to attend the ice show, etc.. I was like what makes people act like that ?

But these Lisztomania sounds even much more aggressive, lol fighting to get his handkerchiefs and gloves ??

Framing his cigar pipe, and making a bracelet with the strings of the piano which Liszt was playing ??

Getting to the point of ridiculous, no ??

While reading all about Liszt , I’m even more curious and wish that I could have seen his live concert performance.

Besides his super talented music skill, he also sounds like a very effort type , always looking to see how to improve even more.

Saint Saens ( who I consider as one of the best composers ) was an admirer of Liszt and he was saying that many people were jealous of Liszt ( maybe his charisma ? ), and that the music critics of the time often bashed Liszt as a music composer, and they were only admitting and complimenting his performance, but Saint Saens said Liszt was a wonderful composer as well, not only an amazing performer.

According to the information I’ve read, it seems that Saint Saens was a very difficult and opinionated person , and I feel that’s why all his music is so good, perfectly fantastic.

I will write about Saint Saens ( one of my favorite composers ) in my next post.

My Time traveling would be …

2011-06-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

http://gallery.xemanhdep.com/

Since my childhood, I sometimes imagined what it would be like if there was a time machine…

Future - I imagined to go traveling to future when I was a school girl, struggling with studies before examinations.

Wanted to know the result of examinations.

But that’s it,

also who will I marry with ??

On the other hand, scared to go to future to see my life.

At that time I didn’t know that people’s thoughts, emotions create our future, and I was completely thinking like life is a destiny, all passive.

But since I knew life is about how we create it, I don’t need to think about time machines to see my future anymore.

Past - Whenever I read about biographies of interesting people in history, I imagine to go to the past.

If there was a time machine or a magic door and I could time travel easily,
First,

1. I would go to see me when I was born

Especially, from the time I was born to 3 or 4 years old, the times when I have almost no memory.

My only memory during this time was when I was 3 years old, my parents took me and brother to my dad’s hometown Kyushu ( Southwest area of Japan ) and I was attacked by a goat that my grandparents owned while I was playing with a ball alone and I started crying loudly.

I still remember the goat’s eyes when he/she looked at me.

This kind of shocking experience is in my memory. I’m still scared of goats.

2. Want to see my husband Ray when he was born.

Ray’s life was much more adventure than me.

Ray was born in a jungle in Zaire, Africa because his parents were American Missionaries, working overseas, then they soon moved to Belgium, Europe, and he grew up there.

Then came to the USA for college , and later lived in Taiwan for 3 years.
I still sometimes feel, it’s unbelievable we got together with so many similar taste and view points in life and many things even though both were born and grew up in such far away places from each other.

But from the beginning I felt so comfortable with him like I already knew him.

3. Times when my parents were children and their life.

Both of my parents are still mystery to me.

My dad told me many stories about his childhood when he was still alive, and I heard his biography and he was a very adventure person, had strong ambition to his life.

My mom was more mysterious type, while she wanted to know anything I do, and I told her almost everything what happened to me, she was more of a secret person about herself.

Even my step-father didn’t know many things about her. I’ve heard about her life story from my grandmother but there are still many mystery parts.

I wish both of my parents would have written their bio books or diaries.
I also want to know about my grandparent’s life as well.

4. Ancient times - for example, were our ancient ancestors ape-like primates, and if so, when did they become recognizable as humans.

Actually, I want to see how earth started from the beginning.

So many fantasy stories about that, and I was interested in what Neale Donald Walsh’s Spirit Guide said about it.

5. Ancient city of Atlantis

I want to see the truth and what happened during that time. What kind of world was it ?

What kind of people were living there?

Why Atlantis was destroyed ?

What kind of technology they were having and using ?

6. France during Louis the 16th generation, and see Marie Antoinette.

I’ve read about Marie Antoinette‘s life story when I was an elementary school girl.

Her life was shocking to me. Ray sometimes says we cant get any knowledge from her, why so interested in seeing her ?

I went to Versailes palace for sightseeing because it was one of my dreams to see the palace where she had lived since my childhood.

7. Time period when all my favorite genius music composers were alive - Saint- Saens, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Massenet, Liszt .

And after having arrived in their time period, I want to go to see each composer’s live concert !

And then I want to peek at how they were creating music.
I really want to see Franz Liszt live in concert, especially when he was in his 20‘s !!

After that

8. Go to see all the generations of Japan from the very beginning.

I think I’m very Japanese in many ways, so I’m interested in the history of Japan from the beginning.

So many history of Japan, for example, music, food , clothes, transportation, houses, language ( I would not understand old style Japanese language though ).

I’ve never enjoyed studying history by reading history textbooks at school, but I would enjoy traveling and seeing and experiencing the cycle of the history in my own view.

My favorite composers of the 19th century - Liszt, Chopin, Saint Saens, Tchaikovsky, Massenet

2011-06-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

5 Music Virtuosos of the 19th century

Franz Liszt ( 1811 - 1886)

Frederic Chopin ( 1810 - 1849)

Pyotr Tchaikovsky ( 1840-1893)

Camille Saint- Saens, ( 1835 - 1921)

Jules Massenet ( 1842 - 1912 )

Since we found this amazing site, http://tchaikovsky-research.net/

which has so many information about not only, Pyotr Tchaikovsky , but many other people who were around him in that generation, I’ve been even more into the 19th century ’s, my favorite composers.

Tchaikovsky seems like really a perfectionist, analyzing music and many other things and people, and there are thousands of his private letters which he wrote to a wealthy widow named Nadezdha von Meck who admired him and his music so much.

He might not have imagined that his private letters to her would one day be open to public viewing in the future.

I feel like becoming a gossip woman when I started reading them, but it ’s so interesting to know, as he is one of my favorite composers, his view and opinion about other composers especially my favorites, Saint -Saens, Chopin, Liszt, and Massenet.

The funny thing is, he was ranking composers, who in my opinion it’s impossible to rank because they are all at the top level, all geniuses.

Tchaikovsky’s opinions and rankings are very detailed, and something funny. And some of what he says I agree with, some I disagree.

I also noticed that he likes composers who are opposite or at least quite different from his own music, and he has some biased views in favor of or not in favor of, many composers and music.

And this is the same as everyone in the world has biased opinions about many topics.

One thing I noticed is that whichever other composers ( besides Tchaikovsky ) that Nadezdha von Meck likes and compliments, Tchaikovsky was becoming more and more against them and saying bitter things. lol

So far from the letters I’ve read, it seems that Nadezdha von Meck’s favorite music was in the romantic style, and that her favorite composers were Tchaikovslky, Chopin and Liszt.

And she did not like Mozart’s music and Massenet‘s music , whereas Tchaikovsky loved Mozart’s music.

I’m more similar taste to Nadezdha except for her dislike of Massenet’s music.

Also, I don’t dislike Mozart’s music like her and I love several of his music.

Most of his music sounds very happy music and they make me feel happy and luxury feeling as well.

But compared with Saint- Saens, Tchaikovsky and Chopin, I sometimes feel his emotion a little more shallow, and some of his music sounds more like math and cold.

About Jules Massenet’s music,

His music is mysterious to me, whenever I listen to his music, for example, his Piano Concerto performed by Aldo Ciccolini, from EMI Classics, it makes me feel so peaceful, happy feeling but the funny thing is I can’t remember any of his music , or hum it or sing it.

Normally I often sing the melodies of my favorite music and songs, but for Massenet I can’t sing his music, it’s just too complicated and mystery.

It’s something unique to me.

I did feel bored for many of his other music though, but I really love his Piano Concerto and many of his other piano music, and love his music piece

“ Meditation “ from his opera “ Thais “.

I agree with Tchaikovsky about Massenet’s music.

It was also funny, Nadehzda had sent Tchaikovsky photographs of many of their generations most famous composers, and he said he liked Massenet’s face.

He said he really has the looks of an artist.

For looks,

I really think Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Chopin had very attractive looks.

For my personal type, I love Liszt’s looks. Very charismatic !

I really understand why many of his women fans fainted when they saw him perform, and he was like a rock star in his generation. ( same as Chopin )

When the first time I saw his photos ( of when he was young ),

I was like ,

“ Oh, wow ! “ .

His face is unique, not what one might think of as a basic handsome face but something very charming and cool.

Romantic, gentleman.

For face itself,

Massenet and Tchaikovsky have the most basic handsome faces. IMO.

Massenet’s eyes are softer than Tchaikovsky‘s, which are more sharp.

Chopin looks cool.
Unfortunately, because of his frequent struggles with illness throughout his life, he didn’t look healthy in the photo and paintings I saw.

But despite this, I really understand why Chopin and Liszt were the biggest rock stars.

Their ages were also only one year difference.

For personalities,

Another thing I was inspired about Liszt is his helpful support to other composers.

My top favorite music is Saint-Saen’s " Danse Macabre " and according to information I‘ve read about it, when Saint-Saens first performed this music, it was not a hit with the audience because the music is unique and weird and it was not familiar with many people.

However, Liszt absolutely loved it.

Amazing thing is Liszt soon rushed home and played the entire Danse Macabre on his piano from memory, after having heard it only once !

He then transcribed all the different instrument parts of the music for the piano.

Liszt then started playing it in his concert tours.

Liszt was already a rock star who had tons of fans, so from that point people were getting familiar with the music and getting to loving Saint-Saen’s Danse Macabre and , as a result it got a big success.

In his letters, Tchaikovsky also wrote that he loved Danse Macabre and was very impressed with it.

Since the first time I listened to Danse Macabre, I became crazy for the music, and started listening to it hundreds of times for a while.

This music blew everything away, I don’t know why, but I really love
this kind of music.

Maybe it fit with my personality , I looove every part of it and the sounds that Saint- Saens is able to get from the orchestra, from beginning to the end.

It gives me passion and strong energy like I was plugged in to an electric energy current.

I love it because it’s unique, very powerful, bourgeois , almost like dramatic music from another dimension.

Liszt was soon composing music in the same vein as Danse Macabre, and there are several famous Liszt compositions in the style, such as Totentanz.

Liszt considered Saint Saens as a great friend and as a musical ally.

I also love Mascarade Walz which was composed by the Armenian composer Katchaturian.

Liszt sounds like he was a very social , beloved, charming person, a giving person ( helping others ), makes people happy.

In the same occupation , usually people have jealousy to their rivals and are careless to their rivals and just only compete with them, but Liszt sounds like he was amazingly caring and in fact helped promote many of his favorite composer’s music , for example, Chopin, Saint - Saens, and almost as if he became like a fan of many of these composers.

Super fans will always try to promote their favorite star, but in the same occupation (?) , it’s something unusual to me.

I really feel he has high frequency level, like a messenger of a god.

Liszt and Chopin are the best legendary pianists with amazing skill and technique.

Any kids who have ever learned piano playing know that Liszt and Chopin are at the highest level to play, it’s not easy to get to that level.

Canpanella was my first time to listen to Liszt’ music when I was a teenager, soon I loved it and it‘s still my favorite of his music.

Liszt lived a long life and eventually composed an immense amount of music.

I think he has many emotional, dramatic, colorful, creative music , but there are also a few which are just color and maybe not so emotional, not so imaginative music as well.

Tchaikovsky seems to have had an issue with Liszt music and his personality, saying that Liszt was complimenting everyone, he felt the complimenting was too much and that Liszt was being dishonest of his true feelings.

But.. how does he know Liszt was not honest just because he didn’t say any negative thing to others ??

Maybe that is exactly how Liszt felt, and he was just expressing his honest positive feelings.

But for whatever reason, Tchaikovslky had issues with Liszt music and personality.

I used to actually feel like these genius composers are not real to me , same as with people who lived thousands years ago, but in actuality their generation is less than 200 years ago, so it really was not so long ago.

I wonder before Mozart’s and Bach’s generations, what kind of music people were listening to?

And were dancing with ??

I can’t imagine a generation where there were no music like Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens , how boring is that ? (IMO)

It seems to me that Tchaikovsky was like unconsciously doing the law of attraction in his life especially for getting creative ideas, attracting financial freedom, and also using his strong emotions to influence his musical universe to whatever he strongly desired.

He was a very successful composer while he was alive and after he passed away his music is still one of the most popular, and timeless.

He sounds very emotional, and imaginative, so when thinking about how the Law of Attraction works, it seems that the universe could easily catch his desired emotion. Just my thought.

On the other hand, when it comes to success, Carmen’s composer George Bizet’s life sounds like he had a more difficult time in this regard.

He was rarely successful while he was alive, but after he passed away, his Carmen became famous.

I don’t get why audience didn’t like Carmen in the beginning.

Bizet sounds like he used all his energy to make it, and after he knew audience had little reaction for the music, he got really depressed and he died soon after that.

Tchaikovsky’s analysis was right Carmen is the most legendary music in opera in a long time.

It's getting long post, so I will finish now.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky‘s life - Music genius,lady magnet, charming gentleman

2011-06-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ray was flipping through the TV channels last night to see if there were any movies on , when he ran across a biography movie about the classical music composer Tchaikovsky.

Recently we had been listening to his music, so we decided to watch it.

We missed the very beginning of the movie, so it started from a scene showing Tchaikovsky as a young man, first time performing his Piano Concerto N1 ( which is now one of the most popular piano concertos of all time. It is also one of my favorites of his music ).

After he finished playing he was criticized directly by a music critic, who called it worthless and unplayable.

I was thinking “ seriously ??? Such an incredible music, there was a person who was saying this is worthless and horrible music ?? "

It reminds me of a story about when Beethoven was young, he was told by his music teacher that he had no music talent .

After watching the movie , I read some bio information about Tchaikovsky online ( NWE: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky )

and found out that, except for this scene described above and a few others, most of the rest of the movie was simply the director’s whim and not a true account of Tchaikovsky’s life.
And also not a really well-made movie, IMO.

On the other hand, I think the movie “ Amadeus “ about the life of Mozart was a much more faithful account of Mozart’s real life and was a really great movie.

I wish another director could make a better movie about Tchaikovsky, who is such a famous music genius composer, a movie based on his real life instead of making it different from what happened.

Recently I’m into classical music’s composers biographies, besides their music.

And while reading about Tchaikovsky, there are some things about him that remind me of Johnny (Weir).

Tchaikovsky was a distinguished, elegant, handsome, charming gentleman, a lady magnet, and incredibly talented. He was also gay.

During his generation, I suppose it might have been a much more conservative time period, and people were even more closed minded to gay people than now.
So it seems that he was not openly gay, according to the biographies.

Tchaikovsky had many fans, and he was surrounded by women, who were passionate about him.

One of them, a wealthy widow named Nadezdha von Meck admired him and his music so much that she made an arrangement with Tchaikovsky, that she would support him financially so that he would devote all his time to composing more music.

This arrangement lasted for many years, and Tchaikovsky composed many of his most famous music during this time.

Tchaikovsky’s music is super emotional, full of stirring melodies and lush , rich harmonies.

Especially, every time I listen to his music “ Swan Lake “ , there is a part where always suddenly my tears start flowing, from strong emotion.
It’s amazing, how the sound of this music can make my feelings so deeply cry.

I love almost all his music.

In one of his letters Tchaikovsky wrote that every day, at 9 o’clock in the morning, he would sit at the piano.

He said at the beginning he wasn’t always inspired. But he said after a few weeks, the music muses knew about his scheduled time and the music ideas would overflow. It seems that he made it happen from his own will.

Normally, with most of the composers, there are only a few of their music I love.

But when it comes to Tchaikovsky , Saint Saens and Chopin, these three composers’ music always makes me impressed, and I love all their music I’ve ever listened to.

If I could go time traveling, I would definitely go to the time period when all these genius composers were alive.

I would love to peek at the world during that time and see each person’s life listed below -

Tchaikovsky, Saint Saens, Chopin, Massenet, Liszt.

Ever popular Johnny Weir

2011-06-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

Johnny Weir is Mr. Entertainment.

And the entertainment never stops.

He is in the Honor of Grand Marshal in today's Pride Parade at LA , is leading the parade and over 400,000 people are expected !

Johnny Weir talks about the honor of grand marshal in Sundays pride parade

Whenever I take a break from his news, when I come back there is always a lot of catching up to do. lol

His twitter followers are a veritable legion, now numbering 94,829 ( as of the date June 12’ 2011) , and his followers are still increasing every day.

It will soon be over 100,000.

It means he is still attracting new fans (?).

And also his face book has 60,208 followers.

Until he started doing twitter in May’2009, the only way we could get his new information was his journal, and also Q&A, sometimes his old fan site( which disappeared now that his activity is mainly on the social net work ) and his media interviews.

I was always looking forward to his journals and Q&A which were updated three or four times a year.

Only a few fans could directly contact to Johnny or his mom Pattie at that time and we never knew what he was doing everyday.

Now’s it’s like a heaven, we can know what he is doing every day, since he is often tweeting. And he reads the messages in twitter.

Twitter is something like magic, we can feel like he is a close friend.

If he doesn’t tweet for even one day, his fans miss him and start worrying about him.

I found an information in twitter from a skating fan who attended Macy’s event, and who met Johnny, when she asked about his come back to competition, he said he will take one more year off because his schedule was already filled with other events.

I suppose he will announce about it shortly.

When I think about his future, other events including ice shows which can help and support his future, I think it’s more important than competition.

Anyway, Johnny knows what’s the best for him.

Life is fun and a game, go Johnny !

While his new events go on, I decided to come back to things I missed to write about here.

The funniest photo of Johnny Weir

When Ray and I both saw this photo the first time , we had no words, just uncontrollable laughter until we got stomachaches. Lol

He really is the MR. Entertainer.

Kudos to anyone who had this idea.

Is it you ? Johnny ?

Too hilarious !! Lol

I love his shoes and the hat in the photo BTW.

Cute photo of Johnny with Minnie mouse cap

This photo was taken by my Japanese email friend at the hotel when she attended the Fantasy on ice show which was held in Kanazawa in 2009.

She gave me the permission to post it in my blog.

I thought he looks very cute with the Minnie mouse cap and the sunglasses fit with it so I wanted to share it with other Johnny fans.

The Minnie mouse cap was a gift from one of his fans and he looked very delighted to receive it according to her.

Atlantis Myth and the Mayan Calendar

2011-05-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

Mayan pyramid Chichen Itza

_________________________________________________________________

I was writing about the mysterious Mayan Calendar and the importance they give to the date, December 21’ 2012 in one of my past posts at the link below, and at that time I didn’t take it so seriously much.

http://miho-entwistle.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-is-meaning-of-date-december-21.html

Thank you for visiting my blog, that post is still one of the popular views in my blog and I would like to expand some more about that topic.

I feel my initial idea about it is still a strong possibility, but I also got an idea about another possibility after reading “ Conversations with God 3” by Neale Donald Walsch.

There is a section in this book where the Spirit Guide or God talks about a highly advanced ancient civilization on our planet which ended up destroying itself because it did not have an equally high spiritual frequency.

In other words, they couldn’t handle the technology they had created and ended up using it in a bad way.

The Spirit Guide says this civilization was Atlantis.

I purchased the series of the books “ conversations with god 1,2,3 “ when I was still in Japan, and it was around 1998, I was about 35.

Recently I found them while I was organizing my bookshelf and started re-reading them.

I had so many books which were all different subjects when I was in Japan but I gave away most of my books to a library or used bookstores or to my stepfather or to my friends before I move to the USA.

But somehow I kept these books and brought them here because the books helped me mentally while I was struggling in my life and at that time ( when I was 33 to 35 ) I was faced with more than three tough problems at the same time.

I’ve often heard that many people easily go crazy when they are faced with more than three problems, issues, at the same time.

I read the books many times over and over at that time , and the books always made me feel better, but they are very deep and maybe I wasn’t getting the full meaning of them at that time.

When my closest friend saw these books in my bookshelf, she was judging from the title of the book, coming from her own issues, and she acted like as if I became crazy and said

“ Oh, you are believing this kind of thing ! “

She is not a believer of anything which we can not see such as religion, new age, fortune-telling, ghosts, etc..

Some people in Japan think religion, new age, fortune-telling, are all the same and they don’t have good impression of any of them.

I love anything which makes me feel happy and good.

Now when I started re-reading the books conversations with god, I’m more understanding them and the point of everything that the spiritual guide said during the conversation.

The title sounds like a religion book, but it’s actually a New Age book and I feel that the author’s meaning of “ God “ is about his Spirit Guide , which every person has their own Spirit Guide .

Spiritual guides are usually spirits who are at a high spiritual frequency level, seeing us earth people from their vantage point in the universe.

Also, in my view, each spiritual guide has their own unique personality and may also have different levels of spiritual frequency. So my spirit guide may be different as well.

The book may not be liked by many religious people who don’t want to believe any other things or are not open minded to different views rather than their own beliefs.

But from my inspiration, I feel it makes sense when we think about “ All Is One’ and that’s the answer of everything in the world.

I had the Japanese translation, so recently I also purchased the original version which was written in English for my husband Ray.

Ray knows about the subject from having read Jane Roberts’ Seth books. And before we met he had seen “ Conversations with God 1 “ , and glanced at the topics in it and read some parts but he found he wasn’t so interested in it at that time because from the parts he read, Seth had covered all those topics.

But recently when he read “ Conversations with God Book 3, he found some parts which cleared things up and also some new information.

But for the main points and the Laws of the Universe and how everything works, all the Spirit Guides say the same things.

All is One.

We Are all Is one.
Love and Gratitude.

Treat others the same as you would treat yourself ,because hurting others is same as hurting yourself because We Are All In One.

And this book explains about all is one doesn’t mean we all have to think and act the same. Or that we have to follow what others say. We all create our life individually, and it's important to be independent.

On planet Earth, we are still in low spiritual frequency level.

According to Neale’s spirit guide, from “ conversations with god 3” the civilization Atlantis, which happened on our planet about 7,000 years ago, was destroyed because of a high level of technology combined with low spiritual frequency level of human energy.

It seems that any civilization’s spiritual frequency level and their technology level , have to match and be same level in order to have balance (?).

According to the Spirit guide in conversations with god 3, 7000 years ago, Atlantis’ technology was actually higher than ours is now.

And I can understand why so many myths sprang up about Atlantis, which can make the impossible possible, such as maybe they were the ones who built the great pyramids in Egypt and also why they look similar to the Mayan pyramids, even though they were separated by a vast ocean with seemingly no way to contact each other.

And now our technology is getting higher and higher, while our spiritual frequency level is still low, so I guess we may be facing a dangerous situation, similar to what ancient Atlantis faced.

And then the Mayan Calendar came to my mind, which is known as incredibly accurate and it shows the calendar finishing on the date December 21 ’ 2012.

So, whether it signals a new beginning or a changing time, all I can do is to try and improve my spiritual frequency level to help the world and also for myself, no matter what things will happen in the outside world.

And love is always the highest frequency level.

Giving rather than taking or getting.

According to the Spirit guide in conversations with god, competition is one of the lowest levels of spiritual frequency and also I’ve read other spirit guides saying the same thing.

On our planet Earth, many people have been brainwashed from our childhood to believe that competition is necessary to improve ourselves.

I’m still in the learning process to get to the higher levels of spiritual frequency.

When I see things objectivity, when trying to see from the vantage point of the universe, it seems that what earth people value , what most people’s image of success is, seems to me to be shallow.

Originally, and in general, I don’t think I’m a competition type personality myself, because I've never felt comfortable to compete with someone or people, and also I was often told by others that I was more of the type of always going my own way , they said to me “ you need to be more competitive “ and I often made my parents irritated for having no desire to “win” every game, but rather I was enjoying the game.

I felt that schools were for having fun with my friends, rather than for competition.

However, for my favorite athlete ( figure skating ), I don’t know why but suddenly I become a competition person, when it comes to watching him compete.

As a result, I honestly got exhausted and got negativities, but I made this by myself, I could change my views and thoughts. After the last Olympics ( Vancouver Olympics) , I’ve been having peaceful, happy life while he was taking a break from competing.

Now, after re-reading the books, I’m pretty sure I can calmly watch his competition if he comes back without getting negativity.

Who wins or loses and the results are not so important anymore to me.

The impact of the skating and program and the emotions I feel about it are what’s important.

People tend to care who is the winner or loser.

But “ winners “ are easy to become arrogant.

It’s good if every “ winner “ can be humble, rather than “ I’m better than you” attitude.

The Conversations with God spirit guide also said that earth people have not even reached to kindergarten’s highest grade. Our spiritual frequency level is same as the lowest grade of kindergarten.

According to the spirit guide, if we reach to the higher spiritual frequency levels , everything is so easy, and effortless to achieve whatever we desire.

High frequency spirits are

Filled with love and appreciation
No fear = no hurt, they don’t get angry or sad or worry.
They don’t judge people
Tell the truth
Filled with Joy
Have sense of humor
Independent
Giver
Kind
They enjoy the process and no expectation
They don’t control others
They see everyone in the world as their family, not only their close family.

World is lacking of love, and so war occurs everywhere.

The truth is that we are not coming here to fight, but love each other, and know we are all in one.

Neale Donald Walsch’s conversations with god 1,2,3 books and also his " Home with God " book are the most valuable information I’ve ever read in my life.

I really appreciate the author Neale for writing these amazing messages to the world and also appreciate his god, spirit guide who helped him to write the messages.

As far as the Mayan Calendar, and the significance of the December 21 2012 date, I think if global consciousness improves to a higher spiritual frequency, then I think that if the date signifies change, then those changes will be positive.

My favorite Ave Maria performances by Emanuel Sandhu, Johnny Weir

2011-05-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

The song Ave Maria was performed by several skaters, with different singers and Johnny Weir and Emanuel Sandhu’s Ave Maria have been the most magical performances for me so far.

If I didn’t watch Sandhu’s Ave Maria, there was no other competition for Johnny.

Both of their Ave Maria are breathtakingly magical which gave me goosebumps, made me tears.

Their emotion, water flow graceful movements, sensitivities, lines, expression, beauty, it was so hard to find these artists and I’m so glad to find them in men’s skating.

Johnny Weir and Emanuel Sandhu, these two artists are my all time favorites forever.

Comparing artistry of Sandhu and Johnny Weir is like trying to compare Tschaikovsky ( Piano concerto No 1, Nutcracker ) and Saint Saens ( The Swan, Danse Macabre ) and trying to decide which is better composer.

Both are just incredible.

One thing I noticed Sandhu and Weir have in common is that for both of them, their main leg they use is their left leg while skating ( such as landing leg &; main leg while spinning ), which is opposite of most other skaters.

And this signifies that they are using more of their right side ( artist & imagination side ) of their brain rather than left side ( which is the calculations, practical side. )

This may be one of the reasons I feel they are the true artists on ice.

There are other my favorite performances of them but I couldn’t find them on you tube.

For Johnny‘s, I also love his GPF 2008 EX and also US Nationals EX’2008.

If we see the jumps by themselves , these two performances were perfection. But for other parts of artistry including emotion, I love his Kaleidoscope on Ice.
It really tears me because it’s soooooo beautiful and his emotion !

For Emanuel, I forgot which event it was but one of his Ave Maria’s his beginning of expression was not even acting, but already being the character of the person he was acting and it looked so effortless. So deep.

For sensitivity and grace, totality of his movements are unbelievable.

Although he has ballet experience since childhood, but still there are many other ballet dancers who are not so graceful and seem careless for sensitive movements, when compared with Sandhu.

I suppose it’s about the artistic talent, it’s clear to see from their fingers, hands, arms and how they use their whole body.

Emanuel Sandhu Ave Maria

Johnny Weir Ave Maria in Kaleidoscope Nov ’2010

Beautiful letter to Japan from Emanuel Sandhu

2011-05-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

I found a beautiful letter from Emanuel Sandhu to Japan in his fan’s blog at the link below,

http://emanuelsandhu.jugem.jp/ -
( thank you to the blog owner for sharing his letter ! )

He sent this letter below, around April 29.

“ To all of my Japanese skating fans
and to all of the marvelous people of Japan,

As the World Championships continue,
I think of you often and pray for you often.

There are no words that I can say that will mitigate
the hardships that you all must have and continue
to endure after the tragedies of the earthquake and tsunami.

I can only hope that by watching members of your country skate,
in fact all the skaters, that you will be able to find the inspiration
to be stronger and fight harder just like they do everyday.

Skating is not only a sport but an art and art is the freedom of
self-expression.

You too must make the journey to meet yourselves within and learn things about yourselves and others that lie in dark places.

Bring what you find into the light because
you will discover its beauty.

Share that beauty and find the courage to smile.
Be strong and find your calm.

I miss and love you all, my friends.

Emanuel “

Emanuel has strong long time fans in Japan so they must be really glad to receive this message.

I also found an information about Emanuel will perform in Art on Ice show in China on June 18, 19 !

Hopefully, it will show up on Chinese TV and someone will upload it on you tube.

I miss his skating and artistry very much. He was a one of a kind skater, absolutely unique & true artist and an incredible dancer.

I haven’t been so crazy to watch present skating competitions, but always love to see Sandhu’s skating in ice shows which have freedom of artistry without being blocked by required elements and other rules.

Emanuel Sandhu “ Silent Night “ choreographed by Kurt Browning