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Tag: Chopin

Hadi Karimi Recreates Composers in 3D

Have you heard about Hadi Karimi? Karimi is the Iranian computer graphics artist who has been beguiling classical music lovers this summer with his uncannily realistic 3-D recreations of composers long past. These include, so far, Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, and Brahms.

Karimi earlier applied his skills to images of popular singers and movie actors. But for now, he appears to have embraced the challenges of translating vintage photographs, portraits, and death masks of the 19th century to lifelike, digital busts in living color.

Here’s an article from June on his portrait of Chopin.

https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/face-to-face-artist-creates-stunning-3d-portraits-of-chopin-13200

You can sample the breadth of his 3-D sculptures here:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/HadiKarimi.Art/

For more information about Hadi Karimi, visit his website at hadikarimi.com.

July 22, 2020
Chopin Brouwer Saint David and Previn on WWFM

There’s so much going on, and I’ve got only two hours to touch on everything today on The Classical Network!

To begin with, March 1 is the anniversary of the birth of Frederic Chopin. You can’t ignore that. It’s also the 80th birthday of Cuban composer and guitarist Leo Brouwer. AND it’s the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.

And let me express my regret right away to any of you of Welsh descent: I had fully intended to do a “Picture Perfect” (this evening at 6:00) made up entirely of music from movies set in Wales. However, because of some last-minute editing issues – I had not anticipated having to jettison half of my recorded script for this week’s edition of “The Lost Chord” on account of having chosen way too much music for my memorial to the late Dominick Argento (to air Sunday at 10:00 p.m.) – I am falling back on an encore broadcast of PP from three years ago.

It’s still a good show (“Behind-the-Scenes Hollywood”), and timely, as it runs so close upon the heels of Oscar. Listen in for music by Franz Waxman (“Sunset Boulevard”), David Raksin (“The Bad and the Beautiful”), Dominic Frontiere (“The Stunt Man”), and Ludovic Bource (“The Artist”).

In the meantime, I will do my best to include a few works by Welsh composers, between 4 and 6 p.m. It is also, after all, the birthday of the Welsh harpist John Thomas.

And of course, we lost André Previn yesterday. It pains me to have to postpone a proper memorial – he was such a superb and versatile musician – but you can tune in next week for all-Previn playlists on both “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord.” In the meantime, Previn will be represented on every one of my weekday air shifts, including this afternoon’s.

I’ll do the best that I can, with my abbreviated Friday, from 4 to 6 p.m. EST. Don’t forget, “Picture Perfect” is on the way at 6! My weekend will be well-earned today, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 1, 2019
Sara Buechner Plays Mozart & More on The Classical Network

Sara Davis Buechner offers 88 keys to enjoyment on today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network.

On the program will be Mozart’s Fantasy in C minor, K.475, and Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457; Chopin’s Introduction and Rondo in E flat major, Op. 16; Anton Arensky’s “Four Salon Pieces,” and Gershwin’s “Second Rhapsody,” in Davis’ own arrangement for solo piano.

Buechner, a top prize winner at the Queen Elisabeth (Brussels), Leeds, Mozart (Salzburg), Beethoven (Vienna), and Sydney International Piano Competitions, is currently on the faculty of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. She was a Bronze Medalist at the 1986 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and a Gold Medalist at the 1984 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.

Among her recordings are rarely-heard works of Rudolf Friml, Joseph Lamb, Joaquin Turina, Miklós Rózsa, and Ferruccio Busoni, including the world premiere recording of Busoni’s arrangement of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.” Stereophile magazine selected her Gershwin CD as “Recording of the Month.” Her album of Hollywood piano concertos was the recipient of Germany’s Deutsches Schauplatten Preis.

The concert was originally presented as part of last season’s Silberman Recital Series at New York’s Baruch Performing Arts Center. Ted Altschuler, the center’s director, will offer an overview of the upcoming season’s offerings at the conclusion of today’s program.

Then stay tuned for the complete ballet “The Arabian Nights” by Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov. The ballet, given its premiere in 1979, is one of the rare adaptations to emerge from a region which gave us the original stories that make up “A Thousand and One Nights.” The world famous adventures of Sinbad, Ali Baba and Aladdin are enshrined in these tales, and each of them make an appearance in the ballet’s second act. Scheherazade will captivate with 90 minutes of her storytelling genius, beginning around 2:00.

You’ll discover days and nights of musical enchantments, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

July 31, 2018
Bella Davidovich at 90 & Zukerman at 70

Pinchas Zukerman is 70 today. Tell that to Bella Davidovich. The formidable pianist has just turned 90.

Davidovich first attained international recognition through a shared first prize at the 1949 Warsaw Chopin Competition. This was the launch of a successful career that took her all over the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. She played with every major Soviet conductor. She was soloist with the Leningrad Philharmonic for 28 consecutive seasons.

In 1978, she emigrated from the USSR to the United States, where she became a naturalized American citizen. Prior to the move, she taught at the Moscow Conservatory for sixteen years. She has taught at the Juilliard School since 1982. Her son (with the late violinist Julian Sitkovetsky) is Dmitry Sitkovetsky.

I don’t think a month goes by without someone at the station playing one of her superlative Chopin recordings. We’ll sample her artistry – though not to the neglect of Zukerman – today between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Davidovich plays Chopin’s Grande valse brillante:

And the Scherzo No. 2:

July 16, 2018
Chopin’s Birthday Liberace Plays On

Happy birthday, Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849).

Liberace loved Chopin. In fact, he claimed to have been dubbed “The Chopin of TV.” When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Make sure you stick around for the three violinists – and hornist! – at 2:13:

Now watch as Liberace transforms into Chopin himself (starting around 1:40) and back again (around 4:25). In case you don’t get it, you can judge the time travel from the dissolve from electric light bulbs to actual candles in the candelabra:

Liberace and Virgil Fox on “The Mike Douglas Show” (Next: Ben Gazzara!):

Those were the days…

March 1, 2018

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