Portland’s go-to piano man, Harold Gray, turned me on to Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan, who has a new solo album out on the Avie label.
Trying to do something a little different to get attention for Darknesse Visible, Barnatan commissioned a series of music videos to go with excerpts of individual pieces. (For more videos and album details, click here.)
The results are striking, especially two videos. The first, featuring “Scarbo” from Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, is one of the best classical music videos I’ve ever seen:
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
The second one is more subtle in its charms. As with the other videos, the visuals (art by Zack Smithey, video by Tristan Cook) team seamlessly with the musi. This is from veteran Scots composer Ronald Stevenson‘s 1971 Fantasy on Peter Grimes:
The video uses the final third of the piece, which somehow captures the full colour, shimmer and menace of Benjamin Britten’s music in 10 fingers and 88 keys. Here’s the whole Fantasy. I don’t know who recorded this.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
