2 Cellos

I have to disagree - profoundly ... that was merely overblown crap ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWV3GPVy8Hk

Now this is real music making ...

ATB from George

PS: I love Apolyptica playing Metalica, however ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSMXMv0noY4&feature=fvst

Nothing Else Matters ... only great music and a lack of sentimentality.

I liked it until about a minute in, then they went a bit glaikit.

Attemps to make classical music and classical instrumentation more groovy by recruiting and championing youngish players are laughable Oh look at Nigel whatshisface with spikey hair  isn't he snazzy, he'll be aaaw the rage wi the young uns.

Reminds me of my mum buying me Hooked on classics to get me into classical, which I lked anyway. Hey maw could you get me the original 

Originally Posted by George Fredrik:

Yeah That' OK and I'm not a Metallica fan.

Currently listening to The Cello and The King of Prussia

Its a little bit unfair of GFFJ to evoke a comparison between a cello piece that is (to my ears) quite competently played with an interesting reworking of an great  Nirvana song to a Bach piece played by a grandmaster of cello....pretty much everything would pale next to that one. 

Which is not to diminish the validity of the Nirvana piece. I liked it (ok...I did't *love* it, but I don't *love* over 80% of the music I love to listen to), and would imagine it would sound very impressive on a tricked out Naim system. I know that cellos were very tastefully employed in the Nirvana 'Unplugged' album, but certainly would not have drawn a standing ovation from too many orchestral members. 

My personal vote for the most moving cello in a pop/rock track is the closing few bars of Janis Ians 'Watercolors' from the 'Between the Lines' album. Again, it wouldn't have given Starker too many sleepless nights, but it is the perfect end to the perfect song that is the closing track of a perfect album. The whole album is in fact beautifully orchestrated and comfortably falls into my 'music I *love* category. 

Its a little bit unfair of GFFJ to evoke a comparison between a cello piece that is (to my ears) quite competently played with an interesting reworking of an great  Nirvana song to a Bach piece played by a grandmaster of cello....pretty much everything would pale next to that one. 

I was perhaps being paradoxicl! Nothing worng with that. Black is black and white is white, and grey is confusion!

No one wrote music quite like Bach, and no one played it quite like Fournier in the time of recordings, though some will correctly argue that Fournier was not the only great exponent of Bach in the recorded era on the cello - an example, which happens to be a favourite of mine. The DG commercial recording is still in the catalogue and is finer again ... But the ensemble I posted is no less engaging to me on the enjoyment level - the commercial issue is less fine, IMO ...

I hope you don't mind my reply. My musical tastes are Catholic enough to take in many styles ... currently listening to some Rameaux... without enough care for sure ...

ATB from George

George,

I always invite your scholarly responses. Enjoying music (as in really enjoying it) reduces to one thing...does it move you. If it does, then it is good music. And there are very few works out there that are more stirring than Bach Cello Suites (although I am not much of a classical music lover, I probably have five different renditions of these, and they all move me). 

Nota bene, there can be many ways in which music can move you...the most stirring are those pieces that connect with your soul and raise goosebumps. But there are other pieces where the motive force is more literal and  translates not into goosebumps but foot tapping/head banging/air guitar posture adopting. I would not wish to be without either. And I suspect neither would you. I mean could you be forced to chose between your gramophone or Polish vodka? Not when you have the ability to indulge in both. 

The OP obviously was moved enough by the 2Cello piece to want to share it with others who may enjoy it as much (or more) than himself. 

It's good interesting vulgar fun to tolerate the once imho…

The guy on the left looks like he’s training hard for the Olympic Cello Thrashing contest.

Which one of these two guys won at the end anyway?

Sorry Jim... here's my fancy for you to ridicule if you so wish...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSMx5YQ0a-U&feature=related

Debs

A new olympic sport, introduced just in time for the 2012 London Olympics. People practicing (not only on celli) too!

EJ

Bach 1, Cobain 0 - but, as has been pointed out, a most unfair contest.

Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a great rock song - no more, no less,

If I had to pick a cover version, I'd go with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mStNkcbsQ&feature=related

Hmmmm ,,,, didn't really like the original clip and agree with George about it being overblown; however thought the Metallica clip was pretty dull - not my kind of thing at all: Deep Purple, Caravan, Barclay James Harvest, Procal Harem and, of course, Sir Keith Emerson did it so much better. The dude playing Bach in the clip was much better in my humble opinion than the first two dudes or that lot with Metallica.  

Anyway if you like Nirvana then this to me is them at their very best 

Now that's what I call music

All the best, Guy

DearJim,

I found it hard to believe you were actually being serious! Thank goodness my thought was not wrong. 

Even though you do not share my view of all things, I hope you might agree that the Bach Cello Suites really should be issued free of charge to all with an ear for music!

As for the other selection I linked, it is just one of those many odd-ball things that do happen to stir me that fall outside the classical style. Most pop music doesn't do anything for me, but sometimes I find something I really like. 

ATB from George

Dear Jim,

As a fairly [in none emotional ways] privileged child I naturally had a good education [English spelling apart] and was reading music fluently as a ten year old. I was hopeless at the piano, and resigned to be a passive musician if you see what I mean. But from the age of nineteen I was severed from the luxury of the Silver Spoon and stood on two feet of my own with a vengance. Of course I was hardly equipped for such a journey of discovery - of how the other half lived! I survived, but in terms of our materialistic modern society have utterly failed ... I am not mercenary ..,

As a twenty five year old I took up the double bass, because it is a rare instrument, and played a line that fascinates me. Rarely appreciated, it is the most important line in music. The soloist on the violin [for example] is swimming in mud if the bass is wrong!

But being shy, the bass suited me as no one listens to the bass itself, just as no one appreciates good housekeeping! the failure is noted immediately, but success is to be not noticed.

A modest way of making a most valuable contribution musically.

But in terms of listening to music, I need only the scantiest cues to know what is going on. Thus even a very poor recording or video of music is utterly compelling for me. All that replay is for me is a simple collection of cues for me to listen rather directly to the intentions of the performers. Thus I am blessed in a way. It also means that I see replay quite unlike most people. What matters to me is the quality of the inspiration of the composer - a matter of opinion, naturally - so that in response to you first post I put up most sublime example - the Bach - and another that happens to please me well. Neither are remotely well reorded. What gets my emotional response going is the composition, though Fournier is a priceless cellist!

You may consider me a sort of unfeeling brute, and fair enough. All I say - if that be the case - is that I am no sentimentalist. Tough as old boots, because I have survived. My requirements for life are so minimal that people are shocked, but the truth is that we don't really need a one hundredth part of the trappings that the consumerist society has trained us to expect.

Sent in good faith.

ATB from George