A Week in the Life - Brahms, Ravel, and Marquez.

Yes, another symphony week, this time local. I'll be here in the LC playing with the Las Cruces Symphony. The program contiains a great latin flavored piece by Arturo Marquez.

Danzon No. 2:



Followed by some nice romantic Ravel. The French composer excelled at impressionism and his music abounds with rich layers and effects that pull the heart strings. His suit from the ballet Daphnis et Chloé exemplifies his skills. Ravel's own health deteriorated to near breakdown from the amount of work the put in scoring the ballet which utilized a full ballet company, two choruses, and a large orchestra.

Suite from Daphnis et Chloé:



Lastly, the one and only Brahms Violin Concerto. Regarded by may as one of the more beautiful and difficult of the violin concertos, this will be performed by Augustin Hadelich. The concerto was written by Brahms for his friend and violin legend, Joseph Joachim. Augustin Hadelich won the Gold Medal at the Indianapolis Violin Competition in 2006. The competition is, for modern times at least, the bees knees of the violin world. Occurring only every four years, the competition is world reknowned. And since he won.....

His prizes include $30,000 in cash, a 24-carat gold medal, a four-year loan of
the 1683 "ex-Gingold" Stradivarius violin and Tourte bow, a Naxos label compact
disc recording contract, a gold Fleur-de-Lys bow made by Berg Bows and more than
40 concert engagements, including a domestic and international tour.

So he'll be playing on said violin for this weekend's concert. Here's a snippet of his performance in the competition.

Yeah he's pretty good.

So that's my week. I'll squeeze in some more later on.