Another one of those bands I first discovered early on in their career via the old My Space (when it was relevant), when they hadn't been signed to a label yet, still gigging around and were just getting their act together.

And now, some four years later, they have become huge. It thrills me no end when good people make it, and I have always had this gut-level feeling Mumford & Sons were destined for big stuff. Clearly, they are in that direction.

I love hunches, especially when they pay off - which I can't say all the time.

This weekend it's Mumford Sons, live at the Haldern Pop Festival in Germany, recorded on August 13, 2010 and featuring an enthusiastic crowd going along for the ride.

Enjoy the weekend - it's just getting started.

A few weeks ago I promised I would dig up a Live Tame Impala concert I recently found via Triple J Radio in Australia. As promised, here it is.

From the Splendor In The Grass Festival 2010, recorded by Triple J Radio on July 31, 2010 here is a pretty near complete (and complete with really excited announcers) set by one of the breakthrough Alt/Psych/Indie/Progressive bands coming out of Australia from the past couple of years.

I'm just glad they're around. I hope you are too.

Enjoy and play loud.

Having been suitably blown away the first time I heard Esperanza Spalding a few years ago, I have been completely thrilled to see her meteoric rise to fame in the Jazz community, and to see her music reaching out to a much wider audience.

I managed to locate this concert, featuring Esperanza Spalding and The Chamber Music Society from the 2010 JazznoJazz Festival in Zurich Switzerland from October 28, 2010 and recorded live by Radio Suisse Romande for their Espace 2 channel. It's a little under 90 minutes and it's a wonderful concert, jammed with reasons why Esperanza Spalding is getting the notoriety and accolades she's been getting the past few years.

And, lucky for us, there looks like no end in sight.

Enjoy.

Over to Berlin this week for a concert broadcast live last December 23rd by the Berlin Radio Symphony, conducted by Marek Janowski and featuring pianist Lars Vogt and organist Iveta Apkalna in music of Weber, Mozart and Saint-Saens.

The concert was broadcast live and direct by Berlin Radio and relayed over Radio France on December 23rd 2010. A pretty straightforward meat-and-potatoes concert starting off with the Weber Overture to Ruler Of The Spririts, Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 21 (w/Vogt,piano) and finishing up with the Saint-Saens Symphony Number 3 featuring Latvian Organist Iveta Apkalna.

The concert is split between two players with the Weber and Mozart on the top player and the Saint-Saens on the bottom player.

Notes:

jeudi 23 décembre 2010

En direct de la Philharmonie de Berlin : Weber, Mozart, Saint-Saëns

Carl-Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Der Beherrscher der Geister Op.27, Ouverture (1811)

Wolfgang-Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Concerto N°21 en Do majeur K.467*

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Symphonie N°3 en Do mineur Op.78**

Lars Vogt*, Piano
Iveta Apkalna**, Orgue
Orchestre Symphonique de la Radio de Berlin
Marek Janowski, Direction

Enjoy and remember it's Anti-Road Rage Wednesday.

Over to Brussels this week (by way of Madrid) for a concert by The Belgian National Orchestra, guest conducted by Roberto Minczuk and featuring violinist Yossif Ivanov. The Orchestra start off with the overture to La Sfida by Belgian composer Luc Van Hove and then accompany Yossif Ivanov in a very nice performance of the Samuel Barber Violin Concerto (one we don't hear over in the States all the much lately . . hint-hint) followed by an encore by Eugen Ysaye of the second movement from his Sonata Number 2 for Solo Violin. Ending up with a so-so performance of the Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony. The concert was recorded live at The Palace Of Belle Artes in Brussels on May 7th of 2010 and relayed by Radio Nacional Espana.

Minczuk, you may recall, was at the center of a controversy in his native Brazil over the firing of musicians in the orchestra he was Music Director of because they refused to re-audition for him. It created a worldwide musician boycott and Minczuk was forced to relinquish his post earlier this year.

But politics aside, here is the music. It's a little over 90 minutes and so it's broken down into two players. The top player features the Van Hove, Barber and Ysaye works, while the bottom player features the Tchaikovsky. Ivanov is particularly worth listening to. Another up-and-comer on the concert scene, he tackles the Barber Concerto with ease and would have done Sam proud in the process.

Notes:

Concierto celebrado en el Palacio de Bellas Artes de Bruselas,
el 7 de mayo de 2010. Grabación de la RTBF, Bélgica.

Part 1: VAN HOVE:Obertura “La Sfida”, Op. 47 (18’41”).

BARBER: Concierto para violín, Op. 14 (23’). Yossif. Ivanov (vl.).

YSAYE: Finale de “Les Furies” de la sonata nº 2 para violín solo (3’07”). Yossif. Ivanov (vl.).

Part 2: CHAIKOVSKY: Sinfonía nº 4 en Fa menor, Op. 36

(42’07”). Orq. Nacional de Bélgica. Dir.: R. Minczuk.

A contribution to your Anti-Road Rage Wednesday. Enjoy.

Over to Barcelona this week for a concert recorded by Radio Nacional Espana on December 2nd of last year featuring two up-and-comers and rising-young-stars from Belgium; violinist Lorenzo Gatto and Pianist Eliane Reyes in a recital of music by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Ysaye and Prokofiev.

The concert, at just a little under 90 minutes, is broken up over two players.

The first part (top player) features the Mozart Sonata K. 454, the Tchaikovsky Valse-Scherzo op. 34 and the Saint-Saens Rondo Capriccioso op. 28. The second part (bottom player) features the Ysaye Sonata for solo violin op. 27 "Ballade" and concludes with the Prokofiev Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 94 - and as always, there's an encore.

A very nice and well received concert, guaranteed to calm things down a bit.

As always, the notes are below:

Concierto celebrado en L´Auditori de Barcelona el 2 de diciembre de 2010.

MOZART: Sonata para violín y piano en Si bemol mayor,
KV. 454. CHAIKOVSKY: Vals-Scherzo en Do mayor, Op.
34. SAINT-SAENS: Introducción y Rondo caprichoso en
La menor, Op. 28. YSAYE: Sonata para violín solo en Re
menor, Op. 27 nº 3 “Ballade”. PROKOFIEV: Sonata para
violín y piano en Re mayor, nº 2, Op. 94 bis. L. Gatto (vl.),
E. Reyes (p.).

Enjoy - relax - turn off the phone.

Something a little out of the ordinary this week. A Live "Cine-Concert" from Paris featuring Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France performing the complete film score to the groundbreaking Russian silent film The New Babylon, composed by Dmitri Shostakovitch in 1929. The concert was recorded by Radio France Musique on October 9, 2010.

A suite from the film score has been making the rounds for some years, but not the entire score (which runs almost 2 hours) and its as groundbreaking as the film was which, incidentally was the first film score composed by Dmitri Shostakovitch.

For those of you interested in a synopsis of the film, it's here.

The concert is broken up into two parts, although there was no break in the concert/film itself. I waited for a quiet bit an hour or so into the concert and cut it.

Notes below as always. Announcements in French and movie in Russian, even though it's silent.

Cité de la Musique : Ciné-concert

Dmitri Chostakovitch (1906-1975)
La Nouvelle Babylone (URSS, 1928-1929) de Grigory Kozintsev et Leonid Trauberg

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Frank Strobel, Direction
Concert donné le 9 octobre 2010.

Time to hunt down the DVD of this film.

Over to the Alsace region of France for a concert from the 2010 Colmar Chamber Music Festival (Les Musicales de Colmar), featuring the Atrium Quartet, assisted by a star-studded cast of friends (see list below). Since the theme of this festival was Music from The Viennese School, this concert is devoted to music of Schubert, Gustav Mahler (as arranged by his friend Arnold Schoenberg) and Arnold Schoenberg. The concert was recorded by Radio France on May 13th of 2010. As always, the concerts presented by Radio France are wonderful, not only for the repertoire but the great job the recording team do. A little over an hour, it's a rather short concert so it all fits on one player.

The list of pieces and the extensive list of players is posted below:

Les Musicales de Colmar : Schubert, Mahler, Schoenberg

Franz Schubert
Quatuor N°12 en Ut mineur D.703 (1820)*

Gustav Mahler & Arnold Schoenberg, Transcription
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (1884,1896) **

Arnold Schoenberg
La nuit transfigurée Op.4 (1899) ***

Quatuor Atrium*

Clémentine Margaine, Soprano**
Sébastian Jacot, Flute**
Romain Guyot, Clarinette**
Stephan Fougeroux, Percussions**
Alexander Melnikov, Piano**
Jeremy Menuhin, Piano**
Ilya Gringolts, Violon ** ***
Hagai Shaham, Violon**
Maxim Rysanov, alto** ***
Marc Coppey, Violoncelle ** ***
Niek De Groot, Contrebasse**
Liana Gourdjia, Violon***
Sylvia Simionescu, Alto***
Antonio Meneses, Violoncelle***
Concert donné le 13 mai 2010 au Théâtre Municipal de Colmar dans le cadre du Festival de Musique de Chambre.

Since it is Wednesday (in case you forgot, since Monday was a holiday), it's your weekly dose of Anti-Road Rage. A great concert with a pretty spectacular batch of folks. So calming down is a given.

Enjoy.

Over to Hamburg by way of Rome this week. A concert given by The North German Radio Symphony conducted by Matthias Foremny as broadcast by RAI Radio 3 in Italy. It features the wonderful Korean violin sensation Hyeyoon Park playing the Violin Concerto by Erich Wolfgang Korngold plus an encore of the Ysaye Sonata for Solo Violin Number 2.

The concert was recorded in Hamburg on October 21, 2010.

It's short at a little over 45 minutes so it's all on one player.

Here are the notes:

Concerto Euroradio
ORCHESTRA SINFONICA DEL NDR
violino Hyeyoon Park
direttore Matthias Foremny

Hector Berlioz
Le Carnaval Romain', Ouverture op.9

Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Concerto per violino e orchestra in re maggiore op.35
- Moderato nobile
- Romance: Andante
- Finale: Allegro assai vivace

Eugène Ysaÿe
Sonata per violino solo in la minore op. 27 n. 2

Registrato il 21 ottobre 2010 nella Laeiszhalle di Amburgo>

I think you'll agree this constitutes pretty serious Anti-Road Rage Wednesday music.

A little early this week, probably since most people I've been running into (including myself) have been in a murderous mood all day, it only seems fitting to start Anti-Road Rage Wednesday a bit early in an effort to wear the edge off.

So it's only natural I run some Chopin and Erich Wolfgang Korngold by way of the Martha Argerich Lugano Festival Project from this past June. It was recorded live and broadcast just a few weeks ago on Radio France. There is word most of this Festival will be issued by EMI sometime this month, but apparently not the opening piece, which is the Chopin Cello Sonata with Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich. That's the opener - the second half is the opus 15 Piano Quintette by Erich Wolfgang Korngold featuring Alexander Mogilevsky, Piano, Alissa Margulis, Violin, Lucia Hall, Violin, Nora Romanoff, Viola and Mark Drobinsky, cello. A really nice, albeit short concert (a little over an hour) and for all intents and purposes seems to work better than a Valium or a Martini.

Since it's a little over an hour it fits on one player.

Here are the notes from France Musique:

Lugano : Chopin, Korngold

Frédéric Chopin
Sonate en Sol mineur Op.65

Mischa Maisky, Violoncelle
Martha Argerich, Piano

Erich-Wolfgang Korngold
Quintette en en Mi majeur Op.15

Alexander Mogilevsky, Piano
Alissa Margulis, Violon
Lucia Hall, Violon
Nora Romanoff, Alto
Mark Drobinsky, Violoncelle

Concert donné le 16 juin 2010 en l’Auditorium de la RSI de Lugano dans le cadre du Festival Projet Martha Argerich

Don't say I'm not looking out for you. The streets will be a safer place after listening to this - trust me.