Great Performances

[av8rmike]

You haven't lived until you've heard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", or "Stars & Stripes Forever" played on eight pianos at once. Especially when the pianists concerned are Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Emanuel Ax, Claude Frank, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, James Levine, and Mikhail Pletnev, some of the most famous and talented pianists alive today. I was watching "Great Performances" on PBS tonight instead of practicing, so maybe it makes me the ultimate music geek. It was the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. I just thought the idea was really cool. And the Bach concerto for four pianos was awesome, especially with the pickup orchestra they put together, a veritable who's-who of the string world: Christian Tetzlaff, Sarah Chang, Ilya Gringolts, Vadim Repin, Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky, among others, with Gidon Kremer as "concertmaster." It was worth skipping the practicing, especially since I'm really tired and my right wrist is starting to bug me.