Available on January 27, 2009, one of Naxos' new releases is Stravinsky: Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements, Octet for Winds conducted by Robert Craft is a CD you may want to consider adding to your collection, especially if you are wanting to expand your musical horizon. The performances are superb, and Craft's interpretations of these works are fun and adventurous.

Preview, purchase, and download Stravinsky: Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements, Octet for Winds conducted by Robert Craft

The winner of the 2009 Golden Globe for Best Original Score from a Motion Picture is... drum roll please... the award goes to... find out now!

Two weeks ago, I bought a grand piano at a fantastic price. Now, every chance I get, I sit down at the piano and play - sometimes ten minutes sometimes an hour. Normally, I stick to the music of Satie (the Gymnopedies and the Gnossiennes), but a few days ago I flipped through the pages of Chopin's etudes to look for something with a little more umph. That's when I re-discovered this famous and extremely difficult piece: Chopin's "Winter Wind" Etude (Op. 25, no. 11). Famous romantic period pianist, conductor, and composer Hans von Bulow (1830-94) once said of the piece,

"It must be mentioned as a particular merit of this, the longest and, in every respect, the grandest of Chopin's studies, that, while producing the greatest fulness of sound imaginable, it keeps itself so entirely and utterly unorchestral, and represents piano music in the most accurate sense of the word. To Chopin is due the honor and credit of having set fast the boundary between piano and orchestral music, which through other composers of the romantic school, especially Robert Schumann, has been defaced and blotted out, to the prejudice and damage of both species."*

The esteemed American music critic James Huneker (1857-1921) also said of this piece,

"It takes prodigious power and endurance to play this work, prodigious power, passion and no little poetry. It is open air music, storm music, and at times moves in processional splendor. Small souled men, no matter how agile their fingers, should avoid it."*

I don't think I could have said it better myself. So for those of you who have never heard this marvolous work, here's a YouTube video for you to enjoy. Chopin's "Winter Wind" Etude performed by Wen-Yu Shen.

*Chopin: The Man and His Music, by James Huneker

I wish you all a wonderful year full of health, peace, prosperity, and great music!