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My Favourite Music Video of 2012

12/31/2012

Carl Orff, taking himself very seriously.

I’m finishing the year with my nomination for the most entertaining classical music video that came my way in 2012. To be honest, I don’t how I first saw it. Did someone send me a link? Or post it on Facebook? Or did I find it on one of my random surfing expeditions? I can’t quite recall.

In any event, my nomination is a delightful mis-rendering of the text of “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. (It’s by someone called “Famished Mammal” – a name that I strongly suspect is fictitious.) As it turns out, there are quite a few of these “O Fortuna” videos on YouTube: it’s a thriving little sub-genre. But as good luck would have it, I first came upon the one I think is the best. I’ve posted it below.

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The Power of YouTube

12/21/2012

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Leveling the musical world since 2005.

This just in: we read, via the omniscient BBC, that the Gangnam Style music video has received more than 1 billion hits (see here).

This achievement makes it the most watched YouTube video ever. And it must surely make me one of the few people in the world with an internet connection who hasn’t seen it.

I will now rectify this gap in my cultural education by watching it. As I understand it, this won’t take long, so I’ll be back shortly.

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Choosing the Audience's Choices

12/20/2012

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Where's Weinzweig?

Now here’s a bit of innocent fun from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra – and I’m sure no offense was intended to anyone.

From August 23 to November 15, TSO patrons were invited to vote on an “audience choice” concert program, which will be played on January 26 and 27.

The winners in this popularity contest were recently announced (see here). This is the resulting program, chosen by ballot:

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Stuart Hamilton Opens Windows

12/15/2012

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Stuart Hamilton's new autobiography.

Earlier this fall, I attended a double book-launch at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre. The two books on display were autobiographies, by Lotfi Mansouri and Stuart Hamilton.

I haven’t read Mansouri’s book yet – but I just finished Hamilton’s Opening Windows: Confessions of a Canadian Vocal Coach (published by Dundurn Press).

I got to know Hamilton a little bit when he agreed to be interviewed for my own recent book, Remembering Glenn Gould (see here). And now, having read Hamilton’s memoir, I can say that it displays the same characteristics as the man himself: modest – but also clever, charming, articulate and rich in content.

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Selling Claude Vivier to the World

12/7/2012

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Claude Vivier (1948-1983).

Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to receive a package from Boosey & Hawkes, in New York. In it, I found a catalogue, fresh off the presses, advertising the scores of Canadian composer Claude Vivier.

An accompanying press release declares that Vivier is “commonly thought to be the most important composer Canada has yet produced.”

Presumably B&H isn’t trying to damn Vivier with faint praise – after taking the trouble to publish his complete oeuvre, and also this handsome trilingual catalogue. But I fear this press release may have missed its mark. Seeing as the wider world shows little interest in Canadian music, telling people that Vivier is the best among a group of composers they aren’t much interested in may not be the best way to sell his work.

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Kuerti and the Ontario Philharmonic

12/5/2012

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Parisotto and his band are ready for prime time.

I’d never heard the Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra before last night. But a combination of attractive factors aligned to entice me to their performance. First, they were playing in Toronto’s Koerner Hall (where they sometimes repeat programs that they have already given in their home town of Oshawa); second, they were playing my favourite piano concerto, Brahms’s Second; and third, the piano soloist was Anton Kuerti. (The event was a co-production with Kuerti’s own Mooredale concert series.)

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Eatock Daily

I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.

– CE

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