ARTURO BENEDETTI MICHELANGELI

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) had married the sister of my grandmother, or my father’s mother. He mastered the art of being elusive. During his long career the legendary Italian pianist’s times into the recording studio were few and far between. The concerts and broadcast performances he didn’t cancel, though, sometimes found their way onto pirated discs. This allowed pianophiles to gain a fuller dimension of their puzzling, ultra-perfectionist hero. Some of his recordings have been available before his death, like the complete June 13, 1987, Vatican recital. Another recent discovery is the only known recording of Michelangeli in chamber music. Amazing as it seems, this reclusive, temperamental pianist agreed to perform the Mozart E-flat Piano Quartet on a classical music cruise, with a handpicked French ensemble in tow. Michelangeli limited his public repertoire to a handful of works, Debussy Images, Beethoven Op. 111 Sonata, and Chopin’s First Scherzo (a work Michelangeli otherwise didn’t record). A large booklet contains a long, rather rambling essay by the pianist’s widow, which is valuable for insights into Michelangeli’s early years. But the sonic and artistic quality of this set is variable, governed by an utterly unsystematic programming agenda. While Michelangeli was a real artist when playing piano and his performances – both public and recorded in a studio reach perfection levels close to my hero Glenn Gould, his rarefied production of plays put him in the corner of famous piano players, in fact whenever I make his name I see empty eyes in the people I’m talking with. However, the story is that being Michelangeli some sort of relative of mine, I used to play piano and interpret pieces so well because of my family relationship with him (?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5jdrWohMtU

BEETHOVEN'S DIABELLI VARIATIONS

The Diabelli Variations must be the most well-known set of keyboard variations after my beloved Bach's Goldbergs. In 1819, Anton Diabelli, a composer and publisher of piano music for children, wrote a simple waltz and invited the 50 most famous composers of the time to contribute a variation of it. Among those asked were Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt and Beethoven himself, who thought poorly of the waltz and simply ignored the entire enterprise. However, the mercurial composer changed his mind quickly, and submitted 23 variations to Diabelli, adding a further nine 4 years later. The contributions of the other 49 composers are today largely forgotten, but Beethoven's 32 variations are still regarded as a work of compositional genius. And the way Piotr Anderszewski plays and explains them in a DVD I have put Piotr at the same level with G. Gould, both players play and interpret the music just like they are composing it.

Beethoven took the seed of Diabelli's waltz and spun out a profound document of his own wit and craft. The work runs a full specter of emotions from the comic to the solemn, from virtuoso presdigitation to ethereal sparseness. Beethoven mercilessly made fun of material that musicians of the time would instantly recognize, such as Cramer's Piano Method and his five-finger exercises and an aria from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.

The early variations stay close to the basic form of the theme, but Beethoven is willing to experiment and try radical things in the later variations. The original waltz is transformed into far-ranging forms, such as a German dance in Nos. 15, 25 and 28. Beethoven also reflects upon his own work, the closing variations being closely related to his last piano sonatas. Taken as a whole, the work is clear testimony of Beethoven's limitless variety and inspiration. It is an essential part of the music collection of every student of the piano and collector of piano players’ movies such as me.

ME AND BEETHOVEN'S HEARING LOSS

This is a story about the most famous classical music composer that puts me and my tragedy in a very similar position to this immortal beloved.

Around 1801, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe form of tinnitus, a "roar" in his ears that made it hard for him to appreciate music and he would avoid conversation. The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to syphilis, lead poisoning, typhus, or possibly even his habit of immersing his head in cold water to stay awake. Over time, his hearing loss became acute: there is a well-attested story that, at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned round to see the tumultuous applause of the audience, hearing nothing. In 1802, he became depressed, and considered committing suicide, very much like I had done years ago. Beethoven left Vienna for a time for small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt, where he wrote the "Heiligenstadt Testament", in which he resolved to continue living through his art. He continued composing even as his hearing deteriorated. After a failed attempt in 1811 to perform his own "Emperor" Concerto, he never performed in public again.
As a result of Beethoven's hearing loss, a unique historical record has been preserved: he kept conversation books discussing music and other issues, and giving an insight into his thought. Even today, the conversation books form the basis for investigation into how he felt his music should be performed, and his relationship to art - which he took very seriously. In a way my blog here is just like the conversation books of this musician and I’m hoping that years from now I’ll still exist in the internet and be read.
There are a variety of theories as to why Beethoven suffered from hearing loss, from illness to lead poisoning. The oldest explanation, from the autopsy of the time, is that he had a distended inner ear which developed lesions over time.
Russell Martin argued, from analysis done by Walsh and McCrone on a sample of Beethoven's hair, that there were alarmingly high levels of lead in Beethoven's system. And that high concentrations of lead can lead to bizarre & erratic behavior, including rages. Another symptom of lead poisoning is deafness. In Beethoven's era, lead was used widely without true understanding of the damage it could lead to: in sweetening wine, finishes on porcelain, and even medicine. While the likelihood of lead poisoning is very high, the deafness associated with it seldom takes the form that Beethoven exhibited. It is more likely that his generally bad health as he grew older was related to plumbism rather than his hearing loss.

Here again I see in Beethoven life the big parallel of a musician who can’t hear his music anymore with my own athleticism for clarity of thinking with the hemi paresis that has made me the prisoner of a wheelchair.

Like Beethoven I’m going to die one day as a single man, but I’ll have a wealth way superior to his, in fact he never had children, while I have my children who will bring in the future a strong memory of me, their dad who never submitted to the disabilities that the TBI caused.

http://www.lvbeethoven.com/

ALBERT EINSTEIN AND HIS VIEW ON LIFE

I put here few quotes that the most intelligent and brightest man who ever existed so far, said while still alive:

• Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.

• The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

• Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.

• I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones

These quotes are famous examples of the man who demonstrated that mass is energy and that light travels at a speed that’s related to mass and time, I’m hoping that some day based on his research, time-travel will become possible and I don’t need to ask to my readers to guess at what time (year and day) I’d want to be sent back to, because it would be too easy to say.

Since plenty text-books say that a TBI victim loses the ability to do math – and therefore manage money – nobody can explain why I’m still so very good at doing math (algebra and analysis of functions) and I can even save part of my income, regardless of the fact that my very normal ex-wife continues to receive support from me on a monthly basis after having managed to toss in the toilet (figuratively) about half a million $$$ of savings shortly after she was given the financial OA on me by my first neuropsychologist, who did cost me more than double (triple) that amount because he gave authorization to people in my family, here and overseas to manage my money, no matter what I say.

One more time this shows that the functionality of the human brain is still completely unknown which is why we need soon an Einstein for the human brain who can explain in a clear way how it functions and what to do when injured.


http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albert_einstein.html

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

The other love/passion of my life is the pianist Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations by Bach, it was Gould’s very first recording - still today a best seller – that made him famous worldwide for his way of playing and interpreting this piece, what I find amazing is that this piece is what began his career and was also the last piece he recorded before his premature death in 1982 at age of 50, just like the aria in the variations that is at the very beginning and then it returns the same at the end of the 30+ variations.

Plenty famous piano composers plaid them as they were practicing and also wrote about them and their important impact on piano composition, even Beethoven used them to practice and wrote in a letter about the importance to know them well.

Little is known about Johann Sebastian Bach's early youth. One thing we do know is that he started on keyboards before he went to school, working at the organ under the supervision of his second cousin Johann Christoph. It marked the beginning of a life-long devotion to the keyboard for Johann Sebastian.

There are several events that chronicle Bach's relationship to the family of keyboard instruments. After his parents died, the ten-year-old went to live with his older brother, a church organist in the small German town of Ohrdruf. There, as a teen-ager, Johann Sebastian observed the construction of a new organ at his brother's church with great interest. Johann Sebastian would be renowned during his lifetime not as a composer, but as an expert on organs and keyboard playing in general.

In 1700, Bach went to Lüneburg, a larger city southwest of Hamburg, as a student. There, he heard and got to know one of the leading organists of the previous generation, Georg Böhm. Bach also went to Hamburg to hear another leading keyboardist, Johann Adam Reincken; Bach owned manuscript copies of Reincken's variations and arranged pieces from Reincken's Hortus musicus, a chamber work, for keyboard. In 1705, Bach made the 230-mile trip from the southwest German town of Arnstadt, where he was employed as organist at the Neue Kirche, to Lübeck, a port city on the Baltic Sea, to hear another renowned player of an earlier generation, Dietrich Buxtehude. This interest in the music of his baroque predecessors served the young Bach well, as he set out on a compositional career that marked the pinnacle of the baroque era and would have a profound influence on generations of composers to come.

The Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen comes from the last decade of Bach's life. It was the fourth and final part of Bach's Clavier-Übung, a series of works for various instruments that are both some of the finest examples of his keyboard writing and outstanding didactic works. Clavier-Übung I (Leipzig, 1731) consisted of Bach's six French Suites; part II (Leipzig, 1735) brought together his Concerto nach italiänischem Gusto and his Overtüre nach französischer Art (the Italian Concerto and French Overture, both of which still turn up with some frequency on the music stands of keyboard students today); and part III (Leipzig, 1739) offered a German organ mass, with an opening Kyrie followed by a series of preludes and fugues on the most famous chorales of the Lutheran service, all framed by the majestic "St. Anne" Prelude and Fugue.

Bach composed his Variations in 1741 for a pupil, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (which explains the work's common title). Goldberg was in the service of Count Hermann Carl von Kaiserling, a diplomat Bach probably met during a visit to Dresden in 1733. (He had been to Dresden once before, for a keyboard contest with the French virtuoso Louis Marchand, who left secretly by carriage under cover of darkness the night before, fearing Bach would trounce him.) During the time leading up to the Goldberg Variations, Kaiserling was frequently resident in Leipzig and Goldberg with him.

According to Johann Nikolaus Forkel's biography of Bach, published in 1802, "The Count was often sickly, and then had sleepless nights. At these times Goldberg, who lived in the house with him, had to pass the night in an adjoining room to play something when the Count could not sleep. The Count once said to Bach that he should like to have some clavier pieces for his Goldberg, which should be of such a soft and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights. Bach thought he could best fulfill this wish by variations, the composition of which, on account of the constant sameness of the fundamental harmony, he had hitherto considered an ungrateful task. But as at this time all his works were models of art, these variations also became such under his hand. This is, indeed, the only model of the kind that he has left us. The Count thereafter called them nothing but his variations. He was never tired of hearing them, and, for a long time, when the sleepless nights came, he used to say, 'Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations.' Bach was, perhaps, never as well-rewarded for any work as for this: the Count made him a present of a golden goblet, filled with 100 Louis d'ors."

Forkel was off about Bach's experience writing variations. An Aria variata from sometime before 1710 and an Air with Variations in C minor from the Clavierbüchlein (Little Keyboard Book) he assembled in the 1720s for his wife Anna Magdalena both predate the Goldberg Variations in Bach's output, but do not offer overwhelming evidence of a fondness for the form, so on that point, Forkel was right. But the sheer variety of the Goldberg Variations could easily fool the listener into believing that Bach had been writing variations all his life, and that this set marked the culmination of his work in the genre.

Bach composed the Variations with a two-manual harpsichord in mind, but many artists choose to play them on modern pianos. The modern piano expands on the possibilities of the two-manual harpsichord, which allowed the player to differentiate between soft and loud.

The form of the Goldberg Variations seems to be governed by numbers derived from three and eight. The starting-point for the 30 variations is the opening Aria. It's 32 bars long, divided into two 16-bar halves, each of which Bach marks to be repeated. The Aria is also divided into four eight-bar sections harmonically (G major-D major-E minor-G major). A slow saraband, the Aria presents the basic thematic material, as well as the bass line, on which Bach elaborates in each of the subsequent variations.

The variations take their cue from the proportions of the Aria and are all either 16 or 32 bars in length. The variations can be grouped into ten sets of three, with the third variation in each set being a canon, the strictest form of contrapuntal imitation, where one voice imitates another at a set interval. In addition to these subdivisions, the variations are split into two halves, mirroring the structure of the Aria, with the grandiose gestures of the 16th variation, a French overture, marking the beginning of the work's figurative second half. If you count the opening Aria and its repeat at the close, the Goldberg Variations is in 32 sections, mirroring the 32 bars of the Aria itself.

(There has been speculation about Bach's interest in numerology to explain these mathematical divisions and subdivisions. At the very least, the work's careful layout reflects the rigorous nature of Bach's musicianship and compositional technique, but he may not have viewed the Variations as an "integral" work.

The title page of the Goldberg Variations is inscribed: "Composed for music lovers, to refresh their spirits, by Johann Sebastian Bach." It is a charmingly modest explanation of their purpose, for, in terms of their importance with respect to Bach's compositional output, the Variations brought together everything he'd learned in a lifetime of keyboard-playing, with echoes of his youthful experiences of Böhm, Buxtehude, and Reincken in the canons and traces of the latest Italian and French music in some of the other sections. They richly demonstrate his mastery of keyboard music both as a performer and as a composer.

Each of the variations is extraordinary in its own way. Some show the influence of dance, as with the gigue of Variation 7. Others, such as the elegant Variation 13 or the darker, more inward world of Variation 25.

With each subsequent variation driving the music toward the final Quodlibet. Here, Bach combines the melodies of two folk and "Kraut und Rüben" - developing them majestically over an elaboration of the bass line from the Aria. The work closes with a return of that initial Aria, reminding the listener of just how miraculous the stream of invention that has flowed from it over the past hour or so has been.

Glenn Gould was told that he was a reincarnation of Bach, when he was playing the Variations at the piano with such mastery and command; I too feel to have some kind of connection with Gould’s soul as I listen to his playing, I actually own every single movie on DVD ever made to portray this pianist, together with his entire recorded production of piano music from Bach he ever recorded, now available on CD.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach:_The_Goldberg_Variations_(Glenn_Gould_recording)

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Together with Dante Alighieri with his Divine Comedy, and J. S. Bach with most of his composition, like the Well Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations, Leonardo has been always one of the figures I compare myself to in life, studies and behaviors.

The picture here is of his Vitruvian Man is perhaps Leonardo da Vinci's most famous illustration. In this work, Leonardo used both image and text to express the ideas and theories of Vitruvius, a first century Roman architect and author of 'De Architectura libri X'. The Vitruvian ideas, presented by Leonardo, formed the basis of Renaissance proportion theories in art and architecture.

In his treatise, Vitruvius discussed proper symmetry and proportion as related to the building of temples, much like the ancient Greeks did with the Parthenon. The architect believed that the proportions and measurements of the human body, which was divinely created, were perfect and correct. He therefore proposed that a properly constructed temple should reflect and relate to the parts of the human body. He noted that a human body can be symmetrically inscribed within both a circle and a square; this idea influenced his architectural practice.

Various artists and architects had illustrated Vitruvius' theory prior to Leonardo, but da Vinci's drawing differs from the previous works in that the male figure adopts two different positions within the same image. He is simultaneously within the circle and the square; movement and liveliness are suggested by the figure's active arms and legs. Leonardo's figure appears as a living being with unruly hair, distinct facial features and a strong build. While the subject is lively, thin lines on his form show the significant points of the proportion scheme. These lines indicate da Vinci's concern with the architectural meaning of the work. Leonardo is representing the body as a building and illustrating Renaissance theory which linked the proportions of the human body with architectural planning.

The Vitruvian Man is Leonardo da Vinci's own reflection on human proportion and architecture, made clear through words and image. The purpose of the illustration is to bring together ideas about art, architecture, human anatomy and symmetry in one distinct image. By combining text and illustration, da Vinci evokes a meaning which could not be created through words or image alone.

When I was in my young years at school I studied and loved pretty much all that Leonardo did and represented, only in later years I realized the influence that he had on the renaissance and the arts with culture of that time, that are the foundations of the way we think and appreciate arts and culture today.

Even if Da Vinci thinking is reflected in our current culture I still believe it’s important to learn about this man who was an artist and scientist, so I can’t wait to teach about this to my treasures soon, when the perfection of nature was evident already hundreds of years ago, it’s clear that it isn’t something that happened by case, a superior intelligence must have modeled the whole universe at the beginning of time and we humans have ust been discovering and understanding better this plan that we surely never made ourselves.

http://thealchemicalegg.com/VitruviusN.html

THE WELL TEMPERED CLAVIER

Many consider the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier Bach's finest keyboard collection. He completed the first volume in Cöthen in 1722 and the second around 16 years later in Leipzig. Both books consist of 24 preludes and fugues going through all the keys, a total of 48 pieces in each volume, though some recordings give 24 tracks, one for each key covered. Book 1 opens with a prelude and fugue in the following sequence: C major, C minor, C sharp major, C sharp minor, D major, D minor, etc.

The First Book is more focused in its greater stylistic unity than its successor. Most of the preludes deal with a specific technical feature, while the fugues are more varied in style and form and often seem to express a whole world of developmental possibilities for the music. The First Book's opening prelude is soothing and serene in its scalar writing, its manner of thematic flow seeming to augur the more intimate character of the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, written three-quarters of a century later. The succeeding fugue is also somewhat subdued in its more animated pacing and deft contrapuntal activity. The prelude and fugue that follow are livelier, the latter quite playful and charming.
But there are such vast riches in this monumental set; too many even for lengthy analysis. The E major Fugue, for example, has a delightful carefree manner in its colorful sixteenth note passages and its consistently inventive keyboard writing. The Prelude in F sharp minor has a subtlety that may not be grasped upon first or second hearing. There are sinister elements here, as well as a sense of yearning and frustration. The four-voice G minor Fugue has a muscular and heroic character; Bach's contrapuntal writing again divulging his utter mastery. The gentle G sharp minor Prelude is a beautiful piece, mixing sunshine and sadness. The A major Fugue has a jaunty, exhilaration about its lively music, its first part comprised of eighth notes, the latter of sixteenth notes. The B flat major Fugue has a sense of joy and humor in its lively manner, yet manages to achieve an expressive depth one would not normally associate with that kind of description.

Analysis of Bach's music here often runs into controversial areas, with a few musicians tailoring their interpretation according to religious symbolism they believe to be present in the score. For example, a passage in the F minor Fugue has been interpreted as representing Christ's crucifixion, owing to its descending chromatic manner and other features. In the end, this view, as well as the idea that certain numbers (representing tones or other compositional elements) symbolize other religious events, must be assessed as highly dubious speculation. The music though, regardless of how one hears it, is masterful from the first prelude to the last fugue.
This is what I listen to while I'm on therapy in hope that my brain can be happy and heal itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMkl8TD0NUg&feature=pyv&ad=7690459752&kw=js%20bach

PRISONER OF MY OWN BODY

The brain injury (TBI) I had made the left side of my body out of the control for movements from my brain, it’s called hem paresis and what no doctor nor neurologist can explain why I have all the feelings at skin level, just like the other side, but I cannot move voluntarily the arm, leg and hand on that side.

The other thing that nobody – no matter what education or experience – can explain is why I can still reason and make logical thought just like before I injured the brain, I certainly had an initial period of confusion and short memory problems but now I’m exactly like my title here, my brain is like it used to be, but my body is out of my control, so in a way I’m prisoner of my own body.

Many people who love me tell me that I could have a normal and productive life again, I actually remember many years ago – before the TBI – going out to dinner with an important corporate attorney who has been sitting on a wheelchair for many decades already, when I told about this meeting to others, I never even mentioned of the man’s disabled condition, I just spoke about his expertise and importance for the company he works at, like the wheelchair didn’t even register in my thoughts and the admiration for the man whom I described as completely normal was more important, the wheelchair was just a secondary detail not worth to be part of my report of that meeting.

My reasoning for feeling mortally disabled is complex and I’m going to bullet point the reason, in no particular order of importance:

These are the reasons that make me, my thinking and international expertise like a prisoner of my body, because my inability to walk independently makes everything very difficult, painful and uncomfortable.
• I can’t represent at executive level a footwear company if I can never wear and use the product; in my opinion this eliminates any credibility when I talk about the company or the brand and what they stand for.

• Given that to travel any distance for me is almost impossible, I could never both meet an important customer at his site nor participate to off-site company meetings.

• For someone on a wheelchair three steps is an architectural barrier very difficult to overcome without help, and I don’t know of any company building designed for people on wheelchairs.


It’s actually the very reason why I was abandoned (and replaced) by my life companion and mother of my treasures, who can’t put together the memories of me, her husband with the reality of her disabled divorced man, so she turned the page.

To me the fact that we went to walk on the moon but still have no idea of what to do to repair parts (lobes) of the brain is unacceptable and I’m looking for the Kennedy who’ll say that “in the next 10 years we’ll go there and return safely”, or learn how to repair the organ called brain.