Pianist Extraordiaire
From playing all four parts of Ravel’s Bolero to taking on the music of Art Tatum, an extraordinary performance.
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we close today with llewellyn sanchez warner llewellyn is a piano prodigy extraordinaire california native he began work on his first college degree at age five and at six began performing regularly with orchestras at juilliard he was the youngest admittee to the bachelor's degree at age 14 and master's degree program at 18. music where he received the charles s miller prize at the completion of his first year in their prestigious artist diploma program he's played at the white house the kennedy center and many many more distinguished venues please welcome llewellyn sanchez warner the bolero or the flamenco styled bolera is a genre of latin ballroom music and dance with origins in spain cuba mexico
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and elsewhere in the americas maurice revell whose basque mother had a meaningful influence on his musical sensibilities wrote the most famous bolero one of his most successful works for orchestra now with such vivid orchestrational color to transcribe we'll need more than one piano how about four of course in confinement i can't be in the same hall with three other pianists so i thought i would play all four pianos myself here is ravels bolero you [Music]
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so [Music]
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do so
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do
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so [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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[Applause] so [Music] so [Music]
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foreign one [Music] boys
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so i would like to play for you vidbo a love song by robert schumann written for his wife clara the year they were at last to be married and transcribed for piano by franz liszt now behind me is a painting by joseph danhauser titled franz liszt fantasizing at the piano and indeed he is fantasizing improvising while gazing upon a bust of beethoven and they are surrounded by remarkable people writers victor hugo alexander dumas or
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sonde composers berlioz rossini paganini and all of these people or romantic staples who looked to beethoven and his legacy for [Music] inspiration [Music]
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[Music] [Music]
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do [Music]
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surely you know art tatum as one of the great jazz pianists and virtuosi he was completely blind in one eye and nearly blind in the other but as incredible as his pianistic career seems in knowing that fact anyone hearing him play would consider him a legendary artist even if they didn't know about his blindness he had an incredible encyclopedic memory and as a baseball fan myself i
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enjoyed discovering that his remarkable memory even applied to a formidable mental database of baseball statistics now there's a story that vladimir horowitz having heard about the great tatum went to a nightclub one night to catch his performance it is said that after hearing tatum horowitz turned to a friend and said quote if he took up classical music seriously i quit my job the next day unquote here is a transcription of art tatum improvising in 1949 on irving berlin's classic melody blue skies do
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[Music] do do [Music]
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do [Music]
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carlos chavez's influence on mexico's modern musical culture and education is mammoth his founding of the national symphony orchestra is the tip of the iceberg but jabez was also a trailblazer in his compositional style bringing mexican and aztec folk music to life just as would happen when appreciating the murals and paintings of diego rivera and frida gallo anyone
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around the world hearing a chiva's composition becomes immersed in the complexity and richness of mexican culture what better ambassador can a nation have i have performed his magnificent and titanic piano concerto but he is an eclectic composer and i'd like to play for you now a very short work of an entirely different style oha de albu here is a picture of javez at far left with close friends arthur rubinstein igor stravinsky and aaron copeland [Music]
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[Applause] [Music]
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since i'm in new york right now one block away from lincoln center how could i not play for you a piece by an artist who called both of those places home leonard bernstein he also personifies the spirit of globalism he introduced an entire generation of children to the joys of classical music with engaging warmth in his 53 young people's concerts and he performed beethoven's ninth symphony with its theme of universal brotherhood and love in both west and east berlin shortly before the berlin wall fell to end the program by special request and because it is such fun mambo from west side story refers to the cuban mexican swinging dance music of the late 1930s and i hope that it
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leaves you dancing and in festive spirits even while sheltering in your homes [Music] mama [Music] number one
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[Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] [Music]
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you
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