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Classic Pianist http://www.classicpianist.com Where all classic pianists are friends Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:03:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 en International Piano Competition http://www.classicpianist.com/events/international-piano-competition/ http://www.classicpianist.com/events/international-piano-competition/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:03:43 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/events/international-piano-competition/ We talked about it a couple of months ago, now it has happened, the International Piano Competition in Italy.

Here are the winners, or at least a few of them:

Georgy Gromov won the first prize of the age-limit-less Maria Golia prize.

Uliana Trofimova won the first absolute prize in the age category till 12 years

Elisa Pedone and Riccardo Marra won the first prize in the category till 16 years

Nadezda Gerasimova won the first absolute prize in the category till 20 years

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/events/international-piano-competition/feed/ Equal Temperament explanation http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/equal-temperament-explanation/ http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/equal-temperament-explanation/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:47:09 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/uncategorized/equal-temperament-explanation/

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/equal-temperament-explanation/feed/ Buy better and cheaper pianos http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/buy-better-and-cheaper-pianos/ http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/buy-better-and-cheaper-pianos/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:41:28 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/buy-better-and-cheaper-pianos/ Trick nr. 1:

In Japan you can buy a second hand Yamaha or Kawai at a better price. Buy 100 used Yamahas and Kawais, repair them all and sell them all in Europe or in the States.
If you can’t afford to buy 100 pianos (don’t forget the transport costs) you should find a dealer that uses this trick. His pianos should be quite cheaper and still good quality.

Trick nr.2 :

Buy a new Chinese piano. They are really cheap. But they are also really hmmm, let’s say “not good”.
Adjust the weight of each key and revoice the hammers, and you get a much better piano for a much better price.

How to find them?

Yeah, in the end these are tricks you probably can’t solve on your own. If you’re looking for trick number one, I can help you finding that shop in Belgium.

If you’re looking for trick number 2, I could help you if you’re living in Washington.

So probably the best solution is

Trick Nr. 3:

Go to your favourite piano shop. Look and try the pianos, chose the one you prefer.
- You should be able to get it from 10 to 20% cheaper than the first price you hear or read.
- Try negotiating for a better price.
- Once you got the cheapest price, go to another piano shop and try again, now you should stand stronger in the discussion because you already had a cheap offer from the other shop.
- If the second shop gets cheaper than the first one, don’t buy immediately! It just means that you could get the piano from the first shop even cheaper.
- After you visited a few shops and got a few possibilities, go back to the first shop and tell them that you got better offers in the other shops He’ll probably bring down his price just to match it, but it will still be your favourite shop, and probably the closest to you.  Always consider transport costs in your calculations!

Good luck and tell me how it went!

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/buy-better-and-cheaper-pianos/feed/ From Youtube to your MP3 player http://www.classicpianist.com/mp3/from-youtube-to-your-mp3-player/ http://www.classicpianist.com/mp3/from-youtube-to-your-mp3-player/#comments Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:10:04 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/mp3/from-youtube-to-your-mp3-player/ As internet savvy classic pianist there is no doubt that Youtube is a place where you love to dig for interpretations of your favourite piano piece.

Now it’s true that the quality of recordings isn’t exactly HiFi, but let’s say that you love Arrau’s Waldstein and you want to download the tune to your iPod. Probably you knew it already, but maybe not, so here’s how to get it done:

 1. Ingredients:

- The URL of the Youtube video you want to convert. In this case, it’s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztIT9RLuhD4 (you might need to delete other stuff after the watch?v=blablablabla part)

- A website that allows you to convert Youtube videsos to MP3 online. The best thing to do is to use your favourite search engine (nah, google?) and search for youtube to mp3, but while you’re here I can tell you that right now, the first answer is vidtomp3.com.

2. Step by step

Go to the site you found and scroll down till you find a box like this:

vid-to-mp3.JPG

Paste your URL in there, and click download. After a while a link should appear (evt. right click on it to download the MP3 to your computer.

I gave you a generic example with concrete examples, so that you can do it again when vidtomp3.com will be dead (yeah these sites tend to die), or maybe when Youtube will die.

Just a last bonus. Maybe you’re Ipod has video, then you want to download the MP4 (which is the video format) instead of the MP3. The site I know for this is www.keepvid.com

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/mp3/from-youtube-to-your-mp3-player/feed/ Better than Lang Lang http://www.classicpianist.com/pianists/better-than-lang-lang/ http://www.classicpianist.com/pianists/better-than-lang-lang/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:36:32 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/pianists/better-than-lang-lang/ When it comes to make weird faces while playing the piano you would swear Lang Lang is the bravest. Well, watch this and then we’ll talk again OK?

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/pianists/better-than-lang-lang/feed/ “Worth its weight in Gould” http://www.classicpianist.com/pianists/worth-its-weight-in-gould/ http://www.classicpianist.com/pianists/worth-its-weight-in-gould/#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:47:57 +0000 TheBlackPage http://www.classicpianist.com/pianists/worth-its-weight-in-gould/ Well, Sony Classical have just released an 80-cd boxed set of all the studio recordings made by pianist Glenn Gould. The man that revolutionized the playing of Bach, and made it accessible to a whole new audience. The man who thought Mozart didn’t die soon enough, the man that accused the Beatles of “Bad voice leading”, and the man who believed most of the music that preceeded the baroque era belonged to a less serious and less spiritual period in art. “Hmm”, I hear you  say.When I heard Gould’s recording of the Goldberg Variations about 6 months ago, it completely changed the way I had been looking at, and listening to JS Bach. I used to think it was “stuffy” and “boring with a capital B” etc. Well, that was purely ignorance on my part, and I’m ashamed to have even thought that way. Now I’m listening to pretty much every CD I can get of Bach’s works. So, this kind of musical enlightenment i’ve experienced makes me believe in the power of interpretation in art. Someone with Gould’s boundless enthusiasm just rubbed off on me I guess . He also made me appreciate more modern works of composers like Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. One recording in particular is  Schoenberg’s “Drei Klavierstucke” (op. 11), which is now one of my favorite piano pieces.So, in short, I would strongly urge anyone with a passion for music to look up Gould (if you haven’t already of course, but he might not be your taste…). He has completely revolutionized the way I think about music and has inspired me very much as a composer, and a pianist.

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/pianists/worth-its-weight-in-gould/feed/ Classic music sucks! http://www.classicpianist.com/piano-philosophy/classic-music-sucks/ http://www.classicpianist.com/piano-philosophy/classic-music-sucks/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:48:26 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/piano-philosophy/classic-music-sucks/ Can you believe it? Some smart shop managers have been thinking of a sound that could keep young people out of their shop.  They hesitated between some annoying mosquito sound (which is only heard by people with good ears, read: youth) and, even more annoying : classic music.

Finally they opted for the classic music.  And it seems to work : they claim the youth is “not gathering anymore in front of the shop”.

omfg :|

“They were not causing any trouble, but you then get bikes outside….”

Ooooh, bikes!

But alright, apart from the fact that shop managers can’t have youth gathering outside their shops because they suck (ah no, sorry, they are intimidating), note also the fact that it works, and thus, the youth thinks that the classic music sucks (ah no sorry, it’s annoying).

Yes, there’s definitely something that sucks, but it’s not the youth, and it’s not the classic music.

I recommend the complete article, and comment if we should or should not take action!

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/piano-philosophy/classic-music-sucks/feed/ Ban on opera, ballet, and circus has been lifted in Turkmenistan http://www.classicpianist.com/events/ban-on-opera-ballet-and-circus-has-been-lifted-in-turkmenistan/ http://www.classicpianist.com/events/ban-on-opera-ballet-and-circus-has-been-lifted-in-turkmenistan/#comments Sun, 27 Jan 2008 08:55:08 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/events/ban-on-opera-ballet-and-circus-has-been-lifted-in-turkmenistan/ In April 2001, less than 10 years after his country became independent, the former Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov declared that opera and ballet were “alien” art forms that had no message for Turkmenistan’s people. Opera was filled with “unnatural feelings and indiscreet dances” and had “exhausted its creative life,” he said.

And so opera and ballet performances — and eventually the circus and cinemas — were closed down, replaced by works based on Turkmen lore and television programs glorifying various parts of Niyazov’s life.

Niyazov’s death in December 2006 and Berdymukhammedov’s unexpected ascension to the country’s top post afterwards raised hopes that change was coming.

This ban has now been lifted.

Where is Turkmenistan exactly?
Complete original article

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/events/ban-on-opera-ballet-and-circus-has-been-lifted-in-turkmenistan/feed/ Composer Talivaldis Kenins died on 20 January 2008 http://www.classicpianist.com/composers/composer-talivaldis-kenins-died-on-20-january-2008/ http://www.classicpianist.com/composers/composer-talivaldis-kenins-died-on-20-january-2008/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:01:21 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/composers/composer-talivaldis-kenins-died-on-20-january-2008/ Aged 88 years, the Latvian born classical composer Talivaldis Kenins is dead last Sunday.

Kenins was known for exemplar works including the Second Sonata for piano and violin, quartet No.2, and Sonata No. 3 for piano.

Kenins’ many compositions included a large number of pieces of chamber music as well as eight symphonies, 12 concertos, three cantatas, an oratorio as well as a number of pieces of choral works.

]]> http://www.classicpianist.com/composers/composer-talivaldis-kenins-died-on-20-january-2008/feed/ A new grand piano for $400 http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/a-new-grand-piano-for-400/ http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/a-new-grand-piano-for-400/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 1969 21:59:59 +0000 tiroirdelmare http://www.classicpianist.com/pianos/a-new-grand-piano-for-400/ Incredible isn’ t. There this grand piano is worth $400 on Ebay.

Isn’t it beautiful?

There are a few minus points however.

  • width : 250mm
  • one key :4mm
  • mechanism : digital with built in speaker

If you are still hesitating just watch the video below, it will brush away any doubt you might have.

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