Classical music you love and would like someone to skate to...

[Nadine]

Love Diane Schuur, and she's great live, have you seen her?

Hey, send me a PM or post in Le Cafe, I'd be interested in hearing about your Peace Corps experiences, and I'm sure others would, too!

It was the best experience in my life, though I had to cut it short because my beloved dad died, so I wasn't able to serve out a full 2 years service. Lol, I recall I had not only my family but friends send me skating tapes so that when I went to Peace Corps Headquarters once a month I could watch them & pick up my mail. Ah, those were the days...

Sorry for straying off topic folks, mea culpa.

Back to skating, I've included a montage of photos from Oksana Baiul's Fan Club (sorry so blurry, my scanner is acting up). I actually had a great time, she would talk to us, and she was so generous & kind. The dress she is wearing in the pics is the one she wore around 2000 ~ the program was to Sting's "Desert Rose" (a masterpiece/painting on ice), which I saw in person (lol, I recall I first thought Oksana was Sasha Cohen when I spotted her before the exhibition). I still have a ton of stuff from the fan club (doll, personally autographed items, etc. etc. etc.). She actually was just up here right before Christmas!

Click here: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...6/Oksana-1.jpg


EDITED TO ADD: sorry, forgot to answer your question, no, unfortunately I have never seen Diane Schuur live, which must be fantastic!!!!

[Eurofan]

I'd like to see someone skate to selections from Boccherini's Quintet for Guitar & Strings No. 4 in D Major "Fandango."

[enzet]

Beethoven:

Symphonies:
no.6 "Pastoral" especially 2nd and 5th movement
no.4
no.7
no.9 3rd movement

violin sonatas:
no.9 "Kreutzer"
no.5 "Spring"

Chopin:
piano concertos
Ballade no.1

Schubert:
Fantasy in F minor
Impromptu op.90 no.3

Wagner:
Tannhäuser Overture (not sure if this is skateable though)

Debussy:
Valse Romantique

Saint-Saëns
Piano Concerto no. 2

Just some of so many I'd like to see used (more).

[Medusa]

Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburgische Konzerte Nr.2 - 1st and 3rd movement (Kozuka, Chan, Oda, Ponsero, Verner)

Brandenburgische Konzerte Nr.1 in F-Dur - 1st movement (Chan, Amodio) - this version is really fast, I prefer it a bit slower...

Air from Suite No.3 in D-major (Weir, Kozuka, Rippon)

Aleksandr Konstantinovich Glazunov
Grand Adagio from Raymonda (Rippon, Steenberg, Lutai)

Violin Concerto in A-minor (Ponsero, Abbott, Brezina, Takahashi)

Petit Adagio from "The Seasons" (Rippon, Amodio, Weir)

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Lieder ohne Worte, Opus 53 Nr.3 - go to 6:00 to listen to the piece (Chan, Kozuka)

Hebriden Overture (Takahashi, Abbott, Verner, Brezina)

Pablo de Sarasate
Zapateado Op.23 (Fernandez, Lysacek?, Amodio)

Enrique Granados
Danza Espanola No.5 "Andaluza" (Abbott, Chan, Ponsero)

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka
Overture "Ruslan and Ludmilla" - Yagudin skated to it back when he was barely out of juniors, so that doesn't count (Lysacek, Joubert, Takahashi, Borodulin)

The Lark, arranged for piano by Balakirev (Rippon, Weir, Steenberg)

Nocturne in E flat major (Kozuka, Weir)

Hector Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique, quatrième mouvement (Joubert, Borodulin, Lutai, Brezina)

La Damnation de Faust "Rakoczi March" (Lysacek, Joubert, Takahashi, Verner)

[Mathman]

On another thread Spun Silver mentioned Arvo Part.

I would like to see a skater dare Spiegel im Spiegel (cello version.)

This music for unaccompanied piano and cello (or violin) consist entirely of whole notes. It was featured in the movie Wit (as in, "brevity is the soul of," not Katarina. )

[cleopatra20042004]

Wagner... I think the interpretation of this outstanding composer is really complex, especially the most "extreme" work, like Die Walkure or Tristan, and it requires a lot of maturity and depth. Wagner's music was born tightly connected to poetry and drama, like soul and body, it's a magic union that can only live in everyone's psyche. The movements of a skater are too little for it, in my opinion.

I feel the same way about Wagner. It's too big, to grandiose for one skate. Two maybe. I would prefer a pairs team, over ice dance, to tackle his work, but I just dont see a team right now that could carry something that huge. Oh well, I'll just daydream about it.

[Spun Silver]

On another thread Spun Silver mentioned Arvo Part.

I would like to see a skater dare Spiegel im Spiegel (cello version.)

This music for unaccompanied piano and cello (or violin) consist entirely of whole notes. It was featured in the movie Wit (as in, "brevity is the soul of," not Katarina. )

I just listened to it on Youtube. Very beautiful and meditative. I can't see a whole skate using it, but maybe if it were combined with something fast and dramatic, like Ride of the Valkyries...

[Hsuhs]

I've chosen only well-known pieces everybody's familiar with.

Nobunari Oda: Verdi, La Traviata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDhHxIz83Ic

Samuel Contesti: Oginski, Polonaise, Farewell to the HomeLand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCncJFaXsDk

Tomas Verner: Brahms, Hungarian Dance No. 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X9LvC9WkkQ

Daisuke Takahashi: Beethoven, Fur Elise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o5baA0Z9g4

Jeremy Abbott: Edvard Grieg, Solveig's Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TWckPbKWsE

Takahiko Kozuka: Chopin, Nocturne No.20 in C sharp minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGPPDV8wBOQ

Brian Joubert: Beethoven, Symphony No.5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c4x0yuKpeY

[gio]

Some pieces that I love and I find great for skating programs.

Bach = "Suite for Orchestra #3 in D Major Air on the G String", "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor",

Pachelbel = "Canon in D"

Schubert = "Serenade"

Albinoni = "Adagio in G Minor"

Vivaldi = "Spring"

Boccherini = "Minuet"

Mozart = "Sonata in A Rondo Alla Turca", "The Marriage of Figaro", "Eine Kleine Nachtmusic - Movement I"

Beethoven = "Symphony #5 in C Minor", "Symphony #9 in D Minor", "Fur Elise",

Handel = "Watermusic", "Sarabande"

Rossini = "The Barber of Seville", "William Tell Overture"

Dvorak = "New World Symphony - 4th Movement"

Grieg = "Piano Concerto in A Minor"

Borodin = "Polovetsian Dances"

Khachaturian = "Sabre dance", "Walt Masquerade"

"Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra" from Ladies in Lavender movie


P.S. I love Barocco!!

[anya_angie]

Mozart's Requiem
Tchaikovsky's Pathetique (Symphony 6)
Tchaikovsky's 5th
Liszt's Piano Concerto #1
Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F
Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, 1st Movement
Beethoven's Pastoral
Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp (I actually have a program in mind for that, the male skater portrays the life of a star from white dwarf to supergiant and finally *combination spin* black hole)
Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto
Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor (#20), preferably performed by Szpilman, simply gorgeous

That's about all the classical works I can think of for now.

[skatingbc]

Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor (#20), preferably performed by Szpilman, simply gorgeous

That's about all the classical works I can think of for now.

Cynthia Phaneuf skated to a violin version of Chopin's Nocturne for her short program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uukYGYj7PQY

[anya_angie]

Joshua Bell, yes I have that CD!

[Tinymavy15]

Some choplin pieces are just so beautiful.

Nocturne in C minor
Prelude in E minor
Nocturne in C sharp minor

[layman]

Sale and Pelletier skated a wonderful interpretation of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde to win the 2001 World Championships. I believe Jeff Buttle used this music too...but Wagner's Parsifal, Ride of Valkyries, Rienzi and Tannhauser have never been used. These pieces would make beautiful skating music.

Skaters seem to fear Brahms and Mahler (or rather their choreographers do) but these composers have a canon of melodious music that would be ideal for skating.

When it comes to piano music, skaters should look beyond Chopin.

John Fields has some beautiful Nocturnes, Schubert has beautiful Intermezzi and sonatas, Liszt has the Annees de Pelerinage, Beethoven has a large body of piano sonatas, Schumann has the beautiful Kinderszenen, the Papillons, Carnaval, Kreisleriana, and Symphonique Etudes, Debussy has beautiful Preludes, Etudes and other piano works in addition to the overused "Clair de Lune."

Rachmaninov's First and Fourth Piano Concerti are rarely, if ever used, in contrast to the grossly overused 2nd and 3rd Piano Concerti.

Moreover, the piano concerti of Saint-Saens, Mozart, Dvorak, Beethoven, Schumann and Liszt are rarely, if ever used.

Weber wrote some gorgeous music for his operas Oberon and Euryanthe that's never been used by skaters. Moreover, I would like to see more skaters use the music of Rossini, Verdi, Meyerbeer and Mozart (rather than the overused Puccini).

Furthermore, when was the last time a skater used a Waldteufel waltz? He actually wrote waltzes specifically for ice skaters, such as the well known (but hardly skated to) waltz called "Les Patineurs" (the Skater's Waltz).

There is such a wealth, such a vast amount of underused and never used classical music out there if skaters and their choreographers would just stay away from Carmen, Tosca, Tchaikovsky, Madame Butterfly, Turandot, Maksim Mvrica, Memories of a Geisha, Scheharazade, Giselle, Moonriver, Concierto de Aranjuez and the other used-to-death warhorses.

[anya_angie]

You know layman I think Rimsky-Korsakov's music is extraordinary and really all skaters use are Scheherezade and Capricio Espagnol, but I love his Piano Concerto and would love to see a lady or pair/dance team use that.