Hello guys.
Another episode, welcome [to] TwoSet Violin.
*chuckles*
I said that so many times.
Yeah.
Today's video is called...
- I think I added a few words in that title. - Yeah, but that's...
That's the gist of it.
Recently we made a video called
"10 most overplayed pieces of classical music
that everyone hears over and over again".
- Mm-hmm. - And people were like, "You guys should do...
...10 most underrated."
But the thing is, it's very hard...
...to pick the 10 most underrated, because...
- ...so much classical music is underrated, and there's so many. - Yeah.
Alright. First one, is...
- Yeah, this guy had a hard life. - Yeah.
He wrote nine symphonies,
died from a heart attack.
Did he?
But this is one of the first symphonies that I played.
With the Queensland Youth Orchestra.
- Yeah. Mine was Mahler 1. - First introduction.
- Mahler 1? - Yeah.
This is just great music.
Yeah, I think Mahler's one of those...
...composers that you definitely get introduced to
once you start playing in orchestra.
Yeah, I think Mahler's...
...probably you could say the uh...
Pinnacle of..
- ...roman—I want to say like a late romantic style. - Oh no—
- I don't—please, guys...! - Critiques are coming!
- *laughs* - Ohh!!!
"It's technically post...Austro...frickin'..."
- I don't know. I don't wanna score— - I don't want to say anything now.
*chuckles*
But it's like, it's late/post-romantic.
So it's very rich.
- The orchestra's getting big and bigger at that point, - Mmm.
so you know, back in Mozart's time might have been like...
50...? I don't wanna say it...!
- 60...? - I'm not saying it!
And now, by Mahler's time it's like,
you're getting orchestras up to 110, like full size symphonies.
- And more instrumentation. - Yeah.
He's known for being able to create...
...amazing colours with orchestra.
And also known...
...for his ridiculously long lengths of his symphonies.
- Oh, yeah. - Which is why it might be a bit intimidating to get straight into.
But, I think Mahler 5 is probably one of the more
accessible and fun ones,
because it's just so epic, it's really epic.
- Yeah. - Mahler's...
...philosophy...
Feel like I'm getting very nerdy.
My nerdy Eddy's coming out.
So he sat down with Sibelius,
and apparently Sibelius was like,
"Symphony's about...form,
and my approach is about developing one idea."
But Mahler was apparently—
was quoted to say something along the lines of,
"I think the symphony is the universe, and it should be all encompassing."
Whoa!
Dude...!
- Way beyond his time. - Yeah.
If you want to hear what the universe sounds like,
- Mahler's your man. - Mm-hmm.
(Both) Number 2!
- Yeah! - Yes.
The Mass in B minor is like this epic,
sacred religious choral composition,
- it goes for almost two hours, and... - Mm-hmm.
It was actually composed...
...the year before Bach died.
He was blind by this point—
- Bach is blind. - Mm-hmm.
Scholars and musicians regard it as one of the supreme
achievements of classical music.
I mean, just picture Bach, one of the greatest...
...composers, and this was one of the last pi—
epic pieces he wrote.
So he like, really put all his years of wisdom, into this piece.
Whoa...
- All the love... - And it has a frickin' choral choir.
- It has like instruments, it's two hours long. - It's like Bach unleashed.
So yeah, if you're sick of just hearing the Bach cello suite,
and you wanna...
Gonna...invest—
not investigate—
You want to explore more, check out the Mass in B minor.
It's "mass-ive".
*chuckles*
Next one!
That's fine. Self-explanatory.
Brahms Violin Concerto.
You have to learn it one day as a violinist,
- or at least try and play or hear it, - Mm-hmm.
because it's one of those monumental pieces...
...in violin playing, actually. - Mm-hmm.
Brahms is like the evolution of Beethoven.
Mm-hmm.
When he composes a symphony or something...
...he feels like Beethoven is always overlooking it.
- Really? - A shadow, yeah.
Wow.
So he has got that pressure of Beethoven living on.
But anyway—
- He's—I mean, he's German, I think. - Yeah.
And so, he kind of continued that German lineage.
Actually the symphonies, it went from like...
...Beethoven, to Brahms.
I want to say Bruckner, and then Mahler, that's kind of like...
- ...the one branch of classical, like the heavy German thick. - Oh yeah, yeah.
And the other one is kind of like Mozart...
(both) Schubert, Mendelssohn...
- They kinda have their own stream. - And Debussy, like it kinda goes that way, so...
Brahms was like, that kind of very...
...emotional,
profound...
- ...substantial, heavy thickness. - Yeah.
Next!
Next one!
- I think when people think Ravel, they always think Bolero. - Yeah.
Which is so sad, because it's like...
*sigh*
Uh...yes, so it's Ravel La Valse, people think Tzigane,
but actually, I think...
One of Ravel's biggest gifts...to classical music,
is his orchestration, and his harmonic language.
He was able to make sounds and colours come out
- from the orchestra, that was like, unheard of, at that time. - Yeah, never done.
Yeah.
And I think a piece that really well illustrates that is La Valse.
It's like fantasy. It's like fantasy...
- When rainbows' like, injected...into, yeah. - There's so much colours.
Into like...
A jar.
- In a cup, and then you drink it. - Bottle.
Yeah, and you just feel like...
You feel really unraveled. *chuckle*
I think he's one of the composers [that] also experienced
- a lot of different techniques as well. - Mm-hmm.
I'm just pulling reference from Tzigane.
- It's so not...normal in his time, you know. - Left hand pizz...yeah.
And he really played around a lot of more sound effects.
Yeah.
And he uses that, like the...
...harmonics, with...
- ...the false harmonics with playing in-between. - Yeah.
That's...not done often.
Yeah.
Pretty clever.
Fifth one!
Strauss...
Richard Strauss, not Johann Strauss.
So...
Strauss is very well known for...
...a genre called tone, or symphonic poems,
which is really cool, because it's...
...symphonic music, but it's programmatic,
which means it's not music for the sake of music, but...
...almost like film music. The music...
- Has some...yeah. - ...illustrates a storyline.
In fact, it's probably led up to film music now, it's like...
And so, everyone actually knows...
Oh! The uh...
The Also sprach Zarathustra.
- Yeah. - That opening, which is used in Space Odyssey.
That was by Richard Strauss.
But that was the opening of one of his tone poems.
Death and Transfiguration...
...is this ridiculously good tone poem,
that he wrote when he was quite young.
He wrote a tone poem depicting the process of dying,
and going, like passing on.
- Dude... - Starts from like illness, to like...
...recounting his life, like the turmoil of like...
...like anger and fear, and then going to like acceptance.
So yeah, check it out.
- Mmm. - Number 6.
- Dude, this guy took it to the next level. - Yeah.
- He wrote like 14...16...15 symphonies? - 15.
15 symphonies. He would—he went crazy. I mean
He looks like Harry Potter too.
Yeah, I think there's so many rumors.
- Fact check that. - Yeah.
Shostakovich and Harry Potter.
Same glasses.
I knew Shostakovich was one of—also,
one of the first symphonies I played.
It was the most intense and coolest symphony I've played.
- Actually, it was in a Youth Orchestra. - Yes.
Because it's just...so much energy.
- Mm-hmm. - From Youth Orchestra plus Shostakovich's writing.
I feel like Shostakovich likes to test the decibels of an orchestra.
- It really gets loud. - How—how loud can we go. Oh, not loud enough.
Let's just...add more. More strings.
More strings.
More winds, like four flutes.
Percussion going crazy.
It's actually very interesting because he's an example of a...
...composer where you get different appreciation,
if you know the context of his life.
Now, this is really controversial because, like...
...you hear different stories,
but basically, apparently, this musicologist,
he wrote a book called "Testimony", which was meant to
account for a lot of Shostakovich's life.
And apparently, back then the USSR Soviet regime...
Again, I don't know, this is just apparently, was very oppressive,
and uh, censored a lot of music, and so he was always...
...kind of living in fear of being taken away by the Soviet police.
And so what actually happened was,
that one of his operas was seen as like...
...politically incorrect.
- Like you can imagine like... - Ah, yeah...
And so he got like into a lot of trouble for it,
his 4th symphony really pushed...
...tonality, really pushed a lot of different things.
And after few rehearsals it got cancelled,
they didn't allow him to perform it.
And so [for] his 5th symphony,
he actually reverted very much back to like traditional structures,
- and it's sounded... - Ohh...
...kind of nice and very triumphant ending,
- because it's kind of like... - "Yeah, yay we did it."
- "Yeah, we did it." Like it's good for the propaganda, apparently. - Yeah.
- This is all...based on... - Yeah, read the book.
It's the first example—or not first.
But it's an example of ironic music, 'cause it's like...
- He's like, "Here's this nice accessible Symphony." - Heh...
- "But actually I'm doing it 'cause I'm forced to." - Yeah, yeah.
"I hate this—" - "—and I don't like this."
- Yeah. - It should have been something else, after the 4th symphony.
Yeah.
So, I remember the conductor said this, he was telling us like,
- you know how the last page is A's nonstop, like... - Yeah.
Apparently it's like...it's like...
...forced happiness.
- Ohh!!! - He's like, "I'll give you your happiness!"
- Ohh!!! - "I'll give you 2,000 A's in a row! It's happy!"
Like for the whole 2 minutes.
I wonder what else has forced happiness these days.
Next one.
Of course, we need chamber music in here.
Yeah.
There's Schubert trout quintet.
It's one of those...
- ...chamber music that’s played everywhere, - ‪Mm-hmm.‬
you can probably find a program that's playing in your city.
Unless you live in a...country.
- Yeah. - There's no one there.
I don't know why, but like, I always remember back then,
when we had like, chamber music.
They're like, "Schubert chamber music is the pinnacle."
Yeah, like the most elegant of classical music.
- Yeah. - He's more subtle with all the...you know, change time, everything.
- All those subtle changes, blending of sound... - Yeah.
...with the instrumentations.
No, I...do think that like, Schubert is known for...
...his endless melodies.
- Ah, it keeps going. - Lyrical, his lyrical melodies. It just keeps going.
- So...yep. - He just keeps going.
What was the first quartet we played?
- "Rosamunde", Schubert "Rosamunde". - Yeah, that's the one.
- Yeah, we did... - In my house. We had a string quartet rehearsal.
- Schubert "Rosamunde". - Yep.
Yeah.
- And "Death and [the] Maiden", yeah, there's another one. - Yeah, "Death and the Maiden".
That's a...
"Death and the Maiden" is a very popular one.
- Very cool one. - Yeah.
- Okay, number 8. - Cool!
Self-explanatory, if you've seen our...other video.
Mm-hmm.
- It's very out there, that's for sure. - It's very "in-your-face".
Isn't the plot like...
- Pagan, Russian pagan...sex ritual, apparent— - Yeah, like...
I think so. They...um...
Just blatant, like...
They sacrifice a virgin for the gods of spring.
For back then, it would be equivalent to very...
...revolutionary...
- ...shocking music. - I wonder if he also got in trouble, for writing that.
Ooh, I don't know,
but there was a riot that broke out during the premiere.
- They had enough, they're like throwing stuff at the musicians. - Oh, man.
"What is this?!"
Because the...also, the choreography.
- Yes. - It wasn't just him.
Yeah, the choreography is pretty out.
It's a bit like,
"What the hell..."
He pushes a lot of...
...tonal and metric boundaries, so there's this...
...infamously difficult part at the end.
- Ohh. - You know, for us musicians, because...
- And conductors, actually, it's like the test for conductors! - Oh, conductors hate it! Conductor's like...
1 2 3 4...
Because every bar's changing,
- like 5/16, 3/8, 2/8, 1/16, 3/16, like... - 5/8...yeah.
And it's just really hard to keep in time.
Number 9. I know this, this has gone on long enough.
Hmm...
You've seen our charades, when we play La Mer?
What does it mean?
Water!
What does water mean?
Ocean? Oh, sea!
La Mer is basically uh, another symphonic poem,
that is depicting the ocean.
Except what's very special about this piece, is that...
Debussy's known for...
Being different.
- Yeah, he's just very different...his sound... - Very different...
His colours, his chords.
Yeah.
Even to a non-perfect-pitch guy.
- It's pretty frickin' different, like... - Mm-hmm.
The way to explain is like, you know how we said
there was like the whole Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler route?
Which is very—
- The orchestra's getting bigger and bigger? And thicker? -Yeah.
Debussy was cutting down...thickness.
Yeah, imagine Brahms and those guys are like
massive, fat cheesecake. It's one flavour.
Debussy was like...
Some light, kinda like...
- Like artesian, it could be like... - Yeah yeah yeah...!
Like small, but this...all these layers of like jelly...
Cream, cream, sponge, you know?
- Yeah. - That's like his type.
Tiramisu, maybe.
- Yeah. - Maybe...less.
That's more Debussy.
Debussy and Ravel hated the term that...to describe...them.
A lot of people regard them as...
...Impressionistic.
Which is cool, because...
- ...their music does kind of look like Impressionistic paintings. - Mmm!
- It matches...almost... - It's like...ambiance, and like kind of...
- It's not really like, exact, like, precise. - Yeah.
- It just... - It's good vibes.
It's almost like an, "Ahh." *chuckles*
It's not like, "Holy crap!" but it's like, "Ahh."
Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah. - I like him.
Chill.
Last one!
Dang!
Bam!
Yeah. Pianists, you all know this.
"What about the cello concerto?"
Yeah, yeah, maybe next time.
I mean, there's so many, this could be any other piece,
- to be honest. - Yeah.
- It's just easy to actually...I find quite easy to listen to. - It's...yeah.
It's all decrescending scales, Tchaikovsky's musical style.
- He doesn't go up, he goes down. - Really?
You know...
I do know he's known for like,
his melodies in a different way than Schubert though,
in the way that he...
...extends them through like,
endless sequences, so it's kinda like that.
But he has like these...I guess he's the epitome of romantic.
- Yeah, he's so romantic, Tchaikovsky. - Like if it's...romantic, you think of Tchaikovsky.
- It's pretty long, actually. - It's quite long.
- It's very dramatic, epic, melodic, - But...it's very dramatic.
- romantic, it has everything. It has all the technical stuff. - Yeah.
And it's long, but it'll still keep your attention. I think.
That, that, that...but, what about...
...Beethoven Violin Concerto?
Alright guys.
We know there's a lot of other epic classical music.
If you liked this video, we'll do another one.
- We just had to cap it at 10, - Yeah, I know.
otherwise the video will be too long.
Exactly, guys, 'cause you got to practice so stop watching now.
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