More animals than any carnival ever before

More animals than any carnival ever before

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norman lebrecht

May 07, 2020

The French violinist Renaud Capucon has put together the starriest ever Carnaval des Animaux from soloists on four continents.

Watch.

More than 35 musicians including Yo Yo Ma, James Ehnes, Nicholas Angelich, Andreas Ottensamer, Gautier Capuçon, Gérard Caussé, Bertrand Chamayou, Lucas Debargue, Elsa Dreisig, Thierry Escaich, Sol Gabetta, Julia Hagen, David Kadouch, Alexandre Kantorow, ​Sheku Kanneh-Mason, ​David Moreau, Edgar Moreau, Jérémie Moreau, Raphaëlle Moreau, Beatrice Muthelet, Alois Posch…

 

Comments

  • Arthur says:

    Could we please stop with this. Little screens divided even further like postage stamps. Bad sound, home playing. People wearing whatever. And over it all this fake haze of “isn’t this great, aren’t we woke and timely playing on the app and being ‘together apart’. Please don’t help to pretend this is good or healthy, the concert hall is where this stuff makes sense, not assembled like disembodied zombie parts into a performance that none of the actual musicians can even hear as its happening. All done for free while the economic and future outlook gets worse for these and other players by the day. If you are on the channels to receive this stuff from musicians and orchestras then you already know how bad the situation is for them. Given that I don’t want to listen to it and play along.

    • Dragonetti says:

      Hey there misery guts. How about going back to bed and then getting out again but on the right side?
      We’re all going to hell in a handcart so why not have some fun on the way?
      Sure it’s going to be less than perfect but do you think it better to sit and practise on your own for ever with no real prospect of anyone hearing the results? That’s why performers do these things. The clue is in their title. Geddit?

      • Arthur says:

        “That’s why they do these things”? No, “they“ do these things, and for free, because they need content to make sure they aren’t forgotten. Unfortunately this is likely to have exactly that effect.

        • Dragonetti says:

          Actually I’ve just rather belatedly bothered to read the introduction to the clip. A rough précis is that they’re doing it to show their support for carers everywhere. You’re coming out of this looking more and more curmudgeonly Arthur. At least they’re doing something constructive in these ghastly times.

          • Arthur says:

            Makes no difference. They’re doing it to generate content to promote themselves. Only believable possibility. ‘Carers’ (a rather too general term) and the like not only won’t see it, but have no idea who they are – and need other support than badly played, zombie-assembled classical music, anyway.

    • Bruce says:

      Arthur probably dispenses helpful advice to his friends like “I don’t know why you’re doing chemo, you’re probably going to die anyway.”

    • MrsGrumpy says:

      Agree one hundred percent. Me me me me me me me me me me me me me …… it’s one percent of professional musicians doing this. Go figure. Get a real life outside social media!

    • Brian says:

      Very nice i enjoyed the music. I like the nice dogs.
      I always wanted a dog buy my wife does not like them she throws me a biscuit instead

  • sam says:

    But where were the animals?

    Not a swan in sight … not even with 5 cellists, including Gautier and Yo Yo no less!!

  • mary says:

    So sad.

    The 1600s invented table music, where musicians gathered around a table to play.

    The 1700s invented chamber music, where musicians gathered in a salon to play.

    2020 invented Zoom music, where musicians crawl out of bed, throw on sweat pants, click on their metronome earpods tick-tick-tick-tick in strict rhythm, and depending on the quality of their mics, scratch out a few notes for a few minutes, and call it music.

  • Larry W says:

    Etude Brut, eh?

  • Jeffrey Biegel says:

    Music is a language. If we don’t speak, we become numb. Without a stage, we cannot communicate our feelings through music. Aren’t we fortunate, then, to have the technology to share our language with others? I think this is absolutely beautiful.

  • NYMike says:

    Quite a technical feat with super fast and accurate playing. I enjoyed it!

  • I enjoyed it immensely. Fresh young players, each very good on his and her instrument, each so enthusiastic and having great fun in the ensemble. Too short. I wanted more.

  • Edgar Self says:

    Another distinguished group was that of Saint-Saens and his friends at the first performance, also “private”, in rather different circumstances. He didn’t intend even to publish it. I remember another distinguished version with Jeanne Behrend and her husband the ill-fated Alexander Kelberine as the pianists and Stokowski leading his royal Philadelphians. Now who would their cellist have been?

    This work has some of the best musical parodies before Alec Templeton and Gerard Hoffnung or PDQ Bach. Let’s hear more of “the Unbegunsymophony..

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