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<p>About three years ago my friend Andrew sent me a mail asking whether I wanted to go with him to a concert in Carnegiehall that very night. He had two tickets and the girl he had asked for a date cancelled short notice (poor illiterate thing...). When I heard it was Andras Schiff and Beethoven I was all in, even though it was piano solo and I typically prefer orchestra when going to a concert. Of course it was a fantastic performance and the audience was giving standing ovations. So Schiff finally sits down in his second encore and plays Bach. New Yorkers tend to rudely rush out once the scheduled performance is over but this time almost everybody was captured by Schiff. I will never forget the following minutes when he played the chromatic Fugue in d. Sitting in my chair almost incapable of breathing while the most divine music was given as a second encore.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC8w5FHeE3g&feature=youtube_gdata_player</p>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFqVhGYCNX0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnGbzrH5NWs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugSXVymv6b8

I recently have been discussing an idea, and I would appreciate your feedback on this - I have created a forum (actually started this one a long time ago, but approaching it more seriously this time) that speaks about creating custom position tournaments. This could be anything from beginning at an opening, a middlegame, and endgame...the possibilities are endless. This would allow players of chess.com to reveal novelties, if they desire, and open a forum for discussion, and then create thematic tournaments around their novelties. Also, it doesn't have to be original ideas - we could explore ideas that are "on the market", so to speak, and discuss and play positions in tournaments. This would also work in 1 on 1 games - if you simply wanted to play an idea against a friend, you could upload the custom starting position. I was curious if you would read my forum, and if you are interested, if you would post ideas in this forum: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/tournaments/custom-position-tournaments You don't have to respond in there, but I would appreciate any feedback. If chess.com sees this idea as something that is valued by its customers, they may take a better look at creating the ability to make custom positions in the starting tab. Thank you very much, my chess friend... BirdBrain

the strict reading: http://youtu.be/sSheWcRGbF0 and the more relaxed: http://youtu.be/bWyrxAZCOhA

And now, for something completely different! http://youtu.be/VCj3j2ln4L8

http://youtu.be/PNXlslzL8EY and a Segovia masterclass on this: http://youtu.be/g7YmMjjVotM

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2XUaCWezRY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7OS_vpMz-s

Benedetto Marcello (1686 – 1739) Titian Flora oil on canvas c.1515 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0FtTqqrkpk Benedetto Marcello - Oboe Concerto in D Minor (presto)

Benedetto Marcello (1686 – 1739) Canaletto Interno della rotonda di Ranelagh oil on canvas c.1754 The National Gallery, London http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv5hmv1WRTk Oboe Concerto in D Minor (andante e spiccato) Born in Venice, Benedetto Marcello was a member of a noble family and his compositions are frequently referred to as Patrizio Veneto. Although he was a music student of Antonio Lotti and Francesco Gasparini, his father wanted Benedetto to devote himself to law. Benedetto managed to combine a life in law and public service with one in music. In 1711 he was appointed member of the Council of Forty (in Venice's central government), and in 1730 he went to Pola as Provveditore (district governor). Due to his health having been "impaired by the climate" of Istria, Marcello retired after eight years to Brescia in the capacity of Camerlengo where he died of tuberculosis in 1739. Marcello composed a diversity of music including considerable church music, oratorios, hundreds of solo cantatas, duets, sonatas, concertos and sinfonias. Marcello was a younger contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi in Venice and his instrumental music enjoys a Vivaldian flavor. As a composer, Marcello was best known in his lifetime and is now still best remembered for his Estro poetico-armonico (Venice, 1724-1727), a musical setting for voices, figured bass (a continuo notation), and occasional soloist instruments of the first fifty Psalms, as paraphrased in Italian by his friend G. Giustiniani. They were much admired by Charles Avison, who with John Garth brought out an edition with English words (London, 1757). Although he wrote an opera called La Fede riconosciuta and produced it in Vicenza in 1702, he had little sympathy with this form of composition, as evidenced in his writings.

The Brandenburg Concertos The Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1046–1051, original title: Six Concerts à plusieurs instruments) are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 (though probably composed earlier). They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era. The inscription of 24 March 1721 on the dedication manuscript to the Margrave, attests for the date of composition for the Brandenburg Concerti, but most likely they had been written over a number of years during Bach's tenure as Kapellmeister at Köthen and possibly even extending back to the period of his employment at Weimar (1708–1717). The dedication page Bach wrote for the collection indicates they are Concerts avec plusieurs instruments (Concertos with several instruments). Bach used the widest spectrum of orchestral instruments in daring combinations. Every one of the six concertos set a precedent in scoring, and every one was to remain without parallel. The overall orchestra required (leaving aside the first concerto, which was rewritten for a special occasion) tallies exactly with the 17 players Bach had at his disposal in Köthen. Because King Frederick William I of Prussia was not a significant patron of the arts, Christian Ludwig seems to have lacked the musicians in his Berlin ensemble to perform the concertos. The full score was left unused in the Margrave's library until his death in 1734, when it was sold for 24 groschen (about 20 Euros in today’s prices). The autograph manuscript of the concertos was only rediscovered in the archives of Brandenburg in 1849; the concertos were first published in the following year. In the modern era these works have been performed by orchestras with the string parts each played by a number of players. They have also been performed as chamber music, with one instrument per part, especially by (but not limited to) groups using baroque instruments and (sometimes more, sometimes less) historically-informed techniques and practice. http://youtu.be/hZ9qWpa2rIg http://youtu.be/fyh1o0Gfy6Y http://youtu.be/vSEuMxeGwGI

Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 The four Orchestral Suites or Ouvertures BWV 1066–1069 are a set of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, probably composed between 1725 and 1739 in Leipzig. The word overture refers to an opening movement in which a section of slow dotted-note rhythm is followed by a fugue; at the time, this name was also used to refer to a whole suite of dance-pieces in the French baroque style. The Air in the third Suite is one of the most famous pieces of baroque music. The original orchestral suite was written by Bach for his patron Prince Leopold of Anhalt sometime between the years 1717 and 1723. An arrangement of the piece by German violinist August Wilhelmj (1845–1908) has come to be known as Air on the G String. The title comes from Wilhelmj's arrangement of the piece for violin and piano. By transposing the key of the piece from its original D major to C major and transposing the melody down an octave, Wilhelmj was able to play the piece on only one string of his violin, the G string. The Air on the G String was the very first work by Bach to be recorded. This was by the Russian cellist Aleksandr Verzhbilovich and an unnamed pianist, in 1902 (as the Air from the Ouverture No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068). http://youtu.be/NlT8yeEYbMs http://youtu.be/FUPx42UmSng http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tda2vtJBCJw  

The Goldberg Variations The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form. The Variations are named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may have been the first performer. The tale of how the variations came to be composed comes from an early biography of Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel: “For this work we have to thank the instigation of the former Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Kaiserling, who often stopped in Leipzig and brought there with him the aforementioned Goldberg, in order to have him given musical instruction by Bach. The Count was often ill and had sleepless nights. At such times, Goldberg, who lived in his house, had to spend the night in an antechamber, so as to play for him during his insomnia. ... Once the Count mentioned in Bach's presence that he would like to have some clavier pieces for Goldberg, which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights. Bach thought himself best able to fulfill this wish by means of Variations, the writing of which he had until then considered an ungrateful task on account of the repeatedly similar harmonic foundation. But since at this time all his works were already models of art, such also these variations became under his hand. Yet he produced only a single work of this kind. Thereafter the Count always called them his variations. He never tired of them, and for a long time sleepless nights meant: 'Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations.' Bach was perhaps never so rewarded for one of his works as for this. The Count presented him with a golden goblet filled with 100 louis-d'or. Nevertheless, even had the gift been a thousand times larger, their artistic value would not yet have been paid for.” Forkel wrote his biography in 1802, more than 60 years after the events related, and its accuracy has been questioned. The lack of dedication on the title page of the "Aria with Diverse Variations" also makes the tale of the commission unlikely. Goldberg's age at the time of publication (14 years) has also been cited as grounds for doubting Forkel's tale, although it must be said that he was known to be an accomplished keyboardist and sight-reader. In a recent book-length study, keyboardist and Bach scholar Peter Williams contends that the Forkel story is entirely spurious. Aria The aria is a sarabande in ¾ time, and features a heavily ornamented melody: http://youtu.be/Gv94m_S3QDo http://youtu.be/yFupTT9RauQ http://youtu.be/AcXXkcZ2jWM