Classical Music & Chess

Well since you mentioned Symphony No. 40 - Haydn's No. 40 was one of those weird ones, a really early one - composed in 1763, well before his Symphonies numbering in the 20's and 30's. It's a beaut in F Major; take a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIp6caACwzQ

Thanks, ChessPlayinDude, for the link and also the two videos of Ravel and Canteloube.  By the way, I searched Amazon for Yuval Trio recordings and someone is selling a used vinyl of the one you linked.  The CD is not currently available.  Too bad.

The credit goes to Crazychessplaya for the Ravel and Canteloube, though! He's the one who put up those links...

So how about some pianists putting up some piano music YouTube links? I'm curious as to what you guys like to listen to while you play chess?

Please allow me to share another of my favorite works for violin and piano, by the Polish composer, Karol Szymanowski. I realize this won't be for everyone's taste, esoteric as it is, but I love the harmonic language of these Mythes, reminiscent of Scriabin at times. Hah, if only Scriabin had written some works for violin or viola, I'd be all over those...

Gerberk, here's your gal, Janine Jansen performing them (Itamar Golan, piano)...

This is really fun to play on violin, btw; I love messing with these Mythes
on my violin. Szymanowski really explores all the intervals: 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, octaves, in the double-stopping... and it's a feast of timbres: harmonics, artificial harmonics, sul tasto, sul ponticello, con sordino, even the effect of getting the violin to sound like panpipes (at 15:51 in the video!), you name it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5UJmxd3ixo

Oops, sorry about that to you both.  I didn't look closely enough at the name and assumed it was you.

Yes, I like this Christopher Hogwood period instruments version.  Sadly, Mr. Hogwood is no longer with us; there have been several conductors in the last few years who have laid down their baton for good, most recently Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Pierre Boulez.

Yes, unfortunate; also recently to pass: Joseph Silverstein (Utah Symphony), Kurt Masur (NY Phil), and Robert Craft (conductor and Stravinsky collaborator), and Gunther Schuller (composer and conductor)...

I played the Mythes on a couple of occasions, in France and Belgium... very special pieces indeed. Unfortunately, I don't have them recorded...

Nice; sounds like your repertoire runs pretty deep for both chess and music!

In music it's true - when you're active, people approach you and want you to play this, to play that - at some point you get curious and learn the stuff. 

In chess - it's also pretty much the case, and for very similar reasons... if one approach doesn't work against a certain opponent you want to have something in reserve... 

Yeah, same with viola and violin: as we double the pawns, well, that's like playing a double stop; with trebled pawns, that's even harder, like playing a triple-stop (three notes simultaneously with the bow), and if you get quadrupled pawns, probably doesn't happen too much, then you may as well learn some Bach Chaconne or Ysaye unaccompanied violin quadruple stop passages.

Hah, just kidding.

Here's a chess-music analogy for you. One may envision a closed game position with a lot of maneuvering and a lot of options to be similar to a rich Romantic tone-poem or orchestral work of great complexity, whereas in a more tactical game where there may be many exchanges of pieces earlier on and where the path is very free and open to be more light and airy, like a Classical string quartet of Haydn or Mozart. Yes, sometimes I feel that way when I play.

You know what we've all forgotten, at least I didn't see it posted in my cursory overview, is the quote from Siegbert Tarrasch (1862-1934) in his book The Game of Chess, namely "Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy."  What a grand thought that elevates all three, at least when things are going well.  No doubt you'd have gotten some disagreement from Garry Kasparov immediately after he lost to Deep Blue in 1997.

Okay, gentlemen, I put you on the audition committee/judges' panel. What is your professional, critical, artistic judgment on Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2? That is, whose is the best interpretation? If you had to audition these guys, who would get the gig? Who would be the Grandmaster of the Rhapsody?

1. Bugs Bunny - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYM84n-2Sas

2. Tom vs. Jerry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp0G3iH6MK8

3. Borge vs. Hambro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZj-Gp9NKWg

4. Dan Hamm - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THb-GWUwjeE

(whoops, not Dan Hamm, Dan Mumm - heh, Mumm's the word...)

Can you imagine classical music in today's TV cartoons?  You're more likely to find rap, hip hop or the "music" of that wretched, little skank, Miley Cyrus.  Classical music as the epitome of Western Civ, which apparently "has got to go," has up and gone in popular culture.  Sorry if my cynicism is showing.

I had to reach for the Pepto Bismol and have the speakers replaced on my computer after the last one.

I've always liked trickster Bugs so my vote goers to his performance, but for extra-musical reasons of course.

Thanks for the Janine Jansen ...beautifull as she always is..this is music to play chess to Couperin Les Lecons de tenebre..I love this one .

Garry Kasparov? The Garry? What does Mr. Kasparov like to listen to when playing chess?

<GarryKasparov> what was the name of the Israeli boy who beat you when you gave a simul in Israel in 1997?