Humphrey Bogart Video

Humphrey Bogart Biography - the Untold Story

circa 1997 Hosted by Stephen Humphrey Bogart

Stephen Bogart, the son of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, narrates Bogart: The Untold Story, a 1996 documentary that tells the story of his father's life. Stephen was just eight years old when Humphrey Bogart died in 1957. And since he was so young, Stephen has only vague memories of him. As Stephen explains, his father was a distant figure and his only physical memories of him are on screen. Bogart: The Untold Storyis an attempt by Stephen to get to know the man behind the star, to learn who his father really was and to answer those questions every child has about their parents.

The documentary gives a thorough account of Bogie's life

Producer: Chris Hunt
Director: Chris Hunt
Film Editing: Andrew Findlay
Cast: Stephen Bogart (host), Lauren Bacall.
BW&C-46m. Closed captioning.

Download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6HT61BB1

Gesänge der Frühe Op.133

Robert Schumann's Gesänge der Frühe Op.133 - Maurizio Pollini

Kabalevsky, who!?

How have I forgotten Kabalevsky's Violin Concerto?

This is one of the finest of violin repertoire...ummm... a bit exaggerated though.

Might be because I've seen it live today, performed by an award-winning violin soloist Liliya Nigamedzyanova from Russia and Russian Symphony Orchestra. The second movement was beautiful.I have a record
of Mea's playing.
By the way, the performances also included 'Beethoven's Symphony no.7' & Fantasy Overture from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet.

Se quel guerrier io fossi!...Celeste Aida!

Aida, four-act opera
I saw 'Aida' live yesterday. It was a part of the 10th International Festival of Music and Dance in Bangkok.
It was wonderful and majestic.Though I kept thinking the music was too pushy for my ears,especially when everyone was expecting the celebrated 'triumph march' of Radames and the conductor just delivered it a little bit too enthusiastically.
The end was so tragic, but that is pretty predictable of Verdi's operas. Most of them are melodrama. My favorite is 'Il Trovatore' but I have never seen it live

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It was performed by the Cairo Opera House. Playing Radames is Oleg Kulko one of the principal singers of Bolshoi Theatre. He has sung Radames at the Metropolitan Opera New York and at La Scala, Milan to critical acclaim. Taking on Aida is the famous soprano Yulia Simonova, (a leading soloist of The Bolshoi Theatre) while Olesya Petrova will play Amenris. Olesya is the winner of the Tchaikovsky Gold Medal (2007), one of the most important awards recognising the most talented singers.

Modern Schumann...

My new photoshop after an hour effort ;)
Courtesy of 77words.com for graphic textures.

Schumann for readers!

Collected Books on Schumann: Schumann's Biographies:

Robert Schumann: Herald of a "New Poetic Age"
John Daverio *****

-- There is a new speculation for me here, in the book, that Schumann was bisexual.

I should think this might be another characteristic of his Arch-Romantic personality
as it was most of his contemporary's : i.e. 'idealistic love'.

To describe this, I'd better borrow Cole Porter's saying in De-Lovely
(played by Kevin Kline, 2004)

" This is how it was. This is how l was. l wanted every kind of love that was available. I could never find them in the same person....or the same sex."--
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Schumann's Fantasie, Op. 17 (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Nicholas Marston ***
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Schumann's Historical Novel:

Longing J.D. Landis *****

Landis's spectacular novel: I gave this book 4 stars. Most importantly because the author portrays
Schumann EXACTLY as I imagine him to be, you know -- a genius freak, kind and passionate, mad and tormented. Though, the death scene is unsatisfying.
Let's see if this version of Schumann is also on your mind;)

Clara: A Novel
Janice Galloway

** Not as good as I expected. The author's narrating style is too irritating for my taste.

Schumanns Schatten (Gebundene Ausgabe)
Peter Härtling
****

Schumann

Michel Schneider

****

Liszt's Love letter

A love letter by Franz Liszt to Countess Marie d'Agoult, December 1834

Franz Liszt 1811-1886


Marie d'Agoult 1805-1876

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Marie! Marie!

Oh let me repeat that name a hundred times, a thousand times over; for three days now it has lived within me, oppressed me, set me afire.

I am not writing to you, no, I am close beside you.

I see you, I hear you… Eternity in your arms…Heaven, hell, all is within you and even more than all… Oh! Leave me free to rave in my delirium. Mean, cautious, narrow reality is no longer enough for me. We must live out lives to the full, our loves, our sorrow…! Oh! you believe me capable of self-sacrifice, chastity, temperance and piety, do you not?

But let no more be said of this… it is for you to question, to draw conclusions, to save me as you see fit.

Let me be mad, senseless since you can do nothing, nothing at all for me.

It is good for me to speak to you now.

This is to be! To be!!!

Movie, Book's Quotations

Match point 2005

An Old woman (His neighbour) : You've killed her, what about your child? You’ve killed your own child…

(Referring to his mistress whom he killed because she was pregnant with his child)

Chris: “What was that that Sophocles once said?

"‘To never have been born is, perhaps, the greatest gift of all'…”

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George Orwell's
Nineteen Eighty Four

"The past was dead, the future was unimaginable."
Part 1, Chapter 2, pg. 28

"For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must
also hide it from yourself." Part 3, Chapter 4, pg. 283

"We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is
inside the skull."
Part 3, Chapter 3, pg. 268

"Sanity is not statistical." Book 1, Chapter 9

"If all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth"
Until they become conscious they will never rebel,
and until after they have rebelled they can not become conscious."

"Power is not a means; it is an end"

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One of my favorite anecdotes:

After dinner Lady Astor presided over the pouring of coffee.
When Winston Churchill came by, she glared and said.
"Winston, if I were your wife, I’d put poison in your coffee."
"Nancy," Churchill replied solemnly to the acid-tongued woman,
"if I were your husband, I’d drink it" (!!!!)

Churchill's Quote

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject"

so you must forgive me here if I wander too much from Schumann ; )
I can't help writing on other things.

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PS. I rather hope next week I could post my collections of Schumann's Piano Concerto, Op.54
-- for downloading ;)

O, Politic!

A definition game:

Politics (n.): Lying conspiracy
Polictize (vt.): Nationalized lie

Politician (n.): Liars

Political Crime (n.): Ready to commit one to the above mention.

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David Hume on Morality and Human nature

Hume's Moral Philosophy :

Hume's position in ethics, which is based on his empiricist theory of the mind, is best known for asserting four theses:

1) Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the “slave of the passions”
2) Morals are not derived from reason

3) Morals are derived from the moral sentiments: feelings of approval (esteem, praise) and disapproval (blame) felt by spectators who contemplate a character trait or action

4) While some virtues and vices are natural, others, including justice, are artificial.

"Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions"

An expert, John Passmore of the National Australian University discusses causality as the cornerstone of Hume's philosophy.
Also discussed are three of Hume's basic philosophicalviews

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I recommend a book, 'Hume' by Noonan for details.

Robert Browning & Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Today, I recommend another great Robert -

Robert Browning, the poet (1812-1889)

Life is stocked with germs of torpid life;

but may I never wake

Those of mine whose resurrection could not be without earthquake!

Rest all such, unraised forever! Be this, sad yet sweet, the sole

Memory evoked from slumber! Least part this: then what the whole?

THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC
Written immediately after La Saisiaz, being dated January 15, 1878
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"Somewhere, below, above, Shall a day dawn--this I know--

When Power, which vainly strove My weakness to o'erthrow, Shall triumph.
I breathe, I move,
I truly am, at last! For a veil is rent between Me and the truth which passed Fitful, half-guessed, half-seen,Grasped at--not gained, held fast"
"Reverie," Asolando, lines 16-25

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And how I can describe a great devotion and, of course, a great love that he gave to his wife.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poet (1806-1861)

"Why tell of age when it’s just an appearance…
When we are all young in heart and soul?"
'til when? ‘til eternity. Where am I, but with you, and what, but yours"

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Life, struck sharp on death,Makes awful lightning.
His last word was, 'Love–''Love, my child, love, love!'–

(then he had done with grief)'

Love, my child.' Ere I answered he was gone,

And none was left to love in all the world.
Aurora Leigh, Book I, l. 210-214

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How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnets from the Portuguese no.43

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A joke i heard somewhere :

What would these composers do when hearing modern music?
If Brahms had come back to life, he would immediately go back to being death.
If Mozart had come back to life, well, he would manage to do something and live with it.
If Schoenberg had come back to life, er... no one would give a damn!

- Samita cry out 'ButI would!'


Music: a complex organization of sounds that is set down by a composer, incorrectly interpreted by a conductor, whois ignored by musicians, the result of which is ignored by any audience.

I would also add: If the music is good, do praise the player.If it’s bad, do blame the composer.