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LUCERNE FESTIVAL 2016 – OPENING CONCERT Riccardo Chailly conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 8

2016-09-02T09:38:00.001+08:00

LUCERNE FESTIVAL 2016 – OPENING CONCERT

Riccardo Chailly conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 8

In August, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra returns to its annual summer residency in Lucerne. The opening concerts, with the MCO as part of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, are conducted by the orchestra’s new Music Director Riccardo Chailly.

Succeeding Claudio Abbado as Music Director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly conducts the musicians for the very first time. To open this 2016 Lucerne Festival, he chooses to perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, also called the Symphony of a Thousand, thus completing the Mahler cycle begun by Abbado. Requiring one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical repertoire, the “orchestra of friends”, as Abbado used to call it, is joined by four large choruses and eight superb soloists, ensuring a spectacular performance, this opening concert to be a first-class event. Many of the soloists are known to the MCO: baritone Peter Mattei, for example, took part in the founding project of the MCO, Don Giovanni, under Claudio Abbado in Aix-en-Provence in 1998.

Even in Gustav Mahler’s time, the Eighth Symphony was called the “Symphony of a Thousand”. The title may seem sensational, but not inappropriate. For no less than eight vocal soloists, two large mixed choirs, a boys’ choir, a large symphony orchestra, a separate brass ensemble and an organ are required for the performance.But its monumental grandness is not only due to its instrumental and vocal forces, but equally because of its global textual basis. Written in 1906, Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand was one of his rare works to be warmly received by the critics upon its premiere in September 1910. The two parts are respectively based on the Latin Pentecost hymn Veni creator spiritus ("Come, Holy Ghost, Creator") and the final scene of Goethe’s Faust II. The symphony breaks with Mahler’s purely orchestral writing. In his words (August 1906), “All my previous symphonies are merely the preludes to this one. In the other works everything still was subjective tragedy, but this one is a source of great joy."

Starting with a medieval Pentecost hymn, and culminating in the closing scene of Goethe’s Faust, the symphony draws together fundamental philosophical ideas of Western history. The premiere in 1910, performed before the cultural elite of the time – the audience included Siegfried Wagner, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Bruno Walter, Stefan Zweig and Thomas Mann – was the most triumphant success in the life of Gustav Mahler. And the composer himself felt the symphony to be “the grandest thing I have done yet”, as he wrote to the conductor Willem Mengelberg.

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major Symphony of a Thousand

“The Eternal-Feminine / Leads us onward”: These words from the final scene of Goethe’s Faust II bring Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony to its conclusion – and perfectly encapsulate the 2016 Summer Festival theme. The “Eternal-Feminine” was, for Mahler, “the point of repose, the goal,” in contrast to the “Eternal-Masculine,” his term for the principle of longing and striving. He was moreover inspired by thoughts of his wife Alma, whom he described as his “harbor” and to whom he dedicated the score. Mahler does not limit himself to setting Goethe but links the work to sacred music as well, opening with the Pentecostal hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, an invocation to the Holy Spirit. That’s why he once responded to the question why he had never written church music by declaring that in fact the Eighth Symphony was his Mass …

Mahler's Eighth celebrates a powerful life force, the spirit of creativity itself, pulling together images from diverse sources. Thus it epitomizes the ideals that led Claudio Abbado to found the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, where the finest musicians from the best orchestras in Europe join together in communal harmony. Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Chailly were very close, and now Chailly carries on Abbado's ideals. Wherever Abbado might be now, his spirit hovered over this performance. This was an extraordinarily thoughtful performance culminating in ecstatic serenity, accessing "the peace that passeth all understanding", absolutely relevant to what the symphony might mean.You may watch here on arte.tv

Although Mahler's Eighth is known as "the Symphony of a Thousand" the title wasn't Mahler's but a marketing slogan invented by a concert promoter. But quantity is not quality. At Lucerne, the orchestra and soloists were supplemented by 222 choristers , arranged in six rows across the width of the hall, the Tölzer Knabenchor along the sides. Voices and orchestra were well balanced, allowing much greater freedom of expression. The boys choir can often get lost in an uproar, but here their relatively small but important role came through clearly. This matters. "So far I have employed words and the human voice to express only with immense breadth", Mahler wrote specifically of this symphony, "But here the voice is also an instrument used not only as sound but as the bearer of poetic thoughts". Poetic thoughts, some so delicate that they can be overwhelmed in interpretations that stress volume over artistry. No chance of that here. In Chailly's Mahler 8, every voice has its place in the grand scheme of things, a concept absolutely in tune with the concepts behind the symphony…. Read more here

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 8 E-flat major “Symphony of a Thousand”
LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
Riccardo Chailly   Conductor
Ricarda Merbeth  Soprano Magna Peccatrix
Juliane Banse   Una poenitentium
Christine Goerke Soprano
Anna Lucia Richter Soprano  Mater gloriosa
Sara Mingardo  Alto Mulier Samaritana
Mihoko Fujimura Alto   Maria Aegyptiaca
Andreas Schager Tenor Doctor Marianus
Peter Mattei Baritone Pater ecstaticus
Samuel Youn Bass  Pater profundus
Choirs Bavarian Radio Choir, Latvian Radio Choir, Orfeón Donostiarra & Tölz Boys' Chor

See full performance @

https://youtu.be/iuAKOCJ2w6c

Source:
mahlerchamber.com/concerts
concert.arte.tv/fr/
classical-iconoclast.blogspot.com/
medici.tv/

Holding Each Other’s Hand for 3,500 Years

2015-08-28T08:49:00.001+08:00

Akhenaton and Nefertiti, side by side, holding hands, and looking straight ahead

Holding Each Other’s Hand for 3,500 Years

Ancient Egyptian life was all about the family. The unit of mother, father and children was the solid basis of a strong society. Man paintings and inscriptions on tomb walls show the loving relationship that existed between husbands and wives as well as between parents and children.

Many paintings show affectionate couples embracing or seated close together holding hands. Romantic love was a frequent subject in poems, songs and other writings. All of these works are dated from the New Kingdom. One such poem includes:

“Your hand is in my hand,

my body trembles with joy,

my heart is exalted

because we walk together.”

All that remains from a statue of Akhenaten and Nefertiti are these hands, clasped forever.

Amarna, quartzite clasped hands from Akhenaten and Nefertiti group, c.1345-1335 BC 18th dynasty, at Neues Museum or New Museum on Museumsinsel or Museum Island in Berlin/ Sandra Steiß; CC NC-BY-SA

It was found in the ruins of Akhenaten’s custom-built city, Akhetaten (modern day Amarna) and is generally considered to show Nefertiti (left) gently holding the hand of her husband, Akhenaten (right).

Akhetaten on the Nile

AMARNA

Aten_disk

Akhenaten was driven by two burning passions: his adoration of the Aten, the sun-disc, and his beautiful bride, Nefertiti.

Decorated Balustrade Fragment from the Great Palace at Amarna
Dynasty 18, Reign of Akhenaten, 1353-1336 BC, crystalline limestone

Along with his dramatic religious reform, the king also introduced a new art form; more dynamic and sensual than the traditional rigid style.

Source:

nilemagazine.com.au

digital-images.net/Gallery/Art/LACMA/Asia-MidEast/asia-mideast

Animation JS Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and Fugue

2015-05-19T06:10:00.001+08:00

Animation JS Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and Fugue

Watch the music come to life.

Bach: The Well Tempered Clavier for Sinfini Music from Alan Warburton on Vimeo.

The collection of piano music known as The Well-Tempered Clavier is actually a combination of two collections of solo keyboard music – The Well-Tempered Clavier and Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, which date from 1722 and 1742 respectively.

Baroque super-composer Bach wrote the collections ‘for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study’. The good news – if you’re NOT particularly youthful or desirous of learning to play complicated piano music – is that listening to the 24 Preludes and Fugues is a pastime that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone.

Of all the preludes and fugues in the collection, the first set from Book One – BWV 846, featured here – is among the most well-known. But wherever you may have heard the music before, we’re pretty sure it wasn’t in an other-worldly museum-like space or in an underground carpark, surrounded by steadily pulsing neon lights.

This Sinfini Music animation illustrates and complements elements of JS Bach’s music that you may not have even noticed were there before. It’s also – we think you’ll agree – stunningly beautiful.

Behind the scenes

Before starting work on our Well-Tempered Clavier animation (codenamed WTC for the ten weeks it took to complete), director and visual artist Alan Warburton immersed himself in Bach's music by boarding a 'random' bus and listening to the first prelude and fugue for over two hours. 'By the time I'd found my way back home,' he says, 'I had digested how complex the music was – especially the Fugue. I realised I needed to keep the animation simple so the viewer could focus on the music.'

But if the animation itself was going to be simple, producing it would be anything but. Alan’s incredible design incorporated many thousands of separate CGI lights, every one of which had to be tailored to the precise duration of Pierre-Laurent Aimard's note strikes. 'I needed to find a way of automating the process of these turning on and off in time with the music,' says Alan. With no midi file of the performance available, he was faced with the seemingly impossible task of matching every note of a stand-in midi file to the recording, by ear alone.

It was clear that this was no one-man job, so Alan called in a US-based music visualization specialist, Matthew Bain. A gifted pianist, Matthew not only learned Aimard’s interpretation by heart but played along with the recording on an electric piano, thus creating a useable midi track. This data was then linked up to the data from Alan's 3D lights model so that every light responded to the right note at the right time, for the correct length of time.

Then it was a question of rendering the animated data in CGI within the virtual space created especially for the animation. This too, was no mean feat, even for the army of cloud-based computers that had a hand in the task. Each frame took 15 minutes to render because of the thousands of calculations involved in activating each light as well as the shadows, glows and reflections required to make the scene look truly life-like.

Credits:

Director and visual artist Alan Warburton

Programming by Matthew Bain
Sound Design by Mustafa Bal
Musical Consultation by Jonathan James

Performance by Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Deutsche Grammophon, 00028947927846)

Source:
sinfinimusic.com
bach.nau.edu

Morte D'Arthur, a Poem Written Out and Illuminated by Alberto Sangorski

2015-04-10T04:12:00.001+08:00

Morte d'Arthur

Morte D'Arthur, a Poem

Written Out and Illuminated by Alberto Sangorski

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6, 1809 in Somersby, England. He attended Trinity College in Cambridge. Tennyson is chiefly known for his poetry, an art form that had interested him since the age of six. His best known work is the Idylls of the King. Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate of England in 1850 and became the Baron of Aldworth and Farrington in 1883. Tennyson was still writing his his 80s, and died on October 6, 1892 near Haslemere, England.

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur, written as early as the spring of 1835, was a retelling of the third, fourth and fifth chapters of the twenty-first book of Malory’s Romance about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table. Tennyson later would incorporate a much extended and altered version of the poem into his The Idylls of the King, as the last section titled ‘The Passing of Arthur’.

Alberto Sangorski is an artist who should be of special interest to all who appreciate great picture-making. Little is known about this artist or his works by illustration enthusiasts, because he specialized in illuminated manuscripts. Very little of his work ever made it into print, and most of his books were hand-crafted wonders for wealthy collectors. Some editions of his work were available in elaborately reproduced volumes with gilt edges. Others were not so carefully manufactured. Sangorski created his work during the Golden Age of Illustration, starting his trade as a secretary to a goldsmith. The illuminator Alberto Sangorski (1862-1932) was late to the world of calligraphy, at the age of 43 beginning to work for his younger brother Francis in the famous Sangorski and Sutcliffe bookbinding firm. This bindery is still considered one of the finest in the world.

Sangorski and Sutcliffe Forwarding Department Poland St. 1923

Omar Khayyám’s Rubáiyát

One of his greatest achievements was a unique jewel bound version of Omar Khayyám’s Rubáiyát, now referred to as ‘the Great Omar,’ which never reached the American collector who commissioned it as it was sent across on the ill-fated Titanic in 1912.

*The Internet Archive has a scan of this book from a finer print edition by the Graphic Engraving Co. for Chatto & Windus, which you can see HERE.

Source:
publicdomainreview.org
Internet Archive

Chopin's Nocturne Opus 9 No.2 in E flat

2015-02-23T02:20:00.000+08:00

Chopin's Nocturne

Opus 9 No.2 in E flat

The popular image of Fryderyk Chopin as a consumptive invalid does him a disservice. He was a man of paradoxes: a Polish nationalist who lived out his days in exile in France; a musician who hated giving public concerts; a composer whose piano works were replete with the influence of bel canto opera, and whose idols in the early Romantic era were Bach and Mozart. Lavishly melodic yet classically restrained, visionary in imagination yet tautly constructed, his was one of the most individual musical voices of his era.

Chopin's minimal score allows pianists plenty of room for imagination.

Jon Tolansky

This episode of Comparing Notes is a little different from Jon Tolansky's usual format. The broadcaster and music journalist looks at Chopin's score for the little Nocturne Opus 9 No.2 in E flat major, which like many of his scores was quite basic, along with notes taken from his students, to try and figure out how Chopin might have wanted this piece of music to sound.

With this in mind, Jon then looks at five significant recordings to compare and contrast the differing artistic interpretations.

http://www.sinfinimusic.com/uk/listen/guides/comparing-notes/chopin-nocturne-opus-9-no-2

The Rodin Mythology

2015-02-21T02:28:00.001+08:00

Three views of a mask by Auguste Rodin adorning the retaining wall of the Greenhouses Garden of Auteuil terrace built by Jean Camille Formigé between 1895 and 1898 in Paris. Galvanized cast iron.

The Rodin Mythology

"All that I have lived
and loved I have made in my art"

He belongs to the race of those men who march alone - Paul Laurens, the painter, said of Auguste Rodin.

1900 un triomphe pour Rodin Avenue MontaigneAvenue Montaigne

In full Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin, French sculptor of sumptuous bronze and marble figures, is considerably regarded by some critics to be the greatest portraitist in the history of sculpture. French sculptor and draughtsman, he is the only sculptor of the modern age regarded in his lifetime and afterwards to be on a par with Michelangelo. Both made images with widespread popular appeal, and both stressed the materiality of sculpture.

Rodin’s most famous works—the Age of Bronze, The Thinker, The Kiss, the Burghers of Calais and Honoré de Balzac—are frequently reproduced outside a fine-art context to represent modern attitudes that require poses and encounters freed from allegory, idealization and propriety.

The Rodin mythology embraces the artist’s faith in the spiritual dignity of individuals that direct scrutiny can reveal; this is at its most blatant in Rodin’s portraits of French heroes such as Balzac and Victor Hugo, presented naked and vulnerable.

Rose Beuret

His numerous biographers dwell on his rise from humble origins and his struggle to be accepted by the juries arbitrating entry to the Salon and to be awarded government commissions.

Also part of the myth are the fidelity of Rose Beuret, his companion of 50 years; his brazen sexuality; and the unprecedented international fame Rodin acquired after 1900.

And for most of the 77 years of his life the great sculptor marched alone, first battling his way against the adversities of relentless poverty and hostile criticism and, in the latter years of his life, alone at the head of an international army of enthusiastic admirers. When Rodin presented one of his early pieces to the Academy of Fine Arts, he was told that his work did not “exhibit any evidence of talent,” and some 50 years or so later critics of many places were hailing him as the greatest sculptor of the world — save Michael Angelo — since Pheidias and Praxiteles.

Rodin did not idealize his subjects, but aimed for realism, going to nature for his inspiration. To him, all nature was life and life was art.

Auguste_Rodin_-_Monument_to_Victor_Hugo

Affiche de l'exposition “ Rodin ” au pavillon de l'Alma, 1900

BY the turn of the century, Auguste Rodin, a shy man of humble origins who did not come into his own as a sculptor until his mid-30's, dominated the international art world, his influence reaching as far as Japan.

The 165 sculptures that he showed in his specially constructed pavilion at Paris's vast Universal Exhibition in 1900 were a sensational draw.

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M.R. Binet Port d'Entree 1900. Art Nouveau France - Paris - Exposition Universelle Paris

Rodin in front of the showcases of the Pavillon de l’Alma, Meudon, circa 1902

Rodin in the Pavillon de l'Alma

RODIN-EXPO-LABORATOIRE-CREATION

Thereafter, the master whose celebration of sexuality had once shocked the rich and powerful on both sides of the Atlantic was flooded with commissions.

Studio of the Master, Meudon

Le_Chateau_d'eau_and_plaza,_Exposition_Universal,_1900,_Paris,_France

The most influential figures of the day, from Georges Clemenceau to George Bernard Shaw, were proud to sit for him. And King Edward VII even made a special trip to visit the sculptor at his home in Meudon.

In Rodin’s Studio

At the beginning of the 20th century Rodin was famous throughout the world and long had been revered as a modern-day Michelangelo, a titan of sculpture, an incarnation of the power of inspired genius.

Even his prodigious sensuality was excused as a symbol of his Olympian stature.

Le_Musee_RODIN

In the end it seems there was scarcely an honor that had not been bestowed on this hard-eyed, gruff-looking artist. Even in death his fame was secure. His works were housed in the Hotel Biron, now the Rodin Museum, which is still thronged daily by admirers from all over the world.

augusterodin1919

Most major museums own copies of his works, and museums in Paris, Philadelphia, and Tokyo are dedicated to him. Rodin's prime contribution was in bringing Western sculpture back to what always had been its essential strength, a knowledge and sumptuous rendering of the human body.

Why Is Rodin Important? In the 1860s, when Rodin began making sculpture, art was deeply rooted in the past — it told stories from religion, history, myth, and literature, and it told them as if the artist had been a witness to the events. Just thirty years later, by the peak of his career — the 1890s — Auguste Rodin had transformed sculpture into something that today we call modern, that spoke to the artist’s and viewer’s emotions and imaginations.

François-Auguste-René Rodin

The stories that were told were often internal and conceptual, and there was no right or wrong way to interpret them. And by the time Rodin died in 1917 he had — through prodigious talent and a remarkable volume of work — challenged the established styles of his youth and revolutionized sculpture. Today his pioneering work is a crucial link between traditional and modern art.

Is Rodin's monumental masterpiece a failure? This video explains why there are two different versions of the same artwork, and why Rodin remained obsessed by the Gates until his death. It shows how the artist managed to solve major aesthetic issues that faced modern artists at that time.

La Porte de l'Enfer (The Gates of Hell) by Auguste Rodin depicts a scene from The Inferno, the first section of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The monumental sculptural ensemble, standing at 6m high by 4m wide and 1m deep (19.69'x13.12'x3.29'), contains over 180 figures, ranging from 15cm high to more than one metre--many of which were later cast independently.

La Porte de l'Enfer was commissioned in 1880 by the Directorate of Fine Arts for an entrance to their planned Decorative Arts Museum. Although intended for an 1885 delivery, the museum was never built and Rodin would continue to work on the project on and off for 37 years, until his death in 1917. Its first public viewing came at a self-organized one-man exhibition at the Place de l'Alma in 1900.

Right before the opening, Rodin stripped the Gates of its figures, leaving an unreal space, modulated by light and shadow. Towards the end of his life, Rodin restored the figures, but never saw it cast in bronze. In 1917, the original plaster was restored and is currently on display at the Musée d'Orsay. That model was used to make the original three bronze casts, including this one at the Musée Rodin. The other two are in the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia and the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno Park, Tokyo. Subsequent copies were made and distributed to a number of locations, including The Kunsthaus Zürich, the B. Gerald Cantor Rodin Sculpture Garden at Stanford University and the Rodin Gallery in Seoul.

RELATED VIDEOS

Part 4/7 Rodin (2003)

Francois-Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Auguste Rodin is widely considered to be the greatest and most influential sculptor of the late nineteenth century. A passionate observer of the human body, he challenged certain conventions of the time and paved the way for modern sculpture. This film is a unique insight into the sculptor's personality and working methods, told through the artist's notebooks and letters as well as archive footage of him in his studio and at Meudon.

“The Old Courtesan”

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Adam 1880-1881 Bronze

Adam

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adam_[detail _1]

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Adonis Death

The Age of Bronze (2)

At The Gates of Hell

Auguste Rodin The Burghers of Calais First Maquette

Signature of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) on The Thinker

Auguste Rodin_The Thinker_ originally part of The Gate of Hell

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Crouching Woman 1880-1882 ENLARGED 1907-11 CAST 1962 Bronze Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn1966

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Daphnie and Lycenion

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Detail from the Gates of Hell.

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Eve 1881 Bronze

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Femmes damnées Avant 1890 Bronze

Fugit Amor (2)

Fugit Amor - Rodin

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Gerald Cantor Rodin sculpture garden

Head portrait of Camille Claudel with a bonnet

Hoellentor


I am Beautiful Signed on rock between man's legs, toward the left: A.Rodin Inscribed front of base: Je suis belle, ô Mortels, Comme un rêve de pierre Et mon sein, où Chacun s'est meurtri tour à tour Est fait pour inspirer au poète un Amour Etant alors muet ainsi que la matière Translation: I am beautiful as a dream of stone, but not maternal; And my breast, where men are slain, none for his learning, Is made to inspire in the Poet passions that, burning, Are mute and carnal as matter and as eternal. Foundry mark center rear of base: ALEXIS RUDIER/Fondeur. PARIS. Made in France, Europe. Modeled 1885; cast 1925-1926. Auguste Rodin, French, 1840 - 1917. Cast by the founder Alexis Rudier, Paris, 1874 - 1952.

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Iris, Messenger of the Gods

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La Défense by Rodin.

La Défense. © Musée Rodin

La Main de Dieu

La Porte de l'Enfer - Fugit Amor

La Porte de l'Enfer - Le Penseur

La Porte de l'Enfer - Les trois Ombres

La Porte de l'Enfer - Ugolino et ses enfant

La Porte de l'Enfer du Musée Rodin à Paris, détail d'Ugolin et ses enfants

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L'Age d'airain

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Le Baiser du fantôme à la jeune fille, 1885

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Le Baiser 1

Le Baiser

Le Monument à Balzac

Le sommeil Musée Rodin

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Les Bourgeois de Calais

Les trois Ombres

L'Eternelle Idole

Main sortant de la tombe
(The Hand from the Tomb)

The Hand from the Tomb

Mains d'amants

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Model for the Monument, seated draped figure

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Naked Balzac C with Folded Arms

NYC - Brooklyn Museum - Auguste Rodin's Burghers of Calais

Paris Musée Rodin The Thinker

Paris - Musée Rodin Adonis Death

Paris - Musée Rodin La Cathédrale

Paris - Musée Rodin, La Main de Dieu

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Pense

Philbrook Museum - Auguste Rodin

Paris Musée Rodin Daphnis et Leycénion

Pierre de Wissant, Draped Figure

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Pierre de Wissant, Naked Figure

Porte_de_l'enfer_(Chute)Detail upper left-hand door

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Reveries Poet and the Muse 1905 Marble The Hermitage The St. Petersburg

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Rodin the prodigal son

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Garden view at the Musée Rodin (Rodin_Garden)

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Rodin_Suzon_p1070078

Rodin_The Walking Man

Rodin_The_bronze_age

Rodin_urn

Rodin-thinker

She Who Was the Helmet Maker's Once-Beautiful Wife 1887_1

She Who Was the Helmet Maker's Once-Beautiful Wife 1887_2

St-John-the-Baptist-Preaching

Study After Auguste Rodin's La Belle Heaulmiere

The Age of Bronze (2)

The Age of Bronze_[detail _1]

The Burghers of Calais, First Maquette

The Call to Arms (La Defense), 1878

The Cry, Auguste Rodin

The Fall of Illusion Sister of Icarus

The falling man

The Gates of Hell

The Prodigal Son

The Secret 1

The Secret

The Storm

The Thinker

the Three Shades by Rodin

the walking man

The Young Mother in the Grotto

The Thinker 1903 Bronze

the-gates-of-hell-1885-1917situated at the Kunsthaus in Zürich Switzerland

The_Burghers_of_Calais_NY

the_hand_of_god-

the_kiss

the_kiss_[detail _1]

the_kiss_[detail]

the_sinner

the_thinker_Auguste_Rodin

torso of falling man

Tuileries_Rodin_Le_Baiser_120409_1

Ugolino and his Children

Ugolino

Victor Hugo and muses

Victor Hugo Monument, first project

young_girl_with_roses_on_her_hat-

*original post date July 1 2010

Sources:
Musee-rodin.fr

gordon.shecket.org (Rodin museum Paris)

cantorfoundation.org

Wikimedia Commons

Wga.hu

philamuseum.org

rodinmuseum.org

Wikimedia.org

Wikiart.org

Hermitagemuseum.org

Rodin-web.org

*artrenewal.org*

*all-art.org*

*Flickr*

*wallyg*

*theNewYorktimes*

*artchive.com*

avenuemontaigneguide.com

Hatshepsut

2015-02-06T23:50:00.001+08:00

Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut (also Hatchepsut meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies;1508–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. She is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other woman of an indigenous Egyptian dynasty. According to Egyptologist James Henry Breasted she is also known as "the first great woman in history of whom we are informed."

Hatshepsut’s Temple

The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the Djeser-Djeseru (“Holy of Holies”), is located beneath the cliffs at Deir el Bahari on the west bank of the Nile near the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The mortuary temple is dedicated to the sun god Amon-Ra and is located next to the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II, which served both as an inspiration, and later, a quarry. It is considered one of the “incomparable monuments of ancient Egypt.”…

A spectacular 360 virtual tour of the Temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt, which I came across today. Enjoy!

See more@ http://www.360fied.com/hatshepsut/

Remember This Lady?

2015-01-28T05:14:00.001+08:00

Remember This Lady?

You Will After You Hear What She Did.

An unfamiliar name to most people, but this remarkable woman defied the Nazis and saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. As a health worker, she sneaked the children out between 1942 and 1943 to safe hiding places and found non-Jewish families to adopt them…..

Sviatoslav Richter. Legendary Concert in London

2015-01-05T03:30:00.000+08:00

Sviatoslav Richter. Legendary Concert in London

Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) was, unquestionably, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.

A complicated and temperamental man, Richter strictly avoided being filmed. The circumstances of this Barbican recital were far from ideal: Richter, who was known to cancel concerts at a moment’s notice, was apparently unaware until shortly before the concert that it was to be filmed. After a considerable and heated discussion, he agreed to the filming on the condition that no camera would be in his field of vision.

This challenge was overcome at the expense of the film crew, who were accustomed to expending thousands of watts of lighting power when televising such an event. Richter insisted on restricting the lighting to a single 40-watt bulb, focused not on him, but on his music. This eccentric lightening was unconventional even without cameras present, but it was his standard practice at concerts, as he wanted to focus maximum attention on the music and de-emphasize the importance of the performer. It also served to mask his use of a score, a practice he implemented in 1979 after a memory lapse at a concert.

When the great Sviatoslav Richter took the stage carrying his own music and accompanied by a page-turner at this recital at London's Barbican Centre in March 1989, he resembled a distracted John Malkovich -- balding, bespectacled, and bored looking -- so unsuspecting members of the audience might have been forgiven for thinking that they were in for a dull evening.

But though he looked like an accountant performing by the light of a small lamp, Richter played like a god.

The three Mozart sonatas that open the concert, the E flat major (K. 282), the C major (K. 545), and the A minor (K. 310), are all poised, polished, and supremely joyous, even the tempestuous A minor Sonata. With a minimum of motion and a maximum of musicianship, Richter creates performances of pellucid beauty. Even better are his two sets of Chopin's etudes, four from Op. 10 (Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4) and four from Op. 25 (Nos. 5, 6, 8, and 11).

After the inwardness of his Mozart performances, the extroverted flamboyance of his Chopin is surprising and staggering. From the gargantuan arpeggios of Op. 10/1 to the thunderous octaves of Op. 25/11, Richter's technique is simply astounding. Though he restricts his movements to what is absolutely necessary, every piece receives a performance executed with supreme virtuosity and filled with soulful poetry. Richter closes the Barbican recital with a towering performance of Chopin’s Étude, Op. 25/11 in A minor, which brings the house down, highlighting his legendary artistry.

Contributors

Richter, Sviatoslav, 1915-1997 Performer

Juban, Pierre-Martin

Sturrock, Donald

Piesis, Gunnar

Medici Arts (Firm)

Idéale Audience International

British Broadcasting Corporation

Centre national de la cinématographie (France)

Contents/Summary

    Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791. Sonatas, piano, K. 282, E♭ major.

    Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791. Sonatas, piano, K. 545, C major.

    Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791. Sonatas, piano, K. 310, A minor.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 10. No. 1.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 10. No. 2.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 10. No. 3.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 10. No. 4.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 10. No. 6.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 10. No. 10.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 10. No. 11.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 10. No. 12.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 25. No. 5.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 25. No. 6.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 25. No. 8.

    Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Etudes, piano, op. 25. No. 11.

    Rachmaninoff, Sergei, 1873-1943. Etudes-tableaux, op. 39. No 3. (Bonus)

Subject

Sonatas (Piano)

Piano music.

Genre

Concert films

Title Variation

Mozart, Chopin

Event

Filmed at the Barbican Centre, London, 29 March 1989; broadcast by BBC on 28 October 1969 (bonus)

Sources:

searchworks.stanford.edu
allmusic.com
blog.naxos

Why Christmas is held on 25th December

2014-12-25T02:15:00.000+08:00

Why Christmas is held on 25th December

According to popular tradition, Christmas is celebrated on 25th December to honor the birth of Jesus. However, no records exist in the Bible or elsewhere to suggest that Jesus was actually born on this date, which raises the important question – why is Christmas celebrated on 25th December? In fact, the selection of this date has its root in both Persian and pagan traditions.

The Catholic Encyclopaedia admits "there is no month in the year to which respectable authorities have not assigned Christ's birth" (Catholic Encyclopaedia). There are, however, a number of reasons to suggest that Jesus was probably not born in December.

Firstly, Luke 2:8 states that on the night of Jesus' birth "there were also in that same country shepherds living out of doors and keeping watches in the night over their flocks." Many scholars agree that this would have been unlikely in December, as shepherds would have been keeping their flock under cover during the cold winter months. Shepherds did not remain in the fields of Judea at night during December due to lack of forage and the bad weather.

According to Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays, Luke's account "suggests that Jesus may have been born in summer or early fall. Since December is cold and rainy in Judea, it is likely the shepherds would have sought shelter for their flocks at night" (p. 309).

Similarly, The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary says this passage argues "against the birth [of Christ] occurring on Dec. 25 since the weather would not have permitted" shepherds watching over their flocks in the fields at night.

The Good Shepherd figure has firm roots in pagan antiquity, and became very popular in its application to Christ's characterization of Himself. Like a mother's love, the shepherd's concern for his flock was legendary, and helped reassure Christians of the quality of God's promise and love. This depiction is Jesus as the Good Shepherd from the early Christian catacomb of Domitilla/Domatilla (Crypt of Lucina - 200 CE)

Secondly, it is written in the Bible that Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem to register in a Roman census (Luke 2:1-4). However, The Romans would have known better than to have taken such censuses in winter, when temperatures often dropped below freezing and roads were in poor condition for traveling. Taking a census under such conditions would have been self-defeating.

Pagan celebrations

Since it appears unlikely that Jesus was born on 25th December, it raises the logical question of why Christmas is celebrated on this date. The answer points back to the Romans' pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Two celebrations in particular took place around December 25 - the Saturnalia, and the birthday of the Sun God, Mithra (Catholic Encyclopedia).

A painting by Thomas Couture depicting Romans celebrating Saturnalia

The Saturnalia festival began on 17th December and later expanded with festivities through to the 25th December. It paid tribute to Saturn, the agricultural God of Sowing and Husbandry, and was associated with the renewal of light and the coming of the New Year. It was a public holiday celebrated around December 25th in the family home-- A time for feasting, goodwill, generosity to the poor, the exchange of gifts and the decoration of trees. But it wasn’t Christmas. This was Saturnalia, the pagan Roman winter solstice festival. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice in the Temple of Saturn, a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere.

Saturnalia_by_Antoine_Callet

Christmas apparently started – like Saturnalia – in Rome, and spread to the eastern Mediterranean. The earliest known reference to it commemorating the birth of Christ on December 25th is in the Roman Philocalian calendar of AD 354.

The birth of Mithra

Followers of the cult of Mithras, which became popular among the military in the Roman Empire from the 1^st to 4^th centuries AD, are believed to have celebrated his birthday on 25th December, which was the most holy day of the year for many Romans. The worship of the Sun God, Mithra (proto-Indo-Iranian ‘Mitra’), has its origin in Persia, from around the 6^th century BC, and was later adapted into Greek as ‘Mithras’. The most popular hypothesis is that Roman soldiers encountered this religion during military excursions to Persia.

Mithra divinity statue in Vatican library, old illustration. By unidentified author, published on Magasin Pittoresque, Paris, 1840. Source: BigStockPhoto

While it is widely accepted that the Mithraic New Year and the birthday of Mithras was on 25 December and was celebrated on this day as part of the Roman Natalis Invicti festival, others have argued that the Natalis Invicti was a general festival of the sun, and was not specific to the Mysteries of Mithras. Nevertheless, it is clear that 25 December was an important day for the Romans and revolved around a celebration of the sun.

Pagan-Christian fusion

Statue de Constantin Ier, Musée du Capitole, Rome

The conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity in AD 312 ended Roman persecution of Christians and began imperial patronage of the Christian churches. But Christianity did not become the Roman Empire’s official religion overnight. Dr David Gwynn, lecturer in ancient and late antique history at Royal Holloway, University of London, says that, alongside Christian and other pagan festivals, ‘the Saturnalia continued to be celebrated in the century afterward’.

The poet Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius wrote another Saturnalia, describing a banquet of pagan literary celebrities in Rome during the festival. Classicists date the work to between AD 383 and 430, so it describes a Saturnalia alive and well under Christian emperors. The Christian calendar of Polemius Silvus, written around AD 449, mentions Saturnalia, recording that ‘it used to honour the god Saturn’. This suggests it had by then become just another popular carnival.

When King Constantine converted to Christianity in the fourth century, he had quite a challenge ahead of him with regard to converting an empire full of pagans. It was therefore decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus on a date that was already sacred according to pagan traditions. So as a compromise with paganism and in an attempt to give the pagan holidays Christian significance, it was simply decided that the birthday of the Sun God would also be the birthday of the Son of God. The Catholic Encyclopaedia quotes an early Christian with saying, "O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born.... Christ should be born".

Sources:

ancient-origins.net
historytoday.com
ucg.org

Metropolitan Museum of Art Makes Public 400K High-Res Images of Its Collection

2014-11-12T07:36:00.001+08:00

Striding lion (ceramics) Mesopotamia, Babylon (modern Hillah) ca. 604–562 B.C.

NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has officially made available 400,000 high-resolution digital images of the collections it currently has in its possession.

Hoping to keep up with other museums, the Metropolitan has created an initiative, called Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC), that will “provide access to images of art in its collection that the Museum believes to be in the public domain.”

See more at:

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online?tabname=artist-maker-culture

~ The Grandeur of Khajuraho ~

2014-10-22T05:25:00.002+08:00

khajuraho-temples-india-1280x800

The Grandeur of Khajuraho

Khajuraho (Hindi: खजुराहो) is a village in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, located in Chhatarpur District, about 385 miles (620 kilometres) southeast of Delhi, the capital city of India.

The Khajuraho group of monuments has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

One of the most popular tourist destinations in India, Khajuraho has the largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculpture. The name Khajuraho, ancient "Kharjuravahaka", is derived from the Sanskrit word kharjur meaning date palm.

The art of Madhya Pradesh at once brings in to mind the exuberant art and the creativity immortalized in the figurative molds in the temples of Khajuraho. Viswanatha Temple The temples of Khajuraho are one of India’s major attractions. Once a great Chandella capital, Khajuraho is now a quiet village of over 6000 people. The temples are superb examples of Indo-Aryan architecture, but it’s the decorations with which they are so liberally embellished, that have made Khajuraho famous.

Around the temples are bands of exceedingly fine and artistically carved stonework. There are sculptors, which have shown many aspects of Indian life, 1000 years ago - gods and goddesses, warriors and musicians, real and mythological animals. These temples were built by the Chandellas, a dynasty that survived for five centuries before falling to the onslaught of Islam. Almost all Khajuraho’s temples record a century long burst of creative genius from 950- 1050 A.D.

Basically all the temples follow a three-part layout. You enter the temple through a porch, known as the Ardhamandapa. Behind this is the hall or Mahamandapa, supported with pillars and with a corridor around it. A vestibule then leads into the Garbhagriha, the inner sanctum, where the image of the god to which the temple is dedicated is displayed.

The temples are almost all aligned east to west, with the entrance facing east. Some of the earliest temples were made of granite, or granite and sandstone but all the ones from the classic period of Khajuraho's history are made completely of sandstone.

The whole area was enclosed by a wall with eight gates, each flanked by two golden palm trees. There were originally over 80 Hindu temples, of which only 25 now stand in a reasonable state of preservation, scattered over an area of about 8 square miles (21 km²). The temples of Khajuraho suffered destruction by early Muslim invaders between c.1100-1400 AD as various disfigured statues at the temple complex attest.

Today, the temples serve as fine examples of Indian architectural styles that have gained popularity due to their explicit depiction of the traditional way of sexual life during medieval times.

Locals living in the Khajuraho village always knew about and kept up the temples as best as they could. They were pointed out to an English man in late 19th century and the jungles had taken a toll on all of the monuments.

Architecture of the Khajuraho temples

The Khajuraho temples, constructed with spiral superstructures, adhere to a northern Indian shikhara temple style and often to a Panchayatana plan or layout. A few of the temples are dedicated to the Jain pantheon and the rest to Hindu deities - to God's Trio, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and various Devi forms, such as the Devi Jagadambi temple.

A Panchayatana temple had four subordinate shrines on four corners and the main shrine in the center of the podium, which comprises their base. The temples are grouped into three geographical divisions: western, eastern and southern.

With a graded rise secondary shikharas (spires) cluster to create an appropriate base for the main shikhara over the sanctum. Kandariya Mahadeva, one of the most accomplished temples of the Western group, comprises eighty-four shikharas, the main being 116 feet from the ground level.

The Khajuraho temples are made of sandstone, they didn't use mortar the stones were put together with mortise and tenon joints and they were held in place by gravity. This form of construction requires very precise joints. The columns and architraves were built with megaliths that weighed up to 20 tons.

These shikharas – subordinate and main – attribute to the Khajuraho temples their unique splendor and special character. With a graded rise of these shikharas from over the ardhamandapa, porch, to mandapa, assembly hall, mahamandapa, principal assembly hall, antarala, vestibule, and garbhagriha, sanctum sanctorum, the Khajuraho temples attain the form and glory of gradually rising Himalayan peaks.
The name Khajuraho, or Kharjuravāhaka, is derived from ancient Sanskrit (kharjura, खर्जूर means date palm, and vāhaka, वाहक means "one who carries" or bearer). Local legends state that the temples had two golden date-palm trees as their gate (missing when they were rediscovered).

Khajuraho is one of the four holy sites linked to deity Shiva (the other three are Kedamath, Kashi and Gaya). Its origin and design is a subject of scholarly studies. Shobita Punja has proposed that the temple’s origin reflect the Hindu mythology in which Khajuraho is the place where Shiva got married; with Raghuvamsha verse 5.53, Matangeshvara honoring ‘’Matanga’’, or god of love.

These temples of Khajuraho have sculptures that look very realistic and are studied even today.

'Kamasutra' Endless at Khajuraho

The Khajuraho temples do not contain sexual or erotic art inside the temple or near the deities; however, some external carvings bear erotic art. Also, some of the temples that have two layers of walls have small erotic carvings on the outside of the inner wall. There are many interpretations of the erotic carvings. They portray that, for seeing the deity, one must leave his or her sexual desires outside the temple. They also show that divinity, such as the deities of the temples, is pure like the atman, which is not affected by sexual desires and other characteristics of the physical body.

It has been suggested that these suggest tantric sexual practices. Meanwhile, the external curvature and carvings of the temples depict humans, human bodies, and the changes that occur in human bodies, as well as facts of life. Some 10% of the carvings contain sexual themes; those reportedly do not show deities, they show sexual activities between people. The rest depict the everyday life of the common Indian of the time when the carvings were made, and of various activities of other beings. A common misconception is that, since the old structures with carvings in Khajuraho are temples, the carvings depict sex between deities.

However the kama arts represent diverse sexual expressions of different human beings. The vast majority of arts depict various aspects the everyday life, mythical stories as well as symbolic display of various secular and spiritual values important in Hindu tradition. For example, depictions show women putting on makeup, musicians making music, potters, farmers, and other folks in their daily life during the medieval era. These scenes are in the outer padas as is typical in Hindu temples.

*NOTE: SOME OF THE SCULPTED IMAGES ON THIS PAGE ARE EROTIC IN NATURE

A view on the famous temples

Between the skies and bushes

A closer look at a temple in Khajuraho

Adinath Temple

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Admiring Khajuraho...The lady Brigade

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Chitragupta Temple

Finest Carvings for the Kamasutra

Flowers in Khadjuraho

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Jain temple, Khajuraho, India

Kamasutra Sculpture

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Kandariya Mahadev Temple

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the famous south side of the Kandariya-Mahadev temple demonstrates the sheer volume of intricate stone sculpture present on each temple

The feet and the flower

The last ray

This is the largest and most famous of the Khajuraho temples, Kandariya-Mahadev. Built around 1025 AD, it represents the high point of Chandelan architecture

tough climb

Uneasy exit. Khajuraho

Unrestored dignity

Visvanatha Temple I

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*Original post date June 24, 2009

Further reading

http://www.thefullwiki.org/Khajuraho

http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_Khajuraho.htm

http://www.history.upenn.edu/coursepages/hist086/material/Khajurao.html.

100 photos 1280x960 of Khajuraho

UNESCO World Heritage Site listing

*(Taken from many sources)

wikipedia.org/wiki/

flickr.com

wherewebe.com

*All images and text belong to their respective copyright owners. I intend and believe that all of the graphics used to illustrate this article either are in the public domain or, if copyrighted, appear here as fair use. This page is solely informational and educational and intended for no other purpose than that as well as being not for profit page.

Re-post Additional Comments:

edit delete reply

nosauvelta wrote on Jul 6, '09, edited on Jul 6, '09

There are 35 sandstone temples –
Jain, Buddhist, and Hindu –
built in the 10th and 11th centuries.
The temples are covered inside and out
with erotic relief sculptures
symbolizing mystic union with the deity.

The sexual symbolism is stark.

There is pure beauty and no perversion in these temples.
The eroticism of Khajuraho is part of the larger
Hindu view of the cyclicality of life.

'There are different opinions on why temples were decorated with sexually explicit sculptures. One group argues that the old kings lived in obscene luxury and that they used these for excitement.

Another group thinks that it was part of sexual education in ancient India: since most people visited temples, it was an appropriate place for mass communication.

Some scholars say that since Hinduism believes in the efficacy of all four paths to Moksha (Dharma, Artha, Yoga, and Kama), these sculptures were provided to assist in the last of these four paths.

Since these sculptures are limited to the outer walls of the temples, some people interpret them as a symbolic gate to reaching God. It is possible that at the time just preceding the construction of these sculptures, monastic Buddhism was prevalent, people were losing interest in the householder-life, and the temples were built to attract people to sex and family life and to renew Hinduism.

Some others go to the extent of saying that the Khajuraho temples themselves are built upon the model of an ultimate seductress.
The steps are like the feet, the Ardhmandapam are the knees, the Mandapam represents the curvaceous thighs, the sanctum-sanctorum is like the ovaries, and since it is very dark where the Linga is installed, it represents the sexual organ, etc.

"All of life is God's magic;" we are all parts of divinity; Hindu scriptures argue that to attain moksha, and to dedicate ourselves to dharma and adhyatma, one should first experience sexual fulfillment. The one who wrote the Kamasutra was none less than a sage! When the Gods themselves cannot escape the web of erotic love (Kama), what about us mere mortals?

For a long time, the pundits have wondered why it was necessary to decorate a place of worship with sexual material, but if one observes the materialistic thoughts of Hinduism, there is nothing unnatural about them.'- K.L. Kamat

petesback wrote on Nov 3, '09

Great set of pics

edit delete reply

nosauvelta wrote on Nov 7, '09

Glad to know
you like them.

Hello, Pete.
Welcome to my site :-)

delete reply

hallihuduga wrote on Feb 26, '10

so experimentation was encouraged even then...

	edit delete reply nosauvelta wrote on Mar 3, '10 Kamasutra as we understand, deals with the science to attain the best carnal ecstasy. The objective of Kamasutra was to educate methods and purpose of attaining sexual satisfaction. Khajuraho temple walls have most sexual poses inscribed in ancient text of Kamasutra....
	delete reply hallihuduga wrote on Feb 26, '10 not easy while standing... even then

edit delete reply

nosauvelta wrote on Mar 3, '10

Not easy, yes,
but in ancient Indian Art
and ritual practices,
everything were based on the
reality of life involving Karma (destiny)
and Kama (carnal ecstasy) together.
The belief was fulfillment of
both functions was the
way to attain moksha (spiritual way to heaven).
Therefore, sex was as sacred
as other holy rituals -
any position would not be
difficult as it may seem.

delete reply

hallihuduga wrote on Feb 26, '10

back breaking...

	edit delete reply nosauvelta wrote on Mar 3, '10 back breaking, so it seems - but, it is good physical exercise.
	delete reply hallihuduga wrote on Feb 26, '10 69?

	edit delete reply nosauvelta wrote on Mar 3, '10 69... What better way but to give and receive simultaneously- having the best of both worlds.
	delete reply hallihuduga wrote on Mar 3, '10 indeed.... some how 69 is more of giving and taking than missionary which is some how dominating than sharing

delete reply

hallihuduga wrote on Mar 3, '10

yes... but kamasutra is comprehensive..not just posses ( asanas)

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hallihuduga wrote on Mar 3, '10

well.. some additions... Karma just means literally.. JOB.. belief was that each one was born to do a karma as assigned to him by his caste, context directions of elders/ teachers ( gurus) etc..u do your JOB well u get rewards..
Kama is a larger word than just sex.. Kama is passionate desire for anything sex, food, for fine art...

Karma was and Kama was set for each stage of life and they were different for each stage
1. shishava... before two years from birth
2. Balya ..from 2- 7
3. vidyarthi.. 7 to 14 or 18 from birth... at this stage one must have a kama ( desire) for knowledge, stay at the guru's gurukul ( guru's place of stay).. grass hut away from human settling to enable Guru to teach and to do penance. one stayed away from parents and lived very ascetic life this stage karma was to follow Guru's instructions without question, serve him and his wife devotedly
4. gruhastha ashrama... family life .. kama is to produce children, karma is to take care of spouse and children and be responsible and serve the desha ( country ) and uphold dharma ( religion) .. collection of artha ( property and money)
5. sanyasa.. or vanaprastha.. to give up all worldly desires,, actually go to forest or Himalayas and do penance .. search of truth search of god.. search of answers... to attain Moksha.. moksha literally means freedom,,, freedom from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and soul ( atma) joins big soul ( paramatma - god)

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nosauvelta wrote on Mar 3, '10

Good additional info, Halli :-)
Thanks...
I never thought Karma
can be regarded as mere job.
I see it as either striving
to do good or be the Devil's tool
and thus Lady Justice scales tip,
a verdict is reached,
the judgment is reaped...

delete reply

hallihuduga wrote on Mar 3, '10

Karma .. ad verbatim .. means job.. just that... a JOB ... then if u do a good job it is called sukarma.. bad / evel job is kukarma...
so when a hindu goes through a bad phase in life he blames his karma.. meaning that he did a eveil thing and now he is getting punished and when he suddenly gets riches ( of any type ,, not just money he ascribes to again his karma..

	edit delete reply nosauvelta wrote on Mar 5, '10 Thanks, Halli :-) Now enlightened as to the true meaning of Karma, not fate or predestination, but 'doing' or action...
	edit delete reply nosauvelta wrote on Mar 5, '10 On that note, may we all live our lives with the intention to propagate the process of Sukarma: good actions, good results.....

	delete reply hallihuduga wrote on Mar 3, '10 when i say job i mean deed, action... not employment
	delete reply hallihuduga wrote on Mar 5, '10 su karma is not just doing 'good jobs' it also means doing ones jobs with dedication.. 'job ' as a father, lover, son, employee, citizen... work itself is worship...

Distinctly Kogan

2014-09-26T03:00:00.002+08:00

Distinctly Kogan

BRAHMS: Violin Concerto in D Leonid Kogan / Boston / Monteux

The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, was composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. It is Brahms's only violin concerto, and, according to Joachim, one of the four great German violin concerti. The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's.

Of the legion of superb musicians out of Soviet Russia, Ukrainian violinist Leonid Kogan (1924-1982) remains notable for his immaculate skill and natural, patrician bearing and nobility of line. An unabashed admirer of Jascha Heifetz, Kogan consciously attempted to recreate that peerless master’s style, insisting on playing on all four steel strings. While this approach did not yield particularly “flexible” results, the intense power of expression and brilliant resonance became as identifiable a trademark for Kogan as a burnished tone defined a Heifetz interpretation.

Leonid Kogan considered Brahms’s and Mozart’s Third Concertos his favorites; DOREMI has now made available live performances from Kogan’s first American tour (the Brahms Concerto being his actual American premiere) on a single disc. Kogan recorded the Brahms Concerto three times in the studio from 1955 (with Bruck and the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire) to recordings with Kondrashin in 1959 (Philharmonia) and 1967 (Moscow Philharmonic).

That exemplified Kogan—his sound wasn’t nearly as identifiable as Oistrakh’s to a young listener—but the white heat of his performance and the steely strength of his virtuosity made an indelible impression nonetheless. This American debut sounds similar, with Kogan entering with perhaps even grander, more assured aplomb, thus reaching his level of intensity earlier. Those who consider Kogan a somewhat remote, cold player should listen as a corrective to his readings of Brahms’s Concerto (as should those who entertain a similar opinion of Heifetz, who had so deeply impressed Kogan on his return to Russia). Similar to Heifetz in his technical command, Kogan nevertheless produced a tone that seemed rawer and less nuanced. Both had all the power required to bring the violin part of Brahms’s first movement to the fore (the cadenza is dazzling if somewhat edgy).

The American press wrote after the violinist's concert at Carnegie Hall "Kogan is a rare type among the performing artists: a most musical of musicians, he is always an enormous successful with the public". This recording was made during his first tour in the United States in 1958. Leonid Kogan is accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the legendary Pierre Monteux. The public gave him a ten-minute ovation.

Leonid Kogan
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Monteux
Live recording, Boston, 10.I.1958

I. Allegro non troppo 0:00
II. Adagio 20:12
III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace 29:01

Leonid Kogan - Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major Op.61

Leonid Kogan was less famous in the West than his competitor, David Oistrakh. This was probably more to do with politics in the USSR rather than any lesser worth, although he started later and died at the tragically young age of only 58 in 1982. Coupled with this, he did not like recording, particularly on film or TV because he always preferred performing in relatively darkened surroundings.

He was a virtuoso of the first order, however, as these rare recordings show. The Beethoven Concerto is the centre-piece, and is ably accompanied by Louis de Froment. Particular sections of great repose and beauty are to be found in the quiet parts of the first movement and particularly the slow second movement.

In 1966, Leonid Kogan is in Paris and interprets Beethoven's Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major with the National Orchestra of the ORTF conducted by Louis de Froment: first of all it is the purity of his sound that appeals, then the extreme elegance of his playing and his contained sensibility.

Gone too early, the Russian prince of the violin recorded in Paris a memorable performance of a Beethoven concerto.

L.v Beethoven Violin Concerto op.61 D major
Leonid Kogan, violin
Orchestre National de I'ORTF
Louis de Froment, conductor
ORTF, Paris, 12 March 1966

Sources:

Audaud

Arkivmusic

Medici.tv

musicweb-international

~Michelangelo Was No Beauty~

2014-09-13T03:33:00.000+08:00

Michelangelo, painted by Marcello Venusti in 1535.

Michelangelo Was No Beauty

It is no exaggeration to say that Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was a complicated human being. The man and the myth that grew around him even in his own lifetime are difficult to disentangle. Arrogant with others and constantly dissatisfied with himself, he nonetheless penned tender poetry. In spite of his legendary impatience and indifference to food and drink, he committed himself to tasks that required years of sustained attention, creating some of the most beautiful human figures ever imagined.

He constantly cried poverty, even declaring to his apprentice Ascanio Condivi: "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man," yet he amassed a considerable fortune that kept his family comfortable for centuries. And though he enjoyed the reputation of being a solitary genius and continually withdrew himself from the company of others, he also directed dozens of assistants, quarrymen, and stonemasons to carry out his work.

The second of five sons, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born in 1475 in the town of Caprese, located in the Florentine territory of Italy near Arezzo, Tuscany. The son of a magistrate, Michelangelo shocked his family in 1488 by becoming an apprentice to painter Domenico Ghirlandaio and then studied with sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni in the Medici gardens in Florence. While honing his skills, he was influenced by prominent people who expanded his views on the arts, especially Lorenzo de' Medici and his school, who introduced him to poets, artists, and scholars in his inner circle.

Early in his career, Michelangelo pursued artistic perfection in his representation of the human body. His meticulousness led him to anatomy, which he studied fervently, even gaining permission from the prior of the church of Santo Spirito to study cadavers in the church's hospital. During this time, he began a lifelong practice of drawing and sketching to prepare for future works of art and architecture.

Following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492, Michelangelo left Florence, moving from Venice to Bologna and eventually Rome, where he continued sculpting and studying classical works. During this period the French ambassador in the Holy See commissioned the "Pietà" for Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (1498-99).

Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

One of the artist's most famous works, the sculpture depicts the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of Jesus Christ after the Crucifixion. After the fall of Savonarola and the rise of the gonfaloniere Pier Soderini, Michelangelo returned home to the republic of Florence (1501-1505). There he began work on his famous colossal statue "David" (1501-1504), created out of marble from the quarries at Cararra. The masterwork established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and symbolic imagination.

Michelangelo's_David

Back in Rome, Pope Julius II (1503-13) commissioned the artist to create his papal tomb, which features the famous statue of Moses. Michelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, frequently stopping work for other commissions, the first major interruption being the commission to paint in the Sistine Chapel (1508-12).

Michelangelo painted more than 300 figures on the ceiling. This proved to be both a mentally and physically arduous task for the artist, who exhaustively planned the paintings through his process of drawing and sketching.

Medici Chapel, was designed as a burial pantheon for the Medici family.

Around 1516, he began to focus more intensely on architecture. Before leaving Florence definitively in 1534, he designed plans for the Medici Tombs and the Laurentian Library attached to the church of San Lorenzo.

Michelangelo's Sagrestia Nuova in the Cappelle Medicee (Medici Chapels) of Florence, Italy. Detail of the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours

In Rome, Pope Paul III (1534-49) was instrumental in seeing that Michelangelo produce an enormous fresco of The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, where he labored from 1534-1541. A depiction of the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse, the work was controversial even before its unveiling because of the depictions of nude saints in the papal chapel, which were considered obscene and sacrilegious.


Buonarroti Michelangelo, Last Judgment, ca 1537 1541, Fresco,Cappella Sistina, Vatican

The Last Judgment was commissioned from Michelangelo by Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) shortly before his death. His successor, Paul III Farnese (1534-1549). forced Michelangelo to a rapid execution of this work, the largest single fresco of the century.

While completing "The Last Judgment," Michelangelo focused his attention back on architecture. In 1536 he designed the Piazza del Campidoglio, which rationalized the structures and spaces of Rome's Capitoline Hill, and in 1546 was appointed architect of Saint Peter's Basilica and designed its dome. His last plans were for the Porta Pia, a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome (1561-65).

St.Peter'sDome-Int. Some sense of perspective is gained when you look at the lettering at the base of the dome, which reads Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam etc.

Main_Dome_of_Saint_Peter's_Basilica_photo-2

Dome-interior-St.-Peters-Basilica-Vatican-City-Rome-Italy

St.Peter'sDome-Int-Partial

Roma_Vatican_Saint_Peter_Dome_Mosaic

Some sense of perspective is gained when you look at the lettering at the base of the dome, which reads: "Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam" etc. (Matthew 16:18 – "Thou are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church"). A better idea of the scale of those letters- the blue letters are 7 feet tall, and they go all the way around the base.

Baldacchino and Dome. A view of Michelangelo's dome and Bernini's baldacchino, a monumental canopy that covers the shrine of St. Peter. Made of dark bronze accented with gold vine leaves, it was sculpted from 1624 to 1633 under the direction of Barberini Pope Urban VIII, who oversaw the Baroque decoration of much of Rome.

Interior view of dome and canopy in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Italy. The dome soars higher than a football field on end, 448 feet from the floor of the cathedral to the top of the lantern.

The giant letters on golden background located at the top of the Summit that read "From here, one faith shines on everyone" and "From here arises the unity of the priesthood," represent the unity of the Catholic Church and highlights as the Basilica becomes a universal symbol.

Michelangelo left his final work in marble, the "Rondanini Pietà," incomplete. He died in 1564, nearly 89.

Michelangelo's works have been studied exhaustively, confirming his reputation as one of the major forces in the history of Western art and supreme master of the Renaissance. Today, most of his works remain in Italy. Approximately 500 of his drawings are held primarily in Italian, British and French collections, including the Casa Buonarroti.

Portraits: Michelangelo Was No Beauty

Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the greatest figures of western civilization, was an ugly and rather unclean man, according to a series of rare, contemporary portraits and writings on show in Florence.

Casa Buonarroti - The great sculptor, painter, and architect Michelangelo 1475-1564 lived here. His house was transformed into a museum, bequeathed to the city.

House of Michelangelo Buonarroti

Running at the museum of the Casa Buonarroti until the end of the month, the exhibition,

"The Face of Michelangelo," mercilessly reveals that the artist did not use himself as a model for his celebration of male beauty when he sculpted David.

You can glimpse the human portrait of Michelangelo by Michelangelo and the like, such as the contemporary painter Giorgio Vasari painted when he left a letter, in this exhibition.

Art historians have long known that Michelangelo wasn't exactly handsome, but this is the first time that an exhibition focuses on the physical likeness of the Tuscan master as well as on rumors of his horrible personal habits and lack of hygiene.

"Movies have always portrayed Michelangelo as an attractive, good-looking man.

On the contrary, he wasn't handsome at all," exhibition curator Pina Ragionieri, the director of Casa Buonarroti, a house the artist bought in 1508, told Discovery News.

"Most of all, he was perfectly aware of his ugliness and did not want to be portrayed. Indeed, he left no documented self-portrait."

Portraits by contemporary artists, along with an unmerciful description by the 16th century painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari, are also on display.

All the works leave no doubt about Michelangelo's reluctance to pose for portraits.
Disfigured at age 17 when a fellow student smashed his nose, Michelangelo had small eyes, large ears, thin lips and a forked, thin beard.

Nevertheless, over the centuries since his death, Michelangelo's image improved significantly and his ugliness almost disappeared. In posthumous portraits, the artist appeared elegantly dressed, with a penetrating gaze and imposing presence.

"These images are testament to myth and do not necessarily show the person as he looked in his lifetime. The individual assumes a more refined face, more elegant clothes, more courtly accoutrements, or a statelier pose," Columbia University art historian Lynn Catterson told Discovery News.

In reality, Michelangelo wasn't exactly a refined man. In fact, he likely smelled terribly bad. According to Vasari, "he wore stockings of dog-skin constantly for months together, so that when he took them off the skin of the leg often came away with them." "The fact that Michelangelo wasn't either handsome or particularly considerate about his personal care isn't so important. One should look at his letters and poems. They are his real, inner self-portraits," Ragionieri said.

St_Peter's_Square,_Vatican_City_-_April_2007

The only known self-portrait of the artist is scratched into the margin of one of Michelangelo's poems, on show in Florence. The image is a sort of caricature of the artist, done during the years he was painting the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

sonnet with caricature

"This portrait reveals much about Michelangelo -- that he is right-handed and that, in his artist's mind, bodies need no clothes, including his own," Catterson said.

the_genesis_sistine_chapel_Rome_Italy

"Moreover, the drawing reveals Michelangelo's sense of humor since the figure he is drawing is not one of the massive heroic participants from the stories of Genesis that would ultimately populate the ceiling, but rather, one with cartoon-like features including huge eyes and hair standing straight up on ends."

*original post date September 20, 2008

Source:
Discovery News

RELATED MATERIALS

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/michelangelo.htm

Discovery Atlas Video - Italy: Arts and Culture in Florence. Travel back in time to the Renaissance period in Florence, Italy
http://michelangelo.syr.edu

Noscere Audere Velle Tascere Ire

LUCERNE FESTIVAL 2016 – OPENING CONCERT Riccardo Chailly conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 8

Holding Each Other’s Hand for 3,500 Years

Many paintings show affectionate couples embracing or seated close together holding hands. Romantic love was a frequent subject in poems, songs and other writings. All of these works are dated from the New Kingdom. One such poem includes:

“Your hand is in my hand,

my body trembles with joy,

my heart is exalted

because we walk together.”

All that remains from a statue of Akhenaten and Nefertiti are these hands, clasped forever. Amarna, quartzite clasped hands from Akhenaten and Nefertiti group, c.1345-1335 BC 18th dynasty, at Neues Museum or New Museum on Museumsinsel or Museum Island in Berlin/ Sandra Steiß; CC NC-BY-SA

It was found in the ruins of Akhenaten’s custom-built city, Akhetaten (modern day Amarna) and is generally considered to show Nefertiti (left) gently holding the hand of her husband, Akhenaten (right). Akhetaten on the Nile AMARNA

Source: nilemagazine.com.au digital-images.net/Gallery/Art/LACMA/Asia-MidEast/asia-mideast

Animation JS Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and Fugue

Director and visual artist Alan Warburton

Programming by Matthew Bain Sound Design by Mustafa Bal Musical Consultation by Jonathan James

Performance by Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Deutsche Grammophon, 00028947927846)

Morte D'Arthur, a Poem Written Out and Illuminated by Alberto Sangorski

One of his greatest achievements was a unique jewel bound version of Omar Khayyám’s Rubáiyát, now referred to as ‘the Great Omar,’ which never reached the American collector who commissioned it as it was sent across on the ill-fated Titanic in 1912.

Chopin's Nocturne Opus 9 No.2 in E flat

Chopin's minimal score allows pianists plenty of room for imagination.

Jon Tolansky

With this in mind, Jon then looks at five significant recordings to compare and contrast the differing artistic interpretations.

http://www.sinfinimusic.com/uk/listen/guides/comparing-notes/chopin-nocturne-opus-9-no-2

The Rodin Mythology

"All that I have lived and loved I have made in my art"

He belongs to the race of those men who march alone - Paul Laurens, the painter, said of Auguste Rodin.

1900 un triomphe pour Rodin Avenue MontaigneAvenue Montaigne

Rodin’s most famous works—the Age of Bronze, The Thinker, The Kiss, the Burghers of Calais and Honoré de Balzac—are frequently reproduced outside a fine-art context to represent modern attitudes that require poses and encounters freed from allegory, idealization and propriety.

The Rodin mythology embraces the artist’s faith in the spiritual dignity of individuals that direct scrutiny can reveal; this is at its most blatant in Rodin’s portraits of French heroes such as Balzac and Victor Hugo, presented naked and vulnerable.

Rose Beuret

His numerous biographers dwell on his rise from humble origins and his struggle to be accepted by the juries arbitrating entry to the Salon and to be awarded government commissions.

Also part of the myth are the fidelity of Rose Beuret, his companion of 50 years; his brazen sexuality; and the unprecedented international fame Rodin acquired after 1900.

Rodin did not idealize his subjects, but aimed for realism, going to nature for his inspiration. To him, all nature was life and life was art.

BY the turn of the century, Auguste Rodin, a shy man of humble origins who did not come into his own as a sculptor until his mid-30's, dominated the international art world, his influence reaching as far as Japan.

The 165 sculptures that he showed in his specially constructed pavilion at Paris's vast Universal Exhibition in 1900 were a sensational draw.

RODIN-EXPO-LABORATOIRE-CREATION

At the beginning of the 20th century Rodin was famous throughout the world and long had been revered as a modern-day Michelangelo, a titan of sculpture, an incarnation of the power of inspired genius.

Even his prodigious sensuality was excused as a symbol of his Olympian stature.

In the end it seems there was scarcely an honor that had not been bestowed on this hard-eyed, gruff-looking artist. Even in death his fame was secure. His works were housed in the Hotel Biron, now the Rodin Museum, which is still thronged daily by admirers from all over the world.

Hatshepsut

Read more @Mortuary_Temple_of_Hatshepsut

A spectacular 360 virtual tour of the Temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt, which I came across today. Enjoy!

See more@ http://www.360fied.com/hatshepsut/

Remember This Lady?

An unfamiliar name to most people, but this remarkable woman defied the Nazis and saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. As a health worker, she sneaked the children out between 1942 and 1943 to safe hiding places and found non-Jewish families to adopt them…..

Sviatoslav Richter. Legendary Concert in London

All that remains from a statue of Akhenaten and Nefertiti are these hands, clasped forever.

Amarna, quartzite clasped hands from Akhenaten and Nefertiti group, c.1345-1335 BC 18th dynasty, at Neues Museum or New Museum on Museumsinsel or Museum Island in Berlin/ Sandra Steiß; CC NC-BY-SA

It was found in the ruins of Akhenaten’s custom-built city, Akhetaten (modern day Amarna) and is generally considered to show Nefertiti (left) gently holding the hand of her husband, Akhenaten (right).

Akhetaten on the Nile

AMARNA

Source:

nilemagazine.com.au

digital-images.net/Gallery/Art/LACMA/Asia-MidEast/asia-mideast

Programming by Matthew Bain
Sound Design by Mustafa Bal
Musical Consultation by Jonathan James

"All that I have lived
and loved I have made in my art"