This is awesome. Roll over, Beethoven!

bluebells wrote:

Blueballs -

If your argument were to prevail, no one in the last couple of hundred years would have heard the classics. There were no recording devices in the days of Beethoven, Mozart, etc. other than pen and paper. If nobody else was allowed to perform them, they would be lost forever.

Of all the amazing tracks on this album (Perpetual Motion), I'm not sure why this is the only one that gets played on RP. There are a number of tracks that blow my mind each time I hear them. The only conclusion I can come to after listening to the end of Fleck and John Williams' rendition of God Save the King is that Fleck has sold his soul to the devil. His version of Etude in C-sharp Minor (Chopin) is equally inhuman.

gtm256 wrote:
yeah, thats my biggest problem with this....I have played the piece (none too well) and it needs a LOT of pedal - the harmonies are supposed to blur, to meld together. Instead it just sounds kinda twangy.
edit: its already there.

*Callum heads off to upload the original*

callum wrote:

It's probably fast because the banjo doesn't seem to sustain notes. I'm not a banjo expert though.

I don't like the banjo in this piece. Maybe if they had replaced the strings with other banjos I'd be more interesting. As it is now the it kind of sticks out. I still enjoyed the song anyway; a testament to the composition.

bluebells wrote:

That's absurd. Nobody criticizes a symphony for performing these works. Composers like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. wrote these works to be performed by other people.

I think that this is a very beautiful tribute.

This is one of the most endearing things I've ever heard.

The banjo is a pretty interesting idea. But I can't tell how well it is working because Moonlight Sonata itself is so transcendentally good that it would sound great on a rusted kazoo.

I don't think the banjo works here. In the original you pedal it so the harmonies blur slightly - it is very smooth and legato. The banjo is to disjointed for it to work. And, IMO, it is to fast.

Derecho wrote:
Correct. And for that, he gets a 7. It's an interesting take.

bluebells wrote:

Was this a claim made by the artist? That this version was superior to Beethovans? I'm just curious, because if not it would seem you think someone playing a peice done by someone else is pompus and arrogant.

In my own experience as a musician and from what I've seen of other musicians that play for the love of music, it is rarely the intention to "out do" the originator of the peice but to compliment them by playing it the best that they can. To give to it our hearts and souls and try to show it for the beauty we see, hear and feel from the music. Pompus and arrogant indeed... whatever where they thinking?

I personally found this to be beautiful and very relaxing. My day has been a bit hectic and this was wonderful to hear. I kicked back and closed my eyes for the duration of the song and simply enjoyed it for what it was... a beautiful peice. Thanks for playing it...

bluebells wrote:

You can do something not as well as Beethoven, and it can still be pretty damned good.

bluebells wrote:

If no one tries, no one ever will.

really, really nice!

Is there any way to be more pompous than to think one can instrument and phrase a piece better than, oh, Beethoven? Puuuuleaze!

I have always loved this sonata...very sad, very moving. Painfully beautiful...

wow. Touching, beautiful. Who knew that a banjo could be used like that?

number6 wrote:

It was the entry into an emotional level of playing maturity that marked my teen years. I could cry playing this piece.

I too have been away for about 10 years, and am going to purchase a piano for winter. too many coincidental things steering me back there. This is one.

pretty pretty song......for a funeral

delicious indeed ...

Really nice..someone stole the words before my post.

Hello:

:nodhead:

Really niiiice...

You folks who can't get past the fact that this is a banjo: you ought to look into all the stringed instruments that used to be played (older than the lute) that have different tunings and very different sounds from what we think of as "classical" instruments! The sound of this banjo ain't that big of a stretch...

Neil

Filofox wrote:

For me its the cello that makes the piece. It helps smooth out the twangyness of the banjo.

Freakin' BORRRRRRIIINNG

Bela has a habit of stopping me like a deer in headlights whenever something of his plays on the radio. Good Stuff!

MsJudi wrote:What she said.

I can't decide about this one -- it seems unnecessary (Moonlight Sonata on a banjo? C'mon!) but I did enjoy it. The deep cello (?) in the background gave it a haunting quality that made me forget my initial "but it's a banjo!" reaction. Hmm.

Isn't that a wonderful interpretation!

I should try to upload some more of this CD. (After hearing it here on RP, I gave it as a christmas present to my sister.)

timandjuliet wrote:
agreed