[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aah-wMG9F4A&w=700] I love that you can hear him humming along.

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Glenn Gould, piano

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

00:21 Die Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080: Contrapunctus I

Partita n.4 in D-dur BWV 828 05:11 I Ouverture 10:06 II Allemande 15:45 III Courante 18:52 IV Aria 20:07 V Sarabande 25:21 VI Menuett 26:41 VII Gigue

From "Wohltemperierten Klavier": 28:10 Fuge in E-dur (II) 33:17 Fuge in Es-moll (II) 36:16 Praeludium & Fuge in A-dur (II)

38:52 Die Kunst der Fuge BVW 1080: Contrapunctus IV

Beautiful campaign for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - series showing musical instruments from the inside to nail the feel of the music they play. Nice bit of CGI and that. Hot.

Copywriter: Mona Sibai Agency: Scholz & Friends (Berlin) Client: Berliner Philharmoniker Photographer: Mierswa Kluska (via)

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BONUS BONUS BONUS! Here, have a pianogasm on the house, courtesy of Lang Lang's encore following his first performance with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2009:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz_BlYlBi40&w=600]

No words.

...walking in the park, or maybe at home just lying down and thinking, listen to this and see where it takes you. And then at the end when he finishes...the silence afterwards as the real world slowly filters back into your awareness. Beautiful. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg6OpSG9P80&w=700]

Andras Schiff is the pianist in this, Schubert's Impromptu in F minor no.1. Don't skip through it - the end doesn't make sense without the beginning. Which is kind of true for many things.

19 August, 1990. Doesn't seem that long ago really. Leonard Bernstein conducted his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He died just five days later. He wrote the music for West Side Story and more, but really the man was best known as a conductor. His conducting style is perhaps best described as exuberant. He strayed far from classic conducting techniques, using his whole body to coax the best out of his orchestra, and had evident fun doing so. One of his tricks was to rehearse an entire Mahler symphony by acting out every phrase for the orchestra to convey the precise meaning, each one accompanied by a vocal manifestation of the effect required.

I don't have the recording of his farewell concert - he had a coughing fit during the Beethoven part, and it almost had to be called off - but here are the first two movements, conducted by Carlos Kleiber:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1qAWcd4rr0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqtPVEuAbzM]

Just beautiful.

ps - The official Guinness world record for the world's largest baton is currently held by Kenton J. Hetrick, who on 14 October 2006 conducted the Harvard University Band in the introduction to "Also Sprach Zarathustra" with a baton 10 feet (3.0 m) long.