The Imperial Family and Their Music

[Holly]

Does anyone have pictures with the girls and instuments? I haven't seen any with Anastasia.

[julia.montague]

I think they all played the balalajka

[ARfreak]

Did Alix relly play the banjo and ukelele? :-/

[ARfreak]

Also, the song "Daisy, Daisy" was popular in America. Did the imperial family know that song?

[hikaru]

Yesterday I went to a wonderful violin concert of
Anne-Sophie Mutter. She played an violin conatas of Mozart.
I thought one thing: Maybe the people of 18th and 19th century used to hear the music reflecting about other things than we do now. I.e. that their understanding and impression of Mozart and Chaykovsky was different.
If the garden in 18th century was considered as the
continuation of the palace, as the some kind of "green cabinet", maybe when they heard sonatas they could analize it in another way?
What do you think about it.

[TheAce1918]

Yesterday I went to a wonderful violin concert of
Anne-Sophie Mutter. She played an violin conatas of Mozart.
I thought one thing: Maybe the people of 18th and 19th century used to hear the music reflecting about other things than we do now. I.e. that their understanding and impression of Mozart and Chaykovsky was different.
If the garden in 18th century was considered as the
continuation of the palace, as the some kind of "green cabinet", maybe when they heard sonatas they could analize it in another way?
What do you think about it.

I'm not 100% sure about this question :-/...but here are my two bits
I had a likewise situation, I had recently seen a concert celebrating Mozart at a national hall.  The atmoshpere was breathtaking...very Titanic-18/19th Century themed.  The mindset of serenity and glorious praise on the fruits of life is still very real.  Even if society chooses to view it in a different manner.  Those listening to the classics nowadays, the everyday-Joe's would view them as masters of an art that has submitted to the history books.  However, to the patrons who enjoy it as their forefathers had centuries before understand it as a music of a time period, a people, and a world much different than ours.  

[Tavin]

What we call today "Classical Music" was the modern music of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In my opinion they analyze it in a similar way that we analyze the modern music.
Today the Classical music gained a historic direction that didn´t exist at the time.

[Elisabeth]

Every Christmas season I experience a sudden craving for Russian classical music. Mainly I want to listen to Peter Tchaikovsky's greatest hits, like "The Nutcracker Suite" (natch!), "Sleeping Beauty" and "Serenade for Strings" (my particular favorite at the moment). But I also want to hear Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and Shostakovich and Rachmaninov. Is it only myself who associates Christmas with Russian music? And I wonder why this is? Is it because "The Nutcracker Suite" as a ballet is so ubiquitous at this time of year?

Still, most of this is music the IF would have listened to. What are your own favorite pieces of Russian music and why?   

[Tsarfan]

Shostakovich's fifth symphony -- the strongest signal ever telegraphed from the soul of an artist that no government, no matter horrendous, will ever succeed in eradicating the human spirit.  And he did it right under their noses.

Today, of all days, I want to nail a pair of headphones to Putin's head and make him listen to it until his brain explodes.

[Elisabeth]

Shostakovich's fifth symphony -- the strongest signal ever telegraphed from the soul of an artist that no government, no matter horrendous, will ever succeed in eradicating the human spirit.  And he did it right under their noses.

Today, of all days, I want to nail a pair of headphones to Putin's head and make him listen to it until his brain explodes.

I'm afraid that even this magnificent piece of music would fall on deaf ears in Putin's case. But thanks for reminding me of Shostakovich's fifth - I'm listening to it right now, as I write this.

Your mention of Putin, however, also reminds of a conversation with one of my Russian friends when Putin was just a few years into his rule. This fellow was trying to convince himself that Putin, a former KGB man, would nevertheless not turn into the dictator he was shaping up to be, because his defense minister was on the record as saying that he was a Beatles fan! (And indeed, when Paul McCartney visited Russia, he called this guy, very disrespectfully to his face, "Mr. Defense Minister," and meanwhile Mr. Defense Minister was bowing and scraping to his great Beatle god!) Unfortunately, I had to remind my friend of all those Nazis who loved Beethoven and Mozart, not to mention Hitler, who loved Wagner. One's musical tastes are not always a reliable predictor of one's political predilections... or for that matter one's character.

[helenazar]

One's musical tastes are not always a reliable predictor of one's political predilections... or for that matter one's character.

Absolutely, not musical tastes nor any other tastes for that matter, I'm afraid. This reminds me of an interesting riddle that makes you think...

You are to vote in an election and these are the backgrounds of the three candidates:

Candidate A: Associates with ward heelers and consults with astrologists. Has had two mistresses. Chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B: Kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college, drinks a quart of brandy every evening.

Candidate C: A decorated war hero. A vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any illicit affairs.

Which would you vote for, based on the above?



Well...


Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt, Candidate B is Winston Churchill and Candidate C is Adolph Hitler...

Sorry for going OT a bit 


 

[Elisabeth]

Hilarious, Helen. It shows how warped our sense of priorities has become in the United States, when we think that teetotaling and sexual puritanism doth good leaders make.

[Romanov_fan]

Well, I think Russian classical music is the loveliest of all classical music in some ways. Whenever I hear some of it, I am always reminded of Imperial Russia and the Romanovs, for some reason. I don't really listen to it, but if you watch enough figure skating you've come to hear much of it. Shostakovitch sounds familiar to me from some figure skater's music. I remember it being very lovely and moving, although I don't know which specific piece of music it was. But, I think his music was quite good.

[Grace]

Hilarious, Helen. It shows how warped our sense of priorities has become in the United States, when we think that teetotaling and sexual puritanism doth good leaders make.

Someone like that may not necessarily make a good leader but it least such a person would have considerable self-discipline I would think -- characteristics not plentiful these days. 

Back to 'Music The IF Would Have Listened To'...

[helenazar]

Someone like that may not necessarily make a good leader but it least such a person would have considerable self-discipline I would think -- characteristics not plentiful these days. 

That self discipline sure did a lot of good for millions of civilians of Europe in the 1940's...

Yes, back to the "Music the IF Would Have Listened to".