Sorry, music geek joke.
Anyway, a couple weeks ago, when I realized that his birthday would be falling on a Monday, I asked what his favorite piece of classical music was. After giving me a momentary deer-in-headlights look, he decided it's probably "In the Hall of the Mountain King." This is another one that you've almost certainly heard before. It crops up in popular culture quite often.
You probably need to turn your volume up. It starts off VERY quietly, but gets louder -- and faster, and more intense -- as it goes on. It really is a fun little piece. Not hard to see why it's Pat's favorite, or at least one of Pat's favorites, and the first thing that came to mind when I put him on the spot.
After thinking more about it, though, classical music is really more of my thing. Not that Pat doesn't have an appreciation for it as well, but he's not really passionate about it the way that I am. So, I decided to include a second selection this week, one that's a little more his style.
The song is "Alive," from the musical Jekyll & Hyde. I've never seen it, but based on the little I've heard from it, it sounds amazing. This one is good, but my favorite is actually "Confrontation," because of the way the two characters (played by the same actor) play off each other. If it's done well, you might even believe that it's two different people singing.
The video won't embed, but here's the link if you want to check it out . . . which of course I highly recommend: http://youtu.be/DM1uMuJviLo
Okay, so I lied . . . three clips today. What can I say? It's a special day!
Does my wife know me or what? First, yes In the Hall of the Mountain King is one of my favorite pieces. Nothing beats when those tympani start booming around the 1.5 minute mark, especially in a live performance where you can literally feel it in your chest.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I absolutely love the Anthony Warlow versions of those two songs. Alive is just a fantastic piece, but in Confrontation, he does such an amazing job of separating the two styles that it really does sound like a duet of 2 people.
Thanks for posting this today Char. *-: