The Wang is such a beautiful place. Every child should go to the Opera at least once. It gave me a love of it for life. Reed is great and found him on YouTube along with some other great Russian Orthodox music. I had never heard him before but it reminded me of ‘The Carole Of The Bells’ a little. We have that around Christmas time in one of our local churches.
One thing I find interesting is the quiet understatement of feelings that Russian and East European music seems to have. It evokes a feeling of reliving something to me. I think the huge loss of life they suffered during the war, perhaps?
That reminds me of a duet ‘Miss Sarajevo’ with Bono and Pavarotti. Pavarotti holds this one note about 5 minutes into the song for 10 seconds and it just slays me. Gets me everytime…
A lot of the transitional parts in songs by the Who. Their songs are good, but what really makes them is the instrumental transistions between verse/chorus and especially their bridges/middle eights. Just so explosive it makes your heart jump.
You should have been at Broadway on Broadway 1994. Davis Gaines started the song off-key. It was horrible. I was thinking “If this was an audition, it would already be ‘Next!’” The guy with me said “This is horrible/” Peoplewere turning away.
When Gaines got to the verse, he found the melody. Peples heads snapped back, their mouths dropped, and their eyes opened wide. Everone in the audience looked like this :eek:. He sang the rest of the song magnificently and got huge applause.
Sviatoslav Richter recorded Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1958–the original composition, for solo piano. The recording setup was hardly ideal. Several audience members were coughing their heads off. He even hits a few wrong notes.
The thundering chords of the last movement sound as though he’s breaking the piano into bits. Do we no longer hear coughing because of the volume of the music? Or because everybody else in that concert hall was holding their breath?
It’s an absolutely stunning performance. I first heard this on the car radio. I reached my destination, parked & sat listening to the end.
Weezer, “Why Bother,” right at 1:40 when the whole band does that hardcore “DUH-DUH-DUH” punctuation. It’s the only time it happens in the whole song and it’s just so rad.
Even though Eddie can be preachy, Pearl Jam always put on a good live show with great performances and amazing energy. Pearl Jam playing The Who’s “The Real Me” live:
On Sheep off of the Animals album, Roger Waters has a few long drawn out screams that fade away, perfectly overlaid with the same note fading in on Gilmour’s feedback guitar.
I had to pull the car over the first time I heard this: nine-inch-nails-slipping-away I can’t get to youtube from work but there are the lyrics.
The lyrics are not the point though, and you may not “get” it if you listen on computer. To really hear this song requires good speakers and equipment.
I haven’t actually heard this in years- probably a good reason to download the album- but on PF’s The Final Cut, there’s a moment where Waters ends the line in a scream that blends perfectly into a saxophone carrying out the note.
Dark Star by the Grateful Dead, Fillmore East, Feb 13, 1970. While the whole piece is ensemble improvisational rock at it’s best, from roughly 25:30 on (roughly 4-5 mins from the end) the band builds and builds and just when you think they can’t build anymore Jerry uncorks this passage and the band just wails to even greater heights. Another little turn by Jerry and band drops bang into the Dark Star riff. Amazing stuff. It even has more cowbell.
Ah, I remember the first time I saw video of this! I’m a longtime The Gathering fan, and continue to follow Anneke with her new band Agua de Annique. Great stuff! The Gathering picked up the lead singer from Octavia Sperati and she’s excellent but it’s hard to replace Anneke.
The Dulcissime from Carmina Burana. I’ll let the scholars debate as to whether this twenty second long cadenza is a musical representation of rapturous love, sexual orgasm, or both at once. Let’s just say for the moment that the recording with Lucia Popp sends wonderful shivers down my spine every. single. time.
We Come 1 by Faithless at Glastonbury 2002. I was there right at the front and Maxi Jazz had the crowd at his fingertips. I’ve never before or since been in such a large group of people that felt so… unified - a perfect match with the theme of the song. There’s literally a moment that does it for me, at 4:30 in, but you need to listen from at least 4:00 to get the full impact. The first time I heard again after the gig I was standing up and it literally made weak at the knees. Still gives me goosebumps.
The violin solo at the beginning of ELO’s “Living Thing.” My dad became the biggest ELO fan thanks to that riff, and even now it gives me chills.
Robert Plant & Jimmy Page’s “No Quarter” performance has some really wonderful moments, but I love the Middle Eastern flavor they give to “Kashmir.” Whoaaah!