Collection of music videos

Georg Friedrich Handel ​( 1685-1759) born in Halle , Germany, is one of the leading figures in the History of Music and, of course, of the Baroque . He wrote numerous operas, cantatas and oratorios, among which we must highlight his masterpiece, the Oratorio El Mesías . At the age of 18 he moved to Hamburg where he joined the Opera Orchestra . After three years he traveled to Florence , and then to Rome . In 1710 he returned to Germany and from there to London where he achieved great success, which encouraged him to settle under the tutelage of different patrons. Although he was always very jealous of his private life, there are innumerable indications that make us assume his homosexual inclination. In London he acquired his British nationality and was appointed manager of the Opera House until his death in 1759.

Ombra mai fu is the opening aria of Handel 's opera Xerxes premiered in 1738. The opera was a commercial failure, with only five performances in London after its premiere. In the 19th century , however, this aria was rediscovered and has become one of Handel 's best-known pieces. Originally composed to be sung by a castrato (in modern performances of Xerxes it is sung by a contratenor, contralto , or mezzo-soprano ). In the version that we offer today, the aria is sung by the Italian artist Cecilia Bartoli , a light mezzo-soprano with refined technique, who has performed in the main halls of the world with the most renowned conductors.

Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990) was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. He was the first conductor born in the USA to achieve worldwide fame, famous for having conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra , for his Youth Concerts on television between 1958 and 1972, and for his many compositions, including West Side Story (1957). ) and Candide . He was also an essential figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler , the composer he was most passionately interested in. As a composer he wrote music for piano, chamber music, choral music, religious music, numerous stage works for ballet, film, opera, and musicals, as well as abundant orchestral work.

Candide is a comic operetta composed by Leonard Bernstein in 1956, based on Voltaire 's novel of the same name. The operetta was performed for the first time in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman . Numerous versions of the text have been made, but since 1974 it has only been represented with the libretto by Hugh Wheeler , which is more faithful to Voltaire 's novel.

Today we offer his Overture under the expert baton of Xian Zhang (1973) a Chinese-American conductor, and the first woman to be Principal Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Wales .​

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was a virtuoso Polish pianist and composer; as a pianist, he is considered one of the most important in history and as a composer, one of the benchmarks of Romanticism . He was born into a vocationally musical family; his mother played the piano and his father the violin and flute; His first teacher was a sister of his with whom he liked to play pieces with four hands. At the age of eight he gave his first public concert in the palace of the Radziwill family in Warsaw . Chopin 's work focuses exclusively on the piano, solo or concertante, with which he embarked on a solo career of technical perfection, expressive splendor and deepening in the rubato until he became the musical benchmark for that instrument.

Frédéric Chopin 's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 is one of two piano concertos by the Polish composer. Despite being published second, it actually predates Concerto No. 1 . It was finished at the end of the winter of 1829, when the composer was 19 years old, and it is dedicated to Countess Delfina Potocka . It was premiered by the composer himself at the piano on March 17, 1830 in Warsaw . It is, on the whole, more dramatic in accent than the Concerto in E minor . All in all, it is a wonderful melodic inspiration, rich in romantic expressiveness and rhythmic sense.

structure . The concert is structured in three movements: I (0´7´´) MAESTOSO. Written in sonata form with a broad orchestral introduction setting out the two main themes. The first of them is of soft beauty, with a broad and lyrical phrasing; the second is intimate, developed by the soloist. When, after a fortissimo , the piano breaks in brilliantly, it will no longer leave its privileged position.-. II (15´18´´) LARGHETTO. Intimate and loving, he was inspired by a youthful love of Chopin's : the soprano Konstancja Gładkowska . It has a tripartite structure, with the extreme sections full of amorous effluvia, while the central one has a contrasting dramatic sense .-. III (24´07´´) ALLEGRO VIVACE. Written in the form of a rondo , this final tense consists of two main themes: the first is endowed with simplicity and charm, while the second is practically a mazurka with a clear Polish flavor. The piano plays with both themes, in a casual and very bright atmosphere accompanied by an orchestra in which the strings dominate. The last section is written a moto perpetuo .

Yuja Wang (1987), our soloist today, is a Chinese classical pianist, who began studying piano at the age of six. She entered the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music a year later. At the age of 21 she was already internationally recognized and gave recitals all over the world performing with the most relevant orchestras in the world. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said: "For me, playing music is transporting me to another way of life, another way of being. An actress does that."

Mohammed Fairouz (1985) is one of the most frequently performed American composers of his generation. Fairouz studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music . He first set Oscar Wilde 's poem " The True Knowledge " to music at the age of 7 and has written hundreds of songs and over a dozen song cycles. In Poets & Writers magazine, he described himself as obsessed with text and thus writes song cycles with texts related to the Middle East . He also writes an oratorio entitled Zabur , with a libretto by Najla Said and the text in both Arabic and English, premiered in April 2015. Despite his youth, he has so far written chamber music, four symphonies, several concertos and three operas.

The Queer Urban Orchestra (QUO) is a musical institution founded in July 2009 and dedicated to the promotion of fine arts in the New York City metropolitan area, open to all adult musicians, regardless of your age, race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. QUO strives to entertain and educate its members and the public alike through classical and contemporary music performances, promoting equality, understanding, acceptance and respect. The Queer Urban Orchestra , today conducted by maestro Ian Shafer , offers us Mohammed Fairouz 's 2nd Symphony .

Elton John (1947) is a British singer, pianist, composer and musician. With a career spanning more than 50 years, he has sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, being one of the most successful artists in history and the only to keep at least one song on the Billboard Hot 100 for 30 consecutive years, from 1970 to 2000. His song Candle in the Wind 1997 , rewritten on the occasion of the death of Diana of Wales sold more than 33 million copies being the second best-selling single in history. He has won five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards, two Golden Globes, a Tony Award, a Disney Legends Award, two Oscars , and the Kennedy Award. In 1996, he was Knighted after being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and the appellation Sir was added to his name.

Rob Halford (1951) is a British heavy metal musician best known for being the lead vocalist for the British heavy metal band Judas Priest . Considered one of the best and most influential singers in the history of metal, he is characterized by his powerful operatic voice and his huge high tones. Halford is ranked #2 on the list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time, according to the American magazine Hit Parader . In 1973 some members of the band Judas Priest , which had lost its vocalist, were surprised to hear Rob Halford by chance, for which he was hired immediately. Thus, Rob Halford began a successful career with one of the most recognized heavy metal bands. In 1998 he publicly acknowledged his homosexuality.

Camille Saint–Saens (1835-1921) was a French pianist, organist, composer and soldier, committed to the French musical renewal, as well as teaching; Students such as Fauré and Messager passed through its classrooms. He was a precocious child who at the age of 11 made his first public appearance with works by Handel , Mozart and Beethoven . At the age of thirteen he enrolled in organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire and at eighteen, he composed his first symphony. He was a multifaceted intellectual: musician, writer, mathematician, philosopher, archaeologist, geologist, botanist... Just as multifaceted as his numerous musical works (more than 400) in which he addressed all kinds of genres, among which it is necessary to highlight the novelty that in That moment meant film music .

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer; for many critics, the most important of the 20th century . In his long life he composed a large number of works addressing various styles such as primitivism , neoclassicism , and serialism . Eventually, Stravinsk i's musical future was directed by Sergei Diaghilev , director of the Ballets Russes in Paris , who hired Stravinsky to write a ballet for his company, which would be The Firebird ; Stravinsky left Russia for the first time in 1910, to attend its premiere in Paris by the Ballets Russes . During his stay in that city, he composed two more works for the Ballets Russes : Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913).