Vrije interpretaties

Ekseption was een Nederlandse symfonische rockband die vooral actief was in de jaren 60 en 70 van de 20e eeuw. Ekseption maakte verschillende hits en won in 1970 een Edison. De groep werd vooral bekend vanwege zijn op klassieke werken geënte, vroeg-progressieve rockmuziek met jazzimprovisaties.

De eerste single, The 5th of The fifth (een arrangement op Beethovens vijfde symfonie) haalde de derde plaats op de Nederlandse hitlijsten.

The Beatles singing Beethoven? Yes… that is to say, not completely.
It was listening to Yoko playing the Moonlight sonata, that John Lennon had the idea of inverting the theme and using the result as music for the song “Because”.

The melody which we hear on the CD is very obviously inspired by the theme of the famous sonata.

The opportunity, of the need arises, to not forget this CD of the Beatles in your collection…

Waldo de los Ríos (7 september 1934 – 28 maart 1977) was een Argentijns pianist en componist.

De los Ríos werd geboren in Argentinië, waar hij aan het Conservatorium van Buenos Aires studeerde. In 1962 verhuisde hij naar Spanje. In Spanje leidde hij het Manuel de Falla Orchestra. Internationaal werd hij bekend met zijn bewerkingen van klassieke hits, die zelfs de hitlijsten bereikten. De bekendste daarvan was Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G Minor KV 550 (First Movement) allegro molto, dat werd uitgevoerd door het Manuel de Falla Orchestra . De los Ríos schreef ook de filmmuziek voor een dertigtal films.

Hij overleed in 1977 door zelfmoord.

Waldo de los Ríos maakte arrangementen van o.a. Symphony nr. 1, 6 ‘Pastorale’, 7, 9 ‘Ode to Joy’ en Beethoven 21

Frida Boccara (Casablanca (Marokko), 29 oktober 1940 – Parijs, 1 augustus 1996) was een Franse zangeres.

Ze vertegenwoordigde
Frankrijk op het songfestival van 1969
met de sterke ballade Un jour, un enfant. Daarmee won ze, maar ze moest haar overwinning wel met Nederland, Spanje en het Verenigd Koninkrijk delen. De vier landen hadden evenveel punten en het reglement voorzag geen noodscenario, waardoor er vier winnaars waren. Het reglement werd daarna aangepast om dit in de toekomst te voorkomen.

Oorspronkelijk komt ze uit een Joodse familie uit Livorno, Italië. In de jaren 60 deed ze aan verschillende festivals mee. Haar bekendste lied is Cent mille chansons uit 1968.

In 1996 stierf ze aan een longinfectie. Ze ligt begraven op de joodse begraafplaats van Bagneux.

In 1978 zingt ze op L’année où Piccoli jouait “Les choses de la vie” een sonate van Beethoven ‘Pathetique, genaamd “Le dernier rendez-vous”

On the theme of ‘Für Elise’, Whitney Houston performs ‘Same Script, Different Cast’, in a duet with Deborah Cox.

An extremely agreeable and appealing song, that can be heard on her album ‘Greatest Hits’.

This splendid re-edition of the album “Je te donne” (“I give to you”) (1976) of Léo Ferré contains two treasures representative of the admiration that Léo Ferré has for Ludwig van Beethoven:

– “Muss es sein, es muss sein”, song on music evoking Beethoven, and recalls through the title the famous annotation of Beethoven;

– “The overture of Coriolan”, performed by the Milan Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Léo Ferré.

A must…

The disc “Ludwig – the imaginary – the boat” contains the heading “Ludwig”, text narrated by Léo Ferré over the overture to Egmont.

Originally, an editor commissioned a song from Léo Ferré which would be connected with the German composer, concerning a project of a preface for a re-edition of the personal notebooks of Ludwig van Beethoven.

If the project does not come to fruition, we will always have the song where Léo Ferré evokes the memories of childhood…

The Swingle Singers, in their album “Les Romantiques” (The Romantics), offer us eleven a capella (unaccompanied) interpretations of romantic composers: you have understood correctly: it is with the voice that these virtuosos perform for us Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert etc.

The eight singers, of which seven are French, are led by Ward Swingle, who realised the adaptations of the classical works.

The two first pieces are arrangements of works by Ludwig van Beethoven:

the Scherzo of the sonata for violin and piano no. 5 in F major, opus 24, “Spring”;
the Allegro of the sonata for piano no. 12 in A flat major, opus 26.

A remarkable and unexpected adaptation!

Available with several different visuals.

The meeting of a French rock star with the great German classical composer, we discover an unexpected song: “Poem on the 7th”…

Johnny Halliday sings the words of Phillipe Labro to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, in his album “Vie” (Life), which is dated 1970.

A curisoity, assuredly…

Few variety singers venture into the classics. Dave, in his album “Classique” (“Classic”) sings on eleven airs known to classical music.

Ludwig van Beethoven is twice honoured:

– “Quel que soit le coin de terre” is performed to the tune of the “Ode to Joy”;

– “Ils s’en vont” on the sonata for piano opus 8, the “Pathetique”.

The other performances are also very successful (Dvorak, Schubert, Wagner, Bach…) The text is by P. Loiseau.

The magical voice of Arielle Dombasle on the music of Beethoven? Yes, that is on her album “Extase” (“Ecstasy”).

The song “Giovane Amore”, with Italian text on poverty to make you weep, is performed in a new way on a modernised Seventh Symphony of Beethoven.

But the beautiful soprano possesses a voice which will penetrate to the bottom of your spirit…

José Carreras revives to sing on the famous themes of classical music. Twice he has realised his project. The first of the two CDs is called “Passion”.

It is on this CD that the song “I remember You” is performed to the second movement of the sonata for piano no. 8, the “Pathetique”.

The singing theme of this movement lends itself particularly well to this exercise, and the great tenor does justice to the music of Beethoven…

Norma Ray treats the second movement of Beethoven’s seventh symphony with much more tenderness than the great French rocker Johnny Halliday..

Her text recalls to mankind the necessity of living in piece and harmony, to the image of a symphony of Beethoven.

This song does justice to the music of the composer, and the song accompanies the music with talent. The song “Symphony” can be found on the album “Stardust” (Poussière d’Étoiles).

“Midnight Blue” is the title of a 1982-3 international hit by Louise Tucker which served as the title cut for Tucker’s debut album Midnight Blue. The single also features Charlie Skarbek on vocals.

In the spring of 1982 opera singer Louise Tucker met record producer Tim Smit when she accompanied his sister-in-law who’d come to babysit for him: this meeting led to Tucker recording the demo for the track “Midnight Blue” – which utilized the melody of “Sonata Pathétique” by Beethoven – with Smit and his friend Charlie Skarbek producing.^[1] Smit and Skarbek successfully shopped the track to the Dutch division of Ariola Records and the finished track was cut at Chestnut Studios in Farnham.

“Midnight Blue” reached #13 in the Netherlands in November 1982. In December the track entered the French charts where it remained for 31 weeks reaching number 1 in the Christmas of 1983. At the same time Michèle Torr hit the French charts with a rendering in French by lyricist Pierre Delanoë entitled “Midnight Blue en Irlande” (#13).

Nasir Jones aka Nas sings on the Letter to Elise…

Uniquely with a beat and the right hand of the famous melody played on piano, Nas sings about the caprices of success and avoiding the pitfalls of drugs and rapid success.

A children’s choir begins the refrain: “I know, I can be what I wanna be…”.

“I can” is a song on the album “God’s Son”.

It has taken sometime for me to realies that the song “Tout l’amour” (All love which I have for you…), sung by Dario Moreno and reused for an ad in France, uses the theme of “Letter to Elise”.