Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
I upload videos of (classical) music, synchronised with the score. I try to find the best recordings, with a deliberate bias towards post-1990 stuff that isn't too well known. Then I try to say something about the music which will make you like it more. That's basically it!
www.patreon.com/AshishXiangyiKumar
Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
I'm sure most of you have seen this by now. (Fwiw, the lady on the right must be correct -- there's no evidence Schubert had anything more than a passing familiarity with Bach; Mendelssohn's revival was to start after his death, and there is -- a little shockingly -- zero, genuinely zero evidence to show he ever studied Bach.)
Anyway, what opinions will have you yelling like this? (Don't explain, just tell!) I'll start:
1. The importance of large-scale tonal tension (as opposed to local harmonic give-and-take) to sonata form is drastically overstated in music theory (and taken to genuine flat-earth extremes by Schenker).
2. The orchestral parts in Chopin’s piano concerti are fine; the real big problems lie in the piano.
1 day ago | [YT] | 81
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
4:30 am, nothing much to do. Guess I'll work on this then
6 days ago | [YT] | 278
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Imagine Trout Mask Replica, but parsible. Argh this made me so happy
5 months ago | [YT] | 27
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
So, Beethoven's 6th. First symphony I really fell in love with, but always thought that last movement was a little bit of a letdown. A bit too sedate, maybe?
Was listening to it on a hike the other day, though (Nelsons, Vienna), not even very closely or seriously, and it got me. Right through the heart like a knife.
Wonder why this happens sometimes.
6 months ago | [YT] | 398
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Well, since we're gonna get there at this rate, here's one for the Rachmaninoff junkies. We've made decent progress over the last couple months, eh?
www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
6 months ago | [YT] | 85
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Not sure how many maniacs there are out there who want to listen to 12ish hours of Chopin straight, but if you're one of those folks, here you go!
(Playlist isn't quite complete, a couple more things to come.)
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm...
6 months ago | [YT] | 141
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
‘Argerich said she sometimes reflected on the absurdity of a life spent hunched over black and white keys. “What are we pianists?” she said. “Nothing. We think it is so extraordinary. But it is not.”’
Oof.
(She’s right.)
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/arts/music/martha-arger…
7 months ago | [YT] | 418
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Eric Lu, huh? Totally fair -- and boring.
Also a little disappointed that the one who rose to the top is a fairly well-established artist who doesn't need this publicity. I've been over Lu's entire discography several times while surveying stuff for this channel, and it's all extraordinarily pretty, well-judged, and dull. It's hard to imagine performances that sit more squarely in the heart of the interpretive mainstream.
Maybe I'll have to listen again, but I get the sense this Chopin Competition went to the safest of the safety candidates.
10 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 905
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
Another great one -- no swooning over beauty or transcendence, just keeping things moving very naturally, focusing on the big line and building to key moments. Bit Argerichian in that there's lots of expressiveness at high speed. It's always a good sign when the audience wants to start clapping before the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPS49...
11 months ago | [YT] | 72
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Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eJpM...
Goddamn, they let a personality in there!
11 months ago | [YT] | 84
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