teodor currentzis
intro’d to Teodor via this write up by James:
@JRhodesPianist
Wrote a thing about my musical hero, Teodor Currentzis. Hope you’ll read it – he’s worth it. theguardian.com/music/2016/nov…
Teodor Currentzis is classical music breaking the four-minute mile
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/nov/03/james-rhodes-on-teodor-currentzis-mozart-operas
This young Greek conductor’s recordings of Mozart operas have redefined music and changed my life with their profound vision, energy and face-punching force
Eighteen months ago, I discovered someone who changed my life forever.
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He is the conducting equivalent of Glenn Gould morphed with Kurt Cobain.
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He formed his own orchestra, Musica Aeterna, hand-picking the very best musicians he could find – largely from Russia, where they have quite the selection. He somehow convinced Sony to inject an obscene amount of money, and he set to work producing and recreating definitive performances of Mozart’s three greatest operas. He records in Perm, a city in the middle of Russia whose temperature redefines cold. He, his orchestra and singers, along with producers, sound engineers and technicians, spend weeks in what can only be described as a classical music lock-in – they live, eat and breathe there, and the majority of their waking moments are spent creating music. Hundreds of hours of takes are recorded, with Currentzis pushing everyone involved beyond the limits of what most would consider possible. He chooses speeds that are, to many, unplayable. Vocal techniques that are not taught in any schools. Interpretations that make most music critics and regular opera audiences question everything they thought they knew. His conception of these works is so grand, so life-affirming and life-changing, so far beyond anything that has come before it that it has, for me, redefined music itself. This is classical music breaking the four-minute mile
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It’s as if Currentzis has found a wormhole and tunnelled back in time into Mozart’s mind. Everything about his approach is groundbreaking.
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I don’t trust anyone or anything. I’m the anti-trust guy. But Currentzis, I trust. His albums have become one of my best friends. They offer me everything I’ve ever wanted – a deeper understanding of myself, an unimaginable beauty and a window into another world that is better, safer, more profound and filled with more meaning than the one I currently inhabit. He keeps me company while on planes, on trains, in hotels, backstage, while I make dinner and during the lonely post-divorce nights.
[..]
there is an absolute meaning to life that has long eluded me.
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before reading.. watched video (from winter 2012-2013) James added in article –
decided to add him when he said:
if we have a credo to create a world that we want to live.. we have to create this world
let’s do this first: free art-ists.
….reform another kind of… union..in an anarchistic way of working.. that you can really tell what you feel.
.. mozart is the most contemporary composer.. because the problems of the 18th cent are the same problems we have today..
.. everybody is the student.. in front of mozart.. greatest musician in history. the end of music.. the limit of understanding..the good and bad..
every performance is like a pregnancy.. you have to wait/dream.. if you’re not like that in music.. you lose it.. central idea.. music is not a profession/reproduction.. it’s a mission. go to play your words/sound to people who are going to die and you will see which is the real audience.. and which has the real appreciation for music
the spirit of music is something else.. much more wild/savage.. than we learn to appreciate in the 20th century
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James writing about Teodor in fire on all sides
teodor currentzis (opera via teodor.. what he listens to while walking)
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his conceptions of these works are so grand, so life affirming and life changing so far beyond anything that has come before it that it has, for me, redefined music itself..
there is no other album i have heard where i know, just absolutely know, that this is how the composer himself would have heard it in his head while he was writing it down on paper.. it’s as if currentzis has found some cosmic wormhole, tunnelled back in time into mozart’s mind and replicated what mozart was thinking in the present day. a freak teleporting of genius from across the space/time continuum.. everything about it is outrageously good – the attack of the strings, the unbelievably immediate presence of the sound where the listener feels like they are sitting right in the middle of the orchestra as melody after melody sweeps thru their ears, the quality of singing.. , the humour, originality, pathos, romance, verve, face punching force of it all.. it is completely overwhelming.. this is classical music breaking the four minute mile..
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(after describing figaro and cosi – teodor’s opera album – stories).. (i was amusingly, about to hesitate to write the following because it contains plot spoilers. but then i thought if anyone reading this is genuinely upset by an opera spoiler then please get in touch and let’s be best friends. because clearly, and perhaps sadly, no one else will really give to f s , and the fact that you do is amazing to me in a really good way)119
even writing this, let alone listening to this put to music and played like a god by currentzis and his orchestra, i’m crying. because i don’t feel like i deserve that kind of love, that degree of kindness, and when it comes (rare, but it does come like it did that early morning at heathrow), i don’t know what to do w it other than absolutely block out any level of trust in it and assume it’s all a trick. that’s why i’m divorced, twice. and my exes and friends all call me the ‘anti trust guy’.. i hate it but i don’t know any better and i’m trying so goddam hard to rewire that part of my brain that was so appallingly betrayed when i was a little boy while it was still plastic and being formed and now will not, cannot, must not ever, ever, ever trust people
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currentzis, however, i trust wholeheartedly. and i’ve never even met him.. his albums have become my best friends.. they offer me everything i’ve ever wanted – a deeper understanding of myself a beauty that is unimaginable a window onto another world that is better, safer, more profound and filled w more meaning than the one i currently inhabit..he keeps me company while i walk. and ride the tube, and make dinner. and during the lonely post divorce nights. and in the car, on planes, in hotels, backstage, on (too rare) holidays. he is the perfect partner, one who is incapable of betrayal.. buy his albums, i beg you..
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find/follow Teodor:
his site:
http://dongiovanni.teodor-currentzis.com/
Teodor Currentzis (Greek: Θεόδωρος Κουρεντζής; Russian: Теодор Курентзис; born February 24, 1972) is a Greek-Russian conductor, musician and actor.
be you. 