Because Music Is What Matters

I'm still feeling the chills from that Lady Gaga performance at the 2015 Oscars, a tribute to commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music movie, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1966. Yes, I know. John Legend was good as well, but hey, anyone admiring Julie Andrews and Rodgers and Hammerstein's music in the original soundtrack understands how difficult it would be to try to recreate or emulate the original songs. And Lady Gaga did it brilliantly, regardless of what we think about Lady Gaga's music.

On the subject of Oscars and Soundtracks, a heads-up for those who did yet not listen to Antonio Sanchez's amazing drumming score for Birdman - the Oscar winner for Best Motion Picture.

The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for Birdman is available on Milan Records and is undoubtedly a masterpiece both in musicianship by Antonio Sanchez and recording. Of course one should see Birdman to understand how beautifully the music serves the whole movie, starting from the opening credits. But the recording also deserves a note because it should be considered true reference material in its apparent simplicity and surprisingly vibrant recorded sounds - which Alejandro González Iñárritu, the director, supervised closely to match every sequence in the movie.

Curiously, Birdman's soundtrack was denied for nomination to the Oscars by the Academy because of its "use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music" since it also uses seven other well-known classical pieces.

The album is available on CD, as well as iTunes and streaming services, including Tidal.

And since we are talking about music, I feel I should also highlight an extraordinary feat by a notable audioXpress friend and author. In what I personally considered at first to be a completely crazy idea, reputed circuit designer, recording engineer, audio instructor, computer programmer, technical writer, consultant... and musician, Ethan Winer, reminds us why music matters.

Not content with his daily activities in acoustic engineering and recording, Ethan embarked on a one-year challenge to prepare himself to play Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra, live, on the electric guitar. On a Fender Telecaster, of all guitars. 

On January 25, 2015, Ethan's twenty minutes (seven variations) performance with the Danbury Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ariel Rudiakov is astonishing and a true triumph of personal commitment and determination.

And before anyone starts judging him, here's what Ethan has to say: "I fell in love with this piece when I started playing the cello in 1992, but it's extremely difficult to play and I never got proficient enough on the cello to perform it publicly.

When I was younger I played the guitar professionally, but I hadn't played regularly for about 30 years. In early 2014 I was fooling around playing Rococo on my electric guitar when it dawned on me that, with practice, I could probably play this piece for real with an orchestra. So I asked Danbury Symphony Orchestra conductor Ariel Rudiakov if he'd consider this seemingly outrageous idea, and to my surprise he agreed! So in March 2014 I began memorizing all 3,000 notes - yes, I counted - and started practicing in earnest. I spent 11 months preparing for this concert."

We can now appreciate his extraordinary accomplishment here.

Regards,

João Martins

Editor in Chief