Once again, Lou Marinoff - the rare polymath and public philosopher of our time - has produced a tour de force. I enjoyed every minute of this while learning things I never knew. The musical, aesthetic qualities of this work are superb. Highly recommended!
Thanks so much, David, for your generous appreciation. I am so glad that you enjoyed it. Similar videos are forthcoming for Book Two and Book Three--stay tuned. Meanwhile you should have time to read Book One! It's better than the movie, IMHO :-)
This was stupendous. I had not known anything about Fernando Sor, except for hearing his name mentioned every once in awhile. It's surprising since he was so important, and I care very much for many different kinds of music. I hadn't known much about this aspect of Napoleon's wars, and they certainly were a mess. It just shows you how ugly and unnecessary war is. The music and illustrations were very fine, and the quality of the video on TH-cam was excellent. Incidentally, "guerrilla" is supposed to be pronounced almost exactly like "gorilla," the English way, with our "l" sounds. The beauty and culture of Spain are treated lovingly here.
Thanks so much for your appreciation. Glad to have introduced you to Sor's early life and music. Book Two and Book Three, about his middle and late periods, are coming soon, accompanied by full-length videos like this one with much more of his music. Please stay tuned. Yes, the beauty and culture of Spain are enchanting.
@@loumarinoff Lou, please make sure we know when the next installments are coming out. I don't know whether or not I'm still on Cesare's list.--Thanks. By the way, Napoleon's anniversary---an important one---came up recently, and Emanuel Macron, President of France, held a ceremony with lots of pomp and circumstance; he heard criticism because some people weren't sure Napoleon should be honored. I think President Macron said he was an important part of French history and had to be thought of in some way, at least.
This is a FANTASTIC series! Don't know if your three volume books read all the way through like the Amazon sample does, which if you read the Vol 1 sample reads like a story. I was hoping all three were biographical than story telling. Maybe I should get the first Vol and see if it's all like that. When I read a biography I prefer it to read like a biography not a story. That being said there are people who prefer it the other way around. But this video series is superb!!!
Thanks so much for your appreciation of this video series! Like the books, creating it was a labor of love from start to finish. As concerns the books, and as the front covers say, they are "romantic historical fiction" and not "biography". Since you prefer biographies to "stories" (as you call them), you'd probably be disappointed by the books. The genre of "historical fiction" uses history as a backdrop to tell a fictionalized life story, whereas the genre of "biography" is a faithful history of someone's life. So please just enjoy the videos, which are definitely biographical in character.
How serendipitous! I´ve been playing his music since childhood and ended up in Spain doing a bit of amateur dramatics and thinking I´d like to do some sort of a play about this musical giant and "traitor" somewhat bemused that there are no monuments to him in Spain and only one street, on a new Malaga housing development. So, of late have started an experimental theatre course in Barcelona where Taoism plays its part in the school´s teaching. And just before I stumbled upon your book I got thinking "Where was Sor born?" In Barcelona, I mean. I fully intend to buy your books professor, but, just as a "spoiler" is it known in which street and at what number he was born? Would I be able to find some plaque attached to his birthplace? As a footnote, I´m not sure the Spanish are that interested in musical history. There is a plaque commemorating the birthplace of Luigi Bocherrini up a sidestreet in the cool but downtrodden Lavapies district. Most educated spaniards have heard of him (Italian by birth, Madrileño by adoption) but each time I drag some friend up that sidestreet to marvel at the sight, the reaction is "Yes, nice....fancy a beer!"
Thanks for your comments, Graham. Serendipitous indeed! The Fernando trilogy will give you ample material for a play. There is a church record of his baptism but (to my knowledge) no record of his exact address at birth, somewhere in Barcelona's "Dry Quarter." Alas that Spain does not emulate those bright blue disks of London, showing where so many great historical personages lived. We know Sor's later addresses in Paris and London, but some of these abodes are no longer standing -- swept away by urban renewals. There is a Calle Ferran in Barcelona, named in 1848, but I do not know which Ferran it is named for. And since a few years back there's an annual Fernando Sor Guitar Festival in Barcelona, so he has finally if posthumously received a well-deserved if long overdue "homecoming." I hope you enjoy the trilogy, and these associated videos, which reveal what a "superstar" Fernando became during his lifetime, and also why he had to leave his beloved homeland to fulfill his magnificent destiny.
His Opera Telemaco nell'ísola di Calipso in 15:04 is truly in Mozart´s style.
Yes, it is! Partly thanks to his training at Montserrat, and partly thanks to his own genius.
Bravo compadre! I always love going back to school when the professor both elucidates and entertains.
Muchas gracias, mi amigo -- so glad you were "edutained"!
Fascinating History.... hm..
Thanks, Thais ... more to come
Once again, Lou Marinoff - the rare polymath and public philosopher of our time - has produced a tour de force. I enjoyed every minute of this while learning things I never knew. The musical, aesthetic qualities of this work are superb. Highly recommended!
Thanks so much, David, for your generous appreciation. I am so glad that you enjoyed it. Similar videos are forthcoming for Book Two and Book Three--stay tuned. Meanwhile you should have time to read Book One! It's better than the movie, IMHO :-)
This was stupendous. I had not known anything about Fernando Sor, except for hearing his name mentioned every once in awhile. It's surprising since he was so important, and I care very much for many different kinds of music. I hadn't known much about this aspect of Napoleon's wars, and they certainly were a mess. It just shows you how ugly and unnecessary war is. The music and illustrations were very fine, and the quality of the video on TH-cam was excellent. Incidentally, "guerrilla" is supposed to be pronounced almost exactly like "gorilla," the English way, with our "l" sounds.
The beauty and culture of Spain are treated lovingly here.
Thanks so much for your appreciation. Glad to have introduced you to Sor's early life and music. Book Two and Book Three, about his middle and late periods, are coming soon, accompanied by full-length videos like this one with much more of his music. Please stay tuned. Yes, the beauty and culture of Spain are enchanting.
@@loumarinoff Lou, please make sure we know when the next installments are coming out. I don't know whether or not I'm still on Cesare's list.--Thanks.
By the way, Napoleon's anniversary---an important one---came up recently, and Emanuel Macron, President of France, held a ceremony with lots of pomp and circumstance; he heard criticism because some people weren't sure Napoleon should be honored. I think President Macron said he was an important part of French history and had to be thought of in some way, at least.
This is a FANTASTIC series! Don't know if your three volume books read all the way through like the Amazon sample does, which if you read the Vol 1 sample reads like a story. I was hoping all three were biographical than story telling. Maybe I should get the first Vol and see if it's all like that. When I read a biography I prefer it to read like a biography not a story. That being said there are people who prefer it the other way around. But this video series is superb!!!
Thanks so much for your appreciation of this video series! Like the books, creating it was a labor of love from start to finish. As concerns the books, and as the front covers say, they are "romantic historical fiction" and not "biography". Since you prefer biographies to "stories" (as you call them), you'd probably be disappointed by the books. The genre of "historical fiction" uses history as a backdrop to tell a fictionalized life story, whereas the genre of "biography" is a faithful history of someone's life. So please just enjoy the videos, which are definitely biographical in character.
Music to History
Compelling
Thanks, Ron, for your steadfast interest.
How serendipitous! I´ve been playing his music since childhood and ended up in Spain doing a bit of amateur dramatics and thinking I´d like to do some sort of a play about this musical giant and "traitor" somewhat bemused that there are no monuments to him in Spain and only one street, on a new Malaga housing development. So, of late have started an experimental theatre course in Barcelona where Taoism plays its part in the school´s teaching. And just before I stumbled upon your book I got thinking "Where was Sor born?" In Barcelona, I mean. I fully intend to buy your books professor, but, just as a "spoiler" is it known in which street and at what number he was born? Would I be able to find some plaque attached to his birthplace? As a footnote, I´m not sure the Spanish are that interested in musical history. There is a plaque commemorating the birthplace of Luigi Bocherrini up a sidestreet in the cool but downtrodden Lavapies district. Most educated spaniards have heard of him (Italian by birth, Madrileño by adoption) but each time I drag some friend up that sidestreet to marvel at the sight, the reaction is "Yes, nice....fancy a beer!"
Thanks for your comments, Graham. Serendipitous indeed! The Fernando trilogy will give you ample material for a play. There is a church record of his baptism but (to my knowledge) no record of his exact address at birth, somewhere in Barcelona's "Dry Quarter." Alas that Spain does not emulate those bright blue disks of London, showing where so many great historical personages lived. We know Sor's later addresses in Paris and London, but some of these abodes are no longer standing -- swept away by urban renewals. There is a Calle Ferran in Barcelona, named in 1848, but I do not know which Ferran it is named for. And since a few years back there's an annual Fernando Sor Guitar Festival in Barcelona, so he has finally if posthumously received a well-deserved if long overdue "homecoming." I hope you enjoy the trilogy, and these associated videos, which reveal what a "superstar" Fernando became during his lifetime, and also why he had to leave his beloved homeland to fulfill his magnificent destiny.