The famous one: Schubert’s composition for piano four hands, his Marche militaire Op. 51 No. 1 (later re-arranged for various combinations of instruments, up to a full symphony orchestra). Which was posted today by the Classical PIANO Geniuses (their spelling) group: in a wonderful warm performance by Daniel Barenboim & Lang Lang, along with three other performances, of which one — by Salim & Sivan (with the Israeli Symphony Orchestra sitting behind them, and a symphony audience in front of them, so it was part of a larger program) is brilliant, great fun; and the video is worth watching just to see Salim’s body language and facial expressions.
You can watch B & LL on YouTube here. And S & S on YouTube here.
(A bit more on Salim & Silver below.)
I had in fact intended to write about this four-hand piano piece before; I’ve never played it, but it’s a great favorite of mine, a masterpiece of joy.
What I was not prepared for was what happened a few bars into the B & LL performance: I began to weep with some mixture of sadness and joy, and when S & S began, I had tears running down my face.
Then it occurred to me that my joints were singing with pain, which I’d put down to the sudden ferocious heat of the day (in the low 90sF). But then I checked Weather Underground, and the air pressure had just nosedived. So the pain and the depression were barometric. And my plans for the day were toast.
I did watch B & LL a couple more times, and S & S five more times, enjoying it more each time, while weeping like an idiot. Now my inner alarm clock tells me it’s time to prepare dinner, but first, this posting.
Background. From Wikipedia:
The Three Marches Militaires, Op. 51, D. 733, are pieces in march form written for piano four-hands by Franz Schubert.
The first of the three is far more famous than the others. It is one of Schubert’s most famous compositions, and it is often simply referred to as “Schubert’s Marche militaire“.
It is not certain when the Marches militaires were written: many scholars favour 1818 but some prefer alternative dates such as 1822 or 1824. It is known that they were written during Schubert’s stay at Count Johann Karl Esterházy’s summer home in Zseliz in Hungary (now Želiezovce in Slovakia). He had accepted a job there as music teacher to the Count’s daughters, Maria Theresia and Caroline, and these and similar works were written for instructional purposes.
The Marches militaires were published in Vienna on 7 August 1826, as Op. 51, by Anton Diabelli.
They are all in ternary form, with a central trio leading to a reprise of the main march
The duo Sivan & Salim. I could find no information on the net about them as a duo. The woman of the pair seems to be the noted Israeli pianist Sivan Silver, in which case the rangy but very young man Salim would be a protégé of hers (I haven’t been able to identify him further).
This is conspicuously a performance by a Jew (Sivan) and an Arab (Salim) — part, I assume, of the larger enterprise of establishing a musical community in Israel of Arabs and Jews; may they aid in repairing the world as well as making music together. The video says it’s from 11 years ago, so Salim presumably no longer looks like a teenager (incredibly talented, and adorable, but apparently a teenager).
September 23, 2024 at 5:17 pm |
Daniel Barenboim also has had a prominent role in (as you so well put it) establishing a musical community across racial/ethnic/religion/maybe-national lines in Israel and neighboring areas. Notably as co-founder (with the late Edward Said, in 1999) and, I believe, still frequent leader of The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. See for details https://west-eastern-divan.org/divan-orchestra
September 24, 2024 at 4:08 am |
Just to add: the piece is a march, but it’s also — not surprisingly, for Schubert — a dance and a song.
April 24, 2025 at 8:32 am |
I believe Salim is actually young Saleem Abboud Ashkar, but I could be mistaken. You can see resemblance in their facial features and it’s possible that “Salim” was actually supposed to be spelled “Saleem”
April 24, 2025 at 9:36 am |
Unquestionably so. Saleem is especially known for his performances and recordings of the Beethoven piano sonatas. Then from the Bechstein (the piano company) site:
And from his own site:
As for his name, of course that was originally written in Arabic and then transliterated in the Latin alphabet; “Salim” and “Saleem” are alternative transliterations of the same name. We see on his website that he prefers the transliteration “Saleem”; and since it’s *his* name, he gets to say what the spelling is.
Meanwhile, your choice of a jokey username — yo mama [guffaw] — caused me to spend some time convincing myself that you are a legitimate person and not one of the vast number of spammers, trolls, and malicious commenters on this blog. But now I’ve told WordPress that you’re ok — I have to hand-moderate some number of unclear cases, every day — and you could comment again without an issue. And thanks again for spotting Saleem.