A Few of Smorg's Musical Heroes (for the I Need A Hero Write-Off) Apr 18 '09    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 Mai by Eri Sugai From $4 The Bottom Line Five musicians Smorg would nearly worship if only I am a little more subceptible to religiosity. I raked my brain looking for a hero to write up for my friend Talyseon's I Need A Hero write-off, but I'm really not conditioned for really looking up to anyone. Don't ask me why... I'm just weird that way. When I was growing up I was always seeking to avoid attention, preferring to be lost in my own thoughts at a corner rather than to join in a play or a game with other kids. I didn't look up to my dad because he was always a lot more insecure than my mom was (and then it seemed wrong somehow to look up to mom instead since she's a woman... I know, I know, that's both sexist and senseless, but I was a kid after all and didn't start knowing better until much later). I didn't dream of being like Superman or Kit Carson or Daniel Boone... I dreamed of being their colleague. So... coming up with a hero is proving much tougher than I thought it would be! So what I had came up with instead is a short list of a few musicians who have managed to really inspire a deadbeat hero-less old goat like me by what they do and how they do it. 1. Queen (Sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=laIY-uauGgY ) Before I fell in love with classical music and opera, there was QUEEN! A four-man classical-rock band from Britain that burst onto the music scene in the 1970's, producing this psychedelically delicious blend of classically inspired melody with the immediacy of rock beat and arrangement. And to top off the cake are its lead singer and guitarist; Freddie Mercury and Brian May. I don't always love Mercury's choice of lyrics, but the man laid his soul bear every time he opened his mouth and sang... and man, was that voice not extraordinary! While John Deacon and Roger Taylor were steady and supportive with their bass guitar and drums, Brian May's electric guitar had a sound all its own and the soloing style that perfectly matched Mercury's vocal. They didn't need to paint their face or shout or try to overwhelm your sense of hearing with noise in order to rough you up. They were a band that knew their worth and carried on with this carefree sense that was more addictive to their fans than any marketing schtick could have achieved for them. When Mercury disclosed of his affliction with AIDS and then promptly died on the very next day, it was the first time I had a real sense of lost about an artist... with the sinking feeling that I would never get to witness another like of him again. 2. Evgeni Kissin (Sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kNIssxz4CI )   The first musical instruments I picked up was the piano... So, naturally there are a few virtuoso pianists who light my keyboarding fire. None does more so than Evgeni Kissin, the Moscovite fiery interpreter of music of the Romantic Period, however. While I admire the perfection of Richter, the lyricism of Rubinstein, and the consuming fire of Argerich, it is Kissin's beautiful blend of precision and passion that catches my imagination the most. 3. Nikolaus Harnoncourt (sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSORP16MtJ0 )       In the era with no shortage of great conductors, Maestro Harnoncourt is perhaps the most original thinker of them all. I first encountered him on his recording of Bach's Passion of St. John and became a fan ever since. There are many other accomplished and studied conductors around who specialize in 'ancient music' (from the Baroque Period and before) and who work exclusively with period-instrument orchestra... in the hope of recapturing the sound that Monteverdi or Handel or Bach would have heard during their life time. But the thing that really attract me to his artistry is not his fidelity to the score or to what he believes is the composer's intention for the music but his courage to employ unusual tempi, rubati, and accents in his quest to put forward a fresh new take on what has been performed to death many times over before. Harnoncourt doesn't recreate old music, he gives it a new life... and that is a quality hard to find even in the best of musicians today. 4. Vesselina Kasarova (sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZE7ei26vg8) We are living in an embrarassing richness when it comes to operatic lyric mezzo-sopranos... And yet this Bulgarian - Swiss singer stands out among the many wonderful others as perhaps the most original and authentic (in every sense of the words) artist of her generation. While I do believe that many, if not most, of today's singers do feel the pathos of the music they are singing, very few of them are able to communicate that to an audience who doesn't understand the language they are singing in. Some singers manage to hint at what they are trying to convey with the way they shape and phrase the musical line, accenting, and with careful attention to the words. Once in a blue moon, however do we find someone who is able to project all the pathos of the music in the very timbre of the voice itself... And that is what we have with Vesselina Kasarova. Her expressivity is borne of her understanding of the text and the music, but it is by no means limited to it. She doesn't love the word or the music for its own sake. She condenses what they both say and then translate the message and the emotion to us in her voice, using every shade of its many colors as paints! And so, this singer can communicate directly to you with her voice what you can't understand in the language of the lyric she is singing... And that... is art in its most transcendental form. 5. Susan Boyle (www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY)   While the previous 4 names on this list are quite well known to audience of their musical genre, Susan Boyle, the 47 years old unemployed frump who created a roque wave-size stir with her audition to the (in)famous reality tv show, Britain's Got Talents, this year was about as unknown and unappreciated as a dark horse can get. But... have a look and listen at the sample clip above and you won't need any explanation from me as to why I find her quite someone to root for... Real life is more unbelieveable than art sometimes! So these are 5 of my 'musical heroes'... And you have talyseon to blame for having to put up with another one of my musical rambling without any link to a product this website can make money out of. :o( O well... sometimes it isn't all about money, ay? :o)

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