Happy Birthday to Isaac Albeniz

Today would have been Isaac Albeniz's birthday, he was born on the 29th May 1860.
Albeniz, the Spanish composer and pianist, is one of the most important figures in Spain's musical history.
He was a child prodigy who at the age of four, so amazed the audience with his performance, that they suspected trickery. Famously as a young child, he stowed away on a ship to South America where he entertained audiences by playing with his back to the piano and other amazing antics.
Albeniz performed for most of his life, and, continued composing until his death on the 18th May 1909.
Albeniz composed, 'Suite Espanola', of which the fifth movement is possibly one of the most famous classical guitar pieces, 'Asturias'.
Although originally composed for piano it was later transcibed for guitar by Francisco Tarrega, along with many other pieces by Albeniz.
In fact Albeniz once declared that he preferred Tarrega's transcription of Asturias to his own original piano version.
Asturias can be heard on Robin's, 'Virtuoso' album.


If you go over to Jessica Duchen's blog you will see that it is also Korngold's birthday!

Update on previous blogs:
The other day I mentioned an article by Ben Quinn on an elderly pop group called, 'The Zimmers'. Their version of 'My Generation', by The Who, has been viewed by more than two million people on YouTube. Read, 'Pensioners pop on course for number one', for the full story.
Well done to The Zimmers, and also to Tim Samuels of the BBC, for putting the group together, and highlighting the needs of the elderly - or not!
There's also a further twist to the tale about the 'code cracking' antics of Thomas and Stuart Mitchell. I first mentioned them on the 1st of May, and it appears that Stuart Mitchell has been contacted by a Mexican astronomer who claims the same hexagonal shape can be seen on Saturn.
Apparently, in musical terms, this shape represents a B natural, suggesting more code cracking is needed.
I'm not making it up, read Ausian Cramb's article, 'The Da Vinci chapel echoes to the sound of Saturn', for the full story.

From Concerto Premiere Coming Soon to The Zimmers: My Generation

I'm in the process of trying to bring you a world premiere, right here, on this site.
However, we have encountered a few technical difficulties, which we hope to overcome in the next few days.
Just to keep you all interested, it is a concerto that Robin composed about three years ago, and you will be able to listen to the second movement.
It's always a big decision to 'go public' with a piece, and one that isn't taken lightly. That may surprise a few people, but, musicians are actually very protective of their music!
So, I'll keep sorting out the problems, and you keep checking in.

I couldn't let this article in 'The Daily Telegraph' go without a mention. Especially as Robin composed a poem about 'The Who' only a few days ago.
Nigel Reynolds report, 'The Zimmers: Glad we didn't die before we got old', is rather amusing. A group of 40 senior citizens, with a combined age of more than 3000 years, have recorded a cover version of The Who's, 'My Generation'.
Check out the link, you can even hear it!

Who Are You?

As requested, I did tape, 'The Seven Ages of Rock', on BBC2 last night, and when Robin got home, we settled down to watch.
It was great, full of fantastic vintage Hendrix footage, with comments from various musicians, journalists, biographers and the late Chas Chandler, Jimi's manager and former member of the Animals.
There were also some great clips of Cream, the Who, the Stones, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and many more.

By the time we had finished watching it was gone 1 am, so, Robin was banned from getting out his Stratocaster and blasting out 'Purple Haze', for fear of waking children and neighbours.
However, his sub-conscious must have been dwelling on all this as he slept, because this is a poem he wrote on waking this morning:

WHO ARE YOU?*

Messrs. Entwistle, Daltrey, Townsend and Moon,

Turn down a side street - the time is mid-June,

The 16 year old with huge head of hair,

Is calming himself with a pint of foam beer,

His heroes have finally come into town,

In a Ford Transit van of mighty renown,

In less than an hour they will be live on the stage,

At the end of their set they give vent to their rage,

Drum kits will fly, guitars they will splinter,

Is this in fact an artistic winter?

Not in the least - these guys are on top,

They're zeitgeist, their muse is unlikely to stop,

There's no substitute for my generation,

No wonder we hold them in great veneration.

ROBIN HILL May 2007

* When Robin was 16 the Who performed at what was then the Casino Club (it's currently a Quick Save supermarket....) on Crompton Way in Bolton. He still occasionally drives past the side street they would have taken to get to the stage door, and always looks, and remembers, their concert.