Pianistic Thunder: Bossenbroek, Thomas, Beethoven

21st Century Classical Music Thrives, Thunderously

Elijah Bossenbroek

When Elijah Bossenbroek’s “I Give Up” obtruded on one of my usually tranquil Pandora background music stations, I was jolted, amazed, thrilled, thunderstruck . . . and secondarily subjected to a wave of nostalgia for classical piano music.

(My apologies to readers who do not usually warm to classical music, but I do urge you to give a listen to Bossenbroek and maybe the others if you like him. They are all short—the Beethoven is the longest at 6:47. They are best played loud; I advise donning headphones. )

Without further adieu, I recommend three YouTube videos of Bossenbroek’s “I Give Up”  (The title is a bit cryptic, but apparently has something to do with giving up the mundane and petty concerns that distract and clutter the soul.) Comments follow the videos.

(Addendum June 30: After listening to “I Give Up” about 70 times (literally!) I highly prefer OPTION THREE below (VikaKim), not just because of the visuals of her keyboard wizardry, which are great. VikaKim’s interpretation, especially near the end, emphasizes the most brilliant elements in a way that Bossenbroek’s himself does not.  (IMHO)

ONE: https://youtu.be/bujxo4rVfFs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bujxo4rVfFs
recording of live concert in 2012.   Here you have the artist live, on stage, at his vulnerable humanity. That’s the upside. Downside: the sound quality is tinny, so much so that the repeated short motif tends to drown out the actual melodies. But once you’ve heard TWO and THREE below, you can come back to this one and tease the melodies out of the noise.

TWO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph820lekWz0&list=RDph820lekWz0&t=208
this is a studio recording with orchestral accompaniment, although I’m not certain whether this is Bossenbroek himself playing, or whether it is actually a cover by Korean pianist VikaKim. The “cover art” depicts a female pianist resembling VikaKim (or perhaps Alice Sara Ott); if it’s Bossenbroek playing, why that? The great thing about this recording is its tonal richness, especially with the assist from the orchestra.   The cover art is, visually,  as evocative of the mood of the piece as you could get. Waves crashing over a piano under a crepuscular sky . . .  just what a minor key (F sharp minor) calls for.

THREE (most highly recommended):  https://youtu.be/yM79qoongO0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM79qoongO0
this is definitely VikaKim herself covering the piece in a studio, and it’s riveting to watch her hands from over her right shoulder. Watching her hands helps the less musically astute listeners such as myself pick up how  the short motif and the longer melodies switch from hand to hand.

Here’s the main mystery to “I Give Up”: the first two times I listened through the piece, I was confounded by it sounding as if, at any one time, one hand was playing in 6/8 time, and the other in 4/4 time.   It wasn’t until I went online and saw the score that I got it: it’s written in 12/8 time! I fell for it and bought the score (a bargain at $4.99).  Although I haven’t played piano in 53 years, and don’t even have a piano, at least I get the pleasure of following the score while watching VikaKim hammer away.

Once you get onto YouTube’s free-wheeling platform, you’ll see more recordings of Bossenbroek.  There is a sameness to many of them, related to his fondness for the repeated short figures. I recommend “Harmony in Disarray,” which has several performances.

Jennifer Thomas

No sooner had I created a Bossenbroek Pandora station (unsuitable as background music, but I had to have it!), than I was treated to “Illuminations” by Jennifer Thomas.

“Illuminations,”  while simpler rhythmically, has a lot in common with Bossenbroek’s “I Give Up,” in particular the repeated short motif overlaying the melody, and an extravagance of passion that you rarely get from classical music written since the 19th Century.

Recommended for a first time play-through of the YouTube video of “Illuminations”—MINIMIZE THE WINDOW (use the link pasted in at the end of this paragraph, which will get you a window you can minimize, rather than run the embedded video). 

First time around, you want audio without visuals  The video embedded below, as with many a music video, forces an interpretation.  After you’ve listened a couple of times without the visuals, you can enjoy the show without feeling manipulated.  Thomas is quite photogenic,  and the nature theme is endearing.  The cuts to the youthful orchestra are seamless and natural.   She also plays the violin, and since the video shows her working on a score, I assume she wrote the orchestral arrangement.  Music videos always seem a bit gimmicky, but I can’t fault Thomas for doing unabashed self-promotion, since she is trying to do her own production, sales, and marketing.

First listen, go to and minimize away the window:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEw629Bp7vU

Afterwards enjoy the “cinematic” feel:

 

With both Bossenbroek and Thomas, a debt is owed to Philip Glass and Bach piano preludes. If you’re looking for a good Bach prelude in a minor key, try the 2nd in C minor, peppered all over YouTube.

(The Paul Barton version shows you the segments of the score he’s playing; very cool. Paul Barton plays prelude in C minor  OK, you’ve heard it before but can you hear it too many times?  And the following fugue is wonderful.)

Now, if you want a truly classically structured musical storm in a romantic vein, let’s go to . . . 

Ludwig van Beethoven

Yeah, that guy.  It’s hard to say enough good things about his music, but since my topic here is pianistic thunder, I refer you to the third movement of the “Moonlight Sonata.”  This sonata is publicly famous for the slow, pensive, dreamlike  first movement, although the fiery third movement, all yang to the first movement’s yin, is more complex structurally.   It is also total dynamite.

I like this performance by Valentina Lisitsa. 

She gives it a lot of sustain pedal—possibly too much, but, if you want thunder, you hold down the pedal and attack the keys with fury.  There’s a fascinating moment in this video when, at 5:10, Lisitsa rolls her gaze heavenward as if calling on the ghost of Beethoven for inspiration.  (She apparently got it.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zucBfXpCA6s

BTW, you can also find Lisitsa’s full performance of the sonata—all three movements—on YouTube. The second movement is light and sweet—the great pianist Franz Liszt termed it “a flower between two chasms.”