Picking away

Some great works for classical guitar, inspired by Virginia Heffernan's (ugh!) blog post on meeting "Funtwo", aka Jeong-Hyun Lim, aka YouTube guitar legend.

The funniest part of her post, incidentally, was this:

But most importantly, to me:

3. He asked me why, in Auckland, New Zealand, the only people interested in neoclassical shred solo guitar work–as he is–were other Koreans? The Europeans, he said, only seemed to want to listen to Green Day and post-punk. Why not the complex digital stuff, like Dream Theater (his example)?

I ventured a couple of answers, and then he blew me out of the water with a reply that seemed to explain the earth, the universe and everything.

At the very least, it explained Asian attention to technique versus European expressionism. Wow.

Uh, okay; she leaves it at that, I guess like she says we'll have to read her piece Monday to find out what his reply was, and read more about Virginia's reduction of cultures to: Europe creative, Asia methodical.

(Even as we live in a video game age dominated by designers from Asia).

Pachelbel's Canon in D


Funtwo's version is absolutely amazing; it has 28,245,680 views, 5th all-time on YouTube. it's funny reading comments from the kids who have no idea what piece this is. Like Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet and 10 Things I Hate About You, I'm all for modern updates of classics--which themselves were often contemporary takes on the ancients.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Funtwo again, playing the Summer movement. I think he should join forces with the East Village Opera Company and tour the country on a twin bill playing the classics.

Asturias movement from Isaac Albéniz's Suite Española


Played by Andrés Segovia, considered the father of the modern classical guitar.

Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez




Rodrigo's a blind Spanish composer who died in 1999; his piece, as Wikipedia notes, sounds older than it is, like something out of the Moorish 15th century. The lyric, soaring second movement is so unlike the first, which is pleasing in its own right. This version is played by John Williams with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

Paganini's Caprice no. 24


Su Meng plays the piece generally heard on a violin.