Gorecki is most famously known for his 3rd Symphony of “Sorrowful Songs”  and for what has been termed holy minimalism: simply, austere and serene.  But in the 60’s Gorecki was an avant garde  contemporary composer writing quite different pieces.  The work in the following video is his Sonata for two violins.  It is not a billboard chart topper like his 3rd Symphony, certainly with less mass appeal,  but it is a contemporary piece well worth checking out.

Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn  (1809-1847)  was called the “Mozart of the 19th century” by Robert Schumann.   Shortly after his death however, Wagner wrote “Jewishness in Music”  an antisemitic essay which calls Mendelssohn’s music “sweet and tinkling without depth”  As a result Mendelssohn’s popularity diminished greatly after his death.  Later under the Nazis performance of Mendelssohn’s music was banned.  Many of Mendelssohn’s works had to be smuggled out of Germany just prior to World War II.
In recent years Mendelssohn’s music has enjoyed somewhat a revival and his importance as a Romantic …

The Chaconne is definitely a journey and you feel it from the outset… And then Bach manages to take you through the entire range of human emotion… -Joshua Bell
Michael Lawrence’s new film which explores Bach from a spiritual, intellectual point of view as well as from the perspective of instruments and performance includes interviews with violinist Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn and many others.  The project is now in post production and looks like it will be a beautifully shot and very interesting documentary.  Watch a preview and Joshua Bell playing …

The film by Pere Portabella is “an approach to music and the trades and subjects that surround it through Bach’s works.” It was presented at the 64th Venice International Film Festival 2007. A series of beautiful vignettes which explores the relationship between image and music where the music is the subject of the narrative itself.

Defiance a new film directed by Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai) and starring Daniel Craig also features renowned violinist Joshua Bell as a soloist for the film’s score composed by the Oscar nominated James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight, Michael Clayton, The Fugitive, The Prince of Tides, etc.)