New Year's Concert Vienna 2012

In view of the tradition of the New Year's Concerts, which began during the Second World War, the Vienna Philharmonic performs the concert even today not only as a presentation of viennese musical culture at the highest level, but also to send the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace.

Program

• Johann and Joseph Strauss: "Vaterländischer Marsch (Fatherland March)"
• Johann Strauss: "Rathausball-Tänze (City Hall Ball Dances)", Waltz, op. 438
• Johann Strauss: "Entweder – oder! (Either - Or!)", Fast Polka, op. 403
• Johann Strauss: "Tritsch-Tratsch (Chit-Chat)", Polka, op. 214
• Carl Michael Ziehrer: "Wiener Bürger (Viennese Folk)", Waltz, op. 419
• Johann Strauss: "Albion Polka", op. 102
• Joseph Strauss: "Jokey Polka (Jockey Polka)", Fast Polka, op. 278

- Intermission -

• Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr.: Danse Diabolique (Diabolic Dance)
• Joseph Strauss: "Künstler-Gruss (Artists Greeting)", Polka française, op. 274
• Johann Strauss: "Freuet euch des Lebens (Enjoy Life)", Waltz, op. 340
• Johann Strauss, Sr.: "Sperl Galopp", op. 42
• Hans Christian Lumbye: Copenhagen Railway Steam Gallop
• Joseph Strauss: "Feuerfest (Fireproof)", Polka française, op. 269
• Eduard Strauss: "Carmen-Quadrille", op. 134
• Peter I. Tchaikovsky: "Panorama" from the Ballet "Sleeping Beauty", op. 66
• Peter I. Tchaikovsky: "Waltz" from the Ballet "Sleeping Beauty", op. 66
• Johann and Joseph Strauss: "Pizzicato Polka", no opus number
• Johann Strauss: "Persischer Marsch (Persian March)", op. 289
• Joseph Strauss: "Brennende Liebe (Burning Love)", Polka Mazur, op. 129
• Joseph Strauss: "Delirien (Delirium)", Waltz, op. 212
• Johann Strauss: "Unter Donner und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning)", Fast Polka, op. 324

Location: Musikverein, Golden Hall (Vienna, Austria) Conductor: Mariss Jansons

Famous Quotes

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

Albert Pike (1809-1891)

Les choristes

The Chorus (French: Les choristes) is a 2004 French drama film directed by Christophe Barratier. It is an adaptation of the 1945 film A Cage of Nightingales (La Cage aux Rossignols).

Widely successful orchestra conductor Pierre Morhange returns to France when his mother dies. He reminiscences about his childhood inspirations through the pages of a diary kept by his old music teacher Clément Mathieu. In 1949, a young Pierre is the badly behaved son of single mother Violette. He attends a boarding institution, Fond de L'Etang, for "difficult" boys presided over by strict headmaster Mr. Rachin. New teacher Mathieu brightens up the school and assembles a choir, leading to the discovery of Pierre's musical talents and a transformation in the children.

Merry Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Lazarus Syndrome

Lazarus syndrome is the spontaneous return of circulation after failed attempts at resuscitation. Its occurrence has been noted in medical literature at least 25 times since 1982. Also called Lazarus phenomenon, it takes its name from the biblical story of Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus. In one case, a 66-year-old man was suffering from a suspected abdominal aneurysm. During treatment for this condition, the patient suffered cardiac arrest and received chest compressions and defibrillation shocks for 17 minutes. Vital signs did not return; the patient was declared dead and resuscitation efforts ended. Ten minutes later, the surgeon felt a pulse. The aneurysm was successfully treated and the patient fully recovered with no lasting physical or neurological problems.

The Raising of Lazarus; REMBRANDT; 1630

Famous Quotes

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

 Albus Dumbledore

The Choice of Hercules between Virtue and Pleasure
by Benjamin West (1764)

My 5th Symphony

Person Of The Year

Colours

Look at the image and say the colour not the word.

Left - Right Conflict

Your right brain tries to say the colour but your left brain insists on reading the word.

Cheers

To all the money spent on books...
To all nights spent sleeping over them...

To all the books which when put together,
weigh more than me...

To all the effort put to stay awake in lectures,
Attendance being the main feature !!!

To all the patients histories faked...
To all the vivas baked....

To all exams and their jhatkas...
From harrisons to ghutkas...

To all the entrance tests...
Doubting a Man's Best !!!

To all the batch folks,
and your stupid jokes...

To all the white coats...
And the detergent it soaks....

Live your dream, live your quest !!!
Cheers to the medical life !!!

Unknown author

Let Them Eat Cake

According to popular myth, Queen Marie Antoinette was heard to say: “S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche.” (“If they have no bread, let them eat brioche”) – referring to the poor.  But, even if Queen Marie had made this comment, it would have not had the same meaning as it does today. Laws at the time of her reign meant that bakers who ran out of cheap bread, had to sell their finer bread (such as brioche) at the lower price, in order to protect people from ruthless bakers who would make insufficient quantities of inexpensive bread in order to make a bigger profit. That aside, the Queen did not say these words at all, they were actually written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his book “Confessions” – written a number of years before Marie Antoinette became Queen. His exact words:

''I recalled the make-shift of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread and who replied: 'Let them eat brioche'.''

The misattribution and perpetuation of this myth is most likely a result of anti-Royal propaganda following the revolution in which she and her husband were murdered.

Jar of Hearts

Thank You, Lord !!

Indiana Doges

A Must Read

The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling--a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown’s most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.

Moon & Stars

Noetic Sciences

From the Greek noēsis / noētikos, meaning inner wisdom, direct knowing, or subjective understanding, Noetic Sciences is a multidisciplinary field that brings objective scientific tools and techniques together with subjective inner knowing to study the full range of human experiences.

The essential hypothesis underlying the Noetic Sciences is simply that consciousness matters. The question is when, how, and why does it matter?

There are several ways we can know the world around us. Science focuses on external observation and is grounded in objective evaluation, measurement, and experimentation. This is useful in increasing objectivity and reducing bias and inaccuracy as we interpret what we observe. But another way of knowing is subjective or internal, including gut feelings, intuition, and hunches - the way you know you love your children, for example, or experiences you have that cannot be explained or proven “rationally” but feel absolutely real. This way of knowing is what we call noetic.

From a purely materialist, mechanistic perspective, all subjective – noetic - experience arises from physical matter, and consciousness is simply a byproduct of brain and body processes. But there is another perspective, suggesting a far more complex relationship between the physical and the nonphysical. The Noetic Sciences apply a scientific lens to the study of subjective experience and to ways that consciousness may influence the physical world, and the data to date have raised plenty of provocative new questions.

Noetic Sciences is a growing field of valid inquiry. Every new discovery leads to more questions as the mystery of human consciousness slowly unfolds. In the areas of consciousness and healing, extended human capacities, and worldview transformation, it keeps pushing the boundaries of what we know, advancing our shared understanding of consciousness.

Comptine d'un autre été - L'áprés midi

Famous Quotes

Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
Caspar David Friedrich (1818) 

" To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books."

The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Fado becomes UNESCO's World Heritage Cultural Patrimony

Fado by José Malhoa (1910)

Fado (Portuguese: destiny, fate) is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins.

In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. However, in reality fado is simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain structure. The music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade which symbolizes the feeling of loss (a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent life lasting damage).

Amália Rodrigues, Carlos do Carmo, Mariza are amongst the most famous individuals associated with the genre.

In 2011, the Fado performance genre incorporating music and poetry widely practised by various communities in Lisbon was be inscribed onto the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists and in 27 November, 2011, UNESCO approved it.



Sonnet 44

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee;
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But, ah, thought kills me that I am not thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that, so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend time's leisure with my moan,
Receiving nought by elements so slow,
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.

William Shakespeare

Ave Maria

How was your day?

A question of punctuation

J. S. Bach - Jesus Bleibet Meine Freunde BWV 147

J. S. Bach - Badinerie

Maenads

In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers and worshipers of Dionysus. They were known as wild, crazy and without clear judgement.

During the rituals, they danced very freely, lasciviously, embracing the Nature's primitive forces.

They are depicted naked or wearing a deerskin, garlands of ivy and wielding a thyrsus (stick wrapped in vine branches).

Lantern Bug

We All Need Joy In Our Lives

Alegria

Cirque du Soleil

Mozart - Lacrimosa

The Perfect Reflection

Chopin - Notturno Op. 9 n. 2

Les Sylphides

The Land Of Might Have Been

Violet

A diminutive flower, the violet has a whole array of meanings, many to do with color, many to do with its gentle size and appearance. The fondness people have for the flower has placed it in the calendar as the flower for the month of February.

Folklore says the violet connotes a love that is delicate. The sensibility of delicacy is also associated with the violet from ancient mythology. Roman and Greek myths recount a tragic story of one of the goddess Diana's (Artemis) nymph companions, all of whom had sworn to stay maidens. The nymph was unrelentingly chased by Diana's twin brother, Apollo, so that Diana changed the nymph into a violet to protect her. The modesty of the nymph is attributed to the violet.

Violets also denote spiritual wisdom, humility and faithfulness. These meanings make violets, along with yellow roses, the flower to give for a 50th wedding anniversary.

The color violet was named after the purple-blue flower. Purple as a color means royalty and power. Following from that, purple also means confidence. The white violet, in the Victorian mind, means candor; innocence, too. It was much the same during the Renaissance, when the meanings of flowers were not just simple assigned values, but reflected an essence that led to an understanding of the Divine.

Dreaming of violets is a sign that a fortune is coming your way. It is also supposed to mean your future spouse will be your junior. The violet does have a more sobering side, though, in that the flower is associated with death - and resurrection. The symbolism likely springs from antiquity, when a number of myths featured violets in the death of heroes and even an Earth God named Attis. Combining this death symbolism with modesty and maidenhood creates a meaning for violet of death too soon. Shakespeare's tragic Ophelia was linked to violets in "Hamlet."

Ophelia by Millais
(1851-2)

Famous Quotes

Schubert - Serenade

Famous Quotes

 

The Luxury of Life is simply to be able to appreciate and enjoy the Beauties of it.

Unknown

Plaisir d'Amour

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.
chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

"Plaisir d'amour" (literally "The pleasure of love") is a classical French love song written in 1780 by Jean Paul Égide Martini (1741-1816). Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) arranged it for orchestra. The song  took its text from a poem by Jean de Florian (1755–1794), which appears in his romance, Célestine.

 

Fabergé Egg

A Fabergé Egg is any one of the thousands of jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. Most were miniature eggs that were popular gifts at Eastertide. Each egg is unique.

The first Fabergé egg was crafted for Tsar Alexander III, who decided to give his wife, the Empress Maria Fedorovna, an Easter Egg in 1885.  Known as the Hen Egg (vide picture), it is crafted from gold. Its opaque white enameled ‘shell’ opens to reveal its first surprise, a matte yellow gold yolk. This in turn opens to reveal a multi-coloured gold hen that also opens. It contains a minute diamond replica of the Imperial Crown from which a small ruby pendant was suspended.

His wife's delight is all the Czar needed to reward Fabergé with a comission for an Easter egg every year. 

a) 1894 The Renassaince Egg
b) 1890 The Spring Flowers Egg

Mozart - Serenade No 10 In B Flat Major K 361 III Adagio

Matryoshka

The nesting doll – Matryoshka is the most famous Russian toy, a symbol of Russia, and considered to be one of the phenomenons in the world folk art.

A matryoshka doll is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan, a long and shapeless traditional Russian peasant jumper dress. The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby lathed from a single piece of wood. 

The name of the toy is a diminutive from Matriona, a popular Russian name at the time. It has also been pointed out that there may be a connection with the Latin mater, which is supported by the idea itself: a large toy that shelters other smaller ones. However, in the beginning they represented men as well. They also represented entire families, statesmen, czars and also dolls celebrating certain events or holidays. Today, the name has become the symbol of motherhood and fertility. 

Matryoshkas are also used metaphorically, as a design paradigm, known as the "matryoshka principle" or "nested doll principle". It denotes a recognizable relationship of "object-within-similar-object" that appears in the design of many other natural and man-made objects. The onion metaphor is of similar character. If the outer layer is peeled off an onion, a similar onion exists within. 

Chopin - Tristesse

Life of man

" Your Majesty, when we compare the present life of man on earth with that time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the swift flight of a single sparrow through the banqueting-hall where you are sitting at dinner on a winter’s day with your thegns and counsellors. In the midst there is a comforting fire to warm the hall; outside, the storms of winter rain or snow are raging. This sparrow flies swiftly in through one door of the hall, and out through another. While he is inside, he is safe from the winter storms; but after a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. Even so, man appears on earth for a little while; but of what went before this life or of what follows, we know nothing. "

 Saint Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England

Dreams

Moonlight Serenade

Random Facts

Famous quotes

To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we come to happiness.

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542-1587)

Random Facts

The Happy Life

Martial, the things that do attain
The happy life be these, I find:—
The richesse left, not got with pain;
The fruitful ground, the quiet mind;
The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule, nor governance;
Without disease, the healthful life;
The household of continuance;
The mean diet, no delicate fare;
True wisdom join’d with simpleness;
The night discharged of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppress.
The faithful wife, without debate;
Such sleeps as may beguile the night:
Contented with thine own estate
Ne wish for death, ne fear his might.

A Martial‘s epigram (X:47), translated by Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey (1517-1547).

The Little Prince

The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince), published in 1943, is French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's most famous novella.

It has been translated into more than 190 languages and sold more than 80 million copies making it one of the best-selling books ever.

Though ostensibly a children's book, The Little Prince makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature. For example, Saint-Exupéry tells of a fox meeting the young prince as he exits the Sahara desert. The story's essence is contained in the lines uttered by the fox to the little prince: On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. ("One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.")

Other key thematic messages are articulated by the fox, such as: "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed" and "It is the time you have devoted to your rose that makes your rose so important."

Beethoven "The Eroica" Symphony Nº.3

The Elysium Fields

 

According to the Greek mithology, the Elysium Fields was the final resting place for the souls of heroes and virtuous men.

The Elysian Fields lay on the western margin of the Earth, by the encircling stream of Oceanus (Odyssey), and there the mortal relatives of the king of the gods were transported, without tasting death, to enjoy an immortality of bliss (Odyssey book iv: 563).

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées, in Paris, is known as  La plus belle avenue du monde.

Haendel "Harpsichord Suite Set II, No. 7 in B-Flat Major, HWV 440"

Petunia

The petunia is a trumpeet-shaped flower native of South American. Its name is derived from the word "petun," which means "tobacco" in Brazilian.

They were discovered in the early 17th century by explorers, and were quickly sent back to Europe. Explorer James Tweedie sent samples of the flowers to the Glasgow Botanical Center in 1831, which heightened their popularity among European gardeners and botanists. Word of the new species spread, and petunias soon became a mainstay in home gardens around the world.

Petunias are known as "Mary's Praises" in Germany due to their uplifting flowers. They are a common symbol of the Virgin Mary in Christianity, and are often planted in gardens dedicated to the Mother of Christ. In popular folklore, petunia flowers are also believed to represent anger and resentment, or to soothe these negative emotions by their presence.

Chopin "Nocturne In B Flat Minor

Panis Angelicus (Bread of Angels)

A Howling Wilderness / The Death Of Jane Seymour

The Tudors
Season 3

Penguins & Friend

The "Emplastro" from the South Pole !!!

There is always...

Curious Duck

J.S.Bach - Air on the G String

Forget-me-not

Myosotis (from the Greek: "mouse's ear", after the leaf) are commonly called Forget-me-nots.

In a German legend, God named all the plants when a tiny unnamed one cried out, "Forget-me-not, O Lord!" God replied, "That shall be your name."

The Christ Child was sitting on Mary's lap one day and said that he wished that future generations could see her eyes. He touched her eyes and then waved his hand over the ground and blue forget-me-nots appeared, hence the name forget-me-not.

Henry IV adopted the flower as his symbol during his exile in 1398, and retained the symbol upon his return to England the following year.

In 15th-century Germany, it was supposed that the wearers of the flower would not be forgotten by their lovers. Legend has it that in medieval times, a knight and his lady were walking along the side of a river. He picked a posy of flowers, but because of the weight of his armour he fell into the river. As he was drowning he threw the posy to his loved one and shouted "Forget-me-not." It was often worn by ladies as a sign of faithfulness and enduring love.

Overture 1812

 by P. I. Tschaikowsky

It all ends... or does it?