But the best thing of all is that I can learn a lot from the lessons and concerts of great pianists.
I will never forget the interesting advices that were given to me by my piano teachers Alicja Fiderkiewicz and Jonathan Middleton. They have been most supporting for me to practice better and more.
With David Dolan and my dear Douglas Finch I have progressed more in the adventure of improvising that I wish to continue.
John Le Grove was my composition teacher and with him I discovered more contemporary music and he has given me more ideas to search my own style.
And finally Mr. Jeremy Siepmann has helped me not only to understand why I'm fond of Bach or Haydn, but he has also showed me that with my instrument I am an "emotional generator". I think I will have to improve so that I can transmit these feelings to the audience.

In the photo below I am playing in the Concert I did with some friends one of the last days

I give my thanks to all these teachers, and also to all the teachers that have given daily concerts and that make us share the passion of music. All of them were superb, every one of them in his personnality of great artist but I'd like to mention Philippe Cassard and his sensible Brahm's concert and Vladimir Tropp which gave us an amazing version of Schumann's Carnaval. Another pianist I have to mention is the Italian Marcella Crudeli that took us to the sky with sonatas by Scarlatti, Cimarosa and Beethoven. Here you have a photo of Marcella singing the scores of her arrangements of Scarlatti's Sonatas, just after her concert. She is with Douglas Finch and Georgina .

And I'll never forget the piano recital of my teacher Alicja Fiderkiewicz on his outstanding hommage to his compatriot Chopin, and the awesome recital of Peter Donohoe full of fire and humor. Also the great virtuoso Leslie Howard gave a concert very deep and beautiful. Here you can see him in one of his unique interpretations of Liszt

Eveything was fantastic (including my little football games with my friends Cullom and Mathew) and the two cabaret nights in which the unique Harry Harris played out of the common. You can see Harry in the video below and in his website:

http://harrythepiano.com/

And that's all folks!
Manu

En próximos posts os propondremos otras versiones...
De momento esto es todo.
Hasta protno,
Mirlo

Hi dear friends,
I contact you in quite a special day in Spain: tradition says it is the hotest day in summer and it is also "San Lorenzo", that is "Saint Lawrence" in English, a saint that is celebrated in many villages around Spain. The photograph below is from one of them, Ezcaray, in La Rioja where I have just spent a few days and where they are just starting their "fiestas" today. The image waas taken just before a concert of the Local Band directed by Luis Monge, son of Victor Monge, who was director first and now concentrates in composing and playing the organ of the church (the organ is a great historical instrument). I confess I feel very proud of being a friend of Victor's.

En el concierto en cuestión escuchamos una interpretación estupenda de la obertura de la Zarzuela "Gigantes y Cabezudos" de Fernandez Caballero. Aquí os la dejo en una versión para banda que espero que os guste.

In that concert we listened to a fairly good interpretation of the overture from Fernández Caballero' s zarzuela "Gigantes y Cabezudos". Here you have quite a good version for band that I hope you will like.

Hasta pronto...
See you soon
Manu

Yesterday Manuel was in a hurry and afterwards he thought of some videos that could be a little refreshing for you.
The first two videos are for the ones who want to know more about Benjamin Zander. It is an interview that might interest you.

Y como este blog se escribe desde España, desde aquí os mandamos una muestra extraordinaira de nuestra música, el intermedio de Las bodas de Luis Alonso del maestro Giménez con la simpar Lucero Tena. No te los pierdas, te impresionará.

And as this blog is written from Spain, from here we send you our extraordinary music. It is the Intermezzo from the zarzuela "Las Bodas de Luis Alonso" of the maestro Giménez with the great Lucero Tena. Don't miss them, it will impress you.

Hasta pronto, See you,
Mirlo

Hi friends,
here I am as fresh as a rose in spring. Talking about spring (yes, I know we are in July), I've brought you today the First Movement of Schumann's Symphony nº 1 "Spring". It's a huge work of art in which Schumann shows his great maestry in composing Symphonies. And what's more, I've brought you Fürtwangler's version with the Vienna Philarmonic... I hope you would like this version.

Hasta pronto.../See you soon...
MANU

Hi friends,
If you don't know it yet, Cuentameunaopera.com has been translated in English and you can have the access through www.tellmeanopera.com.
These news are great for Georgina García-Mauriño, the creator of this site-web and she hopes that the site would open more to the English-Speaking countries.
Well, today I've brought you an exciting an interesting video of Benjamin Zander, a British-American conductor, in which he talks about the actual situation of classical music and his power all over the world. There are the subtitles in Spanish if you are studying this beautiful language...

Espero que os haya gustado.../Hope you've liked it...
Ciao,
MANU

Os dejo ahora con este vídeo de Alicia de Larrocha tocando la Danza de la Pastora de Ernesto Halffter...

Hasta pronto,
MANU

el otro día estuve en el Conservatorio de Getafe en el que asistí a un concierto que interpretaban algunos amigos míos del Conservatorio. Hubo tangos para dos guitarras, música de cámara de Tellemann, el primer concierto para piano de Beethoven (interpretado con Unai, un gran amigo mío y muy autoexigente)...
Y, aprovechando que tocaron en aquel concierto el primer concierto de Beethoven, traigo unos vídeos de Alicia de Larrocha conversando con el cómico Dudley Moore, con ocasión de la grabación de esta obra. Lo malo es que los comentarios están en inglés...¡¡¡con subtitulos en chino!!!
Aun así me parece que merece la pena... Os los dejo.

Hasta pronto...
MANU