Maksim Mrvica

[DoubleBlade]

hey i was wondering whether there are any Maksim fans out there?


anyways this is one of his latest MTVs entitled "Kolibre".basically i find this MTV super cool and u should pay close attention to the piano he's playin on.mannnn it's like Maksim has his own signature piano or something cause i have never ever seen a Grand Piano wif that kinda design before.juz imagine a Grand Piano wif a metallic outer casing instead of the normal wooden outer casing....



mms://music.nextv.com.tw/host/EMI/041112_300k_maksim_01.wmv

 

[Cheez]

Interesting. Looks like he may have got metal plates stuck onto the piano. Would be interesting if the body is really made of metal. Gives a new meaning to metal music.

But THIS would be a nice piano to have:

Link: http://www.crystal-music.com/defaulteng.htm

OK, OK James. I'm going off topic again...

 

[Cheez]

On the topic of unusual pianos:
http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/oddpianos.htm

 

[dholguitar]

the dude looks like a cult believer man
haha..
anyway im a huge fan of him so yeah..
anyways.. the finger work is awesome!!
if only he played guitars..
he'll be playing both hands!!

 

[DoubleBlade]

this is what i call a new breed of pianist.


allow me for some discussion here.....


in the early days there the guitar was the instrument of choice for the nobles and kings and queens.some kings in the imperial ages were great guitarist in fact.den came segovia.this person revolutionised the guitar by creating tabs in wad we find 2day.since den the classical guitar has become a popular and respected instrument of choice.to make a long story short....
as the world began to urbanised , we had find young gentleman playing jazz and blues music examples are Ray Charles and BB King.from blues music came rock music.now...rock musicians opposed the dress code of jazz and blues musicians.clad in long hair , cigrettes in their mouths , spotting gothic looks.wad i'm tryin to say here is that , guitarist have evolved over the 20th century.from fine young gentleman they evolved into gothic and fashion oriented musicians.

as far as i know....ever since Christofori invention of the Piano which marked a turning point in the music world from the 19th century onwards. until now...it's still the same. we see pianist dressed in tuxedoes wif their fingers stuck on the keyboard with the only emotion they project is their heads swaying to the beat of the piano.dun u agree wif me on this? now dat kinda turns pple off somehow.....


but maksim is completely different.if u see his debut performance at round house London , u can see he projects a new and upbeat kinda emotion when playing the piano.how often do u normally come across a pianist whose fingers are flying around the entire keyboard? how often do u come across a pianist who moves wif time in terms of his fashion sense?how often do u come across a pianist who looks more like a rock star than a pianist?

it's time for piano playing to undergo the same stage of evolution as what guitar playing has experienced.

if steve vai can have his own signature guitar , why can't maksim have his own signature piano? if a guitarist can have his own signature guitar , why cant a pianist have his own signature piano? if gibson can invent the explorer and flying V which is unique in design for a guitar , why can't yamaha or any other piano manufacturing company develop a piano which is unique in design? probably a flying V version for a piano? lolx

what i want to see is youths playing the piano.youths who would spend as much time on the piano as the guitar.i will indeed be happy if i see more pianist who follow the "Maksim Cult" coming up in the music industry in the near future. =)

 

[dholguitar]

HAIL MAKSIM!!

 

[Vaiyen]

let's hope Maksim is able to ignite a revolution in piano-playing.
And yes! you are damn right! it's time now for pianos with outrageous designs!

 

[DoubleBlade]

well he has somehow inspired me to follow his cult group thou =)

 

[DoubleBlade]

nothing comes close to the metallic outer casing piano dat i've seen in that MTV. i hope to see one of these metallic pianos in stores one day. i've heard rumours of another pianist who shares the same views as Maksim.i heard he's from Germany but as far as i know...i'm still in doubt dat these rumours are even true.

 

[Cheez]

Actually, Maksim made a right move to combine classical with modern music. He is obviously classically trained. Sad to say, less and less people are listening to classical music and the market is decreasing with each generation. Also, to make it in the classical circle as a pianist, you have to be extremely good (Maksim does not quite make the mark if we compare him to the other concert performing pianists - he is good but not enough). There are just too many good pianists out there.

So Maksim venturing into this new area is a smart move - he will be one of the best (if not the best) classical pianist in the modern music circle (because there are hardly any) and so competition is low. And it's fresh - since you don't hear many of these around.

I think more and more classical musicians will start to move out of their usual circle being forced by the market. When that happens, Maksim will have some serious competition. But until then, he had to try to get as many CDs and MTVs out there while he is still the rare breed.

Violin and strings-wise, it has already started (with Vanessa Mae, the Bond Girls etc). It will be interesting to see what comes next...

 

[Vaiyen]

pop opera?

 

[DoubleBlade]

i remember when i was in primary 5/6 say about 6/7 years back? the only rappers dat were in the music industry were eminem and white clef jean(wadever u spell his name)...anyways in dat era , the boybands dominated the music scene wif their hearthrobbing looks and songs.

take a look now , boybands are a dying breed and we have rappers like 50 cent , sean paul , nelly etc u name it!!!!

same thing goes for maksim and other pianist wannabes who share maksim's view.give it another 6-7 years and u'll see a shift in trend.
how knows??? maybe in 6-7 years time , fusion classics will be the hottest in town. =)

 

[iansoh]

i htink there are two ways you can react to maksim's music: either u'll like it, or u'll really hate him for destroying lovely classical music in that way. truth be told, there's nothing exceptionally original about playing classical music to a breakbeat or techno beat. many have probably tried and flopped, so i feel that a lot of him is all about image and visual appeal, that might well fade away in a few years' time when people start to get sick of classical tunes being remixed(or destroyed, depending on how u feel) by a young energetic man. after a while, it'll all start to sound the same.

the beauty of classical music lies in the feelings that the composers were trying to convey at the point in time that they wrote it. i remember my piano teacher telling me the backgrounds behind almost every classical piece i played. the setting, the time and place that the composer was when he wrote it, and why he wrote the piece. immediately it opens up many new windows for creativity and therein lies the beauty of the music to be beheld. when u have that, u won't need to remix a piece of music to feel that u've done something new for it.

maksim is a heavily marketed man, not so much a musician representing his own musical creativity/influences, i feel. if he actually intends to carry on in his career, it's probably a matter of time that he starts to write some original tunes(which might not turn out as appealing as his classical remixes). or if his managers don't want that, probably they'll make him to be just another hit and run(ok, maybe hit and walk) like vanessa mae.

fingers flying around all over the keyboard is nothing new. jazz musicians do that, hammond players do that with their hands AND legs. prog rock players do that too. jordan rudess, kevin moore..(who's the last one? sherinan?) also play with the same, if not greater flair than maksim.

personally, i would prefer our young generation to succeed and continue in that good old strong classical appreciation and grounding, as well as respect for it. maksim can be novelty that comes along once in a while, but definitely not a revolution, or we'll have all the composers from bach to beethoven turning in their graves!

(heh.. don't mind the long essay :wink: )

 

[DoubleBlade]

what u said is quite true.there will always be a chance dat Maksim would be a "hit and run" musician.but i think 2 years into the business with 2 albums under his belt and he's still alive and kicking as compared to vanessa mae.
i can say that he's influences are still strong probably because of his fashion sense that has somehow managed to sustain his popularity.
yes u need to understand the time , setting and the reason why the composer wrote the song.if u appreciate it , yes it indeed opens some windows for improvisation.but maksim has actually modified some of his pieces wif modern touch in it and yet still maintain the message the song is conveying.take for example one of his songs "Totentanz" composed by Franz Liszt.Totentanz actually means "The Dance of Death".i personally feel that Maksim's modern version of it still conveys the message of death in it as what Franz Liszt was trying to do in the 19th century but in a modern way.copy and paste this link on ur internet explorer if u wanna listen to it....

C:\Documents and Settings\Julius\My Documents\My Music\Unknown Artist\Unknown Album (11-28-2004 12-37-33 PM)\04 04 Track 4.wma


and yes there are some songs which entirely destroys the nature of classical music like Grieg's Concerto in A minor.it sounds more like a techno song to me than a classical piece.but yes i still like it , maybe because it appeals to the youth of today.so maybe what maksim is trying to do is this....


1. he plays a hip hop and happening remixed version of a classical piece

2.the youth listen to it on either radio or MTV

3.the youth likes his remixed version of it and tells himself he wants to learn to play the piano

4.as the youth progresses in the piano thru the years , he starts to appreciate the true nature of classical in terms of the original version of it which may well be over 15 mins.he makes use of maksim's music as a source of inspiration and at the same time appreciate classical music as well.

so it's like , he's using those remix version of classical pieces as a magnet to attract youths to piano music.once they are attracted to piano music , they will then start to appreciate the circular nature of classical music composed by famous composers over the years

hope u get what i'm trying to say here =)

 

[ChanMin]

C:\Documents and Settings\Julius\My Documents\My Music\Unknown Artist\Unknown Album (11-28-2004 12-37-33 PM)\04 04 Track 4.wma



erm.... ??.. how in the world is that gonna work??...

 

[DoubleBlade]

copy and paste in ur internet explorer window...it should work thou

 

[iansoh]

err.. no it doens't work. the website is not hyperlinked to your hard disk.

 

[DoubleBlade]

oh well den i guess u'll juz have to d/l the song if u wanna listen to it....


Totentanz - Maksim

 

[Cavett]

Its nice to see some technical playin abilty going on in Mtv instead of the usual Pop, R&B and Hip-Hop fair.. Just like Bond, Maksim provides an alternative listening pleasure to the general audience. However IMHO, Maksim kinda reminds me of Kenny G back in the 90s, an instrumentalist meant to cater for the general audience. Instrumentalist r aplenty but only very very few will be recognised and marketed to the public by the recording companies.

Musical popularity is sadly being dictated by the big companies and that is one thing that is never gonna change. Though its nice having alterrnatives like Maksim and Bond(plus the Bond girls r major eye candy!! hehe) showing up with their music videos once in a while...

 

[DoubleBlade]

yeah it's just sad to see instrumental music losing it's popularity.and the same goes to steve vai , joe S and yngwie.although they are no strangers in a "guitarist world" but when it comes to getting their music to reach the masses , people dun really appreciate their music in terms of their popularity.