Скачать или смотреть ‘Die Grasnelke’ (‘Sea Pink’), Cornelius Gurlitt, Opus 205, No. 11

Gustav Cornelius Gurlitt was born 10th February 1820 in Altona, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (near modern day Hamburg). He also died in Altona, 17th June 1901, though he also lived for a while in Leipzig. He is most famous today for his teaching compositions and ‘miniatures’, generally composed in a Romantic style. Opus 205, ‘Kleine Blumen’ (translated as ‘Little Flowers’ in English), is one such series of miniatures written for solo piano, each piece inspired to represent a chosen flower. This piece, number 11, is perhaps the most well known of the little flowers, called ‘Die Grasnelke’ in German and translated in English as ‘Sea Pink’ (in French as ‘Rose de la mer’). The scientific name of the flower is ‘Armeria maritima’, and these flowers are known to favour coastal areas across the Northern hemisphere, in Europe and North America. They flourish in sandy, rocky, windy, and saline conditions, and are therefore often found on coastal paths and cliffs. I tried to find a real painting by a real artist for this video, but I’m unaware of any good ones and a Google search didn’t help much. Therefore, the ‘painting’ used in this video is AI generated based on some internet photographs with an ‘Impressionist’ prompt added to reflect the art movement of the late 19th Century, when the piece was composed. (Where I can find real art created by a human being for these videos, I will always use it ahead of AI images, but I’m not against using AI when lacking a real alternative). The photograph of Herr Gurlitt is colourised from a sepia original. Men had great beards in those days.

Piano: Kawai K300.
This was a one-take performance with no editing or splicing. Any mistakes and/or imperfections are down to me, but what you get is authenticity.

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