Monday 31 August 2009

Belbin and Agosto's Music

They published their music on their website:

2009-2010 Season
Compulsory Dance:Golden Waltz and Tango Romantica

Original Dance: Moldavian Folk Dance

Free Dance: Ave Maria (Caccini:Sumi Jo), Stabat Mater (Rossini)

Thoughts? I'm a fan of this version of Ave Maria (listen to it here) and I think Tanith and Ben can do a good job, judging by their Tosca piece last season. I listened to Stabat Mater on Youtube and thought it was really nice, though obviously it depends which section they use. This music seems to say "It's our time for the OGM" and personally I think they can do it!

For those of you who haven't been on Belbin and Agosto's website, I would say it's the best website of any senior figure skaters, so definitely have a look.

Sunday 16 August 2009

Music Clash Round 2

For this next round of Music Clash I've chosen what has to be one of my favourite pieces of over-used music; the soundtrack to The Mission. Many skaters have used this music, especially the Gabriel's Oboe section, but today I'm just focusing on the use of it for ladies' short programs - in this case, between Alissa Czisny and Carolina Kostner.

For me, this one was definitely a runaway for Alissa; her spiral sequence in the program was fantastic and her cut of the music managed to include a lot of different sections without feeling erratic. She also seemed to have a much better interpretation of each part of the music than Kostner and Czisny's program seemed less rushed. But I'm sure many will disagree with me - what do you think?

I've embedded both programs below. I tried to find the best performance of each but Youtube would not let me embed many of Kostner's programs, such as her gorgeous performance from 2006 Europeans, so I had to settle for the one below from 2006 Worlds, which was less successful for her.