Hello, this year I plan on sharing a little on what music I'm listening to while studying. Brief album reviews basically.
Today I face the choice of which album I want to download from the Naxos Newsletter this month. There are three options every month from the considerable catalogue Naxos has grown over the years. Sometimes I find the choice straightforward, but today I'm listening to two of them before I decide.
The first is a 1990 recording of Famous Operetta Overtures by J. Strauss Jr, Offenbach and Suppe, performed by the Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alfred Walter. It opens with Strauss's Die Fledermaus, which I'd always assumed meant The Field-mouse, but apparently means The Bat, so there's a childhood image shattered. The music is as lively and enjoyable as ever though and sets the tone for the rest of the album.
Operetta, being a light form of opera, has wonderful overtures of vim and vitality, and jolly brass to match the rollicking strings. The music can be wonderfully evocative too of course, as the opening of The Gypsy Baron shows with its images of romantic intrigue and cloaked anti-heroes. Naturally, Suppe's Light Cavalry Overture is included and given a typically thrilling rendition, although I think I have heard stronger ones. The album ends with Offenbach's overture to Orpheus in the Underworld, featuring the famous can-can, which is a deserving conclusion to the music.
The second choice is The Art of the Vienna Horn, part of a series of albums featuring soloists from the Vienna Phil, in this instance Wolfgang Tomboeck. Apparently the Vienna horn was a precursor of the double horn, but because of its distinctive sound the Vienna Philharmonic have kept it, particularly for works by Bruchner, Brahms and others who wrote specifically for it.
The album opens with Beethoven's Horn Sonata, Op 17, gives us a Schubert lieder, then a horn/piano duet by Schumann, and ends with a Trio for Piano, Horn and Violin by Brahms. The Vienna horn seemed to me more muted than most brass and this gave the music a damper touch. It felt like I was listening to Romantic-era chamber music (as I was) through a hollow tree. There was something green and earthy there, but also removed and vaguely dissonant. Or perhaps that's my protracted mind listening to something while hot, tired and reading about imperial historiography.
So which to get? Despite the former album's energy and my nostalgia for an overture that has nothing to do with field mice except in my mind, I'm going to download The Art of the Vienna Horn. The music is less familiar, less commonly played, and I feel deserves further listening to appreciate its subtleties and beauty that may have been tarnished by distraction.
Reviews and thoughts from the music appreciation tentacle of Giant Squid Creations.
Showing posts with label Beethoven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beethoven. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 January 2019
Monday, 21 October 2013
Beethoven Sonata Course in Reflection
The course on Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas finished up recently. It was a fun and insightful series of lectures and if it runs again I recommend doing it. Aside from learning about Beethoven and his music you get to listen to snippets of works played by Jonathon Biss and that’s well worth it too (here's a sample).
So what did I learn? Quite a bit to be honest and I’m not going to go into all the detail and everything here. What I want to talk about is how the course helped shape something of my idea of the history of music because I’ve come to see Beethoven as a pivotal figure in ways I didn’t understand previously.
I studied a course on the Ancient Greeks at the same time as this one and in it was discussed that history works out in big forces and movements – migrations, economic upheavals etc, etc – but there are also certain individuals who manage to alter the course of history through sheer force of will or some similar manifestation of their brilliance. Alexander the Great was one standout example.
From what I learned in the Sonata course this is also very much the case. There were big movements taking place during Beethoven’s lifetime, but his talent and his unrelenting personality played their own role in shaping music’s path heading into the 19th century.
At the beginning of his lifetime music was still largely a court affair. Joseph Haydn spent most of his career in the employ of one such court; he wrote what his employer wanted, he managed the court’s musicians etc. Late in his life his employer did give him incredible freedom and allowed him to write what he wanted instead. Mozart, unable to cope with the strictures of being a court composer tried his hand as a freelancer but with variable success.
The way was becoming clear however and courts were no longer the bastions of classical music. If we consider the social and political upheavals that were happening at this time, it’s little wonder Beethoven never had to consider being employed as a court musician. He was free from the beginning to do his own thing. The individual was free.
And free from such constraints, Beethoven’s talent and strong personality led him to explore musical forms in all new ways. He took the sonata form, perfected it, toyed with it to test its limits, then tore it apart and reshaped it in his own way. He broke all the rules and paved the way for further experimentation down the track. And he allowed music to truly ambitious and completely about self-expression. He could paint emotional landscapes freely in ways previous composers could not and in so doing he set the Romantics up to do what they did.
So while history’s big movements were most certainly in play – it’s one of the most dramatic shifts in Western history in all fields of endeavour – Beethoven’s individuality and precocious talent shifted the history music very much to follow his footsteps and no-one else’s.
So what did I learn? Quite a bit to be honest and I’m not going to go into all the detail and everything here. What I want to talk about is how the course helped shape something of my idea of the history of music because I’ve come to see Beethoven as a pivotal figure in ways I didn’t understand previously.
I studied a course on the Ancient Greeks at the same time as this one and in it was discussed that history works out in big forces and movements – migrations, economic upheavals etc, etc – but there are also certain individuals who manage to alter the course of history through sheer force of will or some similar manifestation of their brilliance. Alexander the Great was one standout example.
From what I learned in the Sonata course this is also very much the case. There were big movements taking place during Beethoven’s lifetime, but his talent and his unrelenting personality played their own role in shaping music’s path heading into the 19th century.
At the beginning of his lifetime music was still largely a court affair. Joseph Haydn spent most of his career in the employ of one such court; he wrote what his employer wanted, he managed the court’s musicians etc. Late in his life his employer did give him incredible freedom and allowed him to write what he wanted instead. Mozart, unable to cope with the strictures of being a court composer tried his hand as a freelancer but with variable success.
The way was becoming clear however and courts were no longer the bastions of classical music. If we consider the social and political upheavals that were happening at this time, it’s little wonder Beethoven never had to consider being employed as a court musician. He was free from the beginning to do his own thing. The individual was free.
And free from such constraints, Beethoven’s talent and strong personality led him to explore musical forms in all new ways. He took the sonata form, perfected it, toyed with it to test its limits, then tore it apart and reshaped it in his own way. He broke all the rules and paved the way for further experimentation down the track. And he allowed music to truly ambitious and completely about self-expression. He could paint emotional landscapes freely in ways previous composers could not and in so doing he set the Romantics up to do what they did.
So while history’s big movements were most certainly in play – it’s one of the most dramatic shifts in Western history in all fields of endeavour – Beethoven’s individuality and precocious talent shifted the history music very much to follow his footsteps and no-one else’s.
Monday, 16 September 2013
Beethoven Piano Sonata Course First Two Weeks
I’m now two weeks into the course on Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas being run by the Curtis Institute of Music through Coursera and it is really interesting. In essence it’s spending about an hour watching a series of short videos where Jonathon Biss talks about Beethoven’s music in a engaging and insightful way.
The first week was an introduction to two things, first Beethoven’s predecessors Bach, Haydn and Mozart, then to sonata form. The predecessors were covered necessarily very rapidly but Biss raised the question of the role of composers in society. Bach was never anything but a servant, even at his peak he was required to teach singing; Haydn started as a servant, was given leave to do his own thing at times, then eventually had enough success to go it alone. Mozart on the other hand couldn’t handle being a servant and went freelance before the idea was really around. It worked for a time but his genius didn’t extend to budgeting. However, both he and Haydn showed more daring and creative exploration when freed from court duties.
When Beethoven emerged the court composer role was dying off and he never had to write what he was told, so from the beginning he was free to try new things – but he still had to make money. Which puts an interesting dynamic into his early works.
The sonata form, which is a form of a single movement not a description of a sonata – someone needs to work on that bit of nomenclature – is also very interesting. Biss explained it really well too. I won’t go into the details but in essence it’s a journey, you start with at home, being the key the piece is written in, then go to the ‘dominant’ which is a fifth above the home key (also called the tonic), from there the movement goes on a harmonic journey as it tries to get back to the tonic/home. I love how it’s a basic narrative structure – story really is fundamental to our existence.
The second week was a look at the earliest sonatas – 1-11 and 19-20, which were written before but published after 12 – with particular emphasis on Sonata No 4, Beethoven’s Opus 7. It would take too long to go into what was said now but the assignment for the week was interesting. We had to list how one of the other early sonatas conformed with and differed from No 4, which meant listening to a Sonata in an all new way for me. I picked No 1 because it has almost exactly the same movement structure. It was fascinating to actively listen to the music, ask ‘what’s he doing here?’ and notice when phrases come in and go out. I can’t pick a key change to save my life so that’s a disadvantage but the experience did give me a new appreciation for the music.
This is definitely a journey worth taking.
The first week was an introduction to two things, first Beethoven’s predecessors Bach, Haydn and Mozart, then to sonata form. The predecessors were covered necessarily very rapidly but Biss raised the question of the role of composers in society. Bach was never anything but a servant, even at his peak he was required to teach singing; Haydn started as a servant, was given leave to do his own thing at times, then eventually had enough success to go it alone. Mozart on the other hand couldn’t handle being a servant and went freelance before the idea was really around. It worked for a time but his genius didn’t extend to budgeting. However, both he and Haydn showed more daring and creative exploration when freed from court duties.
When Beethoven emerged the court composer role was dying off and he never had to write what he was told, so from the beginning he was free to try new things – but he still had to make money. Which puts an interesting dynamic into his early works.
The sonata form, which is a form of a single movement not a description of a sonata – someone needs to work on that bit of nomenclature – is also very interesting. Biss explained it really well too. I won’t go into the details but in essence it’s a journey, you start with at home, being the key the piece is written in, then go to the ‘dominant’ which is a fifth above the home key (also called the tonic), from there the movement goes on a harmonic journey as it tries to get back to the tonic/home. I love how it’s a basic narrative structure – story really is fundamental to our existence.
The second week was a look at the earliest sonatas – 1-11 and 19-20, which were written before but published after 12 – with particular emphasis on Sonata No 4, Beethoven’s Opus 7. It would take too long to go into what was said now but the assignment for the week was interesting. We had to list how one of the other early sonatas conformed with and differed from No 4, which meant listening to a Sonata in an all new way for me. I picked No 1 because it has almost exactly the same movement structure. It was fascinating to actively listen to the music, ask ‘what’s he doing here?’ and notice when phrases come in and go out. I can’t pick a key change to save my life so that’s a disadvantage but the experience did give me a new appreciation for the music.
This is definitely a journey worth taking.
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Getting this blog going
This is just a quick post to announce the new way I'm hoping to run this blog. I'm going to try to be a bit more methodical and committed to it. I've started by adding a Facebook page which will announce when I post here and also share smaller things like links and quick happy birthdays to composers long dead and maybe even living ones from time to time.
I'm also going to have a Composer of the Month. I'll announce who on the Facebook page on the first Wednesday of the month and post a YouTube link to a piece written by them every Wednesday. I'll also do a post about them here sometime during the month and maybe some album reviews.
This month it's Beethoven. Yes, a fairly obvious choice but it made sense. I'm studying his Piano Sonatas in an online course this month so he's already on my mind and in my ears. Doing that course was a bit of serendipity actually. My wife just gave me the Beethoven-Willems Collection featuring all the sonatas and concertos plus more, and I was looking at courses on the Coursera site and saw it there - it was meant to be. I'll let you know what it's like later in the month.
I'm still working my way through the B-W collection but the discs I've played so far are magnificent. Not only is the playing good, the recording is crystal clear. It's an all-round brilliant effort.
Let the music play!
I'm also going to have a Composer of the Month. I'll announce who on the Facebook page on the first Wednesday of the month and post a YouTube link to a piece written by them every Wednesday. I'll also do a post about them here sometime during the month and maybe some album reviews.
This month it's Beethoven. Yes, a fairly obvious choice but it made sense. I'm studying his Piano Sonatas in an online course this month so he's already on my mind and in my ears. Doing that course was a bit of serendipity actually. My wife just gave me the Beethoven-Willems Collection featuring all the sonatas and concertos plus more, and I was looking at courses on the Coursera site and saw it there - it was meant to be. I'll let you know what it's like later in the month.
I'm still working my way through the B-W collection but the discs I've played so far are magnificent. Not only is the playing good, the recording is crystal clear. It's an all-round brilliant effort.
Let the music play!
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