Quote of the Day

[Peter]

"God give me a failure like that!" - Gounod after the infamous Paris 1861 Tannhauser.

[Chaszz]

"Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound."

- Eduard Hanslick

Influential critic Eduard Hanslick was the conservative Brahms partisan who attacked Wagner and Lizst for their romantic excesses and word-painting. In a way this is ironic to me, for if Brahms' symphonies, especially the Third, do not paint landscape, I don't know what music does (of course excluding the Pastoral of Beethoven).

[Peter]

There was a young lady of Rio
Who tried to play Hummel's Grand trio
But her pace was so scanty
She took it Andante
Instead of Allegro con brio!

(Text set for an examination in 3 part counterpoint by Tovey)

[Peter]

A view of the Harpsichord by Thomas Beecham - "Sounds like two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof."

[Peter]

"I should be sorry, my lord, if I have only succeeded in entertaining them; I wished to make them better." Handel to Lord Kinnoull after the first London performance of Messiah.

[Joy]

I shall seize Fate by the throat; it shall certainly not bend and crush me completely.

Ludwig van Beethoven, letter to F G Wegeler, 1801

[Peter]

'Have you heard any Stockhausen?' Sir Thomas Beecham was asked. 'No' he replied, 'but I believe I have trodden in some.'

[Hollywood]

"That will make the ladies scream."
-Joseph Haydn, speaking of the 'surprise' in the 'Surprise' Symphony No.94; quoted in A. Gyrowetz, Memoirs, 1848.

[Peter]

Artur Schnabel on refusing to play encores "Applause is a receipt, not a bill."

[Megan]

Johannes Brahms.

“Composers in the old days used to keep strictly to the base of the theme, as their real subject. Beethoven varies the melody, harmony and rhythms so beautifully.”

[Megan]

Sir Michael Tippett:

Beethoven lived completely in this world of imagination, and you pay a price. The body takes over.

[Peter]

"As the music is, so are the people of the country" - Turkish proverb that is perhaps slightly worrying these days!

[Megan]

"As the music is, so are the people of the country" - Turkish proverb that is perhaps slightly worrying these days!

Yes, and what does this say about Europe and Britian in particular !

Music is an expression, but just what is it expressing in Britian?
We have just been listening to Rodrigo, Concierto de Aranjuez. Boy, Oh boy, Oh boy ! Fantastic! That piece is telling us about mystery, culture, identity, beauty and truth. As you know, the music of today is the opposite of this.

[Peter]

"The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought" - Sir Thomas Beecham.

[Hofrat]

"Is it not the fate of geniuses to be suppressed while the whole world lauds charlatans."--Kellgren speaking about Vogler.