What are you listening to now?

[Hofrat]

Oh well, I guess we will have to renumber Beethoven's piano concerto movement from 1815 as piano concerto number 7.

[Michael]

If you like. Although number 8 would be more accurate as number 1 was actually number 3 (if you include WoO 4).

[Hofrat]

Of course there is that original rondo to the B-flat concerto, too. That should count for something.

[Michael]

Great! We now have nine piano concertos as well as nine symphonies.

[Peter]

Great! We now have nine piano concertos as well as nine symphonies.

11 symphonies if you count the early C minor sketch and the realised 10th!

[Peter]

Chopin Mazurkas in Rubinstein's first recording of them - superb music and playing.

[Hofrat]

The C-minor sketch has also been realised!!

[Michael]

11 symphonies if you count the early C minor sketch and the realised 10th!

I hope Gardibolt is paying attention. We could start a whole new numbering system. Now for the operas ....................

[Sorrano]

11 symphonies if you count the early C minor sketch and the realised 10th!

If Mahler had only known......

[Michael]

I have just been listening to the Beethoven F minor string quartet. The autograph reads: “Quartett(o) Serioso” and this must be the most unnecessary description in all music because a few seconds of the opening movement leaves you in no doubt that B is in a very bad mood indeed. 1810 was a relatively unproductive year for him. He wrote to Wegeler: “Life is so beautiful, but for me it is poisoned for ever.”
That might explain the darkness of this quartet except for the fact that around the same time he was sketching the “Archduke” trio which is relaxed, spacious and melodic.
The funny thing is I have never fully come to like the trio while the quartet has been a firm favourite since I first heard it. I have about seven versions of it and my default recording has been the Italianos, although they make it sound too beautiful. Also, there is an annoying edit at the end of the last movement where the “Mendelssohnian” happy ending appears. It feels as if the Italianos couldn’t deal with this about-face and had to record it later and join it on.
Today, however, I have been listening to a recording I haven’t heard before by the Guarneri Quartet (their complete recordings of the quartets are included in the new Brilliant Complete Edition – of which more anon).
This version is brutal – and I mean that as a compliment!
The opening movement fairly lifted me out of my chair and they managed to sound astringent and beautiful at the same time all through the slow movement. And the Mendelssohn ending sounded, for once, like the logical outcome of the last movement, where Beethoven, after an absolute wail of despair seems to say: “To hell with this” and positively wills himself into a state of happiness. (Or possibly slugs down half a bottle of wine).

[Peter]

I have just been listening to the Beethoven F minor string quartet. The autograph reads: “Quartett(o) Serioso” and this must be the most unnecessary description in all music because a few seconds of the opening movement leaves you in no doubt that B is in a very bad mood indeed.

I had problems on my first encounter with this quartet, but I put it down to my extreme youth at 15! I now think the quartet is amazing - Beethoven himself considered it too difficult for public performance, (strange when you think what came later!). Around the same age I also came into contact for my A level studies with Bartok's 5th quartet - I'm still getting over that one!

[Joy]

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with conductor Mariss Jansons performing Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92. Always love hearing this one. The 2nd mm is so beautiful and the others just make me want to get up and dance!

[Megan]

Beethoven's Leonore No.3

BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Conducted by, Rudolph Kempe.


Schubert's Prometheus.

[Quijote]

Not what I'm listening to, but what I've just listened to after a concert given by the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, for the 'Musica' contemporary music festival:

'Mana' by Christophe BERTRAND;
'Violin Concerto' by Unsuk CHIN (former pupil of Ligeti);
'San Francisco Polyphony' by Gyorgy LIGETI;
'The Miraculous Mandarin' (suite) by Bela BARTOK.

An absolute full orchestral "timbre-fest" of a concert, this was! The Bartok reminded me at moments of Varèse (cityscape effects, 'fused ensembles'), Stravinsky (motor ryhthms) and - strangely - Holst (use of brass instruments).

[Megan]

A beautiful piece by Schubert.


SCHUBERT
Adagio in E flat, D. 897
Beaux Arts Trio
PHILIPS 422 836-2 Tr 5