What are you listening to now?

[PDG]

It's groovy, man...

(or something)...?

[Chris]

I am listening to some organ music (or something) by Beethoven. The CD is called "Flotenuhr", played by Hans-Ola Ericsson. The track list does not have catalogue numbers, but it seems like it includes WoO 33 (pieces for "mechanical clock"), WoO 31 (organ fugue), and the two preludes played on the organ. There is also some Haydn organ music on here. Well, whatever it is, it's quite enjoyable!

[PDG]

Those Mechanical Clock pieces are groovy, man...(Horologically speaking...)

[Michael]

Those Mechanical Clock pieces are groovy, man...(Horologically speaking...)

A waste of time.

[Peter]

Forced to listen to some dreadful Dittersdorf sinfonia in a friend's car - quite tedious. This morning though began with Mendelssohn's sunny octet.

[Quijote]

Forced to listen to some dreadful Dittersdorf sinfonia in a friend's car - quite tedious. This morning though began with Mendelssohn's sunny octet.

This is the sort of thing I put on my CD player when I want guests to leave after a long evening. It usually works. Failing that, I switch to Webern.

[Quijote]

Listening to Salieri and Joseph Anton Steffan's concerti for fortepiano (Monika May, 1986, after Anton Walter, Vienna c. 1785). Music for driving through the Black Forest on a sunny spring day. I can hear Beethoven going "Hah!".

[Sorrano]

This morning I awakened to a performance of the 3rd Piano Sonata of Beethoven's (in C Major) played by Murray Paraiah (Not sure of the spelling, there, sorry). He played flawlessly, as far as I could tell, with a lot of clarity. However, there was very little expression and lacked the punch associated with Beethoven's music.

[Chris]

Listening to the piano version of Op. 61, played by Pietro Spada.

[Preston]

just some thoughts, and a question...

However, there was very little expression and lacked the punch associated with Beethoven's music.

Do you mean that he kind of pampered the piece? The reason I ask is because it seems, to me, that some, well a pretty good many (it seems), pianists kind of play Beethoven without Beethoven's "punch". Which I imagine is a hard thing to get, the punch. Like when I think of the way the Moonlight is played, I really respect Maria Yudina's approach to it. She has a very realistic approach and plays the heaviness, beauty, etc., and it seems that she has a very real and deep understanding of his music, and a great respect for Beethoven, and Bach, etc.

I do imagine that getting the piano music of Beethoven down would be a very challenging thing for the pianist.

[PDG]

Interesting point, Preston.

Do female pianists play male composers' music as well as men? Is classical music inherently a male domain - written by men, and so only fully understood by men? I have Idil Biret playing the complete piano works of Chopin. Does knowing her gender influence my thinking of the performance, and should it? Can I help it? If I didn't know in advance, could I detect the interpretation, gender-wise? Probably not. But then again...

I think I need a lie down.....

[Michael]

I am listening to some organ music (or something) by Beethoven. The CD is called "Flotenuhr", played by Hans-Ola Ericsson. The track list does not have catalogue numbers, but it seems like it includes WoO 33 (pieces for "mechanical clock"), WoO 31 (organ fugue), and the two preludes played on the organ. There is also some Haydn organ music on here. Well, whatever it is, it's quite enjoyable!

The Haydn piece might well be Hess 107, one of the oddest works in Beethoven's catalogue. It's called "Grenadiermarsch for Mechanical Clock, in F" and it consists of a twenty-bar march by Haydn tacked onto an arrangement of Beethoven's March for wind instruments, WoO 29.
In fact, I think Beethoven's only surviving piece of pure organ music is the WoO31 fugue. Everything else consists of pieces adapted from mechanical clocks. Even the two preludes were originally written for piano (I think.)
Of course, there are the exercises he wrote for Haydn, etc. but they are not usually classified as "works".
But, as you said above, whatever is there is quite enjoyable.

[Chris]

The Haydn piece might well be Hess 107, one of the oddest works in Beethoven's catalogue. It's called "Grenadiermarsch for Mechanical Clock, in F" and it consists of a twenty-bar march by Haydn tacked onto an arrangement of Beethoven's March for wind instruments, WoO 29.
In fact, I think Beethoven's only surviving piece of pure organ music is the WoO31 fugue. Everything else consists of pieces adapted from mechanical clocks. Even the two preludes were originally written for piano (I think.)
Of course, there are the exercises he wrote for Haydn, etc. but they are not usually classified as "works".
But, as you said above, whatever is there is quite enjoyable.

No, the Haydn works are 32 pieces from the "Flotenuhr" collections (1772, 1792, 1793, and Autograph).

[Preston]

Interesting point, Preston.

Do female pianists play male composers' music as well as men? Is classical music inherently a male domain - written by men, and so only fully understood by men? I have Idil Biret playing the complete piano works of Chopin. Does knowing her gender influence my thinking of the performance, and should it? Can I help it? If I didn't know in advance, could I detect the interpretation, gender-wise? Probably not. But then again...

I think I need a lie down.....

Yudina, is special, . I think, that she plays Beethoven far better than many many male pianists.

Good questions, quite complex I think. I don't think that knowing whether a male or a female is playing should influence one, because it is the interpretation that counts, as you said. Therefore, I do think that a person of the opposite sex has the ability to feel and fully understand the music of another. I think that it really depends on the person and their personality, ear for music, understanding of the opposite sex, etc.- hard things to achieve indeed, as is a good interpretation.

I am not saying that I am right though, perhaps I am wrong, . What do you think? I think I need to lie down, !

[Michael]

No, the Haydn works are 32 pieces from the "Flotenuhr" collections (1772, 1792, 1793, and Autograph).

Oh, right. I had to look up "Flotenuhr" and it seems to be a flute-playing mechanical clock, and Beethoven wrote five pieces for this, WoO 33. The organ fugue doesn't fit into this category, though.
I know the piano became B's instrument, but I am surprised that he didn't compose a few more genuine works for the organ, though I think he once said that he was afraid of it. (?) He was probably corrected by Haydn once too often.