Composition Quiz

[gprengel]

Hi,
I was asked to continue my music quiz. For the 20th century I don't know any works that seem to be suitable, so I will do it with works from the Classic and Romantic period. I will start with a haunting piano concerto which I love very much and which is undeservedly very much neglected. Will you guess the composer? Certainly for many of you he will be quite a surprise ... Please tell us also how you like the work:

www.gerdprengel.de/piece2.mp3

[Bonn1827]

Thanks Gerd, this is huge fun! I think the composer of this lovely piece could be Ferdinand Reis (have I got the spelling right?). I think it a lovely work, and in many ways very sophisticated. It wouldn't be that neglected Beethoven partial concerto movement mentioned in other places on these pages would it? It does sound quite Beethovenian, which is why I've suggested Reis.

[Hofrat]

The correct spelling is Ries.

The quiz pieces is not the Hess 15 piano concerto movement in D by Beethoven.

[Peter]

A difficult one this Gerd - certainly a lovely piece and it is from the early Romantic movement which opens up a lot of forgotten music and possible composers. I hear touches of Mozart and hints of Chopin - a combination which usually suggests Hummel to me but that's hardly the 'surprise' you suggested so maybe Field or Cramer?

[gprengel]

No, it's none of those that have been mentioned ;-)

[Hofrat]

Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844)
Concerto in E-flat major opus 25

[Peter]

Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844)
Concerto in E-flat major opus 25

You must be right as you are so specific and it meets Gerd's surprise!

[gprengel]

Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844)
Concerto in E-flat major opus 25

Yes, congratulations! Did you know the work before or how did you figure it out? Doesn't it sound amazingly pretty much as from his father? The second movement is even more beautiful ...!!

Gerd

[Hofrat]

Like Peter, I thought that the piece sounded late classical or early romantic. The composers that came to mind were Ries, Czerny, Hummel, and Moscheles. But on second listening, the piece sounded too much like Mozart, yet it was not Mozart. Then I remembered that Mozart had a son who wrote a few piano concerti. I then went to my most modest CD collection and pulled out the CD. Lo and behold, it was the 2nd piano concerto in E-flat major opus 25 by Franz Xaver Mozart. So it was Mozart after all, just an unexpecting Mozart. Both his piano concerti are lovely works.

Nice quiz, Gerd!!

[Bonn1827]

Ditto, Gerd - nice quiz. I didn't know anything about Mozart's son being a composer; just that he had no children, poor man, and didn't continue the Mozart name.

OMG, as I write this I'm listening to Stephen Kovacevich (my hero) live from Wigmore Hall through BBC Radio 3 making a complete botch of Schubert's A Major Sonata D959! I'm shocked - forgotten notes and passages!!!! It's all over the place!

More quiz pieces please Gerd.

[Hofrat]

W.A.Mozart had 6 children according to the CD liner notes. The liner notes also mentions a brother, Carl Thomas Mozart (1784-1858) who gave music listens to Franz Xaver Mozart. So, if the author of the notes is correct, at least 2 W.A.Mozart siblings survived.

[Bonn1827]

A postscript to my earlier posting: I'm still listening to Kovacevich's account of Schubert and I think one of the problems is that he thinks he's playing Beethoven. He's trying to invest a complexity that isn't in Schubert but found in Beethoven. Consequently, he's pulling it around all over the place - this, as well as memory lapses. Oh dear.

[gprengel]

ok, let's go into another round. Here I have 2 pieces.

First a passionate and Beethovenian string quartett movement:

www.gerdprengel.de/piece5.mp3

and here unfortuneately only a midi renidtion of a marvellous gem:

www.gerdprengel.de/piece4.mp3

If anyone knows the piece please wait a day or so with the answer that more people have the opportunity to make their guess. Thank you!

Gerd

[Bonn1827]

For the string quartet I would say Krommer. I haven't listened to the second piece yet.

[Hofrat]

Ah, Gerd, you are a man of my own heart. The 2nd piece is the 2nd movement of Schubert's 10th symphony in D major. I have a 2 recordings of it (and the score!) should you want a better recording of this work. It is amazing to see the new direction Schubert was taking so late in his life.