What are you listening to now :)

[Peter]

This afternoon;

Alfred Brendel (Farewell Concert) - Mozart, Sonata K533 (K494).

This is the most extraordinary sonata!! It is reminiscent of the wit and complexity of the best Haydn sonatas and Mozart's explorations of key are simply magnificent. The Rondo is to-die-for!!

I've been following Brendel's performance (with accompanying grunting and vocalizations - ugh!!) with the Henle Verlag score and I find that the next opus in the sonata oeuvre is K545 - that old warhorse for pianists!! What a world exists between both of these two works - the first profound and imaginative, the second not really up to Mozart's usual high standard and sporting a rather bland (for him) Alberti bass line. (Could be Clementi!)

Can anybody explain the huge diversity between K533 and K545? Peter?

K.545 was written expressly for teaching purposes. K.533 is indeed in a different league being amongst the finest Mozart sonatas, but the rondo K.494 (though revised before publication as the finale) is generally considered weaker, despite a wonderful middle section and cadenza that didn't appear in the original Rondo version.

[Roehre]

Today:


Schnittke:
Concerto grosso no.1 (1977)

Jevtic:
Piano concerto no.2 (1985)

Lombardi:
Concerto for piano, chamber orchestra and laser beam (1988)

Cervello:
Two Movements for Chamber orchestra (1987/’88)

Haubenstock-Ramati:
Symphonie “K” (a Kafka-symphony) (1967)

[Michael]

Beethoven's first two cello sonatas. (This guy could go far.)

[Preston]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD--rVB3Euk

Mozart's aria, "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön". Any thoughts on this aria?

[Peter]

Listening to the proms 'Bach' day and how ghastly with awful arrangements of his music for full orchestra complete with trombones and full percussion by Henry Wood and Walton, including Stokowski's overblown orchestration of the dubious toccata and fugue in d minor - why in this day of authentic performance it's necessary to revive these monstrosities I don't know!!

Thank goodness for the interval when we heard the real thing, an earlier recording of Eliot Gardiner and Baroque soloists in the 2nd Brandenburg concerto - a delight!

[Roehre]

Listening to the proms 'Bach' day and how ghastly with awful arrangements of his music for full orchestra complete with trombones and full percussion by Henry Wood and Walton, including Stokowski's overblown orchestration of the dubious toccata and fugue in d minor - why in this day of authentic performance it's necessary to revive these monstrosities I don't know!!

I am afraid I have to disagree. Though I certainly prefer the originals, these arrangements serve and served a clair goal: making the music accessible. The orchestrations (apart from the g-string air, which is only a matter of doubling strings and add some tempo markings) are superbly done.

In an era in which Bach wasn't known that widely to the concert going public (i.e before the mid 1950s, until then the Brandenburgs, the passions, the concertos, the orchestral suites and a handful of cantatas represented by far the best part of what was performed; the solo-cello works e.g. were "rediscovered" by Casals ) these arrangements offered a chance.

On top of that, and this may sound daft, but it is a truth: there a are many people who cannot stand organ music, or pre-1750s chamber music, but like these arrangements.

IMO these orchestrations are nothing else but a way to interpret Bach. No more, no less. As are HIP performances by the way.

[Roehre]

Today:

Martin;
Harpsichord concerto (1951)

Gubaidulina:
The Hour of the Soul (1974)


BBC Proms
Bach, orch. Stokowski: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Bach, orch. Henry Wood: 'Suite No. 6' - Prelude; Finale
Tarik O'Regan Latent
Walton: The Wise Virgins – suite
Grainger: Blithe Bells
Bach, arr. Sargent: Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068
Alissa Firsova: Bach Allegro (BBC commission: world premiere)
Bach, orch. Bantock: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645
Bach, orch. Respighi: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

[Bonn1827]

Can anyone tell me what key the following Mozart Sonata first movement (Adagio) is in, please:

Sonata Fantasie K475.

It has no key signature but lots of accidentals. In the first bars, for example, this seems to suggest G minor, which is the Dominant's relative minor (I think). I'm trying to play this movement but need to understand its harmonic structure first. Obviously my 7th Grade Musicianship isn't adequate!! I guess being a "Fantasy" it can take lots of liberties with key - I just need to know where I'm going with it. What do pianists out there think? Cheers.

[Peter]

Can anyone tell me what key the following Mozart Sonata first movement (Adagio) is in, please:

Sonata Fantasie K475.

It has no key signature but lots of accidentals. In the first bars, for example, this seems to suggest G minor, which is the Dominant's relative minor (I think). I'm trying to play this movement but need to understand its harmonic structure first. Obviously my 7th Grade Musicianship isn't adequate!! I guess being a "Fantasy" it can take lots of liberties with key - I just need to know where I'm going with it. What do pianists out there think? Cheers.

The Fantasie is in C minor and isn't really the first movement of the sonata that follows - both can be played independently of the other, but the whole is enriched when performed as intended.

[Peter]

I am afraid I have to disagree. Though I certainly prefer the originals, these arrangements serve and served a clair goal: making the music accessible. The orchestrations (apart from the g-string air, which is only a matter of doubling strings and add some tempo markings) are superbly done.

In an era in which Bach wasn't known that widely to the concert going public (i.e before the mid 1950s, until then the Brandenburgs, the passions, the concertos, the orchestral suites and a handful of cantatas represented by far the best part of what was performed; the solo-cello works e.g. were "rediscovered" by Casals ) these arrangements offered a chance.

On top of that, and this may sound daft, but it is a truth: there a are many people who cannot stand organ music, or pre-1750s chamber music, but like these arrangements.

IMO these orchestrations are nothing else but a way to interpret Bach. No more, no less. As are HIP performances by the way.

I'm not criticising the orchestrations per se and understand that for their time they may have been appropriate - it is simply that in our time of 'historical accuracy' they sound completely wrong and why do we need to hear these arrangements today? This was highlighted by the juxtaposition of Eliot Gardiner and the Baroque soloists playing Brandenburg no.2 - would you rather hear that performed with full symphony orchestra?

I don't accept your comparison with HIP performance - no we cannot exactly replicate, but HIP comes a lot closer to the spirit of Bach than Henry Wood, however well-intentioned.

[Bonn1827]

The Fantasie is in C minor and isn't really the first movement of the sonata that follows - both can be played independently of the other, but the whole is enriched when performed as intended.

Yes, of course, C minor and not G!! Doah!! Thanks for that information and, yes, being an Adagio one wouldn't expect that the be the first movement of a Sonata. Cheers!

[Bonn1827]

Korngold violin concerto
Brilliantly played by violinist, Leonidas Kavakos.

What do you think of the comment made by some wag that "it's more Korn than Gold"??!!

[Megan]

What do you think of the comment made by some wag that "it's more Korn than Gold"??!!

Yes, that's very witty. It's true that he wrote for the movies as an emigre from Nazi Germany, whereas if that had never happened (would that it hadn't), he would have presumably written symphonies and the usual orchestral output. He did write brilliant orchestration.

[Roehre]

Yes, that's very witty. It's true that he wrote for the movies as an emigre from Nazi Germany, whereas if that had never happened (would that it hadn't), he would have presumably written symphonies and the usual orchestral output. He did write brilliant orchestration.

His 1951 Symphony in F sharp opus 40 (the same key as Mahler X, though in 1951 only the Adagio had been published) is a work not to be overlooked.

[Peter]

His 1951 Symphony in F sharp opus 40 (the same key as Mahler X, though in 1951 only the Adagio had been published) is a work not to be overlooked.

Nor the early Sinfonietta written when he was only 14 - a remarkable achievement.