What are you listening to now?

[Enrique]

Just listening to no.18. Mozart of course. I have the 27 by Vladimir Askenazy, superb recordings.

[Michael]

Mozart piano quartets.

Quite an unusual medium. Mozart's works are usually regarded as the "locus classicus" in this particular genre.

However, I hate to bring up Beethoven again - (actually, I don't. It's the bloody Beethoven Reference Site after all ) but I think it has been generally accepted that Beethoven's three piano quartets actually predated Mozart's by a very short period.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that Beethoven's juvenilia are as good as Mozart's works in this area (especially as Beethoven swiped some themes from a Mozart violin sonata) but are there grounds for assuming that our friend invented the medium?

Probably not. Musicologists will no doubt find many precedents. And Mozart certainly never heard Beethoven's early work.
Beethoven can't win them all!





.

[Peter]

Quite an unusual medium. Mozart's works are usually regarded as the "locus classicus" in this particular genre.

However, I hate to bring up Beethoven again - (actually, I don't. It's the bloody Beethoven Reference Site after all ) but I think it has been generally accepted that Beethoven's three piano quartets actually predated Mozart's by a very short period.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that Beethoven's juvenilia are as good as Mozart's works in this area (especially as Beethoven swiped some themes from a Mozart violin sonata) but are there grounds for assuming that our friend invented the medium?

Probably not. Musicologists will no doubt find many precedents. And Mozart certainly never heard Beethoven's early work.
Beethoven can't win them all!


.

I don't know of any earlier piano quartets and it's remarkable that Mozart and Beethoven independently wrote them at the same time 1785 - one of those musical coincidences that also occurred a century earlier in 1685 producing Bach, Handel and Scarlatti!

Listening to Schubert's 9th Symphony in C, the same key as Mozart's last symphony and Beethoven's 1st

[Enrique]

That symphony is incredibly long and the last movement it seems it will never end. Schumann had something to say about this symphony (celestial lengths).

[Fidelio]

Beethoven Symphony Nos 1 & 2 Arturo Toscanini, Nbc Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Riccardo Chailly

[Fidelio]

New Beethoven Recording: Piano Concertos 1-5
Mitsuko Uchida (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle
Recordings from February 2010 from the Philharmonie Berlin

[gprengel]

Kalinnikov / Symphony No. 1 in G Minor

I just got to know this Russian symphony with some incredible good first 2 movements!!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EdnO6vEaHk

I adore the second theme of the 1st movement and the fugato in the development, ... and the slow movement has a unique beauty ...

[Peter]

Kalinnikov / Symphony No. 1 in G Minor

I just got to know this Russian symphony with some incredible good first 2 movements!!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EdnO6vEaHk

I adore the second theme of the 1st movement and the fugato in the development, ... and the slow movement has a unique beauty ...

Thanks for that, a really great find, I thought the whole work was excellent with a rousing finale. Should be more widely known.

[Chris]

I got to talking with some people about Beethoven's Scottish songs and flute music at a party last night, and it of course lead me to revisit the sets of variations Opp. 105 and 107. Delightful music!

[Michael]

I got to talking with some people about Beethoven's Scottish songs and flute music at a party last night, and it of course lead me to revisit the sets of variations Opp. 105 and 107. Delightful music!

Probably the most neglected works of Beethoven's output.
I absolutely love the folksong arrangements. I think Beethoven was a bit condescending about those tunes when they were first presented to him, but he gradually realized the beauty of those songs.

I think the third movement of Opus 71, No. 2 is an absolutely beautiful tune - which sounds really Irish. (But I'm Irish and probably biased).

Also, the variations are wondrous. The usual recordings feature flute and piano but there are a few versions with violin and piano. Middle to Late Beethoven cannot be ignored!

Maybe it's a bit far-fetched, but I think the melodious quality of the late quartets could have been "engineered" by his exposure to the folksongs.

(Especially the ones that mention my home town "Killarney"?)

Nah! Ignore the last sentence. Too much wine. Beethoven's failing.







.

[Chris]

The usual recordings feature flute and piano but there are a few versions with violin and piano.

And you know me - I've sought out those recordings so I could have both versions!

[Michael]

And you know me - I've sought out those recordings so I could have both versions!

[Fidelio]

Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas by Alfred Brendel, Philips, 2009

Never tire of these.

[Zevy]

Mozart Complete Piano Concertos/Geza Anda
I just went through the set; now I'm on to the complete set with Brendel/Marriner

[Chris]

Mozart Complete Piano Concertos/Geza Anda
I just went through the set; now I'm on to the complete set with Brendel/Marriner

I love the Brendel/Marriner set!