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Classical - October 2004

The reason why I think those three are first-rate is that there seems to be little or no "connective tissue" or "gristle" in their body of work. No duffers, IOW. Their music seems wholly perfect.
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Sorry, this is just not true.

Mozart was quite capable of composing "duffers": most of the string quartets (excepting those dedicated to Haydn), and many of the (seemingly endless) "Church Sonatas" and horn divertimentos are widely and rightly recognized as poor to middling.* Nor was M. immune to duffers in his later years; the C major piano concerto is generally regarded as weak. This is just what comes to mind -- the guy wrote so much that it's impossible to speak with authority about all of it. But write duffers he did.

And as far as Beethoven not penning duffers, heard "Wellington's Victory" lately?


* People who don't know much about Mozart are often surprised to hear that his quartets are not highly regarded. The form was not that well developed as he was working. His string quintets are highly regarded, on the other hand.
 
Wasn't it Beecham, Boult, Sergeant or someone of around that era who said that the joining-up bits (of Mozart I think) reminded him of a waiter or a chef "rattling the plates" between courses? If someone could pin this down I'd be very grateful as I've been trying to remember it better for a while now :)
 
Well, let's talk Mozart a bit then and forgive me Bub, I've never got around to talking in K's. What would we pick as his finest, doesn't matter if it's a long list.

I started off I guess many years ago with the inevitable Andante from the 21st piano concerto, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik etc. and other popular snippits as we all do. I have flute concertos, clarinet concerto and various other pieces and excerpts but my collection is all too light.

Sad omissions are the unfinished requiem and Magic Flute in full in particular. If I saw the complete Mozart works a la Horace's posting on Bach I would definetely buy if only to familiarise completely - seriously thinking about that Bach collection too.

Paul
 
Agreed - The Requiem is very special.

Cosi fan Tutte is a favourite of mine.

Paul - If you are thinking about the Bach set, have a look on the same website for a 40 Cd mozart collection (Brilliant Classics label. About 35 Euros). You won't get definitive performances, but Brilliant classics stuff is usually quite good. Could be a good way of discovering more Mozart. They also do a complete Mozart (on about a squillion discs) for about £180, though I've no experience of that one.

Mozart both delights and frustrates me - some of the most sublime, life changing music I have ever heard. But there are also entire movements where every change seems predictable, as if pure logic, not musical inspiration is behind it. Give me the icy, evocative meanderings of a Sibelian tone poem in preference to that any day.

Anyway, I've just played 'Teenage Kicks' about 20 times in memory of John Peel.
I wonder what Mozart would have thought of the Undertones?
Perhaps he would have been inspired to write a 'Concerto for cheap, out of tune guitar and daft jumper'.

In a parallel universe, Peel is introducing a 'great new twelve inch by some european bloke called 'Mozart' (is that how you pronounce it - write to me if I've got it wrong). Terrific, though it would have sounded better at the right speed. Anyway, that one's called 'Concerto for cheap, out of tune guitar and daft jumper'.........

Goodbye John.
RIP

And so to bed.

Martin
 
Horace, good post. I agree that Mozart was a genius but many others have their place with moods and music he did not create.

It's a while since I've been to concerts. My Father is too old and my daughter too young. I took my Father to many enjoyable concerts at the Anvil, Basingstoke. Mozart would feature through their season of course and the surprising thing I found was that I would find it polite and enjoyable. However, I often enjoyed somewhat heavier concertos and full symphonic from other composers much more. An example being the performance of Profokiev's Firebird Suite. I expected little from it but found it totally trance-like, an unforgettable experience.

I said to someone yesterday that Mozart's music was of his time and that had he lived 50 years later or 50 years later etc. he surely must have been the same towering figure whilst his music might have been different.

I wonder what his career would have looked like in today's day and age, perhaps earning an incredible fortune writing West-End shows and film scores alongside his other output. It's a travesty we did not get to hear music from a Mozart in his 40's to older age.

I'll check out the Mozart discs, I only looked briefly at the site, thanks.

Paul
 
Paul, I agree that it would have been fascinating to hear what Mozart might have done had he lived longer. Could he have maintained such a high level of inspiration into old age or would he have burned out?

Have a good look at the zweitausendeins site (especially the 'specials' section). There are some incredible bargains to be had, classical and pop.

Cheers

Martin
 
I personally doubt that Wolfie would have burned out. I suspect it more likely that he would have rested on his laurels. Wolfie M. is one of the few cases in human history where a child prodigy became a fully-blown genius. He found composition as easy as Beethoven found it hard. Beethoven could never have pulled off the trick of writing down from memory after one hearing the Vatican Choir's jealously-guarded Miserere by Allegri. We know he had an astounding, intuitive grasp of musical technicalities - would he have pushed the envelope of the classical forms, as Beethoven did? He was showing some signs before he died, but we'll never know.

Beethoven, it is said, was unusual in that, whereas nearly all of us develop mentally until a certain point and then stop, Beethoven never did, but kept right on developing, pushing at the boundaries of the envelope (and occasionally tearing right through it) until the end. Perhaps the onset of deafness (total long before he died) caused an indomitable spirit to rise to the occasion. In addition, he had to work hard at compositions, going through many rewrites and rerewrites and rererewrites. Again that plus his perfectionist nature and artistic vision (remember that he was the first composer to have one) might have fired him constantly. Certainly we have never seen the like again.
 
I always wondered whether that Mozart story was a myth. I found this on the net:
"Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1993 14:32:06 -0400
Reply-To: Early Music List <[email protected]>
Sender: Early Music List <[email protected]>
From: "Francois R. Velde" <[email protected]>
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University, Bawlmer, MD
Subject: Re: Allegri's Miserere

Letter from Leopold Mozart to his wife, April 14, 1770 (Rome).

..You have often heard of the famous Miserere in Rome, which is so
greatly prized that the performers are forbidden on pain of
excommunication to take away a single part of it, copy it or to
give it to anyone. *But we have it already*. Wolfgang has written
it down and we would have sent it to Salzburg in this letter, if it
were not necessary for us to be there to perform it. But the manner
of performance contributes more to its effect than the composition
itself. Moreover, as it is one of the secrets of Rome, we do not
wish to let it fall into other hands, ut non incurramus mediate vel
immediate in censuram Ecclesiae...."

A complement is to be found in Mozart's sister's reminiscences:

having written down the Miserere from memory, Mozart returned the
next day to the Chapel with the score hidden in his hat, to make sure
he had made no mistakes; but another Miserere was played that day.
Allegri's Miserere was sung again on Friday, and Mozart heard it again
and verified that he had made but two or three minor mistakes. This
tour de force was soon well-known in Rome; and Mozart sang the Miserere
himself, while playing the harpsichord, in a private concert in the
presence of the castrato Cristofori.
(this from the 1936 biography by T. de Wyzewa and G. de Ste-Foix).

--

Francois Velde
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Thanks for that, Steve. The Miserere is sung at a service called Tenebrae,in which the candles are extinguished one by one until only one is left, and then the Miserere is sung. This no doubt contributed to the effect of the piece.

Despite Leopold's comment, it's still a great piece of music, particularly in the classic King's College (treble Roy Goodman) and Tallis Scholars (treble Alison Stamp) versions.
 
Agree with all that the requiem is very moving. I also like the short Ave Verum Corpus.

I also agree with the poster that said that Mozart wrote some music that is very profound and other music that seems to me a bit like "elevator music". It's well written and all, but seems like "classical-lite". I'd list the two clarinet concertos and one of the awful horn concertos on this list. However I'd accept that this may be down to my lack of taste rather than Mozart's occasional lapses.
 
The standard joke is that Mozart wrote a horn concerto four times! If he wasn't enthusiastic about the instrument, he didn't exert himself too much. Wolfie didn't like the horn, but he had a great friend, one Joseph Leutgeb, who was a virtuoso on the instrument. On the score of one of them, the place where the horn enters is marked "That Ass Leutgeb", another had the horn part written in four different colours of ink to confuse the poor player.

Mozart also didn't like the flute, which is why the more famous of the two concertos is an adaption of a pre-existing clarinet concerto - he really couldn't be bothered writing something new for it.
 
Originally posted by Blzebub
Well, he did very well - his horn concertos are gorgeous (IMO).
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As made famous by Flanders and Swann:

I once had a whim and I had to obey it
To buy a French Horn in a second-hand shop;
I polished it up and I started to play it
In spite of the neighbours who begged me to stop.

To sound my Horn, I had to develop my embouchure;
I found my Horn was a bit of a devil to play.

So artfully wound
To give you a sound,
A beautiful sound so rich and round.

Oh, the hours I had to spend
Before I mastered it in the end.

But that was yesterday and just today I looked in the usual place-
There was the case but the Horn itself was missing.

Oh, where can it have gone?
Haven't you-hasn't anyone seen my Horn?
Oh, where can it have gone?
What a blow! Now I know
I'm unable to play my Allegro.

Who swiped that Horn?
I'll bet you a quid
Somebody did,
Knowing I'd found a concerto and wanted to play it,
Afraid of my talent at playing the Horn.
For early today to my utter dismay
it had vanished away like the dew in the mom.

I've lost that Hom-I know I was using it yesterday.
I've lost that Horn, lost that Horn, found that Horn ... gorn.
There's not much hope of getting it back though I'd willingly pay a reward.

I know some Hearty Folk whose party joke's
Pretending to hunt with the Quorn,
Gone away! Gone away! Was it one of them took it away?
Will you kindly return that Horn? Where is the devil who pinched my Horn?

I shall tell the Police I want that French Horn back.
I miss its music more and more and more.
Without that Horn I'm feeling sad and so forlor-orn.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ooooooh
O-o-o-o-o-ooooooh, O-o-o-o-o-ooooooh

I found a concerto, I wanted to play it,
Displaying my talent at playing the Horn,
But early today to my utter dismay it had totally vanished away.
I practised the Horn, and I wanted to play it but somebody took it away.
I practised the Horn and was longing to play it but somebody took it away.

My neighbour's asleep in his bed.
I'll soon make him wish he were dead.
I'll take up the Tuba instead - WAAH WAAH!
 
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