Topic: Ludvig Schytte

[Ten thumbs]

I can imagine some of your first thoughts regarding this composer but all that has been laughed over and discussed before. The consensus seems to be that his name is pronounced with a hard ch and a sounded final e. Certainly there is evidence for the latter as his Opus 63 is published as being by Schytté. As he is Danish by birth, maybe the Scandinavians amongst us will have some ideas.
To date, there does not appear to be any mention of him on this board. I suppose this is fair as I have only just discovered some of his music myself. Wikipedia reports that he wrote two operas and a piano concerto. The latter is available on CD and I should be grateful for any comments from those who have heard it. What interests me is the uncompromising way that he uses dissonance in his piano music. This is so original that it is surprising he has not been given credit for it. Sight-reading can be quite daunting as you search for violent discords spread across the keyboard.

[snyprrr]

I can imagine some of your first thoughts regarding this composer but all that has been laughed over and discussed before. The consensus seems to be that his name is pronounced with a hard ch and a sounded final e. Certainly there is evidence for the latter as his Opus 63 is published as being by Schytté. As he is Danish by birth, maybe the Scandinavians amongst us will have some ideas.
To date, there does not appear to be any mention of him on this board. I suppose this is fair as I have only just discovered some of his music myself. Wikipedia reports that he wrote two operas and a piano concerto. The latter is available on CD and I should be grateful for any comments from those who have heard it. What interests me is the uncompromising way that he uses dissonance in his piano music. This is so original that it is surprising he has not been given credit for it. Sight-reading can be quite daunting as you search for violent discords spread across the keyboard.

How do you think Balzac feels?

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

How do you think Balzac feels?

He doesn't feel anything - he's dead. 

I have nothing particularly important to say, except that when I started on my adult piano studies, one of the first things I learned to play was a minuet by Schytte. Apparently he's one of those "pedagogical" composers, like Clementi or Czerny. (Getting a rep as such seems to be a kiss of death where general popularity is concerned - altho' on the other hand, there's a certain J.S. Bach.)

[lescamil]

I have heard the piano concerto and it is quite a find of the Romantic era. One would never know that he was a pedagogical composer from looking at or listening to this piece (I sure didn't). It has a large amount of virtuosity and bravado, but it has some nice Scandinavian melodies in it, and it can be quite similar sounding to the Stenhammar or Sinding piano concertos. Still, it is not one of my favorite Romantic Scandinavian piano concertos. That honor would go to Kurt Atterberg's piano concerto.

Also, the way his name is pronounced is something like SKÜ-tuh. The y in Scandinavian languages is pronounced identically to the German ü, and Danish itself is actually quite similar sounding to German (in comparison to Swedish and Norwegian).

[Ten thumbs]

I have heard of his music being used as study pieces but I don't know which pieces and for what purpose. I suppose some of his works could be used as an introduction to modern techniques but then so could those of Debussy or Scriabin.
Thanks for the report on his piano concerto. I will add it to my wants list.