Topic: Gurn's Classical Corner

[SonicMan46]

Hey, Dave,
It really isn't easy to add to your Gyrowetz collection, I had to really work at it when I wanted some symphonies for my Haydn in London essays (he caused several to be played). But I found this one in an online store in Prague. Nice to know how to spell his name in Bohemian...



BTW, I would take one of those beers, please.

Hi Gurn - yep, I saw the spelling of his 'real' name in the Wiki article and from liner notes of the CDs in my collection; plus, I also saw the CD above on Amazon this morning, but was 'unavailable' there (have not check anyplace across the pond).  Dave

[SonicMan46]

The Czech Budweiser is indeed excellent. I downed several pints in Prague and I was extremely happy and cheerful afterwards. I've never tried the American one but I doubt it could be better.

Hi Andrei - I know that Czech Bud would be delicious - I do occasionally buy a 6-pack of the country's Pilsner Urquell which is readily available in my area; also like Stella Artois from Belgium, often found 'on tap' here - just guessing, but I would suspect that you would be disappointed in the American Budweiser.

BUT, the USA is challenging Europe for the quality of beer produced - now, not talking about the GIGANTIC producers like Anheuser-Busch, but the much smaller craft breweries that have opened in the last decade or so - just looking at my state of North Carolina; there are now 300 or so NC Breweries now in business, about a dozen or more in the Piedmont area - being a fan of 'hoppy' IPAs (Indian Pale Ales), a favorite is made in my home town by Foothills Brewery (Hoppyum shown below) - much activity is occurring in Charlotte and Asheville - SO, for those 'beer lovers' visiting America, my strong recommendation is to try out these local craft beer producers rather than the major brands.  Dave

   

[Gurn Blanston]

Hi Andrei - I know that Czech Bud would be delicious - I do occasionally buy a 6-pack of the country's Pilsner Urquell which is readily available in my area; also like Stella Artois from Belgium, often found 'on tap' here - just guessing, but I would suspect that you would be disappointed in the American Budweiser.

BUT, the USA is challenging Europe for the quality of beer produced - now, not talking about the GIGANTIC producers like Anheuser-Busch, but the much smaller craft breweries that have opened in the last decade or so - just looking at my state of North Carolina; there are now 300 or so NC Breweries now in business, about a dozen or more in the Piedmont area - being a fan of 'hoppy' IPAs (Indian Pale Ales), a favorite is made in my home town by Foothills Brewery (Hoppyum shown below) - much activity is occurring in Charlotte and Asheville - SO, for those 'beer lovers' visiting America, my strong recommendation is to try out these local craft beer producers rather than the major brands.  Dave

I'm a very big Stella Artois fan, always have a '6' in the fridge.  As I mentioned elsewhere last night, New Belgium 'Fat Tire' Amber Ale is another favorite, along with Dos Equis (XX) green bottle lager and Amber Ale. XX is consistently excellent, it's my 'go-to' when the selection is otherwise limited.   Your other, Pilsner Urquell, would very likely be a favorite too, if they sold it around here.



PS - This is all on-topic, since 'Gurn's Classical Corner' is also the name of my taproom...

[SonicMan46]

+1! 

[Florestan]

I too like IPAs. The best I've tasted so far is an English one named Shepherd Neame.



I used to like Stella Artois when it was imported from Belgium. Since they've started to brew it here in Romania under licence the quality has declined and lately it's been very rarely that I drank it.

[Mookalafalas]

Hi Andrei - I know that Czech Bud would be delicious - I do occasionally buy a 6-pack of the country's Pilsner Urquell which is readily available in my area; also like Stella Artois from Belgium, often found 'on tap' here - just guessing, but I would suspect that you would be disappointed in the American Budweiser.

  Not what I was expecting when I decided to dip into this thread, but quite this post was a bit of an eye opener. I live in a city in southern Taiwan. Beer is not too popular, and quality is not high, in general, but the convenience store next to my house has this Czech beer, and my city's "foreign" restaurant has Stella on tap. A surprising congruence.  Is it coincidence, or is this an indication that the international threshold on beer quality is going up? Perhaps Pilsner Urquell and Stella are the new Bud and Miller.   

[Gurn Blanston]

  Not what I was expecting when I decided to dip into this thread, but quite this post was a bit of an eye opener. I live in a city in southern Taiwan. Beer is not too popular, and quality is not high, in general, but the convenience store next to my house has this Czech beer, and my city's "foreign" restaurant has Stella on tap. A surprising congruence.  Is it coincidence, or is this an indication that the international threshold on beer quality is going up? Perhaps Pilsner Urquell and Stella are the new Bud and Miller.

Good question: that would be a blessing upon the whole world! There is always the sad POV that products of high quality are killed by their own success, and nothing is more fragile than beer. Stella Artois have been around since the 14th century, hopefully its new popularity won't be the cause for its demise.

Beyond that, you are right to be surprised at our topic of conversation here. Apparently, lovers of music of the late 18th century also share Balakirev's opinion of Haydn (note my sidebar if you previously hadn't). 

[SonicMan46]

Well, back to business (although that English IPA sounds delicious!) - still going through my classical music collection doing some culling, updating, and few additions (want to downsize!) - took me a week to evaluate my Haydn CDs - now on a composer that does not seem to have been discussed much if at all in this thread:

Hofmann, Leopold (1738-1793) - a Vienna native and gifted musical talent early in life (see edited quote below - much more in the link, if interested).  Hofmann was well respected in his lifetime and held a number of important positions (vying even w/ Mozart) - he composed much instrumental music, mainly Symphonies (over 60) and Concertos (over 80) (see HERE) - along w/ Haydn in the late 1750s/early 1760s, he is considered an important influence on the emergence of this genre in the classical era.  In Ph.D theses, his symphonic and concerto works have been catalogued by George Cook Kimball and Allan Bradley (see previous link).

For myself, I have a half dozen recordings (all on Naxos) - listened to the Symphonies and Flute Concertos (2 volumes) this afternoon (the latter are just excellent); my other discs are shown below.  Looking on Amazon today, not much else is available - Naxos has recently come out w/ more Flute Concertos, i.e. a V. 3 w/ different performers - available on Spotify, so will take a listen rather than a purchase.  Dave

Leopold Hofmann was regarded as one of the most gifted and influential composers of his generation. Although a church musician by profession, Hofmann was also an important and prolific composer of instrumental music. His symphonies, concertos and chamber works were played all over Europe and the avidity with which they were collected is attested to by the large number of manuscript copies which have survived. The son of a senior civil servant, Hofmann revealed his musical abilities early on and at the age of seven joined the chapel of the Empress Elisabeth Christine as a chorister. As a member of the chapel he received an extensive musical education studying keyboard - and later composition - with Georg Christoph Wagenseil, one of the brightest starts in the Viennese musical firmament, and violin, possibly with Giuseppe Trani, Dittersdorf's teacher. ( edited - Source)

   

   

[Mookalafalas]

Can you compare Hofmann to anyone? I'm curious where he fits in.  I've been listening to some Krommer off and on from the CPO label (another neglected figure from the high classical period) and for some reason link him to Hofmann, although I don't know why.
  Actually, lately I've been thinking of going mainstream. I'm something of a contrarian, and have sort of always resisted Mozart, probably because he is so often pointed to as the ne plus ultra of musical genius--especially by those who don't really listen to classical music at all.
   Anyway, I recently sort of stumbled into some WAM that I'd never heard (the organ sonatas in the big Paillard box, for example), and had to smack myself for being such a dunce. I started listening to various disks floating around my collection, and realized, duh, Mozart is awesome. I bought the Brilliant Haydn box several years ago, and its been an investment that never stops paying back. So I looked into the Brilliant WAM boxes.  There was a 170 disk 2005 version used on German Amazon for 32 Pounds! I am having it shipped to my home in Taiwan for $50, cost+shipping. Insane. I'm oddly excited about it. If my university goes into full lockdown mode, maybe I will just binge on Mozart for a few weeks.

[steve ridgway]

Anyway, I recently sort of stumbled into some WAM that I'd never heard (the organ sonatas in the big Paillard box, for example), and had to smack myself for being such a dunce. I started listening to various disks floating around my collection, and realized, duh, Mozart is awesome. I bought the Brilliant Haydn box several years ago, and its been an investment that never stops paying back. So I looked into the Brilliant WAM boxes.  There was a 170 disk 2005 version used on German Amazon for 32 Pounds! I am having it shipped to my home in Taiwan for $50, cost+shipping. Insane. I'm oddly excited about it. If my university goes into full lockdown mode, maybe I will just binge on Mozart for a few weeks.

Ignoring Mozart for many years may prove to have been a very profitable strategy .

[SonicMan46]

Can you compare Hofmann to anyone? I'm curious where he fits in.  I've been listening to some Krommer off and on from the CPO label (another neglected figure from the high classical period) and for some reason link him to Hofmann, although I don't know why.
  Actually, lately I've been thinking of going mainstream. I'm something of a contrarian, and have sort of always resisted Mozart, probably because he is so often pointed to as the ne plus ultra of musical genius--especially by those who don't really listen to classical music at all.
   Anyway, I recently sort of stumbled into some WAM that I'd never heard (the organ sonatas in the big Paillard box, for example), and had to smack myself for being such a dunce. I started listening to various disks floating around my collection, and realized, duh, Mozart is awesome. I bought the Brilliant Haydn box several years ago, and its been an investment that never stops paying back. So I looked into the Brilliant WAM boxes.  There was a 170 disk 2005 version used on German Amazon for 32 Pounds! I am having it shipped to my home in Taiwan for $50, cost+shipping. Insane. I'm oddly excited about it. If my university goes into full lockdown mode, maybe I will just binge on Mozart for a few weeks.

Hello - way back on the first page of this thread in 2009, Gurn left two posts w/ a list of 'classical era' composers born between 1730-1770 - below I've combined the list of about 50 names total; for myself, I own music of nearly 30 of these composers, including Leopold Hofmann - so, there were plenty of individuals writing music similar to the Viennese 'Holy Trinity' of Haydn, Mozart, & Beethoven (although not usually at their levels).  However, Hofmann was a well respected Viennese composer during his best years and likely would have been talked about in the 'same breath' as Haydn (see the attached reviews of a number of the recordings posted earlier for some more biographical comments).

Thus, there are many composers on the list below that were writing music in a similar manner, e.g. Ditters, Vanhal, Pichl, or Stamitz, just to mention a few from the same generation as Hofmann.  After listening to Leopold's recordings the last couple of days, he indeed wrote some excellent music - the 'Flute Concertos, are wonderful; in fact, I just listened to the recently released Naxos V. 3 (added below) off Spotify (different performers) and enjoyed (plus, no duplications) - don't know if you use Spotify, but all of Hofmann's CDs are available for a listen.  Dave

 

[Jo498]

One flute concerto by Hofmann was attributed to Haydn until some time ago. I used to have this one on a Collegium aureum recording from the 1970s but eventually got rid of it (mostly because I found the fortepiano Demus played in the famous D major Haydn pc hard to listen to) and this was probably the only Hofmann piece I ever listened to.

[Mookalafalas]

Ignoring Mozart for many years may prove to have been a very profitable strategy .

    I'm not sure about "profitable", but perhaps "economical".  And I probably overstated my case a bit--I have a quite a few of his symphonies and Piano Concertos, but very little of his chamber music, trios, quartets, etc. whereas I have tons in LvB and Haydn.

[Mookalafalas]

Hello - way back on the first page of this thread in 2009, Gurn left two posts w/ a list of 'classical era' composers born between 1730-1770 - below I've combined the list of about 50 names total; for myself, I own music of nearly 30 of these composers, including Leopold Hofmann - so, there were plenty of individuals writing music similar to the Viennese 'Holy Trinity' of Haydn, Mozart, & Beethoven (although not usually at their levels).  However, Hofmann was a well respected Viennese composer during his best years and likely would have been talked about in the 'same breath' as Haydn (see the attached reviews of a number of the recordings posted earlier for some more biographical comments).

Thus, there are many composers on the list below that were writing music in a similar manner, e.g. Ditters, Vanhal, Pichl, or Stamitz, just to mention a few from the same generation as Hofmann.  After listening to Leopold's recordings the last couple of days, he indeed wrote some excellent music - the 'Flute Concertos, are wonderful; in fact, I just listened to the recently released Naxos V. 3 (added below) off Spotify (different performers) and enjoyed (plus, no duplications) - don't know if you use Spotify, but all of Hofmann's CDs are available for a listen.  Dave

 

   Thanks for that list! I will copy it into my listening journal for reference.

[SonicMan46]

Hoffmeister, Franz Anton (1754-1812) - Viennese music publisher, composer, musician, and namesake of one of Mozart's SQs - just started to review my collection which has increased to 10 discs; despite being more famous as a prominent Viennese publisher, he was a prolific composer as seen from a list of his works below, and quite talented in that endeavor - short bio HERE, for those interested.  First five discs up for a listen are clarinet and flute works (the last, an MP3 purchase).  Dave

Flute Concertos - 25 at least
Flute Duets - 131
Flute Sonatas - 39
Operas - 8 at least
Piano Concertos - 14 or more
String Quartets - 34 or more
String Quintets - 15 at least
Symphonies - 50 or more

     

 

[SonicMan46]

Hoffmeister - Part 2 - today listening to the rest of my collection of this classical era Viennese publisher and composer - reviews are attached; despite writing over 50 Symphonies, the Bamert disc below and one w/ Griffiths (well reviewed by Dubins in Fanfare) (which has one work duplicated) are all that seem to be available, and even if the compositions are considered 'second tier', remember the competition was brutal at the time -   Dave

   

 

[Jo498]

Of Hoffmeister's I have one Naxos discs with quartets that I found surprisingly good. And one with wind serenades on cpo that is rather slight music but entertaining. There is one piece with a similar joke as Haydn's Farewell symphony with the players entering and leaving "single file".

[Gurn Blanston]

I have several of the disks mentioned above, I rather like Hoffmeister, he is a very fine second tier composer, and he was a help to Mozart back when he needed to get works published. I have also this really pretty good disk, which I got for the Michael Haydn music, but ended up particularly liking for the Hoffmeister symphony!

[Gurn Blanston]

Also to mention, this 3 disk set which we have talked about before (a long time ago, IIRC), which has 2 sinfonias concertante by Hoffmeister: 1 for clarinet & bassoon, the other for 2 clarinets. This is a nice box to have anyway, there is a bunch of good music on it!

[SonicMan46]

Hi Gurn - thanks for the recommendations - about through w/ my Hoffmeister listening - finishing w/ the Wind Serenades w/ Klocker and team!

Yesterday while on BRO, I ordered 3 more Hoffmeister CDs (one a double-disc), first ones shown below, then added a Naxos disc from Amazon, all w/ excellent Fanfare reviews (can post for those who may be interested) - so, a rather 'inexpensive' purchase spree -   Dave

P.S. Bro also had a 3rd V. of the piano sonatas w/ the same performer - decided two was enough -