Topic: Gurn's Classical Corner

[The One]

She played at several of Haydn's first round of London concerts. Her husband was also a famous harpist, and he had been employed for a while at Esterházy in the 1770's. I have a couple of recordings of Krumpholz concertos. QUite nice if you are a pedal harp fan.

Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz.
Are there transcribed harp works of Haydn?

[Gurn Blanston]

Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz.
Are there transcribed harp works of Haydn?

I'm not aware of any, however, transcriptions were such a huge business back then that nothing would surprise me.

You know that some of Beethoven's early variations in the Bonn era were for 'Clavier or Harp'?  I would like to hear some harp versions, I'm surprised some repertoire-starved harpist hasn't jumped on that.

[The One]

I'm not aware of any, however, transcriptions were such a huge business back then that nothing would surprise me.

You know that some of Beethoven's early variations in the Bonn era were for 'Clavier or Harp'?  I would like to hear some harp versions, I'm surprised some repertoire-starved harpist hasn't jumped on that.

Zabaleta must have done something. Let me check

I have WoO 64 by Robles

[bwv 1080]

I'm not aware of any, however, transcriptions were such a huge business back then that nothing would surprise me.

You know that some of Beethoven's early variations in the Bonn era were for 'Clavier or Harp'?  I would like to hear some harp versions, I'm surprised some repertoire-starved harpist hasn't jumped on that.

Do you have an opus number?  guitarists are repertoire-starved as well

[The One]

Do you have an opus number?  guitarists are repertoire-starved as well

He exaggerated. Only Variations WoO 64

[Gurn Blanston]

He exaggerated. Only Variations WoO 64

I thought there were 2 of them. I don't have any reference material here at work. Robles, eh? I have her doing Mozart's concerto, very nice!

[The One]

I thought there were 2 of them. I don't have any reference material here at work. Robles, eh? I have her doing Mozart's concerto, very nice!

I'll re-check carefully. Robles; the disc that 64 is on is quite good.

Edit: No. You can stop harping on about it

[Gurn Blanston]

I'll re-check carefully. Robles; the disc that 64 is on is quite good.

Edit: No. You can stop harping on about it

[kishnevi]

This new recording has a number of features of interest.



For one thing, it repeatedly mis-lists the composer's life span as 1775-1791. He in fact lived 40 more years, and these compositions date from the 1820s.

For another thing, the booklet contains an advertisement for a home goods store?!

But most importantly, it appears to be the first-ever disc solely devoted to Traugott Eberwein, a member of the Weimar school whose only other mention on GMG came when André found him on a compilation CD. The works on this disc are:

Overture for grand orchestra in C
Concertante for Wind Quintet in F, Op. 67
Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Op. 84

The booklet notes speculate that this is the only surviving symphony.

Listening later this morning 

Brian, what did you think of this one? (It's in my cart at Arkivmusic.)

[Florestan]

This new recording has a number of features of interest.



For one thing, it repeatedly mis-lists the composer's life span as 1775-1791. He in fact lived 40 more years, and these compositions date from the 1820s.

For another thing, the booklet contains an advertisement for a home goods store?!

But most importantly, it appears to be the first-ever disc solely devoted to Traugott Eberwein, a member of the Weimar school whose only other mention on GMG came when André found him on a compilation CD. The works on this disc are:

Overture for grand orchestra in C
Concertante for Wind Quintet in F, Op. 67
Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Op. 84

The booklet notes speculate that this is the only surviving symphony.

Listening later this morning 

My interest is certainly picqued.

There is also this in the same series:



I'd get them for the artwork alone.

[Que]

It seems that Bart van Oort is embarking on a complete Dussek cycle:



Will definitely follow that development with interest. 

Q

[Gurn Blanston]

It seems that Bart van Oort is embarking on a complete Dussek cycle:



Will definitely follow that development with interest. 

Q

Absolutely, good news. I love Dussek's sonatas, and there are many I haven't got fortepiano recordings of. I look forward to having the complete on my shelf! 

[North Star]

It seems that Bart van Oort is embarking on a complete Dussek cycle:

Will definitely follow that development with interest. 

Q

That does look very nice, I rather enjoyed the disc in Staier's DHM box earlier today.

[Gurn Blanston]

That does look very nice, I rather enjoyed the disc in Staier's DHM box earlier today.

Yes, I like the Staier disk too. IIRC, it was the one that got me onto Dussek at the start.

[The One]

and there are many I haven't got fortepiano recordings of.

Do you have these?

[Florestan]

Please, read this:

You know that [Pierre Baillot] frequently plays and takes great pleasure in Boccherini's quintets. I was desirous of hearing him in these quintets, with about a dozen of each I am acquainted, in order to see whether from the manner in which he executed them he could succeed in making one forget the poverty of the compositions. But well as they were given by him, the frequent childishness of the melodies, and the poverty of the harmonies (almost always three-voiced only) were no less unpleasing to me, than in all those I heard before. One cand hardly understand how a cultivated artist like Baillot, to whom our treasures in composition of this kind are known, can bring himself to play those quintets still, whose worth consists only in the regard had to the period and circumstances under which they were written.  But that they are [in Paris] listened to with as much plesaure as a quintet of Mozart, is another proof that Parisians cannot distinguish the good from the bad, and are at least half a century behind in art.

then please read this:

...the effect produced by Baillot [in a G-major Quintet by Boccherini] which he was not afraid of playing immediately after the formidable C-major Quintet of Beethoven (The Storm). Mr. Fétis, in attendance of this concert, was, like everybody else, bewitched; I can still remember his surprise, his enchantment at hearing this simple, naive music succeeding the powerful and vigorous harmonies of the German master. It was wonderful! Comparisons, nobody dreamt of. We were moved, transported, spellbound; that was all. Such is the power of the inspirations which flow from the soul, that they exercise an irresistible dominion, because they go straight to the heart!

and then please decide for yourself who was really narrow-minded, tasteless and backward-looking.

[Gurn Blanston]

Please, read this:

then please read this:

and then please decide for yourself who was really narrow-minded, tasteless and backward-looking.

Well, as Que's footer used to read (my translation) "there is no accounting for taste".  Spohr was a competitor, in that he was selling his own quintets, I don't know Picquot...

[Gordo]

It seems that Bart van Oort is embarking on a complete Dussek cycle:



Will definitely follow that development with interest. 

Q

As you have probably noticed, finally this wasn't a "monographic" work by Van Oort (unfortunately):

This disc is the first part of an extensive recording project using the combined
resources of eight excellent fortepianists. As a result, we will soon have the first
comprehensive recording of Dussek’s piano sonatas on period instruments. Listeners
are invited to take a journey through the brilliant, harmonically beautiful and
expressive music of one of the most fascinating composers at the threshold of early
Romanticism.

It's an outstanding first installment, anyway.

I don't resist to quote what Van Oort writes on the English piano:

The English piano of Dussek’s time
While in modern times standardization has, to a great extent, affected the craft of
piano building, instruments were still very personal works of art in the eighteenth
century. As a result, pianos were different from town to town and from builder to
builder, and even within one builder’s output. Although craftsmen did influence each
other within a certain area, the distance between cities as far apart as London and
Vienna resulted in two distinct schools of piano building, so that we have come to
recognize two main types of early fortepianos: the “English” and the “Viennese.”
From about 1770 until 1870, these two schools of piano building competed for the
favor of both musicians and the audience. In many sources from the eighteenth and
early nineteenth century, explicit differences are noted between them. One of the most
important of these descriptions is found in Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Ausführliche
theoretisch-practische Anweisung of 1828. Hummel (1778-1837) lived in London for
a number of years and was therefore well acquainted with English pianos.
The Viennese instrument allows itself to be handled with ease by the lightest hands. It
[...] does not obstruct velocity through too great an effort. [... ] the force of the tone
must be generated by the speed and force of the finger only. The English action must
be done equal justice because of its durability and fullness of the tone. However, these
instruments do not allow for the same level of fluency as the Viennese, since the touch
of the keys feels noticeably weightier, while they also fall much deeper [...]
The Viennese [fortepiano] allows the performer to play with all possible nuances,
speaks clearly and promptly, and has a round, flute-like tone which distinguishes
well from the accompanying orchestra, especially in big halls [...] Meanwhile I have
noticed, that in spite of the big tone of [the English] instruments in a room, the nature
of their tone changes in a large space and does not penetrate as well as ours through a
complicated orchestral accompaniment [...].
While the English piano was difficult to become accustomed to for most Viennese
and German pianists, it established itself as an alternative to the Viennese piano when
London became one of the most important centers for piano building and playing even before 1800.
English pianos were different from the Viennese in a number of ways:
they had more resonance because the damping was not quite as efficient as in the
Viennese pianos, the keys fell deeper and felt heavier than the Viennese, while the tone
was both fuller and thicker. Besides, English pianos often had a damper pedal from
the early 1780’s, while Viennese pianos were built with a knee lever until after 1800.
These differences, which led to a distinct style of playing on each instrument, were
important enough after the middle of the nineteenth century for even the famous piano
pedagogue Friedrich Wieck to write about them in his Clavier und Gesang (1853).
Fréderic Kalkbrenner (1785-1849), who lived in London from late 1814 to 1824,
wrote in his treatise Méthode pour apprendre le piano-forte à l’aide du guide-mains of
1831: The English pianos [...] have caused the professional musicians of that country
to adopt a grander style and that beautiful way of singing which distinguishes them
[...] Dussek, John Field and J. B. Cramer, the leaders of that school of which Clementi
is the founder, make use of the forte pedal as long as the harmony does not change [...]
In his Theoretical and Practical Piano Forte School..., Op.500 (1839) Beethoven’s
pupil Carl Czerny (1791-1857) added: The [English] pianos of that day possessed for
their most distinguished properties, a full Singing quality of tone; [....] this naturally
led Dussek and Cramer, and a few others to that soft, quiet and melodious style of
execution, [with] beautiful Cantabile...
The legato touch, the thicker and richer tone, longer tone life, and incomplete
damping of the English piano enriched the singing powers of the instrument and
inspired composers to write long cantabile melodies: a singing legato for which Johann
Ladislaus Dussek (1760-1812) and John Field (1782-1837) were especially known. If
the English piano could speak less, it could sing more than the Viennese piano.

Finally, a pearl for Gurn:

 

Most worthy friend, I consider myself fortunate in being able to assure you, that you
have one of the most upright, moral, and, in music most eminent of men, for a son.”
A letter from Joseph Haydn to Jan Ladislav Dussek’s father, 1792

[Gurn Blanston]

I just obtained Volume 7 of this estimable series. Have got to hear lots of 'new' music, and as Gordo notes, different players on each disk, including Viviana Sofronitzky, Alexei Lubimov and several others. Dussek was huge in his time, and a bit of a scamp, too. As so many others did, he tended to fade in the 19th century, but his quality was enough to provide a good reason for his return today. Highly recommended.

[Gordo]

I just obtained Volume 7 of this estimable series. Have got to hear lots of 'new' music, and as Gordo notes, different players on each disk, including Viviana Sofronitzky, Alexei Lubimov and several others. Dussek was huge in his time, and a bit of a scamp, too. As so many others did, he tended to fade in the 19th century, but his quality was enough to provide a good reason for his return today. Highly recommended.

I have just listened to Volume 1. Sound quality, interpretation and, of course, the music itself, are great...

The instrument is lovely captured, too [Fortepiano Longman Clementi (Londen, 1798-1799), Collection Chris Maene, restored 2002].

I really want to hear what does Lubimov with this music!