Gurn's Classical Corner

[DavidW]

Instead of blathering on about what is classical? romantic? (and yet another post brought up Beethoven again! sheesh!) this is easy, the original post said 1740-1830 just so we wouldn't have this discussion.  Chopin lived almost 20 years past the time frame for this thread and is therefore not fair game.

See that was easy!  Which is what the original post was trying to do, make it easy.

[karlhenning]

Bring that hammer down, Davey! : )

[DavidW]

Bring that hammer down, Davey! : )

Yes a Mahlerian hammer blow of fate...

[Florestan]

You love theories, Florestan.

Only when they are supported by facts. 

Me too!!! We're slightly Platonic; our dear Gurn, on the other hand, is a bit Aristotelian, slightly sceptic, a good-humored Haydnian finally.

That's interesting: what exactly makes my theory Platonic? I've always considered myself rather Aristotelian, in that I think the middle way is the best way to go. 

Where Florestan says that Romanticism is an attitude (I know, it isn't a quote, just my interpretation) I think that Classicism was also an attitude.

That's what I said all along: both of them are attitudes.

[Gurn Blanston]

Yes a Mahlerian hammer blow of fate...

Geez, freakin' Mahler   

[chasmaniac]

Geez, freakin' Mahler   

One can imagine a Couperinian tinkling of fate, Bachian involution of fate, Mozartian sweep of fate, Haydnesque exposition of fate, even an ars nova flowering of fate. Any others?

[Leo K.]

Wow. This is lovely! Listening to Anna Bon di Venezia (1740 -?) for the first time.

contents:

Sonate Nr. 4 D-Dur
Sonate Nr. 5 g-moll
Sonate Nr. 6 G-Dur
Sonate Nr. 1 C-Dur
Sonate Nr. 2 F-Dur
Sonate Nr. 3 B-Dur


Christiane Meininger, flute
Traud Kloft, cembalo


Anna Bon (b. 1739/40) was born in Russia and was an Italian composer and singer. Her parents were both involved in music, and travelled internationally; her father, Girolamo Bon, as a librettist and scenographer, her mother, Rosa Ruvinetti Bon, as a singer. She entered Ospedale della Pietà as a student at the age of four. She had rejoined her parents by the time they were at Bayreuth in the service of Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg Kulmbach. In 1762 the family moved to the Esterházy court at Eisenach, where Anna remained until at least 1765. By 1767 she lived in Hildburghausen and was married to the singer Mongeri. (Wikipedia)

[SonicMan46]

 

Wow. This is lovely! Listening to Anna Bon di Venezia (1740 -?) for the first time.

Hi Leo - boy I've not thought about her in a while, but do own 2 discs; the Flute Sonatas on CPO & the Harpsichord Sonatas (inserted above); these are Op. 1 & 2 - from her Wiki article HERE, she also wrote Six Divertimenti, for two flutes and basso continuo, op. 3, which would be of great interest - not sure about recorded availability - will do a search later - 

P.S. - did find an Op. 3 offering HERE - but at 18 Euros w/o S/H!  Maybe there is a MP3 download out there? 

[Florestan]

Biographical information here.

As for the music, I can do no better than to quote two Amazon reviews (not for this particular recording).

Like the remarkable Symphony of Juan Chrisostomo Arriaga, these three string quartets hint at what the world lost by the composer's early death. If anything, they are more accomplished than the Symphony (though the slow movement of that Symphony is beyond what any teenager, except the teenage Mendelssohn, ever achieved in music). The numbering of the quartets may show something about the publishing practices of the day. Composers usually put their best foot forward; take, for example, the First Piano Concerto of both Beethoven and Chopin. In both cases, they actually postdate a less ambitious Second Concerto. So it is with Arriaga. The Second Quartet is the most traditional, with a genial first movement that seems modeled closely on the opening of Beethoven's Sixth, by the time Arriaga was writing, a classic of some twenty years' vintage. Arriaga's First Quartet, though, is a more intense affair. Cast in the minor key, it's dramatic and moving, a bit of Sturm und Drang Parisian style. (Arriaga was studying composition in Paris with F.-J. Fetis when these quartets were written.)

No. 3 takes us to an even higher plane, however, with a very substantial (six minutes long) Presto last movement and a "Minuet" third movement that is actually a haunted scherzo recalling Haydn in one of his more diabolical moods (for example, the Witch's Minuet from the Quartet Op. 72, No. 2). Again, the most immediate model seems to be the Beethoven Opus 18 Quartets, but the Beethovenian theme of the first movement quickly evaporates into harmonic regions and even developmental possibilities that Beethoven circa 1800 hadn't yet dreamed of. But maybe the most arresting movement is the second, cast as a pastorale. The A section is deceptively Rococo-like, with little figures that mimic birdcalls and other country sounds, but the B section, supposedly portraying a thunderstorm, is more like a storm of the soul, with troubling, powerful tremolos. Here, Arriaga recalls his near contemporary Franz Schubert; I think of the finale of the Octet, with its ominous opening tremolos in the strings, or the disquieting String Quartet No. 15.

So, this may be music by a teenage composer, but the accomplishment and even the vision are remarkable. Arriaga seems to have learned all there was to know about Classical style and even to grasp the direction toward full-blown Romanticism that music was taking in composers such as Schubert, whose music he couldn't have known at all.

Arriaga clearly had a talent for writing memorable melodies. But he also had a good grasp of form, enough so that he could alter and bend the usual classical quartet form to his own ends. For instance, he starts the fourth movement of Quartet No. 1 with an adagio introduction, reminiscent of similar passages by Haydn, but then he surprises us by bringing it back, transformed, toward the end of the allegretto rondo that is the main portion of the movement. Also, in the 6/8 minuet of that quartet the first section is written with two accented beats per bar, but in the trio this becomes three beats per bar. Not earth-shaking, to be sure, but still an unusual thing for such a young composer to pull off so effectively.

The Second Quartet is probably the most conventional of the three, but the variation movement (II) is really memorable, with a long melancholy main theme that is transformed gradually as we go along. The pizzicato variation is particularly effective. The finale contains two versions of a unison cadenza-like section before and after the exposition.

The Third Quartet is most notable for its greater contrapuntal complexity than its predecessors. The second movement, called Pastorale, is possibly my favorite movement of all, not only for its lovely melodic musings, but also its instrumental sophistication. The minuet has much the feel of a dramatic scherzo, although it hews to the minuet form. The scurrying Presto finale is a fitting conclusion to this set of three marvelous quartets by a young composer barely old enough to shave.

[Gurn Blanston]

Biographical information here.

As for the music, I can do no better than to quote two Amazon reviews (not for this particular recording).

Florestan,
I hope any of the people who hang out on The Corner will take advantage of your recommendation. I already know how good the music is, I concur with both of those reviewers. I had an old version that wasn't the greatest in terms of playing (can't remember the players even, now), and I certainly took advantage of this rec to get a new version, and PI besides!


[asin]B000054OZJ[/asin]

Different cover, same disk.

Arriaga's untimely death was an incalculable loss to music.

[Florestan]

I certainly took advantage of this rec to get a new version, and PI besides!


[asin]B000054OZJ[/asin]

Different cover, same disk.

Yes, a fabulous performance, played with passion and elegance. I have yet to meet a dud featuring Simon Standage. 

Arriaga's untimely death was an incalculable loss to music.

Alas!

[Gurn Blanston]

Yes, a fabulous performance, played with passion and elegance. I have yet to meet a dud featuring Simon Standage. 

Alas!

Yes, he's a rock, IMO. I have a Vivaldi disk where he drags it a little bit, but beyond that, I have probably 3 dozen disks featuring him, I wouldn't part with any of them.

[Florestan]

Okay, inspired as I am by Harry's poignant post  I too recommended this disc only to be ignored and then to see someone else get applauded.

I want props!

My sincerest apologies for having missed your post. I gladly acknowledge your priority. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Okay, inspired as I am by Harry's poignant post  I too recommended this disc only to be ignored and then to see someone else get applauded.

I want props!

Well, I missed this post, possibly it was during that week where I was regretting giving up narcotics...   Is Harry pregnant with feeling then? I shall have to assuage his anxieties.

I'm guessing that Florestan got the idea from you, so he now becomes your burden for life...

[karlhenning]

Thanks for the suggestion, gents.

A-clip-listening I will go . . . .

[karlhenning]

Saying one could not find the Rasoumovsky Qt, how do you find the Naxos disc compares?

[Gurn Blanston]

Saying one could not find the Rasoumovsky Qt, how do you find the Naxos disc compares?

There is an Amazon link to it in my post, Karl. I haven't heard the Naxos disk, so I can't offer an opinion. Well, other than that I'm sure it sounds like the fiddles are using steel strings and are tuned up a quartertone...

[karlhenning]

There is an Amazon link to it in my post, Karl.

Oh, that must be the "image unavailable" I see!

I haven't heard the Naxos disk, so I can't offer an opinion. Well, other than that I'm sure it sounds like the fiddles are using steel strings and are tuned up a quartertone...

You are being cattivo! ; )

[Gurn Blanston]

You are being cattivo! ; )

Well, perhaps a tad. It's my nature, you see? 

[chasmaniac]

All this talk of Arriaga sent me burrowing into the La Ma de Guido website where I found a recording of classical era string quartets I didn't know about! Gasp! Came out last fall.



Arkivmusic quotes a Fanfare review thus. (I could giggle I'm so excited!)

TEIXIDOR String Quartets: No. 1 in B♭; No. 2 in G; No. 5 in E♭ • Cambini Qrt • LA MA DE GUIDO 2093 (61:04)

For a neglected composer with no entry in Grove, let alone Wikipedia, Josep Teixidor i Barceló (1752–c.1811) wrote string quartets of surprisingly high quality. This disc of three quartets from a set of six appears to be the only recording of any of his music. From the booklet notes written by Miguel Simarro, the first violinist of the Munich-based Cambini Quartet, in a garbled translation, we learn that Teixidor came from the Lleida region of Spain, was appointed as court organist in Madrid in 1774, taught, and was a theorist and music historian. His quartets were most likely composed during the last decade of the 18th century. The quartets' sometimes elaborate first-violin and cello parts reflect his acquaintance with the virtuosity of instrumentalist/composers such as the violinists Viotti and Rode, and the cellists Romberg and Duport. He knew the work of Spanish and European keyboard composers—Mozart and C. P. E. Bach among them—but the main influence is clearly that of Haydn, the characteristics and procedures of whose mature string quartets Teixidor used as a model with greater depth than Boccherini did, although Teixidor certainly sounds like Boccherini.

It's the first movement of the Quartet No. 1, the largest and most distinctive of the three recorded here, that best exemplifies Teixidor's absorption of Haydn's style. At the opening, he uses the musical equivalent of humorous spoken "asides" to create interest in the phrase structure. (There's a brief, throbbing drone in the viola at the start of the development section, a nice bit of Spanish color, but the only such moment in any of these quartets.) Like Haydn's slow movements, the Adagio is compact and achieves some intensity of expression. Teixidor's minuets are sturdy and varied. (I seem to remember a comment by Roger Sessions that while recovering from an operation, he had studied the scores of Haydn's approximately 80 string quartets and marveled that each minuet was different from every other one.) It's in the rather long finale that Teixidor's themes lack Haydn's pithiness, and so, the movement is comparatively diffuse.

The Cambini Quartet is a period-instrument group. It plays deftly, with good intonation, and observes all repeats. The characteristic thinness of tone and treble-oriented sound of these instruments becomes, at least for me, a little monotonous over the course of three quartets. One of these pieces would make a welcome, novel opening to a concert by a modern string quartet. The sound of the disc, on La mà de Guido, a label with more than 100 recordings of mostly obscure Spanish music, is nice and clear.

FANFARE: Paul Orgel