Gurn's Classical Corner

[SonicMan46]

Hi Guys - Susan & I have been away in the NC mountains (will post in the vacation thread soon!), so not much activity from me but glad to get back into the forum - 

Pleyel Piano Trios - just have the disc shown below (Op. 16 Nos. 1 & 2 + Op. 29).

Leo - just curious what are the Opus numbers on the the disc discussed in the above posts, please - Dave 

[Leo K.]

Hi Guys - Susan & I have been away in the NC mountains (will post in the vacation thread soon!), so not much activity from me but glad to get back into the forum - 

Pleyel Piano Trios - just have the disc shown below (Op. 16 Nos. 1 & 2 + Op. 29).

Leo - just curious what are the Opus numbers on the the disc discussed in the above posts, please - Dave 

Hi Dave, glad to hear you had a great vacation!



I should've mentioned more detail about the Pleyel Trio Wien recording. I don't have opus numbers, but I have catalogue numbers for each work. The works on this disk are:

Trio for piano, violin and violoncello in D major, B 436 
Trio for piano, violin & cello in B flat major, B 440   
Sonata for piano & violin, in B flat major, B 573   
Trio for piano, violin & cello in F minor, B 442 

And here is some more info regarding the backround of this amazing:

The recording of this CD took place in the Salvator Hall in the Barnabitengasse in Vienna's sixth district. This historic hall was chosen to facilitate as close as possible the acoustic conditions for the original instruments and to create the appropriate atmosphere.

The first prints of the notes are in the music collection of the Austrian National Library.

The pianoforte used in this recording is a reproduction of an historic, anonymous instrument from the time around 1790 made by the firm of Watzek, which is specialised in the restoration and reproduction of historic keyboard instruments, and offers these instruments for hire and cares for them during concert performances. This instrument, which was not only reproduced but also designed in 2001 according to the experience gained with the instruments of former times, is thus the result of the knowledge of the master piano builder of the period from 1750 to 1810 and has a clear, balanced, characterful and stable tone that is typical for the historic pianoforte. It was used for the first time in this recording and has since been played in many concerts.

The violin played here was built by Georg Klotz in Mittenwald in 1770, and the violoncello in Graz in 1722 by Johannes Jauck.

[Leo K.]

Listening again to Christian Cannabich (1731 - 1798) on this fine Sunday morning. I love this disk dearly. The slow movements are particularly special. All praise Naxos! What an interesting composer too!

[mc ukrneal]

Listening again to Christian Cannabich (1731 - 1798) on this fine Sunday morning. I love this disk dearly. The slow movements are particularly special. All praise Naxos! What an interesting composer too!

The other Cannabich disc of symphonies on Naxos is quite nice as well. I assume you have it (or know about it), but on the off chance not....

[Leo K.]

The other Cannabich disc of symphonies on Naxos is quite nice as well. I assume you have it (or know about it), but on the off chance not....

Actually I don't have it yet, but it's on my wish list  I also have my eye on the Matthias Brambert disk of Cannabich's symphonies.

[Leo K.]

Capel Bond (14 December 1730 – 14 February 1790). A new composer to me, and this disk is a great introduction from what I've heard so far.

From the wiki:

Capel Bond (14 December 1730 – 14 February 1790) was an English organist and composer.

He was born in Gloucester, the son of William Bond and the younger brother of painter and japanner Daniel Bond (1725–1803). He received his education at the Crypt school with his uncle, Rev. Daniel Bond, and at the age of twelve became apprentice to the organist of Gloucester Cathedral, Martin Smith. He left for Coventry in 1749, where he became organist of two large churches, St Michael and All Angels (later Coventry Cathedral), and, in 1752, Holy Trinity Church, Coventry.

He married Ann Spooner, the daughter of Abraham Spooner and his second wife, Anne Birch at Holy Trinity in 1768. Anne's cousin Sarah Sebright (6th Baroness Sebright and mother of Henrietta, 2nd Countess Harewood) said of Capel Bond "I had seen Miss Spooner's marriage in the news and never was more surprised how careful ought people to be that have Daughters who they admit into their families. I should have thought no man less formidable than Mr. Bond."

Such was his 'superior merit and regular attendance' that he was awarded an additional £10 per annum as a 'Compliment' from 1770. He did much to encourage musical life in the Midlands, directing the Coventry Musical Society in large works such as Handel's Messiah and Samson, organising concerts and participating in festivals in Coventry and Birmingham.

His Six Concertos in Seven Parts (London, 1766) are a collection of four concerti grossi and a concerto each for bassoon and trumpet. The collection is similar in style to works by Midlands composers Richard Mudge and John Alcock published in 1749 and 1750, though also has much in common with the concerti grossi of contemporary English composers Handel, John Stanley, Francesco Geminiani and Charles Avison's arrangements of Domenico Scarlatti. The bassoon concerto is more galant in style and may owe some influence to a lost work from 1745 by William Boyce. The compositions are considered among the best of any English provincial composer, and in their own time were occasionally heard in the Concerts of Antient Music until 1812.

His only other known compositions are Six Anthems in Score (London, 1769).

He is buried at St. Bartholomew's Church, Binley, Coventry. His tombstone reads:

H[ic] J[acet]
CAPEL BOND
40 years organist of the Churches
of St Michael and Holy Trinity in
COVENTRY
He [wa]s an eminent musician
[and] indulgent husband
[an]d steady in his friendships
[exempl]ary in the constant practice
[of his Ch]ristian and social duties
he died February 14 1790 / aged 59.

[Gurn Blanston]

Capel Bond (14 December 1730 – 14 February 1790). A new composer to me, and this disk is a great introduction from what I've heard so far.

From the wiki:

Very interesting, Leo, thanks for the information. Like yourself, this is a totally new name to me. Don't know much about British composers of that period.



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Now playing:
Esterhazy Ensemble - Hob 11 015 Trio in A for Baryton, Viola & Cello Book 1 1st mvmt - Adagio e cantabile

[Leo K.]

Very interesting, Leo, thanks for the information. Like yourself, this is a totally new name to me. Don't know much about British composers of that period.



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Now playing:
Esterhazy Ensemble - Hob 11 015 Trio in A for Baryton, Viola & Cello Book 1 1st mvmt - Adagio e cantabile

British composers of this period are largely new to me as well. I've listened to more English baroque than classical, but I love what I'm hearing from this era, c.1766.

The highlight of this disk is the Bassoon concerto (Concerto no.6 in Bb Major)! Very nice 

[Gurn Blanston]

[asin]B00004TD54[/asin][asin]B00008NRJ6[/asin]

I think these 2 disks are all I have to represent that country for that entire period. Sad, very sad.

Bassoon concerto eh? Always a favorite with me. 


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Now playing:
Esterhazy Ensemble - Hob 11 022 Trio in A for Baryton, Viola & Cello Book 1 1st mvmt - Adagio (remaining 2 movements are lost)

[Leo K.]

Gurn, I have those disks too, and love them! I need more from England too!

I wanted to hear more bassoon, so I pulled out this recording of another new composer to me, Georg Wenzel Ritter (1748-1808), known as Mozart's "Good Wood-biter"!



I quite enjoy the light and charming music on this disk!

Here is an excerpt from an article I am reading on Ritter, by HAROLD E. GRISWOLD.

Mozart met Ritter in the Fall of 1777 during his four-month visit to
Mannheim. In December of that year he wrote to his father, Leopold:
'Herr Ritter, a fine bassoon player is off to Paris on December 12. Now
if I had been alone, this would have been an excellent opportunity for
me [to go along]. He mentioned it to me himself."

In March 1778, Mozart would follow Ritter and other Mannheim
musicians to Paris where, in his own words, 'one can make money and a
great reputation'.' A month after arriving in Paris, Mozart wrote the
Sinfonie Concertante in Eb Major (KAnh.9/297B) for Ritter and three
other Mannheim musicians: flautist, Johann Wendling (1720-1797);
oboist, Friedrich Ramm (1744-1811); and horn player Giovanni Punto
(1746-1811). However, due to difficulties with the director of the Concert
Spirituel, Monsieur Le Gros, the work was never performed.

Not only did Mozart refer to Ritter as 'a fine bassoon player', he
apparently knew Ritter well enough to share jokes and light repartee.
This relationship is reflected by Mozart in a letter to Leopold dated
18 July 1778 which documents that there was a friendly as well as
professional relationship between Mozart and Ritter. In the letter,
Mozart referred affectionately to Ritter as 'our good wood-biter' [a pun
referring to bassoon reeds] and goes on to describe a gathering he and
Ritter attended at Le Gros's house. Mozart was seated at the clavier
accompanying Anton Raff, a well-known tenor in Paris at the time.
According to Mozart,

"Ritter, our good wood-biter was sitting beside me...Well, when I had finished
playing... I dropped in to conversation with Ritter and among other things said
that I wasn to very happy here; and I added: 'The chief reason is of course, the
music. Besides I can find no soulagement here, no recreation, no pleasant and
sociable intercourse with anyone, especially with women, for most of them are
prostitutes and the few who aren't, have no savior vivre. Ritter couldn't deny
that I was right. .. This of course gave rise to much laughing and joking."

Ritter left Paris and returned to Mannheim in September of 1778.
Leopold informed Wolfgang who remained in Paris that Ritter was on
the list of Mannheim musicians who were being transferred to Munich.
Ritter would remain in the employment of the Munich Elector, Karl
Theodor, for ten years. In 1780 he petitioned the Elector for a raise and
received 900 gulden. (Mozart, after returning to Salzburg in 1778, was
given a salary of only 450 gulden as court organist for the Archbishop.)

Mozart and Ritter would meet again in 1780 in Munich where
Mozart was commissioned to write and produce the opera Idomeneo, an
opera which contained important bassoon parts for Ritter. After moving
to Vienna, Mozart in a letter to Leopold, mentions Ritter for the last
time: 'I know the bassoon player well whom they want to foist on the
Archbishop. He plays second to Ritter at the Opera.' (According to
Leopold's list of Mannheim musicians who were moved to Munich, the
second bassoonist to Ritter would have been Sebastian Holzbauer.)

In 1788 Ritter accepted an offer to join the Royal Prussian Kapelle in
Berlin for 1600 thalers,' an exceptional salary'. Upon visiting the Berlin
Kapelle in 1788, Karl von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) referred to Ritter's
playing as 'incomparable'. As late as 1808, 28 years after Ritter and
Mozart parted ways in Munich, the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung
reported that Ritter played 'masterfully as always'. The Irish singer and
composer Michael Kelly (1762-1826) wrote that Ritter was 'the finest
bassoon player I ever heard'."

[Gurn Blanston]

Gurn, I have those disks too, and love them! I need more from England too!

I wanted to hear more bassoon, so I pulled out this recording of another new composer to me, Georg Wenzel Ritter (1748-1808), known as Mozart's "Good Wood-biter"!



I quite enjoy the light and charming music on this disk!

Here is an excerpt from an article I am reading on Ritter, by HAROLD E. GRISWOLD.

Yes, a very familiar name indeed. Those 4 wind players were Mozart's inspiration in that period of his life. I was not aware that he composed also. I will definitely have that disk, as bassoon quartets are among my most favored genres. Thanks for this too. You have been quite busy lately!




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Now playing:
Esterhazy Ensemble - Hob 11 025 Trio in A for Baryton, Viola & Cello Book 2 3rd mvmt - Finale: Allegro assai

[SonicMan46]

 

I should've mentioned more detail about the Pleyel Trio Wien recording. I don't have opus numbers, but I have catalogue numbers for each work. The works on this disk are:

Trio for piano, violin and violoncello in D major, B 436 
Trio for piano, violin & cello in B flat major, B 440   
Sonata for piano & violin, in B flat major, B 573   
Trio for piano, violin & cello in F minor, B 442 

Leo - thanks for the information above, but my CD does not list the thematic catalogue B. numbers - however, I was curious as to the person putting together the catalogue - actually a musicologist named Dr. Rita Benton (1918-1980; her picture inserted above).  Her listing of Pleyel's compositions can be reviewed HERE; numbers range from B. 101 to B. 827 (w/ some numbers missing but an amazing output for such a busy guy!).

Unfortunately corresponding Opus numbers are not included in that linked table and a number of the keyboard trios are in the same key, so I could match just one up, i.e. Grand Trio in D Major Op. 29 (B. 461).  Currently, I own just 5 discs of this composer's music - just so much out there that is probably wonderful and undiscovered and/or un-recorded.  I could not find the Wien recording on Amazon USA but will keep looking - there is a CPO recording w/ a favorite group of mine (Trio 1790) that I'll take a look at and compare!  Dave

[SonicMan46]

I wanted to hear more bassoon, so I pulled out this recording of another new composer to me, Georg Wenzel Ritter (1748-1808), known as Mozart's "Good Wood-biter"!

 

I quite enjoy the light and charming music on this disk!

Leo - I love the bassoon and will likely order that Ritter disc (have nothing at the moment by this composer), but the price is right!

Also, own the William Herschel Symphonies mentioned by Gurn - these are extremely pleasant and well performed - not a lot of depth but perfect for the period!  But for those that may be unaware, the following quote from his Wiki bio is enlightening "British astronomer, technical expert, and composer. Born in Hanover, Wilhelm first followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, but emigrated to Britain at age 19. Herschel became most famous for the discovery of Uranus in addition to two of its major moons, Titania and Oberon. He also discovered two moons of Saturn and infrared radiation. Finally, Herschel is less known for the twenty-four symphonies that he composed.

Gurn - I may have a 'little more' British 18th century composers than you have listed - not sure if you have explored the recordings of Charles Avison (1709-1770), but I think he was probably the best of the native composers of that island between Purcell & Elgar - worth consideration; I have the two double CD sets below - not expensive and excellent - Dave

   
 
P.S. Added another which I forgot about and superb!

[mc ukrneal]

British composers of the 18th century - you are missing Boyce (who comes to mind before all these others). Then there is Thomas Arne (a nice disc on Chandos) and John Marsh (also in the Contemporary of Mozart series). Probably there are more that I am not thinking of.

[SonicMan46]

British composers of the 18th century - you are missing Boyce (who comes to mind before all these others). Then there is Thomas Arne (a nice disc on Chandos) and John Marsh (also in the Contemporary of Mozart series). Probably there are more that I am not thinking of.

Neal - you've peaked my interest regarding the 'native' English 18th century composers that flourished then - found a short list HERE, which is duplicated below but is incomplete - added a few others that are in my collection; the names w/ an asterisk are those of which I have one or several CDs - I'm sure the list can be expanded.  As expected, I have MANY more discs of composers living in England during that century that migrated from the continent (e.g. Handel, JC Bach, Carl Abel, Muzio Clementi, and others).  Dave

Arne, Thomas* (1710-1778)
Avison, Charles* (1709-1770)
Babell, William* (1690-1723)
Bond, Capel (1730-1790)
Boyce, William* (1711-1779)
Croft, William* (1678-1727)
Festing, Michael (1705-1752)
Gibbs, Joseph (1698-1788)
Greene, Maurice (1696-1755)
Hebden, John (1712-1765)
Linley, Thomas (1756-1778)
Marsh, John* (1752-1828)
Purcell, Daniel (1664-1717)
Stanley, John* (1712-1786)

[Leon]

I have heard a lot of good comments about Thomas Linley (the Younger), comparing him to Mozart, but I have yet to hear any of his music.   The direction this thread has taken is causing me to want to remedy that situation.

[mc ukrneal]

I have heard a lot of good comments about Thomas Linley (the Younger), comparing him to Mozart, but I have yet to hear any of his music.   The direction this thread has taken is causing me to want to remedy that situation.

Hyperion have a number of discs with works by him (or with selections if they are multi-composer discs. That could be a good place to start.

[SonicMan46]

Fritz, Gaspard (1716-1783) - Swiss composer who studied in Turin (hence his first name in the Fanfare review is Gasparo but the comments did prompt me to want this recording; downloaded from Amazon so no liner notes); however, for those interested check out the two reviews reprinted HERE). This composer is completely NEW to me but now listening to my MP3 download (on my iPod) over my den stereo system - beautifully integrated recording and agree w/ the two reviewers.

Flute Sonatas, Op. 2 published in the mid-18th century and pretty much of the galant style (attention LEO if you like 'flute trios') - stated from the reviews to be on 'period instruments' but cannot provide any details on the flute used, hopefully a reproduction from the period?  The flautist is Claire Genewein (below, right); born in Munich and studied in Salzburg.

Bottom line - delightful chamber music (BTW, other instruments are harpsichord & cello) and recommended to flute lovers who want to 'beam' themselves back to the mid-18th century, sitting in a musical salon and wearing a powdered wig and silk stockings!    Dave


 

[SonicMan46]

Leo - a couple of new arrivals for me, including the Ritter Bassoon Quartets that you recommended below - I love the bassoon and these are obviously works written by a performer on that instrument; also well recorded and just all around pleasant, as expected from that period.

Pleyel Octet C Major et al w/ Klocker and the Consortium Classicum - Klocker just excellent throughout - need to look for some more wind compositions by this composer!  Dave 

I wanted to hear more bassoon, so I pulled out this recording of another new composer to me, Georg Wenzel Ritter (1748-1808), known as Mozart's "Good Wood-biter"!

 

I quite enjoy the light and charming music on this disk!

[kishnevi]

Leo - a couple of new arrivals for me, including the Ritter Bassoon Quartets that you recommended below - I love the bassoon and these are obviously works written by a performer on that instrument; also well recorded and just all around pleasant, as expected from that period.

Pleyel Octet C Major et al w/ Klocker and the Consortium Classicum - Klocker just excellent throughout - need to look for some more wind compositions by this composer!  Dave 

I listened to the Bassoon Quartets, Op. 73 by Francois Devienne last night.  A recording on the Centaur label by an all female PI group called island (no capital letter in the name).  (The Amazon picture is too small to be worth showing.)  My copy was from a used CD store;  availability on Amazon is somewhere between none and next to none (it was released over a decade ago).  Devienne was a bassoon player and specialized in concertos and sonatas for wind instruments, apparently.  Based on what I heard, you would probably enjoy him as well.