Gurn's Classical Corner

[Karl Henning]

The favorite instrument of each, IIRC. 

One of these days, I'll write a cowbell quintet, you'll see . . . .

[Leon]

This is a fine disc that seems to have very garnered little attention from the reviewers:



Some info on the Pleyel Trio Wien:

The Pleyel Trio Wien was founded as a piano trio in 1998 by the Croatian pianist Hrvoje Jugovic, the German violinist Markus Hoffmann and the Austrian cellist Günther Schagerl. The three musicians trained at their respective universities for music and met in the Austrian metropolis with a mutual desire: to perform music of the classical period, thus the musical repertoire of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, on period instruments.

RTRH

Some info on Ignaz Pleyel:

He was born in Ruppersthal in Lower Austria, the son of a schoolmaster named Martin Pleyel. He was the 24th of 38 children in the family.[1] While still young he probably studied with Johann Baptist Vanhal, and from 1772 he became the pupil of Joseph Haydn in Eisenstadt. As with Beethoven, born 13 years later, Pleyel benefited in his study from the sponsorship of aristocracy, in this case Count Ladislaus Erdődy (1746–1786). Pleyel evidently had a close relationship with Haydn, who considered him to be a superb student.

RTRH

[Florestan]

Had quite a Kuhlau afternoon. These



are excellent discs, in the quality of both music and performance.

Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832)

The son of an army regimental musician, grandson of an oboist and town musician, and nephew of an organist and town musician in Aalborg, Friedrich Kuhlau was born in 1786 at Uelzen, near Hanover, and moved with his family successively to Lüneburg and Brunswick. In Lüneburg he had piano lessons and started writing music, and in Brunswick completed his early education at the Katharineum. At the turn of the century he went with his parents to Hamburg, studying there with the organist, composer and mathematician Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwenke, who had succeeded C.P.E.Bach, his own teacher, as Hamburg Stadtkantor in 1788 and had held the position of organist at the Katherinenkirche since 1783. A year earlier C.P.E.Bach had arranged for Schwenke to study with Marpurg and Kirnberger in Berlin. In 1804 Kuhlau began his career as a pianist and remained in Hamburg until the occupation of the city by Napoleon in 1810 and the compulsion to military service, from which it seems blindness in one eye, the result of a childhood accident, would not have excluded him. He then took refuge in Copenhagen under an assumed name, attempting to establish himself there as a pianist and composer and making his first appearance as a pianist at the court in 1811. In 1813 he was naturalised and the following year was appointed a court chamber musician, a position that was unpaid until 1818, when token payment was allowed. In the same year he was joined in Denmark by his parents and sister, making it necessary to earn more money for their support, increasing his work as a concert pianist and as a teacher. In 1815 he had enjoyed success with a Singspiel, Røverborgen (Robbers' Castle), at the Royal Theatre, where he found employment for a season as chorus-master and was able to have his first opera staged. At the same time he was winning a reputation as a pianist throughout Scandinavia. He visited Berlin and Leipzig on various occasions and was twice in Vienna, on the second occasion in 1825 spending an evening with Beethoven and his friends, of which subsequent memories were hazy. The party had walked in the countryside, before dining at an inn, where the consumption of champagne had a similar effect on Beethoven's powers of recall, although he had written a canon punning on Kuhlau's name, to the words Kühl, nicht lau (Cool, not lukewarm), which he sent to Kuhlau, while the latter had responded with a canon on the name of Bach. In 1828 Kuhlau wrote music to celebrate a royal wedding, Elverhøj (The Elf Hill) and was awarded the title of professor with an increased stipend. In 1831 a fire at his home at Lyngby, near Copenhagen, where he had rented a house since 1826, a year after the death of his parents, not only destroyed many of his unpublished compositions and writings but had a deleterious effect on his health, leading to his death the following year.


Love the bold part. 

For Elverhoj I can safely recommend this disc:



His music belongs firmly to the Early Romanticism (or as Gurn puts it, the Classico-Romantic continuum) , heavily influenced by Beethoven but with a strong Danish folkloric undertone. His compositions for flute in different chamber combinations are particularly noteworthy, gaining him the nickname "Beethoven of the flute" (no small achievement IMO).

[mc ukrneal]

For Elverhoj I can safely recommend this disc:

I bought this on your rec and have enjoyed it quite a bit. The piano sonatas on Naxos are quite good as well.

[Florestan]

"We consider classical music to be the epitome and quintessence of our culture, because it is that culture's clearest, most significant gesture and expression. In this music we possess the heritage of classical antiquity and Christianity, a spirit of serenely cheerful and brave piety, a superbly chivalric morality. For in the final analysis every important cultural gesture comes down to a morality, a model for human behavior concentrated into a gesture. As we know, between 1500 and 1800 a wide variety of music was made; styles and means of expression were extremely variegated; but the spirit, or rather the morality, was everywhere the same. The human attitude of which classical music is the expression is always the same; it is always based on the same kind of insight into life and strives for the same kind of victory over blind chance. Classical music as gesture signifies knowledge of the tragedy of the human condition, affirmation of human destiny, courage, cheerful serenity. The grace of a minuet by Handel or Couperin, the sensuality sublimated into delicate gesture to be found in many Italian composers or in Mozart, the tranquil, composed readiness for death in Bach -- always there may be heard in these works a defiance, a death-defying intrepidity, a gallantry, and a note of superhuman laughter, of immortal gay serenity." - Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game.

Is this right, or pure rhetoric? (OTOH, rhetoric is part and parcel of Classicism, as Gurn insists...)

[chasmaniac]

A new disc of string 4s by le divin Hyacinthe is on the way. Opp. 1/1 and 3/1 we've had on discs from Quatuors Franz Joseph et Mosaiques, but 3/3 I haven't heard. Don't know whether or not this is the same Cambini Quartet that put out 2 sets of Canales and one of Teixidor on La Ma de Guido.

[asin]B0042GNDWA[/asin]

[Gurn Blanston]

Is this right, or pure rhetoric? (OTOH, rhetoric is part and parcel of Classicism, as Gurn insists...)

Can it not be both? The purpose of rhetoric is to postulate correctness and then argue for it. That in itself presupposes that some thing are right. There are those who would say that rightness and wrongness do not really exist. I believe they do; if not in all things, at least in this thing. Classical music elevates the spirit of those who partake, making them part of a continuum of mankind who share the same elevation of the spirit while listening.

[Gurn Blanston]

A new disc of string 4s by le divin Hyacinthe is on the way. Opp. 1/1 and 3/1 we've had on discs from Quatuors Franz Joseph et Mosaiques, but 3/3 I haven't heard. Don't know whether or not this is the same Cambini Quartet that put out 2 sets of Canales and one of Teixidor on La Ma de Guido.

[asin]B0042GNDWA[/asin]

That looks like a winner. Such a nice composer! Thanks for pointing it up, it's on the wish list.

[Ataraxia]

I was listening to Beethoven and Mozart last night, Gurn. Tried some Harnoncourt Mozart but didn't like the sound of his band. 

[Gurn Blanston]

I was listening to Beethoven and Mozart last night, Gurn. Tried some Harnoncourt Mozart but didn't like the sound of his band. 

Odd thing there, Dave. As fond as I am of that group and conductor, the only disk of theirs that I really can't abide is also Mozart. Not so much the sound of the band as the tempos used, which are deadly slow and dull, to the point of making the music unrecognizable. I pretty much stick to others when it comes to Mozart.

[Ataraxia]

Odd thing there, Dave. As fond as I am of that group and conductor, the only disk of theirs that I really can't abide is also Mozart. Not so much the sound of the band as the tempos used, which are deadly slow and dull, to the point of making the music unrecognizable. I pretty much stick to others when it comes to Mozart.

I didn't know you were fond of them. Maybe I'll try them in some other works. Who knows?

[Gurn Blanston]

I didn't know you were fond of them. Maybe I'll try them in some other works. Who knows?

Well, Beethoven and Mozart there are 2 different bands. The Beethoven is Chamber Orchestra of Europe, a modern instrument group that (usually) Harnoncourt leads in a period style way. The Mozart is Concentus Musicus Wien, a period instrument group that represents the 50 years that Harnoncourt has been studying 18th century music style. I think that CMW are very fine in Haydn, for example, while I don't care much for their Mozart. I have them doing some Bach concertos that are very good also. If a group was perfectly to my taste 100% of the time, I would be suspicious.... 

[Antoine Marchand]

Well, Beethoven and Mozart there are 2 different bands. The Beethoven is Chamber Orchestra of Europe, a modern instrument group that (usually) Harnoncourt leads in a period style way. The Mozart is Concentus Musicus Wien, a period instrument group that represents the 50 years that Harnoncourt has been studying 18th century music style. I think that CMW are very fine in Haydn, for example, while I don't care much for their Mozart. I have them doing some Bach concertos that are very good also. If a group was perfectly to my taste 100% of the time, I would be suspicious.... 

Leonhardt was the only of HIP precursors who never conducted orchestras or ensembles playing modern instruments. Anyway, regarding Harnoncourt the situation was naturally quite different because he was a cellist with the Vienna Symphony from 1952 to 1969, so he was always a man of two worlds. 

Do you have the CMW playing the Brandenburgs, Gurn? Or the violin concertos, maybe?

[Gurn Blanston]

Leonhardt was the only of HIP precursors who never conducted orchestras or ensembles playing modern instruments. Anyway, regarding Harnoncourt the situation was naturally quite different because he was a cellist with the Vienna Symphony from 1952 to 1969, so he was always a man of two worlds. 

Do you have the CMW playing the Brandenburgs, Gurn? Or the violin concertos, maybe?

I have Volume 12 of the Teldec Bach 2000 series. CMW play the violin (and oboe too) concerti and the orchestral suites in that box. Hogwood plays the Brandenburgs. Of my various dribs and drabs of Bach, this box is among my favorites.

[Antoine Marchand]

I have Volume 12 of the Teldec Bach 2000 series. CMW play the violin (and oboe too) concerti and the orchestral suites in that box. Hogwood plays the Brandenburgs. Of my various dribs and drabs of Bach, this box is among my favorites.

Damn! I don't have that box (although I have the Brandenburgs with Hogwood). Anyway, this will be fixed very soon, as I have pre-ordered the complete Teldec edition. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Damn! I don't have that box (although I have the Brandenburgs with Hogwood). Anyway, this will be fixed very soon, as I have pre-ordered the complete Teldec edition. 

HA! I have some Bach that you don't have! (for the nonce).   One of the amusing (well, irritating, actually) things about that box is that it is huge (a 13cm/side cube) but only contains 10 disks in paper sleeves and a smallish booklet that all told could easily fit into a box that was just 3.5cm thick. I've never gotten over the feeling that I was robbed of a small bust statuette that had to occupy all that remaining space...   

[DavidW]

HA! I have some Bach that you don't have! (for the nonce).   One of the amusing (well, irritating, actually) things about that box is that it is huge (a 13cm/side cube) but only contains 10 disks in paper sleeves and a smallish booklet that all told could easily fit into a box that was just 3.5cm thick. I've never gotten over the feeling that I was robbed of a small bust statuette that had to occupy all that remaining space...   

Wait... I sold that to you didn't I?

[Gurn Blanston]

Wait... I sold that to you didn't I?

Yes. You were sitting there eating Ramen for breakfast again and said "screw this, I'm gonna get rid of that gigantic Bach's Box from my shelf by selling it to Gurn and tomorrow I'm going out to eat a real breakfast!".

[DavidW]

Yes. You were sitting there eating Ramen for breakfast again and said "screw this, I'm gonna get rid of that gigantic Bach's Box from my shelf by selling it to Gurn and tomorrow I'm going out to eat a real breakfast!".

Ah good old grad school days!

[Gurn Blanston]

Ah good old grad school days!

Flash from the past. Bach is OK, but just not nutritious.