Quiz: Mystery scores

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Mystery 3 is Petrushka

Damn, too late!

[lukeottevanger]

and oh yes, no 2 is Dallapiccola - Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera... another one I did before! (Which just proves what good taste you have  )

[lukeottevanger]

Number 1 is Berio, Sequenza IXb, alto sax

[lukeottevanger]

Oh, no 6 is Sibelius, isn't it! Stupid me!

[lukeottevanger]

Kullervo

(can you tell I've been feeling a bit score-starved!)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Oh, no 6 is Sibelius, isn't it! Stupid me!

Not exactly the word I was thinking of after this Blitz...

(can you tell I've been feeling a bit score-starved!)

Sailors have more restraint.

[Greta]

Good job you two! 

No. 1 is a tad obvious with the multiphonics fingerings! Didn't realize you had the Dallapiccola before, that's a cool one. Couldn't help myself on the Adams, one of my favorite moments he's ever written right there on that page!

Hint on No. 7: The instrumentation is oft associated w/ the composer...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

7 is Percy Grainger, perhaps...

[lukeottevanger]

Good job you two! 

No. 1 is a tad obvious with the multiphonics fingerings!

It happens to be one of the Berio scores I have on my computer, otherwise it might have taken a little longer. Likewise, I own all these scores, except no 7 obviously.

Didn't realize you had the Dallapiccola before, that's a cool one. Couldn't help myself on the Adams, one of my favorite moments he's ever written right there on that page!

Don't blame you! My page was the quasi-Mahler 10 quotation from the second movements

Hint on No. 7: The instrumentation is oft associated w/ the composer...

Doesn't look like Grainger to me, but I could be wrong....

[(poco) Sforzando]

No, but I would be so mean as to do something else a bit crafty here. Oh, this is making me laugh, as you'll understand when you know the answer, I hope.

It's not Stamitz, of course not. It's not from a work in D either. It's from a work that I know for sure Sforzando has heard.

From the direction of the violin line, it has to be the middle movement of a work in G. But what?

[lukeottevanger]

I recommend you read the last pages of this thread again, lateral thinking mode switched on.

[(poco) Sforzando]

7 is Percy Grainger, perhaps...

Maybe Holst.

[lukeottevanger]

I think I'll have to tell you what 301 is, because there's a lot of barking up wrong trees going on, even though I've given the heaviest of hints as to the identity of the work; it's actually been mentioned by Sforzando once and then by me several times.

First, the composer - it's Tchaikovsky (or however we're spelling him today).

This could have been guessed, I suppose, because I made clear that there is at least one Tchaikovsky piece left among my scores. This score also looks rather Tchaikovskian, in print style (obviously a Russian imprint, I think), in orchestration, and in the implied tone of the page, which is in Tchaik's grandly classical, imperial manner. These cadenzas are decorative, formal rather than virtuoso vehicles.

Secondly, the piece itself. When Sforzando started talking about the comparative scarcity of non-symphonic Tchaikovsky in American concerts, and about Balanchine's choreography, did no-one think it a little out of character for me to latch onto one of his comments in this rather repetitive, Pink-Harp-like, 'I really want to know your opinion about this' way?; here's the gist of the exchange:

Of the larger works, he choreographed the 2nd piano concerto, 3rd and 4th suites, and 3rd symphony (the finale to Jewels).

Didn't know that, btw - thanks. Did he choreograph all of the 2nd Concerto? It's a big piece....

Yes he did - all of it. It was originally entitled Ballet Imperial*, but now goes by the more prosaic title of Concerto No. 2.

What sort of thing does he do during the second movement? I'd be interested to know, as I really like that movement, don't you?

I've only seen it once, and I don't have the best visual memory for ballet steps. With a little sleuthing I'm sure I'll find an answer, though.

Well, yes, it would be fascinating to see what Balanchine makes of the orchestrational/formal oddities of this movement.

I hoped that going on about how much I like that movements, and about its 'orchestrational/formal oddities' might prompt a bit of thought - because it only took one person to think: 'Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no 2, second movement - that's the one with the highly unusual, prominent, almost concertante violin/cello solos, isn't it?....Aha!'

To pre-empt complaints that I chose a page with no piano but two string soloists I'd say:

1) This is a quiz, after all. A test of logical thinking. Why do those two solo instruments have to be the only soloists? And why does that have to be a concerto written for them anyway? No reason...

2) If I'd included the piano part, I imagine people would have been led along the lines of thinking this was a Triple Concerto a la Beethoven. A similar mistake, in other words

3) I always try to put up pages of scores that have a particular 'wow' factor - something that makes them noticeable, even if it's only something small. I also often try to select pages which stress this factor as much as possible. I'm sure everyone who has set scores here does likewise. It could be the notation, the complexity, the composer's identity, the date at which the piece was written, techniques used, instrument used.... In this case it's the fact that here we have a piano concerto in whose slow movement the nominal soloist is absent to such an extent that the very score takes on the appearance of a double concerto for violin and cello.

*Interesting that Balanchine felt that this music was 'imperial', given that I have just described the unusual tone of the second movement in exactly those terms - 'grandly classical, imperial' - which in turn I think I subconsciously derived from Taruskin.

[lukeottevanger]

TTT

First list, in two parts:
Part one
and
Part two

Second list (one long part)

New list:

Set by Luke
293 - Tchaikovsky - Festival Overture on the Danish National Anthem - (Sforzando)
294 - Tovey - Piano Concerto - (Johan)
295 - Wagner - ?  - (Sforzando)
296 - ? -
297 - Valen - Piano Sonata no 2 - (Johan)
298 - ? -
299 - ? -
300 - Theo Ysaye - ? - (Sforzando)
301 - Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto no 2 - (revealed by Luke)
302 - ? -

Set by Greta
1 - Berio - Sequenza IXb - (Luke)
2 - Dallapiccola - Quaderno musicale di Annalibera - (Luke)
3 - Stravinsky - Petrouchka - (Luke)
4 - Brahms - op 119/3 - (Luke)
5 - Adams - Harmonielehre - (Luke)
6 - Sibelius - Kullervo - (Luke)
7 - Grainger - Lincolnshire Posy - (Chrone)

Links to clues:
First basic clues to LO 293-302
first follow-up clues to LO 294-302
second follow-up clues to LO 295-302

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Maybe Holst.

Or - Duke Ellington?!

[lukeottevanger]

I'm going to guess the name Gordon Jacob for Greta's remaining one, though that doesn't seem too likely. The piece looks American to my eyes.

[lukeottevanger]

New guess - William Schuman

[Greta]

#7 - And why wouldn't that look like Grainger...? 

[Maciek]

First, the composer - it's Tchaikovsky (or however we're spelling him today).

You know, it had just dawned on me that this had to be the Czajkowski score you mentioned, and you had to come and ruin it all by revealing it before time!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

#7 - And why wouldn't that look like Grainger...? 

So my first hunch, after your clue, was right...