Mozart

[DavidW]

Currently, because I just got it a week or so ago, my favorite is Gidon Kremer playing the Violin Concertos.

I like almost everything he records, I realize that his interpretations are not universely lauded - but I like them, quirky, somewhat a-stylisitc, but nonetheless, his recordings almost always bring a smile to my lips.

I thought I was the only one that liked that recording!   I'm about to see how it stands up to the PI ones that recently arrived in the mail.   Still it's a terrific recording.

[karlhenning]

Currently, because I just got it a week or so ago, my favorite is Gidon Kremer playing the Violin Concertos.

I like almost everything he records, I realize that his interpretations are not universely lauded - but I like them, quirky, somewhat a-stylisitc, but nonetheless, his recordings almost always bring a smile to my lips.

I thought I was the only one that liked that recording!   I'm about to see how it stands up to the PI ones that recently arrived in the mail.   Still it's a terrific recording.

Do you know, the violin concertos have been entirely off my radar . . . knowing that Kremer has recorded them could just change that . . . .

[karlhenning]

BTW, the violinist who is taking part in the 21 June Henningmusick concert, Alexey Shabalin, was the violin soloist in the second-ever performance of the "newly unearthed" triple concerto, in 1995.

First I've heard about this piece . . . anyone got more word?

[DavidW]

I thought I was the only one that liked that recording!   I'm about to see how it stands up to the PI ones that recently arrived in the mail.   Still it's a terrific recording.


Do you know, the violin concertos have been entirely off my radar . . . knowing that Kremer has recorded them could just change that . . . .

They are worth hearing!  Don't be put off by the KV #.  They are masterpieces some of the finest violin concertos of the classical era, I never tire of listening to them.

[Gurn Blanston]

BTW, the violinist who is taking part in the 21 June Henningmusick concert, Alexey Shabalin, was the violin soloist in the second-ever performance of the "newly unearthed" triple concerto, in 1995.

First I've heard about this piece . . . anyone got more word?

Which "triple concerto"? An early Henning work, mayhap?

[Herman]

Well, your entire post that I quoted, based on what is lacking in Mozart's music, is equally true of all music of the classical era, with the exception of church music. It's just the way it is. The exact same arguments can be made about Haydn, or Vanhal, or any other composer you choose who worked between 1760 and 1800. So there is no need to single out Mozart unless you are picking the top of the heap and singling him out for special abuse, since he didn't change things by reverting to polyphony or whatever you are missing that attracts your ear.

Except what you're saying is not true, Gurn. Haydn and especially Mozart were not on top of the heap because some levitational freak accident. They were on top of the heap because they composed a lot of works that are nore complicated than the melody + accompaniment model. Mozart was and still is in many of his works a way too busy composer to please the mass audience: chromatics and polyphony etc.

[karlhenning]

Which "triple concerto"? An early Henning work, mayhap?

No! ; )

I cannot find any other info about this, apart from Alexey's bio.  I doubt that Alyosha invented it.

[Herman]

What's your favorite Mozart recording of the moment?

I'm listening to Mozart violin sonatas these days (and Prokofiev's 5th Piano Cto).

[Gurn Blanston]

Except what you're saying is not true, Gurn. Haydn and especially Mozart were not on top of the heap because some levitational freak accident. They were on top of the heap because they composed a lot of works that are nore complicated than the melody + accompaniment model. Mozart was and still is in many of his works a way too busy composer to please the mass audience: chromatics and polyphony etc.

Not untrue, Herman, I just made it more simplistic than reality to enable discussion. Yes, there are plenty of way advanced features in late Mozart and Haydn works, and that is what sets them above the others. However, my point is that the essence of the music is entirely different than that which preceded it (polyphonic Baroque), and the entire style is what seems to be at issue here. IMO, there is not nor ever will be a question over which 2 are at the top of the heap, but if someone doesn't like the heap, that scarcely matters does it?  Both of those composers are rooted firmly in the galant style, but they were each in their way able to rise above that, which is something that most others weren't able to do.

[Sergeant Rock]

What's your favorite Mozart recording of the moment?

The C minor concerto from this new CD:



Yes, she's trying to levitate the piano.

Sarge

[MN Dave]

The C minor concerto from this new CD:

Yes, she's trying to levitate the piano.

Sarge

I can get that one from my library. I think I'll check it out.

[Luke]

Haydn and especially Mozart were not on top of the heap because some levitational freak accident. They were on top of the heap because they composed a lot of works that are nore complicated than the melody + accompaniment model. Mozart was and still is in many of his works a way too busy composer to please the mass audience: chromatics and polyphony etc.

That's exactly true, Herman. And, though as has been pointed out, these things aren't exactly necessary for a composer to be important, or 'great', or whatever, it is in these areas, and others - in chromatic harmony, phrase-structure, form and structure and, yes, polyphony too, in his own way (it doesn't have to be like Bach to be polyphony......) - that Mozart was doing new things, things that transformed the art of composition (can we really imagine the subtleties of Brahms, or Faure, for instance, without Mozart? His innovations are subtle, they aren't obvious, they aren't blaring, they are to do with the nitty-gritty of actually writing notes on paper, and I get the feeling that this sort of subtlety isn't something James has a great deal of time for, but they are profound, and intelligent, and they work their way deeply under the skin. I loved what you said a few pages ago about Mozart being unsettling (or whatever it was you said). James' denial of this, or his insistence that they weren't unsettling enough for 21st century listeners, spoke volumes, I think. Mozart isn't about bigger, faster, louder, newer, weirder....his depth, his power, comes from the sheer quality of the music, where every note speaks volumes and a single subtle dissonance or breathtaking bit of voice-leading, or varying of articulation, or whatever it is, has a power way beyond its seeming scale. But you have to be prepared to listen for it.

(And here I ought to admit that for many years I wasn't prepared to listen for it, and so I missed it, like James and Teresa do.....but when I did finally learn to listen, I felt I'd been very foolish, and was glad I'd never really spoken my misgivings out loud!)

[DavidW]

Sarge it looks like Uchida is doing her best Karajan impression!

[MN Dave]

Sarge it looks like Uchida is doing her best Karajan impression!

I ordered the Jacobs from the library too. Thanks.

[karlhenning]

. . . Mozart isn't about bigger, faster, louder, newer, weirder....his depth, his power, comes from the sheer quality of the music, where every note speaks volumes and a single subtle dissonance or breathtaking bit of voice-leading, or varying of articulation, or whatever it is, has a power way beyond its seeming scale. But you have to be prepared to listen for it.

QFT

[DavidW]

Ah James that work is sublime!  I heard that in concert.  And you get nothing from it?  Ah well.

[Philoctetes]

My favorite Mozart is Lortie playing the Piano Concertos, such crispness is a delight.

My most recent listen was Beecham conducting Mozart's Symphony No. 41 paired with Beethoven's Second Symphony. I much preferred the latter to the former.

[DavidW]

I ordered the Jacobs from the library too. Thanks.

Nice!  I hope that you enjoy it.

[Elgarian]

Jacobs doing Mozart 38th and 41st is a desert island recording.  In fact it blew me away, I've been listening to nothing but Mozart since that time.

I heard what you've said about those a while back, and I want those Jacobs CDs of the late symphonies. I shall buy them soon. I shall.

Most recent Mozart listening: vol 6 of Rachel Podger and Gary Cooper's series of the Mozart violin sonatas, received as a gift a couple of days ago. It'll take me a couple more listenings yet before I have any opinion about them worth mentioning.

[Herman]

(And here I ought to admit that for many years I wasn't prepared to listen for it, and so I missed it, like James and Teresa do.....but when I did finally learn to listen, I felt I'd been very foolish, and was glad I'd never really spoken my misgivings out loud!)

Well, the advantage of this is that later in life you get to discover a whole new (old) composer.