Someone gave me a CD of Charles Avison’s music (1709 -1770) Whilst listening, the label “lightweight” came to mind. The music is pleasant enough, easy to listen to, and that reminded me of a contemporary of Avisons’ – Johann Stamitz – whos music I found to be similar in it’s easy listening quality. http://jimsclassicalmusic.com/2010/03/14/easy-listening/
So what is it that separates these two from the likes of Handel, Rameau, Telemann and of course JS Bach? Not enough notes?! Uninteresting interaction between themes/melodies? For want of a better word (remember I’m only a classical music dilettante, not a real critic) I would call their music shallow … or ‘thin’
Here’s Avison’s concerto in A major opus 4
Audio Player
To do your own listening comparison you can scroll through the composer drop down menu on the right and listen to some Handel et. al. Actually part of the reason I made this post was to get back at Avison for being critcal of Handel! How dare he!