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Bassoon Cutest Musical Squeak Hummel Hummel Hunt!

My Hummel Hunt – I didn’t even know him!

Posted on April 19, 2008

I didn’t know anything about Johann Nepomuk Hummel until my Dentist mentioned him the other day. My dentist is a Classical Music buff and I’d given him a 2 volume CD Set titled: In the Dentist Chair:

(It was all the music I thought folks might like to hear midst the trauma of drilling and vacuuming spit!)

As a result I’ve been on a Hummel Hunt.

At first it was like listening to a student of Mozart (as he was!) – but the more I listened and researched, the more I realised he was an accomplished and important composer in his own right. He’s one of those who went out of fashion shortly after they died, and are making a “Comeback” as I type.

The Great composers he actually ‘hung out’ with, and/or influenced by teaching them is amazing. Then if you add the composers who taught or influenced him … you come up with a Who’s Who of the “Classical to Romantic Bridge Period.”

Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Czerny, Liszt, Schumann, Schubert and the list goes on.

Here’s to a Hummel comeback! Next time you hear of a Hummel concert in your area – GO!

Later – P.S. – just found this on a music site: Historians tell us that pianist and composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel was spoken of in the same breath as Mozart and Beethoven in 1820 — but not for long…

Hummel piano-concerto-no-2-allegro-moderato

 

Theme and variations introduction Allegro

 

Bassoon-concerto-romanza-andantino-e-cantbile

Cherubini Composers - Ignored and Almost forgotten! Opera/Vocal

Cherubini

Posted on April 8, 2008

ANOTHER “Underdog” Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France.

Talk about being cheated out of fame and posthumous recognition!!! Just read what was said about him … by “Them” – back then! And then listen to a movement from that vocal piece “They” raved about.

Posterity has a habit of elevating the obscure and neglecting the famous. Thus it is that Cherubini, hailed by Beethoven as ‘the greatest living composer’, is today often forgotten; ‘If I were to write a Requiem, Cherubini’s would be my only model’, Beethoven continued and the work was performed at his funeral in 1827. Schumann’s opinion was that it was ‘without equal in the world’. Berlioz considered that ‘the decrescendo in the Agnus Dei surpasses everything that has ever been written of the kind’.

Cherubini requiem-no-1-in-c-minor-agnus-dei

Shostakovich Synchronicity

Shostakovich Synchronicity

Posted on April 5, 2008

After spending a few weeks thinking about and intending to do a Shostakovich entry: The thrust of which was to be; a comparison of what I felt was “Bombastic and Frantic” – stuff that I don’t like – and his “Sweet Stuff” that I do like. I finally bit the bullet today and spent about three hours composing the blog. When I thought it was almost finished I went in to have lunch and turned the TV on. There was a Documentary on Shostakovich!

I almost fell off my chair. Instead I watched the whole thing! … and decided I wasn’t worthy to compose a “music commentary blog” on him.

Imagine living in Soviet Russia during the harshest repressive years under Stalin. Having Joseph Stalin watching your every move and trying to decide whether to kill you or persecute your family or ban your music. A desperately unhappy man constantly tormented by fear – that’s the music he mostly composed. He expressed in music what would have led to an instant firing squad if it were written or spoken. (*Stalin – being no dummy could hear the collective despair of the Russian people in the music and he didn’t like it*) Hearing the ‘heavy stuff’ now – knowing the background of his life – it all sounds different.

If you want to hear what led to Stalin’s ban – Go here

http://jimsclassicalmusic.com/2008/02/05/i-dont-like-this-music/

Annoyed with Scriabin Piano Scriabin Scriabin. Another 'crazy genius'?

Scriabin. Another ‘crazy genius’?

Posted on March 16, 2008

So many of the great composers have been somewhat ‘on the edge.’ Here are three excerpts from the Wikipedia article on Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin.

(I love the bit about how he was going to transform the whole world with a multi-media performance in the Himalayas! – under the influence of Madame Blavatsky and Theosophy)

Scriabin stands as one of the most innovative and most controversial of composers. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia said of Scriabin that, “No composer has had more scorn heaped or greater love bestowed…” Leo Tolstoy once described Scriabin’s music as “a sincere expression of genius.”[2]

In 1909 he returned to Russia permanently, where he continued to compose, working on increasingly grandiose projects. For some time before his death he had planned a multi-media work to be performed in the Himalayas, that would bring about the armageddon, “a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world.” [5] Scriabin left only sketches for this piece, Mysterium, although they were eventually made into a performable version by Alexander Nemtin.[6] The Mysterium was, psychologically speaking, a world Scriabin’s genius created to sustain its own evolution.[7]

Horowitz performed for Scriabin, in his home as an 11 year old child, and Scriabin had an enthusiastic reaction, but cautioned that he needed further training.[11] As an elderly man, Horowitz remarked that Scriabin was obviously crazy, because he had tics and could not sit still.[11]

Tics and all … what beauty he created! It’s easy to see why he is favoured in the repetoire of many of the piano masters.

Piano Sonata no. 3 Op. 24 / Andante:  *** The very last few seconds are cut. Strange! … every source I tried had this cut off ending.*** What a beautiful piece.

scriabin-05-piano-sonata-no-3-in-f-sharp-minor-op-24-03-andante


Scriabin etude no 11

 

Scriabin prelude 3 opus 17

Almost? "Perfect Music"?! Grieg Piano Very Special

Very Special

Posted on March 15, 2008

Even though this is almost always included in the “Top 20, 50 or 100” of Classical Pieces – I still won’t include it in the Exclusive, ‘Perfect Music’ section. (*wanting to keep that section very exclusive!)

BUT … just listen to the piano work 2 – 3 minutes into the piece. With just a handfull of strokes on the keyboard, you’d swear you’d Died and Gone to Heaven!

Grieg piano concerto in a minor op-16-2-adagio attacca

An Opera challenge! Opera/Vocal Puccini

Opera. I still don’t like it – but here’s my wifes’ challenge!

Posted on March 14, 2008

My wife says; HOW could you not love this? (O Mio Babbino Caro by Puccini) And I say … well – I guess I do – a little bit! (*uTube link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0diDwHtATw

BUT – a BIG BUT! … I feel the emotional power much more from the Orchestral version.

Puccini-o-mio-babbino-caro

Composers - Ignored and Almost forgotten! Taneyev

Another ‘Ignored’ Composer

Posted on March 1, 2008

Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev was an important figure in the Russian music scene of the 1800’s. He was Tchaikovskys pupil and the teacher of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. I read somewhere that in Russia today his bust will appear alongside Beethoven, Tchaikovsky etc. And yet … “By the time of his death at the age of 58, Taneyev had left behind a substantial catalog of works, virtually none of which has entered the standard repertory.”

The virtuosic and scintillating Suite de concert, Taneyev’s first work for solo violin and orchestra. This is the final variation and coda.

Taneyev Suite de concert Final variation and coda

 

As a virtuoso pianist Taneyev could display his own piano works, as Chopin, Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, and Medtner had done and were to do. Somewhat unusually for a pianist-composer of his calibre, however, he wrote very few compositions for the instrument, and he did not perform these at concerts…

Taneyev Repose (Elegy) in E major

 

From the String Quartet #3 – opus 7 (Theme and Variations)  I’ve picked out three of the variations

SQ variation

Barber Funeral anthem? Sad? I disagree and ...

Funeral anthem? Sad? – I disagree and hear that it spells hope, rebirth and glory!

Posted on February 29, 2008

The “Adagio for Strings” was written by American composer Samuel Barber when he was in his 20s. With a tense melodic line and taut harmonies, the composition is considered by many to be the most popular of all 20th-century orchestral works.

Played at the funerals of John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Princess Di, Princess Grace, and Rainier III Prince of Monaco; it has also moved millions – in the movies Platoon and Elephant Man.

BUT … what did Barber himself say?!

Apparently Barber found inspiration for the music from a description of a small stream growing in size to a full flowing river.

Some comments: “You never are in any doubt about what this piece is about, says music historian Barbara Heyman, “There’s a kind of sadness and poetry about it … It has a melodic gesture that reaches an arch, like a big sigh… and then exhales and fades off into nothingness.” (Indeed, the BBC’s Radio 4 listeners, ever fond of league tables and otherwise pointless rankings, voted it the “saddest classical work ever”)

“It’s so well known now that I suppose it’s a whisker away from becoming a musical cliché. But still a beautiful work” (Unknown source)

Samuel Barber-adagio-for-strings

Debussy Debussy and Ravel to break down prejudice! Ravel

Debussy and Ravel to break down prejudice!

Posted on February 13, 2008

A request to include Debussy and Ravel on this site led me to some soul searching. Why had I dismissed them both as composers whose music – for the most part – I didn’t like? How did I know I didn’t “like” them? –  if I only had two single pieces by Debusssy and NOTHING by Ravel. I had gone shopping for more Debussy in the past, but was never moved to buy anything more. All I knew by Ravel was Bolero. Everything further I listened to was a turn off.

(* Ravel on Bolero: He described it as trivial … “A piece for orchestra without music” !!!)

As I expanded my search I noticed that they were often included on the same albums; indicating an ‘affinity’ / connection. They were both referred to as “Impressionist Music” (a term that Debussy didn’t like)

So what did I find to break down my prejudices? (or re-inforce them in the case of Aoua!)

MY SINCERE APOLOGIES to lovers of Debussy and Ravel for this superficial and narrow view of their work.

First to Debussy : Claire de Lune.  This was one of the only two pieces I had by Debussy. We all love this one don’t we?!

clair-de-lune

 

Here was the other one I had in my library at the time of the request. Gamboling about those hills that are Alive with the Sound of music.

Reverie for oboe and orchestra

 

Is this a  partially succesfull attempt to pull at our heart strings? 

Debussy Valse Romantique

 

Now here’s Ravel: This piece almost broke my Ravel prejudice. Why almost? Because it sounds to me like a Rachmaninoff wannabe! They were exact contemporaries, and to my ear it’s Rachmaninoff on a bad day.

Pavane pour une infante defunte

 

And I like this piece too … BUT –  Ravel mentions St. Saens and Satie as influences and it sounds like he placed one cup of St. Saens and one and a half cups of Satie in a blender and just blended them up.

Piano concerto in G major / adagio assai

 

YUK! If I wanted to be seduced into a suicidal state, or clinical depression; or encouraged to pull my hair out … I would turn to Yoko Ono, or contemporary cutting edge heavy death-metal.

Aoua

Almost? "Perfect Music"?! Bach Elgar Mascagni Schubert Shostakovich Very Special

Almost? “Perfect Music”?!

Posted on February 11, 2008

Great compositions sure to move the heart. But I’m a little reluctant to include them in the “Perfect Music” section! (*See Perfect Music on the right hand alphabetical panel*)

Cavalleria Rusticana – intermezzo by Pietro Mascagni

 

Shostakovich waltz from Jazz suite. Used in the movie “Eyes Wide Shut” with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman

Shostakovich Waltz from Jazz Suite

 

And here is an absolutely delightful version by Andre Rieu.

Shostakovich Russian Waltz by Rieu

 

Bachs “Master and Commander”

Bach cello suite 1 bwv 1007

 

From Elgar’s enigma variations, op. 36 Nimrod

 

Now here is Schubert for Jess! Schubert’s 8th Symphony second movement (see comments)

Schubert’s 8th Symphony second movement

I don't like this music Shostakovich

I don’t like this music

Posted on February 5, 2008

But that’s not what it was written for. To be “liked”! This came from the heart of Existential Despair. A man who had Joseph Stalin watching him, breathing down his neck. It was hit or miss whether Stalin decided to put a ‘hit’ out on poor miserable Shostakovich!

Shosta had to perform a constant balancing act between expressing would could not be expressed in the Soviet Police State of the times (opposition to the inhumanity, and killings of millions) … and what he could get away with in his music. The Eight Symphony – here’s the  first movement – proved too much for Stalin and led to his music being banned. A ban lifted some years later.

 

And another piece that doesn’t “appeal” to me much! (Symphony 10 second movement)

Brahms Cello My Mommy's favourite! (correction)

Correction to “My Mommy’s favourite”!

Posted on January 27, 2008

My brother claims I never asked him what our mother’s favourite was! (*see comments on the piece above)  But I think I did ask him and my subconscious played a trick on me – because I like the movement from the violin concerto much more than this.  Anyway there’s plenty of music to enjoy here in the three movements. It was the last piece that Brahms wrote for orchestra… and really was My Mommy’s Favourite!

Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello. First, second and third movements.

01-double-concerto-for-violin-cello-in-a-minor-op-102-01-allegro

 

02-double-concerto-for-violin-cello-in-a-minor-op-102-02-andante

 

03-double-concerto-for-violin-cello-in-a-minor-op-102-03-vivace-non-troppo