I haven't heard of six of the other names shown in the pic. I have heard of Paderewski because I play the piano, and in my years as a piano student I played his famous minuet many times -- HERE -- but that's the only piece I know by him. I've now listened to Arensky's String Quartet a few times; however, before I get to my comments on the work, let me pass on two bits of information. First, in more proof that the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon (aka the "Recency Illusion") is alive and well, I tuned into WQXR on my computer at one point this week, and lo and behold, the station was playing Anton Arensky's Symphony No. 2. I wasn't all that surprised -- since I'm a firm believer in the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon -- but it made me wonder how many times I've heard his works in the past, and I just wasn't aware of it.
The first movement is a somber piece – it was, afterall, written in response to the death of Tchaikovsky – and it effectively combines both mournful passages and sections characterized by energy in response to the loss & memories of such a giant.
The second movement is based on the theme of the Legend (No.5) of Tchaikovsky's 16 Songs for Children, Op.54, and it was later arranged by Arensky for string orchestra as Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, Op.35a. It is all very Tchaikovsky-esque; at some point, I even heard hints of Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile. Concerning the finale, I found this information on the LA Philharmonic’s site: the movement “opens with further references to Russian psalmody and then quotes the famous folk melody that appears as the Russian theme in the Trio of Beethoven’s Second ‘Razumovsky’ String Quartet (Op. 59, No. 2) and in the Coronation Scene of Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov. That generates a lively fugato section, which dashes to a quick, brilliant close. It has been suggested that Arensky invoked Mussorgsky’s Coronation Scene to imply crowning Tchaikovsky as the emperor of all music.” I enjoyed the Quartet very much, though I’d say it hovered more often in my “like” zone than my “love” zone. Emily Dickinson once wrote, “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?” For me, here’s the test: I play the work I’ve selected several times throughout the week, and I usually listen while I’m completing various tasks for work or home. At any time, if the music literally makes me stop what I’m doing to focus entirely on what I am hearing – as did the final movement of Glass’ Violin Concerto, for example, or the third movement of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto – then there’s a great probability that I’m going to rate the piece at the top of my scale. In cases like the works I mentioned by Glass and Beethoven, it’s as if - like Dickinson said – “the top of my head were taken off.” That did not happen with the Arensky work. My head was intact throughout. I did enjoy it, though – very much.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
September 2023
Categories
All
|