Have you ever seen the film noir classic “Sunset Boulevard”? That story opens at an aged mansion on Sunset Boulevard where a group of police officers are photographing the body of Joe Gillis, played by William Holden, who is floating face down in the swimming pool. SPOILER ALERT: The story is narrated by Joe, the dead body in the pool.
Perhaps you’ve seen “Double Indemnity,” another film noir tour de force. That tale begins as insurance salesman Walter Neff, played by Fred MacMurray, returns to his office in downtown Los Angeles with a gunshot wound on his shoulder. SPOILER ALERT: He then records a confession of insurance fraud and murder on a Dictaphone. Why the mention of these two film noir magnum opuses (or is it opi)? Well, I listened to Frank Martin’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra this past week, and right from the start – with the pulse of quiet strings and woodwinds – the piece establishes a mysterious and ominous tone. A little more than two minutes into the work, the violin begins to narrate its tale, told in three movements: I: Allegro tranquillo II: Andante molto moderato III: Presto Will the violinist end up floating in the pool of a forgotten film star? Or has the musician recently murdered an alluring femme fatale? Well, I’ll leave the exact details of the story to the listener – but suffice it to say, the central plot figure in Frank Martin’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra is most certainly the violin, and it is telling its story in this stylistic work. It is definitely worth a listen! : ) Oh, and by the way: I looked up the plural for "opus" -- is it "opuses" or "opi"? You might be surprised. Here is what I found: "The most common plural of 'opus' in English is 'opuses.' 'Opi' is fairly common in the field of classical music, though mostly in informal contexts. Some people use the Latin plural, 'opera.'"
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About two weeks ago I turned on the radio just in time to hear Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 18 conclude, and that made me wonder – just how many piano sonatas did Beethoven write? The answer is thirty-two, Therefore, I decided this week to listen to his first, written in 1795, and his last, composed some 27 years later in 1822. Beethoven’s first piano sonata is written in four movements:
The first movement begins with a run up a broken F Minor chord, and from the start, the piece has a bit of a Clementi-ish flavor (if you’re familiar with his sonatinas) – albeit with more of a sinister tone. Plenty of rocking eighth notes keep the piece moving along at a clip. The second movement, marked adagio, is at a much calmer pace, and the slower tempo and the shift to F Major set a much calmer tone. The piece is very pleasant although not particularly memorable. The third movement, a menuetto, is marked allegretto, and it opens with moderately rocking chords in A Flat Major. Again, like the second movement, the work is pleasant enough but not particularly memorable – although the eighth note runs in the trio section did call to mind the composer’s Six Variations on Molinara. The final movement, marked prestissimo, is just that, a rapid piece where fast-running triplets in the bass keep the work racing. There is a bit of a breather at about measure 60 that sounds a bit Mozart-esque – marked “sempre piano e dolce”; however, by around measure 130, the racing triplets are back and the entire piece speeds to the end. As I’ve said above, the entire work is pleasant enough – I’ve rated it BLUE, “Okay, it was,” on my scale of light sabres – but it is certainly nothing as memorable as Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” (No. 14) or “Pathétique” (No. 8). I was hopeful at the start of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32 as it opened with a dramatic “maestoso” introduction like his Sonata No. 8, “"Pathétique.” Soon after the exaggerated opening, the piece takes off “allegro con brio ed appassionato.” However, the first movement never lives up to the drama and passion of Sonata No. 8. It is fast paced, and it is intense -- but it seems a bit too engineered. There is no particular melody and/or no particularly memorable or unusual rhythms – just arpeggiated chords racing up and down the keyboard. The second and final movement of the sonata, an Arietta with variations, is marked “adagio molto semplice e cantabile.” The time signature is 9/16, and the dotted-eighth notes just plod along lugubriously. If the melody were hauntingly beautiful then perhaps the piece would “work,” but it is just cheerless and dismal. After the second ending at measure 16 of the opening section, the time signature changes to 6/16 in a variation marked “L’istesso tempo,” and the rhythm has a bit of a swing to it – but I have to say, it was a swing and a miss (ba dump bump). Following that, the time signature shifts to 12/32, and Beethoven introduces a variation with bluesy syncopation. Who would’ve thunk? “Almost like Joplin,” wrote one commenter below the YouTube video linked above. Another said, “Who knew Beethoven swung?” To me, though – it was another swing and a miss. What follows is a bunch of high notes, a lot of trills, a few low, low notes in the bass, a plethora of plodding triplets – and – it’s all just very, very dull. LOL – I thought of that line from “Amadeus” when Emperor Joseph II says to Mozart, there are just “too many notes.” Were there too many notes? I dunno – but I will say that the combination of notes just didn’t do it for me.
This week I thought I would listen to a new piece (i.e., new to me) by one of the big names in classical music, and I picked Mozart at random. I ran a list of works by Mozart, and also at random I picked the Piano Quartet in G Minor. Mozart wrote two piano quartets – one in G Minor and one in E Flat Major – and according to an article at Classical Net, HERE, “Mozart seems to have invented the piano quartet. No one has found examples among his contemporaries or immediate predecessors, not even in Haydn, a prolific inventor of new instrumental combinations. Mozart left only these two examples, but they count among the very best.” I listened to the G Minor Quartet several times this week, and at this point, I’m beginning to think that I have, in fact, heard this work before – I just didn’t recognize the title “Piano Quartet in G Minor” (or Piano Quartet No. 1”) as one I had previously heard. It’s the third movement that sounded most familiar to me. Sooo – have I heard it before? Or did I just listen to it enough times this week to begin thinking that maybe I have heard it before? Who knows. Anyway, the work is a very enjoyable piece – and one that I think would be very fun to play – and it is most certainly one that is typical of Mozart’s style and sound. The quartet is very structured and balanced, and it is light, airy, and energetic. The first movement centers on a somewhat stern six-note theme that opens the work: Mozart then develops the opening movement with numerous variations on that theme.
The second movement – though not necessarily one of the most beautiful melodies ever written by Mozart – is beautiful nonetheless. The third and final movement, a Rondo in G Major, is bright and spirited. It is free of the “sturm and drang” (HERE) that was so pervasive in the opening movement. I’ll admit, when I hum songs to myself, various parts of Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” are some of my frequent “go to” tunes that I hum. While I did enjoy Mozart’s first piano quartet. I don’t think I’ll be humming the melodies from this one all that often. : ) I started this "New Hope" feature of my "CODA, Listen You Must" website in late November 2020, and I've listened to, commented on, and rated a new (i.e., new to me) piece of classical music each week since then (excluding October 2021 when I was on a road trip from St. Louis, MO, to Santa Monica, CA, on historic Route 66). At this time, I thought I'd publish a recap of all of my ratings from November 2020 through the end of 2021: To review any one of my posts, click on the composer's name at the left on this page in the "Archives" list.
Also, just FYI: My overall favorite piece from the year was Franz Schubert's Fantasie in F Minor (for piano, four hands). It is a beautiful work! Other favorites are Schubert's Piano Quintet in A Major, Borodin's String Quartet No. 2, and Dvorak's String Quartet No. 12, "American" (which I should have rated higher). : ) Happy New Year, everyone!
Note: This post will be delayed a week due to a power outage as a result of a snowstorm last Monday. I've been without power since then, and I've had very limited cell service. Hopefully we'll get power back in the next 24 hours or so, but that is not certain (and the forecast calls for more snow tonight). Anyway, I'll listen to Sibelius next week! : )YIKES! Last week was certainly a week from hell. Our area experienced a wet and heavy snow on Monday, and we lost power at about 11:00 a.m. We were without heat, light, Wifi -- and even water for a time -- and we didn't get power back until Saturday. It was awful! And now the Weather Peeps are telling us more snow (and/or ice) is on the way tomorrow! I can only hope that we won't have to live through another power outage this coming week.
Anyway, life has been back to normal this past week, and I listened to Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto several times, and -- a drum roll please -- I loved it! I listened to the concerto in the video linked above (with the score), and I also listened and watched the video HERE with Hilary Hahn on the violin as she performed with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck. I highly recommend this video as both Hahn and Franck really put passion into their work. One person commented below the video, "I don't think there are many classical musicians that would do the things Hilary did on Two Set. Not only did she have fun, she let us see a side of a performer that is seldom seen. She is extremely personable and has made this music more accessible to many who otherwise wouldn't listen" -- and that was true of Franck too -- it looks like he was having fun! Of course, on this site, “CODA: Listen You Must,” Sibelius' “Finlandia” is on my list of Top 100 favorite pieces (HERE); however, I realized that I wasn't familiar with any other work by Sibelius. Therefore, I decided to choose something by him to listen to this week (er, last week), and I landed on his one and only concerto, his Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47. There’s a short article on Wikipedia about the piece (HERE), and it notes that it is “symphonic in scope, with the solo violin and all sections of the orchestra being equal voices.” The concerto is composed in traditional form with three movements: I. Allegro moderato (a moderately fast tempo) II. Adagio di molto (very slow) III. Allegro, ma non tanto (fast – but not too much so) The first movement opens with a quiet flutter of strings before the violin begins a doleful lament (is there any other type of lament?). Then there are various shifts in tempo and tone throughout the movement, but the underlying expression of sorrow is constant (the piece is in D Minor after all) – and is it just me, or at about the halfway mark isn't there a hint of the mournful “Transylvanian Lullaby” from Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” (HERE)? Perhaps composer John Morris was influenced by the Sibelius concerto (and/or how far is Finland from Transylvania?). The second movement is certainly very passionate and lyrical, and though it might not include one of the most beautiful melodies ever written, it is still very beautiful indeed. The final movement moves to a more joyous tone, and it opens with a rather bold and buoyant theme on the solo violin -- and (from the Wikipedia article) the movement offers “a complete and brilliant display of violin gymnastics." This concerto is certainly one I would love to see/hear performed live. Perhaps when the pandemic ends and concerts return (PLEASE Anti-vaxxers: Dispense with your short-sighted politics, don a mask, get poked, and let's end this thing) maybe Hilary Hahn will come to town? That would be magnifico. : ) |
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
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