NOTE: I will be traveling to beaches along North Carolina's Outer Banks for the next several days, so this selection will be for the weeks of 7/31 and 8/7. I'll be back to a weekly schedule as of 8/14.
My search that led to a work by Charles-Marie Widor for this week began with an exploration into composers known as “one hit wonders.” I first found this list, HERE, but did not go with it as it includes Bedrich Smetana as a “one hit wonder” (for “The Maldau”), and my list of Top 100 classical music favorites (HERE) includes other works by Smetana. He’s not a “one hit wonder.”
I ended up checking out the pieces catalogued on this list, HERE, and decided to listen to a work by Charles-Marie Widor. However, I did not choose the “one hit wonder” listed in the article. Instead, I gravitated to the statement “Another work by Widor you might like: Marche Pontificale from Organ Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op 13.” I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of the organ – unless I’m sitting in a church, skating in a roller rink, or watching a game at a ballpark (though I fear most ballparks don’t employ organists any more). Still, I thought I’d give Widor’s march a try. I mean, who doesn’t love a good march? And is Widor’s march a good march? Well, it’s an okay march. It’s loud (marked triple forte) but not particularly rousing. It has a couple of quiet sections too, but they are more ho-hum than hum-along. By the way, when I mentioned above that “I’m not a big fan of the organ – unless I’m sitting in a church,” I have to confess that I am not a religious person at all. The only reasons I would enter a church would be to see the stained glass windows (I’m a glass and antique bottle collector) or to listen to a concert (be it organ music, chamber music, art songs, or whatever). So I will confess that I did not know exactly what “pontificale” meant (other than its obvious association to a Pontiff), so I looked it up: “The Pontifical is the compendium of rites, for the enactment of certain sacraments and sacramentals which may be celebrated by a bishop, including especially the consecration of holy chrism, and the sacraments of confirmation and holy orders.” (HERE). As expected, very churchy. And that’s Widor’s work in a word: churchy. Very churchy. And very processional-y I can just imagine some ancient dude in robes and a pope hat processing down the aisle of a cathedral. So if you love religious processionals, this might just be the march for you! ; )
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Mendelssohn is one of my favorite composers – several of his works are on my Top 100 list, HERE – and now that I’ve listened to his Piano Concerto No. 1, I’m pretty sure I have heard it before. Something about the third movement sounded very familiar.
However, this concerto has not been one of my “go to” pieces when I’m in the mood to hear a piano concerto (like the Rachmaninoff 2, the Grieg, Beethoven’s “Emperor,” Mozart's No. 21, the Rach 3, etc.). Still, the first and second movements did not sound familiar at all, so maybe I haven’t heard it in the past? The concerto consists of three movements:
Contrary to the standard practice of the day, the featured instrument (i.e., the piano) enters very quickly after only a few bars of orchestral introduction. From a Wikipedia article about the concerto: “It was standard procedure in the classical-era concerto to precede the solo's entrance by a tutti, for various reasons – the length and purpose of these introductions differed, some offering a hint of what was to follow and some giving out almost all the movement's material, but none was so brief as this: in this sense, this was one of the first concertos of the Romantic age. (The obvious exceptions – Mozart's Jeunehomme concerto and Beethoven's fourth and fifth piano concertos – allowed the piano to enter very briefly just at the start, but then proceeded as usual, the soloist silent.)” The complete article is HERE. When the piano enters, it does so with force and passion, almost anger. The movement is filled with so much furor that I wondered what in the world was going on in Mendelssohn’s life when he wrote it. I ran a Google search on the piece to find out when it was written, and in the article I linked above, I found this: “Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, was written in 1830–31, around the same time as his fourth symphony ("Italian")....” Well, that certainly shattered my theory that something serious might have been going on with Mendelssohn because his fourth symphony is one of the most joyous pieces ever written. In addition, according to the same article, Mendelssohn said of the concerto "I wrote it in but a few days and almost carelessly.” Hmm…if only I were so careless. LOL. The second movement, written in a major key, shifts the tone of the concerto, and the third and final movement, which opens with a fanfare in A minor, modulates to E major and closes the work with an upbeat and lighter mood. And now, due to my practice of listening to a new piece each week, my list of "go to" piano concertos is growing!
How did I happen to land on this concerto by Graupner?
First, I ran some sort of Google-search on “great composers you’ve never heard of,” and somewhere along the way, I found this article, “10 Underrated Baroque Composers,” HERE. The first name on the list was Christoph Graupner – and I confess, I had never heard of him…until now – so I decided to look for and listen to some piece by him. I typed Graupner’s name into the search bar in YouTube, and various compositions popped up. I selected his Concerto for Viola d'Amore, Flute, and Orchestra for two reasons:
Now I knew that Graupner’s Viola d’Amore would have nothing to do with Herrmann’s “Scene d’Amour,” but the “Amore” caught my eye, so I chose this concerto to listen to this week. I also looked into the Viola d’Amore to find out how it did differ from a viola, and I found this: "The main difference between a viola d’amore and either a viola or a violin is the number of strings. While violas and violins typically have four strings, the d’amore has between six and seven, each of which is paired with what is known as a sympathetic string. Sympathetic strings are not actually played. They reverberate each time the strings above them are struck, however, which lends a deep, often melancholic sound to the resulting music." For more information, click HERE and HERE. So what did I think of Graupner’s concerto? I enjoyed it. I’ll admit that Baroque music is not necessarily my “go to” when I listen to classical music, but I do appreciate it, and there are various Baroque pieces that I love and listen to often. For example, there’s Pachelbel’s Canon. I mean, who doesn’t love that work? I remember going to see an IMAX movie called “To Fly” at the newly opened Smithsonian Air and Space Museum way back in 1976, and Pachelbel’s work was part of that movie's soundtrack. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking, “What is that piece? I would love to have a recording of that.” Now, when I listened to Graupner’s Concerto for Viola d'Amore, Flute, and Orchestra for the first time, I did enjoy it (I found the first of the four movements particularly haunting and loved that); however, it didn’t necessarily strike me like Pachelbel’s Canon did. I didn’t walk away thinking, “Wow, what is this piece? I need to get a recording of this.” While it might not be at the same level of universal appeal as Pachelbel’s magnum opus, Graupner’s work is, indeed, very beautiful and delightful. Very likeable indeed. YIKES -- where did the time go? I had a busy week last week, and then this week (7/10 - 16) I'll be traveling to New York City -- and I haven't posted my comments on Shostakovich's piano concerto yet (the selection for the week starting 7/3).
I'm going to try to get my comments and rating up today, 7/11 -- and just FYI: I will not have a new selection to listen to this week since I will be busy doing Big Apple-y things! Sorry for the delay on Shostakovich!
YIKES -- where did the time go? I had a busy week last week, and then this week (7/10 - 16) I'll be traveling to New York City -- and I haven't posted my comments on Shostakovich's piano concerto yet. I'm going to try to get my comments and rating up today -- and just FYI: I will not have a new selection to listen to this week since I will be busy doing Big Apple-y things! Sorry for the delay! YAY -- I had time to compose my comments:
I had such a great time listening to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 last week, I thought I’d choose something else from his repertoire this week. I landed on his Piano Concerto No. 1. Shostakovich wrote six concertos, two for the violin, two for the cello and two for the piano. A list of all of Shostakovich’s works is HERE. Written in 1933, the concerto comprises either three or four movements, depending on the interpretation:
After listening to the piece a few times, I also learned that, “Despite the title, the work might be classified as a double concerto rather than a piano concerto, in which the trumpet and piano command equal prominence. The trumpet parts frequently take the form of sardonic interjections, leavening the humor and wit of the piano passage work. The trumpet does assume relatively equal importance during the conclusion of the last movement, immediately after the cadenza for piano solo.” That information is from an article on Wikipedia, HERE. The concerto begins with a brisk intro by the piano accented by a muted trumpet that happens so quickly, it’s amazing the two musicians can coordinate their work. The piano then introduces the first of several mysterious and haunting melodies that weave in and out of the movement between the piano and the orchestra. For the most part, the tempo maintains a fast clip, and the tone is playful and at times smart-alecky. Portions of the first movement as well as sections of the other movements had the pianist racing around the keys so rapidly I wondered if Shostakovich played the piano himself. Had he written such a demanding piece because he knew what he (and other pianists) were capable of – or had he composed such breakneck runs because he just figured pianists worth their salt could somehow achieve what he envisioned? I Googled searched, “Was Shostakovich a pianist?” and information that surfaced said, “Dmitri Shostakovich was a Sovier-er Russian composed and pianist,” so he definitely knew what he was doing. The second movement, marked “Lento,” does, of course, slow things down, but the melodies are just as haunting and at times taunting. The third movement provides a bit more of a respite from the rush of most of the concerto, but not for long. After about a minute and a half, the piano, the orchestra and the trumpet take off at lightning speed in the final movement. An impish trumpet solo early in the movement provides the pianist a bit of a breather, but soon the concerto takes off again. I am not kidding when I say this piece moves at breakneck speed, and how the players coordinate it all is incredible. Commentors on the YouTube performance of this concerto linked above said, “I never cease to be impressed by trumpet players at the climax of this piece,” “That trumpet playing is ridiculously good. How do you even play a fanfare like that so clean and fast without even using any valve changes?” and “Absolutely amazing!!!!! Breathtaking performance and piece.” AND -- if you have time to listen to the work and watch the video linked above -- wait till you see what happens at the end! : ) I loved Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1. |
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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