Imma be honest: I suffer from a severe case of PTSD: Post Trump Stress Disorder (I still can't understand why the man hasn't been arrested yet). As a result, I've cut back considerably on my viewing of news programs, and I have increased greatly my listening to classical music.
I listen on my computer (WQXR out of New York City), on my cellphone (with Spotify), on my radio (my local NPR station WVTF), and on my television (Music Choice channels). Sometimes these various media air some of my favorites and/or many of the conventional/popular pieces in the classical music canon, and I can hum along. Other times, they play pieces which simply serve as background music as I complete whatever it is I'm doing throughout the day. In cases like that, when an unfamiliar work is playing -- and something about the piece connects with me in some fundamental way -- I'll look up (if watching TV) or wait for info from the announcer (if listening to the radio or internet) to find out "What is that piece? Who wrote that?" It happened just yesterday when I was listening to a Music Choice channel on my TV. I heard a perfectly delightful piece that I was totally unfamiliar with, and I wondered, "What is that?" It turned out to be Joseph Haydn's Piano Concerto in F Major. I loved it. So why the info on Haydn's work here on my post about Boccherini's piano concerto? Because I've now listened to the Boccherini piece several times, and I have to say that nothing about it caused me to look up and wonder about the piece. Don't get me wrong. It's a perfectly pleasant piece, but nothing about it really called to me or connected with me. The concerto consists of three movements: I. Presto II. Adagio ma non troppo III. Moderator con variazione The first movement in particular sounds like it is best suited as the soundtrack for a Hallmark Christmas movie -- you know the plot, where a career woman is too busy for love, so she has to move to a small town where a handsome local bachelor teaches her about the true spirit of the holiday. It starts snowing and they kiss. There's also a dog. Also -- with apologies to Muzio Clementi -- much of the concerto sounds like what classical musicians might describe as a Clementi-esque quality (though Clementi's reputation for simple, repetitive and easy "white key" works is a bit unfair as he wrote some pieces that are much more exceptional than his sonatinas, the works for which he is most famous). So yeah, that's it on Boccherini's piano concerto. It's not up there with his famous minuet (HERE) which is, in a word, delightful. I think I'll go now and listen to the concerto by Haydn. See ya next week. ;-)
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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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