A few months before everything shut down due to the COVID pandemic, I went to a concert at the Kennedy Center to listen to a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor. For the first half of the concert, though, the National Symphony performed “The Tempest” by Tchaikovsky. “The Tempest”? By Tchaikovsky? I was not familiar with this work at all. I knew, of course, that Tchaikovsky had composed a piece based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” but “The Tempest”? I had no idea he’d composed something based on that play. I’ll be honest. I suspect I know why I was unfamiliar with this work. It was awful. It’s one of the few pieces on my “never again." list. Anyway, in a similar vein for this week, I thought I’d select a piece I’ve never heard before, but one by a composer with whom I am very familiar. While I was researching possibilities, I came across this article, “38 Classical Hidden Gems You Should Listen To Right Now” (HERE) -- and there on the list was Muzio Clementi’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major. A symphony by Muzio Clementi? I had no idea.
I listened to the symphony a few times this week, and when it first started playing on my initial time listening, I thought, “uh oh -- this is just going to be a set of variations on a D major chord”; however, a little more than a minute into the piece -- just after its cumbrous opening -- the work takes off. It is lively and exuberant -- and is there any key more lighthearted than D Major? Yeah -- I said it. I’m talking to you, all you A Major folks!
Okay, okay -- so maybe Clementi’s symphony isn’t as exhilarating and exuberant as Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, but it's opening movement is high-spirited and sparkling to be sure. The second movement reminds me of a movement or two for some of his sonatina’s -- only for full orchestra -- and the third movement is a jaunty “Menuetto” with a similar sunniness of Shirley Jones' rendition of “Oh What A Beautiful Morning” in "Oklahoma." The final movement, marked “Presto,” was respectable enough, but a little undistinguished, nothing special. It certainly did provide an upbeat end to the piece. It was just a little too...predictable? Still, overall the symphony was cheerful, bouncy and blithe -- and I did enjoy it! WFMT definitely got it right when they included this symphony in their list of hidden gems.
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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
September 2023
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