For this week, I thought I would turn to a big-name composer -- someone like Bach, Brahms or Beethoven -- and listen to a piece I had never heard before. I listen to classical music daily (usually via my local radio station WVTF and also WQXR out of New York), so I’m familiar with a lot of classical music, but I certainly can’t say I’ve heard everything the major composers have written. About a year or so before the pandemic, I travelled to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, for a concert that featured Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, one of my favorites. However, the program also included Tchaikovsky’s “The Tempest.” I’d never heard nor heard of that piece. I knew Tchaikovsky wrote an orchestral fantasy based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” but I didn’t know he’d composed any other work based on Shakespeare. Oh em gee -- “The Tempest” was awful. I would have to say it was one of the worst things I’ve heard in concert. I can understand why the piece is not played regularly or included on “greatest hits” albums and CDs of Tchaikovsky. I ran a Google-search on “The Tempest” and found this information, a passage written by the composer himself after hearing the work in concert in 1879: “Today's performance of The Tempest did not please me. Its form is too long, episodic and unbalanced. The effect of these disconnected episodes produces a lack of movement and coherency. It grieves me to admit that I could be responsible for something so unsuccessful at its performances, and incomprehensible to the public" Sooo...back to my decision to listen to a never-heard-before piece by a major composer. I wondered if I would have another experience similar to the Tchaikovsky/Tempest incident? Would I find some long-lost or neglected work by one of the greats that has fallen out favor with the public for good reason? To select a piece, I ran a Google-search on “least known works by Mozart,” and I found this article, “Discover the 10 most unfairly neglected Mozart works,” HERE. It was here I found Mozart’s “Piano Duet Sonata in F, K497,” coming in at number 5 on the list. A piano duet sonata? I didn’t even realize that such a thing existed (and I play the piano). I had no idea that Mozart wrote piano sonatas for both two pianos and for one piano, four hands.
Another article I found about the piece said this:
"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart entered his Sonata for piano duet in F major, K. 497, into his personal catalog of works on August 1, 1786, 12 years after he had composed his last sonata for piano duet. Prior to 1786, he had composed three sonatas for piano duet for himself and his sister. But after he left Salzburg for Vienna, Mozart no longer had his sister at hand, and his production of duet sonatas abruptly stopped. Indeed, he was to write only one more sonata in 1787 for piano duet before he stopped writing piano duets altogether. The four-movement Sonata in F major is in the form of a church sonata opening with an Adagio followed by an Allegro di molto, an Andante, and an unmarked closing movement that is self-evidently an Allegro. Although the virtuoso technique and witty dialogue of the players is as elegant as earlier, the tender charm of his youthful music is replaced by a more self-consciously bright and brilliant elegance of his mature music." Oh, the sonata is bright and elegant -- and very Mozart-y to be sure; however, to be honest, it just didn’t do a whole lot for me. Generally my reaction to the entire piece was kinda “meh” -- but in a very positive way. It is certainly very charming to listen to, and it makes for lovely background music. I just don’t think I’d queue this up often to listen to again, and if I were going to select something to play by Mozart, it would not be this. Interestingly, some phrases in the second movement kept niggling me. Had I heard the piece before? No, but it sure sounded the same or very similar to some other piece by Mozart -- but what? It was driving me crazy -- and then I scrolled through the comments on the YouTube video and found this: “The andante sounds just like the second movement of K 495"; click HERE. (Thank you to listener "StevemStevenson" for posting that comment and link!) : ) Overall, Mozart's Piano Sonata in F Major for Four Hands rated BLUE for me on my scale of Red to Green (below), and I suppose in the coming days I can check out some of the other pieces on Gramophone's list of neglected works by Mozart. Maybe some of them will rate higher?
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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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