It is easy to recognise greatness in major masterpieces. But sometimes I think that the real place to look for it is in minor works that slip from the composer's workbenches. Sometimes these are pieces written to earn money, sometimes as a piece for a special occasion and sometimes just to give a composer a bit of breathing space between major projects.
In many ways it is easier to achieve greatness on a vast canvas - but it takes a special form of genius to achieve it in a brief piece lasting only a couple of minutes. One of the real masters of this was, in my view, Stravinsky. If you look through his list of compositions there are all sorts of minor "odds and ends" scattered through the catalogue. Almost without exception these miniatures encapsulate the genius of Stravinsky in a few deft strokes. You only need to hear the opening notes of a piece like the Circus Polka or the Scherzo alla Russe to be instantly transported into Stravinsky's world. I've played a good few of these pieces over the years and always enjoy doing so. One I haven't played but would love to is the Greetings Prelude
You know from the very first notes that it couldn't be by anybody except Stravinsky - indeed it sounds so much like "real" Stravinsky that you begin to suspect that the tune we all know ...and love ... is a simplified version of the Greetings Prelude!
Was there ever another composer who left quite so many tiny fragments of musical genius?
Sunday, 31 August 2014
Thursday, 21 August 2014
Great endings no 1 - Sibelius symphony no 5
A long and tiring day at work today and feeling pretty miserable by the time I got home. I turned on the TV for some mindless watching and found myself listening to Sibelius 5 from the Proms. It really cheered my spirits - the end of the symphony is one of the most uplifting moments I know - I really did find myself shouting out in excitement after the last chord. So I have decided to start a new series - on great endings.
I've a limited amount of experience of Sibelius. I've played the first and second symphonies and done a play through of the fourth. I've never played the fifth although I did a conducted a string sectional once. I don't know all of the symphonies that well but particularly enjoy the second and third.
But the finale of the fifth must be the composer's greatest achievement. This is a wonderful example of organic growth and the screwing up of tension towards a triumphant harmonic resolution. And then there are those final chords - the massive hammer blows - irregularly spaced with time almost standing still between each of the chords - except between the last two, which are more closely spaced than the others. It never fails to thrill.
It is such a stroke of genius that one feels that it must have come as red hot inspiration to the composer. But we know that this is not the case. The 5th symphony had a complex gestation and the work as first performed was significantly different to the version which we now know and love. The most remarkable difference is right at the end. The hammer blows are still there but there is no silence between them - instead sustained string chords. Such a different effect.
It is of course difficult if not impossible to hear this original version without comparing it with the familiar revision and so it sounds very odd. If you can get the revised version out of your head I suspect that the original version is, on its own terms, highly effective, but there is no doubt that the revision makes a much greater effect.
Genius is indeed 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.!
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
If i'm not pure at least my jewels are!
Like many orchestral players I first came across Candide when playing the overture with my youth orchestra. This was my first step up into a senior youth orchestra and I still remember the programme
Bernstein - overture to Candide
Strauss - suite from Der Rosenkavalier
Berlioz - Royal Hunt and Storm and Trojan March
Mussorgsky orc Ravel - Pictures from an exhibition
That was quite a step up from simple arrangements in the school orchestra! What on earth must it have sounded like
I remember in particular struggling with the cross rhythms at the end of the overture - which are of course used in Glitter and be Gay.
I vaguely remembering hearing one of the ensembles (I think it might have been I am easily assimilated) on desert island disks and being hooked. I got hold of the original cast LP soon after wards and it was one of my most played recordings.
It is a piece of real genius - worth to stand with the finest of lighter operas - in fact with any sort of opera. The inventiveness is astonishing and Bernstein's ability to send up grand opera in an affectionate way is never shown to greater effect than in this aria. It is hard to listen to the Jewel song from Faust or the Bell song from Lakme without a smile once you know this parody.
But Candide also has one of the most spine tingling moments I know in all music. The final number builds to a great climax and then
the chorus is left on their own
I remember the hairs rising on the back of my neck when I heard this at ENO a few years ago.
Much as I love parts of West Side Story , Candide is undoubtedly Bernstein's masterpiece.
Bernstein - overture to Candide
Strauss - suite from Der Rosenkavalier
Berlioz - Royal Hunt and Storm and Trojan March
Mussorgsky orc Ravel - Pictures from an exhibition
That was quite a step up from simple arrangements in the school orchestra! What on earth must it have sounded like
I remember in particular struggling with the cross rhythms at the end of the overture - which are of course used in Glitter and be Gay.
I vaguely remembering hearing one of the ensembles (I think it might have been I am easily assimilated) on desert island disks and being hooked. I got hold of the original cast LP soon after wards and it was one of my most played recordings.
It is a piece of real genius - worth to stand with the finest of lighter operas - in fact with any sort of opera. The inventiveness is astonishing and Bernstein's ability to send up grand opera in an affectionate way is never shown to greater effect than in this aria. It is hard to listen to the Jewel song from Faust or the Bell song from Lakme without a smile once you know this parody.
But Candide also has one of the most spine tingling moments I know in all music. The final number builds to a great climax and then
the chorus is left on their own
I remember the hairs rising on the back of my neck when I heard this at ENO a few years ago.
Much as I love parts of West Side Story , Candide is undoubtedly Bernstein's masterpiece.
Sunday, 3 August 2014
Saint-Saëns
Two of the bitchiest musical quotes I know are both directed at Saint-Saëns. Ravel , on being told that the composer had continued to write music during the first world war said " if he had been making shell cases during the war it would have been better for music while Nadia Boulanger, the great French teacher is reported as having said Saint-Saëns knew his business admirably well. He only lacked what no one could give him.
Boulanger was essentially saying that Saint-Saëns was had technique but no inspiration. I think that that is an extremely harsh verdict.
I think a lot of the criticism is actually about Saint-Saëns the man rather than the musician. Boulanger and Saint-Saëns had a famous falling about over the 1908 Prix de Rome, where the judges , including Saint-Saëns did not award her first prize in the composition composition. The composer did indeed seem to have had a talent for falling out with people and making musical enemies. The story of him storming out of the first performances of The Rite of Spring because of the misuse of the bassoon is not quite correct (the incident was at the first concert performance, which, unlike the first stage performance, was very well received), but it does show something of his character.
One of the problems with Saint-Saëns is that he was active musically for such a long time that he got left behind by musical tastes. Indeed he must have had one of the longest musical careers of all time. He was born in 1835 and was already a major figure in French musical life by the 1840, counting Berlioz, Liszt and Berlioz. He composed all through his long life - his final work was written in 1921, the year of his death. In today's terms this would be equivalent to somebody still active who was born in the late 1920s and who had been heard playing the piano by Elgar.
Among other incidents in a very full life Saint-Saëns should be remembered as the first major composer to write a score for a film - his 1908 music for The Assassination of the Duke of Guise.
While all of this is fascinating background it shouldn't get in the way of the music itself. I know only a tiny fraction of the composer's large output (indeed I suspect that very few people have even a reasonable knowledge of the repertoire) I do find myself turning to Saint-Saëns more and more. I have a soft spot for the Organ Symphony - not least because I conducted a performance at university, but I have to admit that at times it is a bit old fashioned and creaky, but I am admiring the piano concerto more and more. I'm beginning to get to know some of the chamber music - the wonderfully quirky septet with trumpet of course but also the piano quartet. And there is always the carnival of the animals, which never fails to raise a smile.
What it is that attracts me to this music . It is I think a combination of its fluency and charm. Everything works and fits to together perfectly and the melodic invention is always first rate. But perhaps more than anything there is a sense of communication - this is not inward facing - it is there to be heard and enjoyed. Listen to the second movement of the second piano concerto for a real sense of exuberant fun in the tradition of a Mendelssohn Scherzo, or the poise and control of the beginning of the piano quartet.
Of course there are times when one want music to plumb the emotional or intellectual depths and perhaps Saint-Saëns is not the idea companion for such journeys. But when you want a slightly gentler and less angst ridden journey but still of the highest quality give Saint-Saëns a chance.
Boulanger was essentially saying that Saint-Saëns was had technique but no inspiration. I think that that is an extremely harsh verdict.
I think a lot of the criticism is actually about Saint-Saëns the man rather than the musician. Boulanger and Saint-Saëns had a famous falling about over the 1908 Prix de Rome, where the judges , including Saint-Saëns did not award her first prize in the composition composition. The composer did indeed seem to have had a talent for falling out with people and making musical enemies. The story of him storming out of the first performances of The Rite of Spring because of the misuse of the bassoon is not quite correct (the incident was at the first concert performance, which, unlike the first stage performance, was very well received), but it does show something of his character.
One of the problems with Saint-Saëns is that he was active musically for such a long time that he got left behind by musical tastes. Indeed he must have had one of the longest musical careers of all time. He was born in 1835 and was already a major figure in French musical life by the 1840, counting Berlioz, Liszt and Berlioz. He composed all through his long life - his final work was written in 1921, the year of his death. In today's terms this would be equivalent to somebody still active who was born in the late 1920s and who had been heard playing the piano by Elgar.
Among other incidents in a very full life Saint-Saëns should be remembered as the first major composer to write a score for a film - his 1908 music for The Assassination of the Duke of Guise.
While all of this is fascinating background it shouldn't get in the way of the music itself. I know only a tiny fraction of the composer's large output (indeed I suspect that very few people have even a reasonable knowledge of the repertoire) I do find myself turning to Saint-Saëns more and more. I have a soft spot for the Organ Symphony - not least because I conducted a performance at university, but I have to admit that at times it is a bit old fashioned and creaky, but I am admiring the piano concerto more and more. I'm beginning to get to know some of the chamber music - the wonderfully quirky septet with trumpet of course but also the piano quartet. And there is always the carnival of the animals, which never fails to raise a smile.
What it is that attracts me to this music . It is I think a combination of its fluency and charm. Everything works and fits to together perfectly and the melodic invention is always first rate. But perhaps more than anything there is a sense of communication - this is not inward facing - it is there to be heard and enjoyed. Listen to the second movement of the second piano concerto for a real sense of exuberant fun in the tradition of a Mendelssohn Scherzo, or the poise and control of the beginning of the piano quartet.
Of course there are times when one want music to plumb the emotional or intellectual depths and perhaps Saint-Saëns is not the idea companion for such journeys. But when you want a slightly gentler and less angst ridden journey but still of the highest quality give Saint-Saëns a chance.
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