135. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major (1780)

Recording

Title: The 5 Violin Concertos, Sinfonia Concertante
Performers: Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, Wiener Philarmoniker
Director: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Year: 1984
Length: 30 minutes

Review

A Sinfonia Concertante is somewhere between the Symphony and the Concert, it is kind of like a Symphonic work with several solo parts, in this case for string instruments, and it is a new form, really. None of this in the Baroque.

This is a particularly beautiful one, and it seems like Mozart can do no wrong lately, the highlights here are the first two movements which are also the longest ones. The first movement is a brilliant allegro with some great and quite well known solo parts.

The second movement is a beautifully emotive adagio, the third movement pales a bit in comparison but it is still great. Mozart is capable of incredibly attractive music, and this is a perfect example of it. The recording also deserves merit, the solo players being quite tremendous not only technically but also emotionally.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The American composer and bassist Edgar Meyer was so interested in this work that in 1995 he wrote a double concerto for double bass, cello and orchestra that, while very different in style, closely mirrors the structure of Mozart's Sinfonia concertante.

The slow second movement is the best known, largely because of Michael Nyman's variations on it, used as the soundtrack to the Peter Greenaway film Drowning by Numbers. The original piece is also heard after each of the drownings in the screenplay.

Part of the 1st Movement:

134. Christoph Willibald Gluck - Iphigénie en Tauride (1779)

Recording

Title: Iphigénie en Tauride
Performers: Montague, Aler, Allen, Masis, Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre de L'Opéra de Lyon
Director: John Eliot Gardiner
Year: 1985
Length: 1 hour 50 minutes

Review

This is the last Gluck opera we get on the list and it is by far the best of them, not only is the libretto considerably better, but musically and in terms of flow of the story Gluck managed to finally achieve his goals in the reformation of opera.

It is of course still an opera seria with obligatory Deus Ex Machina at the end, quite literally the goddess Diana saves the day. Still, the story is compelling even if it has tropes common to most opera seria.

The great thing about it, however, is how Gluck manages to make the action flow with almost no breaks in the music, the recitatives are accompanied by the orchestra instead of just an harpsichord as before, the arias are not da capo and the thing flows pretty well. Finally a Gluck opera I actually liked.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

With Iphigénie, Gluck took his operatic reform to its logical conclusion. The recitatives are shorter and they are récitatif accompagné (ie. the strings and perhaps other instruments are playing, not just continuo accompaniment). The normal dance movements that one finds in the French Tragédie are almost entirely absent. The drama is based on the play Iphigeneia in Tauris by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides which deals with Greek mythological stories concerning the family of Agamemnon in the aftermath of the Trojan War.

The borrowings Gluck made in this, his last significant opera, are numerous, and many scholars feel that they constitute a "summing up" of the artistic ideals he pursued throughout his career as a composer. Most of the reused music is his own, culled from his earlier, Italian-language operas or from his ballet Semiramis (1765). The Act II music for the Furies, for example, adapts music from Gluck's ballet. In at least one case, however, an aria in Iphigénie en Tauride is actually Gluck borrowing from himself borrowing from Johann Sebastian Bach; the Act IV number for Iphigenia, "Je t'implore et je tremble," is a parody of "Perchè, se tanti siete" from Gluck's Antigono, which in turn uses material from the Gigue of the Partita no. 1 in B Flat (BWV 825) by Bach.

In 1847 Richard Wagner presented a revised version of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride at the Dresden Court. Wagner edited, re-scored and revised the opera significantly including adding a different ending and some other passages of his own composition. Wagner's version of the opera was revived at the 1984 Waterloo Festival with Alessandra Marc as Iphigenia.

"Ô toi qui prolongeâs mes jours" and "O malheureuse Iphigénie":

133. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto no. 9, "Jeunehomme" (1777)

Recording

Title: Piano Concertos no.9 "Jeunehomme" & 17
Performers: Andreas Staier,Concerto Koln
Director: Andreas Staier
Year: 1995
Length: 30 minutes

Review

This is the first great piano concerto by Mozart, don't worry there are many to come still. It allies Mozart's brilliance at the piano as seen in his sonatas and his utter command of the orchestra.

The whole format of the piano concerto, which would become so famous particularly with Beethoven, is kind of an invention of Mozart, and one of the best combinations in music.

This concerto is particularly beautiful, the Adagio is sublime and the last movement is alternately galloping and delicate with a very unexpected minuet stuck right in the middle of it. The first great and one of the greatest piano concertos by the daddy of the whole form.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The work has long been known as the "Jeunehomme" Concerto. It was said that Mozart wrote the piece for a French pianist "Jeunehomme" when she visited Salzburg. But scholars couldn't identify the woman for whom he actually wrote it. Recently, the musicologist Michael Lorenz has argued that the woman was actually Victoire Jenamy (1749-1812), a daughter of Jean-Georges Noverre, a famous dancer who was one of Mozart's best friends.


The Adagio with Mitsuko Uchida:

132. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Violin Concerto no. 5, "Turkish" (1775)

Recording

Title: Violin Concertos
Performer: Henryk Szeryng, New Philarmonia Orchestra
Director: Alexander Gibson
Year: 1966
Length: 28 minutes

Review

A very delightful piece of work, Mozart brings us a concerto with moments of true brilliance and modernity to it and an amazing section in the middle of the third movement in imitation of Turkish Janissary bands.

But the famous third movement is really not all that this piece is about, the Adagio is a truly beautiful one with some great emotive work on the violin and the Cadenza of the first movement is also pretty nifty.

It is the piece as a whole that works particularly well here, however, the first movement gives hints of the unexpected Turkish interruption in the third movement, the dialogue of the violin with the orchestra and its solos are unlike anything experience until now, it is truly great music. The Turkish section in the last movement almost reminds me of later nationalistic composers, particularly Russian ones, it is that expressive.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The aperto marking on the first movement is a rare marking, and appears in a few Mozart pieces, but in not many other places. It implies that the piece should be played in a broader, more majestic way than might be implied simply by allegro. The first movement opens with the orchestra playing the main theme, a typical Mozartian tune. The solo violin comes in with a short but sweet dolce adagio passage in A Major with a simple accompaniment in the orchestra. (This is the only instance in Mozart's concerto repertoire in which an adagio interlude of this sort occurs at the first soloist entry of the concerto.) It then transitions back to the main theme with the solo violin playing a different melody on top of the orchestra. The first movement is 10-11 minutes long.

The rondo finale's main theme is a typical Mozartean theme, but the contrasting sections feature loud passages of Turkish music that have caused some to call this the "Turkish Concerto".

Mozart later composed the Adagio for violin and orchestra K. 261 as a substitute slow movement for this concerto.

The famous Turkish section of the third movement:

131. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Sonatas (1775-89)

Recording

Title: The Piano Sonatas
Performer: Mitsuko Uchida
Year: 1991
Length: about 5 hours (5 CDs)

Review

This is a pretty amazing collection of the 18 piano sonatas by Mozart, Uchida is also a pretty amazing performer, even the parts that are astoundingly well known as the Turkish Rondo and the first movement of the Sonata facile are not tiring or tacky because the performance is so consummate that you listen to them with new ears.

Mozart's sonatas are a thing of simple beauty, none of them are amazingly complex, but they are all beautiful, there is a sense of childish play that goes through all of them, giving them a particular charm. The first CD of this collection is slightly less good than the other 4, which is a testament to Mozart's progression as a composer.

So a really beautiful collection, which is definitely worth your time listening to it and repeating it again and again, in the process of listening to the whole collection 3 times for this review my favourite sonatas have changed every time, because there are so many good ones, there are so many bits of music that stick with you. Highly recommended.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is possibly his most famous piano sonata. It was described by Mozart himself in his own thematic catalogue as "for beginners," and it is sometimes known by the nickname Sonata facile or Sonata semplice.

Mozart added the work to his catalogue on June 26, 1788, the same date as his Symphony No. 39. The exact circumstances of the work's composition are not known, however. Although the piece is very well known today, it was not published in Mozart's lifetime, first appearing in print in 1805. A typical performance takes about 14 minutes.

Mitsuko Uchida plays the second movement of Sonata 16, "Sonata facile" k545:

130. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quintets (1773 - 91)

Recording

Title: Die Streichquintette
Performers: Amadeus Quartet, Cecil Aronowitz
Year: 1967-74
Length: 2 hours

Review

Mozart gives us 6 interesting string quintets, they are actually viola quintets, although they are not known as such, the extra instrument is a viola, this is the most common kind of quintet. Boccherini added a Cello, however, and so would Schubert much later. And they are quite nifty.

Mozart does some great rococo music here, although it sometimes has a similar problem to Boccherini in that the music is a bit garden party music, but that is the fault of misuse of said music and not of Mozart of course.

What you get from Mozart that you don't get from lesser composers is the sheer emotiveness of some of the pieces, the adagios are properly sad, weeping things, and the allegros are explosions of joy. Still this is by no means my favourite set of Mozart pieces, I don't think that the string quintet has really come of age yet and we probably have to wait for a truly stupendous one...

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

A string quintet is an ensemble of five string instrument players or a piece written for such a combination. The most common combinations in classical music are two violins, two violas and cello or two violins, viola and two cellos. The second cello is occasionally replaced by a double bass, as in Antonín Dvořák's quintet Op.77 or Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pioneered writing for a string quartet augmented by a second viola, and one outstanding masterpiece for the two-cello quintet is Franz Schubert's Quintet in C major. Closely related chamber music genres include the string trio, the string quartet, and the string sextet.

By convention, the string quintet with an extra viola is called a "viola quintet" and a string quintet with an extra cello is called a "cello quintet." While a naïve concert-goer might expect five violas on the stage when a "viola quintet" appears on a chamber music program, such a quintet would most likely be called a "quintet for five violas."

K.406 Part I, quite competently played, for amateurs:

129. Joseph Haydn - Symphony no. 45 "Farewell" (1772)

Recording

Title: Symphony No45 in F sharp minor (Farewell, Symphony No46 in B, Symphony No47 in G
Performer: The Hanover Band
Director: Roy Goodman
Year: 1990
Length: 29 minutes

Review

Haydn is the daddy of the Symphony, and we have had three of his already, and this one makes the fourth, it is definitely an interesting one, but it also seems to live more of its fame than its inherent merits.

The Symphony itself is pretty good Haydn, but not truly spectacular, it does however have some very original moments, the Menuet is particularly good as is the Finale which has the players slowly retiring until only two violins can be hears in what is a beautiful, if extremely anti-climatic ending to the Symphony.

The story as to why this happens in the final movement is a great one (I'll add it in the Trivia), making a little myth about the symphony itself. The Adagio is a bit to pianissimo for my taste although it is lovely, I have to crank up my speakers to hear it and it distorts a bit... Not Haydn's fault, crappy speakers fault.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It was written for Haydn's patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, while he, Haydn and the court orchestra were at the Prince's summer palace in Eszterhaza. The stay there had been longer than expected, and most of the musicians had been forced to leave their wives back at home in Eisenstadt, so in the last movement of the symphony, Haydn subtly hinted to his patron that perhaps he might like to allow the musicians to return home: during the final adagio each musician stops playing, snuffs out the candle on his music stand, and leaves in turn, so that at the end, there are just two muted violins left (played by Haydn himself and the concertmaster, Alois Luigi Tomasini). Esterházy seems to have understood the message: the court returned to Eisenstadt the day following the performance.

Last Movement on four acoustic guitars, couldn't find a more conservative version of it, there is one by a bunch of kids, but kids play like crap:

128. Luigi Boccherini - String Quintets (1772-1803)

Recording

Title: Cello Quintets
Performer: Vanburgh Quartet, Richard Lester
Year: 2001
Length: 1 hour

Review

Boccherini is probably best known as the composer of the Minuet in String Quintet in E major Op.13 no.5, and that particular track is such a caricature of rococo refinement that it sounds a bit ridiculous to us today. It was made popular in the film The Ladykillers, and now is mostly used as music to eat canapés by. (actually Music to Eat Canapés By would be a great compilation album, maybe with a sequel about vol-au-vents).

That being said there is a lot of sprightliness to the music, it is joyous music which owes most of itself to Haydn and Vivaldi, so it isn't stupendously original, but it is enjoyable.

Boccherini is know by the sexist epithet of "Haydn's Wife" and you can kind of tell why, if Haydn isn't the most demanding of composers to the ear, Boccherini is simply too easy. Oh well.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Boccherini's style is characterized by the typical Rococo charm, lightness, and optimism, and exhibits much melodic and rhythmic invention, coupled with frequent influences from the guitar tradition of his adopted country, Spain. Neglected after his death—the dismissive sobriquet "Haydn's wife" dates from the nineteenth century— his works have been gaining more recognition lately, in print, record, and concert hall. His famous "Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid" (String Quintet in C Major, Op. 30 No. 6), has recently been popularised through the Peter Weir film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Music To Eat Canapés By, Track 1:

127. Joseph Haydn - Piano Sonatas (1771-95)

Recording

Title: 11 Piano Sonatas
Performer: Alfred Brendel
Year: 1979-85
Length: Around 4 hours

Review

These were some particularly great piano sonatas, and they were great for a number of reasons, firstly because they are not particularly well known and you have the discovery value that you won't with Beethoven's for example, secondly because they are full of humour and whimsy, and thirdly because Brendel is the ideal interpreter for them.

I have actually seen Brendel live, he was playing Mozart sonatas at the time but he is an extremely expressive interpreter, and you definitely get that here. It would be hard to choose a best sonata out of this set, although his last four sonatas (49 to 52) are definite highlights of maturity coming very close to Beethoven.

However, even his earlier sonatas are pretty great and number 20 is a particular highlight. There is a sense of fun and lightness to the whole thing that just spells Haydn to me, even the Adagios can sometimes be amusing. It isn't even a particularly virtuoso collection, but the music doesn't need show off pieces.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

After Haydn's death (1809), during the 19th century, the term "Papa Haydn" became something of a stereotype, designating to many a kindly, perhaps doddering old man whose music was very simple and thus suitable for children. The stereotype is a counterpart to the evolution of Mozart's reputation during the same period: Mozart died too young to become "Papa Mozart", but nevertheless was often regarded during this era as a kind of porcelain figure.

With the rise of Haydn's critical stock during the 20th century, scholars and critics became rather leery of the term, as a distortion of the composer's work. For instance, Jens Peter Larsen wrote (1980) in the New Grove encyclopedia:

For years the nickname 'Papa Haydn' has characterized the composer. Used by his own musicians and others as a tribute of affection and respect, the expression increasingly took on misleading connotations, and came to signify a benevolent but bewigged and old-fashioned classic. The recent revival of interest in Haydn's music has made plain that the traditional picture had become a caricature, and that it gave a false impression of richness and diversity of his development as a composer.

However, since materials of music education still tend to reflect 19th century sources, the term is well known to the musical public.

This little rhyme goes with the first bars of the Surprise Symphony:

Papa Haydn's dead and gone

but his memory lingers on.

When his heart was filled with bliss

he wrote merry tunes like this.

Brendel plays 1st movement of 49:

126. Andre-Ernest-Modest Grétry - Zémire et Azor (1771)

Recording

Title: Zémire et Azor
Performers: Mady Mesplé, Ronald Bufkens
Director: Edgard Doneux
Year: 1975
Length: 2 hours

Review

Yesterday I discovered a good analogy for this when compared to Gluck's operas. Gluck's operas are like a wise old lady, you can learn a lot from them, they have interesting ideas but are slightly boring and certainly not attractive. This opera by Grétry is a blonde bimbo, very attractive, but nothing very interesting to say, certainly fun but you wouldn't want to marry it.

Grétry certainly learned something from Gluck, the overture is linked both musically and mood-wise with the rest of the opera, the chorus has no part in it, however, but the music is refreshingly simple, Grétry isn't really what you look for if you want great orchestration. There are, however some really nice arias here, almost folk like songs.

The arias by Ali are particularly funny, the famous aria of the Fauvette, with its coloratura has a lot of flash and is quite impressive. In the end you do feel like you just listened to the equivalent of an American Action Blockbuster, a good one, but still it is the explosions that get you, not the fine acting. The recording does not help tremendously, the voices are a bit outdated, sounding more like something from bel-canto than the early classical period. There is very little effort when it comes to historical authenticity, this was a play with music, but it uses continuo in sung recitatives, not present in Grétry's original... oh well.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The French text was by Jean François Marmontel based on La belle et la bête (Beauty and the beast) by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, and Amour pour amour by P C Nivelle de La Chaussé. The opera includes the famous coloratura display piece La fauvette in which the soprano imitates birdsong. A suite of ballet music from the work was recorded by Sir Thomas Beecham.

Rufus Wainwright sings Du Moment qu'on aime:

125. Christoph Willibald Gluck - Alceste (1767)

Recording

Title: Alceste
Performers: Teresa Ringholz, Justin Lavender
Director: Arnold Ostman
Year: 1998
Length: 2 hours 30 minutes

Review

Firstly lets take notice of the fact that there are indeed two versions of Alceste by Gluck, this one from 1767 and another one from 1776. Frankly I prefer the 76 version, although the mood in that one is a lot more funereal than this. For the later version you can get the DVD with Anne Sophie Von Otter, directed by John Eliot Gardiner. The book, however, considers this to be the more successful of the recordings, allrighty.

Gluck takes his reform in opera a little bit further here, the recitatives are even more enmeshed with the arias and choirs, and said choirs work a lot like a Greek chorus, commenting on the action, which is an interesting touch.

However, for all its technical innovations the opera leaves me cold, it ends with a complete Deus Ex Machina, which is very Greek as well, so maybe a Theos ex Techno, heh. The fact that the opera ends with the obligatory opera seria happy ending makes as little sense here as it did in Orfeo. So Blah.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

When Calzabigi published Alceste, he added a preface signed by Gluck, which set out their ideals for operatic reform. The opera displays the features set out in this manifesto, namely:


* no da capo arias

* little or no opportunity for vocal improvisation or virtuosic displays of vocal agility or power

* no long melismas

* a more predominantly syllabic setting of the text to make the words more intelligible

* far less repetition of text within an aria

* a blurring of the distinction between recitative and aria, declamatory and lyrical passages, with altogether less recitative

* accompanied rather than secco recitative

* simpler, more flowing melodic lines

* an overture that is linked by theme or mood to the ensuing action

* more prominence for the chorus, giving it, in imitation of classical Greek drama, an important role commenting on the events unfolding on the stage.

Alceste also has no role for the castrato voice, although Gluck would return to using a castrato in his next opera, Paride ed Elena.


Alceste Act II, Scene III, from the 1776 version:

124. Giuseppe Tartini - Violin Sonata in G minor, "The Devil's Trill" (c.1765)

Recording

Title: Baroque Transcriptions
Performer: Ida Haendel (Violin), Geoffrey Parsons (Piano)
Year: 1976
Length: 15 minutes

Review

This is a work that is more interesting for it's story and technical difficulties than really in the way it sounds. Supposedly Tartini dreamt of the Devil playing violin and it was the last movement of this symphony that he played. And really the last movement sounds impossibly complex and different.

Actually it sounds pretty modern in that last bit, very dissonant, but then the first three movements are a kind of filler leading up to the interesting finale. The technical prowess necessary to accomplish that finale tells us much of Tartini's capacity as a player.

Other than this, however it is not that fascinating, quite nice and all, and proficiency in the Violin more than necessary to accomplish it. Ida Haendel does it great and that is all you require. Interesting, but not much more than that.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The story behind "Devil's Trill" starts with a dream. Tartini allegedly told the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande that he dreamed that The Devil appeared to him and asked to be his servant. At the end of their lessons Tartini handed the devil his violin to test his skill—the devil immediately began to play with such virtuosity that Tartini felt his breath taken away. When the composer awoke he immediately jotted down the sonata, desperately trying to recapture what he had heard in the dream. Despite the sonata being successful with his audiences, Tartini lamented that the piece was still far from what he had heard in his dream. What he had written was, in his own words: "so inferior to what [he] had heard, that if [he] could have subsisted on other means, [he] would have broken [his] violin and abandoned music forever."

The interesting bit of it, played by Shumsky:

123. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Violin Sonatas ( 1763-88)

Recording

Title: Complete Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin Volume 2
Performers: Gary Cooper (fortepiano) Rachel Podger (violin)
Year: 2005
Length: 1 hour 13 minutes

Review

A great way to start off Mozart, this recording is representative of his output for this type of sonata, it goes all the way from KV7 when Mozart was about 7 or 8 years old to KV481 a late sonata, and the next to last one.

There are several interesting points here, firstly you do get a sense of evolution, the latest sonata is definitely the best one, almost approaching Beethoven at times, with a particularly beautiful Adagio. But you also get the sense that even the stuff he was doing by age 8 are pretty great. Now to what level did his father help him with the composition is uncertain.

Another little interesting titbit you get is the fact that his earlier sonatas here (KV7 and KV30) are much more tailored to showing off the piano than the Violin, and this is an evidence of what Mozart would have sounded like showing himself off across the courts of Europe at the piano accompanied by his father in the violin. A truly great sample of some really beautiful works.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

During Mozart's formative years, his family made several European journeys in which the children were exhibited as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition in 1762 at the Court of the Elector of Bavaria in Munich, then in the same year at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During this trip Mozart met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, who met Mozart in London in 1764–65. The family again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768.

The adagio of KV 481, not by Rachel Podger and Gary Cooper, but cute:

122. Joseph Haydn - Cello Concertos (c.1762 - c. 1783)

Recording

Title: Cello Concertos No.1 & 2
Performer: Christophe Coin (Cello), Academy of Ancient Music
Director: Christopher Hogwood
Year: 1995
Length: 49 minutes


Review

Firstly let's be aware that these two concerts have about 21 years distance between them, and so it is quite an interesting look at the early Haydn and later Haydn, and the second concerto is therefore clearly much more in the Classical idiom than the first.

The first cello concerto is the Baroque transition to Classical in action, there is much of the baroque in the first movement, but there is almost none of it in the third movement. One of the things that is never baroque is the way in which the solo instrument talks to the orchestra, the two are much less divided, they complement and reply to each other. The second Concerto is of course firmly in the classical tradition and is equally great.

Overall, there is such a sense of freedom to these two concerts, Baroque was starting to become stifling, the simplicity and beauty of the solo instruments combines with a very clear sounding orchestral line. It is truly a little breath of fresh air.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The Cello Concerto No.1 in C Major by Joseph Haydn was composed around 1761–1765 for longtime friend Joseph Weigl, then the principal cellist of Prince Nicolaus's Esterházy Orchestra.

The work was presumed lost until 1961, that musicologist Oldrich Pulkert, when a copy of the score was discovered in Prague. Though some doubts have been raised about the authenticity of the work, most experts believe that Haydn did compose this concerto.

This early work (it is contemporaneous with symphonies 6, 7 and 8) already shows Haydn as a master of instrumental writing. The solo cello part is thoroughly idiomatic. The concerto reflects the ritournello form of the baroque concerto as well as the emerging structure of the sonata-allegro form. As in the baroque concerto grosso, the accompanying ensemble is small: strings, two oboes, and two horns. It is possible that Weigl was the only cellist in the Esterházy Orchestra when Haydn composed the concerto, since there is only one cello line in the score, marked alternately “solo” and “tutti.” There is also, however, a basso continuo line, that might have been played by another cellist, or by Haydn himself on the harpsichord, or by a string bass player.

Rostropovich plays the third movement of the first concerto:

122.

121. Leopold Mozart - Trumpet Concerto (1762)

Recording

Title: Trumpet Concertos
Performer: Maurice André, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Director: Herbert Von Karajan
Year: 1974
Length: 11 minutes

Review

Ahh, Leopold Mozart, one of the most famous examples of a father who is completely eclipsed by his son. But on the basis of this short Trumpet Concerto you can tell that the man was no lightweight, well, he trained Mozart.

It is always complicated to judge these very short pieces for me, but it is composed a lovely couple of movements. Again it is a transitional work, the Baroque elements are still here, at this time no one was as defining of what Classical would sound like as Haydn. But even in this short concerto you can really tell that the harmony lines are much simplified when compared to most baroque, beautiful simplicity indeed.

The trills are still there, the harpsichord is still there in the back, but there is an overall feel of something cleaner, more limpid than a Baroque concerto would be, and the trumpet by Maurice Andre is flawless.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Leopold Mozart's music is inevitably overshadowed by the work of his son Wolfgang, but his Cassation in G for Orchestra and Toys (Toy Symphony), once attributed to Joseph Haydn, remains popular, and a number of symphonies, a trumpet concerto, and other works also survive. He was much concerned with a naturalistic feel to his compositions, his Jagdsinfonie (or Sinfonia da Caccia for four horns and strings) calls for dogs and shotguns, and his Bauernhochzeit (Peasant Wedding) includes bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, a dulcimer, whoops and whistles (ad. lib.), and pistol shots.

His oeuvre was extensive but it is hard to establish either the scope or the quality of it; much is lost and it is not known how representative the surviving works are of his overall output. Some of his work was erroneously attributed to Wolfgang and some pieces attributed to Leopold were subsequently shown to be the work of Wolfgang. Much of what survives is light music but some more significant work survives including his Sacrament Litany in D (1762) and three piano sonatas, all published in his lifetime.

Thank you internet, for having a respectably bearded man playing the allegro of the Concerto, the music in the background is the Wynton Marsalis version:

120. Christoph Willibald Gluck - Orfeo ed Euridice (1762)

Recording

Title: Orfeo Ed Euridice
Performers: Derek Lee Ragin, Sylvia McNair, Cyndia Sieden, Monteverdi Choir
Director: John Eliot Gardiner
Year: 1991
Length: 1 hour 25 minutes

Review

Works which are this revolutionary and this transitional do not come frequently, however they are often not that impressive, except for their innovations. So this isn't among the best classical operas, but it is braving the path that will lead to them.

That is not to say that there aren't great moments here, there are, and the highlight goes to Che Fero Senza Euridice?, a tune maybe a little too jaunty for its subject matter, but a great tune nevertheless.

Where Gluck really excels is in revolutionising opera, gone are the long da capo arias, gone are the long recitatives that break the pace of the opera, everything flows much closer now, aria going into accompanied recitative, flowing into aria. The choir has a much greater part to play, and there are no distracting sub-plots. However the music itself sounds very transitional, there are many elements of baroque and plenty of classical elements popping their heads through the music. This is the right direction for opera, but it needs some development, don't worry, we'll get there.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Gluck's reforms, which began with Orfeo ed Euridice, have had significant influence throughout operatic history. Gluck's ideals heavily influenced the popular works of Mozart, Wagner, and Weber, with Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk vision especially influenced by that of Gluck. Old-style opera seria and the domination of embellishment-orientated singers came to be increasingly unpopular after the success of Gluck's operas as a whole and Orfeo in particular. In Orfeo ed Euridice the orchestra is far more predominant than in earlier opera, most notably in Orfeo's arioso "Che puro ciel". Here the voice is reduced to the comparatively minor role of recitative-style declamation, while the oboe carries the main melody, supported by solos from the flute, cello, bassoon, and horn. There is also accompaniment from the strings (playing in triplets) and the continuo in the most complex orchestration that Gluck ever wrote.


Janet Baker Does Che Faro:

119. Joseph Haydn - Symphonies nos. 6-8 (1761)

Recording

Title: Symphony No6 in D 'Le Matin'. Symphony No7 in C 'Le Midi', Symphony No8 in G 'Le Soir'
Performer: The Hanover Band
Director: Roy Goodman
Year: 1991
Length: 1 hour 9 minutes

Review

Ah! I must admit that I was quickly getting tired of the Baroque, so they give us the Classical period, and what better to start it off with than Haydn, a composer that strides the Classical period, starting here and going all the way to producing stuff at the same time as Beethoven right at the transition to the Romantic period.

It is almost impossible to realise that this is just one year after Boyce, it sounds like a complete revolution. The music is much simpler in the way in which it is easier to discern the melody lines, but then it is full of contrasts, the excitement is all here. And this is still transitional.

Haydn is looking back at the earlier Baroque at people like Vivaldi for his inspiration while at the same time mixing it all with something truly new. A truly admirable work, but don't get too hung up on the names of the Symphonies, the programmatic quality is tenuous at best with the only real link being the clear sunrise at the beginning of No 6. Great.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The nickname (Le Matin, the Morning) (not Haydn's own, but quickly adopted) derives from the opening slow introduction of the opening movement, which clearly depicts sunrise. The remainder of the work is abstract, as, indeed, are the other two symphonies in the series. Because of the initial association, however, the remaining were quickly and complementarily named "noon" and "evening".

Adagio from No. 6:

118. William Boyce - Eight Symphonies, op.2 (1760)

Recording

Title: Eight Symphonies Op.2
Performer: Aradia Ensemble
Director: Kevin Mallon
Year: 2003
Length: 1 hour 2 minutes

Review

After finishing off the two great names of high baroque with Bach and Handel going off the list in quick succession we now get rid of Baroque itself with this recording of William Boyce's Eight Symphonies. Although the concept of symphony points us towards the Classical period that is coming up right after this, these are still very Baroque pieces.

The fact that we jumped 10 years from Theodora to these pieces and they still sound very much in the Baroque tradition is indicative of their lack of inventiveness. We are at a time where baroque is fast becoming unfashionable.

Boyce does have his own merits, however. The symphonies are lovely, with a very airy disposition, even in the slow movements, with some impressive martial stuff in Symphony number 5 for example. A lovely collection of music, on the Baroque side of the transition to the classical period.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Boyce is best known for his set of eight symphonies, his anthems and his odes. He also wrote the masque Peleus and Thetis and songs for John Dryden's Secular Masque, incidental music for William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Cymbeline, Romeo and Juliet and The Winter's Tale, and a quantity of chamber music including a set of twelve trio sonatas.

Boyce was largely forgotten after his death and he remains a little-performed composer today, although a number of his pieces were rediscovered in the 1930s and Constant Lambert edited and sometimes conducted his works.

First Movement of the 4th Symphony: