Gurn's Classical Corner

[Karl Henning]

. . . But I've seen the Beethoven in its entirety.

Loved the dog.

[Florestan]

I have see part of it... up to, I think, his Paris days. But I've seen the Beethoven in its entirety.

Loved the dog.

I'll watch the Beethoven one tomorrow.  My golden rule is one a day.

[Opus106]

Loved the dog.

The Beethoven, Karl. The.

I'll watch the Beethoven one tomorrow.  My golden rule is one a day.

I'm goldener: one episode per day.

[Florestan]

I'm goldener: one episode per day.

Sir, one of the greatest advantages of being unemployed is that one can fill his days only with things one really cares about... 

[Opus106]

Sir, one of the greatest advantages of being unemployed is that one can fill his days only with things one really cares about... 

Lucky you!

[Wakefield]

Oh-my-God! 





I need it, I need it.

(Available on the NML, just in case)

[San Antone]

I posted this in the WAYLT thread but wanted to see if anyone else felt as good as I do about this recording.  I find the music uniformly wonderful - and the Hanover Band under the leadership of  Anthony Halstead is very good.

Selections from this excellent box

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[Gurn Blanston]

I posted this in the WAYLT thread but wanted to see if anyone else felt as good as I do about this recording.  I find the music uniformly wonderful - and the Hanover Band under the leadership of  Anthony Halstead is very good.

I've looked at that box several times and not pulled the trigger yet. Have this one, by the same fellows;



And then, on modern instruments, have this great set of other sinfonies concertantes;



c p o   is such a great label for some things!!

[mc ukrneal]

I've looked at that box several times and not pulled the trigger yet. Have this one, by the same fellows;



And then, on modern instruments, have this great set of other sinfonies concertantes;



c p o   is such a great label for some things!!

I now have all three. All three are excellent, I am happy to report. 

[Gurn Blanston]

I now have all three. All three are excellent, I am happy to report.

Ach, you are always out on the edge, Neal...   I would quite like that JC Bach SC's set though. I've always rather enjoyed that Frenchified sort of a semi-symphony; pleasant listening. 

[mc ukrneal]

Ach, you are always out on the edge, Neal...   I would quite like that JC Bach SC's set though. I've always rather enjoyed that Frenchified sort of a semi-symphony; pleasant listening. 

I like the period. The first box I got (the one sanantonio posted) was so good that I started getting more. You may remember I also got all the Michael Haydn symphonies on CPO, which I am enjoying tremendously. But in general, I love the classical period almost as much as I enjoy the romantic period, and I enjoy Baroque too, so going back even further is of interest. I just cannot keep up with all the releases (though these have been a priority).

[Gurn Blanston]

I like the period. The first box I got (the one sanantonio posted) was so good that I started getting more. You may remember I also got all the Michael Haydn symphonies on CPO, which I am enjoying tremendously. But in general, I love the classical period almost as much as I enjoy the romantic period, and I enjoy Baroque too, so going back even further is of interest. I just cannot keep up with all the releases (though these have been a priority).

I know what you mean about keeping up. That was one of the things that caused me to narrow my focus a few years ago. Now, even with only a few composers in my sights, I can still barely keep up!  But I have never lost my taste for the Kleinmeisteren, probably because they speak the same musical language, albeit not quite at the same fluency level (i.e. - as Haydn & Mozart). And when it comes to mastery of the galant style, JC is as good as anyone.

[San Antone]

I have discovered that I prefer the early Classical, including the galante, style to the later generations.  My sweet spot is music from 1741-1791 (although there are many exceptions before and after that 50 year span).  The music of Beethoven's later years I find less to my taste than the earlier opuses.  I guess I am just a superficial guy.

[mc ukrneal]

I have discovered that I prefer the early Classical, including the galante, style to the later generations.  My sweet spot is music from 1741-1791 (although there are many exceptions before and after that 50 year span).  The music of Beethoven's later years I find less to my taste than the earlier opuses.  I guess I am just a superficial guy.

Have you tried the Richter symphonies on Naxos (pictures below)? They are fantastic and sound right up your alley.
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[Gurn Blanston]

I have discovered that I prefer the early Classical, including the galante, style to the later generations.  My sweet spot is music from 1741-1791 (although there are many exceptions before and after that 50 year span).  The music of Beethoven's later years I find less to my taste than the earlier opuses.  I guess I am just a superficial guy.

It's OK, the world needs superficial people too...

Actually, if you buy into the theory of '3 Phases of Beethoven' (not sure I do), I am a 1st phaser primarily, followed (naturally enough) by the 2nd phase. My personal sweet spot (confined to just 50 years then) is 1760-1810.

So I guess I'm superficial too. I can live with that.   0:)

[mc ukrneal]

I don't understand this whole 'superficial' thing, which can also apply to operetta. It's like if there isn't 50% angst, 50% minor chords, and 50% darkness, it must be shallow and superficial. I find classical period music often faces this silliness. That said, I find that classical period music can brighten my day like no other.

[San Antone]

Have you tried the Richter symphonies on Naxos (pictures below)? They are fantastic and sound right up your alley.
[asin]B000REGIXM[/asin]
[asin]B0020LSWWA[/asin]

Yes and yes.     Richter, Beck, and others of the 18th Century Series from Naxos are some of my favorite discs.

It's OK, the world needs superficial people too...

Actually, if you buy into the theory of '3 Phases of Beethoven' (not sure I do), I am a 1st phaser primarily, followed (naturally enough) by the 2nd phase. My personal sweet spot (confined to just 50 years then) is 1760-1810.

So I guess I'm superficial too. I can live with that.   0:)

Depending up on the work, that 50-year span will shift for me - it should probably include all of Haydn's music.   I was just pulling some years out of the blue.  The point for me is that once the music starts getting what I consider "heavy" it begins to lose me.

[Florestan]

I don't understand this whole 'superficial' thing, which can also apply to operetta. It's like if there isn't 50% angst, 50% minor chords, and 50% darkness, it must be shallow and superficial. I find classical period music often faces this silliness.

Not only Classical, but also Baroque and Early, and even Early Romanticism. 

Another kind of silliness, closely related to that, is that if there isn't an orchestra of 100 strings, 75 winds and 50 brass it must be worthless. 

[SonicMan46]

Christof Ernst Friederich Weyse - I recently obtained a couple of discs of this composer from BRO - had not heard of him but became curious (as we often do w/ new discoveries) - not much available on GMG nor did he seem to have composed a lot of non-vocal music. SO, while reading the liner notes from the 2 CDs (pics below) that I purchased and looking at a few Wiki articles (English & translated French sites), I put together a summary below in quotes - I was really looking for some chamber works but at the moment cannot determine if he wrote any in this genre?  He is considered to be a Danish composer despite being born in now northern Germany. 

Christof Ernst Friederich Weyse (1774-1842) was born in Altona near Hamburg in northern Germany; his birth city was under Danish control until after his death.  After an unsuccesful attempt to train w/ the aging CPE Bach, the 15 y/o Weyse travelled to Copenhagen in 1789 to study with JAP Schulz, the musical director of the Royal Opera.  He studied organ and was appointed assistant organist at the Reformed Church in 1792; his seven (7) symphonies were composed during this period, 1795-1799.  Due to a personal crisis, he stopped composing in 1801, but remained active as a musician and held the important post of organist at the Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen's main church.  However, Weyse never returned to writing symphonies, but these earlier works were revised and performed occasionally.

Most of his compositions were vocal works, including 20 cantatas, 6 operas, and many songs w/ piano accompaniment; the latter contributed to much of his fame and popularity in Denmark.  But he was also known as an excellent keyboardist (both organ & piano), and performed many of Mozart's piano concertos; indeed, he knew Mozart's widow, when she lived in Copenhagen from 1810 to 1820. Weyse's improvisational skills were considered extraodinary; his composer friend, Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) stated that he 'is the greatest pianist I have ever heard,' and Ferdinand Ries declared that 'he can by no means be compared to Weyse.'

Weyse wrote 8 piano sonatas; the first 4 were early compositions, likely dating to the early 1790s; the final 4 were published later (the last in 1818), however, the dates of their composition are uncertain. His major keyboard influences were JS Bach, CPE Bach, Haydn, Mozart, & Clementi.  Although consider 'romantic' in his song compositions, his instrumental music looks back to some of the main composers of the classical and pre-classical periods.

   

[Gurn Blanston]

Hey, Dave,
I have the disk in the middle of your pictures, the 2 symphonies. Always liked it, despite knowing nothing about Weyse. So you gave me the impetus to look him up. Thanks!  No chamber music that I can see. His piano music could be interesting though.


Weyse, Christoph Ernst Friedrich  (courtesy of Grove's Online Dictionary of Music and Musicians)
(b Altona, nr Hamburg, 5 March 1774; d Copenhagen, 8 Oct 1842). Danish composer. He was sent to Copenhagen in 1789 to study with J.A.P. Schulz, musical director of the Kongelige Teater and remained in the city for the rest of his life. He served as organist firstly at the Reformed Church from 1792, and then from 1805 at Copenhagen Cathedral. In 1816 he was made titular professor at the University of Copenhagen (where he was given an honorary doctorate in 1842) and in 1819 became court composer with the obligation to produce cantatas and operas for the Kongelige Teater. He was known as an excellent pianist, in his youth especially for his performances of Mozart's piano concertos, and he particularly distinguished himself at improvisation, both at the piano and the organ. He was esteemed for his artistic taste in music and other matters, and in his later years he was the leading authority in Copenhagen's musical life. He had an unhappy love affair in 1801 and remained unmarried.

A conservative by nature, Weyse was rooted in 18th-century musical ideals, extending from Bach and Handel to Gluck and Haydn, but not beyond Mozart, and he did not sympathize at all with the new trends in Beethoven's works. He composed seven symphonies (1795–9) that demonstrate Haydn's influence, some of which were partly re-used for overtures and incidental music in his theatrical works. More personal are his piano compositions, also mostly written in his youth. They consist of two volumes of Jugendarbeiten 1790–94 with many Allegri di bravura, a genre (fast movements in sonata form) which he invented and explored with two further collections (1796 and 1809). All these works show a development from the north German pre-classical keyboard style, especially of C.P.E. Bach (with whom he had unsuccessfully sought lessons as a youth), to that of the Viennese Classical tradition of Haydn, Clementi and Mozart. The famous Bohemian pianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles, who visited Copenhagen in 1829, inspired Weyse to return to piano composition and was the dedicatee of the Allegro di bravura op.50. Two sets of Etudes, opp.51 and 60, followed; these brilliant pieces, demanding an advanced technique, are among Weyse's best piano works (praised by Schumann) and contain his only music to embrace the Romantic style of the period.

It is as a vocal composer, however, that Weyse is most remembered. He composed a large number of cantatas and minor works for soloists, chorus and orchestra for major public occasions, consisting of arias, ensembles, recitatives and choruses (many in fugal style and as chorales) written in a solemn, rather old-fashioned style, but very highly regarded in his lifetime.
His theatrical works are made up of six Singspiel-type operas and some incidental music. The charming music of Sovedrikken (The Sleeping-Draught, 1809) – a comedy similar in character to Dittersdorf's Doktor und Apotheker – made it his most performed and only successful opera. Of the following operas Ludlams Hule (Ludlam's Cave, 1816) is a melodramatic ghost story set in Scotland, while the incidental music to Shakespeare's Macbeth (1817) contains interesting music for the witches' choruses and the banquet scene. His later operas, particularly Floribella (1825) and Festen paa Kenilworth (The Feast at Kenilworth, 1836), are conceived on a larger scale with extended forms and more varied harmonies. But on the whole Weyse lacked the dramatic flair of his contemporary Friedrich Kuhlau. In his stage works the finest numbers are the shorter arias and ensembles, many of them lyrical, strophic songs in moderate 6/8 time derived from the siciliana, with a characteristically Danish melodic structure, typical of his attractive romance style.

Weyse also wrote many songs, extending from the early simple songs in the manner of Schulz's Lieder im Volkston, to the mature works, the summit of which are the famous Morgen- og Aftensange (Morning and Evening Songs, 1837 and 1838). These songs were published together with some romances from his stage works in two volumes after his death and soon became the most popular music in Denmark in the 19th century. With his unique feeling for the intimate connection of words and music and his great melodic gift it was certainly as a composer of songs that Weyse stood out, and it is for this that he is remembered in Danish music history.

WORKS

(for fuller lists and thematic catalogue see Berggreen (1876) and Fog (1979)
many MSS in DK-Kk)

printed works published in Copenhagen unless otherwise stated

STAGE
all first performed at Kongelige Teater, Copenhagen
Sovedrikken [The Sleeping-Draught] (Spl, 2, A. Oehlenschläger, after C.F. Bretzner), 21 April 1809, also in B-Br, vs (1815–16)
Faruk (Spl, 3, Oehlenschläger), 30 Jan 1812, ov. and excerpts, vs (1817–28)
Ludlams Hule [Ludlam's Cave] (Spl, 4, Oehlenschläger), 30 Jan 1816, vs (1821–2)
Floribella (lyrical-romantic drama, 3, entr'acte, C.J. Boye), 29 Jan 1825, vs (1837)
Et eventyr i Rosenborg Have [An Adventure in Rosenborg Gardens] (Spl, 1, J.L. Heiberg), 26 May 1827, vs (1833)
Festen paa Kenilworth [The Feast at Kenilworth] (romantic Spl, 3, H.C. Andersen, after W. Scott), 6 Jan 1836, vs (1877)
Incid music: Macbeth (W. Shakespeare), 1817; Balders Død [The Death of Balder] (J. Ewald), 1832

CHORAL
Miserere, double chorus, orch, 1818 (1845)
25 cants. and 10 minor choruses, acc. pf/other insts, incl.: 3 Reformation cants., 1817, 1836, 1839, 3 for Christmas, 1818, 1834, 1836, 2 Passion cants., 1819, 1825, 1 for Whitsunday, 1820, 2 for Easter, 1821, 1829, 1 for New Year, 1822
75 chorales and 25 choruses, a cappella, 3–4vv: for schools, 1838, 1841
Den Ambrosianske lovsang [The Ambrosian Hymn of Praise] (1826)
Several cants. for major public occasions

SONGS
all with piano accompaniment
18 early songs in Jugendarbeiten, 1790–94, some in Vermischte Compositionen (1799)
Dybt Skoven bruser [Forest Murmurs] (F. von Schiller and Oehlenschläger) (1802)
Various songs, 1814–35
9 Sange (1837)
8 Morgensange for børn (B.S. Ingemann) (1837)
7 Aftensange (Ingemann) (1838)
8 Gesänge (1838)
Romancer og sange (1852–60), comprehensive posthumous collection

PIANO
all ed. in Dania Sonans, viii (Copenhagen, 1997)
[6] Allegri di bravura (Berlin, 1796); repr. as Nägeli's Répertoire des clavecinistes, vii (Zürich, 1803)
3 sonatas in Vermischte Compositionen (1799)
[4] Allegri di bravura (Zürich, 1809)
Sonata (1818)
24 écossaises (1823)
Allegro di bravura, a, op.50 (1830)
8 Etudes, op.51 (1832)
4 Etudes, op.60 (1838)
Jugendarbeiten, 1790–94, incl. 4 minor pieces, 5 fugues, fantasia, 4 sonatas, 8 Allegri di bravura

MISC
7 syms., orch, 1795–9; no.6 as op.1 (1799/R); no.7 (Vienna, 1803); ed. in Dania Sonans, ix (Copenhagen, 1998–)
38 canons, before 1817
Choral-Melodier til den evangelisk christelige Psalmebog (1839)
100 gamle Kaempevise Melodier [folksong collection], voice, pf (1840–42)
32 lette orgelpraeludier (1843/R)


He will bear more looking into, it seems.