recitals to ponder | Richibi's Weblog

January 16, 2018

Divertimento in G major, Hob.II:1 – Joseph Haydn

“Giraffe”

________

after looking everywhere on the Internet
for how many divertimenti Haydn had
written – since I’d given up counting them
individually from the only list I could find
there, a confounding one – I asked Siri,
the 21st Century’s Delphic Oracle, whom
I’d never yet consulted, apart from once
during a friendly demonstration of her
prowess

her reply about “divinity minty”, however,
didn’t lead me anywhere, though
“divertimento” eventually got me,
however unsatisfactory, somewhat more
pertinent answers

regardless, here is Haydn’s very first
divertimento

a divertimento is quite simply an
entertainment, an after dinner mint for
the aristocratic set, a place to digest
one’s fine culinary offerings in the
same, usually stratified, company

nowadays we have supper clubs

when Haydn called his early string
quartets “divertimenti a quatro”, he
wasn’t kidding, a divertimento could
be comprised of indeed even a small
orchestra, or, quite simply, one only
performer, the string quartet as a
form hadn’t yet been established as
such, Haydn pulled it, as it were, out
from under his hat, and gave it status

here’s the short, terse, Divertimento
in G major, for instance, for, originally,
harpsichord only, which is to say, just
one person, but this homemade piano
version will point out already Haydn’s
musical brilliance – you’ll love the
giraffe, I loved the coffee cup at the
bottom of the keyboard

incidentally, Haydn could’ve called
his Divertimento a piano sonata,
like Hoboken did, his bibliographer,
eventually, for the list he compiled
of the works of Haydn, we know it
now, therefore, as well, as Haydn’s
First Piano Sonata in G major,
Hob. XVl:8, same number as for
the corresponding Divertimento

new terms were popping up, and
being tested, then just as now,
like our app, interface, Siri, and
who says compact disc anymore,
or record

tempus, as we say in Latin, fugit,
time ever is on the wing

R ! chard

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January 14, 2018

String Quartet no 15 in E flat major, op. 9, no. 2 – Haydn

“Minuet“ (1756)

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

_______________

by 1769, Haydn had settled into a form
for his string quartet that would become
definitive, four contrasting movements
in a particular key, to give the work
cohesion

his Opus 9, no 2 retains a movement
devoted to dance, the second, the
“Menuetto”, but the essential
conditions of the Classical string
quartet are met

earlier, Haydn had referred to his
compositions as “divertimenti a
quattro”, divertimenti for four,
players, of course, now he
acknowledged, indeed installed,
the concept of the string quartet,
its earliest incarnation, as such

though the outer movements are
competent – the first using its
initial off-beat musical motif a
bit too often for my taste, and
its repeat portions too similar,
like someone repeating the same
information you’ve been given
and unnecessarily extending the
conversation with too few
intriguing elaborations, too few
arresting developments, the
second, polite, and, thankfully,
distinctive – the third, the
“adagio – cantabile”, will knock,
however, your socks off, a line
of music is explored in all its
tortured beauty to utterly
transcendental effect

there is a spot in music, often an
adagio for me, where one thinks,
I have been there, this is me, and
one throughout space, time,
responds to the language of
another, one melts, and finds
one’s connection with humanity

therefore music, therefore, indeed,
all art, thanks to all those who
chose to share with us their,
however ever eccentric,
inspiration, thanks to their, our,
ingrained, ineffable, desire,
indeed capacity, to communicate,
even across the ages, to, indeed,
transcend

but I’ve digressed

listen

R ! chard

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January 13, 2018

String Quartet no 8 in E Major, op 2, no 2 – Joseph Haydn

“The Music Lesson“ (c.1769)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

________________

Haydn’s String Quartet no 8 in E Major,
op 2, no 2 is not an iconic work, but
representative of what the period had
on offer, which wasn’t at all shabby,
however more entertaining than in
any way inspirational, seismic, that’ll
come later, Haydn was nevertheless
not only composing delightful pieces,
but setting the stage for an era, the
Classical Period, along, of course,
with Mozart

the form is not quite settled yet for
the string quartet, with again five
movements here mirroring each
other across again a central adagio,
twice the length, incidentally, of the
other sections, again, though not at
all unpleasantly, which ought to tell
you something

the call and response aspect of the
music, like a verse and refrain, are
manifest, and grounding, everywhere,
you know where you stand, or sit, be
it the allegros, the minuets, or the
adagios, the tunes return and
reassure like clockwork

dance forms, you’ll note, still remain
in the titles, a vestige of the earlier
period’s suites, this will alter, with
headings turning to tempo markings
exclusively, a move towards the
transcendental rather than the
frivolities of gavottes, or minuets

a transposition, meanwhile, of the
Opus 2, no 2 has beguiled me, the
first violin has been replaced here
with a guitar, same string quartet,
but with an exquisite alteration

the guitar can only pluck, not glide
across a note, something akin to the
harpsichord before the fortepiano,
it makes for a completely different,
though profoundly remembered,
original

and delivered a particular zing to
the strings of my heart

listen

R ! chard

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January 12, 2018

String Quartet no 1 in G major, K80 – Mozart

“Mozart“ (2015)

Bernd Luz

______

Mozart’s First String Quartet, in G major, K80,
is not at all equal to Haydn’s First, then again
Mozart was only 14 in 1770 when he wrote
it, Haydn in his early thirties when he
composed his, in the late 1750s

the difficulties are flagrant, first of all, starting
with an adagio is something to avoid, like
falling into your agonies before even saying
hello, it can be entirely dispiriting for your,
however forgiving, audience

unless, of course, the lament is poignant,
unlike here, I thought

the later movements are emotionally
nearly indistinguishable from each
other, despite astute changes in
tempo, that sufficiently differentiate
the several parts, but one leaves the
recital, nevertheless, remembering
nothing, essentially, though not not
entertaining, the quartet is not
memorable

but listen to his first piano concerto, in
D major, K175, called his Piano Concerto
no. 5 for esoteric reasons I won’t get into,
he was only 17, and already he entirely
seduces you, leaves you enchanted

he needs the piano, I think, for the lovely
musical runs up the octaves he invents,
like birds lifting gently, light as air, from
their branches, soaring, coasting,
dipping, dropping, finding a nearby
branch or eave upon which to rest for a
moment, and cede to the strains of the
restless orchestral winds, and then fly
off again, irrepressibly, towards another
part of its musical wonderland

a string instrument can’t do that for the
sake of the bow, which doesn’t have the
extension

Mozart never outdoes Haydn at string
quartets, though he learnt a lot from
him about them, Haydn never bested
Mozart at piano concertos

R ! chard

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January 11, 2018

Quartet 1 in B major (“La chasse”), op. 1 no. 1 – Haydn

“Louis XIV and Molière“ (1862)

Jean-Léon Gérôme

________

the string quartet didn’t come out of nowhere,
as nothing does – I think – but probably, I
suspect, from the earlier period’s suites, the
Baroque’s, Bach’s, for instance

suites are a series of dance pieces, stylized
for the purpose of the musical poet, a popular
appropriation, an even natural one for
composers

the aristocracy, by the middle of the 18th
Century, demanded erudite entertainment,
something that Louis XlV, the Sun King,
had instilled, a little earlier, during his
Radiant Reign – see Racine, Corneille,
Molière, see above, as well, incidentally –
1643 to 1715, up at Versailles, as a
prerequisite for excellence in being a
monarch, a sovereign, sponsorship of
culture, painting, poetry, music

dukes and counts and barons and
princesses got onto the bandwagon
and the arts consequently flourished

witness Haydn and Mozart then, still,
now, giants

here’s Haydn’s first, his Quartet no 1
in B major, (“La chasse”), op. 1 no. 1,
the first significant string quartet in
our Western culture

you’ll note five movements, following
the suite model described above, with
mirrored minuets sandwiched between
opposing mirrored prestos, and an
adagio in the very middle, as though
their crowning moment

an adagio, to my mind, always gives
away a composer’s worth, listen to
this one, it’s melting

and he’s got 67 more to go through, I
marvel, a veritable, and utter,
however improbable, musical
cornucopia

R ! chard

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January 9, 2018

Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet in B♭ Major, Op. 34 – Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria von Weber

________

though I’d considered heading into
later string quartets, later clarinet
quintets actually, an intriguing, I
thought, divergence, it seemed a
better idea to return to the
Classical and early Romantic
Periods to find an anchor for our
formative musical idiom, again
rhythm, tonality, and recurrence

Carl Maria von Weber does an
intermediate Clarinet Quintet
between Mozart’s and Brahms’,
which is noteworthy for especially
its Classical roots than its
Romantic pretensions, I think,
Weber sounds nothing like
Beethoven, but is a nearly spitting
image of Mozart, which isn’t a bad
position at all to be in

listen for his courtliness, the staid,
though lively, musical interactions

you’ll note that the clarinet, though
to one side, takes preeminence in
this composition – it’s nearly even
a clarinet concerto – Weber called
it a Quintet for Clarinet and Strings,
a perhaps more apt appellation

appellations, incidentally, remain
the means by which we sharpen
our understanding, however
presumptuous might the term
sound, appellations, in other
words, count

though I could’ve used, I suppose,
nomenclature, or something

R ! chard

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January 7, 2018

Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 – Johannes Brahms

“The Wanderer above a Sea of Fog“ /

“Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer“ (1818)

Caspar David Friedrich

___________

for Collin, who’ll appreciate
especially, I’m sure, the
Chopin

while I’m on the subject of clarinet quintets,
since there are so few significant ones, let
me pull Brahms’ out of my hat and celebrate
it, a worthy challenge to Mozart’s own utter
masterpiece

but over a century has gone by, it’s 1891,
Beethoven, the French Revolution, the
Romantic Era is reaching its end, ceding
to Impressionism, after the disruptions of
rampant industrialization, and its
consequent effects on the social contract

Marx has proposed a theoretical master
plan to equitably protect the rest of us
from the 1%, however too politically
fraught, eventually, such a system – see
Communism

furthermore, Darwin had suggested that
we weren’t all descended from Adam and
Eve, but from larvae, which is to say,
millennially morphed, modified, through
time, genetically, leading to festering still
ideological objections

Elizabeth Barrett Browning had written
her unadulterated love poems to her
husband, Robert, Caspar David
Friedrich had shown us his wanderer’s
back while facing the mountainous
challenges of the upcoming world,
godless now after Nietzsche, Anna
Karenina had thrown herself in front
of a train, Madame Bovary had taken
poison, and Ibsen‘s Nora had left her
husband for a fraught, if not even
dangerous, life on her own, to escape
his safe but insufferable dominance,
while Jane Eyre was finding ghosts
in her cobwebbed, and insufferable,
to my mind, though admittedly
aristocratic, attic

you’ll note the clarinet is not sitting
centre stage, but has nevertheless
a place at the table, by this time,
though not not honoured, familiar,
and is more integrated to the
conversation, the idea of democracy
has taken hold, with everyone having
an equal, and even a vociferous, say

Brahms modelled his Clarinet Quintet,
on Mozart’s, the Classical structure is
still the same, movements, tonality,
musical recurrence, all to wonderful
effect

that he would do that is not a given,
but a tribute to the power of that form,
take the waltz for instance, alive from
even before Strauss, not to mention
Chopin, to approximately the middle
of the Twentieth Century

think about it, who waltzes anymore,
though they might’ve enchanted still,
residually, the 50’s – see Patti Page,
for instance – its lustre having
dissipated, with the wind, as it were,
the gust, before us, of the unending
ages

R ! chard

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January 4, 2018

Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581 – Mozart

“The Swing“ / “Les Hasards heureux de L’Escarpolette“ (1767)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

__________

it wouldn’t be fair to overlook Mozart
when it comes to string quartets, after
all, he wrote 23 of them, but they’re
not what he’s famous for, you have to
go to his piano concertos for that,
sublime things, and, in my estimation,
to one of his chamber pieces, his
utterly enchanting Clarinet Quintet,
in A major, K581, which, since I prefer
chamber pieces, I turn to most often

but to go to a quintet so quickly in a
discussion about quartets could be
disconcerting, after all, you’ve got
somebody else at the table, you’ll
need another chair, another place
setting, more food, for four still of the
standard courses, some of those even
elaborate, all this makes a difference

plus the new guest is to be accommodated,
should typically be given the place of honour,
as well as a distinct voice, command, like a
soloist in a concerto, though, of course, be
less peremptory, more, indeed, courtly,
courteous, where, incidentally, the word
“courtesy” comes from

the sound of the clarinet in this quintet
mimics the sound of birds, midst the
strings’ foliage, the guest, as it were, at
the party, the piece delivers a wonderfully
pastoral setting, a mainstay of that period
– see even above – an allegorical return to
Mother Nature as a guiding principle over
the irascibility and the imperviousness of
the Christian God, not to mention the
search for a, nearly obliterated, feminine
principle, deity

the second movement, the larghetto,
which means a slow largo, which
means it’s really, really slow, is
accordingly melting

also, where would that movement be
without the clarinet, I ponder, the guest
that evening of especial honour, I get
a momentary glimpse at genius then,
and marvel, Mozart had written this for
a clarinetist friend, a friend he must’ve
really admired

all the other movements are equally
consummate, unforgettable, perfect

I promise

R ! chard

psst: here’s Mozart’s 17th String Quartet
no 17 in B flat major, “The Hunt”,
nevertheless, a quartet, one of his
  several, however perfunctorily

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January 2, 2018

String Quartet no 1, Opus 18, no 1 – Beethoven

“Musician’s table“ (1914)

Juan Gris

_____

Beethoven’s First String Quartet came
out much around the same time as
Haydn’s Opus 76, no 1, among six of
them in his set, Beethoven also had
six in his, however junior still, first
collection, his Opus 18, Beethoven
would’ve been going on thirty, Haydn
nearly seventy, though his spirit hadn’t
in any manner flagged, listen

but their differences are evident if you
lend a thoughtful ear

the format is the same, four movements,
inarguably contrasting, with formal
adherence to Classical norms, tonality,
tempo, and return, but the style is, in
Beethoven, being overtaken by the
substance, again inarguably

at dinner together, if I may continue my
earlier allegorical conceit, by the second
movement, Beethoven has already
entered politics, essentially, religion,
these four, the players, have a bone to
pick, and their conversation gets heated,
there’s a pause, a reconciliation, before
the third movement, dessert, as it were,
which is merrier initially, but later
remains contentious, liqueurs later, in
the final movement, are still not enough
to allow for a comfortable exit, however
might’ve been the serenity of the
intoxicating sherries, cognacs

Haydn would never have done that,
having grown up in the proprieties
of the Esterházys, his aristocratic
sponsors, courtesy would’ve been
of their essence

Beethoven’s is a call to arms, a
consequence of the French
Revolution, the birth of the
Romantic Period

you can hear it in the music

R ! chard

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December 30, 2017

on string quartets – Opus 76, no 1 – Joseph Haydn

“Joseph Haydn“ (1791)

Thomas Hardy

______

to not consider other musical forms of
Shostakovich would be unfair, his
symphonies are mostly propaganda,
however often, though somewhat
culturally specific, riveting

my favourite works of his, works I
consider iconic, are mostly chamber
pieces, piano solos, string quartets

a string quartet, after a symphony, is
like sitting down to dinner with four,
at the very least, acquaintances,
rather than being a guest at a party,
the conversation is more intimate,
every person plays hir part, everyone
is heeded, if even only with courtesy,
a social, a Classical, an aristocratic,
prerequisite

movements can be compared to
courses, distinct and identifiable for
their particular culinary, musical,
propriety

later variations on this reflect the
variations in social mores, where
restaurants, the modern way of
socializing, allow for disparate
choices, often superimposed,
throughout the meal for any,
every, occasion

dim sum, tapas, celebrate this, not
unhappily

but string quartets can be tricky, I
thought I’d start from the beginning,
with some Haydn, their recognized
Father, you’ll understand when you
hear this, his Opus 76, no 1, an
outstanding string quartet to live
up to

Haydn set the standard for string
quartets when the norms of Western
music were being established, Bach
had given us the alphabet, the
well-tempered clavier, Mozart, the
grammar, the structure of music,
tempo, tonality, repetition, Beethoven
gave us the literature, the poetry, the
philosophical, the transcendent

Haydn is somewhere between these
last two, but decidedly, still, the king
of the string quartet, though Beethoven
does a good job of trying to best him,
and so does Shostakovich, you’ll have
to pick

but first, let’s start with Haydn, that’ll
be already, you’ll see, or hear, enough

later, I’ll get into it

R ! chard

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Category: recitals to ponder

January 16, 2018

Divertimento in G major, Hob.II:1 – Joseph Haydn

January 14, 2018

String Quartet no 15 in E flat major, op. 9, no. 2 – Haydn

January 13, 2018

String Quartet no 8 in E Major, op 2, no 2 – Joseph Haydn

January 12, 2018

String Quartet no 1 in G major, K80 – Mozart

January 11, 2018

Quartet 1 in B major (“La chasse”), op. 1 no. 1 – Haydn

January 9, 2018

Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet in B♭ Major, Op. 34 – Carl Maria von Weber

January 7, 2018

Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 – Johannes Brahms

January 4, 2018

Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581 – Mozart

January 2, 2018

String Quartet no 1, Opus 18, no 1 – Beethoven

December 30, 2017

on string quartets – Opus 76, no 1 – Joseph Haydn