Welcome! Define "classical music"? Well, it depends. Strictly speaking, "capital-C-classical music" is music written from around the middle of the 18th c. through the first quarter or so of the 19th, but outside of scholarly publications that's not what anybody ever means when saying "I like classical ("small c") music." Defining the latter is a bit like Justice Stewart's famous statement about pornography: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it." A working rule of thumb is that it primarily embraces music written for formal performance in the concert hall, but even that's too narrow--a lot of what we call "classical" music today is just very old popular music. Pretty much all the operatic canon, for example, fits that definition; especially in Italy, but also elsewhere, opera was the popular musical theater for the masses throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, and it was at least as much a social event as an artistic one for much of that time. All those "cassations" and "divertimentos" and "serenades" and such by the likes of Mozart and Haydn? Originally high class party or dinner music, to be played as attractive background at social events of the wealthy. Today we consider Strauss waltzes "classical," but up until the years just before World War II, so I've read, the Vienna Philharmonic refused to play them as being "beer hall music" below its dignity. Now, of course, having discovered just how profitable playing them every New Year's Day can be, the VPO has changed its notion of what's dignified! And so it goes. So: no real definition, but a few rough guidelines. It's safe to say most or all of certain generically titled works fall in the bounds of "classical"--concerto, symphony, string quartet, sonata, and the like. There's also a time element; most of what we consider "classical" has been around at least for a longish while, although "modern classical" music certainly continues to be written and to receive first performances. (Getting a second performance often is a real challenge.) Usually, "classical" music was written at least in part as an artistic statement, not purely for commercial reasons, although pretty much all music outside the world of the church had at least some monetary motivation--musicians have to eat, too! And while plenty of "classical" music was written by performers for their own use, it usually was intended to be performed by others, too, not to find its definitive embodiment in one recorded performance. By those lights, the Tchaikowsky violin concerto qualifies, but Jesus Christ Superstar probably doesn't, at least not yet. Give it another few decades, and perhaps it will gain that status; then again, it may just come to be considered like old Broadway shows, long-lived musical entertainment, a "classic" but not "classical." Or it may disappear temporarily (as did much of Bach's music) or entirely (as have jillions of workaday pieces by the musical craftsmen who filled nobility's, and then the middle class's, need for routine entertainment in the 18th and 19th centuries). Time and the development of a performance tradition, if any, will tell. I hope that helps and didn't just add to any confusion. Again, welcome to the thread--please do hang around and join the fun!
If one wishes a complete Mozart Piano Concerto cycle, one would be advised to consider the superb Murray Perahia cycle on Columbia/Sony, insanely cheap through the usual suspects.
A great set if one's priority is beauty (in performance.) I just find Perahia's set to lack some of the vigor I hear in Anda's set.
Have you gotten to the "Reliquie" Sonata in C? If I'm not mistaken, Badura-Skoda plays a completion of his own making in that set. I'd be interested in your reactions, especially if you can compare to the Krenek one (the only one I know).
By coincidence, Perahia's account of no. 21 was on the radio as I drove to work today, and I had much the same reaction: no denying it was pretty playing, but a bit bland for my taste. In other words, lacking that "steel" thing I hear in Serkin's mono era recordings on the one hand and on the other the sort of glowing effusiveness I hear in, say, Rubinstein's no. 23.
Thanks for sharing. I love this quote from one reviewer - "...these pieces are famous for drawing you in with their complexities and never letting you out again."
You're welcome! Yes, it can be complex, but the good news is that you really don't need to worry about it much. Just sit back, enjoy the music, and worry about pigeonholes later, once you've become familiar with a lot of literature of all kinds. After all, in the end, that's what it's about: what you enjoy, what moves you.
As David (drh) has already mentioned, it can be pretty complex to define... such as his example with the Strauss waltzes. Today's "show" and film music straddles the line. The main theme of the Tchaikovsky "Violin Concerto" you mentioned can be found as an inspiration for the title theme to the movie, "The Right Stuff." Check it out!
I think many of the "jillions of workaday pieces" have fallen into obscurity for reason. In our recent trip to Croatia and Slovenia, we went to a castle that was not a museum. The third floor was mostly devoted to paintings, most of which were done in the 1600s by an artist that the then inhabitants had on staff. They were at best mediocre. They probably wouldn't be in any other museum than in the castle where they were originally painted and passed down along with the ownership of the castle. I imagine a lot of the very rich from back then, along with staff artists, had staff composers/musicians as well who were also as mediocre as the artist whose paintings we saw. That said, I'm sure there were some real gems that are gone forever
The countless female composers who never had a chance to go down in posterity in the societies of the pre- and post-Renaissance. Who could name more than one? Who could hum any familiar melody written by that single woman?
From the big Rudolf Serkin Columbia box, now listening to the Reger Piano Concerto. This is my first recording of this. At 38 minutes, it's a big, romantic work.
After the topic of late Brahms piano works came up the other day, I decided to compare the first movement of some of my recordings of Op. 116, specifically Kovacevich, Angelich and the above Rudy set. The Kovacevich was powerful and impressive, he played the first movement like a panther, but I wasn't in the mood tonight for that kind of playing. Also, he sounded a little young for late Brahms. The Angelich was played in a similar manner, so I then tried Rudy and found it much more to my taste, as the playing was somewhat more laid back. I listened to Rudy's entire Op. 116 and really enjoyed it. The piano sound sparkled, the slow movements were played with great tenderness and intimacy. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, as I has originally bought this set because I have admired a number of Rudy's other recordings. I rate Rudy's Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos with Jansons quite highly, in fact, I feel his EMI set is the best complete set, for performance and sound. So now I plan to listen to more of the above set in the coming days and hope to enjoy his Op. 117-119 as much as his Op. 116.
I’d struggle to hum along to most of the music I listen to so that’s not a great criteria for me. I can hum along to a lot of music. I get bored with most music long before I know it well enough to bring it up in my head. The stuff I do know that well isn’t hummable. With those qualifications, I listen to a lot contemporary female composers. Off the top of my head, the only non-contemporary ones I listen to are Von Bingen and Amy Beach.
Right you are--that's what I was trying, not terribly successfully, to get across in my own post. The same can be said for plenty of pieces that have been brought back from obscurity by the voracious needs of the record industry to fill out discs/LPs/whatever. All those reams and reams of mediocre flute music by the likes of Quantz and Mercadante, for a start.... Were there "countless" female composers during the pre- and post-Renaissance? Without wishing to get political or to be guilty of nitpicking, seems to me that might be better put as "potential composers"; my impression--perhaps in error?--is that the problem wasn't so much women writing great music that got suppressed as women with talent who never had the opportunity to develop or exercise it--that is, to become composers--in the first place. For whatever it's worth, I find that we can rail against our ancestors' practices till the cows come home--and with justification, considering our likely impoverishment because of all the possibly great art never created as a result and hence not passed down to us--but on the other hand, there's no use pretending those who did flout or escape convention were all unfairly neglected Beethovens. I can't say I've heard enough music by any female composer to make a fair assessment of her work in general, but I can say that the ones who strike me as most interesting are Fanny Mendelssohn and Louise Ferenc; I've heard substantial works by each that struck me as very fine music for a composer of either sex, and in fact some music published under the name of brother Felix was actually the work of Fanny. I wish I knew more than one slender song, "In Mezo al Mar," by Genie Sadero, who evidently at one time was a pretty successful song composer; it's a charmer (Dusolina Giannini and an Italian mezzo whose name escapes me both recorded it electrically in the late '20s/early '30s, and Giannini left an acoustic recording of it as well). Likewise Mana-Zucca, of whose "Nichavo (Nothing Matters)" John Charles Thomas made a tour-de-force recording for Vocalion in the acoustic era. "Nichavo, nichavo, sons of Russia have it so...." I've never heard anything by Clara Schumann that struck me as more than routine early-to-middle Romantic music, and likewise what I've heard of Amy Beach (sorry!) has left me pretty bored. Can't say that Germaine Tailleferre does much for me, either, and I've gotten really tired of our local NPR affiliate's attempts to pretend Cecile Chaminade's concertino for flute is standard rep (there's that mediocre flute music again!). Some of her salon music for piano, which was on the same station's choice of CD Hit of the Week a few years back, is attractive in a faded sort of way, and once upon a time her "Scarf Dance" was a standard bit of encore/amateur salon literature, but I can't think of much that I'd go out of my way to hear again. I blush to say Hildegard von Bingen is a major name on my "need to explore" list; I have a CD of some of her music, but it still awaits my attention. OK, have I now gored enough sacred cows? Apologies if I've stepped on anybody's toes...and for shamelessly mixing metaphors....
I forgot about Fanny Mendelssohn, not that I’ve heard much of her music. I like what I’ve heard. I imagine there’s not much to hear. I really listen to contemporary female composers much more, such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Caroline Shaw, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Lera Auerbach and Judith Weir.
When you get into the contemporary composers, you've more or less left me behind, although I recall hearing some Joan Tower along the line. Not really my cup of tea, but, as I say, very little wet-on-the-page contemporary is my cup of tea. If you are interested in pursuing Fanny Mendelssohn, here's a nice collection of music she wrote during the trip she and her husband made to Italy immediately after their marriage. The program notes are quite enjoyable in their own right, as I'm remembering things.
Thanks for expressing exactly what I wanted to get across. I meant countless 'potential composers'. Can female composers benefit from the opportunities now afforded them in contemporary music? Only if there's an audience, I'm tempted to say. Plus if even Western Europe with its value system has so few influential females in charge of the subsidy purse strings, it will remain jobs for the boys.
Two of the most brilliantly original voices in contemporary music currently are women: Chaya Czernowin and Rebecca Saunders. IMO of course.
The status quo is not entirely to be blamed on men. Even in classical music's European heartland and biggest market, Germany, the negligible amount of debate time given to the topic of gender imbalance in the classical music world by feminist authors / commentators stuns me again and again. On reflection, the fantastic, vigorous LGBT scene in the performance side of the classical world, may be a kind of sexual orientation compensation for the lack of women's advancement. This courts controversy, I will probably regret this post in an hour's time. Please take the current situation with Serebrennikov I've posted about over the last week as having provoked many comments some of which might not have been fully thought through.
I just listened to Badura-Skoda's "Reliquie" Sonata in C major, D840.. I liked it very much. Now I have to see if there is a Krenek completion of the Sonata in my collection. After a preliminary search, I see I have the Richter Reliquie and it shows 4 movements. The Uchida set only shows the first two movements that Schubert completed. Have you run across other performers of the Krenek Reliquie completion?
