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Reiner Torheit
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« on: 08:57:39, 16-01-2008 » |
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The San Francisco Chronicle has a list of "Top 10 Overlooked Masterpieces": http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/15/DDG5UENVG.DTL&feed=rss.entertainmentAlthough the "Top 10 xxxx" is a well-worn meme these days, it provides a useful point of focus on occasion. Any overlooked "Overlooked Masterpieces" you'd care to add to this list? Yeah, yeah, Havergal Brian, but apart from him....? |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #1 on: 09:16:28, 16-01-2008 » |
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Thanks, Reiner.
I did not many pieces on the list. I was surprised that Field Nocturns are incluced. I think they are well known.
I am glad Arensky piano trios are on the list. That gives me idea to try to play at list one.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #2 on: 09:39:56, 16-01-2008 » |
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It seems to me that everyone knows that Field created the form of the Nocturne - but far fewer people have ever heard his music?
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #3 on: 10:42:08, 16-01-2008 » |
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Here in Ireland I hear a lot of Field. May be this is why I thought his music is known.
In Maynooth they have an Institute of some Research going about Field. They even want to go to Russian to find out more. People say he had many versions of the same Nocturns that are very different.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #4 on: 11:14:00, 16-01-2008 » |
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People say he had many versions of the same Nocturns that are very different. I know for certain that he wrote "songs", which are in fact versions of his already-published Nocturnes with a new melody laid over the top of them!  He's quite neglected in Russia, however - few people here even realise he lived and worked here. Do you know his famous remark about Liszt? Field himself was known for the delicacy and accuracy of his playing. He was once passing through Germany (returning to Russia after attending his mother's funeral) and was shown a piano - nearly wrecked - on which the Abbe Liszt had recently performed. "Good Heavens! Does he bite, too?" said Field. |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #5 on: 12:22:11, 16-01-2008 » |
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I did not know he has songs. I know he was married to a singer. There was no interest in him in Russia. Even Mendelsohn was not much appreciated when I was there.
I did not know what he said about Liszt. I think Field taught Glinka and most pianists. I wish Irish researchers take me to Moscow to look at archives, but I don't think there is much chance. There is an institute now and they have seminars.
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Jonathan
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« Reply #6 on: 13:06:37, 16-01-2008 » |
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People say he had many versions of the same Nocturns that are very different. Do you know his famous remark about Liszt? Field himself was known for the delicacy and accuracy of his playing. He was once passing through Germany (returning to Russia after attending his mother's funeral) and was shown a piano - nearly wrecked - on which the Abbe Liszt had recently performed. "Good Heavens! Does he bite, too?" said Field. Even I didn't know that one! I agree Field is neglected though - all his piano music was recorded on Arts by Pietro Spada and the recordings are very good (and cheap too!) |
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Best regards,
Jonathan
*********************************************
"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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C Dish
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« Reply #7 on: 16:08:18, 16-01-2008 » |
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E Krenek, Lamentations of Jeremiah
I don't know about masterpieces (Not a favorite word for me) -- let's just say that's an overlooked piece of music.
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inert fig here
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #8 on: 16:14:49, 16-01-2008 » |
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I fear that pretty-much Krenek's entire output is "overlooked", CD  I ought to say that trying to get the right to perform any of his pieces is a longwinded, burocratic and expensive exercise, and I'm sure that his grasping living relations don't help the cause of getting his music played Unfortunately he's become one of those "notorious" cases where concert promoters no longer even bother asking in many cases... it's just easier to do some Korngold or Schreker instead. |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Evan Johnson
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« Reply #9 on: 16:39:32, 16-01-2008 » |
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E Krenek, Lamentations of Jeremiah
I don't know about masterpieces (Not a favorite word for me) -- let's just say that's an overlooked piece of music.
Perhaps -- your recommendation didn't go astray when I saw this at a used shop in Boston  Re Field -- I know the nocturnes, have the scores, have played through some of them, and don't find them to be the work of any sort of neglected genius. Innovative, certainly, yes, but technically many of them are quite deficient. (In fact, I have some passages mentally flagged to assign to students someday, along the lines of "rewrite this to make it better") |
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #10 on: 16:43:06, 16-01-2008 » |
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Re Field -- I know the nocturnes, have the scores, have played through some of them, and don't find them to be the work of any sort of neglected genius. Innovative, certainly, yes, but technically many of them are quite deficient. (In fact, I have some passages mentally flagged to assign to students someday, along the lines of "rewrite this to make it better") Miaow (maybe hindsight is a wonderful thing?)  Which other composers might you, er, consider using for such a pedagogical purpose? |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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martle
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« Reply #11 on: 18:25:46, 16-01-2008 » |
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Bit provocative, maybe, but...
Beethoven 2nd symphony. No, really. It's not programmed nearly as much as you'd expect. I heard it live recently for only the second time in my life, I think. It's a really, really interesting work - written of course at the time of the Heiligenstadt testament and just after Beethoven's flirtation with ideas of suicide. You can HEAR him busting through that, as well as being on the very cusp of his mature style, finally independent of Haydn et al.
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Green. Always green.
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Antheil
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« Reply #12 on: 18:35:32, 16-01-2008 » |
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Marty, I have the Norrington, which because of your post I have just put it. I confess I don’t listen to it as much as I should
Still keyboard probs here btw if this is jumbled, what suicide temempt?
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« Last Edit: 18:38:27, 16-01-2008 by Antheil the Termite Lover »
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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martle
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« Reply #13 on: 18:40:34, 16-01-2008 » |
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Anty, he didn't attempt suicide, but in that famous 'testament' letter he intimates that he had thought seriously about it. Because of the onset of deafness, an' all.
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Green. Always green.
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martle
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« Reply #14 on: 18:44:44, 16-01-2008 » |
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Green. Always green.
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