Biber: Rosary Sonata no 16

Day 219

Biber: Rosary Sonata no 16  - Passacaglia in C minor Guardian angel

Rachel Podger

Biber’s Rosary Sonatas are one of the most important works in the early violin repertoire.They use a variety of techniques and are perhaps most famous for their use of Scordatura. The first 15 sonatas have continuo accompaniment but the last one is this extended passacaglia for solo violin. It dates from 1676 but was not published until 1905. There is much speculation on line that Bach was influenced by the piece when he came to write his Chaconne for solo violin as the final moment of his D minor partita, though there is no evidence that Bach actually knew the piece.

One can see why people make the connection because there is an obvious affinity between the two pieces. Both are solemn works in a minor key and use chordal and contrapuntal writing to make the violin sound as it it were a small ensemble. I really enjoyed listening to Biber’s piece - it had a real musical value which took it well beyond just being an exercise in violin technique.  How violinists keep up the intensity of bow pressure required for a piece like this, with virtually no room to breathe, is completely beyond me but Rachel Podger, whose recordings of solo Bach I treasure, is completely in control of every aspect of this peice,

Ysaÿe: Sonata no 1 for solo violin

Day 218

Ysaÿe: Sonata no 1 for solo violin

Hilary Hahn

Ysaÿe’s set of 6 sonatas for solo violin are generally considered to be the most important contributions to the solo violin repertoire since Bach’s sonatas and partitas. Each of them is dedicated to a particular violinist and is meant in some way to reflect that violinists style and musical inspiration. The first of them, which is the one which I chose, is dedicated to Szegeti, The spirit of Bach is everywhere in this 4-movement piece - though Bach would no doubt have been astonished both by the harmonic idiom and the technical demands placed on the soloists. As a wind player who only ever has to play one note at a time (I’ve never got into multiphonics) is is jaw dropping to hear what one player can produce. The composer is quite happy to write chords in four and even six parts and elaborate contrapuntal passages which if you heard the piece cold you would swear were being played by at least two violinists.

So as a feat of compositional technique this was highly inventive music - and the performance by Hilary Hahn was superb: the question remains as to the value of this piece in purely musical terms. Is there enough to engage the attention once you have got past the technical wizardry? I’m not sure. There were moments, particularly in the 3rd movement, where I thought that there was genuine musical invention that worked on its own terms, but I didn’t feel that all the way through. Still Bach’s solo violin music tends to be quite slow to give up its secrets so perhaps this sonata does need a further hearing.

Dietsch: le Vaisseau fantôme

Day 217

Dietsch: le Vaisseau fantôme

Soloists

Les Musicians du Louvre

Mark Minkowski

This is the first in what will be an occasional series of operas by the 'wrong' composer - i.e.  familiar titles but not the composer you expect.  I will fit them in on days when I have enough time to hear the entire opera.

Dietsch was associated with the Opèra in Paris for many years, ultimately becoming its musical director. In that capacity he was the conductor of the disastrous first performance in Paris of Tannhäuser, which led to a riot secondly only to that which took place at the first performance of Le Sacre du Printemps. 

Some years earlier Dietsch had composed a version of the Flying Dutchman. There is some dispute about exactly what happened but it seemed that Wagner had sold the scenario to the Paris Opèra in a desperate attempt to raise some money and I think that he had hoped that he would be commissioned to composer the opera. But the commission was given to Dietsch. The opera was given a handful of performances and then was completely forgotten until it was revived for this recording.

History was not wrong in associating the opera with Wagner. Dietsch's effort is pale in comparison. Much of it can generously be described as hack work by somebody who was clearly familiar with the French operatic repertoire but who had little real imagination of his own. Perhaps that it is a little unfair. There were a few moments when the opera did leap off the page - particularly in the long second act duet between the Senta and Daland characters (they have different names in this version). But elsewhere the inspiration is seriously thin.

So no more than a curiosity - I wonder how many times I will say that in this series?

Tomorrow I start a new theme - works for solo violin. I know the Bach sonatas and partitas but other than that repertoire is a complete blank so it will be fun to see what I can discover.

Gabriel Prokofiev: Concerto for turntables

Day 216

Gabriel Prokofiev: Concerto for turntables

Mr Switch

Ural Philharmonic Orchestra

Alexey Bogorad

This one was not for me!  Gabriel Prokofiev is Serge's grandson. He is classically trained but has an interest in electro-acoustic music and D J techniques. So this piece uses a symphony orchestra in combination with all sorts of weird and wonderful effects using turntables. I found it pretty hard going - the music itself was not unattractive although it didnt' do much more than just burble on in the background. The turntable effects just made me grit my teeth and pray for it all to be over.. ...

Franz Strauss: Horn concerto

Day 215

Franz Strauss: Horn concerto in C minor op 8

Samuel Seidenberg

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Sebastian Weigle

Franz Strauss, Richard’s father, was one of the foremost horn players of his time. He played in a number of important Wagner premiers, although he had no sympathy for Wagner’s music - and the composer had no sympathy for him as a person saying of him (according to Wikepedia)  "Strauss is a detestable fellow but when he blows his horn one cannot sulk with him.”

This horn concerto dates from 1865 and shows Franz Strauss conservative frame of reference- much of it could have been written by Schumann or even Mendelssohn. In purely musical terms is it a fairly slight work and at times is rather cliched, but it does give the horn plenty of opportunities to shine - which is I suppose the whole point of the piece. It is perhaps a little more than a mere curiosity, but I doubt that many people would have given it much attention had it not been for the fact that it fits nicely on a CD with Richard Strauss’s two horn concertos.

Soulima Stravinsky: String quartet no 1

Day 214

Soulima Stravinsky: String quartet no 1

Quatuor de Calarmont 

Soulima Stravinsky was the third child of Stravinsky and his first wide. I knew that he was a pianist - he made some recordings with his father and separately of his father’s music but somehow I had only thought that he wrote pedagogical music for children. I got that wrong because he did write some other music including three string quartets.

I really enjoyed this first quartet - it would stand on its own regardless of the family connection. It is in three quite short movements, well constructed with a clear musical argument. I would describe the idiom as like mild Prokofiev with a touch of French overlay. It uses ostinato techniques very effectively and has some attractive textural effects, include some interesting use of harmonics.  All in all a good piece which many more famous composers would have been pleased to have written.

Domenico Puccini: Piano concerto

Day 213

Domenico Puccini: Piano concerto in B flat major

Eugene List

Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra

Zlatko Topolinski

The Puccini was the 5th generation of composers in his family. Domenico, the composer of today’s piece, was his grandfather. He lived from 1772-1815 so was quite distant in time from the Puccini, who was not born until 1858. Musically they are many generations apart. This piano concerto is a typical work of the late Classical era. It has something of the spirit of Haydn and perhaps also of Mozart. But compared to their achievements this is very much the music of the local kappelmeister. Attractive and competently put together but without anything much to differentiate it from the hundreds of similar works which were being written by minor composers of the time.  There are attractive moments but also plenty of routine passages where the composer seems simply to be going through the motions. Like most of the pieces I have heard in this little exploration over the last few days one wonders if anybody would have gone to the trouble of performing and recording the piece had it not been for the family connections.