Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Postscript to the Previous
You should understand that I have nothing against Mozart, a great and subtle composer who is vastly overexposed in general and badly used by stations such as KDFC. And if you want to hear what Q2 is really good at, why, this week they are streaming the complete symphonies of Lutoslawski, in the recording by friend-of-the-new Esa-Pekka Salonen and his old band, the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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6 comments:
So . . . you do have something against Telemann?
Yes.
Good for Lisa. Telemann isn't a composer, he's a note factory. KUSC plays him constantly and the utter predictability of his music is mind-numbing.
Cue: some writing in with "But...but...if you listen to his Flute Concerto in F, it's totally a foreshadowing of Mozart!!!!".
I am, or was, a flutist, and I don't even like the Mozart flute concertos much. As for Telemann, I'd like to hear some of his operas, and not much else.
Let me defend Telemann — a fellow Wahlfrankfurter — a bit. We simply don't have a proper overview of his music, the surviving bulk of which remains in manuscript and without a decent catalog, and the handful of minor instrumental works which get play in US radio is scarcely representative.
The bulk of the unknown Telemann is, first of all, vocal, in both cantatas and operas, and his gift for writing for the voice was real (he was, himself, a bass.) But there are also substantial instrumental works which are virtually unknown, although the Overtures, which show his mastery over Italian and French styles, the international Gallant idiom, and his own innovations in both orchestration (not just the instrumentation but the richness and invention in scoring patterns) and topic (for example, the use of Polish styles) have received some welcome attention (see especially the recordings of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin; their Brockes-Passion (a profoundly beautiful piece, amptly demonstrating why JS Bach admired Telemann) and the Recorder Konzerte with Maurice Steger are also highly recommended.)
Also this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQatlvFvGdM
Sigh. The trouble with spouting opinions on the internet: readers who genuinely know more than you do. :)
Thanks, Daniel - I will check out the works and links you suggest, with an open mind, even.
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