An Old Warhorse

[Guest]

I guess many of us who know the work well, would hardly pay to listen to a performance of Tchaikovsky’s B min PC, unless of course it was a first class set-up on the stage.

And yet, I’ve just put on Argerich/Kondrashin’s performance, a work I’ve not listened to for absolutely ages, and it really sounds once again like it deserves the fame it has received since its inception. Maybe familiarity does indeed breed contempt for works we know so well?

I wonder whether others have recently found a re-awakening for a famous work, long since forgotten or abandoned.

Best wishes,

Mario

[Roehre]

Yes Auferstehen2, familiarity does indeed breed contempt for works we know very well.
Are we still able to recognize the great works which caused rightly a stir, like Le Nozze di Figaro, the Beethoven symphonies, the Fantastique, or more recent works like the Sacre du Printemps or Berio's Sinfonia?
I doubt it.

[Pianorak]

I agree it is difficult if it's just a case of listening more or less passively to these old war horses. Maybe, just maybe, we have to change tack a bit - go back to basics as it were such as listening to analyses of the works, listen to different interpretations, discuss the work with fellow music lovers, rediscovering what attracted us in the first place. In my case the recent Mozartfest and especially the two Mozart Uncovered TV programmes reawakened interest in the Mozart D Minor piano concerto and the G minor Symphony, both of which I seem to have lived with and known forever. Another example, closer to home, is Stephen Johnson's analysis of the Haydn Variations in f-minor on R3 last Sunday (23 Jan). Again, a piece I myself play (albeit as a mere amateur pianist) and thought I knew, yet it opened up new angles and made it appear almost like a new work. Just a thought.

[Auferstehen2]

While waiting for the Blackpool/Man Utd game to come on…

Fascinating reply Pianorak, really!

I would love some analysis by someone knowledgeable, both technically (I’m currently studying Music Theory) and expressively. I remember a long time ago, Leonard Bernstein spending a full 5 minutes on just the two crashing opening chords of the Eroica, which I found utterly captivating.

I think there is an absolute goldmine to be found here in analysing and yes, shock, horror, explaining the music to us – we can either agree or disagree surely?

Thanks,

Mario

[salymap]

I've always loved Brahms' piano music and concertos but have only recently 'come back' to the symphonies.I think a rest from well-known works is a very healthy thing. We moan about repetition but no-one makes us listen to them all the time.

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

Listening to good second-rank composers helps you appreciate the first-rank stuff that you hear too often because it's played too often. This is why we'd have liked Mozart "in context". This is why we want more British music - because it's good to listen to and is a change from what have to be routine performances of the standard repertoire.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

While waiting for the Blackpool/Man Utd game to come on…

Houdini?

[Ferretfancy]

I've had two experiences recently, both with very familiar works. Prompted by the Klemperer thread, I listened again to his Brahms First after a long interval, and was riveted. A week or so later I heard the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer at the Rpyal Festival Hall in what was for me a wonderful performance of Beethoven's Pastoral. Now that's the Beethoven symphony I hardly ever choose to hear, but it came out gloriously fresh. I thinks it's the "on tap" aspect of so much familiar music that makes it pall. I try to avoid background listening and sit down to listen properly whenever I can. Frankly, the idea of listening in the car really puts me off, but as I don't drive the problem doesn't arise very often.

[Auferstehen2]

Hi, ferretfancy, I like your “on tap” phrase, and I think you’re spot on. It must be because we know that particular work so well, that we can recall it whenever we wish and play it through on a train, plane or car as our own private concert.

Nothing like the real thing though, is it?

Mario

[Ferretfancy]

Hi Auferstehen2

There's one aspect of " on tap" that bugs me a bit, and that's the fact that sometimes the tap in my head jams, and I'm condemned to a particular piece going round non stop for a day or so. Usually the best cure is to find time to hear it properly. I'm sure we all have those inner concerts going on, sometimes using them as a yardstick to judge real performances, and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing.
So let me ask practising musicians on these threads, how do you deal with it ?