What Are You Practising / Composing Now?

[smittims]

Good luck with your cello concerto, suffolkcoastal. I always felt a cello concerto would be the last thing I'd write. I haven't written anything now for years, what one might call 'the silence from Crewe'. I think I'd do it if someone asked me , i.e for a specific occasion of performance.

[Pulcinella]

In case anyone’s keeping track: I will (finally!) be premiering that basset horn solo tomorrow, in a concert also including the premiere of Prof Barrett’s new quartet for basset horn/contrabass clarinet, horn, piano, and percussion.

https://www.theater-essen.de/program...trophe-138071/

I hope it goes well, Oliver.
I need to PM Richard with thanks for a heads-up on a new Stravinsky CD that had passed me by.

[richardfinegold]

Mozart K.545 his so called ‘Easy Sonata’

[Ian Thumwood]

I have a mountain of music I bought to improve my sight reading. Some of it is way too difficult but I like hearing how the chords work..

I dug out the Scriabin Opus 11 preludes as there are a few I can get through just about with my banana shaped fingers. Shame Scriabin is so difficult as I think his harmonies are the best. Even better than Debussy who is a massive challenge for me.

Sight reading for the sake of it is quite interesting. I can rip through some Clementi but am left wondering if he was actually any good ? I like Clementi but he is not a patch on Haydn. I think Haydn and Clementi are written for mortals.

The other piano music I dabble in is Albeniz whose Espana is, in my opinion, pretty corny. Spanish parlour music but OK for sight reading as it was written for amateurs . I had not heard his music before but am underwhelmed. Villa Lobos is better but some picked are impossible to understand let alone read.

[richardfinegold]

I’m playing a Clementi Sonatina currently. I don’t know much about him but I think he did right a lot of stuff for teaching and low level players, and then he produced bigger works for higher level players. So it depends which facet of his output is under discussion

[Ian Thumwood]

Richard

I am fascinated by Clementi. Although born in Rome, he spent his adolescence on the Beckford estate near Blandford Forum which cemented his reputation as the only composer directly linked to the slave trade and rum production. The Sonatina was written when ge was a teenager.

Clementi is excellent for sight reading and fun to play. He had his eye on publishing which was where he made his money. In addition his one time pupil was John Field although they later fell out. I remain to be convinced that he was a great performer and I certainly find Haydn's piano work more substantial. It just seems odd to learn Clementi came from Dorset...
a fact that really appeals and amuses me. He was also a favourite of writer Jane Austen.

I have 2 cds if his work and a out 3 books of music. They are fun and mercifully not as annoying as Mozart