The next
few instalments of our Time Capsules
through the Musical Eras will dwell into the Classical period. In my initial description, I proposed a time box around the classical period of
1750 to 1820. Today’s post in particular invites you to consider composers
that, for the most part, were active either in the early days or the late days
of that time box.
A seventy
year time span – roughly three generations – allows us to identify some of the
main “culprits” of the Classical era if we start with the basic premise that J. S. Bach’s sons form the “first
generation”, the musicians they mainly influenced such as Haydn, Mozart and Salieri form the core contributors, and
their subsequent pupils – Beethoven,
Schubert and Hummel, close out the era.
It may be
more appropriate sometimes to talk in “shades” – there are late baroque, early
classical, late classical and early
romantic composers, all of whom are relevant to the classical period – either
because they are transitional (that
is, they were trained in one period but blazed the trail of the following
tradition) or because they “bucked the trend” and composed in the classical
tradition long past the arbitrary time box we are using.
Listener Guide #
144 – Classical Showcase
To further
illustrate, this first Time Capsule shares compositions from “late baroque”
composers Charles Avison, William Boyce and Georg Christoph Wagenseil and “late classical” (or “early
romantic”) composers Giuseppe Mercadante
and Johann Baptist Cramer. (ITYWLTMT Montage #251 - 23 June 2017)
Listener Guide # 145
– Luigi Boccherini (1743 - 1805)
Luigi Boccherini, the Italian classical era composer and
cellist known for his courtly and galante style, was born in Italy into a
musical family. His father, a cellist and double-bass player, sent him to study
in Rome at a young age. In 1757 they both went to Vienna, where the court
employed them as musicians in the Burgtheater. In 1761 Boccherini went to
Madrid, entering in 1770 the employ of Infante Luis Antonio, younger brother of
King Charles III of Spain. Later patrons included the French ambassador to
Spain, Lucien Bonaparte, as well as King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia,
himself an amateur cellist, flautist, and avid supporter of the arts.
Boccherini died in Madrid in 1805, survived by two sons. His bloodline
continues to this day in Spain. This Boccherini time capsule showcases quintets
for piano, guitar and cello with strings quartet. (ITYWLTMT Montage #268 – 6 Jan 2018)
Listener Guide # 146 –Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)
Antonio Salieri is still better known today for the renowned
composers with whom he was associated than for his own many and varied
compositions. While he cannot be ranked among the great masters himself, he has
nevertheless come into view as an underrated and important composer deserving
of closer attention. Salieri was the dominant figure in Parisian opera from the
mid to late 1780s. Tarare (1787),
generally considered his finest achievement in the genre, is a masterpiece. He
also wrote significant instrumental, sacred, and vocal compositions, and shaped
the Viennese musical world that would produce so many important composers for a
century and a half. Salieri's illustrious students included Beethoven,
Schubert, Liszt, Hummel, and Czerny. There is no evidence to support the
durable legend that he poisoned Mozart and created intrigues against him. One
of his students was Wolfgang A. Mozart, Jr., whom he would probably not have
selected for instruction had he harbored such malice toward his father. (ITYWLTMT Podcast #261 - 13 Oct 2017)
Listener Guide # 147
– Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel was an important composer from the
late Classical period primarily known for his solo piano compositions and piano
concertos. In recent years, however, attention has been given to his chamber
music, operas, and sacred works. Young Johann's first musical studies came on
the violin at the behest of his father, a player of string instruments himself,
and director of the local Imperial School of Military Music. When the family
moved to Vienna in 1786, Johann studied with Mozart, with whom he lived for two
years. His first major appointment came in April, 1804, when he accepted the
post of Concertmaster to Prince Nikolaus Esterházy at his Eisenstadt court,
eventually replacing Joseph Haydn there when he retired. This Time Capsule
showcases piano trios by Hummel. (ITYWLTMT Montage #258 - 08 Sep, 2017)
Franz SCHUBERT
(1797 - 1828)
Franz Peter
Schubert was among the first of the early Romantics, and the composer who, more
than any other, brought the art song (lied) to artistic maturity. During his
short but prolific career, he produced masterpieces in nearly every genre, all
characterized by rich harmonies, an expansive treatment of classical forms, and
a seemingly endless gift for melody. Schubert began his earliest musical
training studying with his father and brothers. He began to explore composition
and wrote a song that came to the attention of the institution's director,
Antonio Salieri, who along with the school's professor of harmony, hailed young
Schubert as a genius. In 1813, after Schubert's voice broke, he returned to
live with his father, who directed him to follow in his footsteps and become a
schoolteacher. Schubert begrudgingly complied and worked miserably in that
capacity by day, while composing prolifically by night. He had written more
than 100 songs as well as numerous symphonic, operatic, and chamber music
scores, before he reached the age of 20. Despite his short life, Schubert
produced a wealth of symphonies, operas, masses, chamber music pieces, and
piano sonatas, most of which are considered standard repertoire. He is known
primarily for composing hundreds of songs including Gretchen am Spinnrade, and Erlkonig.
He pioneered the song cycle with such works as Die Schöne Müllerin, and Die Winterreise,
and greatly affected the vocal writing of both Robert Schumann and Gustav
Mahler.
Listener Guide # 148
– Schubert for two pianists, four hands
(More Schubert Chamber Music in
Listener Guide # 20)
Listener Guide # 149
– Schubert: 15 Lieder
Schubert's
body of work includes over 600 songs for voice and piano. That number alone is
vastly impressive - many composers fail to reach that number of compositions in
their entire output, let alone in a single genre. But it isn't just the
quantity that's remarkable: Schubert consistently, and frequently, wrote songs
of such beauty and quality that composers such as Schumann, Wolf and Brahms all
credited him with reinventing, invigorating and bringing greater seriousness to
a previously dilletante musical form. (Cover 2 Cover #5 – 28 Nov 2017)
(More Schubert Lieder in Listener
Guide # 42)
Listener Guide # 150
– Two Schubert Symphonies
When we think of Schubert, we think lieder and
other intimate settings and not necessarily of symphonies. That having been
said, Schubert did leave us 12 works (many of them fragmentary) that are in the
symphonic form, and eight of them (including the "Unfinished") are
part of the repertoire. (Once Upon the Internet #49 – 9 Aug
2016)
(More Schubert Symphonies in Listener
Guide # 108)
Carl Maria von WEBER
(1786-1826)
Composer,
conductor, virtuoso, novelist, and essayist, Carl Maria von Weber is one of the
great figures of early German Romanticism. Known for his opera Der Freischütz, a work which expresses
the spirit and aspirations of German Romanticism, Weber was the quintessential
Romantic artist, turning to poetry, history, folklore, and myths for
inspiration and striving to create a convincing synthesis of fantastic
literature and music. Weber's additional claim to fame are his works for
woodwind instruments, which include two concertos and a concertino for
clarinet, a concerto for bassoon, and a superb quintet for clarinet and string
quartet.
Listener Guide # 151
– Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
A brief overview of the music of Carl Maria von Weber, including one of his clarinet concertos (ITYWLTMT
Montage #269 – 19 Jan 2018)
(More Weber Clarinet music in
Listener Guides #21 and #36)
Listener Guide # 152
& 153 – Der Freischütz
A
Freischütz ("freeshooter"), in German folklore, is a marksman who, by
a contract with the devil, has obtained a certain number of bullets destined to
hit without fail whatever object he wishes. As the legend is usually told, six
of the magic bullets (German: Freikugeln, literally "free bullets"),
are thus subservient to the marksman's will, but the seventh is at the absolute
disposal of the devil himself. Resembling the Faust legend, Der Freischütz is a
story of two lovers whose ultimate fate is decided by supernatural forces, a
story which Weber brings to life by masterfully translating into music the
otherworldly, particularly sinister, aspects of the narrative. (Once or Twice aFortnight - 15 Feb 2014)
[Synopsis and Libretto]
L/G 152 [Overture,
Act 1, Act 2 (beginning)]
L/G #153 [Act
2 (conclusion), Entr'acte, Act 3]
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