Immortal Beloved

I found this collection of trumpet Concertos on Apple Music. This is with the Bamberger Symphoniker rather than the Berliner Philharmoniker as with the above video. (This leads to a logical question: What do you like on your Bamburger?)

But it’s another good rendition of Haydn’s trumpet concerto. And it puts the concerto in context with a couple more good works, one by Leopold Mozart (father of Wolfgang), one by Johann Baptist Wanhal, and one by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

All these works were quite listenable. But surely it can’t be that that very first music composed for the keyed trumpet was the best? But none of those other entries even begins to displace Hadyn’s trumpet concerto as the best. But there must be dozens of great trumpet concertos, right? I haven’t heard them all. There’s no way the first piece of music could ever be the best.

And yet…

Right now I’m listening to the one with the Berliner Philharmoniker with Claudio Abbado conducting. Are you saying mixing an Italian with a Kraut might not be as good? But so far so good.

I did a search on Herbert von Karajan in Apple Music. The first entry in his list is his Beethoven Symphony No. 5. I’ve added that to my library. It lists as his “essential album” Puccini’s La Bohème. Do I have what it takes to listen to some opera? We’ll see.

They list a whole bunch of live albums with von Karajan. But nothing with him conducting a piece by Mahler.

They do have him conducting Haydn’s Die Schöpfun (The Creation) which that one program said was his masterpiece. I’ve added that to my library for future listening.

[Later...]

Okay. I had to dig deep. I found Mahler's Symphony No. 5 as conducted by the Austrian. You can access Apple Music (a relatively new feature) on a web browser. That gives me many more results than on the phone or tablet (and makes it a lot easier to search and to see the results). So as good as the Kraut and the Italian were, I’ll pick it up with von Karajan.

They must make for good kissers. And other things.

In his duties, he was writing cantanas for each yearly election of the new town councils in Mühlhausen and for Leipzig. So I guess I can see him writing these commitment-type one-offs and then some church burning down with the only copy.

Or mice.

When Bach moved on to working for royalty to a more civic/civilian position, he had to work with amateur musicians — which apparently he made the best of (literally the "best" of). And he still gave private lessons. And just regular townspeople might come to his door and he'd let them in and be sociable.

And I'm thinking, "This is J.S. Bach. Leave him alone so he can write his masterpieces." But these people are just people and its easy to lionize them and set them above...especially when so many artists attempt to do just that themselves. But apparently J.S. wasn't one of them.

And as to his lost compositions, for me it gives new meaning to "Known only to God."

Mozart wrote the more striking, foot-tapping melodies, which is not to cut him short on his other stuff. I love Mozart. But composers such as Tchaikovsky are like a multi-layered lasagna. It’s not for everyone, but it sure is rich.

I was reminded of something that Leif said in regards to Beethoven, and it was presented not as a “know it all” type of comment but from a guy who was living the music. He said that despite the soul-crushing hardships that Beethoven often had to endure, you never found any self-pity in his music.

Most commenters seem to say how Beethoven’s emotions (while stemming from the personal) are expressed in a more universal way in his music and that this is a large part of the attraction that people have. It’s such an interesting mix, because none of these guys is shy. They are competitive, motivated, talented, and ready and willing to show off their talents. And yet (sometimes) the music took them to another realm.

From what I’ve heard of Beethoven, Leif’s comment seems consistent. Mozart was a rabid egotist (and had the music to back it up). But Beethoven was the deeper mix of things. The same was said in one of these documentaries about J.S. Bach. Yes, you’d hear that tune on the surface but there was a hell of a lot going on. In fact, they showed one of his hand-written scores and, jeepers, it looked like some of Einstein’s equations.

A chap named Michael Hart wrote (and later updated) a book called The 100 ranking the most influential people in history.  Religious leaders and inventors tended to be more important than politicians, but there were also straight scientists (Newton ranked 2nd) and cultural figures.  Included were 2 musicians:  Bach and Beethoven.  (Note that Hart ranked them on their historical influence, not on brilliance or ability or any other standard of merit.)

Thanks for the recommendations, Artler. Those sound like good ones and I’ll tell you what I think of them as as come to them.

Artler, I finished Mahler’s symphony number 1. And I actually went back to the Claudio Abbado version with the Berliner Philharmoniker. It was just a matter of the recording being cleaner and more dynamic. You will find that on Apple Music (or anywhere, I suppose). This had nothing to do with better conducting or the kettle drum guy keeping a better beat.

And I did generally like it. It’s another piece (like Beethoven’s 9th Symphony) that I didn’t listen to in ideal conditions. A lot of jumping around here at work, although not necessarily the kind of jumping around that pays the bills.

Right now I’m listening to Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 with Leif “Falls in the forest” Andsnes on piano. I’m enjoying it. It’s a quite varied piece of work so, unlike so many symphonies that just drone on, this is much better at holding my interest.