Post by erik on Nov 7, 2020 18:25:04 GMT -5
One of Beethoven's late string quartets gets the string orchestra transcription treatment in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Beethoven: STRING QUARTET NO. 15 IN A MINOR, OP. 132 (ORCH. BY FRANZ WELSER MOST)
Beethoven was very much a revolutionary figure in his time, having bridged the late 18th century style of his forbearers Mozart and Haydn and the oncoming tide of 19th century Romanticism. But much of that innovation came through one particularly sad twist of fate. It was shortly after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1799 that his hearing had begun to fail. Within a few years, he found it very difficult to play the piano; and after the premiere of his Emperor Concerto, he stopped concretizing in public altogether. And then at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony in 1824, while somehow trying to help the conductor navigate that work’s epochal choral finale, at the end, he had to be turned around by the conductor to face the audience’s applause, which was vociferous; by that time, he had been totally deaf for three years. All of his later works consisted of music that he could only ever hear in his mind. One such work was his lengthy String Quartet No. 15 (though it was actually his thirteenth, it was published as No. 15), a very challenging work. At an average length of 45 minutes, along with the late works in this form of his much younger contemporary Franz Schubert, it is one of the longest chamber works of its time, not to mention the fact that it is in five movements, and its last movement was originally intended to be the final (instrumental) movement of the Ninth Symphony, before he settled on the Ode To Joy choral finale. At the far end of the 19th century, Gustav Mahler transcribed many of Beethoven’s and Schubert’s string quartets into works for full string orchestra rather inventively, though the transcription of the Fifteenth on this recording was made in 2019 for the Cleveland Orchestra by its music director Franz Welser Most.
Cleveland Orchestra/FRANZ WELSER MOST (Cleveland Orchestra)
Included (3-CD Set: A New Century):
Edgar Varese: AMERIQUES
Johannes Maria Staub: STROMAB
Richard Strauss: AUS ITALIEN, OP. 16
Bernd Richard Deutsch: OKEANOS (CONCERTO FOR ORGAN AND ORCHESTRA) (Organ: PAUL JACOBS)
Prokofiev: SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN C MINOR, OP. 44 (THE FIERY ANGEL)
Beethoven: STRING QUARTET NO. 15 IN A MINOR, OP. 132 (ORCH. BY FRANZ WELSER MOST)
Beethoven was very much a revolutionary figure in his time, having bridged the late 18th century style of his forbearers Mozart and Haydn and the oncoming tide of 19th century Romanticism. But much of that innovation came through one particularly sad twist of fate. It was shortly after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1799 that his hearing had begun to fail. Within a few years, he found it very difficult to play the piano; and after the premiere of his Emperor Concerto, he stopped concretizing in public altogether. And then at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony in 1824, while somehow trying to help the conductor navigate that work’s epochal choral finale, at the end, he had to be turned around by the conductor to face the audience’s applause, which was vociferous; by that time, he had been totally deaf for three years. All of his later works consisted of music that he could only ever hear in his mind. One such work was his lengthy String Quartet No. 15 (though it was actually his thirteenth, it was published as No. 15), a very challenging work. At an average length of 45 minutes, along with the late works in this form of his much younger contemporary Franz Schubert, it is one of the longest chamber works of its time, not to mention the fact that it is in five movements, and its last movement was originally intended to be the final (instrumental) movement of the Ninth Symphony, before he settled on the Ode To Joy choral finale. At the far end of the 19th century, Gustav Mahler transcribed many of Beethoven’s and Schubert’s string quartets into works for full string orchestra rather inventively, though the transcription of the Fifteenth on this recording was made in 2019 for the Cleveland Orchestra by its music director Franz Welser Most.
Cleveland Orchestra/FRANZ WELSER MOST (Cleveland Orchestra)
Included (3-CD Set: A New Century):
Edgar Varese: AMERIQUES
Johannes Maria Staub: STROMAB
Richard Strauss: AUS ITALIEN, OP. 16
Bernd Richard Deutsch: OKEANOS (CONCERTO FOR ORGAN AND ORCHESTRA) (Organ: PAUL JACOBS)
Prokofiev: SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN C MINOR, OP. 44 (THE FIERY ANGEL)
