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More alternatives to GG
Dear All,
Tonight I am locked in unequal struggle with the LvB Late Quartets: first,
the Op130 and Grosse Fugue; and now the Op132, prompted by reading that
Sylvia Plath in her late (but painfully young) years was addicted to the
grosse fugue.
There is enough damned music in these late quartets alone for a lifetime --
whether listening, composing or playing. And to think: these late works
were the product of an almost chance commission from one Prince. But while
working on the first of these (Op127), LvB was also working on the MIssa
Solemnis *and* the 9th Symphony. They don't make titans like that any more,
do they. Unfortunately, they also don't make too many mere mortals with the
stamina to even listen to this centuries-ahead-of-its-time stuff.
I listened to the fifth and the final vast movement of the Op130 again
tonight with that feeling of amazement: in three or four years LvB would be
dead. But listen to this stuff! It could have been written a hundred, even
a hundred and fifty years later and people would still have found it
challenging. Imagine the shock in the mid-1820s when these works were
unleashed on the good solid burghers of Vienna. Mein Gott, you can hear
them hissing to each other in stunned whispers....was is dass?
Amazing.
Sorry: no GG, but it is a *kind* of continuation of an earlier thread...honest.
Best, Alun
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ALUN SEVERN * Snailmail 1 Chestnut Rd Oldbury
W.Midlands B68 0AX England
* Tel + 44 (0)121 422 9509
* Fax + 44 (0)121 643 0661
* Email alun@ukiah.demon.co.uk
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"Solitude is the prerequisite for ecstatic experience..."
- Glenn Gould
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