[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: [F_minor] Beethoven Bagatelle #3
You are slightly mistaken about GG's playing of that particular Bagatelle. Go back to the manuscript and look. He is playing what Beethoven wrote. For a bar or two B just lets rip with the wildest articulation that the 19'th Century had heard to date. It last just a few seconds and then subsides. But, it is all there in the music. Scott Joplin was pleased.
As for the Bagatelles, there are times when the music, barely one page per piece, is totally hilarious, other times completed immersed in contemplation. Other times it is the Ferrari out on the Autobahn. So many emotions, thoughts, ideas that are highly compressed into short snippets. The overall conception is always a joy to hear. I am reminded that Schubert also wrote similar short pieces that made up a larger whole but for me they do not ascend to Beethoven's level of intellectual articulation. Nothing in Schubert seems to be at B's mental level. Melodic level, yes, he was every bit at B's level. But, music architecture, no, that was Schubert's weakness. Just before he died, he was supposedly set up to take more lessons in Counter-point.
Cheers,
Fred
-----Original Message-----
From: Reinhold, Christiane [mailto:christiane.reinhold@bearingpoint.com]
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 10:37 AM
To: Houpt, Fred; F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: RE: [F_minor] Beethoven Bagatelle #3
I agree with Fred that, at least for me, the Bagatelles are superior to GG's Sonata recordings (this has less to do with GG, but more with the Beethoven and my personal preferences; and that is not to say that the sonatas are inferior per se - far from it). The Bagatelles bring across so much in terms of personality (Beethoven's? GG's?) and a range of emotions (to me, I hear a good-sized temper at work, and lots of humor!) that is seems a very human/humanizing listening experience (perhaps at bit more earthy than Fred's impressions - but to each his own).
In fact, there's something I wanted to ask forever about Bagatelle ) Op.126, No.4 in B minor - I hear GG playing a stretch of it in almost a ragtime fashion (syncopation) which I didn't find indicated in the score I have (please don't ask me for the edition.... I would have to dig). Is this truly a GG add-on (I tend to think so as there exist some GG juvenilia when he plays it "straight" and incredibly fast)? Or are you aware of other interpreters taking a similar tack?
Thanks much!
C.
Christiane Reinhold, Ph.D., PMP
Manager, Public Services
BearingPoint
Management & Technology Consultants
301 Congress Avenue, Suite 1500
Austin, TX 78701
USA
T + 1 512 542 5351
C + 1 512 680 7537
F + 1 512 382 3386
www.bearingpoint.com
-----Original Message-----
From: f_minor-bounces@email.rutgers.edu [mailto:f_minor-bounces@email.rutgers.edu] On Behalf Of Houpt, Fred
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 9:21 AM
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: [F_minor] Beethoven Bagatelle #3
Subject: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOpA18uqziQ
This is GG playing Beethoven - Bagatelle No.3 Op.126. I own a copy of this but caught it today on You Tube. I was reminded of a passage in Kings [19:12] when God speaks to the Prophet Elijah in a quiet still voice, a whisper. When I listen to GG play this piece, I feel that he has articulated the stillness that Beethoven had found within his own heart as he humbled his soul before God. That is the impression it leaves with me. GG has drawn us into the quiet waiting room just outside of God's room, so to speak.
I tend to feel that GG's playing of the Beethoven miniature pieces excels over the sonatas. It struck me today that the miniature pieces, like the Bagatelles are like individual paintings that when heard one after the other as the Opus is meant to be heard, they take on the aspect of a kaleidoscope. The effect, for me, is utterly sublime and is on par with his last string quartets.
Fred Houpt
_______________________________________________________________________
This e-mail may be privileged and/or confidential, and the sender does not waive any related rights and obligations.
Any distribution, use or copying of this e-mail or the information it contains by other than an intended recipient is unauthorized.
If you received this e-mail in error, please advise me (by return e-mail or otherwise) immediately.
Ce courrier électronique est confidentiel et protégé. L'expéditeur ne renonce pas aux droits et obligations qui s'y rapportent.
Toute diffusion, utilisation ou copie de ce message ou des renseignements qu'il contient par une personne autre que le (les) destinataire(s) désigné(s) est interdite.
Si vous recevez ce courrier électronique par erreur, veuillez m'en aviser immédiatement, par retour de courrier électronique ou par un autre moyen.
_______________________________________________
F_minor mailing list
F_minor@email.rutgers.edu
https://email.rutgers.edu/mailman/listinfo/f_minor
***************************************************************************************************
The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. Access to this email by anyone other than the intended addressee is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, any review, disclosure, copying, distribution, retention, or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient, please reply to or forward a copy of this message to the sender and delete the message, any attachments, and any copies thereof from your system.
***************************************************************************************************
_______________________________________________________________________
This e-mail may be privileged and/or confidential, and the sender does not waive any related rights and obligations.
Any distribution, use or copying of this e-mail or the information it contains by other than an intended recipient is unauthorized.
If you received this e-mail in error, please advise me (by return e-mail or otherwise) immediately.
Ce courrier électronique est confidentiel et protégé. L'expéditeur ne renonce pas aux droits et obligations qui s'y rapportent.
Toute diffusion, utilisation ou copie de ce message ou des renseignements qu'il contient par une personne autre que le (les) destinataire(s) désigné(s) est interdite.
Si vous recevez ce courrier électronique par erreur, veuillez m'en aviser immédiatement, par retour de courrier électronique ou par un autre moyen.
_______________________________________________
F_minor mailing list
F_minor@email.rutgers.edu
https://email.rutgers.edu/mailman/listinfo/f_minor