Re: GG Chopin

[jerry and judy <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

>On Thu, 26 Mar 98 16:51:18 -0500, you wrote :
>
>>And I wouldn't say that Gould set out to destroy Mozart or the
>>"Appassionata", >>I would say he set out to "improve" them ;-)

>Well he set out to debunk them or perhaps to destroy people's preconceptions
>about the works. Volumes III & IV of the mozart sonatas are awful ! An
>experiment which doesn't work and the Appassionata fairs little better !


I wonder if you could be more specific, Neil?  I might agree with you,
because I've read some very high opinions of these works that I can't
totally accept.

You say "mozart sonatas are awful!" and I don't consider them to be any of
the following, positively or negatively:
1. Extremely bad or unpleasant; terrible.
2. Commanding awe.
3. Filled with awe, especially: a. Filled with or displaying great
reverence. b. Obsolete. Afraid.
4. Formidable in nature or extent.

For me, they're not number 1 or number 4!  I assume by your context that
you would be able to substitute number 1 for your word "awful".  I can't, I
find them to be well crafted and "pleasant".  In a stretch, I might apply
number 2 to these pieces, because of the speed at which they were turned
out, at nearly the same time as his various master works for piano concerto
and string quartet!

I always try to remember that Mozart (and Beethoven, in most cases) had
less than a few months to conceive of and then "perfect" a sonata.  We, on
the other hand, (some of us) have had our whole lives to re-reevaluate them
personally, for ourselves, as we hopefully have grown in music.  I have to
also quickly add the obvious, that we have had their total body of works
(and all of music history, before and since) and they only had their
considerably smaller "world" etc.

I'm sure you know that Mozart's intent in writing his late piano sonatas
was not the same as Beethoven's intent during his last decade.  Beethoven's
"late period" effort was a new *endeavor* in Music, maybe even in Art.

The Mozart late sonatas are a joy to play! more witty, for me, than Haydn
sonatas or Clementi, Beethoven sonatas.

The Appassionata (opening movement) has struck me (after a youthful
fascination with the Beethoven-ness of it, and others) as an attempt to try
to get away with something. (I'm going to be very embarrassed if Glenn used
that exact phrase in any of his comments, but I can't recall at this time
so...).  It's new! and it's outrageous for its setting, but is it good
composing?, is it honest?  I feel like a knat bounding up and down on a
woolly mammoth's brow, so I'll stop!

Getting back to GG.  I can see Gould's point about Mozart (and I empathize
with him, i.e. GG).  Being a serious musical thinker and a phenomenal
virtuoso, Glenn would have wished that Mozart had written more weighty solo
sonatas and more than one (or two) "worthy" piano concerti!  But the
reality was that Mozart pushed the envelope as wide as he thought he could
with the audience that he had.  After all, he remained all his working life
(mature), a freelance composer.  GG, and maybe the rest of us, should have
been wishing that Mozart had had a open-minded, music-loving, longstanding
patron!