Salieri

[Peter]

My attention has kindly been drawn to this new site on Salieri.

http://www.salieri-online.com

[Preston]

A very good and well thought out website. The person who did this site also did www.beethovenseroica.com, another great site.

[Hollywood]

Thanks for posting that Salieri site Peter. I'm always interested in finding more info on Salieri. There is still so much that I didn't know about the man and his music but now I can hopefully learn more about him from this site. Danke!

[Salieri]

Thank you Peter for mentioning my site here.
And thank you Preston and Hollywood for your kind words.

I hope that visitors to my site will find it interesting and helpful.

Bill aka Salieri

[Preston]

Thanks Bill.

[Salieri]

A well designed site, Salieri. And one that should help dispel much nonsense that floats about on non-peer reviewed websites. I'm sure you know it will attract attention (and no doubt rage) from a certain fringe group that believes the world is flat and only 6000 years old and that Salieri was really Neefe in disguise and who ... (continues in similar vein for 99 pages).

LOL. I have this feeling of dread that Mozart zealots will track me down and have me "whacked".

I did "take a look" at Salieri's music quite some months ago, and bought this CD : Salieri & Stefan : Concertos for Fortepiano, Andreas Staier with the Concerto Köln.

There is an outstanding recording of Salieri's C Major PC on the Azzura Music label by the Orchestra Gaetano Zinetti with Francesco Bencivenga on the ivories and Marco Morelato waving the stick. It's available on Amazon as an MP3 download. Well worth the expense.

You mention on your site that it is not helpful (irrelevant, I think you wrote) to compare his works with Mozart and so on. Whilst I agree that it serves no debate whatsoever to say that Mozart is a "better composer" than Salieri, I still do think that it is highly interesting to compare them objectively and disinterestedly. I think I also need to acquire more CDs of his music, especially the operas before I would feel competent to comment more.

I also used the phrase "monotonous comparisons with Mozart". That said, I confess I'm guilty of comparing the two.

As you point out, there is nothing wrong with objective comparison. What bothers me are those who dismiss Salieri out of hand with a mere "Mozart was better". I would like to nominate those folks for the Captain Obvious award of the century. Is there such a contest? I'd really like to enter 'em.
My point was and is, in the context of his place in time, Salieri made an invaluable contribution to the development of 18th century opera. BTW, if you want a suggestion for a starting point for your Salieri opera collection, I recommend La Grotta di Trofonio. The recording by Les Talens Lyriques is superb. This opera was one of Salieri's best and in it's time, as Thayer points out, was far more popular in Germany than Figaro or Don Giovanni.

Anyway, good luck with your site. If you see my name on your forum, please ban me immediately.

Thanks.

I'll address your other post here.

Talking of Salieri, did Beethoven have any comments about him or his teaching? We recall that Beethoven said he "never learnt anything" from papa Haydn.

Beethoven's relationship with Salieri as a teacher was like his other teachers, on again - off again. With Salieri it seemed more on than off. Ultimately, Salieri, like Haydn, regarded Beethoven as a difficult student. Nonetheless B. wrote a set of variations on "La stessa, la stessissima" WoO. 73, always a composer's tip of the hat. And later dedicated his Op 12 Violin Sonatas to Salieri. Thayer goes out of his way to emphasize what a compliment this was.
And Moscheles recounts an anecdote about calling on S. one day only to find him out. On a table was a note that said "the pupil Beethoven was here".
Among the more famous disagreements between these two is the time that Salieri (and everybody else) advised Beethoven to revise Fidelio. Beethoven didn't take kindly to that.
Then there was an incident involving the annual concert of the Tonkünstler Society which Salieri had directed for several years. It had always been held Dec 22 and our dear Beethoven had the bad form to schedule the premiere of his symphonies 5 and 6 and the piano concerto 4 on Dec 22. Salieri was livid.
And as Salieri neared his end and the rumors of poisoning were making the rounds, we know from the conversation books that Beethoven didn't believe for a minute that Salieri had done that. What's interesting from the conversation books is that virtually everybody who spoke to B. brought the subject up. By the early 1820's it was a hot topic in Vienna.

Enough rambling! Word of caution, don't ask me about Salieri, ROFL. I might answer.

Bill

[Hofrat]

Talking of Salieri, did Beethoven have any comments about him or his teaching? We recall that Beethoven said he "never learnt anything" from papa Haydn.

I read some where that Beethoven, during one of his strolls, found himself in Salieri's neighborhood. So he went up to the apartment but Salieri was not at home. Beethoven left a note which he signed "Beethoven, your student."

If true, Beethoven was most humble.