What are you listening to now?

[Chris]

Jerome Moross - Sonata for Piano Duet and String Quartet

An enjoyable piece for a rather unusual combination of instruments. It's a piano quintet where an extra pianist showed up. I never would have thought of writing something like that.

[Roehre]

Today:

JSBach:
Brandenburg concertos nos.4-6 BWV 1049-1051

Bernstein (arr. Brown):
West Side Story Suite for violin and orchestra

Beethoven:
String Quartet no.4 in c op.18/4

Beamish:
Opus California (1999)

Langgaard:
Symphony no.4 “Lovfald” (1916)

Sibelius:
Malinconia op.20 (1911)
Romance in C op.42 (1903; arr.Taubmann 1909)

[Sorrano]

Today:

Rodrigo: Tres Pequenas Piezas
Respighi: Six Little Pieces (4 hands)

[Roehre]

Today:

JSBach:
Suites for Orchestra nos. 1 and 2 BWV 1066-1067

Berio:
Sequenza I (flute, 1958)
Sequenza II (harp, 1963)
Sequenza III (voice, 1965)
Recital I for Cathy (1971)
Folksongs (1964)

Günter Bergmann:
Stationen – Musikalisches Tagebuch 1936-39 (Stations – Musical diary 1936-1939)

Nancarrow:
Study no.7 (orchestral version)

[Sorrano]

Today:

Berwald: Symphony No. 4 in E Flat

Beethoven: King Stephen Overture

[Chris]

Caught Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik on the radio on the way in to work today. Not a bad way to start the day.

[Roehre]

Today:

JSBach:
Suites for Orchestra nos. 3 and 4 BWV 1068-1069

JSBach (attr.):
Suite for Orchestra in g BWV 1070

Sibelius:
Rakastava op.14 (string orchestra version)
Pelleas and Melisande op.46: suite

Berio:
Sequenza VI (viola, 1967)
Chemins II su Sequenza VI (1967)
Sequenza VII (oboe, 1969)
Chemins IV su Sequenza VII (1975)
Sequenza VIII (violin, 1976)
Corale su Sequenza VIII (1981)

[Agnes Selby]

Piano Trio in B flat, WoO 39

This is a beautiful work and I am listening to
it for the second time today. My daughter, Kathryn is playing it and she recorded
it for me. It is very melodious supposedly composed for Maximiliane Brentano,
the daughter of Franz and Antonie Brentano. The work shares the same key
of B flat with the Archduke Trio and some musicologists believe that it may have
been intended to be part of the great work. In any case, I am having
a beautiful time while listening and writing about it.

[Roehre]

This is a beautiful work and I am listening to
it for the second time today. My daughter, Kathryn is playing it and she recorded
it for me. It is very melodious supposedly composed for Maximiliane Brentano,
the daughter of Franz and Antonie Brentano. The work shares the same key
of B flat with the Archduke Trio and some musicologists believe that it may have
been intended to be part of the great work. In any case, I am having
a beautiful time while listening and writing about it.

Woo 39 is an inspiring, lovely and relatively easily playable piece indeed.
It was from the very beginning meant to be for Maximilliane -hence the relatively easy piano part- and never intended to be part of a larger work.
As it was meant for the young lady, it is the only autograph score of Beethoven's which contains Beethoven's own finger settings for the pianoplayer.
And isn't it a perfectly singable melody with which it starts?

[Chris]

As it was meant for the young lady, it is the only autograph score of Beethoven's which contains Beethoven's own finger settings for the pianoplayer.

Really? I remember one or two instances in the Henle editions of the solo piano music where they indicate fingerings by Beethoven.

[Roehre]

Really? I remember one or two instances in the Henle editions of the solo piano music where they indicate fingerings by Beethoven.

Chris, you are right.
There are more autographs with Beethoven's own fingerings (but WoO 39 is one in which you wouldn't expect them). And this was not restricted to one particular time in his life either, as there are fingerings in the around 1788/'90 composed (and therefore early) sonata(-fragment) WoO 50, as well as in the 1819/'21 composed (and therefore late) Kleinigkeiten op.119.
Remarkable however is that B was far from consequent in adding finger setting to works (most of the time he didn't), sometimes adding them to some difficult parts a work only (the Trio opus 70/2 a case, where fingerings were added after B sent a letter containing these for some passages to Breitkopf & Härtel (Bb 380), or the Bagatelles opus 119, of which AFAIK only 7-11 got them, as these were originally published separately).

[Chris]

Interesting. I'm pretty sure the Henle edition has no fingerings by Beethoven in Op. 119. I'll have to take a look at the comments and see if those are mentioned.

[Roehre]

Today:

Morawetz:
Fantasy in d (1950)

Anhalt:
Fantasia (1954)

Hétu:
Variations pour piano opus 8 (1964)

Hindemith:
Sonata for horn and piano (1939)
Sonata for trumpet and piano (1941)

JSBach:
Chorale Alle Menschen müssen sterben BWV 262
Chorale-preludes Alle Menschen müssen sterben BWV 643 and 1117

[Hofrat]

Beethoven also fingered the sonatina in F WoO 50.

[Roehre]

Beethoven also fingered the sonatina in F WoO 50.

As I mentioned in my posting #71 .
Here Beethoven also got an "amateur" pianist in mind.