Day 11

Hello! Two Videos & One PDF :)

Unit 2 Review

PRISM Framework - P.hrasing Activity

Downloads:
One thing for today :)

PRISM Framework

Today’s Recommended Listening:

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Cello Concerto in C-Major - III. Allegro Molto
Pieter Wispelwey / Florilegium
(unconducted, per the precedent of the time)
[Spotify] - 6 minutes

Joke: Why couldn’t they find Mozart’s teacher? Cuz he was Haydn.

It’s close enough to true that we let it slide. Mozart didn’t study composition so much with Haydn as like bounce ideas off of him. Meanwhile, a young Beethoven was going to go study with Mozart, but then Mozart died (age 35, remember?) and so Beethoven did go study with Haydn instead.

Haydn wrote more than 100 symphonies, more than 100 string quartets, countless works for keyboard, and four cello concertos - unfortunately, two have been lost. This one wasn’t rediscovered until the 60’s, and Jacqueline Du Pré actually has one of the first major recordings of it. It’s worth knowing that while this concerto is difficult, the D-Major concerto is much, much harder. We don’t know who Haydn wrote them for but that cellist must have been bananas.

Pieter Wispelwey is my favorite cellist. Full stop. He plays everything in a style appropriate to the period. His Bach is at period tuning (a full half step flat) on a period cello (no endpin) with a period bow (bent like a bow and arrow). His Beethoven Sonatas are correct for Beethoven’s era, and this Haydn is correct for this era too. Meanwhile, he’s also a great interpreter of the modern works. Such refinement, clarity, elegance, precision, and clear architecture.

What to explore next:

  1. Haydn | D-Major Cello Concerto [Wispelwey, of course]

  2. Haydn | String Quartet op. 76 #5 [epic slow movement, Cleveland Quartet]

  3. George Crumb | Solo Cello Sonata [Wispelwey]

See you tomorrow!
—Eric