Foreword
So who guessed the genre next under the microscope from the clues left at the end of
Post 5? Now, I do like a bit of classical but am far from being an aficionado but I reckon the following may prove to be most entertaining for those who are knowledgeable on the subject as well as those who have run scared from it. After all, whilst I recommend listening to bits and pieces of music as we work our way through this whole bunch of words, you don't have to, do you? I have tried to find information that is a little off the beaten thingymajig and hope you find it at least amusing.
So, ALL ABOARD THE SKYLARK! (ref: Noah and Nelly. BBC TV 1976 to 1977)
CLASSICAL MUSIC
By far the most often represented genre is Classical music and the most popular
composers to feature on the front cover of the LPs are Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. Bach, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert are all well represented too. Approximately one third of the collection is devoted to classical music and, in all, there are something like 70 composers who are featured. That’s a pretty wide selection. Moszkowski anyone? No, me neither! Actually, Moritz Moszkowski was a German-Jewish composer of piano music and pops up on CAPRICCIO ESPAGNOL (SPA 182). This is one of handful of records in the WORLD OF series that doesn’t have ‘WORLD OF’ in the main title. It is however, a member of the series within the series with a text box on the cover proclaiming them a member of THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS club so it’s all in there somewhere.
There is also a handful of various artists type LPs such as THE WORLD OF OPERA
VOLUME 1 (SPA 449), THE WORLD OF OPERA VOL. 2 (SPA 450) and THE WORLD OF BALLET (SPA 55) and apart from these overtly classical records, there are some which feature light orchestral versions of classical pieces such as THE WORLD OF IMMORTAL CLASSICS (SPA 176) by Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra. And, as if that wasn’t enough, there are 10 volumes of THE WORLD OF YOUR HUNDRED BEST TUNES and three of THE WORLD OF YOUR HUNDRED BEST TUNES: THE NEW CHART. Curiously, Volume 2 (SPA 488) of this trio appears in the numerical listing above Volume 1( SPA 491) ... Also sporting classical music are titles such as THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: ANIMALS IN MUSIC (SPA 366) and THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: BIRDS IN
MUSIC (SPA 367) the back cover of which, gives me a chance to veer away from the job in hand for a moment, in order to point out what I believe is a small ornithological error. We have, amongst others, an image of a bird labelled ‘Wren’ that looks rather more like some kind of warbler to me. Whatever it is, I know what it isn’t and that is a wren! What do you think, Twitchers?
JOSEPH COOPER
Further, there are 3 volumes of THE WORLD OF JOSEPH COOPER (SPA 372, 473 and
519) plus THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: AN EVENING WITH JOSEPH COOPER (SPA 542). Mr Cooper was a pianist with a classical bent but was probably
better known as the compere of a TV music quiz show on the BBC called Face the Music. Radio listeners may remember him even before this time on a similar programme called Call the Tune which ran in the late 1950s/early 60s. The show was moved to television in 1967 where it became regular viewing for music buffs until 1979. It combined the love of classical music with the gentle geniality of the host and his panellists who variously comprised such as Richard Baker, Robin Ray, Joyce Grenfell, and Bernard Levin. Not knowing these names, incidentally, reflects favourably upon one’s age so don’t be worrying about a gap in your knowledge in the event of not being able to recall them. As well as those above, stars of the WORLD OF series such as Dudley Moore and George Solti also guested as panellists on the quiz. Anyway, the highlight of the show is generally considered to have been the bit where Joseph Cooper played a dummy keyboard which emitted dull thuds instead of the usual notes of pianistic timbre, from which, the guests were to try and name the piece. After a few seconds, us TV viewers were put out of our misery as the music was faded in and we all, because we knew our stuff, chorused, ‘Oh yeah, of course ….’
Apparently, AN EVENING WITH JOSEPH COOPER, kind of replicates Joseph’s stage show of the time (the time being about 1978) and the back cover notes on each piece resemble his stage patter when he would introduce each piece with some elucidation regarding the coming bit of piano. Stuff like how the popular name for Beethoven's Sonata in C sharp minor, Op.27, No. 2 came about, for example. You know, how like the poet Rellstab decided that the music brought to mind the still waters of Lake Lucerne reflecting the light of the moon. Et voila! The Moonlight Sonata! 'Huh!' I hear you say, 'that's all very well but what is the name of his cat?' Well, I have that information too. The cat's name is Suti-Mia.
GEORG SOLTI
So, as well as musicians and singers being given a place in the WORLD OF collection, we have Georg Solti, who, though an accomplished classical pianist, gained his fame
as a symphonic and operatic conductor. He was sought all over the world for his skills at bringing the best out of orchestras but may partly have John Culshaw to thank for helping him to so successful a career. Conductors were sometimes not invited to lead orchestras because of their propensity to talk about, rather more than demonstrate, required modifications to playing techniques. Those that talked too much were seen to be somewhat insecure and thus failed to instil confidence in the large number of members of a full orchestra. In the early days, Georg Solti talked compulsively but probably failed to recognise it in himself. Culshaw decided, one day, to do Solti a favour and recorded him in full flow when the ratio of words to music was heavily in favour of the former. Later, Georg was invited to the listening booth and was played his monologue. He was incredulous and accused the recording team of collecting sections of conversation and splicing them together to create an implausibly long lecture. He was, though, convinced in the end and it seems, was largely cured of his need to overdo the chat. Another career saved!
In Solti on Solti, his memoir, Georg told a tale of the time he thought things had gone horribly wrong. Whilst touring Israel he was required to negotiate his orchestra through the First Concertos of both Tchaikovsky and Liszt. His piano soloist for both
pieces was a John Ogden and in both tunes there is a lengthy cadenza, a time for showy soloists to shine. These sequences are sufficiently similar for a musician to get confused and play the wrong one. Ogden started off OK
but seemed to drift into the wrong one. In panic, Solti frantically began trying to work out how he could get the Tchaikovsky cadenza to merge with the Liszt Concerto and the moment was looming. He was sweating on this, knowing that he was practically helpless and was expecting the concert to come to an ugly end. Reputations take an eternity to build but can be destroyed in seconds. Plentiful woe, I should think. But magically, Ogden wiggled things and the two pieces came together seamlessly. Great relief, then but heading back to the dressing rooms when the performance had ended, Georg Solti was in something of a rage by all accounts and was ready to blast Mrs Ogden’s little boy. Then a bit of mischief was revealed – it was all done deliberately to wind Solti up. The date? April 1st!
Now that we have negotiated a gentle introduction to our new subject, things may be a little easier if we separate our cogitations into the discreet periods of time in the history of the creation of classical music. Though there are sometimes discrepancies, especially around the times where one period turns into another, they usually go something like this:
§ Early Music (up to 1400)
§ Renaissance (c. 1400-c. 1600)
§ Baroque (c. 1600-c. 1750)
§ Classical (c. 1750-c. 1830)
§ Romantic (c. 1830-c. 1900)
§ 20th Century and Beyond (c. 1900-Present)
EARLY MUSIC AND THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD
There are not too many examples of music from the Early and Renaissance eras amongst the WORLD OF series and the ones there are seem to be confusingly mislabelled according to the above list. The WORLD OF EARLY MUSIC (SPA 547), for example, features music of composers who weren’t even born until the Renaissance years! Anyway, the tunes on this LP comprise mainly madrigals and lute music presented, according to the front cover, by the
Consort of Musicke and you might expect the lute to find emphasis here as the Director of Music is lutenist Anthony Rooley. The interesting thing here for us collectors, however, has little to do with the contents of the grooves. It is the sleeve design that titillates as it bears no resemblance to the regular lovingly-regarded style to which we are, by-now, accustomed. True, it is called THE WORLD OF EARLY MUSIC but the curly font is missing and the record label logo presents as a DECCA-free EDITIONS DE L’OISEAU LYRE on the front cover and claims to be part of the FLORILEGIUM SERIES. A definition of this F-word is ‘anthology’, incidentally. The front cover is finished off by a classically-inclined 1cm thick border with a central image of, let’s call ‘em, early musicians. The back cover is a rather dull affair of small black print proclaiming the titles and authors (where known) of all 27 pieces that can be found here along with two short columns of informative text. There is also some detail of Mr Rooley’s consort and, finally, confirmation that the L’OISEAU LYRE label is part of the DECCA family. If there was any fear that this label was not DECCA related, they would have been rapidly allayed as my copy of this record is on the later issue grey DECCA label with the red and blue circumferential rings. This record is one of two similar oddities on the L’OISEAU LYRE label in the WORLD OF series, the second one being THE WORLD OF THE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA (SPA 544).
BAROQUE PERIOD
So, the sleeve design of THE WORLD OF THE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA (SPA 544) follows similar lines to SPA 547 discussed above with the music being produced by The Academy of Ancient Music under the direction of Christopher Hogwood. In this
case, however, I am pleased to have a copy on the actual L’OISEAU LYRE label itself. Comprising this LP is the music of some well-known names such as Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi, George F Handel and Johann Christian Bach along with a couple of less well-known composers. Czech Johann Stamitz, who is considered to be the founder of the Mannheim school, a movement in music style developed in the court of Mannheim and Francesco Germiniani, an Italian violinist.
There is also a regular DECCA LP, The
WORLD OF BAROQUE (SPA 129), which once again humours Vivaldi and this time, Johann Sebastian Bach along with pieces by Giovanni Gabrieli, Arcangelo Corelli and Giovanni Batista Pergolesi. Whilst the less popular musicians enjoy their sole WORLD OF representation on these records, the bigger names find themselves more widely scattered amongst our collection. Let's consider them all in a little more depth.
GIOVANNI GABRIELI, ARCANGELO CORELLI AND GIOVANNI BATISTA PERGOLESI
The music of Gabrieli is generally considered to fall between the Renaissance period (which precedes the Baroque) and that of the Baroque during a period of experimentation which, in Gabrieli’s case, meant writing for two or four choirs instead of one and also composing instrumental parts within choral works. Giovanni Gabrieli also wrote instrumental music in canzoni form which refers to a song-like structure that quite often was polyphonic with more than one melody. Anyway, to get a taste of this style, you could do worse than listen to ‘Canzon primi toni’ on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: TRUMPET VOLUNTARY (SPA-A 556).
Concerto grossi were Arcangelo Corelli’s bag and he was the first major composer to write in this style. The more conventional form of classical concertos is that a principal instrument will communicate the main melody to the main orchestra whereas, in the case of concerto grosso, the melody is discussed with several solo instruments before sending the upshot of their conflab to the orchestra. Why not try and work it out by listening to ‘Concerto Grosso No. 8 in G Minor’ on SPA 129 (other music platforms do exist). Finally, a few words on Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. On the aforementioned THE WORLD OF BAROQUE (SPA 129) can be found ‘Concerto Armonico No.2 in G Major’ by Pergolesi but, did Pergolesi write it? All six of these concerti were composed in the contrapuntal Baroque style that would have fitted snugly into the port-folio of our man and handwritten copies of the music suggested that the author was, indeed, G. B. Pergolesi. But investigation has revealed that the score was first published in Holland in 1740 (Pergolesi died four years previously, though this would not necessarily discount his authorship) with no name other than that of the publisher, Carlo Ricciotti, associated with it. On the strength of the fact that Ricciotti was a composer himself, the works were assigned to him, temporarily at least. It wasn’t until something like 1980 that the mystery was solved, at last. A musicologist, Mr Albert Dunning visited the library in Delden, Holland and stumbled across documents of the compositions which had a foreword by Dutch Count Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer claiming authorship and permission for Ricciotti to publish on the proviso that the Count was not identified as their composer. This is not the only case of suspicion regarding the composing rights of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi either, which may all a bit tough on a man who died so early at the age of 26 years.
JOHANN PACHELBEL
One of the great masters of the organ, Johann Pachelbel tutored Johann Christoph Bach who went on to give his baby brother Johann Sebastian a few pointers. Pachelbel has written over 500 pieces of music but how many of us could name two of them? After Canon in D, where do you go? You might be thinking that our friends at DECCA would be able to help us out here but nope! They seem to be stuck too because in the whole of the WORLD OF collection, poor ol’ Pachelbel has just the one entry. In classical music, is there anyone else who has the sad ignominy of qualifying for life as the sole inhabitant of a box called ‘One Hit Wonders’? And the LP it is on is a best of-type compilation; THE WORLD OF YOUR HUNDRED BEST TUNES: THE NEW CHART VOL.3 (SPA 565). Still, it IS a big favourite. But what is a canon? Well, in musical terms, it is a melody that is repeated in a round. And a round is when at least three voices or instruments sing/play the same melody but with each one beginning at a particular interval after their predecessor. Also, listen out for the ostinato which is another repeated rhythmic pattern, in this case, it is the bass line that begins the piece. So, there you go – information to enhance your listening experience.
HENRY PURCELL
The music of Henry Purcell crops up on ten WORLD OF records but shares the honours with other composers on all of them. Purcell’s music has a particularly English sound, especially the pieces composed for trumpet. Turn your Dansette (classic make of radiogram and the like in the 1950s and 60s) up nice and loud and play ‘Trumpet Tune and Air’ on THE WORLD OF GREAT CLASSICS: TRUMPET VOLUNTARY (SPA 556). Be warned, however – it stops
and starts a couple of times before it finally ends. Fantastic Britishness when you need it. I would also recommend the ‘Rondo from Abdelazar’ which is my favourite bit of Purcell but I can’t find it on any of the WORLD OFs. Surely some mistake! Never mind. There are plenty of other pieces distributed amongst various types of record. For example, as well as the tune for trumpet above, you’ll find a secular song called ‘I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly’ on DAVID HUGHES: SONGS OF LOVE (SPA 287) see Post 4, a sacred song entitled ‘Hear My Prayer, O Lord’ on THE WORLD OF KING’S VOL. 2 (SPA 590), a tune for organ on THE WORLD OF THE ORGAN (SPA 262) also called ‘Trumpet Tune’ which was originally written for, wait for it, harpsichord, and one about birds; ‘When the Cock begins to Crow’ on THE WORLD OF GREAT CLASSICS: BIRDS IN MUSIC (SPA 367).
ANTONIO VIVALDI
We should consider ourselves lucky to have access to Vivaldi’s music at all. Following his death in 1741, manuscripts of all of his work found their way to a Count Giacomo Durazzo who decided to lock them away from the world. The count even stipulated in his will that the music should never be performed or published. Happily, (for Vivaldi fans anyway) the documents found their way to more appreciative hands around 200 years later, and the order was quashed and now everyone has heard of The Four Seasons and simply MUST have heard the omnipresent first movement of ‘Spring’. Each season, two of which take up each
side of THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: THE FOUR SEASONS (SPA 201), is a mini concerto with three movements with a fast-slow-fast format or, as we like to say (don’t we?), allegro-largo-allegro. Actually, to complete this lesson, the second movement (‘Summer’) begins with an allegro non-molto which means quick but not very. So, let’s have a listen. Soon after the start of the first movement you’ll hear the birds of Spring for the first time. The cuckoo chirps up a minute or so into ‘Summer’, later to be joined by other birds a little more joyously - idyllic as Summer often is. But the slow bit introduces the threat of a storm with occasional bursts of distant thunder. Summer ends with the promised storm – take cover! An impression of the bitter cold of Winter is depicted by shivering strings in the early moments of this movement.
Incidentally, Vivaldi had red hair and, because he was studying religion at the same time as learning the violin, his musical pals knew him as The Red Priest.
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
George II was born in Germany and when his father, George I, succeeded to the British throne, small George was made Prince of Wales. When big George passed away and his little boy had been King for a while, not forgetting his ancestry, he drew England into the war of Austrian Succession. This was, nominally at least, an argument about whether Maria
Theresa, being a woman, was eligible for the throne in the event of the death of her father, Charles VI. After eight years of fighting, the war was concluded by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle with all participants settling their differences. To honour this event, George II commissioned Handel to produce a celebratory work of music. Thus, the Fireworks Music, which can be heard on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: HANDEL: WATER MUSIC: FIREWORKS MUSIC (SPA 120) was created and a fantastic firework spectacular was planned. Well, the rain was pretty spectacular, too and many of the fireworks were too damp to light but since some of those that could be ignited caused something of a conflagration, resulting in the destruction of marquees and tents, perhaps the downpour was a godsend. Apart from that, things went off pretty well with, apparently, just the two people losing their lives so that was OK, then.
George Frideric was born in the same year as JS Bach (1685) and, curiously, suffered the same drastic fate as his contemporary. Bach suffered from cataracts later on in his life and ended up in the hands of a so-called oculist named John Taylor. Turns out he was a bit of a fly-by-night performing botched eye surgery, amongst other quackery, for a living and Bach’s last years were spent with ever-declining vision. When Handel began to suffer from cloudy vision you’d have thought the person to avoid would have been Mr John Taylor. Fine composer, Handel, but a bit casual with his eyesight! Took himself off to Mr Taylor.
When he was a young man, Handel auditioned for the job of organist at Marienkirche
(or if you like, St Mary’s Church) in Lubeck, Germany, on the retirement of the composer Dietrich Buxtehude. This would have been a fine position but Handel wasn’t happy with the terms of engagement. Quite literally ‘engagement’ as it turns out because he was obliged, on accepting the position, to marry Buxtehude’s daughter! I hope that he found gainful employment soon after because if he ever had too much time on his hands, he may have had second thoughts on his decision. In such cases, it was often the widow who was on offer so
in the event of accepting the post, he may have been able to consider himself rather lucky! A couple of years later, Bach also turned down this position.
Such was the interest in an Irish performance of the Messiah, which in our collection, resides on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: HANDEL: MESSIAH SELECTIONS (SPA 284) a notice was circulated to the effect that, in order to squeeze as big an audience into the concert hall as was comfortably possible, perhaps the ladies would come without hoops and the gentlemen without swords! A further record from the Handel portfolio in our collection is THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: ZADOK THE PRIEST (SPA 567).
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Johann Sebastian Bach did time in jail. To begin with, he was probably very pleased to obtain a position as Court Organist and Chamber Musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst but after eight years, the novelty began to wear off, apparently. He asked to be able to leave and on having his request turned down, he asked again. And again, and again and again …… Well, who wouldn’t be irritated by this persistent insistence? Willy was and tucked Bach away for a month!
One of Bach’s more popular pieces, ‘Watchet Auf’ which is found on THE WORLD OF GREAT CLASSICS VOL. 10: CLAIR DE LUNE (SPA 111) was written for performance on
the 27th Sunday after Trinity Sunday. The German title converts to ‘wake up’ in English or, more prosaically, ‘sleeper awake’. We must hope, though, that Johann Sebastian wasn’t relying upon commission accrued from the playing of this piece on the radio. You see, the 27th Sunday following Trinity, when it happens at all, is at the end of the Church year, that is, it immediately precedes Advent in the run-up to Christmas. There are always four Sundays in the Season of Advent – this is fixed. Trinity Sunday falls on the Sunday following Pentecost. Pentecost falls fifty days after Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday falls, as you may have noticed, fifty days after the first chocolate egg appears in your local supermarket … or something like that. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, the timing of Trinity in the Church year depends upon the timing of Easter. Easter is sometimes early and sometimes late and in a year where Easter comes late, there is just not enough time to squeeze in a 27th Sunday before Advent must begin. So, the upshot is that Watchet Auf was rarely performed in the years following its own creation. Of course, them what own SPA 111 can listen to it any darn time they feel like it!
THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: AIR ON THE G STRING (SPA 568) features,
among other tunes by other composers, the eponymous title by Bach as does THE WORLD OF BACH (SPA 322). A basic definition of an air (possibly better known as the Italian ‘aria’) is a song or song-like piece but may be sung or can be instrumental. Incidentally, the original name for this composition was Suite No. 3 in D major 2nd movement but gained more comprehensive popularity when arranged by violinist, August Wilhelmji, on the lower G string. Johann Sebastian’s music also features on a later record under the GREAT CLASSICS DECCA
logo, J.S. BACH: ST. MATTHEW PASSION: CHORUSES AND ARIAS (SPA 596), a record sponsored by the Sun Alliance Insurance Group, and THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: GREAT CHORAL CLASSICS (SPA 527), an album of popular cantatas such as ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’ and others by other composers. Cantatas are dramatic songs written to stand on their own rather than to be acted out as in opera. Ecclesiastical cantatas were composed with regard to the church year and each year called for 59 pieces.
Bach was charged with producing works for five church years so must have written nearly 300 cantatas, at least – a fantastic number! Composing for the church would quite likely have meant writing for the organ and Bach excelled in this department too. Check out THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: BACH ORGAN WORKS (SPA 459) … and did his organ work? Read on to find out.
Amongst his twenty children, though sadly only ten made it to adulthood, (and he only had two wives!) Johann Sebastian had a couple of rather successful composer sons, Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel, and for a while, the boys outshone their father. Difficult to imagine nowadays when Dad’s music is omnipresent but in those days, he was probably more known for being an organist and, ahem, a father.
TOMASO ALBINONI
Probably one of Tomaso Albinoni’s most popular, or at least, well-known pieces, is ‘Adagio in G Minor’ and this features on THE WORLD OF THE ORGAN (SPA 262). So it’s a shame that he had very little to do with the writing of it. Italian student of music, Remo Giazotto stumbled across a shred of paper whilst nosing around in the ruins of the Dresden State Library shortly following the end of World War II. It turned out to be a musical manuscript comprising a bass line and some violin parts, a mere jotted idea attributed to Albinoni. Giazotto thought it looked like a piece for two instruments and that it was probably a meant for the Church. With this in mind, from this scrap, Remo created ‘Adagio’ and scored it for organ and strings. So, instead of being written late 17th to mid-18th century during Tomaso’s time, it was actually conceived mid-20th century. The version on SPA 262 is that for organ and strings and, shame on the proof reader for the notes on the back cover, the composer’s first name is augmented by and extra ‘M’ in the middle – or could this be some sort of code to express the writer’s displeasure at having to claim Albinoni’s ownership of the piece, fully knowing this may not be the case….. or could I simply be getting a bit carried away? Anyway, if you are not familiar with ‘Adagio in G Minor’, be sure to listen to it whilst in good heart because, whilst it is a lovely tune, it is spectacularly miserable and if you are at all depressed, it could the last piece of music you ever hear.
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU
Rameau makes one appearance on THE WORLD OF VIOLIN VOL. 2 (SPA 405) but only really to show off the arranging skills of violinist Fritz Kreisler and the playing
prowess of Derek Collier as his ‘Tambourin’, his pièce de clavecin, becomes a piece for violin. Interesting though, because the same tune crops up on THE WORLD OF HARPSICHORD: GEORGE MALCOLM (SPA 261) one can compare the two … if one cares so to do, that is. It is the third of three consecutive works that begin Side 2, following ‘La Poule’ (‘The Hen’) and ‘Le Rappel des Oiseaux’ (‘The Summoning of the Birds’).
Whilst he had some detractors, Rameau had King Louis XV in his corner and shortly before his death, received noble exaltation and had a bronze bust and marble tombstone erected at St Eustache which is in the Ile de France in the North of Paris. You’d think that his remains would be somewhere nearby but apparently his exact whereabouts is not known.
THOMAS ARNE, DOMENICO PARADIES, DOMENICO SCARLATTI, LOUIS CLAUDE DAQUIN and FRANÇOIS COUPERIN
Having mentioned George Malcolm’s record THE WORLD OF HARPSICHORD (SPA 261) above, it would seem like a good time to mop up a few of the lesser known
Baroque writers that feature, however briefly, therein. The harpsichord has a very distinctive sound amongst the keyboard family due to its strings being plucked rather than being hit by hammers (as in the piano) or air being passed through pipes (as in the organ) etc. George Malcolm (pictured below) plays all of the tunes.
Englishman Thomas Augustine Arne contributes two tunes to the WORLD OF record series but neither are the one from which most of his fame stems, ‘Rule Britannia’. This gets an airing at least once a year at the Last Night of the Proms and it’s difficult to believe that there is a single person in the UK who is not subjected to it every now and again so perhaps it is good to be able to have a listen to another of his works, ‘The Lass with the Delicate Air’ from THE WORLD OF GREAT CLASSICS: DAVID HUGHES: SONGS OF LOVE (SPA 287) and ‘Sonata No. 1 in F’ (not such a catchy title) on this LP.
Pietro Domenico Paradies was an Italian harpsichordist whose most popular piece decorates this LP. ‘Toccata in A major’, called, rather casually, ‘Toccata’ in the track listing of the back cover, is, as most toccatas are, a rapid-fire allegro keyboard piece which sounds generally a little improvisational. Paradies, who is represented in the WORLD OFs by just this one tune was influenced by another member of the keyboard club, Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti. Another Italian whose status amongst Paradies and others is demonstrated by his having
four of his 500 and something sonatas played on this record. It seems that he partook of a keyboard challenge with the mighty Handel, each playing their favoured instruments but the judges declined to call a winner (and, more importantly probably, therefore a loser). Scarlatti, however, was judged the better harpsichordist whilst Handel was hailed as the better organist.
Now we have a couple of French composers; Louis-Claude Daquin and François Couperin. Daquin provides his ‘The Cuckoo’ on SPA 261 as well as THE WORLD OF GREAT CLASSICS: BIRDS IN MUSIC (SPA 367). It is even the same recording! What a swizz! If Daquin had been alive today, he’d have turned in his grave … or something. Especially as the Birds record is already a bit cuckoo-heavy with a Respighi tune of the same name. Ah well, so, anyway, if a piece of music is called after a particular bird, you’d expect to recognise its call in the piece and, sure enough, it is there right at the beginning and can be heard all the way through.
Our remaining composer, Couperin le Grand, as he was known in order to differentiate him from the rest of his talented but less grand family, features three times on the harpsichord record but these are his only contributions to the series. Birds crop up again in a tune entitled ‘The Nightingale in Love’. I would say that the birdsong is less discernible here but then, I’m no expert in ornithology. In any case, it is a fine piece of music, as is all of the stuff here including the first two tracks which are whimsical pieces by composers of a more modern time than Baroque. However, in order to keep all components of the LP together, I would like to discuss them here.
American Alec Templeton composed ‘Bach Goes to Town’ though its full title would appear to have the subtitle ‘Prelude and Fugue in Swing’ attached. Templeton was blind from birth but was playing piano on the BBC when he was just 12 years of age. Some years later, he moved to America and was a regular on the radio and TV, including his telly show, It’s Alec Templeton Time. Any road up, his Bach ditty is, he said at the time, ‘written as Bach may have written it, had he been alive today’1. Now, ‘Bach Goes to Town was released as a single with ‘Bach Before the Mast’, written by George Malcolm himself, on the flip. It’s a bit of fun based upon the ‘Sailor’s Hornpipe’, you know, the theme to the kid’s TV show, Blue Peter.
JEREMIAH CLARKE
Composer Jeremiah Clarke’s most well-known piece was not credited to him from the late 1800s until the 1940s, during which, his ‘Trumpet Voluntary’, which began life as a work for harpsichord or a wind ensemble called ‘The Prince of Denmark’s March’, was assumed to be from the pen of Purcell. London born Clarke was unlucky in love, too. His head was turned by one of his young lady students but she was not a suitable match as her social standing was tiers above his. One story goes that whilst riding miserably home on a friend’s trusty steed, Jeremiah pulled the horse up, jumped off and stood beside a pond and contemplated his life or rather, the ending of it. He was undecided whether to drown himself in the pond or hang himself from one of the surrounding trees. There seemed to be only one way to decide – toss a coin. Heads drink pond, tales jump from tree. Up went the coin … and down again,
plummeting to its once and for all decisive judgement. His gaze following the flight of the coin, imagine his perplexed disappointment as he tried to make sense of the image of a coin stuck upright in the damp bank pond-side. It would seem like this was nature’s way of saying,
‘Jeremiah. Jez. We love you. Don’t do this’. Clarke rode thoughtfully home and thoughtfully shot himself in the head. He was only about 33!
The ‘Trumpet Voluntary’ can be found on THE WORLD OF THE TRUMPET (SPA 260), THE WORLD OF THE ORGAN (SPA 262), THE WORLD OF YOUR BEST TUNES VOL. 5 (SPA 299), CROWN IMPERIAL (SPA 507), WEDDING FAVOURITES (SPA 554), COMMERCIAL CLASSICS (SPA 581) and finally, TRUMPET VOLUNTARY (SPA 556). Seven outings – one tune but at least there are a few different versions to try.
CLASSICAL PERIOD
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Mozart’s full name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He added the Amadeus himself sometime later. Oh, you knew that? Well, did you know that when a beggar bothered Wolfy for money, he wrote him a cheque, the like of which, only a great composer could write; on a sheet of manuscript paper, Moze scribbled out the first tune that came into his head and told the beggar to take himself and the scrap to a music publisher who would pay a handsome sum of cash for it. Now, I reckon if you or I were to try that today, the beggar would soon be in jail and we would be in hospital!
Wolferl, as he was known in the family, once had a pet starling who helped with his
composing. Starlings have a particularly wide vocabulary and are entertaining mimics and Mozart’s little friend was able to sing phrases of music back to the Moz. More creatively, Mozart would sometimes note down some of the birds contributions and insert them into his compositions. One such piece was, apparently, the beginning of the last movement of his Piano Concerto in G major K. 453 which may not feature in our record collection. The bird was so missed when it died that Mozart wrote a poem to commemorate its life. A requiem, you might say. A requiem, I would say it is that features on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: MOZART: REQUIEM MASS etc. (SPA 476). A splendid musical work, the splendour of which is enhanced by the mystery that is, at some length, set out for determined readers of LP back cover notes. A condensed version of the story goes something like this: There was once a Count, Franz Walsegg was his name. He fancied himself as something of a Joseph Cooper (WORLD OF star whose account may be found above). At soirees in his gaff, he would play pieces of music from anonymous manuscripts and ask his guests, for a laugh, to guess the author. Sycophantism was the watch-word and it seemed expedient to guess in the direction of Count Franz from time to time. Another direction would have been expedient in the event that the host played ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’ or similar, however ... a little advice for the unwary there. Well, one day, the Count’s beloved wife, of whom he was rightly fond, went and pegged it. So fond of his wife was the Count that he devised a kind of commemorative version of his guessing game. He instructed, under a cloak of conspiracy, one of his gofers to approach the best local composer to write a requiem and Mozart was elected to the task. Pssst! Only you, I and everyone we tell, knows the identity of the composer, OK? Or at least, the main composer because Mozart also passed away in our pleasant little story, leaving the work incomplete. Mozart’s wife, Constanze, being as fond of her husband (?!) as Count Wallsegg was of his wife, began planning how to avoid returning money already received for the work. She first approached a Joseph Eybler about him chipping in to complete the requiem. He grafted a few bars of instrumentation before passing the task to a pupil and skivvy of Mozart, Franz Xavier Süssmayr, who seems to have done a fair job, to his credit. On receipt of the manuscript, Wallsegg rewrote it and retitled it in his name. Nobody, it seems, fell for the trick but for those still in any doubt, let’s leave the last word to Ludwig van Beethoven who said, ‘If Mozart did not write the music, then the man who wrote it was a Mozart’2 ... and yes, this IS the short version!
Mozart’s friend, the mayor of Saltzburg, Sigmund Haffner the younger, commissioned music to commemorate his ennoblement, bestowed upon him by Emperor Joseph II,
to the status of Nobleman of Innbachhausen. THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: MOZART: JUPITER & HAFFNER SYMPHONIES (SPA 336) contains this four movement work along with the Jupiter. Now, whilst it’s easy to see how the Haffner was named, the back cover notes tell us that there is no relation between the planet and the music of the other piece. Still, as the preceding notes suggest, it is a handy way to identify works for them what ain’t so familiar with the foibles of classical stuff, like.
‘Alleluja’ from ‘Exultate Jubilate’ features on THE WORLD OF MOZART (SPA 251) and
its notes on the back cover explain that it was written for a male soprano. The notes continue to inform us that the melody is very demanding and that the singer has the chance to demonstrate her virtuosity; not least, her ability, apparently, to impersonate a male soprano, I should think! Also, from this LP is ‘First Movement of Symphony no. 40’ which was re-arranged for the UK pop charts, including the insertion of a drum track, by Waldo de los Rios and which reached no. 5 in April 1971, staying in the charts for 16 weeks. Never out of fashion, Mozart! If this type of
thing sounds of interest to you, check Waldo out. He wasn’t fussy – he happily pursued a career of composer-reputation destruction and it seems that no-one was safe. Try imagining the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves with a jaunty pop beat. Well, I did warn you that he wasn’t fussy!
Just to finish off this section, other LPs of Mozart music in our collection are THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: MOZART: CLARINET CONCERTO: FLUTE & HARP CONCERTO (SPA 495), THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: MOZART: MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (SPA 514), THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK (SPA 550).
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Whilst in his twenties, Beethoven began to go deaf and was completely deaf in his forties. That really ought to have been the end of a promising career but just listen to his Symphonies. How is it possible that such pieces could be produced by someone who just could not hear them? Then if you compare Symphony No. 5 with No. 6, it’s a wonder that these two major pieces that were written around the same time and when Beethoven would have been approaching the age of 40 and total deafness, could be so different in mood. How could he have mentally differentiated between the two? A story goes that during a performance of the epic Symphony no. 9, Beethoven stood on stage facing the orchestra throwing his arms around to all appearances leading the music whilst, stood behind him, was the conductor. When the piece ended, Ludwig van carried on and, with tears in her eyes, one of the singers touched his arm and gesticulated for him to look over his shoulder. He then was able to see the adulation of the audience ... and deduce that the piece was finished.
In 1932, the Victor record label produced the first 33rpm records. These replaced the
78rpm discs which played through so rapidly that an album of maybe five double-
sided discs had to be compiled in order to contain anything like a full symphony. One new long player could do the job all on its own and it was Beethoven’s Fifth that was the inaugural release. Whilst not being this first recording, the work is presented on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES 5 & 8 (SPA 326) which, along with THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 7 etc. (SPA 327) and THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: BEETHOVEN: CHORAL SYMPHONY (SPA 328) completes a consecutively numbered trio of records with the same cover, an image of the bust of the
great man. Preceding these, though two numbers prior to them, is THE WORLD OF BEETHOVEN (SPA 324) which contains a fine collection of bits and pieces from Beethoven’s portfolio. There are also three more consecutive numbers featuring piano concertos, too: THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTOS 1 & 2 (SPA 401), PIANO CONCERTO NO. 3 (SPA 402) and PIANO CONCERTO NO. 4 (SPA 403).
The back cover of THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 3: EROICA (SPA 123) explains how Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 was originally named in Napoleon’s honour as the Eroica (Hero) whilst the front cover depicts Napoleon himself. Ludwig van saw Napoleon as an admirable humanist and glorious liberator of the people but this illusion was dashed when Boney announced his requirement to be regarded as Emperor. Beethoven, now very disgruntled, struck the opening dedication from the manuscript of this fine piece so that now, should you stumble across this document, you may find the music devoted to the memory of an anonymous ‘great man’. Speaking of ‘Emperor’, incidentally, Beethoven produced a concerto known as the Emperor Concerto which, you
won’t be surprised to learn, is on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: BEETHOVEN: EMPEROR CONCERTO (SPA 452).
Beethoven has a tune on THE WORLD OF YOUR HUNDRED BEST TUNES VOL. 9 (SPA
373), called Bagatelle Für Elise; a popular piano piece, the title of which is in some dispute. It is thought that, rather than being a ditty for a young lady called Elise, it is more likely to have been composed for his lover, Thérèse, and the poor transcription from the original manuscript was due to Ludwig’s horrible handwriting.
Early on in his training, young Ludwig fell briefly under the tutelage of Mozart who suggested that there was no point in composing operas as there was no money in it. Beethoven, being Beethoven, gave it a go anyway later on, producing Fidelio, ‘The Prisoner’s Chorus’ of which appears on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: GREAT OPERA CHORUSES (SPA 296). This, however, proved to be his only opera so perhaps Amadeus knew what he was talking about, after all. There are also selections from Fidelio towards the end of our fine collection of records where we have another consecutively numbered trio from Beethoven’s portfolio. These appear under the more modern GREAT CLASSICS DECCA logo with titles
of BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 2: FIDELIO etc. (SPA 584), BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 5: EGMONT (SPA 585) and BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 7 (SPA 586).
CHRISTOPH VON GLUCK
Christoph Willibald von Gluck was largely a composer of opera and it is his stab at Orpheus and Euridice, following those of Purcell and Monteverdi before him and Offenbach afterwards, that has earned him most acclaim. Unusually, for opera, he
inserted ballet sections and it is ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ from his Orfeo ed Euridice that crops up on the compilation THE WORLD OF GREAT CLASSICS VOL. 10: CLAIRE DE LUNE (SPA 111) and on two others and ‘What is Life to Me Without Thee?’ on THE WORLD OF YOUR HUNDRED BEST TUNES VOL. 7 (SPA 355). ‘Che Puro Ciel’ comes from THE WORLD OF OPERA VOL. 3 (SPA 489) and ‘Che Farò Senza Euridice’ is on THE WORLD OF OPERA VOL. 4 (SPA 490). He DID write other stuff though, and just by way of a change, on DAVID HUGHES: SONGS OF LOVE (SPA 287) we have ‘O Mio Dolce Ardour’ from Paride ed Elena. Gluck challenged the operatic establishment; he thought that the Italian style of both comic (buffa) and serious (seria) were in danger of becoming simply vehicles for self-indulgent singers and strove to write with the audience in mind by introducing more melody and dramatic content to his work.
JOSEPH HAYDN
Castrati were all the rage in Haydn’s time. Castrati? Look away now if you are at all squeamish. Young boys with delightfully high singing voices need never lose this attribute … but there is a cost. As is often the case in life, to keep one thing, you have to sacrifice another. Sometimes you have to sacrifice another two! I hope I need say no more as a surgical description is beyond the scope of this little book. Anyway, when Jo was a young boy he did indeed have a delightfully high singing voice and his choirmaster suggested that with just a leetle intsy wintsey bit of surgery, he wouldn't have to worry about his voice breaking - he could sing like it forever. Intsy Wintsy was Haydn’s middle name in those early days and he put his name down for one of those surgery things, no questions asked. His
father was less excited about the idea, however, and knew just how to change young Joseph’s mind … and the conversation turned anatomical.
In these younger days, Haydn was expelled from singing in the choir of the local cathedral because he refused to take his punishment for a minor misdemeanour. I’m with him here. Any boy who sports a ponytail is going to have it lopped off sooner or later to placate another boy’s mischievous tendencies. Anyway, his days may have been numbered in any case considering the above story regarding the breaking of his voice. In case you are wondering about the credentials of Joseph Haydn, it seems that it was he that taught Beethoven counterpoint, which, as you know, is the art of playing one melody over another all at the same time. Neat trick!
Haydn crops up twice in the WORLD OF collection –THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: HAYDN (SPA 494) features a reading of his Symphony No. 94 in G whilst THE WORLD OF HAYDN (SPA 577) provides a various collection of other pieces. One
of the more popular selections, at least in Austria, is ‘Emperor’ which was written for Franz II and was adopted as the Austrian national anthem. Haydn wrote The Trumpet Concerto for trumpeter Anton Weidinger who had developed a modified trumpet which was more easily coaxed to produce the chromatic scale – a musical scale comprised of 12 pitches a semitone apart. Haydn decided to test this new keyed trumpet and, therefore its player, with a short but tricky piece. Even with Weidinger’s expertise it still took him four years to pluck up enough courage to try performing it. The keyed trumpet, which used keys to open and shut holes in its bore to make different notes, superseded the natural trumpet which relied on extending the length of its bore. Quite revolutionary but within about four years, this instrument was overtaken by the now familiar valve trumpet. Finally, the 2nd movement of the Clock Symphony is so-called because of the tick tock of the plucked strings heard throughout much of the track in the background. Give it a listen - you know you want to ...
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Rossini was known for his trademark crescendo – a build-up of loudness – and was
known to some as Signor Crescendo. The crescendo was his favourite device for staving off the boredom of his audience and it was used over an ostinato which, as if you didn’t know, is an obstinately stubborn, repeated musical phrase. The idea was to create a frenzy from a place of
calmness, peace and softness by adding instruments as well as volume. The crescendo can be found throughout Rossini’s work but particularly in such as The Barber of Seville and ‘The Thieving Magpie’, which feature on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: ROSSINI OVERTURES (SPA 538). ‘The Thieving Magpie also crops up on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS VOL. 7: OVERTURES: WILLIAM TELL etc. (SPA 92) along with one of his other famous hits, the titular ‘William Tell Overture’ and is the opening track of THE WORLD OF ROSSINI (SPA 445).
ROMANTIC PERIOD
JOHANN NEPOMUK HUMMELL
Slovakian Hummell had a go at all musical styles except for symphonies. He didn’t fancy these as he didn’t think he could improve on those of Beethoven, for whom he had enormous respect. In his performing heyday, he was something of a wiz on the piano, being proficient at the age of six, but nowadays it is his pieces for trumpet for which he is most well-known. This is reflected in the selections for the two WORLD OF LPs on which he features although there is another disappointing doubling up. The whole of his ‘Trumpet Concerto in E Flat’ is presented on THE WORLD OF THE TRUMPET (SPA 260) whilst the third movement (the Rondo) only can be found on THE WORLD OF THE ACADEMY VOL. 2 (SPA/A 163). Still, it throws up another chance to assess the directing/conducting and playing of different personnel. On the former we can hear Michel Cuvit playing under Ernest Ansermet whilst on the latter we have John Wilbraham under Neville Marriner. I wonder if you’d agree with me that the Marriner version is lighter and faster than the Ansermet. Also, the orchestra under Ansermet is somewhat fuller sounding which would be the difference between a full orchestra and the Academy chamber orchestra. At the age of about eight years, Hummel studied with Mozart, who would have been approximately 30 years of age, living with him for a couple of years. The period brought young Hummel along sufficiently to tour his piano work around Europe at the age of ten.
DOMENICO DONIZETTI
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti has four spots in the WORLD OF collection. From La Fille du Regiment we have ‘Pour ce Contrat … Salut à la France’ on THE WORLD
OF JOAN SUTHERLAND (SPA 100). Probably his most popular serious opera is Lucia Di Lammermoor and on THE WORLD OF ITALIAN OPERA (SPA 105) can be found ‘Chi Mi Frena’ from Act II whilst Act II of L’Elisir d’Amore, ‘Una Furtiva La Grima’ shows up on THE WORLD OF OPERA VOL. 1 (SPA 449). Finally, easy listening supremo, Frank Chacksfield, has a go at the ‘Serenade’ from Act III of Don Pasquale on THE WORLD OF IMMORTAL SERENADES (SPA 298). Lucia Di Lammermoor is a romantic drama based on the novel, The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott which tells of how Lucia is influenced by the men in her life until she becomes overwhelmed by her feelings and becomes prey to insanity. Lovers fight each other over her whilst she is forced into a marriage of convenience surrounded by murders and suicides and, of course, the episode of insanity and the fatal collapse of our heroine. Operatic divas never leave home without a dramatic swoon in their back pocket.
Refs:
2 https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/guides/mozart-requiem-full-works-concert-highlight-week/
Other references available on request
Regarding the LP cover images, they are photographs of the records in my own collection and are taken by my own hand (which explains the slight wonkiness of some of them). All images are, however, copyright of Decca.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of any image in any form is prohibited.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the text in any form is prohibited, restricted by permission of the author.
Next time we'll get in amongst the composers of the Romantic period of classical music. See you again then.
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