5 Comments
author

A very curious NTT indeed! That open-string pizzicato opening is a head scratcher, especially since it's followed by those classical cadences. The string writing sounds just a little more on the modern side of the classical era, but in the end, I think I'm going to guess Haydn, because you never go wrong ascribing weirdness to him, and he wrote so much. I feel like I know a lot of the Haydn quartets, but there are like 60-something of them, so it could easily be one I don't know.

That is, of course, assuming that it's a quartet. The textures might have been a tad thicker than that, but I would say it's nothing more than a quintet or sextet at the most. My next best guess from the style and hint would be Schubert; he has — what? — fifteen quartets? I don't know them all.

I'm stopping there. Haydn and Schubert are as much as I can come up with.

Expand full comment
Jan 29, 2023·edited Jan 29, 2023

Enescu a one hit wonder?? I think I can hear the entire country of Romania protesting from New York.

Also, that's a thought-provoking, if unnuanced, quote of Blackwood's. RIP!

Expand full comment

I will have to weigh in on the Mäkelä discussion later after I see him conduct Chicago mid-Feb. Program is the Swan of Tuonela, an American premiere of a Jimmy López Bellido work, and Mahler’s 5th. The website copy for the concert quotes Le Monde to note Mäkelä’s “ great affinity with Mahler".

Expand full comment

One of my strongest memories of Easley is very carefully walking our class through the slow scalar opening of the finale of Beethoven’s 1st. RIP.

Expand full comment