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Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5 in E-flat major Op 73 Emperor

I did a write up on Beethoven's 1st Piano Concerto not too long ago and thought that it would be appropriate to write about his 5th or last Piano Concerto as it is also one of the recorded to death pieces having been recorded by many artists both established as well as green shoots genre. In the Anglophile world, it is also commonly referred to as the Emperor piece and this arose my curiosity as I remembered that Beethoven who was to dedicate his Symphony number 3 to Napoleon Bonaparte was angry enough at the news of Napoleon declaring himself as Emperor to rename the piece to Eroica instead. There is some period between Eroica Symphony and Emperor Piano Concerto as the former carries an opus number of 55 whereas the latter was assigned an opus number of 73. The opus number roughly reflects the chronological order in terms of date of the work being published and does not necessarily reflect the time the composer started or completed the work actually. Putting this aside, I can think of why the name Emperor as Beethoven might have gotten used to the idea of Napoleon making himself emperor or perhaps pragmatism rules the day even for eccentric tempered Beethoven as Napoleon's campaign has walked over much of Austria where he largely lives. One thing is definite that Beethoven did not dedicate this piece to Napoleon as it was clearly addressed to Archduke Rudolf.

Actually Beethoven did not meant the Emperor Piano Concerto to be his last as there is evidenced pointing to fragments of work in progress on the 6th Piano Concerto but too little of the Piano or Orchestration parts exists for modern day Beethoven scholars to piece together a respectable Piano Concerto. It is also at this period that his hearing has almost been reduced to nil and much of the composing is done through his mental perception rather than auditory perception of his work. I was interacting with a customer in a hifi shop today and I advised him that hifi is a hobby that is best enjoyed younger as our hearing sensitivity decline with age.

Beethoven is not as tightly associated with piano music as Chopin where every single piece of his features the piano either in major or minor roles. To Beethoven, the piano is a convenient platform to test the orchestration for his symphonies, concertos etc. All being said, Beethoven did a strange thing by having the solo piano start the piece for almost 2 minutes before the orchestra joins in. This is not very common in classical era works but was sometimes used by composers in the romantic era like Tchaikovsky in his piano concerto and Mendelssohn in his violin concerto. To me, there is no question here that the soloist is meant to be the star of the piece rather than the orchestra.

Although this piece consists of the template 3 movements concerto tradition, it is sometimes mistaken as a 2 movement piece as movements 2 and 3 is connected by a single bassoon note. This technique is also used by some other composers perhaps to ensure that the less musically inclined audience does not disturb the continuity of the piece by clapping in between movements.

I shall refrain from making a comparison of the various recordings as I have not done enough comparative listening to do justice and shall only list the pieces I have listened to in writing this review.

1. Piere-Laurent Aimard with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting Chamber Orchestra of Europe

2. Christian Zacharias with Hans Vonk conducting Staatskapelle Dresden

3. Alfred Brendel with Zubin Mehta conducting Vienna Symphony Orchestra

4. Artur Pizarro with Charles Mackerras conducting Scottish Chamber Orchestra

5. Steffan Viader with Barry Wordsworth conducting Capella Istropolitana

6. Vladmir Ashkenazy with Zubin Metha conducting Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

As I related to some of my friends, my motivation for writing about classical music is to help propagate classical music to the next generation as it would be a waste if classical music declines starting with my generation. I have not succeeded in getting my two children interested in classical music but I do hope that they will someday.

Cheers,,,,,Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

Economic Tsunami

I had a great week in the altruistic dimension of my life this week as I had the good luck of spending time with 2 persons of considerable intellectual capabilities but none of them are ladies not that I am a sexist. On a more serious note, we spoke about many things that does not interest most Singaporean which are chasing after their noble 5 Cs of which I am not at the moment. As I watch the turbulence on Wall Street gyrating up and down on both sides of the Atlantic, I begin to ask myself are there certain patterns or attributable causes and my simple mind began to wonder into dangerous water and I thought I hit on some ideas that could be novel in my limited knowledge but might have been professed by someone else before me.

The first trend is on the eastern end of the Atlantic, we began to see failures on the corporate front starting with the CDO and cumulating into the meltdown of Lehman Brothers and government funded rescue using the TARP funds as the too big to fail maxim took charge and Captain Obama even said that "...at this hour, it is not possible for the government to do too much." in his state of the union address and rallying support for the TARP scheme into FEDS. FEDS have been pursuing a inflation targeted monetary policy since the days of Greenspan and thereafter onto Uncle Ben insisting that this is the right long term move. However, when Wall Street failure hit Main Street and the population at large like the 2 of the 3 biggest auto makers; General Motors and Chrysler sparing Ford into likely bankruptcies if no rescue plan was in place. However, on the western seaboard of the Atlantic, Europe seems to have an easier time until the PIGS ( Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain ) suffered a sovereign debt issue.

The stark difference could perhaps due to the nature of the retirement funding. In USA, retirement is generally funded privately by companies whereas in more socialistic Europe, it is generally funded by the government. With a rapidly aging population, retirement IOUs are beginning to experience their first few years of negative cash flow as there are less taxpayers in Europe while retirement funding by companies is eroding their competitive edge in USA. I shall stay quiet on the intentions of the Singapore government but look at the trend of policy changes with regards to CPF and also read our PM May day address more carefully and you will hear something said about CPF ordinary, special and retirement accounts. (The Great Singapore CPF (pension) Discussion) With the post war baby boom generation hitting retirement, we have a definite Economic Tsunami at hand whether you are of monetarists or fiscal persuasion. At the end of the day, input must equal output in the long run. My view is that USA is now buffered against a sovereign debt crisis but it could be a matter of time if Obama does not practice more budgetary discipline. China is already the largest holder of American T Bills displacing Japan.

The second is the velocity in which government aid has been administered. In USA, there 9 regional Federal Reserve Banks together with the FEDS in Washington, they can make monetary policy independent of executive and political influence. In fact, The Economists once had an article on who the FEDS are accountable to. Such a mechanism, though not the most consensus seeking allows for quick and independent decisions to be made. Over in Eurozone, the ECB is an animal with a very different DNA from that of FEDS. Decisions are made by consensus and voting by the member states whose representatives have to watch their back as they cast their vote because of the need to ensure they make the correct populist move which might not necessarily be the right for Europe as a whole. German voters are asking why must they pay for Greece's ill fiscal discipline of not keeping deficit to less than 3% of GDP if they themselves swallowed the bitter pill that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Greek voters are against cut in government budgets as they feel that fiscal discipline in this economic climate is equivalent to swallowing a cyanide pill that will kill the country. Since history of money, only Argentina has defaulted as a nation and I do not think any country want to have hold the title of being runner's up chronologically. Oops, some are of the opinion that when USA axed the exchangeability of US$ for gold during Nixon's watch, it is technically a country default but I would not argue this point here.

Thirdly, US$ has existed for a long time and in my limited knowledge however the Euro was only created in recent history in 1999. The US$ was created out of necessity because of the political amalgamation of the states whereas the Euro was created as one of the many milestones that proof that a truly single European Union (EU) coined in Maastricht is attainable. Thereafter, there were some progress with two notable signs which are the creation of the Euro sans without the participation of some countries like UK and the increasing membership of EU. A monetary union without a political union is like putting the cart before the horse and it is only a matter of time before it crashes as predicted by many even before the 1999 inauguration of the Euro.

Fourthly, there has been speculation in two of the largest Euro countries why not get out of the burning house of Euro instead of trying to doze the fire. If the creation of the Euro is analogous to scaling K2, its reversal would be a taller order than scaling Everest. Although there are some automatic mechanism in place like the PIGS countries are finding it more costly to raise money through government bonds that are still denominated on the Euro, their higher CDS price would make it comparatively more expensive for Greece than for Germany to raise money using bonds. However, the spill over effects of the strength or weakness of the Euro against the major currencies will also mean that countries outside of PIGS in Euro zone are impacted by the actions or inactions of the PIGS. My prediction is that the monetary union tension would spill into the political and perhaps later the military arena with dire consequences. Although the first two world wars can be attributed to many reasons but economic tension has never been absent from this platitude of reasons for the start of both world wars.

Last but no least, the twin deficits that Obama is faced with will not disappear into thin air and it is only a matter of time before it hits American shores and pockets in a more drastic manner even if Obama believes that the entire world will share in its burden as US$ is widely held and transacted. Sanity,justice or rule of quantification (if I may borrow from my friend) will prevail finally.

Cheers,,,,,Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

Melancholic Piano Music-Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 14 ‘Moonlight Sonata’ in C# minor Op. 27/2

I have recently written a review of a fairly melancholic piano piece by Chopin on his Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor and it not any co-incidence that it is keyed in minor. I also wrote a review on Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major as I was quite into piano music of late and my thoughts were to write a review on Beethoven’s last piano concerto which is No.5 but his Piano Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight Sonata” caught my fancy as a good twining between Chopin Nocturne No. 20 and Beethoven piano sonata no. 14 first movement is almost similar to Chopin nocturne No. 20.
Firstly both pieces are keyed in C# minor and to my ears that are not very trained in classical, I sometimes mistaken one for the other. I would not say that they might have got the idea from each other as there was about a good 30 years between the composition; Beethoven composed his around 1800-1801 and Chopin did his around 1830. I would rather use the word that Chopin might have been influenced by Beethoven if I were to reason it chronologically. The strange thing is that Beethoven lived mainly in the classical era and Chopin witnessed the start of the Romantic era and I was wondering how did such a romantic music come out of Beethoven in 1830? He might have been branded as someone ahead of his time fashion wise and this might not been a good thing.
Secondly, the dark C# minor canvas against which the two pieces were written against makes the music very suitable for listening in a dimly lit room to accentuate the mood. A good glass of Shiraz with a long finish could make the experience. Actually Nocturne translated into English is night. What struck me was the entire Chopin piece was draped in the dark and yet you feel a certain closure at the end of the piece and this is in my mind the very signature of a grand master. The same can be said about Beethoven first movement. There were times that I was almost moved to tears but I was taught from a young age that only girls cry and boys never do.
I thought it relevant to say a few things about the circumstances surrounding Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 14 before I get carried away by the second and third movement. The piece was actually sort of ao commissioned piece and was dedicated to Countess Giulietta Guiccardi but not in the strictest sense a commissioned piece if we think along the lines of the many commissioned pieces that Haydn did and was handsomely rewarded for it. The dedication came after the completion of the piece unlike a commissioned piece for which the composer is told of the occasion in which the music would be used for and what type of structure it should roughly have. The Beethoven must have been an almost plain canvas leaving Beethoven a lot of leeway for his imagination and creativity to turn it into a work of art. This piece was aptly numbered Opus 27/2 because it was either meant to be co-joined together with his Sonata No. 13 as a set or the work of the music publisher to market it as a value for money set since Beethoven most probably handed two pieces to his publisher at around the same time. Your guess is most probably as good as mine on this. I have not listened to his Sonata No. 13 to make an opinionated call here; perhaps later. The name ‘Moonlight Sonata’ was not in the original manuscript as Beethoven most probably did not intend to name the piece. Many Beethoven experts believed that it was Ludwig Rellstab that christened it ‘Moonlight Sonata’.
At the end of the first movement which was in ¾ time signature, the second movement not only changes the time signature to 4/4 but was also uplifted us into a different mood. If we pen the first movement as emotionally melancholic, the very short second movement brings us into the cerebral plentitude of deep contemplative thoughts after the emotionally moving first movement and when we come to the third movement, we can plainly see why the second movement serves as a bridge to bring the Sonata to a closure in the third movement.
The third movement as compared to the first movement is liken to hell and heaven or heaven and hell as the more normal expression. The very first note of the third movement is in a strong definite piano forte chord and continues its explosive display right to the end of the entire piece. It was as if Beethoven has seen the light at the end of the tunnel and I think this piece might also qualify as a piano technician nightmare with the strong and heavy chording. A caution for listeners; if you kept your volume at the same level as when you started the first movement and is in the habit of louder listening, the third movement can blow your system away as it is LOUD by any standard.
I normally would do a comparison of the various versions that I have listened but in this case, I would just merely list them for your reference as I am totally blown away by Beethoven.
1.Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas-Paul Lewis-Harmonia Mundi HMX 2901902.11-Disc 7 Tracks 9-11

2.Beethoven Piano Sonatas-Artur Pizarro-Linn Records SACD CKD244-Tracks 4-6

3.Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas-Bernard Roberts-Nimbus 1774-Disc 10 Tracks 5-7

4.Beethoven Piano Sonatas Volume 1-Gerard Willems-ABC Classics 4650772-Disc 2 Tracks 1-3

5.Beethoven Sonatas 8, 14 & 23-Daniel Barenboim-EMI 0724356697621-Tracks 4-6

6.Simply Beethoven-Bruno Leonardo Gelber-Simply(Denon) 36-Disc 2 Tracks

7.Ultimate Beethoven-Claudio Arrau-Decca B000ICMF5I–Disc 5 Track 7-9

Cheers,,,,Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Oracle / Sun Humour

C. Montgomery Burns said
"Since the dawn of time man has dreamed of destroying the sun!"

However Larry Elison have managed to buy SUN and integrated its name into Oracle recently.....

Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

George Whitefield Chadwick-Suite symphonique in E flat

What prompted me listen to this piece was because I suddenly realized that I know two Chadwicks;an American lady from Chicago that used to work in Singapore and British gentleman that used to work in Hong Kong. No further details as I do not have their permission but some of my closer friends who read this would know who I am referring to or at least one of them. I was looking through my library of CDs and I have put aside those that I have not even listened at all in one corner and I sometimes wonder I am still buying CDs when I have quite a number in this corner. I think I have been stricken with the disease of collectivism if ever there is such a word.

For some reason, I have two CDs from pieces composed by Chadwick and both of them have not even been unwrapped yet. I could not even remember when and why I have bought them. Perhaps because of the recording label Reference Records reputation for good recording. Although I consider myself to be more of a music person as opposed to a sound person as I think that the music comes first. With good music, you will need good recording as well as good system to play them to enjoy it. Some of my friends are from the other camp that puts the sound system and recording above the music. There is no right or wrong but a matter of taste and preference.

After returning home from the office, I wanted something refreshing. This drew me to the unexplored part of my CD collection. Of the two Chadwick CDs that I saw, the one with the more graphic cover caught my attention proving that I am still a normal male Homo Sapien. I then sunk myself into my so called listening position or sweet spot and spin the CD and started to read the cover note of the CD. I was expecting it to be a neo-classical era as I have not come across this composer but it surprised me that he lived 1854-1931 and that the piece in question was composed at the turn of the century around 1907. When I meant neo-classical, my reference was mainly to composers that are still living today or born after 1900 although that is not quite right technically speaking.

The piece comes in four movements as with most symphonic works although I understand that Chadwick himself has avoided the label Symphony like poison and this could be the reason why it was named in that manner but after listening to the piece a few times, it really fits squarely into the classic symphonic template not only because of the 4 movements but also the order and choice of movements. It starts with a fairly energetic Allegro molto animoto that ends on a fairly percussion centered ending. It then makes way for a very lyrical Romanza in the second movement. I could not put my finger on a term but my heart just went jelly from the very first note of this movement to the last note. The second movement is awesomely sentimental and moving. I played it repeatedly a few times and it is my favorite movement.

After all the lyricism of the second movement, the third movement is a scherzo like Intermezzo e Humoreske like a good joke after all that sentimentality. Another signature of this movement is the transition into and out of the odd time signature of 5/4 and Chadwick did this not once but twice. My modern re-collection of this time signature goes to the song Take Five but the entire piece only have one time signature. This says very much about the creativity and living on unchartered water for the composer as this was done in 1907 and not in recent past where almost anything and everything that makes a sound can be music. After the joke, it is back to serious matter and the composer takes us to a rhythmic and grandiose finale befitting of the piece. The finale is like a full bodied red wine and it makes good and extensive use of a large orchestra and there is little time out for most members of the orchestra.

If you have 36 minutes to spare, this is a great piece of music not to be missed and I wonder why it is not as popular as it deserve and it is to me like uncovering a rare gem. Enjoy.

Schumann 200th Anniversary-Kinderszenen Op 15 No 7 in F major "Träumerei/Dreaming"

The week has been very interesting for me as I started my gear shift on my new job and started to explore new possibilities. It was also because of my job that necessitated me to re-connect with someone I know long time ago whom I know to be very passionate about classical music. After the business talk with him was done, I asked him where was he on the classical music front and told him that I have just written a review of Chopin Etudes earlier this week because this year is Chopin 200th year anniversary as he was born in 1810. He then asked me how about Robert Schumann and I said I love his music as well sad that he had a rough ride in life living part of his life being institutionalized in a mental asylum but he has Clara as his wife who stood by his side come what may and also a good friend Johannes Brahms. This was where we sort of disagreed, his took the view that Brahms was there more because of his love for Clara rather than for Schumann himself. Since the scholars cannot agree on this, we agreed to disagree. He then reminded me that this year is also Schumann 200th year anniversary but most probably forgotten because Chopin might have been a larger personality than Schumann. Since I love Schumann music as well, I shall help elevate it by writing about it and hopefully more people would notice it thereafter.

Schumann like Chopin love the piano. Whilst Chopin composed exclusively for the piano or pieces that involves the piano, Schumann likewise did the same until 1840 when he started to compose other genre. I previously wrote a review of his Symphony No. 4 and also noted then that Schumann was an avid composer of piano music.

I have always touted the maxim that one should listen to the complete work to appreciate the beauty of the entire composition and not listen to snippets of popular movements but I would have to break my own rule and start writing on a snippet here. The piece Träumerei or Dreaming is taken from the seventh piece of his Kinderszenen or Scenes from childhood Op 15 composed when he was about 28 so it must have been his re-collection of his childhood. This piece was made popular when it was adopted the theme song for the 1944 movie on Robert Schumann. It was titled by the film director as Song of Love to signify Clara's love for Schumann. Perhaps the director did it deliberately due to the movingly romantic hues of the piece or out of ignorance of the background of the piece.

Since then, the piece has appeared in various arrangements in addition to the original piano arrangements. Some of the arrangements that I have come across are cello/piano, violin/piano, orchestra/cello. The piano arrangement has also been graded as a grade 3 piece by ABRSM and therefore within the capabilities of most pianists.

1.Cello Adagios,Decca,Bruno Canino/Lynn Harrell,2:54 CD1 Track 9

2.Travels with my Cello,Philips,Julian Lloyd Webber, English Chamber Orchestra, Nicholas Cleobury,3:32 Track 4

3.Ultimate Violin,Decca,Arthur Gruimax,Istvan Hajdu, CD5 Track 4,2:33

4.Schumann: Piano Works,DG,Wilhelm Kempff, CD2 Track 20

Of the 4, I still like the 4th recording though it is dated and sonically not that great because of the state of technology then. It is clean, crisp and transparent. Wilhelm Kempff though a noted pianist during his era has been touted by some of his critic as being just average in terms of his Schumann pieces but I think most probably to this piece as it is a grade 3 piece and how wrong can a maestro go on such pieces. The version by Julian Lloyd Weber with the English Chamber Orchestra did not go down too well with me as the arrangement seems to be too cluttered as I feel that the beauty of this piece is in the clean and simplistic arrangement but played with lots of emotions and melancholy and it suits either a piano only arrangement or a violin/piano or cello/piano. In particular, I thought the cello/piano version by Bruno Canino and Lynn Harrell particularly melancholic.

Cheers,,,,,Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Chopin Etudes Op. 10 No 3 in E major "Tristesse"

As we celebrate Chopin's 200th birthday as he was born in 1810, I began collecting and more importantly listening to Chopin pieces because being a al cheapo, retailers were offering Chopin pieces at a discount. I have written previously on Chopin Piano Concerto and his Nocturnes, I shall now embark on another genre of his composition; Etudes. Etudes translated into English means study or more correctly studies in Piano. Chopin is about the only composer that centered all his works around the Piano. Even his piano concertos, Cello concertos etc all had a strong piano part in it. The Piano is used by other composers because of its polyphonic nature to minimick an orchestra and other genres like quartet etc but Chopin saw the Piano as a performing platform by itself rather than a means to try out new multi-player genres.

Chopin composed a total of two sets of Etudes published as Op. 10 and Op. 25. Our attention is focused on the third piece of the first set of Etudes which has been named "Tristesse" by Chopin himself which means sadness. Some scholars are of the opinion that this piece was composed when Chopin heard that his motherland Poland has been occupied forcibly by the Russians but this does not seems to tie in chronologically as there were more facts pointing to the entire Op. 10 being published when he was 23 years old which is before the Russian occupation. Anyway, sadness is the theme of this piece no matter what the root of his sadness. The fact that Chopin put a name to this piece is of significance as he did not name all this Etudes save for a handful of them.

This piece is also known for its romatic fluidity as Chopin himself commented later on in his life as follows. "In all my life I have never again been able to find such a beautiful melody." I actually thought his Piano Concerto No. 1 as his greatest piece of work always but anyhow, the maestoro opinion counts more than mine. Herbert Weinstock in his biography on Chopin that "if it is realtively easy to play, it is maddeningly diffcult to play well." Actually this comment most probably refers to the Theme portion of the piece as the other two portions; Variations and Iterations are no child's play with some of the more difficult chromatic chord manipulations. Chopin has actually meant a steady 2/4 beat of Lento ma non-troppo but many interpreters has taken liberty in following their heart instead of pursuing technical excellence over the years. I tend to agree as the later recordings has a more varied tempo then the older ones and I find the more modern recording more befitting style wise for playing this beautiful romantic piece. The same biographer also went on to comment that "No lesser pianist should play it except to himself." This makes it like the Bible that can be plainly understood by laymen but has enough depth to drown many a biblical scholar.

Enough about the generalistes of the piece and I have done a comparison of the piece with the following. I have decided to excludes transciptions for other instrueents and cross over versions. Please forgive my purists pursuit o this note as cross over artists occupy a different part of my heart when it comes to music and this is a very peronal opinion.

1.Chopin:The Complete Etudes, Earl Wild, Chesky Records 4:30

2.Chopin the Complete Works, Garrick Ohlssohn, Hyperion 4:20

3.Chopin Etudes, Murray Perahia,Sony Classical, 3:51

Chopin Etudes, Murray Perahia,Sony Classical

4.Favourite Chopin, Vladimir Ashkenazy,Decca, 4:21

Of these 4 pieces that I have listened over and over again, my vote goes to Ashkenazy as he seems to playing though Chopin;s hand literally. Technically, Perahia is most probably the most consistent. I find the Earl Wild a bit over the top in terms of personalizing the piece by injecting his entire being into it. Ohlsson who is a well regarded Chopin figure seems to have something missing overall in the piece although I cannot fault any portion of the piece but the sum of the parts somehow did not add up.

I shall try to continue to write on Chopin after having bought quite a number of Chopin CDs of late and tune in soon.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

"The Pianist"-Chopin Nocturne No. 20 in C# Minor-Sequel

Some weeks ago, I wrote on the connection between Chopin Piano Concerto #1 and the high acclaimed show "The Pianist" which was played towards the end of the show. Chopin Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor Opus Posth is the other piece which the famous Polish director Roman Polanski has chosen for the film. Not a surprising move that both pieces are by Chopin who is Polish like he is. In fact the show centered around Polish/Jewish life in Nazi occupied Warsaw during the Second World War. There were some debate about how many Nocturnes Chopin actually wrote and it would be 18, 20 or 21 depending on which persuasion you belong to.

The first 18 Nocturnes were common ground held by all and sundry as being Chopin. However, some question marks were placed over Nocturnes 19, 20 and 21 for a few reasons. Firstly, there was no solid evidence beyond any shadow of doubt that Chopin has endorsed them. Secondly, there is some circumstantial evidence based on the style and third party accounts on these pieces that point to him being the composer. Because of this debate, these 3 Nocturnes were assigned larger numbers although they point to an earlier conception but the gestation was most probably long and the delivery of dubious nature.

This piece was conceived as a Piano Nocturnes but has been delivered in a few arrangements like and arrangement for Piano and Violin by the famous violinist Nathan Milstein that many are very critical of and it is also the shortest clocking about 3 and a half minutes compared a shade above 4 minutes for the original. This could have been due to the limitation of 78 rpm LPs that could not accommodate pieces beyond 4 minutes. Craig Leon also did a concerto for violin ( and perhaps the harp should also be acknowledged as it is fairly visible throughout although mainly as apogees )arrangement with an orchestra. In this concerto like arrangement, the orchestra party is very subdued so I would not dare call it a concerto but only concerto like.

The piece is definitely very melancholic in nature throughout that suddenly transforms into a major keyed chorus pointing to lushness and hope before falling back to melancholic minor again. Chopin like some composers like Haydn like to have a false ending and in this piece, it happens roughly just after the 2 minute mark. It is not uncommon to have some audience starting to clap at this juncture. If you do not want to be embarrassed or be a faux culture vulture, beware of this bear trap but one can always give an excuse that Chopin is not on my radar.

For this review, I listened to five different versions; 3 were based on original piano only arrangements played by Vladimir Ashkenazy, Garrick Ohlssohn and Yundi Li all of which are very renowned pianist with Ohlssohn and Li having some claim to being Chopin sub-specialist especially Ohlsson who has recorded the entire Chopin collection; Nathan Milstein arrangement played by violinist Ruggiero Ricci and pianist Ernest Lush which is also not small standing in classical music fame during their era; last but not the least, we have an violin Joshua Bell that some critics has labelled as having gone to the dark side in Star Wars speak as being a classical crossover artist with Craig Leon himself conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

I have always loved Ashkenazy both as a pianist as well as a conductor and his handling of this piece is very emotive and involved and yet way ward technically given how equally he has executed the odd numbered notes like the triplets and thrills. For Ohlsson's version, you should pay pay very close attention to volumetric control for a piece that has many single noted accents. His control of the sustain pedal is also extraordinary well done so that there is enough of it to create legato like without sounding muddied. What surprise me most was Yundi Li which I have commented as normally being overly zealous but he showed control and maturity in this piece. The album is very recent as it was only recorded in November 2009 and January 2010 in Zurich. Perhaps he could have matured with age or the cold wintry months has evoked his melancholicism into the piece.

Joshua Bell's playing concerto like arrangement was hard to fault and yet difficult to put a handle on what was exceptional. The most obvious grace so how well Craig Leon controlled an almost oblivion to let the violin and harp shine in the piece and rightly so. Although the recording quality of the playing by Ruggiero Ricci of Nathan Milstein arrangement together with Ernest Lush was my favorite although the background hiss is visible in these older recording. Ricci's bowing was as if the bow was an extension of his hands tugging at his own heart strings. I am now a little confused if Chopin intended this piece for the piano only or transfer-ably between the piano and violin as a piano does not have the legato of a violin. The violin on the other hand does not have the overlapping sustain and reverb effect possible in a piano

Enough comments about the pieces and now for those who might like to have the exact recordings that I used:

1. Ultimate Chopin 5 CD set - CD3 Track 6 - Vladimir Ashkenazy - Decca 475 8046

2. Chopin the Complete Works by Garrick Ohlsson 16CD set - CD 9 Track 9 - Hyperion CDS44351/66

3. Frederic Chopin - Complete Nocturnes - Yundi Li - 2 CD set - CD2 Track 8 - EMI Classics 5 099960 839121

4. The Essential Joshua Bell - 2 CD set - CD1 Track 3 - Sony/BMG 0 886970 741620

5. Virtuoso Violin - Ruggeiro Ricci - 2 CD set - CD1 Track 13 - Decca 458 191-2

Happy listening. Cheers Pete aka lkypeter

Symphonic April Fool

The day 1st April has been a day of jokes or joke of THE day in the year. Whatever its origin, I never bothered to find out but when I started my interest in composer Jospeh Haydn, I found out that he was born on 1st April 1732 but some musicians have actually opined that he was born the day before instead and the 1st April date was a joke. However, the more widely accepted date of his birth is 1st April 1732.

Haydn broke the record of having composed the most numbers of symphonies; to be exact 104 in all. I have been trying to collect his full collection of symphonies but it was effort in vain as it was 104 too many. I came across a complete compilation of all his 104 symphonies in one of the online stores in UK and it was recorded by a single conductor and orchestra; Adam Fischer conducting the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra on Brilliant Classics (99925) on 33 red book CDs. Did some poking around on the internet and found this be to pretty well recommended and decided to take a click of faith and swiped out my credit card to order it together with some other CDs and part of the order arrived yesterday which contains the 33 CDs Haydn set. How timely for this article.

I have listened only to the first CD which contains his first 5 symphonies and it was my first time hearing these 5 symphonies as I my collection tendered to sway towards his later symphonies especially those composed in London. It is always very refreshing to hear the embryonic works and contrast it with the later works to see the progression overtime. In classical music speak, symphonies is largely considered the epitome amongst genres like concertos, sonatas, suites, songs etc as it is normally the most complex genre of classical music.

Although Haydn cannot be credited with the title of inventor of symphonies but he was the earliest to championed the genre to a level of popularity and sophistication that no one can hold a candle to. In my opinion, Haydn is most probably a systematic and tradition bound musician as he has sticked to the 4 movement rule for symphonies for most of his symphonic works. Even in cases where he uses the 3 movements template, there is a almost consistent fast/slow/fast transition between the movements typical of this genre.

The link between Haydn and Mozart has been widely debated but I would lean closer to the understanding that Mozartis not likely to be a disciple of Haydn as the two rarely meets physically as they were in different places and both have a healthy dose of respect for each others music. Haydn has remakred that "Mozart is the greatest composer of the world" shortly after the premiere of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Mozart likewise dedicated a set of 6 string quartets to Haydn. During his relatively shorter life on planet earth, Mozart composed a total to 41 symphonies and this by no means a feat considering his contribution to other genres like Operas, Concertos etc.

The next person on my list is Beethoven who was a pupil of Haydn. Although he only composed 9 symphonies during his life time besides other classical genres, but his name supersedes that of Haydn and Mozart if we were to do a random street straw poll of whom you think are the most popular composer of classical music. Perhaps someone might want to take this up as an experiment? Part of the reason could be the all time popularity of his 5th and 9th symphonies that has been the subjected to many treacherous interpretations by many crossover artists.

My last worthy mention which is most probably as important as the former 3 is Brahms. He was the youngest of the 4 composers and it is in my opinion the torch bearer for symphonic genre as symphonic music has had its renaissance and was beginning to waiver in popularity with the accent of modernistic music by the likes of Liszt. Although he composed a total of 4 symphonies, he has stayed faithful to the symphonic genre by sticking to the tradition bound symphonic structure under the onslaught of modernist and neo-classical appeal of the public. He could have been a good politician as he has done this not so much by throwing insinuations with modernism and neo-classicalism camp but by promoting how good symphonic work is. This is no easy task for a man that has a complex love life. Brahms was good friends to the Schumanns in good and bad times. Robert Schumann has not been a very emotionally stable person and has attempted suicide and was institutionalized in a sanatorium till his death. But Clara Schumann was a model wife in seeing and supporting Robert Schumann in good and bad times. Brahms is believed to have an interest in Clara Schumann but I guess his friendship and his personal moral high ground has prevented him from pursuing Clara romantically even after Robert Schumann's death. The friendship between Brahms and Clara never went further than being platonic although they were good friends and this created a very deep internal struggle in Brahms and this is evident in some of his music as you listen to it closely and with your heart instead of your mind. Brahms did very little by way of commenting on his works and hardly any pre-manuscripts can be found as it seems that Brahms has intended it to be such and destroyed all his work in progress leaving mostly only the final rendition behind.

If I have a life maxim, I would love a Haydn/Mozart like character to grow it. A Beethoven like character to take it to the next plateau and for a Brahms like character to keep the flame going. As for a spouse, it would surely be a Clara like character of in sickness and health, through rich or poor.

Good Friday. Cheers,,,, Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major Op. 68 "Pastoral"

Beethoven wrote a total of 9 symphonies ( some say 10 but the 10th is unfinished ) but only 2 of the symphonies were named by him; symphony No. 3 named "Eroica" meaning heroic and symphony No. 6 "Pastoral". Some might want to add symphony No. 9 as 'Ode to Joy' but remember that it only applies to the chorale part and not the symphony and there is little evidence of Beethoven naming it on the score except that he is adapting a poem written by Schindler of the same title. I therefore do not consider it a named symphony as such.

Symphony No. 3 was started as a tribute to Beethoven's hero Bonaparte but when Bonaparte crowned himself emperor, Beethoven lost most of the respect he has for Bonaparte and changed it to Eroica which can be translated to Heroic roughly. I shall reserve my comments to a later date.

What prompted me to write on this Symphony is because it was premiered on 22nd December 1808 and both 21st and 22nd December are birthdays of two men that is very close to my heart and for privacy reasons, it shall remain so. Some of you reading it might be able to guess but please do not comment on the names and respect the privacy please.

Beethoven's 9 symphonies occupy such a large turf in classical music arena that Stefan Kunze commented that "it was the standard against which the claims of all serious symphonic were measured." I could not agree more although the likes of more contemporary symphonic composers like Shostakovich and Schnikte has taken symphonic music to a very new dimension especially with Schnikte.

To start off, symphony No. 6 is peculiar as it has a total of 5 movements instead of the standard 4 movements structure. His other symphony that has 5 movements is symphony No. 9 but I am not sure some would agree with me that the finale Chorale as an adjunct to the 4th movement rather than a movement by itself. As the father of symphonic genre, I guess you reach a certain stage where the person becomes the rule of the day rather than the statutes.My thoughts are that Beethoven might have intended it to be a 4 movement symphony because he placed the schezro in the 3rd movement which is normally followed by the 4th and last movement. However, Beethoven might want to avoid his composition to end up as another tone poem which has become so overly used that Goethe commented " Painting sounds with sounds - thunder, crashing, plashing and splashing has become detestable". This is purely speculation based on circumstantial backdrop against which surrounded Beethoven at that time.

The first movement is to convey his arrival at the pastoral which is the country side as it was commonly known in his time. The feeling is one of cheerfulness as it might have been a large contrast to the city of Vienna where Beethoven was staying at that time. The very subtle entrance could also mean an entrance into quietness and tranquility. There seems to be a parallel with his symphony No. 5 structure wise of letting a single motif move from one part of the orchestra to the next like starting with the strings, followed by woodwinds and finally with the brass section.

The second movement and also the fourth movement is where Beethoven got himself in a tone poem fashion most probably to serve as canvas rather than the painting itself. These 2 movements are bipolar in that the second movement seems to portray the beauty of the country side. The fourth movement on the other hand paints how a thunderstorm could change the canvas of the country side so much just like it does in the cities where he was more accustom save for some sarconant differences in the two places.

The 3rd movement must have been the most beautiful dance of all the dances he has composed in my opinion. The dance starts leisurely and simply perhaps to give the dancers time to admire each other before it launches itself into a romantic heart wrenching melody that could turn any heart of stone to jelly. Thereafter comes the more demanding parts to the dancers to concentrate on the music and their steps. The ending is grandiose and launches straight into the 4th movement. Time to take a back seat and enjoy the music. The 4th movements is also punctuated with many dramatic kettle drum parts where it punctuates the tune with strong and staccato type beats mimicking the storm.

The 5th and the last movement is where the symphony finds resolution in the form of man and nature having a happy co-existence and respect for each other. Perhaps Greenpeace might consider it as a possible tune for their occasions.

I spent a good part of my Sunday listening to all 5 versions of this symphony that I have in my collection. What I find interesting is that for most Beethoven pieces, the more recent recordings tend to play on a faster tempo than older recordings but it is the reverse for this symphony in that the later recordings are played much slower.

The versions that I have are as follows and album art and fuller details would follow as it is about bed time for me now.

1.Beethoven 9 Symphonien - Herbert von Karajan,Berlin Philharmonia. DG

2.Beethoven Shmphony 5 & 6 karajan gold-recent re-issue of the above recording done in 1982

3.Harnoncourt, Chamber Orchestra of Europe-Warner Classics-Winner of best classical album in 1992.

4.Osmo Vanska, Minnesota Orchestra-BIS-SACD Award winning also

5.Andre Cluytens, Berlin Philharmonia-EMI

If I am not mistaken, the version by Vanska listed in number 4 is about the slowest of the 5 interpretations.

Cheers,,,, Pete

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

Rachmaninoff Piano No 3 in D minor Op 30

Sometime in Dec 2009 while I was on leave from work for almost a month, I was introduced to a new fellow HiFi fraternity while on one of my regular visits to HiFi wonderland. He was there to test out an equipment and the owner asked what he would like to listen to and he mentioned classical and a CD of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 3 was lying on the coffee table and he suggested why not try this as it is something he is familiar with. This was my second encounter with a HiFi fan that loved this piece and the other person actually brings a recording of this piece around HiFi shops as a reference sounding board. The shop owner introduced me to his customer as one that loves classical music and he said to me that surely I must have this piece as it is almost like staple food of classical music. I did not answer his question as Rachmaninoff was not on my list of favorite composers and I only vaguely remembers his signature Piano Concerto No 1. Not wanting to be embarrassed, I told myself that I must go find out more about this piece and do some serious listening.

To my pleasant surprise, I found that I have 2 full recordings of this piece and decided to start listening to it and at first, I must admit that I was of the opinion that this piece must be an acquired taste like durians; you either love it or hate it and there is no two ways about it. The piece fell off my listening priority for a few weeks and one late evening or shall I say wee hours of morning whilst I was in a contemplative moods, I turned on Apple IPod and was intending to listen to Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 1 but accidentally swipe the click wheel too quickly and it landed me on his Piano Concerto no 3 and suddenly, the beginning motif seems to catch my attention and I listen on to all the 3 movements and it began to grew on me. It must not have been the superior sonics as I was listening miniature Altec Lansing speakers attached to my IPod and it was an old recording by famous pianist Van Cliburn and therefore it had to be music. Moreover, it was a live recording with a somewhat nosier audience or perhaps the sound engineer was lacking in skills in removing the audience noise from the recording. Some of my HiFi friends told me that there are basically two categories of HiFi fans, those that listen to the equipment against those that listen to the music. I try to strike a balance between the two and this is perhaps the reason I ended up with a decent size library of about 1400 classical CDs.

After listening to all 3 movements for a second time, I think I am beginning to like this piece like never before. The next day, I listened to the second recording I have by Zoltan Kocsis with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the hand of Edo deWaart. This recording was slightly faster paced than Van Cliburn version and between the two, I preferred the latter one as it the tempo seems to jive better with the melody and more emotive as possible to Kocsis catch the 'A' train tempo.

Not long thereafter, during one of my online shopping, I chance upon a live recording of this piece by world renown Chinese pianist Lang Lang version of this piece and in it went to the basket and it arrived at my door step a few later thanks to the snow storm plaguing USA coupled with the Christmas season. I was pretty surprised as I expected the version by Lang Lang to be more exuberant than normal as with most of his pieces but he surprised me with a tempered playing style that was much closer Van Cliburn and I check my CD player to make sure that I had the right CD and it was correct.

A bit about the origin of the piece. As Dvorak has his symphony no 9 'New World' as he composed it in USA, there is some parallel between the two. Rachmaninoff was to have a grand tour of the about 30 cities in USA arranged for him and he wrote this piece specifically for the tour. However, due to sudden death of his USA concert tour sponsor and he thought that the deal was off but it was not to be the case as Rachmaninoff actually contracted with the company and not the dead person and he was obliged to full-fill the USA tour. He wrote most of the entire piece in continental Europe and finished it save for the cadenza. An ingenious Rachmaninoff prepared a cardboard to mirror the keys of the Piano and he wrote the cadenza silently so to speak while crossing the Atlantic to USA on ship that took days instead of hours by air now. On the opening night, he played his silently composed cadenza for this first time to much acclaim of the audience not knowing the background. He swore never to have such a close shave again.

This piece was to become a much loved and requested piece of music during the tour and also subsequently when he left Russia motherland for good for USA to escape the communist revolution taking place then. He lived his last days in USA and never got a chance to return back to Russia that he so loved.

For those of you that are keen, here are the details of the 3 CDs from which I have used to write this commentary:

1.Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 3 Lang Lang-TELARC SACD-60582 (SACD)

2.Rachmaninoff/Prokofiev/Van Cliburn-LIVING STEREO 82876 67894 2 (SACD)

3.Rachmaninoff: Complete Works For Piano And Orchestra-Philips B00005O83Z

Have a good listen to this piece composed around the turn of 1900 and be patient and the bouquet would unfold slowly but surely onto you like all good wine and perfurme that takes time to mature and cannot be rushed.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter