Mozart's Gran Partita - A treasure of the wind repertoire

George Szell conducting members of the wind section from the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, 1969. This is a real Youtube treasure -- one of the best recordings of the best wind music ever written. There are other great recordings: Furtwanger and Berlin (I think) and Marcel Moyse (recommended by David McGill) but I prefer this one. It has everything I love about Szell conducting Mozart: precision, refinement and expression in superb classical proportions.

Conductor: George Szell
Clarinet: Robert Marcellus
Oboe: John Mack
Horn: Philip Farkas 

Mov't 1

Movement 2

Movement3

M 4

M6

M7

 

Kleiber: Beethoven 4 and 7

Kleiber's 1983 concert with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Watch, listen and enjoy!

Heifetz Masterclass

Heifetz Masterclass 1 - violin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szXaTRE3tL0&feature=relmfu

First piece:

Polonaise brillante No.2, Op.21 (Wieniawski, Henri)

Heifetz Masterclass 2 - violin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3pLwVhm7xY&feature=related

3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAMhxFEGsns&feature=relmfu

4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DtMiuPusFY&feature=relmfu

Kleiber: Maximum tension

The wonderful documentary "Carlos Kleiber: Traces to Nowhere" serves as a great introduction to Kleiber and what made him special. The extraordinary lineup of guests provide great insight into this reclusive genius.

"Maximum tension, not just high tension, maximum tension was what he conveyed both to the audience and the musicians." - Klaus Konig, oboist in SDR Orchestra

I think this idea of maximum tension gets at what makes Carlos Kleiber unique. Below I identify two examples. 

Schubert's 'Unfinished'

Woodwinds bars: 170-175

The climax, and moment of maximum intensity, arrives after a series of ff outbursts. Consider the woowinds shown, shown above, and their trill.

In the climax in the first movement we get a true sense of the terror in the music. The strings have a simple minor pattern (Hanon anyone?) , but it is played with such intensity!

Strings I and II - bars 176-178

A major difference between this recording and many others are the ostinato parts in the horns, trumpets, timp. and oboe. The horns in particular really kick out the sound to replace the timpani.

Finally the trombones play the melody with the "choppy quality" that Callas was after in the Rigoletto masterclass. Nothing ruins this dramatic section like a trombone section trying to play with a beautiful legato here -- no such thing is needed.

  Coriolan Overture: Running into a wall at 60mph

Kleiber wanted the downbeat to hit the audience without giving it away with an enormous upbeat gesture. He found the solution in a tape of Duke Ellington and his band. "The Duke and I whipped a downbeat sans upbeat out of nowhere for the start and similar 'starts', making it sound like running into a wall at 60mph with a Rolls-Royce, OK?" - Carlos Kleiber, correspondence with Charles Barber.

Callas Masterclass - 1

Maria Callas Masterclass

There's nothing new here: I've taken the audio clip of the session, which is freely available here, and Verdi's score from here and presented them below.

Introducing Carlos Kleiber!

Carlos Kleiber conducting Unter Donner und Blitz, Op. 324 by Johann Strauss Jr in 1986 with the Bavarian State Orchestra.

 

It may be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IomRh4Wir2M

 This is an important Kleiber document because the camera stays on him through the entire piece (short though it may be) and we can clearly see all the gestures he uses to get the expression he's after. So, for those who already know him to those who don't, there's much to gain by studying this little video. I apologize for having to use a piano reduction, but that's what there is. It starts out with a charming polka, with Kleiber giving a nice smooth sweeping gesture. 

An exciting crescendo figure follows, giving a nice contrast to the flowing figure before. Notice how Kleiber builds the intensity using his left hand (how can't you!). 

 

And now my favorite bit, the woodwinds chirp in with this cute little refrain. And Kleiber gives the signal with a Touchdown! gesture towards the woodwinds in the recap -- you can't miss that either!

Lastly, note the attention Kleiber pays to the bass drum and cymbals -- they are the thunder and lightning after all! The thumps and crashes are set in relief against the charming tune in the strings. What an encore!

Since I'm running out of steam I'll just add these here: note how the the beginning of some phrases begin (woodwinds!!) -- as if they are butting into an ongoing conversation, note how Kleiber controls the intensity (by calming and inciting) of the music, and note anything else I haven't mentioned and pop it into the comments. Thanks.

Welcome to my blog

For the most part this blog will be about classical music. It will focus on the "great" artists and composers of the past, eschewing for the most part the day-to-day goings on. 

Since I have no formal musical training, I learned a lot from Bernstein's Young Peoples Concerts, Andras Schiff's lectures, Maria Callas' masterclasses, and of course by listening to a lot of music! Therefore, some of the following posts will be a companion of sorts to this type of material, with embedded musical scores and audio, allowing folks like myself to learn more about music straight from the "greats".

The other part of this blog of course, will entail my opinionating on music -- hopefully referencing the score in some useful way. As usual, it's up to the reader to sort through the rubbish to find what's actually useful to them; I'll try my best to make it an easy search.