Classical Quiz (cont.)

First I get to say whether you're right or wrong.

Then you can post the next question.

Well, Rainer, you're completely, and abundantly RIGHT, down to the particular clothes and colors. Had you not jumped in, I might have followed young werther's example after all these fruitless helpful hints. Except, where do you get black tails and a canary waistcoat these days. (Isn't that just the silliest thing: you're gonna blow your brains out, but first you're having a weird suit fitted out.)

So on to the Simenon question!

Night all

Herm

Thanks, Rainer.

Herm

Sad but true, the best recording of the Brahms Piano Quartets to my mind is the sixties Beaux Arts Trio set on Philips (dirt cheap as a Duo issue).

Isidore Cohen (later of the Juilliard String Qt) on violin, and Walter Trampler on viola. There's a cohesion and fun to this playing that's unparalleled. (Same goes for their Brahms Piano Trios.)

Of course I was literally raised on the big brown Philips record set with Brahms chamber music, so I might be biased, but trust me I've tried many other recordings, shelled out a lotta bucks over the years, and every time the ensemble falls apart, or the music turns dour and grubby.

The Ax - Stern - Ma - Laredo recording on Sony is an instance. It's wonderful playing, but it's concert music, not chamber music. As a consequence the eloquence and drama particular to these scores evaporates. So which one do you listen to, Rainer?

And has anyone seen Rainer's movie?

I have the Ax/Stern/Laredo/Ma set, and I second Herm's opinion. It is not a chamber ensemble, it's four soloists. Also, it sounds a bit "heart on sleeve" - like a Hollywood remake of my movie... :-)

Since nobody seems to know "Monsieur Hire", I think I'll answer that question myself and ask a new one.

The excerpt used in the film is from the last movement of the g-minor quartet, a slower contrasting episode to the "Hungarian" main theme. It's sublimely beautiful, and "makes" the movie, at least for me.

Now the new question: Which composer used to sign his letters with the beginning of one of his own string quartets?

Another hint: The period we are looking at is the early romantic.

Well, I checked the Schumann quartets for a signature motto at the start, and nothing turned up (love those pieces, though you rarely ever hear them - well, maybe that's why).

So I figure Schubert is the early romantic you're getting at? His name is eminently transcribable (F - E flat - C - B) and he wrote a lot for string quartet - I'm not familiar with all of it.

Shostakovich used to do this motto thing ad nauseam, so he was my first suspect, but he's no early romantic. So I'll go for Schubert

Herm

Schumann did this kind of thing, but only in his piano music, as far as I know. There are the "Abegg" variations, and in a sonata he has hidden the last name of his friend Niels Gade.

Another hint: The composer with the musical signature wrote an opera based on Goethe's Faust! :-)

And he was quite creative in spelling his own name...

So I guess it's Berlioz, who after all composed Le Damnation de Faust, which as I recall was in last year's Proms. The orchestra and the choir were so big, there was room for maybe five people as an audience.

And I should be sorry, for I am totally unaware of any string quartet activity by H. B. In fact, I have his Symphonie Fantastique and that's about it.

So tell me more.

Herm

But there was at least one Faust opera before Berlioz.

you got me stumped.

I can only think of Liszt's Faust Symphony, but obviously that's no opera, and, the way I look at it, Liszt has to postdate Berlioz.

I feel it's getting time for some assistence from other parts of the world (universe, etc).

Herm

Maybe my hints were a bit misleading because Spohr is known mostly for his violin concerti and larger chamber works, not his operas.

The story behind his signature is as follows: At a concert at some noble's place a string quartet by a fellow named Fesca was played, with much success. One of the movements in Fesca's quartet started with the notes spelling out his name, which the audience found very original.

The composers Spohr and Hummel were attending that concert and were promptly taunted for their "unmusical" names.

But Spohr wouldn't take the blame and used his imagination to spell his name musically after all:

This is the beginning of his string quartet op. 29 in E-flat. The po. stands for piano, and the qarter rest looks somewhat like the old German letter "r".

Spohr then had this engraved on his signet.

Nice one, Todd! It's on you...

???

Cheese

Who was it ?

Cheese

Cheese

What do you mean, "hm"?

Just about every single classical music person on this forum seems to be a Furtwanglerite, except me… So how should I know?

However, I do have sense of having heard about this. The high Isolde notes were supplied by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

So now I'm hoping and praying I'm wrong, so I don't have to think of a New Quiz Question.

After all, the answers are the easy part.

Herm

quote:

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After all, the answers are the easy part.

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Your turn then !

Cheese

Okay, let's give Brahms another shot. Brahms seems to go down really well in the Classical Quiz.

Anyone familiar with the Double Concerto for Violin and 'Cello (op 102)? I like it a lot.

However, the question is what was Brahms' agenda for writing this unusual piece (apart from purely musical reasons)? Why a double concerto?

Gentlemen, the clock is running...

Herm

I knew Brahms would be a success!

So let me give you a hand.

It's basically an old story, involving two men and a woman. A violinist (and a pretty famous one at the time), another string player, and a woman who got in between.

Now, why did Brahms write the double concerto?

Herm

Yes, James, you're completely right. Joseph Joachim was arguably the best violinist of the late 19th Century, and Brahms and he were long time friends.

The only problem was, Joachim was married to an opera singer, Amelie Weiss, and Joachim was terribly jealous. He was touring, she was touring, and he was sure she was doin' it all the time.

It ended in a nasty divorce. And Brahms made a big mistake. He tried to help, but he helped the wrong way… He tried to persuade Joachim that his jealousy was unfounded and when Joachim didn't believe him, Brahms chose Amelie's side…

So where does the Double Concerto come in?

Clearly these Brahms questions are no good. The idea of the Double Cto was: Brahms felt really bad about alienating Joachim over the divorce.

So he wrote the Double Cto, so as not to make it too obvious, with the cellist Robert Hausmann as a sort of go-between between the composer and the fiddler.

I listened to the Kremer / Maisky / Bernstein recording today. I'm not too hot about any of these performers, but I guess it's the best of Bernstein's Brahms project in Vienna.

So a new question. It's about a piano player, who, like Horowitz, had a nervous breakdown, and thought (unlike Horowitz) he'd be a better h. being and / or musician if he played in factory halls elevating the working man.
(We're talking Fiat car plants, here.)

So what's his name? (He's alive & kicking, by the way.)

Herm

[This message was edited by herm on WEDNESDAY 23 January 2002 at 08:41.]