Something Romantic ...

When the composer made a recording of this a few years before, he wryly observed that finally the audience would be able to hear every single note!

ATB from George

Hi George,

First, let me say thank you for highlighting the wonderful pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch whom I too have only the highest respect for.  One of the all time greats in my books for sure.  

If I may though say, what caught me off guard was your wording of the thread title.  I'll freely admit that I personally have a great pet peeve over this subject and this is completely my own problem, however, I often wonder how common it might be that music associated with the word "Romantic" has been unfairly judged and dealt a fatal blow through perception alone.  Through common stereo typing alone I find a fair bit of abuse, misinterpretation, and misunderstanding by many people over this common misconception.

I think the biggest hurdle for anyone is to come to a clear understanding of what do you mean by "Romantic"?  What are you implying?  Most people will automatically associate it negatively with a "love song" or to extend your comment as music that is being overly sentimental, garish or kitschy.  Yes, there is plenty of music that has this style and could be regarded as such but for me personally it rarely has this meaning if you are listening to any of the great composers of this time period.  Of course, I am referring to the great Romantic period composers such as Chopin, Schumann, or Liszt.  

The difference is that these composers are people who lived during the Romantic period in history in the same way that Beethoven, Mozart or Haydn lived during the Classical period or Bach, Handel, or Corelli lived in a Baroque period.  This is a great difference in my opinion.  It only signifies that the rules in music are changing.  

Although, technically, Rachmaninov lived well outside the start and finish of the Romantic period he is commonly referred to being within this group as you have done so here because his music is the most human of all the music I care to know.

What can be said about this is that ones music is about what you aspire to as a person.  What the Romantic period did was not create music that was "more romantic" or gushier but it opened up ideals and ideas about life and living that previously might have been swept under the rug.  It was the first recognition of the emancipation of emotion - of being human - which we all hopefully are.  In fact, by this definition then I would include Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and all great composers that we know as really the forerunners that already did there part to change the past and push their way forward toward the notion of freedom in music and human spirit.  The evolution of western art music really came from a time where one really was not allowed to stray away from a line of music that could only rise or fall one or two steps maximum (Gregorian Chant) to where certain keys or intervals were banned as being evil to the 18th/19th century where the control by a few over many was changing to individuality of the many.

I spend a great deal of time in my life with Baroque, Classical, Romantic, impressionistic, 20th century period music and personally I have never found any example of great music that could fall into the category of distasteful.  It is all the same to me being a combination of melody, harmony, rhythm etc. adding up to various degrees of a language that provides pleasure and effects my human emotion.  Although I know and understand the differences between styles and different periods I really don't see the need to segregate them or build walls around them to keep them separate for fear of contamination.  Great music is great music no matter from what time period.

George, please don't mind me.  Sometimes I just like to talk about music only to let things out of my mind and reassure myself that I am still alive (possibly senile but still alive).  Not many people these days really like to talk about music.  I do hope you still continue to post these wonderful and interesting things about anything related to music..

Thanks, 

Doug

Dear Doug,

Music carries on where words fail. I am not that worried by tight definitions of Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, Post-modern and so forth.

I think it is fair enough to discuss a musical performance in terms of how stylish it is, but I find that mostly the nest thing to do with a great piece of music is simply to listen to it. 

That is why I mostly only post links to music here rather than getting too hung up about an attempt to describe it either my hopeless efforts or the best ones that have been written by real much more clever people than me!

I hope that some of the music I enjoy listening to may be fresh to some here, and that my posts may broaden the love for these pieces. If I succeed on occasion, then I think posting is worthwhile.

I used to get quite hot under the collar about the piano used for Bach's keyboard music. Now I am completely delighted that someone comes to this repertoire via the piano, though I would definitely steer them towards a great performance on the instrument Bach was writing for! But only if I get the chance.

ATB from George