Ask 100 music
cognoscenti to name the three greatest composers, and you will
almost certainly end up with Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Ask them for
the ten greatest, and the fighting will start. I recall a twitty
young journalist a few years back who insisted on listing the seven
greatest composers – amongst whom he included Mahler and
Stravinsky!
I will agree with the
traditional top three. If I had to slim it down to the top two, it
would be: Bach, and Mozart. Listening today again to the six Mozart
string quintets (with two violas) one has to recognise that, even at
the age of seventeen with the early quintet K 174, Mozart was not
content with merely writing fluent, agreeable music. Even at
seventeen years old, he was pushing the envelope of harmony and
development. And the other five quintets went on to explore even
greater depths and feats of daring. I grew up with the miraculous K
516 in G minor (with an early LP from the Amadeus Quartet).
Subsequently, I took in the other five works. Today, despite
competing versions, I will settle happily for the (augmented)
Grumiaux Trio, recorded in the 1970s. Arthur Grumiaux was an
incredible violinist, particularly in the classical repertoire of
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. His duo recordings with Clara
Haskil in Mozart and Beethoven are, rightly, regarded as something of
a gold standard in recorded music. He played and recorded (thanks to
Philips) almost the entire violin literature, but it is his playing
of the older classics that really stands out – plus much of the
Franco-Belgian musical heritage. We have the Dutch Philips company to
thank for its long-term recording support of Grumiaux; and also for
its excellent recording team (a tradition that the team carried over
to the Pentatone label after the sale of Philips).
No comments:
Post a Comment