In a typically thoughtful contribution to my post Why not play the premier league composers more often? Richard Bratby - who is professionally involved in classical music - mused "speaking solely from my own experience - there is a very noticeable falling-off in ticket sales when a symphony orchestra programmes pre-Beethoven repertoire, irrespective of the quality of the performance or the music, or the energy with which it is marketed. But why?" Now Kea has answered Richard's question with the following comment: Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich, etc, all sound more or less like film music (or -- more accurately -- film music sounds more or less like recycled bits of Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich, etc) and therefore don't require any intellectual involvement or serious effort to listen to. Understanding the music of Bach, Mozart or Haydn, etc (or for that matter Schumann, Brahms, Webern, Cage, etc) actually requires people to listen actively rather than being pulled alo...
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(sorry if this is a repeat - not sure the first attempt made it, I run my default browser with extremely restricted settings and occasionally get bitten :-) )
(bobregular)
Hi Bob:
More like “Guessing the Score” but would it be Elgar’s “The Apostles”?
Carol
… Elgar’s Apostles which includes a Shofar …
Antoine
Interesting trivia ... of the first five readers who correctly identified Elgar's The Apostles one lives in England, one in Estonia, one in France (just) and two in the States. Which gives the lie to Elgar only appealing to the English.
More trivia, the first two correct answers came from current or former librarians on both sides of the Atlantic and two of the first three came from ladies, the eternal feminine clearly know their Elgar.
I was going to head the post Shofar so good but thought that would give the game away.
What a wonderful work The Apostles is. It is so different to the 'smells and bells' of Gerontius and is almost contemporary in its ecumenical message.
If you don't know the work Boult's classic recording from EMI is currently available for the price of two Starbuck lattes - no contest.
Many thanks to everyone who joined in the fun.
Actually, the question is as much whether Elgar finds appeal beyond the UK (I love Falstaff and the end of the Dream is worthy of Brahms’s German Requiem) as much as how many who responded correctly are Jewish (disclosure: I am).
AL
Actually, I live in Lithuania, not Estonia.
One of my friends, Anatolijus Senderovas, had composed a piece involving the shofar, Shmaa Israel
http://www.mic.lt/en/classical/persons/works/senderovas/36?ref=%2Fen%2Fclassical%2Fpersons%2F41
It involves a shofar...you can listen to bits of it. After that it was easy to find it....
Doesn't mean I appreciate Elgar, though ;-)
-- Beate
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