Klarinet Archive - Posting 000322.txt from 2010/09

From: Martin Baxter <martinbaxter1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mozart concerto
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 10:24:16 -0400


On 10 Sep 2010, at 20:51, Joseph Wakeling wrote:

On 09/10/2010 01:12 PM, Martin Baxter wrote:
> When I was doing postgrad work on Victorian domestic music it came as a shock to discover that at the time Mozart was considered inferior not only to Beethoven but even to Spohr.

Spohr himself is an odd case -- if I recall right, during his lifetime
he was considered by many to be THE great composer of the age, the heir
to Beethoven, etc. etc. etc., and yet today he's largely forgotten.
I recall reading somewhere that, in the UK at least, it was Thomas
Beecham who had a lot to do with Mozart's revival and re-evaluation as a
composer of depth, as opposed to a a lightweight composer of "pretty"
pieces.

I suspect part of Spohr's high reputation as a composer was due to his high standing as a virtuoso performer; he obviously "plugged" his own works. Nevertheless a lot of his music is worth playing and for clarinettists both the octet and the nonet are great fun. They do need good strings and the octet a pair of excellent hornists if you want to try them. I would say that the Beecham comment is fair; I am-luckily old enough to have heard him with the Royal Philharmonic. He also did a great deal to_popularize Delius_
Martin_
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