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General Category => Gustav Mahler and Related Discussions => Topic started by: barry guerrero on March 04, 2007, 06:45:33 AM
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Hi folks,
My other strong musical passion is for what's euphamistically called "west coast jazz" from the 1950's and early '60's. It was a style of jazz that was generally softer and "cooler" sounding than the "hard bop" sounds that were eminating primarily from the east coast and Chicago. It often times intersected with the so-called "third stream" experimentations of Jimmy Giuffre, Lee Konitz, Lennie Tristano, Gunther Schuller, and others (including, at times, Stan Kenton). The third streamers basically crossed "cool school" stylings with more classical forms and structures. Legends of west coast jazz include Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse Allstars; Shelly Manne And His Men (who played mostly at Shelly's Mannhole); Shorty Rogers and His Jazz Giants; The Marty Paich Dek-Tette; Art Pepper (alto sax); Bud Shank (alto sax); Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax), and many, many others. It also fostered the international career of trumpeter and singer Chet Baker. Many of these fine musicians came to the studios of L.A. after leaving the Stan Kenton and Woody Herman bands. One of today's leading survivors among those early west coast jazz legends is trumpeter, singer, and comdian, Jack Sheldon. As you'll see, I'm a huge fan of Jack Sheldon. While his voice has deepened and deteriorated slightly (he's 75, for god's sake), his trumpet soloing continues to improve. Anyway, here's a review that I just wrote at Amazon on his newest CD, "Listen Up".
(http://www.butterflyrecords.com/images/jslistenup-md.jpg)
Track Listings
1. Isfahan
2. So What
3. Night in Tunisia
4. The Shadow of Your Smile
5. Star Eyes
6. Lady Bird
7. Bernie's Tune
8. I Love You
9. All Blues
10. 'Round Midnight
Thank goodness for virtual record stores like Amazon. I'm so sick and tired of walking into CD shops that carry jazz, only to find rows and rows of Chet Baker and Miles Davis, but nothing - or next to nothing - on Jack Sheldon. Give me a break! Jack Sheldon is immediately identifiable from his first three or four notes on any given take. His sound is every bit as individual and characteristic as that of Chet, Miles, or Diz' even. This is a travesty, folks. Early in his career, Jack was overshadowed by the supposedly more sexy Chet Baker - the Chris Botti of his day. Yet, early Sheldon performances with The Curtis Counce Group; The Marty Paich Dek-Tette; Art Pepper, and the one disc that he made with Herbie Mann (with Mann playing an excellent bass clarinet exclusively), all show that he could easily hold his own against the highly tauted Baker. Granted, Chet Baker had a far more marketable singing voice. Anyway, after becoming an established "west coast" jazz musician - as opposed to Baker's fully international career - Jack Sheldon spent several decades playing in the house band on the Merv Griffin Show; often times playing the role of Merv's comic sidekick. Naturally, this lead many folks to conclude that he was no longer a serious jazzer. Well, I have news for those particular people: you couldn't possibly have been more wrong.
Sheldon's jazz chops never went away. And while his singing voice has deteriorated to some degree (he's 75!), his trumpet playing has simply gotten better and better. Today, at age 75, Jack Sheldon continues to study trumpet with Uan Racey. Nevery heard of Uan Racey? Well trust me, you've heard him play! Mr. Racey played top trumpet on a great number of big Hollywood movies - his most famous and recognizable solos being in the Jack Nicholson/Faye Dunnaway blockbuster that has spurred the entire neo-noir craze, "Chinatown". Remember him now? If you buy Jack Sheldon's latest CD, "Listen Up", you'll hear that Jack now plays with a similar sounding, broad and confident tone in his middle and upper registers as that of Uan Racey's. Yet, the trademark gentle, "foo-foo" style and tone to his low register is perfectly intact. In short, Jack's dynamic range and range of color has increased significantly. All of this wouldn't matter if it weren't also for the fact that he's a hell of an improviser - more like a composer on the spot than yet another trumpeter with a bag full of fast scales and screeching high notes. There's nothing generic about J.S.'s playing what-so-ever. I like to think of him as the Bill Evans of the trumpet. He's makes me think of the many excellent tenor sax players who didn't try to change the course of jazz history - people like Dexter Gordon, Teddy Edwards, and Benny Golson (who really should team up with J.S., before it's too late) - just to name a few. Need I heap on more platitudes?
"Listen Up" is excellent in every conceivable way, including the solid and imaginitive contributions from his California Cool Quartet. In fact, it's so good that you won't miss Jack's singing and/or off-color jokes (which I like); or regret the abscence of a good reed man. It also has great sound. "Listen Up" is one man's statement that's also just fun, musical, and enjoyable to listen to. Imagine that!
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Thanks for this review Barry. Some years ago Jazz was all I listened to, in particular Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, T. Monk and Mile Davis. But Sony Rollins, Paul Desmond (my favorite alto player right now), Eric Dolphy (for his bass clarinet sound) and Pharoah Sanders are also huge favorites, and Oliver Nelson's unique Blues and the Abstract Truth is simply divine.
I once met Sonny Rollins after a concert and he signed an LP for me! Other memorable greats I've seen are Phil Woods, Marcus Roberts, and Horace Silver.
When it comes to brass tax, I quess you could say I'm an 'avant-garde' fan, with Coltrane's Meditations album being the most profound Jazz I've ever heard. I also really love his Ascension album too.
Just looking at these album covers gives me a chill:
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003N8P.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004TA40.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
A friend of mine used to take care of an older musician who personally knew Stan Getz, so that was cool to hear some of those stories from the 50's and 60's. I've never really listened alot to the west coast scene though...not because I wasn't interested. I was just obsessed with Coltrane and etc!!!
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If you like bass clarinet, you should hear the album with Herbie Mann and Jack Sheldon. In my opinion, Herbie Mann plays the bass clarinet far than better Eric Dolphy ever could. Granted, Dolphy was sort of a unique player. Anyway, the title is, "Great Ideas Of Western Mann".
(http://www.jazz-shop.net/OJC/OJC1065/OJC1065_2.jpg)
And if you like Paul Desmond (I do too), you should try to hear Bud Shank. I'm not a big fan of alto sax, but I so like those two a lot. I'm afraid I'm not a huge fan of either Phil Woods (too obcessed with technique) or Cannonball Adderley (too loud and too fast). I'm not saying that they aren't great - they're just not for me. Anyway, Bud Shank frequently performed and recorded with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse Allstars, and played regularly at Shelly Mann's Mannhole. I'll post a photo of a really good, older album by the Lighthouse Allstars. Bud Shank often times played flute with the Allstars. Bob Cooper, I think it was, would often times pick up the alto sax duties (or was he baritone sax?). They sometimes recorded with an oboe as well.
(http://jazzusa.com/shootinggallery/pix/1200/Bud_Shank.jpg)
(http://image.com.com/mp3/images/cover/200/drd500/d528/d528128or2n.jpg)
(http://image.com.com/mp3/images/cover/200/drc600/c648/c6489934vmu.jpg)
(http://www.roseking.org/Images/earlyallstars.jpg)
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Thanks for those recommends...I'm going try Herbie Mann first.
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(http://rock.charts-music.co.uk/pics/Ken_Burns_Jazz_Collection_The_Definitive_Ornette_Coleman-nUE0pQbiY2ygLJqypl5uoJS6o24hL29gY2ygLJqypl9DY0VjZQNjAGIKI1DhZQVhK1AQGIcnJycnJycsYzcjMj==.jpg)
This man was born in my hometown. :D
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I guess it's just me, but I get nothing out of the whole avantgarde, atonal, anti-melodic, free jazz business. Give me Satchmo, Bix, and Sidney Bechet any day. Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Rosan Roland Kirk - I'm not saying that these guys can't play, but they'll force me to leave the room in a matter of minutes. Even Coltrane's more angry sounding moments aren't for me. I like a good tune, and I like players who like to swing. Call me old fashioned - come on, I dare you.
Leo,
You mentioned Horace Silver. I like his "funky" piano stylings very much. But more than that, I think he might possibly be the greatest composer of mainstream jazz tunes of anybody. "Nica's Dream" is my all time favorite jazz tune, and Jack Sheldon recorded an outstanding version of it with the Curtis Counce Group. I also like "Ecaroh", which is simply Horace backwards. Anyway, it's a solid tune as well.
(http://concordmusicgroup.com/mivaAlbumArt/188x188/OJCCD-423-2.jpg)
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Barry,
as you certainly remember, "my other great musical passion" is the harpsichord... ;)
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Barry, I like a good tune too, especially a Gershwin tune. I also love Thelonious Monk's tunes, like Ruby My Dear.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Timethelonious.jpg/180px-Timethelonious.jpg)
The last time I was heavy into Jazz I was really into Mile Davis...I prefer his acoustic over his funky electric stuff...I especially love his 'second' Quintet (with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter). At the top are his collaborations with Gil Evans...especially his Porgy and Bess album. I think I prefer Miles on Flugelhorn over the trumpet. What a timbre!
If I listen to avante garde now, I pick up Coltrane's later stuff on Impulse. It's hard to just throw Coltrane's stuff on...I have to be in the right mood. Someday I'm going to get more into Archie Shepp, when I find time.
I love that Curtis Counce album cover!! I have a fondness for the colors white and blue...it just says 'Jazz' to me...and it makes me think of this great cover (I haven't heard this album, but I always loved the cover!):
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/Dolphy_Out_To_Lunch.png)
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Yeah, that Dolphy cover is terrific! Here's the other great Curtis Counce Group cover. This disc has a great version of "Stranger In Paradise" - the Borodin melody from the opera "Price Igor", which was later co-opted in the musical, "Kismit".
(http://concordmusicgroup.com/mivaAlbumArt/188x188/OJCCD-159-2.jpg)
Here's another favorite of mine, "Surf Ride". It features Art Pepper on alto sax, along with a bunch of "west coast" guys from the 50s.
(http://server3.myebiz.com/markcote/library/Surfride.jpg)
You mentioned Monk's "Ruby, My Dear" - great tune! Well, my favorite Monk recording isn't by Monk, but by Carmen McRae. She does an excellent job on "Ruby". And by the way, she also did a great set of songs from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess", with Sammy Davis Jr. - great stuff, believe it or not.
(http://www.jazzos.com/products_images/63841.jpg)
(http://image.listen.com/img/170x170/7/9/2/7/727297_170x170.jpg)
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Here's an excellent album from Horace Silver. Great tunes! And, of course, J.J. Johnson is his usual incredible self (trombone). I love both Horace Silver and Art Blakey - main stream guys all the way.
(http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/s/silver_hora_capeverde_101b.jpg)
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Yeah, that Dolphy cover is terrific! Here's the other great Curtis Counce Group cover. This disc has a great version of "Stranger In Paradise" - the Borodin melody from the opera "Price Igor", which was later co-opted in the musical, "Kismit".
(http://concordmusicgroup.com/mivaAlbumArt/188x188/OJCCD-159-2.jpg)
Thats a sweet cover...one of these days I'm going to have to check this album out!
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The problem with these Fantasy - OJC discs, as that they need to be rather short in duration. It would be better if they would combine a few of them into compilations, but keep the original covers.
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I'm going to New Orleans during May 3-7 to see some sort of Jazz Festival with my father. I'm looking forward to the event. I've always thought Jazz only second to Classical when it comes to music in general; But I've never spent time to get to know it well: This, I believe, will be my opportunity.
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I looked at the lineup and schedule, and I'm not sure that it should even be called a jazz festival. I say that because there's quite a bit of cajon, zydeco, blues, etc. Depending on your taste and viewpoint, that may or may not be a good thing. I would say to try to hear some of the trad. jazz bands - dixieland, in other words. The biggest difference between classical and jazz is this: classical is primarily composer driven, while jazz is primarily performer driven. Jazz is a big factor in why I don't take classical performers more seriously. Conversely, many jazz tunes leave much to be desired.
Barry
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I put on some Miles and Gil Evans yesterday...Porgy and Bess...what a great sounding record this is, and a wonderful tribute to Gershwin. Funny how I hardly think of Gershwin when I listen to it...must be Mile's huge personality and style (and Evans too). I love how Evan's arrangements can really put on a mood.
I also really really dig that cover!
(http://www.sonymusicstore.com/coverimages/SME_0101_CK_065141.70Q_200x200_72dpi_RGB.jpg)
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I think I mentioned this, but another good P & B is just a selection of songs from it, sung by Carmen McRae and Sammy Davis Jr. Yeah, that Gil Evans orchestrated stuff is great.
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Barry, I heard some very interesting jazz last night on the radio. This guy, named Scott Robinson (perhaps you already know of him) was playing the obscure contrabass sax, and it has an amazing deep sound...as low as a tuba. I checked his albums on amazon and discovered he plays other obscure instruments, like the C- Melody Saxohone among others. This is great jazz though, and not just a novelty record.
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21kUMgUyYwL._AA130_.jpg)
(http://www.allaboutjazz.com/articles/srobinson2004.jpg)
--Leo
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The bass sax is a very efficient instrument. Some guys like to use them in trad. jazz bands (dixieland) instead of the tuba or string bass. The were most prevalent in the 19-teens and twenties. Since upright basses can now be so easily amplified, they've lost favor. I don't think that anybody builds new ones at all. But they draw a lot more attention to themselves than just a plain-old string bass. I like them.
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Okay, okay. I'll be the only stick-in-the-mud here. It's Schubert for me. Especially the Quintet in C.
Stimmt.
. & '
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My other great musical passion is acoustic guitar music. Not necessarily classical. I love great fingerstyle guitar. Jazz (like Joe Pass duets with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Django with Stephane Grapelli, etc) -- and Brazilian (like anything by Sergio and Odair Assad or Egberto Gismonti) -- and all that uncategorizable acoustic guitar stuff at Acoustic Music Resource (like Lawrence Juber, David Cullen, Ed Gerhard, Alex DeGrassi, etc). I guess because I prefer to play that kind of stuff myself. Or used to. I don't play much anymore.
(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/21G0RWPXcLL._AA130_.jpg)
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HSHABAS0L._AA240_.jpg)
(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/31gjbIQtXsL._AA190_.jpg)
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MFS3K14HL._AA240_.jpg)
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I love acoustic guitar music too, in particular I like the old rural blues recordings from the 1920's and 1930's. My favorite players being Skip James, Tommy Johnson, and Mississippi John Hurt.
(http://www.nndb.com/people/135/000114790/skipjames02.jpg)
(http://physics.lunet.edu/blues/images/T_Johnson.jpg)
(http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/B000000EBH.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
For modern guitar players, I like Leo Kottke. Sweet tone.
--Leo
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Leo was the first of the fingerstyle guitarists I heard do just instrumental stuff. I saw him play quite a few times, met him, got to know him a little back in the 70s, brefore he got married and straightened out. Some funny stories from that time. His early stuff was really innovative for the time, back when he was on Rounder. Never cared much for his contemporary on the label, John Fahey. Another guy back then was Dave Evans - a Brit who could flat out play. Made a record called Sad Pig Dance. Tune on there called "Knuckles and Buster" that was hard as hell to play. A few other guys followed - Duck Baker, Stefan Grossman, etc. But Kottke ruled back then. Until Micheal Hedges blew the fingerstyle guitar scene open. His album Aerial Boundaries remains one of the great solo guitar albums of all time, right up there with Kottke's My Feet Are Smiling. Hedges went wasted and tried to sing, then sadly crashed out of our universe, but a gazillion guys followed. Egberto Gismonti was the modern alternative. I saw him live his first trip to the U.S., and he blew me away. I ran out and bought the only album I could find. Turned out he had played the entire first album on stage with Nana Vasconcelos, just the two of them - Danca das Cabecas. Amazing. And then for the next level, it was the Assad brothers, playing a mix of jazz, classical and South American music. They still rule, as far as I'm concerned. Saw them in NY with Nadja Salerno Sonenberg. But nothing is better than the two of them playing together. Unbelievable.
But blues .... yeah. I like some blues too. Just about anything out of the old south. Especially slide guitar stuff. Do you play, Leo?
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Wow...thanks for that awesome overview Amphissa...now I got some albums to look for!!!
I play very basic guitar...enough to know all the usual chords (barre and open positions) to play though pretty much any Rock/Country/Folk/Blues number from a fake book, but no jazz or fingerpickin of any kind!
--Leo
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for me, it's; bix beiderbecke, bruckner, colonial american sacred music, marches...
dj
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The local jazz channel here in the S.F. bay area occassionally plays a cut of Clark Terry playing an old Bix Beiderbecke tune that's just amazing - very challenging for the trumpet. I keep meaning to pick up the Clark Terry cd that has that. I can't remember the name of the tune right now.
Barry
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...would you believe Bob Dylan?
Nick
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Bob Dylan is great...I've seen him 3 times in concert, and used to collect boots of shows and etc. Blood On The Tracks and Infidels are among my fave albums. The best thing he's ever done, at least for me, are the "basement tape" sessions...what a mood that sets...incredible stuff.
--Leo
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I play very basic guitar...enough to know all the usual chords (barre and open positions) to play though pretty much any Rock/Country/Folk/Blues number from a fake book, but no jazz or fingerpickin of any kind!
--Leo
It's nice to see there are others who also play musical instruments. :)
Playing an instrument even on an amature level is I think very good for the better understanding of music you listen too. and as a form of personal expression, of course you don't need to play an insturment to enjoy and understand music, but I think it helps.
I also play acoustic steel string guitar on an amature level, and drums on a more advanced level but no longer with a band.
I like going through the Beatles guitar book and stealing ideas :-[for my own simple guitar tunes.
Also Mahler has helped me with some musical ideas, whenever I repeat a phrase I like to either vary the notes or play the phrase in another register then before, Mahler sometimes changes the orchestration when he repeats a phrase, this keeps things fun and interesting.
Vatz
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Vatz, Laurence Juber was McCartney's guitarist in Wings for awhile. I typically do not like covers of Beatles songs, but he made a solo acoustic album of Beatles music that is quite good. A lot of the guitarists featured on Acoustic Music Resource have tab books and instructional videos.
For the acoustic guitar lover, I highly recommend a DVD called "The All Star Guitar Night." This is just great guitarist after great guitarist getting up on stage in Nashville and doing their solo acoustic guitar thing. They do this every year, but I think only 2 of them have been filmed. Each guitarist has a different style, of course, but that's what makes it fun. Watch for Juber doing his solo guitar version of Hendrix's "Little Wing" and Martin Taylor, who is best known for his jazz work with play the best version of "Georgia On My Mind" that I've ever heard. And the camerawork gives good looks at how the guitarists are actually playing the piece.
http://www.amazon.com/DVD-Muriel-Andersons-Star-Guitar-Night/dp/B000BGPL2U/ref=sr_1_5/102-0928985-5999331?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1182691552&sr=1-5 (http://www.amazon.com/DVD-Muriel-Andersons-Star-Guitar-Night/dp/B000BGPL2U/ref=sr_1_5/102-0928985-5999331?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1182691552&sr=1-5)
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Amphissa,
Thanks for the tip!!
Vatz
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(http://static.last.fm/coverart/300x300/1428135.jpg)
I just want to express my love for this album...knowing objectivity
is impossible, and understanding that I don't have any kind of
technical knowledge regarding the sessions, overdubs and etc. I love
to read the posts from the scholars of course, but man, how can you
speak of something so sacred and not cheapin' the experience?
Well...I'm not worried that my experience will be cheapened anymore.
What do I love about this album? Well, the orchestration for one
thing...the imagination of the arrangements and the 'sound' that is
captured through the recording process and production. I am basically
a huge fan of great arrangements and orchestration. Thats why I love
Mahler too.
Actually, I don't hear this album as 'forward' looking or really
timeless...the arrangements and the sound of this album always bring
me to a specific 'time' or memory...the look of 60's furniture, or
the lampstands and curtains from mohogany walled apartments from the
early 70's, with women in flimsy sun dresses and granny glasses--
taking me by the hand to a park...all this flashes though the
remnents of my childhood soaked brain and I return to paradise. I
love the Lawrence Welk, easy-listening-type arrangements brought to
an aggressive level that approches the sound of danger, or even
maddness. I love how the vocals sound rather unfinished in places,
being the most realized on Sloop John B.
I love the fractured story the songs strive to tell, only to fail on
the wake of a missed train. Music isn't enough at the end...the truth
of 'reality' through the use of stock recordings taken from life like
a snapshot...with no tones to construct chords with, or place
together to form an artificial pattern to create art.
I love how the melodies of these songs are not really obvious, and
not always immediate and boldly outlined...rather they are as much
smoke and mirrors as Robert Johnson's Hellhounds On My Trail blues.
The architecture of the musical arguement is there in each song, but
the mist soons covers the logic...and all I can do is trust that what
I heard was real, and I can play the song again...as the song is
still there.
Or is it?
--Leo K
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(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HMMPADXEL._AA240_.jpg)
I recently bought her 8 CD set of Schubert sonatas...
Before Uchida came along my main set was the Wilhelm Kempff set on DG...a classic set...but unfortunately he didn't always take the expostion repeats in the first movements, which is kinda a deal breaker for me in many ways. Schubert's "heavenly lengths" (as Schumann so famously describes) must be heard in full to be appreciated. Yet, Kempff is a wonderful Schubert interpreter...one of the greats actually...so I loved his set.
I was excited when I heard Uchida was going to be playing Schubert, because I know her Mozart is revelatory, especially her conception of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.18, Rondo in A minor and Sonata in F Major K.533. These Mozart works, under her hands, were profound meditations, which could turn towards humour or anger on a dime. My estimation of Mozart really grew with these interpretations.
I discovered her Schubert to be just as personal, reflective and well constructed conceptually. The sound of the piano is also well considered in this recordings and add to the sublime, pastoral wandering of these works.
Under Uchida's hands the later sonatas are especially epic, but the most intimate in scope in vision...the consideration of the hidden world under the social personality along with the "barrier" between the interior and exterior states, where our life meets the most pain, struggle and happyness...her Schubert reflects this thin line between our interior existence and our social world...and how the interior life is even pastoral, closer to nature in all it's beauty and terrible aspects.
My personal favorite sonatas are the unfinished C major (D.840) traditionally named "Relique" and the epic G Major Sonata (D.894).
Highly recommended.
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Thanks for posting this info. - I find it very interesting. I really struggle with those big Schubert sonatas, so maybe I should give Uchida a whirl. In fact, I sort of struggle with Schubert in general. I find Schumann's chamber music to be very under-rated, so I tend to lean towards him in general. But, it's not an either/or situation, so I really should give Uchida the chance to make a convert of me.
B.
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Thanks for posting this info. - I find it very interesting. I really struggle with those big Schubert sonatas, so maybe I should give Uchida a whirl. In fact, I sort of struggle with Schubert in general. I find Schumann's chamber music to be very under-rated, so I tend to lean towards him in general. But, it's not an either/or situation, so I really should give Uchida the chance to make a convert of me.
B.
Hi Barry, yes I love Schumann too, yet sadly I am one of those who have underated his chamber music, just by lack of listening to it enough I suppose...however, I do know his string quartets well and I love those...not only great music, but also well thought out conceptually...such as the key relationships.
As for Uchida's Schubert, let me know if you like her whenever you decide to try her Schubert...perhaps a single disk, such as this:
(http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/5901/Uchida-Son.gif)
would be a great place to start, and start with the G major sonata...
--Leo
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More on Schubert (my other musical passion):
(http://www.musicwithease.com/schubert-02.jpg)
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
(http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/459/karolinefb8.jpg)
Countess Karoline Esterhazy (1805-1851)…this portrait from a lost watercolor by Josef Teltscher, 1828.
I often wonder about the mysterious Countess Karoline Esterhazy. My interest had become an obsession, but sadly, information about her is rather hard to come by. I would love to know more about her broken marriage, or why she died at age 46 in 1851, but here I shall remember her and her friendship with composer Franz Schubert.
Her father was Johann Karl Esterhazy of Galanta, and in the summers of 1818 and 1824 Karoline and her older sister Marie were pupils of Schubert. Schubert’s late works (at least from 1824 on) seem to evoke her presence very strongly; however, her presence in Schubert’s personal life is largely shrouded in mystery, of which we know only a few concrete details.
During the summers of 1818 and 1824 Schubert took the two-day journey on stage-coach from Vienna to the Esterhazy summer residence, located in Zseliz, now Zeliezovce in Slovakia (more than a hundred miles from Schubert's home city of Vienna). Biographer Brian Newbould describes Zseliz as a "small market town".
Before leaving Vienna to go to Zseliz (in 1824), Franz Schubert wrote in a letter to a friend:
I feel myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair over this ever makes things worse and worse, instead of better; imagine a man, I say, whose brilliant hopes have perished, to whom the felicity of love and friendship have nothing to offer but pain, at best, whom enthusiasm (at least of the stimulating kind) for all things beautiful threatens to forsake, and I ask you, is he not a miserable, unhappy being? ‘My peace is gone, my heart is sore, I shall find it never and nevermore,’ I may well sing every day now, for each night, on retiring to bed, I hope I may not wake again, and each morning but recalls yesterday’s grief.
Schubert was really sick with syphilis by 1824. Since the beginning of the year his doctor had him confined to his lodgings and on a special diet. By the end of March Schubert was showing the signs of the 2nd stage of syphilis, the lesions to the mouth and throat that affected his voice.
By May, it appears Schubert’s symptoms had abated, and he was able to fulfill his tutoring duties in Zseliz. He must have really had to suppress his emotional and physical ordeal to function in the Esterhazy castle.
Incidentally, I found a picture of the one-story Esterhazy Castle after a long search on the internet. It is interesting to see how it looks in this photo, with the windows boarded up (it has recently been restored):
(http://www.radixforum.com/pictures/20030795.jpg)
This photo is fascinating to me…inside this summer residence Schubert tutored Count Esterhazy's daughters in piano and singing, and by 1824 Schubert had found himself 'in love' with the 18 year old Karoline. According to Eduard Bauernfeld, Schubert was "head over heals in love with one of his pupils, a young Countess Esterhazy, to whom he also dedicated one of his most beautiful piano pieces, the Fantasy in F Minor for piano duet".
This is true; Schubert did dedicate this work, one of his most important works for piano, to Karoline in 1828. Brian Newbould says that Bauernfeld is not always a reliable witness, but generally he has been a great help to scholars (such as mentioning the existence of the unfinished 10th Symphony and etc) and believes that Bauernfeld was problably correct over Schubert's infatuation with the Countess. Schubert once refers to her in one of his letters as "a certain attractive star" and another friend of Schubert, named Schonstein writes:
This flame [for Karoline] continued to burn until his death. Karoline had the greatest regard for him and for his talent but she did not return this love; perhaps she had no idea of the degree to which it existed. I say the degree, for that he loved her must surely have been clear to her from a remark of Schubert's--his only declaration in words. Once, namely, when she reproached Schubert in fun for having dedicated no composition to her, he replied, "What is the point? Everything is dedicated to you anyway."
Brian Newbould continues:
Whether, at this juncture in his life, Schubert’s new feelings for Karoline brought him more joy than sadness is a matter of speculation. It was recognized by those aware of them that the difference in social standing between the two people would have made it virtually impossible for any amatory relationship to develop, even if Karoline’s own feelings were not as neutral as [Karl von] Schonstein maintains. In his diseased state, if she had been aware of his inclination and responded, he would anyway have found a deep irony in the possibility of a fulfilled and enduring partnership opening up after he had robbed himself of the capacity to pursue such an option. Daily contact with Karoline, then, would have stirred ambivalent emotions.
Karl von Schonstein, who was there that summer, states that Schubert, the Countesses, and the Count spent the summer playing through Haydn’s Creation and The Seasons, as well as Mozart’s Requiem Mass. Since Karoline’s voice was ‘charming but weak’, she usually was the accompanist during these happy hours of music making.
Schonstein continues:
One morning in September 1824…Countess Esterhazy invited Meister Schubert during breakfast, which we all took together, to set to music for our four voices a poem which she was particularly fond; it was…Gebet [a poem by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque]. Schubert read it, smiled inwardly, as he usually did when something appealed to him, took the book and retired forthwith, in order to compose.
As Newbould observes, “one can understand Schubert being stirred, in his present situation, by verses like this”:
Whatever you plan for me,
Lord, I stand ready.
Whether for the gift of devoted love
Or for Valiant battle.
Maynard Solomon disagrees Karoline was a love interest; he feels the available evidence is not substantial enough for this claim:
It is difficult to give credence to this timeworn tale of a poor musician’s unrequited love for a highborn countess—recounted, not without some hints of irony, by Schober, Spaun, Bauernfeld, and Karl Schoenstein—for it is unsupported by contemporary letters or documents, and it doesn’t quite square with Schubert’s letters from Zseliz. “I sit here alone…,” he wrote in a letter of 1824, “without a single person in the world.” That is not very surprising, for the countess was somewhat retarded—her mother sent her to play hoops when she was thirty, and though she married as she neared forty, an annulment followed shortly thereafter.
The claim that Karoline was mentally handicapped comes from Otto Erich Deutsch, who wrote in his Schubert: A Documentary Biography that:
[Karoline] remained so much a child that her mother sent her out to play hoop when she was thirty.
Rita Steblin refutes Maynard Solomon, by noting that Deutsch didn’t provide any documentation for this claim. She also reveals a previously unpublished reference regarding Schubert and Karoline, from Bauernfeld’s diary written in the month of Febuary, 1828, when Schubert was still alive:
Schubert appears seriously in love with the Countess E. This pleases me about him. He’s giving her lessons.
Schubert also began to write many duets for the piano. The Sonata in C Major for piano duet, also known as the Grand Duo, is the longest of the duets Schubert wrote that summer. Schumann was the first (of many writers) to believe this sonata was a symphony is disguise.
Brian Newbould writes:
It is as true to speak of Schubert’s vision in this work as ‘symphonic’ as it is in the case of the G Major String Quartet, the String Quintet in C, or the Piano Sonata in B Flat. It does not mean that any of these works was conceived for orchestra; it does mean that the composer seeks to capture the symphony’s wealth of incident, range in color and depth of argument, but within the specifically chosen instrumental framework.
Schubert’s works for piano are unique even compared to Beethoven, who music in general is more dramatic compared to Schubert's lyricsim. These sonatas are vast epics played out on the subjective, intimate wilderness of private moments and memories. The Grand Duo and the mature piano sonatas may be large in scale, but even more important is their intimacy, or the idea that they belong in the home rather than the concert hall. The smaller piano works have this quality too of course, like the Fantasia in F Minor mentioned already. The sentiments expressed in the music is rather private in nature...the dynamics become mostly pianissimo throughout (although not always). The long stretches of lyrical pastoral movement evokes much nostaligia (happy and sad) for the intimate, private moments we have all shared in with loved ones or nature and etc.
The fact Schubert wrote duets at the Esterhazy castle suggests he was to play duets with Karoline and Marie, or have them play together. Perhaps the memory of these music lessons with Karoline fueled the Fantasia in F Minor for piano duet, written later in 1828 and dedicated to her.
Brian Newbould comments:
That so personal and masterly example of his mature art should be dedicated to Karoline Esterhazy testifies to the warmth of his regard for her. Although in one sense she was a ‘distant beloved’—because of the social divide that separated them—she lived in the same city and the fact that there is no documentary record of their meeting in the last three years of Schubert’s life does not necessarily mean that the flames of his ‘idealized love’ were not fanned by her presence at all during that time.
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Another album I love:
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Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21:
Malcolm Bilson (pianoforte) / English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner
(http://www.ngrartists.com/artists/img/bilson_m.jpg)
Malcolm Bilson
This album also holds the best performances of these two particular works I have heard in my 20 plus years of listening to recordings of these two concertos. This recording is part of a larger cycle of Mozart’s complete Piano Concertos, all played by Bilson, Gardiner, and the English Baroque Soloists for the Archiv Produktion Label, recorded between 1984 and 1989. The producers and engineers really captured the unique acoustic atmosphere within the two halls used in London. The piano and orchestra seem to reverberate with no loss of detail, as a flock of birds may be seen within an atmosphere of autumn sky, full of light and windy shade pointing to the sun.
Everyone in the orchestra uses instruments built or replicated from instruments built in the 17th, 18th and 19th century time periods. Often I just sit back and dig the breezy, wheezy character of these woodwinds, as they are so well captured in these recordings. The gut made strings are very full of atmosphere; I just can’t find a better word to describe the feeling. Two of the pianos, or “pianofortes” used in this cycle were built by Philip Belt in New Haven (USA) and are replicas of Mozart’s concert pianoforte. The sound of this piano is different from a modern grand because there are no metal parts used.
And what about the performances? Stunning in my opinion. The energy of the orchestra is exciting and engaging, and the personality of the piano is wonderfully understated, thereby bringing a depth of consideration to the exchange with the orchestra. The timbre of all the instruments are well captured…one of the best features of this recording.
Even the album covers used in the individual releases and the box set deserve special mention, with feature illustrations by Maria Sibylla Merian from circa 1680:
(http://www.discoveryeditions.com/images/data/FAR_PRODUCT/frame_image/37-1.JPG)