Name That Tune
This week’s Name That Tune was submitted by Listener Jeremy. Here’s your hint: In 1808, this composer practiced with Beethoven at the latter's home, helping old Ludwig work on the “Ghost” Piano Trio. No Googling!
As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at classicalgabfest@gmail.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing.
Last Week’s Results
CGF Newsletter 41
Leoš Janáček, Sinfonietta, movement 2
As I suspected, a couple Listeners got last week’s NTT right off the bat (Listener Kevin, Listener Eric.) Listener Laurie had a suspicion that she had heard it before and weighed in with a few guesses: Stravinsky, Grieg(!) and Mussorgsky. I’d welcome commentary on this, but I think Mussorgsky may well be the most Janáček-like non-Janáček composer.
Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!
Head to our Google Form to upload a 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.
Opera Report: Die Zauberflöte
Metropolitan Opera, Tuesday, June 6; Joseph Vaz reporting
I (Joey) returned to the Met a couple of weeks ago to watch the new Simon McBurney-directed version of Mozart’s most(? Don Giovanni? Figaro?) famous opera, The Magic Flute. It was kinda funky from the very beginning, with the overture starting before the lights turned off. No conductor bow (maybe the Met musicians lobbied for that), no tuning note! As the overture went on, we were introduced to two big features of the staging. On stage right was a chalk artist whose live text art was projected to us on a big screen in the middle. On stage left was a foley artist with a huge cabinet of thingamajigs to help her spice up the sound world above the orchestra. They were at it all opera long, two non-traditionally “performing” artists doing their things very impressively.
The opera was very good, if a bit long for my taste (mostly Mozart’s fault, but McBurney certainly could have sped things along if he wanted). A highly eclectic direction led to all sorts of good moments:
Staged cameos for a couple of pit orchestra musicians, in particular the flutist of course
Paper birds handled conspicuously by dancers/actors (see above picture)
Plenty of fourth wall-breaking, especially by Papageno, who makes a dramatic exit through a house door
A live camera pointed into the audience (and projected onto the screen) as Papageno solicits a patron’s phone number
The three most stand-out singers, to me, were Kathryn Lewek as Queen of the Night (who sang her big aria, “Der Hölle Rache,” rolling herself around in a wheelchair!), Thomas Oliemans as Papageno (particularly impressive to me was his instrumental musical ability, accompanying himself on a keyboard glockenspiel at one point), and Erin Morley as Pamina (who simply sang gorgeously).
Good stuff!
The Magic Flute Challenge
The challenge, should you wish to accept it, is this: write a new libretto for Mozart’s The Magic Flute from the ground up. The music is so good, but the libretto is so stupid; the baby and the bathwater could not be more distinct.
For the most part (and I want to emphasize that I recognize layers of nuance here) I am of the opinion that updated “concept” stagings of opera are so much bunk. Whenever I see one, I always think, “please folks, if you want to express new thoughts and ideas, write your own opera. It will be so much better than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole!”
This reddit comment in a thread about “unpopular opera opinions” sums it up quite nicely:
People keep trying to fix The Magic Flute with staging, and I get the impulse. The libretto is soaking wet with obscurantism, misogyny and racism, and it’s rarely clear what’s happening or what it’s supposed to mean. It’s just dumb!
I know that there have been productions that have done at least partial re-writes of the libretto, but I think we need a new, accessible standard option that everyone can use. There are two great things about this challenge: 1) the new libretto wouldn’t even have to make much sense—the original doesn’t!— and 2) no matter what you come up with, it will be better than Schikaneder’s folly.
Classical Mixtape
Alfred Schnittke, Suite from The Census List, mvmt 6. “The Clerks”
Alfred Schnittke’s delectable, delicious, demented take on Mozart’s Magic Flute overture.
This track comes from one of the greatest Schnittke albums ever produced (Spotify), with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra performing the complete suite from the incidental music to the play The Census List (also known as the “Gogol Suite”) as well as Schnittke’s 8th symphony, easily my favorite among all of his works. This pairing perfectly encapsulates the two basic frameworks of Schnittke’s output: the wild, sardonic polystylism and the dark, profound soundscapes of the human soul.
Oh boy another random early Romantic clarinet concertino from Listener Jeremy (who, at this rate, is soon to be banned altogether from NTT submissions.)
Franz Kromer?? That's all I got.
One of the reasons I submit so many entries for the NTT is so I have fewer to deal with myself….because of ones like last week’s. Janáček‘s Sinfonietta is a piece I probably should know, but he’s a definite gap in my listening.
As for the Magic Flute…I’m glad Mr. Vaz enjoyed it…but I think as described, I would very much not like most of those directorial features (the paper birds being an exception). Audience interaction stuff tends to make me uncomfortable.
My contribution to a rewrite of the libretto shall be to suggest a title change: Die Zauberklarinette