Two of the most frequent questions which I have been asked as a professional musician are: "What is your favourite piece of music?" and "Who is your favourite composer?" I usually just shrug my shoulders, smile vaguely and mutter that I'm sorry but I can't really answer.
The truth is that these questions really rankle. Not because I'm annoyed at the person for asking, but more because it's almost impossible for me to give quick and simple answers, mainly in view of the sheer amount of music that a musician comes across during his formative years, his student days and his professional career - and we all have so many favourites, for so many different reasons! Allow me to explain my dilemma by revealing a selection of the wide-ranging variety of the music that means a lot to me.
One of the first pieces I grew to love was a Mozart piano concerto - his 23rd in the key of A Major, K.488. As an aspiring teenage pianist, at the tender age of 14, my piano teacher one day handed me the music for this concerto and dangled a carrot before my eyes: he had, it seemed, some connection with a local amateur orchestra, and he intimated to me that, if I were to work at the solo part of the concerto, he would arrange for me to be the soloist for a full performance! What a temptation! What bribery!! And so, I duly set to work.
The work is not the most demanding technically but it's certainly not a walk-over. I even recorded a live performance, taken from BBC Radio 3, of the great Rumanian pianist Radu Lupu giving a performance of the work, together with which I would play along as best I could (omitting several of the trickier passages.) The first movement in particular was very appealing to me with its rapid semiquavers (sixteenth notes) and lyrical second subject. The second movement, in the relative minor key, is a yearning piece with beautiful interplay between the piano and the woodwind, particularly the clarinet, an instrument for which Mozart had an especial liking. The opening statement was well within my capabilities and I enjoyed imagining the orchestral accompaniment which would propel my future performance along. I didn't really get to the last movement, which, at that time, was probably beyond my capabilities anyway, but I certainly enjoyed Lupu's rendition of the Scottish -sounding melody found in the movement and the triumphal end of the concerto.
Needless to say, the proffered performance of the concerto never took place (except in my mind's eye - and ear) and I have wondered many times since whether the whole thing was a joint ploy between my parents and my teacher to get me to sit down and practise! For instance, why did my mother keep on asking me whether "that performance" that my teacher had promised me was ever going to take place?! In any event, from that quite intimate encounter with the concerto it remains one of my firm favourites and I couldn't ever imagine being on a desert island without recordings of the Mozart piano concertos!
I admit to being a firm fan of The Beatles. I grew up in the 60's, after all, and as my brother always played their records (and all the current 60's hits for that matter) their music seeped into my bloodstream. "She's leaving home" appears on the "Sergeant Pepper" album which was released in June 1967. It's a poignant song, based on fact, about a teenager leaving home, never to return. Paul McCartney's melancholy rendition brings a certain pathos to the song but one of the main features that really makes the song emotionally charged, albeit understated, is George Martin's economical orchestration for harp and strings. The chorus "She is leaving home" on long sustained tones, sung almost falsetto by three of the Beatles, is punctuated by the parents' caustic comments, characterised by John Lennon, such as "We gave her most of our lives" or "Sacrificed most of our lives", a reflection of the tensions brought about by the so-called "generation gap". McCartney's ability to write a simple melody with a rising 7-note leap ("Wednesday morning at five 'o clock...") tugs at the heartstrings. The final "She's leaving home; bye-bye (a pun on the word "buy", as in "We gave her everything money can buy") is acerbic in tone: the rift between parents and daughter is left hanging and never resolved. The whole song song makes a marked impression.
In terms of orchestration, and at quite the other end of the spectrum, is a song by Gustav Mahler, taken from one of his Ruckert lieder (or songs). Although a harp is called for in this song, the orchestration is without strings and it is scored for a selection of woodwind and brass instruments, plus percussion and piano. It's another haunting song, entitled "Um Mitternacht" (At midnight) and recounts the poet’s search through the darkness and his final surrender to God. When I first heard the song at the age of about 17, I had no idea of its inner meaning, but was very taken by the brass fanfares at the end and somehow must have understood the feeling of triumph over darkness. Triumphal endings always give me a lift!
Above all, I was very much taken with the glorious voice of Janet Baker (later Dame Janet) and the New Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Sir John Barbirolli.
My other "go-to" composer, apart from Mozart, is Brahms, and the "go-to" piece is his 2nd Piano Concerto, a touching and dramatic work, which Brahms jokingly referred to as "a tiny little piano concerto". It's anything but that - in point of fact, it's monumental! From the introductory horn's rising melody to the last breathless moments of the Allegretto grazioso (and yet another triumphant ending!) we are treated to a virtuoso pianistic display, tunes of depth and grandeur and, recognising Brahms's tongue-in-cheek comments about the piece (he even referred to the fiery scherzo as a "little wisp of a scherzo"), we assume that he himself must have regarded it as a great piece. The second subject of the first movement, like the one in the violin concerto, is pure emotion worn on the sleeve. I suppose, overall, it ranks as my favourite piece (for those of you who might still care!)
It seems that my dilemma really stems from the fact that there are just too many pieces of music and composers out there that rank amongst my favourites. The answers, therefore are only possible to give right here - in my personal blog - where I can run to almost 7000 words!
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