Music Sounded Out - Essays, Lectures, Interviews, Afterthoughts

267 Pages·1990·11.257 MB·English

by  Alfred Brendel

MusitcSounded Out
Music Sounded Out
‘It is surprising how seldom a per-
former writes a probing book about
his art, remarked one reviewer when
Alfred Brendel’s Musical Thoughts
and Afterthoughts appeared in 1976,
‘but here is a volume to set one
thinking and learning.’ Indeed, among
pianists of the front rank, Brendel is
rare in being able to express himself
with clarity and style in words as well
as music, bringing to his writing the
same intellectual power and fine sen-
sibility that distinguish his playing.
In his important new book Brendel
examines subjects central to his reper-
toire. Besides further exploration of
the music of Beethoven, Liszt and
Busoni, there are chapters on Mozart,
Schumann and Bach. Two major
lectures included here have become
known through BBC broadcasts: a
detailed study of Schubert’s last three
piano sonatas, and a diverting inves-
tigation of musical humour. Brendel
also offers some original views on
programme-planning, makes a strong
case for live recordings and discusses
the performing style of Wilhelm Furt-
wangler and Artur Schnabel.
Always illuminating and challeng-
ing Music Sounded Out should appeal
to both the specialist and the music
lover. It provides not only stimulating
reading but an insight into the excep-
tional mind of a great pianist.
£16.95 net
Music
Sounded
Out
Also by Alfred Brendel and published by Robson Books
Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts
Alfred Brendel
Music
Sounded
Out
Essays, Lectures,
Interviews, Afterthoughts
| ifR obson Books
First published in Great Britain in 1990 by Robson Books Ltd, Bolsover
House, 5-6 Clipstone Street, London W1P 7EB
Reprinted 1991
Copyright © 1990 Alfred Brendel
The right of Alfred Brendel to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Brendel, Alfred
Music sounded out.
1. Music
ieelsitle
780
ISBN 0 86051 666 0
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission in writing of the publishers.
Text typesetting by Bookworm, Manchester
Music typesetting by Rowland, Bury St Edmunds
Printed by Butler & Tanner, Ltd, London and Frome
Contents
Preface
A Mozart Player Gives Himself Advice
Must Classical Music be Entirely Serious?
1 The Sublime in Reverse 12
2 Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations 37
The Text and its Guardians
Notes on Beethoven’s Piano Concertos 54
Beethoven’s New Style 60
Schubert’s Last Sonatas ie
Testing the Grown-up Player:
Schumann’s ‘Kinderszenen’ 142
The Noble Liszt 154
Liszt’s ‘Années de pélerinage’ I and II 166
Liszt’s B minor Sonata Lis
Liszt’s Bitterness of Heart 181
Busoni’s ‘Doktor Faust’ 186
Furtwangler 193
A Case for Live Recordings 200
On Recitals and Programmes 208
Two Interviews:
Bach and the Piano (with Terry Snow) 218
On Schnabel and Interpretation
(with Konrad Wolff) 225
Index— 254
Preface
This book continues where Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts
(1976) ended. It gathers again comments on music, musi-
cians and matters of performance written by a musical
practitioner who has little inclination to be autobiographical.
Even in his most personal and specific statements, he hopes
to draw attention to problems less personal and specific than
his own, and to relate his observations or musings to a larger
context.
The pieces assembled here are informed by self-doubt,
and frequently motivated by self-help. Where advice is
offered, it has been aimed at myself in the first place; I shall
be glad if it proves of value to others. Essays are not oracles. I
like to see them, at least potentially, as works in progress; in
this, they resemble musical performances which continue to
call for new insight, and improvement. My readers and
listeners may rest assured that I do not subscribe to the
notion of absolute truth, even if I am keen to pursue relative
truths with as much passion as my habitual scepticism will
permit.
Of these essays, several started life as sleeve notes for my
own records; a few more were written as programme notes
for my recitals. Most have been extensively expanded and
revised. ‘Must Classical Music be Entirely Serious? (The
Sublime in Reverse)’ was first given as the Darwin Lecture at
Cambridge in 1984, while ‘Schubert’s Last Sonatas’ was
delivered, in an abridged version, as the 1989 Edward Boyle
Lecture at the Royal Society of Arts in London. In similar or
considerably different form, one or more of these pieces
appeared in the New York Review, Die Zeit, The Times Literary
Supplement, the Piano Quarterly, the Gramophone, HiFidelity
magazine,.the Musical Times and Musica. Eugene Hartzell’s
translation for Philips of my original German text served as a
point of departure for the following: ‘A Mozart Player Gives
Himself Advice’, ‘Beethoven’s New Style’, “The Text and its
¢
]
2 Music Sounded Out
Guardians’, ‘Liszt’s Bitterness of Heart’ and ‘A Case for Live
Recordings’. All the others were written in English, or
translated from the German by myself. The dates of the
original versions are given at the end of each chapter. My
thanks go to all the publishers concerned.
Among the many people to whom I owe gratitude, I
should like to mention Frank Kermode who instigated my
Darwin Lecture, Sir Isaiah Berlin who looked over my
shoulder when I started to write it down, Sir Ernst Gombrich
and Klaus Heinrich who provided me with illuminating
material on laughter, and Hans Keller who, already termi-
nally ill, had the patience to listen to a run-through. Next to
Hans, another conversation partner now deceased was
Konrad Wolff, whose interview on my queries concerning
Schnabel is reprinted here. The Floersheim Collection in
Basle kindly allowed me to examine the autograph of
Schubert’s last three sonatas. Bernard Jacobson, whose views
on repeats differ from mine, helped me to clarify my own
standpoint. Finally, I feel indebted to Monika Mollering,
William Kinderman, James Webster, Antony Beaumont and
Leonard Stein for their constructive suggestions, and to my
editor Carolyn Fearnside for her empathy and attention.
A.B.
London, 1990
A Mozart Player Gives
Himself Advice
Unmistakably, Mozart takes singing as his starting-point, and from
this issues the uninterrupted melodiousness which shimmers through
his compositions like the lovely forms of a woman through the folds of
a thin dress.
FerRRuccio BUSONI
Let this be the first warning to the Mozart performer: piano
playing, be it ever so faultless, must not be considered
sufficient. Mozart’s piano works should be for the player a
receptacle full of latent musical possibilities which often go
far beyond the purely pianistic. It is not the limitations of
Mozart’s pianoforte (which I refuse to accept) that point the
way, but rather Mozart’s dynamism, colourfulness and
expressiveness in operatic singing, in the orchestra, in
ensembles of all kinds. For example, the first movement of
Mozart’s Sonata in A minor K.310 is to me a piece for
symphony orchestra; the second movement resembles a
vocal scene with a dramatic middle section, and the finale
could be transcribed into a wind divertimento with no
trouble at all.
In Mozart’s piano concertos, the sound of the piano is set
off more sharply against that of the orchestra. Here the
human voice and the orchestral solo instrument will be the
main setters of standards for the pianist. From the Mozart
singer he will learn not only to sing but also to ‘speak’ clearly
and with meaning, to characterize, to act and react; from the
string player to think in terms of up-bow and down-bow; and
from the flautist or oboist to shape fast passages in a variety
of articulations, instead of delivering them up to an automa-
tic non-legato or, worse still, to an undeviating legato such as
the old complete edition prescribed time and again without a
shred of authenticity.