GROSSE FUGE, part two. My greatest musical influence was Richard (to the right of Mrs LdP and Sir Hugh in this early sixties photo). I’ve mentioned him before. He was born in the West Riding a week or so before me and died fourteen years ago, horribly, from motor neurone disease. Remarkably, he managed to posthumously persuade me to like Wagner. Had he been living he would have immediately pointed out that split infinitive. His frankness was brutal.
He didn’t just expose me to many composers, he helped me recognise different levels of performance. This morning one of his lessons bore eerie fruit.
I needed a version of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge to illustrate the preceding post and YouTube listed one by the Takacs Qt. Now world-renowned, the Takacs were formed in 1975 and within a year Richard urged me to one of their concerts at the Wigmore Hall. They remained one of his favourites.
I clicked on YouTube and the Takacs’ opening of the GF matched the ideal performance rattling round in my skull. Later I needed to check the work further and played my own CD by the Alban Berg Qt. Richard had sold me that particular CD, saying he didn’t like it, it was too smooth. “The Grosse Fuge needs a sense of struggle,” he said.
I thought he was fussy, thought I could easily live with the Alban Berg. Played it this morning but I won’t play it again. Too smooth. Twenty years after he warned me I’ve got around to his way of thinking. I’ll probably buy the Takacs. As a memorial to his judgment? Nah, he wouldn’t like that. He was from Shipley.
NOTE: Mrs LdP tells me she had "just" become pregnant at the time.
He didn’t just expose me to many composers, he helped me recognise different levels of performance. This morning one of his lessons bore eerie fruit.
I needed a version of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge to illustrate the preceding post and YouTube listed one by the Takacs Qt. Now world-renowned, the Takacs were formed in 1975 and within a year Richard urged me to one of their concerts at the Wigmore Hall. They remained one of his favourites.
I clicked on YouTube and the Takacs’ opening of the GF matched the ideal performance rattling round in my skull. Later I needed to check the work further and played my own CD by the Alban Berg Qt. Richard had sold me that particular CD, saying he didn’t like it, it was too smooth. “The Grosse Fuge needs a sense of struggle,” he said.
I thought he was fussy, thought I could easily live with the Alban Berg. Played it this morning but I won’t play it again. Too smooth. Twenty years after he warned me I’ve got around to his way of thinking. I’ll probably buy the Takacs. As a memorial to his judgment? Nah, he wouldn’t like that. He was from Shipley.
NOTE: Mrs LdP tells me she had "just" become pregnant at the time.