Monday, April 14, 2014

Does Music by a Lesser Composer Serve Any Purpose?

Just because a composer does not share the category of top billing with Beethoven or Mozart by no means guarantees that he or she has nothing to offer in the way of satisfying music.

Take Boccherini, for example.  Violinist Gregor Kitzis and I are exploring one of the six sonatas he wrote for violin and the newly invented piano -- though it says in the title that they may also be played on the harpsichord, that is just to guarantee sales, not because they could possibly sound good on a harpsichord.

These are gems of shared acoustics between two ringing instruments.  It just takes some experimentation to get to the essence of each movement, which is purely acoustical and not thematic in the way that we are all taught to approach things called sonatas.