Contents:
The concerto: a chronology
Introduction - Simon P. Keefe
Part I: Contexts
Theories of the concerto from the eighteenth
century to the present day - Simon P.
Keefe
The concerto and society - Tia DeNora
Part II: The works
The Italian concerto in the late seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries - Michael
Talbot
The concerto in northern Europe to c.1770
- David Yearsley
The concerto from Mozart to Beethoven:
aesthetic and stylistic perspectives
- Simon P. Keefe
The nineteenth-century piano concerto
- Stephan D. Lindeman
Nineteenth-century concertos for strings
and winds - R. Larry Todd
Contrasts and common concerns in the
concerto 1900–1945 - David E. Schneider
The concerto since 1945 - Arnold Whittall
Part III: Performance
The rise (and fall) of the concerto
virtuoso in the late eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries - Cliff Eisen
Performance practice in the eighteenth-century
concerto - Robin Stowell
Performance practice in the nineteenth-century
concerto - David Rowland
The concerto in the age of recording
- Timothy Day
Notes and suggested further reading
There have of course been many books
dedicated to the concerto before, and
there will hardly be a music lover around
who cannot have some understanding of
what a concerto is. Whilst the majority
of other books have concentrated on
delivering essays on specific works
or the best known works of specific
composers, this volume takes a very
different approach: it examines works
within the wider views of contexts and
performance issues. The aim is to expand
the reader’s understanding of the concerto
as a musical form, social entity and
consumed cultural entity.
The cover blurb proclaims that "No
musical genre has had a more chequered
critical history than the concerto…"
My feeling is that this book’s coverage
for the general reader might be a little
chequered too, though with a good prior
knowledge of musical terminology and
with a basic stylistic understanding
of composition from c. 1700 to the present
one could get a lot from it. It is far
more likely to be used as a primer text
for students, to point them in the direction
of authors and texts for subsequent
investigation. The tone and style is
suitably academic ("As Keefe observes…")
and the text is inevitably peppered
with brief quotations, the sources of
which are only identified in the endnotes,
which along with the recommended further
reading lists account for some 35 pages.
The book starts with a useful chronology
of concerti – should you want at a glance
to know who produced what when – but
this in itself points up two slight
niggles: inevitably selections were
made of major works and several minor
ones, but even a more extensive list
would have been useful. It also shows
up the main geographical ‘catchment
areas’ that the book concerns itself
with: Western Europe, Russia and the
USA - anywhere else simply falls off
the map.
Simon Keefe’s introduction makes heavy
weather – I must assume for the benefit
of a non-UK reader – of the Morecambe
and Wise Grieg piano concerto ‘performance’
with ‘Mr. Andrew Preview’ by means of
illustrating the interactions at work
within a concerto. His subsequent chapter
on theories of the concerto from 18th
century to the present inevitably takes
the form of a brief survey that can
appear hurried when reading, and highly
referenced too. It does however wear
better than Tia DeNora’s section that
includes a case study on ‘gendering
the piano concerto’ which frankly left
me cold. Interested though sociologists
might be in the percentages of male
and female pianists performing Beethoven’s
concerti between 1793 and 1810, it did
not impact one jot on my understanding
of the works themselves, which would
ostensibly be my reason for investing
in such a book. Others may think differently
and indeed have other motivations for
reading.
The most interesting section in my view
focused on actual concerti, though here
one must be prepared often for the thinnest
references to specific works, as a tight
fabric of associations is woven across
the seven chapters of Part II. By way
of randomly chosen example, pp. 95–100
take the reader rapidly through Dussek,
Johann Baptist Cramer, Hummel, John
Field, Ries, Weber, Moscheles and Schubert
via mentions of Mozart and Beethoven’s
influence, along with a score of other
names.
Reading this though inevitably led to
frustrations – wanting to know more
than was given in thumbnail sketch available
– which I suppose is where another volume
or volumes centring on specific works
or composers would enter the frame.
More than once I reached for my Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians just
to put some more meat on the bones.
But this book creates the associations
between composers adequately enough
to start you off. However, I suggest
that pointers the book gives for many
will only really be useful when applied
in listening, either in the concert
hall or more likely utilising recordings.
Hyperion’s Romantic Piano / Violin /
Cello Series would seem made for the
purpose – though each series is more
wide-ranging in coverage than this volume.
These series are referred to also in
Timothy Day’s chapter on concerto recordings,
which charts the fortunes of the form
across the history of recorded performances.
Good though to see the difficult area
of twentieth and twenty-first century
concerti getting a reasonable amount
of attention across two chapters. It
remains to be seen exactly how many
of the more recent works stand the test
of time.
Cliff Eisen opens the third part that
focuses on performance issues effectively
with a discussion around the terms ‘virtuoso’
and ‘virtuosity’ in the 18th and 19th
centuries, and with it the idea of the
virtuoso as artistic conservator by
dint of their expert skills. His comments
about the disapproval of virtuosos that
fail to enter the "spirit of the
composer" (already critics were
concerned by 1799) led me to wish perhaps
that the chapter were extended to the
present day to include comment on the
current situation. But I fear that were
such comments included lawsuits might
have ensued. Better therefore to let
each reader form their individual and
private views on the matter.
The two chapters that follow focusing
on performance practice in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries cover their
ground efficiently, each having sections
that examine topics such as the use
of period instruments, instrumental
techniques, the role of continuo, national
styles, expression, tempo, orchestras,
arrangements, etc. All these matters
are of interest in tracing changing
attitudes towards performance, and the
discussion gains from referencing contemporary
sources to support the arguments put
forward.
In summation, despite occasional unevenness,
a book that has the potential to be
informative in the right hands, and
one that serves as the springboard for
further reading on this absorbing musical
genre.
Evan Dickerson
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