Pollini And Baroque Music

Regarding classicism, I read in a famous music history book:

"The new conception of MUSIC and musical works:

• Instrumental music begins to be an art form that acts on feelings and not just a form of entertainment."

Before classicism, wasn't there the baroque?

Carlos wrote:

I agree with everything you said, except for this:

Do you mean that he plays Chopin in a banal way (which would already be debatable) or that Chopin is an "easy" composer (which would be heresy)?

By "easy" I mean (excuse the tautology) more easily understandable based on the musical linguistic canons proper to our culture and therefore more enjoyable for the "man on the street." I did not intend to refer to technical piano difficulty, nor to imply any negative judgment on the beauty or originality of Chopin's work.

Of course it is a generalization; every single work makes its own history: it's one thing to talk about the waltz in B-flat or the nocturne in E-flat, and quite another to talk about the studies that are the method of methods, the sonata in B, the mazurkas... I only wanted to say that the musical language Chopin uses is not difficult to listen to and understand even for those who do not have a particular musical culture (for example, I have a friend who loves Biagio Antoniacci, hates "classical music" and, yet, was moved when I played Chopin's fourth ballad for her and in the car she plays the CD of nocturnes played by Pollini!).

I did not mean to say that Chopin is banal because of this. On the contrary, I wanted to highlight the contradiction in Pollini's thinking when, on one hand, he snubs music that resorts to traditional languages (around 1850) while Chopin's works use that very same language.

pestatasti wrote:

...Chopin's works use that same language.

Precise, to avoid new misunderstandings: many of Chopin's works (I repeat, there is also a Chopin who is not so "easy").

thallo wrote:

A nice discussion is being created

I quote

riccardoM wrote:

Oh, come no... you're right! I hadn't considered that in libraries it is written: "make noise, you won't disturb anyone"

Uhh... what a joker!

pestatasti wrote:

... I wanted to highlight the contradiction in Pollini's thinking when, on one hand, he snubs music that resorts to traditional languages (around 8'50"....)

Forgive me for crowding this discussion, but in my attempt to answer Carlos's question, I think I have done Pollini wrong.

I re-listened to the intervention and, in reality, I believe that rather than snobbishness or criticism, he simply wanted to say that, today, there is a tendency to discard all that music whose listening requires a more demanding cultural approach. For this reason, he says, one should educate people's ears from birth to listen even to music that breaks out of the usual patterns (one could also say "popularize") so that it does not result in being so difficult to understand.

It seems to me that this is a view worth sharing.

On classicism and baroque, intervention of Rach3...

yes, tendentially before classicism there was what we today call baroque and, yes, tendentially what we today call baroque was for the most part entertainment music.

So, at least from a historical point of view, Pollini "hit the mark" regarding the mode, saying that baroque is listened to like light music, but he missed the connotation, implying that such a mode is wrong. Philologically speaking, if we wanted to listen to the baroque as "the baroque people" did, we would have to eat, drink, and make love while enjoying life, in short. The thin, contrite, concentrated, and pessimistic listener is romantic

thallo wrote:

if we wanted to listen to the baroque as "the baroque people" did, we would have to eat, drink, and make love while enjoying life, in short. The thin, contrite, concentrated, and pessimistic listener is romantic

Well fine, but if we're going that way, then I want to be able to burp while listening to The Barber of Seville without being driven away from the theater...

I have done it several times by singing it, so you are authorized to do it by listening to it