| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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| By Sorabji on Saturday, January 31, 1998 - 11:37 am: |
And thanks for the happy birthday message you sent to my pager! Tried to dig up some information on Da Motta yesterday but my Ernst Burger picture-book about Liszt had no mention that I could find. I think it must have been the Sitwell biography of Liszt which had an interesting description of some of da Motta's original music. I have a score somewhere around here of some Dance piece of his -- not of much interest. Da Motta recorded 6 records for Pathé in 1928. On this Pearl 2-CD set I bought a couple of weeks ago (The Pupils of Liszt) is included his recording from that series of Liszt's Eglogue. If the liner notes to this CD are to be believed and this is, in fact, da Motta's most successful recording from that series, then his would not appear to represent a very interesting legacy. He was, however, very highly regarded in his day, so maybe his Pathé performances are not representative of his gifts. I was, at one time, interested in him as a composer and just general personality. I almost did a private reading on da Motta while in college, but decided not to after learning that virtually all the source material only existed in Portuguese. Somewhere, though, I seem to remember finding music of da Motta which was of interest, I'm just drawing a blank right now as to what it was. That Sitwell biography of Liszt contained a lot of tantalizing descriptions of minor composers from the time of Liszt. I have never found any of the scores described by Sitwell by a composer named Raimondi (sp?). This composer was said to have written pieces for massive choral/orchestral ensembles and which contained 64-voice fugues, hundreds and even thousands of performers, and other bombasticisms. Frankly, I never spent a lot of time looking for the stuff, either. Even Liszt, who would perform or conduct absolutely anything, said that the very idea of Raimondi gave him a headache. Time to go out and get me a real biography of Liszt. This Burger book is lovely but not much of a factual resource. |
| By Toaster on Monday, May 4, 1998 - 08:04 pm: |
--Pissed off |
| By Sorabji on Monday, May 4, 1998 - 09:57 pm: |
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Raimondi's music is not quoted by Walker, but its influence on Liszt's own music is hinted at- the independent counterpoint of the minuet in "Tasso", for instance (just as Raimondi wrote works that could be played together or separately, a precursor of Milhaud in our own day two of whose string quartets can also be played together as an octet, the minuet in the symphonic poem Tasso is something like a wind piece and a string work coming together, Walker seems to suggest. Or perhaps I misinterpret his sentiments.) Walker's biography also has a lot wrong with it- quite a lot- but, I would aver, probably a lot less wrong with it than Sitwell's. But I haven't read the latter. -Eric Schissel |