Johann Christian Stumpf News
German composer (1731-1801)
- Germany
- composer, bassoonist
Last update
2024-03-22
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2017-03-31 17:57:35
Metamorphoses
[…] that a fox’s grin expresses. Her voice rose easily to harmonize with the Fox of Sarah Brownawell, a mezzo of enviable power. Janacek was parodying Wagner with this lovely music, but I was eager to hear the pair handle the conclusion of Rosenkavalier. The opera is given in the Ades Performance Space, which is small-ish for a theater but sizable for a classroom. The young voices bloomed in it. I was especially charmed by Marie Stumpf’s Dog, William Huyler’s Parson (a bass voice of real character), Christian Thurston’s Haraschta the Poacher, and Andrew Jurden’s Forester. Janacek, famously, requested that the conclusion of this opera, the music that accompanies the Forester’s revelation of the cycle of death and rebirth in the wood and the world, be played at his funeral, and it was. But to this footnote, I think it a mistake to append, as this production did, the Forester having […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2016-12-18 23:53:54
MOPR (Susan Wilson photo) Lovers of classical music can be forgiven for dreading the Christmastide. Most presenters, especially the big ones, peddle predictable holidays classics—sometimes beautiful, sometimes bland—often overplayed. Musicians of the Old Post Road (MOPR) leads a small number of ensembles bucking this trend. They simply insist on maintaining the same philosophy that informs their other concerts, by offering energetic, committed, historically informed performances of beautiful and impeccably crafted, yet often overlooked repertoire, curated into compelling thematic programs. This year’s “Christmas in the New World” again made their case. Old Post Road founders Daniel Ryan and Suzanne Stumpf described how this show continues their season’s investigation of cross-cultural influence through “Musical Migrations,” which explore “the lively, colorful, and expressive music composed for the Christmas season in some of the major cultural centers of New Spain: Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala” and celebrate the diversity within even this small, essentially foreign, […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2016-08-17 04:00:14
Slavic Poles of the Chamber Sort
[…] retained from this Italian sojourn, unlike the one that yielded the Violin Concerto, was fairly sour. This moodiness was exacerbated by his struggles over formal matters; and, truth to tell, with the possible exception of his Piano Trio, none of Tchaikovsky’s small body of chamber music reflects his best inspiration. Still, this piece has lasting popularity for its undeniable tunefulness, most of which is carried by the first violin (David McCarroll) and first cello (Peter Stumpf), while the others (Lim, violists Christine Grossman and Albers, and Handy) mostly supply accompaniment and leavening. On this point a small digression seems in order. Our review of Thursday’s PCMF concert [here ] noted with some asperity the use by many contemporary composers of instrumental techniques—in the case of strings, things like harmonics, glissando, sul ponticello, sul tasto, col legno, snap pizzes, and so forth—as self-contained expressive ideas. While there’s nothing wrong with any […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2016-08-15 02:29:04
Yes Portland Has No Programmatics
[…] only clarinet trio or the Piano Trio No. 4? Exactly. In 1798, when Beethoven had not yet fully given himself over to the earnest reshaping of musical form and substance, he imbued this three-movement entertainment with geniality, charm, and occasionally naughty abrupt harmonic twists à la Haydn. Too many performers treat it perfunctorily as a historical curiosity—well, it’s still Beethoven, so we have to play it. Luckily, the PCMF ensemble comprising Todd Palmer, clarinet; Peter Stumpf, cello; and Diane Walsh, piano, gave it a reading of genuine substance, though not without the occasional minor hiccup. It took a moment or two for Palmer to settle into his customary tonal elegance, and Stumpf, a distinguished teacher as well as performer, may have over-calculated his stylistic approach. Save in his excellent solos in the slow movement and finale, his projection seemed problematic. Yes, this is early Classical-era Beethoven, so full-throttle resonance (about […]
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