Friday Quiz with Mark Pennell is a whimsical contest held each friday during classic music featuring trivia pulled from the annals of classical music.
Tickle your funnybone as Mark quizzes your intellect!
Friday, October 25, 200x
Q: The classical music world knows of F. Mendelssohn quite well. They know of his sister Fanny almost as much. But Felix and Fanny had a younger brother who played cello. He outlived all his siblings by many years (passing away in 1874). But while he was a pretty good cellist, he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps and became a banker. What was his name? We’re looking for 2 winners. The first two to correctly say the name when they call 1-800-672-2132 will receive a pair of tickets to
Godspell at Porthouse Theatre June 10th through the 26th. One of the biggest off-Broadway and Broadway successes of all time,
Godspell is a modern and contemporary rock opera based on the parables of Jesus Christ.
A: There were 4 Mendelssohn siblings. Felix and Fanny were famous as musicians. One is almost totally unknown. But the youngest one, born in 1812, was Paul. Though the Mendelssohn siblings weren’t together that often, they loved each other very much. When Felix died, his wife wrote in a letter to Paul, “Except for myself, no one my dear Paul, loved Felix as deeply as you.” For the rest of his life, Paul made sure that all of Felix’s children were well taken care of.
Friday, October 18, 200x
Q: Although Schubert was not an intellectual, by no means does it mean he wasn’t brilliant. Even thought he himself once said that “…he was born to this earth only to compose,” Schubert was a pretty intense reader. He read German and literature of other languages, both ancient and modern. Of course being the composer of hundreds of lieder proves that he loved poetry. Some of these lieder were transcribed for solo piano by one of his admirers. Who was he? Winners received a pair of tickets to the Lyric Opera Cleveland production of
Little Women at the Cleveland Play House November 16th through the 24th. This new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel has been hailed by audiences and critics alike.
A: You could hardly find two more different men that F. Schubert and F. Liszt. In his day, Liszt was the most famous musician in the world, while Schubert was not known by most people in Vienna. Liszt was incredibly wealthy, while Schubert’s friends had to buy his music paper for him. Liszt lived to a ripe old age, but Schubert was gone before he was 32. Yet Liszt admired Schubert more than just about any other composer. Liszt transcribed that and many other lieder by Schubert to solo piano.
Friday, October 11, 200x
Q: “One glance at Schubert’s
Trio (Op. 99, D. 898), and the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world is fresh and bright again.” That’s what R. Schumann said about this piece. As you hear it, won’t you agree? It is a very bright and happy-sounding piece, which is ironic considering what was happening in Schubert’s life at the time. What was happening to Schubert?
A: The great musicologist Alfred Einstein thought that part of that piece might have come from a song Schubert wrote in 1815, called
Skolie, which has the words: “Let us in the bright May morning take delight in the brief life of the flower, before the fragrance disappears.” Undoubtedly, the
P-Trio in B-flat, Op. 99 by Schubert was a very happy-sounding piece. However, while he was composing it, Schubert was suffering from his second bout with syphilis, and a resultant deep depression.
Friday, October 4, 200x
Q: That piece was composed for Joseph Leutgeb. Imagine, being on the road more than a third of your life by age eight, and not have playmates you could see on a regular basis, all because your father wanted you to become the breadwinner of the family. That’s pretty much the way it was for Wolfgang Mozart. On one of the first tours, Leopold Mozart complained to his wife in a letter that his son had cried for “Herr Leutgeb and other good friends” back home in Salzburg (they had not been there in nearly 2 years). Leutgeb was close to the Mozart family…to the point where he asked Wolfgang’s father for a favor once. What was it?
A: Actually even though Joseph Leutgeb was 24 years older than young Mozart, was still a close friend to Mozart (this was common for the brilliant child prodigy Mozart). Leutgeb felt comfortable enough to even borrow money once from Leopold Mozart in Salzburg so that he could return to his home in Vienna to run his father-in-law’s delicatessen. More proof that one must never borrow from friends because he wasn’t paying it back when Wolfgang, years later and fully-grown moved to Vienna begged his father to be patient, because Leutgeb was still broke.
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