George Onslow's Chamber Music

[Double-A]

A search on the forum for George Onslow found few mentions:  Two threads on his symphonies, mentions of Onslow in threads on other topics, a few concerts and recordings.  On the threads about Onslow's symphonies great praise is given to them.  However, Onslow was first and foremost (quantitatively and qualitatively) a composer of chamber music: string quartets, piano trios, sonatas for violin or cello/viola and piano etc. and of course the many string quintets in various combinations.  It feels as if Onslow were (almost) unsung even on this forum.
I first encountered Onslow's music in a chamber music workshop where we worked on his quartet op 21/1 in e-minor (sheet music available from Ourtext and from Silvertrust editions.  No recording appears to be available).  The piece is truly remarkable and well worth rehearsing.
Inspired by this experience I set out to find out more about Onslow using mostly IMSLP as my source.  I focussed in on less "sung" works:  The violin sonatas and especially the piano trios.  Since the old editions posted on IMSLP are hard to play from I typeset a number of them to facilitate playing them.  This got me to get to know them quite well (you can find the typesets on IMSLP; indeed you can find most of his chamber music there).  It turns out that Onslow must have been a serious man and an ambitious composer.  He obviously worked with care and strove to keep up the quality--and succeeded.  I mention this because there is an idea out there that he was an amateur on the cello and wrote music to play for himself and friends--maybe he did but he had greater ambition.
Let me just recommend a few highlights from the trios: 
1.  The first movement of op. 3/3 opens with a "beginning before the beginning" (Hans Keller):   The strings in octaves lead crescendo up to the entry of the piano where the piece starts in earnest.  Pay attention to how the passage is modified in the recapitulation.  The movement also features a witty second theme with smart use of hemiolas. 
2.  The variations on a folk song from Auvergne (Onslow's birth province and almost lifelong residence) in op. 14/2. 
3.  The slow movement from the trio in c-minor op. 26 where almost no melodic material is used somehow to build up great tension.
As to recordings:  The recording of all the trios by the Trio Cascades (CPO) is very good indeed.  You will find quite a bit of it on youtube though they have taken some of it down by now.
All of Beethoven's contemporaries (Onslow, Hummel, Spohr, Fesca, Weber) appear to have disappeared in Beethoven's shadow (with the exception of Weber's "Freischütz").  Of these Onslow is to me the most undeservedly unsung.

[Alan Howe]

All of Beethoven's contemporaries (Onslow, Hummel, Spohr, Fesca, Weber) appear to have disappeared in Beethoven's shadow (with the exception of Weber's "Freischütz").  Of these Onslow is to me the most undeservedly unsung.

Hardly surprising. Beethoven was a giant among composers. Onslow was a fine composer, but there are others whose compositions are only now just coming to light who are of comparable stature (to Onslow). Reicha (1770-1836) would certainly be one - and he was a much closer contemporary of Beethoven - Onslow is really half a generation later.

[Double-A]

I have to admit I was pondering a post about the shadow that Beethoven cast over his contemporaries (including even Schubert who could have been his son and who had to be "excavated" later--by Schumann or example--who also felt this shadow in his own mind).  But I did not have enough to say about it so I yielded to the temptation to include the remark here.  I think the phenomenon is quite uniquely intense, not like for any of the other giants in the history of Western classical music. 

Reicha is little known to me (I owe it to him to learn more); he appears to have been more adventurous and risk taking than the others--artistically I mean.  But on Spohr, Hummel and Weber I think it is fair to say that their output varies wildly in quality in a way it does not in Onslow's oeuvre (e.g. the famous Gesangs-szene gets old pretty quickly on repeated listening while other works--e.g. the E-flat quartet op. 29/1* or the 4th Double Quartet--are magnificent).

*This is the one that begins with Spohr's name à la B-A-C-H.

[Alan Howe]

As a transitional figure, he's not as interesting as, say, Reicha (IMHO).

There's a lot more work to do in order to establish the overall quality of compositions by this generation of composers. And a lot more listening!

[kolaboy]

Poor Alexander Fesca. Much awaits discovery/recording. The quality of the septets alone should warrant a reevaluation...

[Alan Howe]

Alexander Fesca is not really germane to this discussion - he was later, although short-lived. It's his father Friedrich Ernst whom we might consider in relation to Onslow.

[kolaboy]

Well, he did live within the perimeters Onslow's lifespan... but not to quibble.

[Alan Howe]

Well, hmmm. Only because he died young! Let's concentrate on Onslow and his contemporaries born in the 1770s/1780s.

[eschiss1]

Of those contemporaries I'd be interested in hearing (not just seeing) some chamber works by Peter Hänsel, Josef Küffner, for instance... (Johann Andreas Amon was born in 1763 so doesn't quite fit , while Reissiger and Bertini were born a decade too late!) There are Carl and Max Eberwein, though, who both look interesting... have been having a look at one of Carl Eberwein's string quartets (over @ IMSLP) for instance.

[Double-A]

As a transitional figure, he's not as interesting as, say, Reicha

(Alan Howe)

I was wondering how you define a "transitional" figure.  Who else would be transitional and who would not?  Or, asking another way:  What is the definition of "transition" here?

[eschiss1]

BTW while I'm only aware of a few recordings of his piano trios, for those as don't know (I'm sure most here do) - I think many of Onslow's string quartets (and all of his string quintets) have been recorded at least once (for the quartets there was a series begun on cpo which I hope will continue? and the defunct label ASV had something also- a live, offshoot concert in New York City, broadcast on WNYC, had one of those quartets, very impressive I thought. The string quintets are rather better known and, I think, almost all recorded.

Another contemporary, btw, whose orchestral music etc. is being recorded but who wrote at least some duo sonatas and I expect other chamber music as well- von Neukomm, born 1778. (Helpful here for prompts to memory: pages like 1778 in music @ Wikipedia etc.)

There's also Joseph Kreutzer (1790-1840) has several chamber works @ IMSLP that one might have a look at, btw, and Auguste Kreutzer (unlike Joseph- I think- he was probably a member of the well-known Kreutzer family) (1778-1832) who wrote some violin duos and some concertinos...

1779 was Eggert's birthyear, though I gather his chamber music (at least, the string quartets; the sextet I think they say better things about?...) may have been less distinguished than those 4 symphonies we're still waiting on Naxos to issue (2 of which I've heard, thanks to this forum, from earlier recordings, and which in my opinion are stunning and worth a wait for a good new recording.)

1783 - births of Geijer (string quartet and piano quartet have been uploaded to this forum...) and Dotzauer (very prolific composer of chamber music.)

Wouldn't mind hearing something by Johann Friedrich Kelz (b.1786) either. Not to forget Aloys Schmitt (1788-1866) (yes, mr. Op.16 etudes...) (e.g. piano sextet, late string trios, 7 string quartets Opp.70 nos.1-4, opp.80 nos.1-2,&81 nos.1-2.)

[Alan Howe]

I was wondering how you define a "transitional" figure

Well, if you listen to Reicha's Symphony in F (1808) you can clearly hear a composer looking both ways - back to the late classicism of Haydn and Mozart and forward to the early romanticism of Beethoven. Thus he is a transitional figure. And very interesting for that reason. Onslow fits into this category too but, because he is slightly later, he is already building upon some of the transitional figures who came before him.

[Double-A]

Ok.  But doesn't this make any composer transitional, especially Beethoven himself who took Haydn's and Mozart's style as his starting point (had to really, what else was he to do?) and whose influence was felt by every composer throughout the 19th century.  Indeed Onslow would then be less transitional than Beethoven (or Reicha) since his music was respected by the likes of Schumann but not used for inspiration (having suggested the two cello quintet combination to Schubert--if indeed Schubert took it from Onslow--is not a sterling record as to effect on the afterworld).  Or does the "transitional" epithet apply to the valleys, but not to the mountains tops?
As to recordings of quartets:  The one I mentioned (op 21, 2 in e-minor) remains unrecorded as of last time I checked, the only "recording" is on the catalogue website of Silvertrust Editions:  Soundbites for each movement of about two minutes each from a private recording of a reading session by amateurs.  Suspiciously error free for a reading session I would say but rather wooden and not doing justice to the music.
I think this thread will probably soon have run its course.  My goal was really to "set the record straight" on Onslow in the sense that he was primarily a composer of chamber music, i.e. the bulk of his music is chamber music and it is more impressive than his symphonies. 
May I close with a suggestion?  There seems to be a tendency among the public to respond to someone's post on some composer by mentioning other composers and setting up (inadvertently I am sure) a competition on who has the best composer.  Would it not be better to start a new thread in these cases?  Unless the intention is to make a point about--in this case--Onslow like Alan Howe did.

[Alan Howe]

In a sense you are right, of course. All I was pointing out was that certain composers were doing more than Onslow - and earlier - in terms of the burgeoning romantic movement.

As for starting a new thread, again you have a point. However you did say in your original post:

All of Beethoven's contemporaries (Onslow, Hummel, Spohr, Fesca, Weber) appear to have disappeared in Beethoven's shadow (with the exception of Weber's "Freischütz").  Of these Onslow is to me the most undeservedly unsung.

...a statement which I contest (hopefully in a friendly way). Nevertheless, your point about Onslow's prime significance being as a composer of chamber music is absolutely spot-on. Thanks for raising it.

[pedrito]

I know the excellent Dutch "Van Baerle Trio" included one of Onslow's trios in their concert program last season, but alas have not been able to hear it.
Any suggestion which violin sonata would be your favourite? I find scores of 6 sonatas on IMSLP, but only fragments on youtube, so hard to pick a favourite without playing through the whole bunch (for which time fails me).
greetings
peter