Time for the next round of voting in the Classical 101 March Madness challenge. We heard you in round one. We'll be posting the full first round results from all 4 brackets as soon as we finish the first round.
I can tell you this, there was a pretty big upset in the Baroque bracket. But alas, it is time to move on to the Classical bracket.
First up:
No. 1 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart vs. No. 8 Maria Rosa Coccia
The godfather of Classical music; the icon of Classical airwaves; one of the two most famous composers of all time; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart goes head-to-head with the lesser-known, comparably-gifted Maria Rosa Coccia.
We know Amadeus, but what about Maria Rosa? Like Mozart, her talents manifested early in life and by age 13 she had composed six sonatas for harpsichord and the oratorio Daniello, which was performed before her 14th birthday at the Oratory S. Filippo Neri.
At the decree of Pope Clement XI that ordered anyone practicing music in Rome to enter the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and pass a specialized exam to officially be titled as a Maestro di Capella, Maria-Rosa passed the prestigious examination at age 16. Her works were performed, but she was never given the title of Maestro di Capella or allowed to perform the duties… simply because of her gender. Who knows what she could have accomplished had she not encountered the stereotypical sexism of her time?
No. 2 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach vs. No. 7 Georg Reutter
Georg Reutter was known as "the single most influential musician in Vienna” in his time. His works include 8 oratorio and nearly 30 other staged dramatic works.
Of course, everyone knows Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s pedigree. Son of the great Johann Sebastien Bach and godson of Georg Philipp Telemann, CPE Bach was also a prodigious composer in his own right. In fact, his music surpassed the popularity of his father’s in the later half of the 18th century.
No. 3 Joseph Haydn vs. No. 6 Marie-Anne-Catherine Quinault
The “Father of the String Quartet” is up to bat against the first woman to receive the Order of St. Michael award for composition while maintaining a demanding performance schedule at the Paris Opera.
No. 4 Georg Philipp Telemann vs. No. 5 Domenico Scarlatti
Georg Philipp Telemann is the quintessential music maverick; he was a multi-instrumentalist composer who was self-taught and composed against the wishes of his family. Up against this black sheep composer we have Domenico Scarlatti. Although Scarlatti is generally considered a Baroque composer, his music bridged the gap between the two periods and helped shape the Classical soundscape with more than 555 keyboard sonatas.
