It’s all about Mozart

Mozart Oboe Concerto

For over a hundred years, the only oboe concerto Mozart wrote was thought to be lost, despite its popularity in his lifetime. He wrote it for the new oboist in the Salzburg archbishop’s orchestra, Giuseppe Ferlendis, in 1777, but it made a greater sensation in the hands of Friedrich Ramm, oboist of the reknowned Mannheim orchestra. Writing that Ramm was “quite crazy with delight” with the concerto, Mozart said, “It is now Ramm’s cheval de bataille [warhorse].” However, the warhorse was believed lost after a copy was sent to Haydn’s oboist in the Esterháza orchestra in 1783. In 1920 it was rediscovered in a lone bass part marked “Concerto in C/Oboe Principale” by the director of the Salzburg Mozarteum archives, who recognized it as a transposition of Mozart’s familiar flute concerto in D major. It turns out that it was the flute concerto that was the remake, a recycled transposition for an amateur French flutist when Mozart was desperate for money in Paris in the winter of 1777-78, leaving the final tally of Mozart flute/oboe concertos at one-all.

The first movement bears Mozart’s unusual marking “Allegro aperto” (open allegro), suggesting a bold and energetic tempo consistent with the brightly tuned key of C Major. The opening ritornello is concise and ends with a repeated question-and-answer “tag” that articulates the sections of the form. Throughout the concerto, Mozart often accompanies the oboe solo with the first and second violins alone, creating a floating and transparent fabric beneath the solo line. The second theme, introduced by three sustained notes, momentarily halts the momentum, but pulsations in the bass and violins maintain a consistent rhythmic energy throughout the movement. Mozart’s writing for the oboe parallels his bravura arias for soprano, exploiting contrasts in tone color with wide leaps from the bottom to the top of the range and fluid scale-wise passagework.

The second movement is equally operatic, with a lyrical oboe melody in balanced phrases that “breathe” vocally. It is an expressive “song without words” in the sensitive, or empfindsamer style. Four years after he writes the oboe concerto, the playful theme of the rondo finale reappears in Blonde’s aria in Abduction from the Seraglio, “Welche Wonne, welche Lust” (What bliss, what pleasure now reigns in my breast.) Mozart riffs on the opening phrase in fugal imitation, perhaps a good-humored jape of what was known as the “serious” or “learned” style.

(c) Bruce Lamott

Mozart Violin Concerto no.3

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Concerto for violin and orchestra in G, K216

I             Allegro
II            Adagio
III           Rondeau: Allegro

If one did not know Mozart to have been an outstanding virtuoso pianist, his 23 piano concertos, which make high demands on the interpretative artist, provide the evidence for this. Mozart was not, however, merely a celebrated keyboard player, but also (during his years at Salzburg) a violinist of repute, who on many occasions played concertos by himself and other composers. Leopold Mozart had not failed to instruct his universally gifted son in violin playing, although Mozart himself did not take his ability as a violinist very seriously.

Of Mozart’s seven violin concertos, five were written in 1775; K216, in G, was composed in September of that year. There has been much speculation on how one is to account for the intense interest which Mozart showed in the violin concerto. It is, however, fairly certain that he wrote the concertos for himself and possibly also for Antonio Brunetti, an Italian who was employed as solo violinist at the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Mozart had since 1770 been leader of the orchestra maintained by that archbishop, whom he came to hate to vehemently. As such, it was his duty to take part in court concerts, and not to neglect the violin, therefore he was in the habit of practising regularly.

In Mozart’s time the Austrian violin concerto belonged entirely to the sphere of superior entertainment music, and Mozart’s violin concertos are no exceptions in this respect; high thought their artistic quality is, they were composed with the intention of entertaining and giving pleasure. There is a clear relationship between his violin concertos and his serenades, divertimentos and cassations; some of the serenades contain what are virtually violin concertos. It is therefore not surprising that many motives and turns of melody with which we are familiar from his Salzburg serenades also figure in his violin concertos; a similar musical ethos is often unmistakable.

Although the concertos cannot be compared in matters of violin technique with those of Paganini, they nevertheless demand a high level of ability, and demonstrate impressively the extent of Mozart’s own facility as a violinist. It is true that in Mozart the virtuosity is always coupled with a cantabile line so that brilliance constantly takes on expressive qualities, passage work often being blended with the unfolding of melodic ideas. There is no doubt that in their grace, innocence, sensitivity and serenity these concertos are unique in the contemporary repertoire.

Mozart’s concerto movements are distinguished above all by a prodigal abundance of contrasting ideas, each with its clearly defined character, which are brought together with wonderful skill. This is certainly the case in the opening movement of the G major concerto, K216. Here the soloist is not content to take over the thematic material which has been presented initially by the orchestra, but introduces many new ideas. Thus, for example, the development section, which carries the music the music into minor keys, is based entirely on fresh motives that also permit dialogue between the solo violin and oboe.

The adagio has given rise to numerous expressions of warm appreciation, and it certainly justifies them, because it is one of the most beautiful movements of “middle period” Mozart – a notturno with muted strings (the oboes here are replaced by flutes) and magnificent flowing melodies for the solo violin.

In the final Rondo, a colourful succession of contrasting ideas pass by in review. Two of the sections stand out particularly as regards their tempo and rhythmic character: a gavotte-like Andante in G minor, in which the accompanying strings play pizzicato, and an Allegretto in folk-song style which gives a glimpse of the Strassburger, a dance tune very popular at the time, which the Mozarts mentioned on several occasions in letters.

© Elizabeth Boulton

Mozart Symphony no.29

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

Symphony No. 29 in A, K201

I           Allegro moderato
II          Andante
III         Menuetto
IV         Allegro con spirito

Count Hieronymus Colloredo, whom Mozart served as the leader of his orchestra, was elected Archbishop of Salzburg in March 1773. The happy atmosphere that had distinguished the reign of his predecessor was a thing of the past. Colloredo lost no time in curtailing the comparative freedom of his musicians and the other members of his miniature court. Mozart’s father soon began looking for a more liberal employer, not so much for himself (he also played violin in the Salzburg orchestra) as for his son Wolfgang. During their concert tour in Italy in 1772 he had tried hard to secure a post for him, but without success. He had no better luck in Vienna where he went with his son in the summer holidays of 1773. Since none of the plans materialised, there was nothing left for them but to return to Salzburg.

However, Mozart was 17 years old at the time, and conditions of employment were not his main concern. While in Vienna, he was too busy listening to new music to worry about the future. He heard the latest compositions of Gluck and Dittersdorf, and the new instrumental works of Haydn left a profound and lasting impression on him.

Back in Salzburg Mozart produced a number of masterpieces in rapid succession. They included a group of four symphonies, among them Symphony No. 29. Most of his earlier symphonies had consisted of three movements in the tradition of the Italian overture. Now, in this symphony, he adopted the new Viennese form by adding a minuet and trio and by enlarging the proportions of the other three movements. Of these, the Andante is like an aria, played in long tender phrases by muted violins, while the final Allegro deserves the additional indication con spirito as much as any of Mozart’s symphonic movements. As a whole the work has such well-balanced proportions and is so full of the happiest inventions that it does not give the impression of being the result of an experiment. Indeed, it sounds as if Mozart had already spent a lifetime in perfecting the musical form of the Viennese symphony.

© Stefan de Haan