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Contents:
DDD Total Time = 73:42 / Recorded in The Winter Gardens Bournemouth 20th and 21st February 1998 by kind permission. SYMPHONY No. 36 in C, "LINZ" K. 425 In July, 1783 Mozart took his new wife home to Salzburg to be introduced to his father and sister. Leopold had offered considerable resistance to the marriage, and his son, undoubtedly, wished to see Constanze win over her new father-in-law. Doing his part to impress his father, Mozart composed several vocal works, most certainly with Constanze in mind as the soprano soloist. The charming opera-fragments Lo sposo deluso‚ and‚ oca del Cairo‚, a Kyrie for vocal quartet and orchestra, and the magnificent "Great" Mass in C Minor were among the works produced during what must surely have been a summer full of interesting domestic situations. Although he would never again see his hometown, Mozart was undoubtedly full of high hopes when he left Salzburg in late October, 1783 to return to his adoptive home, Vienna. On October 30 the Mozarts arrived in Linz, where they were the guests of Count Thun the Elder and his son, who "bestowed much courteousness" upon them. To repay his gracious hosts, Mozart agreed to give a concert in the Linz Theatre on November 4. He confided to Leopold in a letter dated October 31, "because I do not have a single symphony with me, I shall write a new one in a hurry, which must be finished by then" (four days later!). Count Johann Anton Thun was a dedicated music lover who maintained his own orchestra. It was for the Count’s excellent orchestra that Mozart composed the Symphony in C, which has since been known as the Linz‚ Symphony. Finding immediate favour with the public, Mozart encouraged his father to give the Symphony in C to anyone who wished to perform it (copyright laws did not yet exist). Count Thun, realising the composer‚s great affection for the work, treated Mozart to another performance of the ŒLinz‚ Symphony by the his orchestra at Thun Palace in Prague in 1787. Cast in the traditional four-movement form, the Linz Symphony is scored for pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns and trumpets, timpani and strings. SYMPHONY No. 39 in E-Flat, K. 543 Although he finally gained some considerable degree of international success and fame, Mozart seemed always to be in dire financial straits throughout the last ten years of his life. Commissions and fees for operatic and orchestral works were continuously forthcoming, yet the free-wheeling lifestyle of both Mozarts forced Wolfgang to repeatedly ask several Masonic friends for loans. To supplement his often undependable income, Mozart produced a series of private‚ concerts in Vienna which became highly popular with the music-loving public. For these concerts, Mozart served as composer, piano soloist, conductor, publicist, and producer. At the premiere of the C Major Piano Concerto (K. 467), with Mozart as soloist, the andante proved so popular (then as now) that it had to be twice repeated. In the summer of 1788 Mozart rented a small house outside Vienna, where he was temporarily able to forget about students and concerts. In the relatively short span of about six-weeks, he completed his final three symphonies - no. 39 in E-Flat, no. 40 in g minor (K. 550) and no. 41 in C, known as ŒJupiter‚ (K. 551). All three were most certainly intended for performance at Mozart‚s Vienna concert series of 1788-89; unfortunately, for reasons completely unknown, none of these works was ever performed during his lifetime. These three symphonies, along with three earlier works, the Symphony no. 35 in D Haffner‚ (K. 385), the Linz‚ Symphony, and the Symphony no. 38 in D, Prague‚ (K. 504) constitute Mozart‚s greatest achievement in symphonic form. Yet, the art of the monumental‚ symphony was achieved by both Haydn and Mozart and each was heavily influenced by the other. As in the Linz‚ and Prague‚ Symphonies, Mozart, in no. 39, makes dramatic use of an introduction before the initial allegro, a device made popular by Haydn and later used effectively in his London‚ Symphonies. While it has never gained the popularity of it’s two siblings, the E-Flat Symphony is perhaps Mozart’s sunniest and most positive work in the symphonic form. The scoring calls for one flute, pairs of clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets in addition to timpani and strings. LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Overture K. 492 The public’s positive reception of Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung‚ aus dem Serail‚ (The Abduction from the Seraglio‚) in 1782 brought to fruition the long-cherished goal of the Emperor, Joseph II, to establish German opera in Vienna. However, this success proved impossible to sustain since not many other Viennese composers rushed to produce German operas for the court theatre. Although Mozart himself would make several additional attempts to bring about an acceptance of German opera (a musical comedy, Die Schauspeildirektor‚ in 1786 and Die Zauberflote‚ in 1791), he began as early as 1783 to search for a suitable subject for his next major project for the Emperor’s theatre - in Italian. Two attempts, L’oca del Cairo‚ and Lo sposo deluso‚ produced some charming fragments, but were never completed. The controversy surrounding Mozart‚s choice of Beaumarchais‚ Le mariage de Figaro‚ is well known; even Leopold Mozart complained to his daughter that her brother had chosen most tiresome and, perhaps, even dangerous subject. It is, indeed, quite miraculous that Le nozze di Figaro‚ ever made it to the stage. When the opera was finished (in late 1785) and ready for rehearsals (March, 1786) works of Salieri and other composers competed with Figaro‚ for the court theatre’s budgetary consideration and Mozart threatened to toss the completed manuscript into the fire‚ unless his Figaro‚ received preferential treatment. COSI FAN TUTTE, Overture K. 588 Since its first performance in January, 1790, Cosi fan tutte‚ has had considerable difficulty in claiming its rightful place as the masterpiece it is, worthy of being mentioned alongside Figaro, Don Giovanni‚ and Die Zauberflote. The librettist himself, Lorenzo da Ponte, felt Cosi‚ to be inferior to his two other collaborations with Mozart, Figaro‚ and Don Giovanni. In his autobiography he refers to Cosi‚ as holding "third place among the three Sisters" (da Ponte was not the author of the libretto for Die Zauberflote‚). Indeed, some critics over the past two hundred years have accused Cosi‚ of having a silly and mediocre libretto which just happens to have great music. Beethoven considered Cosi‚ immoral because of its subject matter, a commonly held opinion in the Nineteenth Century. The story of two pairs of lovers switching partners struck many as unseemly. And, to make matters worse, Mozart and da Ponte leave the outcome ambiguous by not making it clear if the original couples are finally reunited. We know relatively little about the circumstances surrounding the composition and first production of Cosi‚. It was long rumoured that the subject-matter was suggested by the Emperor himself, after a recent incident which had scandalised Viennese society. Mozart makes no mention of the work in his letters or his musical catalogue prior to December, 1789; yet, by January, 1790 Cosi‚ was already in rehearsal. Still, it is unlikely the composer would have invited Joseph Haydn and Michael Puchberg to attend rehearsals (December 29, 1789 and January 20, 1790) if he were anything other than proud of his new opera. After only five performances in early 1790, Cosi fan tutte‚ closed (due to the death of Emperor Joseph II) and no critique or other information regarding its initial reception has survived. Five additional performances were given later that year, followed by productions in Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig. However, shortly after Mozart’s death in 1791, the opera began its long journey into disfavour, which was to last for nearly 150 years. Page revised 30.06.03 |
