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World Traveler
July 11 2009, 2:00 and 7:30 at the Barshinger Center (2009 Schedule)
Do you have travel plans for the summer? Being a school teacher, I'm often asked that question. It's always nice when you can answer back with an interesting, perhaps exotic, destination. Of course we all travel for different reasons: relaxation, rejuvenation, fulfillment, knowledge. Tonight's three “world travelers”, Mozart, Vivaldi, and Mendelssohn, left their hometowns of Salzburg, Venice, and Hamburg for various reasons, all embracing the opportunity to create art on foreign soil. These gentlemen didn't board the British Airways 767 out of Philly. Travel in the 18 th and 19 th centuries was grueling but like now, always rewarding. If you're ready to board the Allegro flight 7-11-09, we're about to visit cities in France, Germany, and Italy, first class all the way! By the way, Kris and I are indeed heading to Dresden in July…thanks for asking.
Symphony No. 31, K. 297 (300a), “Paris” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
In the spring of 1778, Mozart was in Paris, actively seeking new employment. Attention Allegro Audience , repeat after me “never quit your old job (in this case a court orchestra position for the archbishop of Salzburg) before finding a new one.” Mozart was now 22 years of age and no longer a cute little child prodigy. The trip to France was a professional disaster: his letters to home in Salzburg are filled with scorn for French musicians and audiences, and he failed to find a permanent patron. Did I mention that his mother became ill and died in July of 1778 while accompanying him on this latest job search? With things gloomy at best, there was one request for a new composition to be premiered at the Concerts Spirituel, Paris' most successful and prestigious concert series.
So what should you listen for that will distinguish this Mozart symphony from the nine others performed by Allegro over the past 8 years. Some of you and you know who you are, will now refer to your official Allegro archive collection of past programs and count the past performances of Mozart symphonies.
Things to listen for:
- How about the “Mannheim Rocket” utilized in movement 1 of this symphony? No, I didn't say Mannheim Steamroller! I'm referring to an orchestral technique popular with the court orchestra of Mannheim in the latter part of the 18 th century. In the case of #31 “Paris”, the rising and accelerating D major scale passage in the opening of the first movement.
- Being that Mozart wanted to please the Parisians, he omits the usual third movement Austrian minuet, hence we're left with a three movement symphony, a popular French compositional form for this time period.
- Mozart expands the orchestra to suit the availability of instruments found in Paris. For the first time in his symphonies, a pair of clarinets is used.
I never said that this musical genius was overly tactful and reverent of his environment. Mozart wrote to his father on the afternoon of the first (and only) rehearsal on the day of the concert, complaining of the orchestra's dismal playing.
“I cannot say whether it will be popular, and to tell the truth, for who will not like it? I can answer for its pleasing the few intelligent French people who will be there and as for the stupid ones, I shall not consider it a great misfortune if they are not pleased. I still hope, however, that even asses will find something in it to admire.”
Yikes! Thank goodness the Paris audiences didn't read the previous letter prior to the premiere of Symphony 31. On the contrary, they actually interrupted the first and third movements with applause. Don't get any ideas, you're not in Paris! Enjoy the opening movement Allegro assai , packed full of delightful themes rather than intense development. The second movement Andante is both calm and elegant, alternating a pair of courtly violin themes. The third and final movement Allegro opens with a surprise: the violins start with a quiet, blustery theme, which leads to an unexpected crashing entrance of full orchestra. Yes, that was one of the spontaneous applause moments at June 18, 1778's premiere performance. All we need now is an intense fugal passage and several surprising twists of harmony before the movement ends with a brilliant coda.
Concerto in G minor RV577 (for Dresden, Germany) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
It's difficult to choose which tidbits to include when discussing the “Red Priest”. The juicy parts of Vivaldi's life are ripe for melodrama. Feel free to Google away your Sunday, investigating the personal life of this composer-first, priest-second, musician of Venice.
One of the more interesting aspects of this man is Vivaldi the “teacher”. At the age of 25, Antonio accepted a job as music teacher at an all girls orphanage called the Ospedale delle Pieta (the Hospital of Pity or Compassion.) It was his job to teach the young girls to play music and write two concertos every month for them to perform. Judging from the difficulty of the music, these girls, all of them under twenty, possessed considerable talent. Vivaldi must have enjoyed this work since he stayed at the Ospedale off and on for thirty five years, although his interests in travel constantly drew him away. So try to picture the scenario; the performances of these girls would have been from behind screens, dividing the viewer from the orchestra and singers. As Vivaldi grew in popularity, so did the fame of his all-female orchestra. As long as ticket sales hold solid, Allegro will remain “co-ed.”
So how do we get Vivaldi to Dresden? One of the visitors to Venice's famous musical orphanage was the Prince Elector of Saxony (Eastern Germany), here to hire musicians for the opera house his father was building in…you guessed it, Dresden. Now stay with me. The Prince was accompanied by Dresden's violin virtuoso, Johann Georg Pisendel, soon to be a violin student of Vivaldi. Dresden was a cosmopolitan city in 1717, often described as a little piece of Italy on the River Elbe. The Dresden Orchestra gained a particular reputation for its performances of Vivaldi. Even today, one of the largest surviving collections of Vivaldi manuscripts is in the Dresden archives. It's then quite logical that a composer, beloved by the city of Dresden, would write a few concerti for that city's ensemble.
Today's “Concerto in G minor, RV 577”, has violin, two recorder (flute), and two oboes as soloists. In the outer movements, the orchestra constantly fragments and coalesces into different subgroups of soloists. We rush through a kaleidoscope of sections, each characterized by a new theme. By contrast, the middle movement reduces the texture to a lyrical oboe melody with continuo, as if a solo sonata. You're not crazy if you hear a similarity between this particular Vivaldi usage of multiple soloists and Bach's Brandenburg's. Bach regularly travelled to Dresden to hear, and perhaps copy, the harmonic drive of Vivaldi's pen. When approaching the music of the “Red Priest”, simply embrace the sheer joy that makes for exhilarating listening.
Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 “The Italian” by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47)
“This is Italy! And now has begun what I have always thought…to be the supreme joy in life. And I am loving it. Today was so rich that now, in the evening, I must collect myself a little, and so I am writing to you to thank you, dear parents, for having given me all this happiness.”- Mendelssohn
In the spring of 1829, as he began his 21st year, Mendelssohn was sent out into the world with instructions from his father “to examine the various countries closely and to fix on one where I wished to live. I was to make my name and gifts known, and was to press forward in my work.” He did his father's bidding first in Britain, where his work came to be so admired that it influenced the course of the art there for the rest of the century. Two compositions inspired there, the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish Symphony are still numbered among his most loved works. Just a bit of British trivia for you: Queen Victoria's favorite composer? You guessed it…Felix Mendelssohn.
At the suggestion of the great German poet Goethe, the next leg of Mendelssohn's travel took him to Italy for about a year and a half. He declared that all of Italy is featured in his “Italian Symphony”: its people, its landscapes and its art. The underlying rhythm of the first movement, Allegro vivace , suggests an Italian dance, the “tarantella.” The second movement, Andante con moto , a solemn processional, was probably motivated by Mendelssohn witnessing a religious procession in the streets of Naples. The third is a smooth-flowing minuet. The finale, Presto , the most characteristically Italian of the symphony's four movements takes on the style of a “saltarello”, a lively Neapolitan country dance, dating from the 16 th century. Mendelssohn's “Fourth Symphony” is among the first large multi-movement works to begin in a major key and end in minor. The first performance of the “Italian” Symphony took place on May 13, 1833 in London. Here are his own words describing his compositional efforts in February of that same year.
“The Italian” symphony is making great progress. It will be the jolliest piece I have ever done, especially the last movement.”
We are so very pleased that you chose to journey with Allegro today. Music often allows us to experience and absorb different cultures through the eyes of gifted composer, in this case Mozart, Vivaldi, and Mendelssohn. May Allegro's musical efforts today allow you to see witness the people of Dresden, the landscape of Italy, and the art of Paris.
Happy Travels,
Doug Albert