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Here is a previous posting concerning Mozart.
He was
not unique for being a child prodigy, though probably more than
anyone else in history, Mozart established a kind of tradition among
musicians which has its merits and its dangers. In Mozart's case, he
was paraded around Europe as a child basically for the fruits of
whatever gold ducats might be proffered and no doubt these tours were
financially successful, so much so that the Mozarts, Wolfie, his
sister and their father, were a kind of business model that quite a
few musicians tried to emulate.
But could they? This is a child who picked up the violin after watching others play it for a while and instantly played it, likewise the keyboard. This was a child who from before the age of five understood music notation perfectly well and was able to write it down, in most cases that have come down to us without any mistakes, as if he was just taking dictation.
But could they? This is a child who picked up the violin after watching others play it for a while and instantly played it, likewise the keyboard. This was a child who from before the age of five understood music notation perfectly well and was able to write it down, in most cases that have come down to us without any mistakes, as if he was just taking dictation.
In his
early twenties Mozart was witnessed doing such amazing things as
writing a letter to his dad with his right hand while working on a
score for an opera with his left, pausing once in a while for a gulp
of white wine, working both arms independently, stunning and
frightening many onlookers. He is known to have known Italian and
French as well as his native German. He was very fond of traditional
billiards and had a table in his house.
But in
spite of his obvious talents, Mozart could not manage practical
matters; in particular his living expenses during his brief life,
which he lived lavishly enough for a few years, certainly got out of
hand. And Mozart was not alone in living above his means, as around
1789 and 1790 events in Europe were beginning to topple the old
order, Then of course there was a worldwide economic downturn, some
failed harvests, inflation, a pandemic, an economic collapse, the
death of the Emperor and of Mozart himself at the age of 35. He
might even deservedly be considered a prototypical case of a rapid
rise and fall of a great musician, many cases of which are strewn
through modern history. But atypically, we usually don't ascribe
any negative influences affecting Mozart's early death, mostly
because during those days the average life expectancy was less than
35.
However
there are persistent rumours that someone had it in for him, because
let's face it folks, this Mozart fellow was very good at what he did.
He made lots of aspiring musicians very jealous. Mozart knew that
much of what he was writing would be immortal because as far as he
was concerned it came directly from an immortal place. That's the
unmistakeable message one gets from seeing any of his scores too,
beautifully laid out right from the start, everything written quickly
but accurately as if he was just taking it down from the beyond. In
order to do what he did he would have had to have seen the
construction of the score as a totality in his mind's eye before even
setting a stroke to paper. There will really never be another
Mozart.
Just as
the Symphony was the predominant occupation of Haydn, so the Piano
Concerto might be said to have been Mozart's concentration. There
were piano concertos, a few, written before Mozart, but all that
followed surely owe much to the 27 of them Mozart wrote, a record.
And of course, as an outstanding Opera composer, Mozart was for far
longer than most others engaged in it, and his greatest operas are
all in the repertoire.
But
besides all this, and Mozart was certainly prolific, he was writing
music constantly, every day of the last ten years of his life, he
wrote at least 41 symphonies (second only to Haydn) and one of his
last is featured, the Symphony #40 in G minor, K. 550 written
in July of 1788 when he was 32 years old. Together with the
Symphonies #39 and #41, these are Mozart's last words on what a
Symphony would be. Evidence exists that this particular symphony was
performed during Mozart's lifetime, greatly substantiated by the
existence of a second authentic manuscript including the clarinet
parts which Mozart would never have bothered adding unless the work
was being performed and he sought reasons to improve it. The
proportions aren't much different from a Haydn Symphony. But listen
particularly for the uses of chromaticism and a greater range of
emotions, in places writing as if for an Opera with the various
instruments as singers, and all accomplished with surprisingly
limited resources; 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2
horns, and strings, no more than 35 people in all. The movements are
as follows:
2.
Andante
I have
known this symphony a long time, and have many associations with all
these movements. The finale is what one of my teachers described as,
“the influences of too many bad Hungarian violinists.” Oh well.
The first was always my favourite because it represented a very tight
sonata allegro form with an impassioned development section. The
second movement has some odd discontinuous pulsed phrases in it
unlike anything anywhere else that I know of. The third movement is
a minuet all right but in a minor key taking full advantage of all
the possible harmonies. The florid canonical writing near the end of
the first theme is contrasted with the restrained more open flavour
of the trio.
As for the performance standards for this symphony, they have varied over the years from the over-massed performances of the big symphony orchestras of the 30's, 40's and 50's through the reversion to “original instruments” and practices and thence to an accepted light texture for all this period music. For one thing, the fewer players on string parts, the more one hears the internal voices. So here we have a “traditional” performance of this “classic” piece, by the Vienna Philharmonic under the late great Karl Böhm (1894-1981), The scale of the orchestra is still small, Böhm concentrates on getting all the notes out as it were rather than phrase succeeding a phrase. You will encounter many more youthful versions of this music as it is a widely performed work.
As for the performance standards for this symphony, they have varied over the years from the over-massed performances of the big symphony orchestras of the 30's, 40's and 50's through the reversion to “original instruments” and practices and thence to an accepted light texture for all this period music. For one thing, the fewer players on string parts, the more one hears the internal voices. So here we have a “traditional” performance of this “classic” piece, by the Vienna Philharmonic under the late great Karl Böhm (1894-1981), The scale of the orchestra is still small, Böhm concentrates on getting all the notes out as it were rather than phrase succeeding a phrase. You will encounter many more youthful versions of this music as it is a widely performed work.
FINIS
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