The Mozart Experience 2: Academy of St.-Martin In The Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner CD Track Listing

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The Mozart Experience 2 Academy of St.-Martin In The Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
SYMPHONIES - CONCERTOS - SERENADES\nThe Mozart Experience II\nErik Smith\n\nSymphonies 31, 35, and 36\n\nOn 3 July 1778, soon after his arrival is Paris, Mozart\nwrote to his father that he had been asked to write a \nsymphony to open the season of the famous Concert \nSpirituel. After the first rehearsal he was so dissatisfied\nand angry that he at first decided not to attend the concert\nat all, but then, because the weather had improved, he\ndecided to go along but determined, if things went badly,\nto take the first violinist's instrument out of his hands and\nconduct himself. He prayed that all might go well and it \ndid: great applause followed a brilliant passage in the\nfirst Allegro and again when the same music returned\nnear the end of the movement. The audience liked the\nAndante too and above all the last Allegro. Finales in\nParis usually began with a loud unison, so Mozart opened\nhis with just the violins playing piano for eight bars;\neverybody said "sh", as he had expected they would,\nthen burst into applause at the forte entry. After the \nconcert he went to the Palais Royal for an ice cream to\ncelebrate. But later on the day that he sent this report\nto his hather he had to write to a family friend in Salzburg\nasking him to break the news to his father that his mother,\nwho had accompanied him to Paris, had died that evening.\n\nThe "Paris" Symphony was in the three-movement form of \nthe Italian Overture, but Mozart was not consistent about\nthe number of movements: the Symphony NO. 35, \ncomposed in Vienna in 1782 and hurriedly sent to \nSalzburg to feature at a festivity of the prominent Haffner\nfamily, was in four movements and also had a march for the\norchestra to be played as the audience arrived, in the \ntradition of open-air music. "The first movement must be\nreally fiery, the last as fast as possible" were Mozart's\ninstructions. The first movement is a very powerful piece,\nbuilt almost entirely out of the striking rhythm of the \nopening five bars. The Andante and minuetare in the\nrelaxed, happy mood of the Salzburg serenades and the \nfinale has great brilliance, with more than a touch of \nopera buffa humour.\n\nMozart performed some of his Salzburg works in Vienna,\nsometimes cutting out movements to make a symphony out\nof a six-movement serenade, but also adding instruments\nif he had them to hand, like flutes and clarinets he put into\nthe outer movements of the "Haffner" Symphony. He\nperformed it before the emperor ("How delighted he was!\nHow he applauded me!") and for good measure gave the\nfollowing programme: after the first three movements of the\n"Haffner" Symphony, two piano concertos, four arias and\nthree improvisations by Mozart on the piano, ending the\nconcert with the Finale of the "Haffner" Symphony!\n\nIn 1783 Mozart travelled to Salzburg to introduce his wife\nto his father and sister. After three months they returned\nto Vienna in a leisurly manner. When they arrive in Linz\nthe composer was asked to give a concert in five days'\ntime. "Because I have not got a single symphony with me\nI am composing a new one with all haste". He somehow \nfound time to write not just four movements but a wonderful\nsolumn adagio to open the symphony, the first time he\nused an introduction in the manner of Joseph and Michael\nHaydn. Like so much of his music the "Linz" Symphony\nhas two contrasting sides - on the one hand the festive,\nassertive C major character with trumpets and timpani\nadding solemnity even to the slow movement, on the other\nhand a soft, mysterious, chromatic, questioning side, which\nenters in the fourth bar of the introduction and again in the\nF minor passage of the slow movement (starting with the\npiano staccato on low strings and bassoons).\n\nPiano Concertos\n\nOf the works recorded here, three in particular are \nlandmarks in Mozart's output, each unique in its way. One\nis the Piano Concerto in E flat, K. 271. Nearly all the piano\nconcertos were written for his own performances, two were\ndedicated to a talented pupil (with a rich father), three \nwere intended for publication as they could be played with\na string quartet in place of an orchestra, but only one was\nwritten for another viruoso. This is the E flat Concerto, \ncomposed in January 1777, when he was just 21, "fur die\nJenomy", presumably a French lady called Jeunehomme\nwho appeared in Salzburg. Mysteriously enough nothing\nis known about her, but she inspired Mozart to a concerto\nthat went far beyond any that he had written or indeed was\nto write until K.450, which opened the series of the great\nVienna concertos in 1784. Its length, its virtuosity, its\ndramatic wealth, grandeur and originality place it among\nthe great concertos. In fact, the opening, in which the \npianist enters almost at once to answer the orchestra's\nfanfare, was a dramatic stroke not to be heard again until\nBeethoven's Fourth Concerto. When the piano enters in\nits customary place, or just before it, in the last bars of \nthe orchestral exposition, it is with a long trill, the \nequivalent of the long held note with which so many arias\nbegan. In the C minor Andantino the solo part seems to\nspeak to us with the eloquence of the human voice, so it\nis entirely appropriate for it to break into the exact \nequivalent of a vocal recitative (as Beethoven was to do \nin some of his sonatas). The rondeau finale is a breathless\nPresto interrupted by a stately minuet with varied repeats\nand an almost Brahmsian passage of broken chords. The\ncadenzas are Mozart's own.\n\nIn 1790 Mozart travelled to Frankfurt for Leopold II's \ncoronation as Holy Roman Emperor. He hoped to be \nnoticed favourably by the new monarch, for he depended\non his patronage - but in vain. On 15 October he gave\nanother of those monster concerts with arias, \nimprovisations, two piano concertos and two symphonies.\nIt began at 11 am. By 2 pm the audience was so hungry\nthat it preferred to leave the second symphony to another\nday. Worst of all, this concert clashed with a grand\nluncheonand a display of military manoeuvres, so it was\nnot at all well attended and lost Mozart money. The two \nconcertos were K. 459 and 537, as the edition of 1794\ntells us. The title of "Coronation" Concerto has stuck only\nto the latter, though it had been composed in February\n1788. The wind parts as well as the trumpet and timpani\nparts (apparently added at the last moment for the Frankfurt\nconcert) are all ad libitum; this was therefore a useful \nconcerto for taking on journeys, when one could not \ndepend on the ability of wind players. It was clearly \nintended for his own use, for Mozart never gor around to \ncompleting the left-hand accompaniments, relying on his\nmemory and inventive powers to fill in when the time came.\nIt is a charming and tuneful work but not of the stature one\ncould expect at this late date.\n\n\n
This classical cd contains 12 tracks and runs 72min 13sec.
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