Earlier this week, conductor and composer Mark Laycock, who I am proud to count among my Facebook followers, directed my attention to this informative article about the relationship between Clement Moore – of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (a.k.a. “The Night Before Christmas”) fame – and Mozart librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. Now, on this sixth day of Christmas, I am happy to share it with you:
Tag: Mozart
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Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony: Marlboro Festival
With the new year bearing down upon us, I can think of nothing more appropriate – indeed more necessary – than the energetic striving and eternal optimism of the finale of Mozart’s last symphony, the Symphony No. 41, subtitled the “Jupiter.”
Incredibly, Mozart composed the “Jupiter” along with the Symphonies Nos. 39 and 40 in a burst of sustained inspiration over the summer of 1788. Though he had nothing to do with the work’s lofty moniker, it is the composer’s longest symphony, and quite possibly his greatest.
Mozart’s magnum opus will be the main attraction on this week’s “Music from Marlboro.” The Marlboro Music Festival, of course, is renowned primarily as a retreat for some of the world’s most revered artists and promising young talent, who come together each summer to explore works from the vast chamber music repertoire. Every once in a while, though, many of the musicians assemble to perform an enduring orchestral masterpiece.
Leon Fleisher, himself a pianist and beloved teacher, was forced to diversify with the onset of focal dystonia, a chronic neurological condition that impaired the mobility of his right hand. He continues to achieve much – even to the point of reclaiming in recent years some of his former, two-handed piano repertoire. He will take up the baton, at the age of 87, to lead Mozart’s “Jupiter” in an inspirational performance from the 2015 Marlboro Music Festival.
The program will open with several part-songs, composed around 1801, by Mozart’s friend and sometimes mentor Franz Joseph Haydn.
“Alles hat seine Zeit” (Everything has its time) sets a text by Johann Arnold Ebert:
Live, love, drink, clamor,
Circle with me,
Enthuse with me when I enthuse,
I am wise with you.Haydn’s setting of “Die Harmonie in der Ehe” (Harmony in Marriage), on a text of Johann Nikolaus Götz, includes an ironic discord on the word “harmony,” perhaps reflective of his own problematic union:
Oh, wondrous harmony, what he likes, she likes too,
He likes to drink, she too, he likes cards, she too,
He likes to fill his purse and to act like a great man. This is also her custom.
Oh, wondrous harmony.Finally, “Abendlied zu Gott” (Evening Song to God), sets a text by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert:
Lord, You who have given me life
Up until this very day,
Child-like, I pray to You.
I am much too unworthy of the faithfulness that I sing of,
And that You grant me today.The performances, from the 1976 Marlboro Music Festival, will feature soprano Claudia Visca, mezzo-soprano Constance Fee, tenor Michael Sylvester, bass John Paul White, and pianist Luis Batlle.
Haydn and Mozart give us the strength to endure on this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
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Saint-Saëns Mozart & Marlboro
On this All Saints’ Day, we’ll have music by Saint-Saëns, to open this week’s “Music from Marlboro.” In fact, works by two former prodigies will frame tonight’s program.
Saint-Saëns demonstrated perfect pitch at the age of two and gave his first public concert at the age of five. He was 72, at the other end of a very long career, when he composed his Fantaisie, Op. 124. We’ll hear it performed by violinist Thomas Zehetmair and harpist Alice Giles, from the 1982 Marlboro Music Festival.
Mozart, of course, was composing from the age of five; he wrote his first symphony at the age of eight. He lived less than half as long at Saint-Saëns (who died at 86), but in his comparatively brief span managed to hit greater heights. We’ll conclude with Mozart’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, K. 502, written in 1786, when he was about 30 years-old and at the peak of his powers. We’ll hear a recording made at Marlboro in 1968, with pianist (and Marlboro co-founder) Rudolf Serkin, violinist Jaime Laredo, and cellist Madeline Foley.
In between, we’ll have “Ainsi la nuit” (Thus the Night) by Henri Dutilleux. The seven-movement string quartet was meticulously crafted by the composer between 1973 and 1976, after intensive study of the works of Beethoven, Bartok, and Webern, and a series of preliminary sketches he called “Nights.” Nevermind the prodigy status; Dutilleux was about 60 at the time he completed the piece. All the hard work certainly paid off – the quartet was embraced as a modern masterpiece. We’ll hear it performed at Marlboro in 2001 by violinists Joseph Lin and Harumi Rhodes, violist Richard O’Neill, and cellist Marcy Rosen.
I hope you’ll join me for music by Saint-Saëns, Dutilleux, and Mozart, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
Caricature of Saint-Saëns playing the harp, by his pupil, Gabriel Fauré
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Salieri Beyond the Mozart Myth Debunked
Poor, maligned Antonio Salieri. He was a second-rate hack. He murdered Mozart. Yadda yadda yadda.
While it’s true there’s no such thing as bad publicity, it would be nice if the man could transcend his notoriety to be recognized for his achievements. Especially since none of the charges against him happen to be true.
I like “Amadeus” very much, and while I am happy it has served to keep Salieri’s name alive and perhaps lend a greater degree of commercial viability to subsequent recordings of his music, it is worthwhile to examine the historical facts.
In reality, Salieri was a generous teacher, who fostered Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and even Franz Xaver Mozart, the composer’s son, who was born a little more than four months before his father’s death.
Salieri was also a prolific and successful composer. He wrote 37 operas, in addition to orchestral works, concertos, chamber music and sacred pieces. While he was no Mozart – who was? – his music is finely crafted and often quite enjoyable, certainly no worse than that of a majority of his contemporaries.
Yes, Mozart believed Salieri and the Italian faction ensconced at the Viennese court (including future Mozart librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte) were against him, and there may have been something to it at first. However, beyond a rivalry over certain specific jobs, Mozart and Salieri appear to have been often better than cordial acquaintances. The two even collaborated on a cantata, “Per la ricuperata salute di Ophelia,” a venture which was apparently entered into voluntarily (as opposed to an earlier juxtaposition of one-act operas composed for the edification of the emperor). Here it is, only recently rediscovered:
When Salieri was appointed Kapellmeister in 1788, his first act was to revive “The Marriage of Figaro.” He was responsible for arranging first performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22, K. 482, the Clarinet Quintet and the Symphony No. 40. He was full of praise for “The Magic Flute.” And as I said, he took it upon himself to educate Mozart’s son.
Sadly, Salieri’s enormous compositional output gradually faded from memory already during the latter years of his life. Ironically, it is the scandalmongers who kept his name alive.
Rumors of Salieri’s involvement in Mozart’s death were codified by Alexander Pushkin in 1831, a few years after Salieri himself had passed, in the tragedy “Mozart and Salieri.” This was later set as an opera, in 1898, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Peter Schaffer picked up the thread in 1979, when he wrote the play “Amadeus,” which of course was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film in 1984.
As the compact disc era advanced, more and more of Salieri’s repertoire became available for first-hand assessment – and guess what? A lot of it is quite good!
Join me Friday afternoon to sample some of it, among my featured selections, from 4 to 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org. Then stick around, as I host “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, at 6. I’ll have more about that in just a bit.
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Mimi Stillman Plays Mozart on The Classical Network
Flutist Mimi Stillman will be my guest this afternoon, for today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, as we present a program of “Mozart Woodwind Masterpieces.”
Stillman will join members of her Dolce Suono Ensemble to perform the Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285. Then Ricardo Morales – Clarinetist, principal clarinetist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, will join the ensemble for the Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581. On the second half of the program, Charles Abramovic will be at the keyboard for a special arrangement of the Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat major, K. 452. Stick around – there might even be an encore or two. The concert was recorded on March 21 at Trinity Center for Urban Life in Philadelphia.
Next Tuesday, May 9, Dolce Suono will convene for a special memorial concert for Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Stucky. The program will include a Philadelphia premiere by the late composer; DSE commissions of works from Stucky, Fang Man, and Zhou Tian; and world premiere performances of pieces by DSE Young Composers Competition winners, performed by baritone Randall Scarlata. That concert will take place at the Curtis Institute of Music’s Gould Hall at Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, in Philadelphia. You can learn more at http://www.dolcesuono.com.
Later this afternoon, we’ll enjoy the unabashedly epic Symphony No. 2 by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén. Yesterday was the anniversary of Alfvén’s birth, and – what with all the May Day revelry – we really didn’t get to do him justice, beyond a brief festive polonaise. Alfvén composed his Second Symphony at the age of 26. The work traces an at times intense trajectory from youthful high spirits to solemn grandeur, concluding with a powerful chorale-prelude and fugue in D minor. While “absolute” in form, the composer confided that everything he ever wrote contains a hidden program. The symphony was influenced by two near-death experiences, from which the composer emerged stronger than before.
There will be much strength to be derived from our music today, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTOS: Ricardo Morales (left); Mimi Stillman and Charles Abramovic
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