Program Notes - Orli Shaham plays Mozart

Music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
b. Salzburg, Austria / January 27, 1756
d. Vienna, Austria / December 5, 1791

The Magic Flute, K. 621: Overture

The final year of Mozart’s life was crammed with activity, including the composition of two operas (The Magic Flute and The Clemency of Titus), a clarinet concerto, and a Requiem Mass that he didn’t live to finish. He and the colorful impresario/singer/actor Emanuel Schikaneder (1751-1812) met in 1780, when Schikaneder arrived in Salzburg with his rowdy troupe of musical theatre performers. He quickly became friends with the entire Mozart family. Mozart relocated to Vienna the following year. In 1789, he and Schikaneder renewed what had become a lagging friendship, when Schikaneder & Co. set up shop at the barn-sized Theatre auf der Wieden in a Viennese suburb.

Schikaneder’s German-language “machine comedies” (as such riotous, special effects-heavy musical productions were known) sported scores by such composers as Franz Gerl and Benedikt Schack, both performers in the company; They attracted a large and diverse audience. It was just a matter of time before Schikaneder would ask Mozart to collaborate on one with him. What spurred him on was the prospect of Mozart’s talent producing a hot-ticket show that would rescue the company from near bankruptcy. Mozart, himself facing serious monetary challenges, accepted the offer eagerly. He composed The Magic Flute between June and September 1791. The premiere took place on September 30 at the Theatre auf der Wieden, conducted by the composer.

Schikaneder’s libretto is a rough and ready mixture of storybook fantasy, low comedy, melodrama, and high‑minded philosophy. Mozart matched every ingredient with equally diverse and consistently inspired music, tones that frequently elevate the material above its worth. The hero is Prince Tamino, who must bravely undergo rituals of purification in order to achieve two goals: priesthood in the Temple of Wisdom, and the hand of his sweetheart, Pamina. The overture begins with great solemnity, but this quickly gives way to vigor and good humor.


Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488

In May 1781, Mozart was unceremoniously discharged from the service of Hieronymous Colleredo, Archbishop of Salzburg. Delighted to be free from that unappreciative and demeaning relationship, he relocated from the cultural backwater of Salzburg to the bustling musical metropolis of Vienna. The city was ripe for artists with his talent and drive. Before long, he was deep into a busy schedule of composing, performing, and teaching.

Because Viennese audiences loved him above all for his skill as a pianist, he focused on composing music for that instrument. He wrote 12 superlative piano concertos between February 1784 and December 1786. They are deeper in feeling, broader in scope, and richer in color than any written before. In years to come, they would serve as models of their kind, ones to which Beethoven, Brahms, and other similarly high-minded composers would turn for inspiration.

During the winter and spring of 1785/86, Mozart composed not only the piano concerto that you will hear at these concerts, but also two others (the jovial, expansive No. 22 and the defiant, poignant No. 24); a one‑act stage farce, The Impresario; the Masonic Funeral Music; a host of brief chamber, solo, and vocal works; and his masterpiece of comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro. He began Concerto No. 23 in 1784 and completed it in early 1786. The premiere took place on March 2.

It opens in leisurely fashion, with the orchestra presenting the movement’s principal materials. The soloist then treats them with a winning mixture of elegance and delicious flights of fancy. With only the briefest of digressions, the mood throughout is utterly contented. The atmosphere changes radically in the slow movement, one of Mozart’s most poignant creations. The piano leads off, introducing a main theme in the rhythm of a Siciliano. Passionate outbursts have no place here, but just the same, Mozart sets forth the depth of his despair in most telling fashion. The finale brings further contrast, lightening the air completely. Mozart brings back the sun, more welcome than ever, in the wake of the dark Adagio.


Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543

By the summer of 1788, nearly two years had passed since Mozart had composed a symphony: No. 38, later known as the “Prague” Symphony because it received its first performance there. He then returned to this field of activity. In the space of three months, he created three symphonies; He could not have known that they would be his last. It is fitting that his career as a symphonist should end with three such masterpieces. They are quite different from each other: No. 39 in E-flat Major is one of his most elegant creations, its successor in G Minor perhaps his most pathetic. And appropriately, No. 41 in C Major, known as the “Jupiter,” is the grandest and most joyous of all his symphonies.

A number of mysteries surround these works. No commission that would have inspired their creation has come down to us. Some writers speculate that he composed them strictly for his own pleasure. Others, such as the eminent Mozart scholar, Neal Zaslaw, feel otherwise: “The very idea that Mozart would have written three such symphonies, unprecedented in length, complexity, and seriousness, merely to please himself or because he was ‘inspired,’ flies in the face of his known attitudes to music and life and the financial straits in which he then found himself.”

Uncertainty also exists regarding their performance during Mozart’s lifetime. Circumstantial evidence points to one or more of them being played on several occasions: at a series of subscription concerts at the Vienna Casino later in 1788; during Mozart’s concert tours of Germany in 1788 and 1789; or in Vienna, conducted by Antonio Salieri, in April 1791 (for which performance Mozart may have prepared the second version, with added clarinets, of Symphony No. 40). In addition, Symphonies 40 and 41 were rapidly circulated, suggesting that they were performed during his lifetime.

Symphony No. 39 is the least often performed of this valedictory symphonic trio, but it is a fully worthy member of the group, nonetheless. Mozart’s orchestration includes clarinets instead of the more usual oboes. This gives the symphony a particularly mellow sound and atmosphere.

It is the only one of the final trilogy to begin with an introduction in slow tempo. Mozart followed this practice only occasionally, in contrast to his friend Haydn, who used it in the majority of his mature symphonies. The preparatory section to Symphony No. 39 is a shade on the pompous side. Perhaps Mozart considered it a humorous contrast to the graceful and carefree Allegro which follows.

The symphony’s playful character continues in the slow second movement, with an overlay of warmth added. Threats presented by the occasional turbulent outbursts prove temporary, evaporating quickly in the general atmosphere of good humor. The outer sections of the minuet are all ballroom stateliness. The central trio belongs squarely to the countryside. It is based on a dance tune from Switzerland. The sound of clarinets enhances its rustic nature. The symphony wraps up with a nimble and witty finale, summoning images of the comic opera world which Mozart understood so fully.

© 2010 Don Anderson. All rights reserved.