Onwards to Mozart’s final violin concerto!
The Recording
Same as yesterday. I’m listening to Nikolaus Harnoncourt lead the Vienna Philharmonic with Gidon Kremer on solo violin.
Violin Concerto 5 in A Major, K. 219
Allegro aperto – Adagio – Allegro aperto
- Opens with crescendos built over a string tremolo.
- Soloist enters at tempo change to adagio.
- Active gentle accompaniment in violins.
- Energetic return to first tempo.
- More use of triple stops. Also in orchestra too maybe.
- Like previous concertos, the woodwinds and brass have lesser roles here than strings. Mostly just doubling lines or playing sustained chords.
2. Adagio
- Gentle but playful. Sometimes reminds me of Rossini.
- Some surprising harmonies. Usually brief though. Dissonances occur often due to the slow tempo and written ornaments in the soloist’s line.
- Actually, lots of little dissonances. Funny.
3. Rondeau – Tempo di minuetto -Allegro
- Throughout the concerto, Mozart has written these fabulous 16th note accompaniments for the orchestral violins that churn and move in the background. Here they have moments where they seethe in imitation to what the solo violin plays. It’s a cool effect.
- Very different feeling at the Allegro. Whoa.
- I suppose this is why this is nick-named the “Turkish”.
- Lots of string effects.
- The whole section is great. It’s fun hearing Mozart sound totally different.
- Little changes in the repeat near the end to make it more exciting.
- Again, another concerto with a fade-out effect. No big booming chords here.
Takeaways
Well obviously the stand out moment is the allegro within the third movement. That sounds noting like most Mozart, and as I wrote above, it’s exciting getting to hear something wildly different from him.
For the concerti as a group, they were generally equally balanced in terms of quality. The woodwinds and horns got few moments to really stand out. However, the string composition for the soloist and the orchestra was very fascinating. Following along in the sheet music is valuable just to get a better sense of all the activity taking place. Sure, there were moments where the orchestra strings served purely as simple accompanists, but more often were very integrated moments where the soloist felt truly like part of a larger group rather than an artificially separate entity. It all works together very well.
It’s too bad Mozart didn’t compose more of these.
Until next time.
