Ian Sidden

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Mozart Month: Day 30 with his Clarinet Quintet

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And now for something completely different. I enjoyed both Mozart’s (later) string quartets, and his clarinet concerto, so let’s see what something of a combination of the two sounds like. Is the clarinet more of a soloist or is it fully integrated into the fabric of the ensemble?

The Recording

I’m listening to the Emerson String Quartet with David Shifrin on clarinet.

Apple Music

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Sheet Music

Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581

Allegro

  • Marked allegro, but it feels slower than that. At least at first.
  • Very mellow.
  • Clarinet is dominant as primarily melody-giver, but first violin and cello also have early solo moments.
  • Some unexpected harmonies when the strings accompany with a syncopated rhythm.
  • Imitative entrances in development. Clarinet plays arpeggios over everything.
  • The clarinet has such a beautiful timbre, and pairing it with a string quartet is delightful. This piece makes me feel rich just to be alive to hear it.

Larghetto

  • Strings with mutes (not cello).
  • Clarinet plays melody.
  • Gentle gentle gentle.
  • Several surprising cadences.
  • Accompaniment is simple, but it’s not banal or tiresome. It fits the piece perfectly.
  • First violin trades focus often in portions. Some of the best moments are when the clarinet has a sustained tone above the more active strings.

Menuetto

  • Lots of rocking back and forth on an interval of a second (a seeming favorite device of Mozart’s and even Haydn’s).
  • No clarinet in first Trio.
  • Rhythm is slightly disorienting. Especially with the acciaccaturas.

Allegretto con variazioni

  • Playful back and forth between staccato and legato. Almost silly.
  • First variation uses full range of clarinet in leaps between top and bottom registers.
  • Second variation lets first violin play melody over violin 2 and the viola hitting steady triplets.
  • Variation 3 gives some love to the viola. We’ve modulated to minor. Yearning, but it’s not too serious.
  • Variation 4 is time to show off the chops of the first violinist and clarinetist.
  • Then a shift to Adagio with some stabbing chord.
  • Then to allegro with a decrescendo and a cadena.
  • Remarkably mild “finale”.

Takeaways

This piece is so mellow throughout, but don’t let that fool you. There’s a lot a beauty here. For me, that’s mostly concentrated in the first two movements. Minuets are fine, but they tend to all sound like minuets. But the first two movements take such advantage of the timbral possibilities of these instruments and express that in delicate delicious music.

The final movement is a lot of fun. That swinging figure never stopped sounding ridiculous to my ear, which was great and hopefully the idea.

A+ stuff. I’m very happy I listened to this on the penultimate day of this project.

Until next time.

Mozart Month: Day 29 with his 21st Piano Concerto

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I really enjoyed yesterday’s 20th Piano Concert, so I’m excited to listen to today’s.

The Recording

I’m listening to the complete piano concertos recording with Alfred Brendel and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Sir Neville Marriner.

Apple Music

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Sheet Music

Piano Concerto no. 21 in C Maj. K. 467

Allegro Maestoso

  • Full orchestra. Trumpets. Timpani.
  • All instruments feel well used in intro.
  • Feels very uplifting. Happy even.
  • Lots of chromatically in piano. Sometimes surprising.
  • Sections in minor not-withstanding.
  • Sequences are typically good.
  • Development features hyper active piano. Takes us on a real journey.
  • Huge buildup to cadenza.
  • Exciting coda.

Andante

  • Strings with mutes.
  • This is a well known melody. Not like “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”, but it’s up there.
  • Pizzicato strings when piano enters.
  • Lovely.
  • Uses simply but clear choices to create powerful moments.

Allegro vivace assai

  • Use of chromatic to create swirling feeling.
  • Very impressive piano playing.
  • Some syncopation.
  • Fun imitation.

Takeaways

Great from beginning to end. You get many of the things that make Mozart beloved here. Beautiful melodies. Creative and satisfying instrument writing. Virtuosity. Excitement. Little touches here and there that add up to a rich whole.

Until next time.

Mozart Month: Day 28 with his 20th Piano Concerto

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As I’m reaching the end of this project, I’m starting to struggle with what to listen to next. I know that I like piano concertos, so I’ll do that tonight and tomorrow probably… but then what? Is there anything obvious I’m missing (besides the operas)?

In any case, I’m looking forward to this.

The Recording

I’m listening to the complete piano concertos recording with Alfred Brendel and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Sir Neville Marriner.

Apple Music

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Sheet Music

Piano Concerto 20 in D minor, K. 466

1. Allegro

  • Dark mood from beginning. Stormy.
  • Sighing motive sounds plaintive.
  • Piano begins lightly, but then enters a long section of fast notes and building tension.
  • Interesting music from the woodwinds. The violin concertos were a little lacking in this.
  • Pretty virtuosic throughout.
  • Piano is so dominant through long stretches of this. The violin soloist never got that in the same way in the concertos. Yes, this is a chordal instrument, but still. There is a greater dichotomy between soloist and orchestra.
  • This is rougher piano music than I’m personally used to hearing from Mozart.
  • Very flashy leading up to the cadenza, which allows the cadenza to be even flashier and not seem out of the musical context.

2. Romanze

  • Back and forth between soloist and orchestra.
  • Attractive and swelling melody.
  • Steady eighth note pulse keeps this grounded.
  • Ayy, and then the fireworks and switch to minor.
  • This is really an aural experience. Enveloping. Sustained orchestra tones, piano with a constant stream of arpeggios in varying rhythms.
  • And then it all comes back to that simple opening melody. Whew.
  • The recap and coda have a few surprises too.

3. Rondo – allegro assai

  • Fiery.
  • This driving stuff from the strings is thrilling.
  • Sections of unison playing.
  • Some playful moments mixed in with the intensity.
  • Some imitative entrances from the woodwinds with the soloist.
  • Goes on for awhile, and it’s great.
  • Long coda for Mozart.

Takeaways

Wow! What an incredibly intense and exciting piece of music. All the way through, the piece just rockets forward. Although it requires a lot of virtuosity from the soloist, the piece itself is very interesting musically. There are plenty of interesting and creative choices that Mozart makes, and I enjoyed hearing the little surprises and playful turns that kept arising. It makes me appreciate how detail-oriented he must have been. So much good stuff happening here.

In any case, until next time.

Mozart Month: Day 27 with his “Alla Turca” Piano Sonata

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I enjoyed the brief passage in yesterday’s violin concerto that prompted the nickname “Turkish”. I know next to nothing about whether it in fact sounded like Turkish music or not, but I nevertheless enjoyed it. Here’s another piece that claims to owe something to Turkish influences, so let’s give it a listen.

The Recording

Apple Music

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Sheet Music

Piano Sonata no. 11 in A “Alla Turca” K. 331

1. Andante grazioso

  • Nice to hear a solo piano.
  • Theme and variations as first movement. The theme is simple and pleasant.
  • Variation 1 is more active. Little rhythm tricks.
  • Var. 2 full of triplet arpeggios. Also some funny ornaments in the left hand.
  • Dreamy and exotic sounding variation 3. Unusual for Mozart.
  • Gentle variations 4, 5 and 6. Almost lullaby-like.
  • Things pick up with variation 7. More playful and then virtuosity to the end.

2. Menuetto

  • Lots of variety in this. Interesting hearing the differences between an orchestra minuet and a piano minuet written by the same composer. This feels like there’s a lot more going on than the typical Mozart minuet.
  • The trio flows.
  • Interjections with the piano playing parallel octaves in forte.

3. Alla Turca – Allegretto

  • Ooooooooooh yea. This movement.
  • Yet another totally famous Mozart melody.
  • Parallel octaves in right hand while left hand strums a chord like a guitar.
  • A lot of Alberti bass still though.
  • Cadences at end remind me of Entführung aus dem Serail, but I can’t recall the exact music.

Takeaways

Well, I feel silly for not realizing that this was that piece of music. Seriously, listen to the third movement if you don’t know it and maybe you’ll feel silly too. It’s another example of one of Mozart’s melodies becoming a pervasive musical thread in the background fabric of our lives. I’m starting to feel like there’s simply not another composer who occupies a similar slot in terms of the quantity of melodies that occupy this space. Maybe John Lennon and Paul McCarney. Maybe.

Unlike the piece yesterday, I feel like more of the “Turkish” ideas in the third movement were prepared in the earlier movements. The parallel octaves, for example, playing in the earlier two movements sets up the big triumphant melody in the third movement. There were moments in the first two movements that were more vague than that, but nevertheless seemed to prepare my ears for what would come later. Without doing a full analysis, I couldn’t say exactly why.

This one’s a winner though. Until next time.

Mozart Month: Day 26 with his Fifth Violin Concerto

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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.

Apple Music

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Sheet Music

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.