Ian Sidden

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The Great Courses: Mozart

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Mozart Great Courses Cover Image

After I completed my Mozart listening month, I came across and listened to the Mozart Great Courses lectures via Audible, written by and narrated by Professor Robert Greenberg.

Audible writes this within its larger summary:

Beginning with an examination of the many myths that surround Mozart to this day, Professor Greenberg offers not only an understanding of his music, but also a realistic view of Mozart the boy and man, from his emergence as youthful prodigy to his posthumous deification.You’ll learn about his difficult and ultimately doomed relationship with his father, his troubled marriage, his relationships with luminaries like Haydn, Emperor Joseph II, and his operatic librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, and the triumphs and disappointments that marked his career – including the astonishing and inexplicable creative recovery that enabled him to create his great Masonic opera, The Magic Flute, only months before his death.

That’s a good summary, though the lectures aren’t a simple narrative of his life.

Professor Greenberg has a few central arguments that form the backbone of the lectures. Primarily, he argues that Mozart was a normal human being who nevertheless was prodigiously gifted at all things musical. The myths that surround Mozart, rather than enhancing our understanding of him, only serve to obscure his actual genius, which – make no mistake – was so great that we might become uncomfortable with the simple fact of it. They also obscure some of the tragedies of his life, such as his early death.

Additionally, the influence of his father Leopold was more complicated and uglier than I had previously understood, and that relationship also serves as part of the central backbone to the lectures.

In total, the lectures aren’t especially long, and you could listen to them all within a day if you really wanted to. I spread them out amidst my various other listenings, and they were always immediately re-engaging when I returned to them. Professor Greenberg has a very entertaining style of speaking, but he does maintain a sense of authority and genuine love for the subject.

You can find the lectures here:

http://www.audible.com/pd/Arts-Entertainment/Great-Masters-Mozart-His-Life-and-Music-Audiobook/B00DCY41GU

Mozart Month: Day 31 with his Divertimento in D

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Today is the last day of this project. So let’s end it with something that is – theoretically at least – light. A divertimento should be diverting, no?

The Recording

Divertimento in D Major K. 136

Allegro

  • Steady 8th note pulse in bass.
  • Lots of imitative entrances.
  • Kind of frenetic actually.
  • Second violins get extended sixteenth note passage. Exhausting.
  • There’s some passing of activity between first and second violins. The other two voices keep churning away at that pulse.
  • Light hearted, yes, but not easy.

Andante

  • More equal activity in all voices.
  • Still energetic. Just slower. But there’s a lot happening.
  • Mozart did like his hovering sustained high tones.
  • Lots of parallel (two and three voices) activity, and as usual with Mozart it’s very attractive.
  • Beautiful piece.

Presto

  • Ah, the eighth note pulse is back.
  • Wow, the three-voiced parallel harmonies from the second movement are also here, but they’ve picked up the tempo. It’s a very thick melodic sound whenever it’s used.
  • Extended imitative section. A fugue-ish resemblance, but I don’t think it’s a full on fugue.
  • Short and sweet.

Takeaways

I thought about doing a “big” final listen, but life got in the way. And honestly, I’m glad I didn’t. I live in a world of “big” Mozart, and any of us who spend most of our time in the opera world will also mostly know Mozart by his great operas.

But what’s been so revealing about this project is how he could scale from big to small. I had some inkling of that, but it’s been hammered into me throughout this past month. This piece is an example. It’s written for string orchestra, but it can also be played as a quartet:

It works, right? So much of Mozart’s music is a celebration of what makes an individual instrument great. A single hovering pitch played by an instrument gives us some time to appreciate how lovely and different that particular pitch can sound. Or a group of similar instruments. And those instruments move together and each occupy a slot meant just for them. There’s rarely extraneous players in a Mozart piece regardless of orchestra size.

Which is also what makes playing Mozart so difficult. Our bare musicianship is exposed without anywhere to hide. That’s true for singers, and it’s true for instrumentalists. We must ask ourselves, are we good enough to perform this music? We might be good enough to sound the notes in the proper rhythm, but can we reveal the celebration of the instrument of music of life that is at the center of the composition? Can we work for years perfecting our craft in order to make something sound fun or even funny even though it’s outrageously demanding? Can we express sadness or beauty or love without overt sentimentality or without resorting to non-musical choices? That’s harder, and it requires a shift in how we judge ourselves and the world around us and the values with which we go about our lives.

Anyway, it’s been a pleasure taking the time to explore this music. Obviously, there’s a lot more music to listen to, so my journey needn’t necessarily stop here. And I believe my bias when I began this project was basically correct. Mozart is worth it.

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

Spotify

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

Spotify

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

Spotify

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.