Ian Sidden

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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.

Mozart Month: Day 21 with his “Linz” Symphony

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I went back and listened to Mozart’s last four symphonies again (written about on days 1 and 2), and I just enjoy them so much, so I’m happy to listen to another.

The Recording

Once again, I’m listening to Sir Neville Marriner leading the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Apple Music

Spotify

Sheet Music

Couldn’t find a YouTube version of this recording.

Symphony No. 36 in C, K. 425 “Linz”

1. Adagio – Allegro spiritoso

  • Slow intro
  • Mournful a little
  • The allegro spiritoso music begins quietly happy.
  • Very active bass role
  • Some nice woodwind moments
  • Four double quarter pickup entrances, each with different instruments and dynamics. It’s funny hearing them all.
  • In first theme, I like the play between the first and second violins.
  • Really effectively builds tension to cadences here.

2. Andante con moto

  • Dreamy beginning.
  • Simultaneous accompanying arpeggios of different rhythms happening at one point.
  • Returns to repeated unison notes in horns and winds and timpani at various dynamic levels. Kind of foreboding. Idea introduced with single notes and then is expanded.
  • Coooooool development. Love the addition of different musical ideas over time. Patient and not overbearing. Tied together with repeating bass lines.

3. Menuetto

  • It’s a minuet.
  • Restrained tempo.
  • Lots of parallel harmonies in trio.

4. Presto

  • Quiet/loud. K
  • All very active
  • Contrasting lines in violins vs. viola/cello/bass in second section. Cool effect. Built up slowly.
  • Then imitative lively entrances
  • More tension building towards cadence of exposition.
  • Violins and cello/basses having a back and forth.
  • Oboe for color.
  • In recap, oboes added to what had just been the string imitative entrances.
  • Wow. Tension build up to coda. Grace notes flying on higher notes. First violins have syncopated accents on C (had been in second violins, and on a lower note before). Really effective.
  • Subtle changes in the recapitulation make it a more exciting ending.

Takeaways

I enjoy this piece. The minuet/trio is pretty standard issue, but there’s a lot to listen to in the other movements, which are all in sonata form. There’s a lot more interesting things happening within instrument groups than I noticed from his earlier symphonies.

Additionally, the idea that Mozart finds some musical novelty to tie pieces together is also very much in play here, but instead of tying together a whole piece, they tie together sections within a movement. There are several instances where such ideas grow over time and transform within their respective sections, such as the development of the second movement with the rising bass lines.

I guess that’s all the symphonies that I’ll be listening to for this project unless I jump way back to his earliest works. Which I probably won’t do.

Until next time.

Mozart Month: Day 20 with his “Haffner” Symphony

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I’m just going to stick to Mozart’s symphonies. I really enjoyed no. 25, so let’s jump forward nine years in Mozart’s development.

The Recording

I’m listening to Sir Neville Marriner leading the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Apple Music

Spotify

Sheet Music

Symphony 35 in D Major K. 385 “Haffner”

1. Allegro con spirito

  • I’m very strongly reminded of the “Paris” Symphony. Same key. A lot of the same techniques. In some ways, this movement strikes me as a more developed and mature version of that first movement of the Paris symphony. There are lots of Mannheim techniques, not a lot of development, not a lot of melodies, lots of bombast and energy.
  • Here there’s more development than the “Paris”. Moments in minor really stand out.
  • There’s a lot happening between the instrument groups. It’s fun following along in the sheet music.
  • More dynamic contrast.
  • Lots happening in bass instruments. They convey a lot of the mood of the various sections.
  • Some imitative entrances.

2. Andante

  • “Sigh” figures in woodwinds
  • Pleasant melody line in first violins
  • Repeated sixteenth note line in first violins is surprisingly fun.
  • Very patient movement. Refined. Graceful.
  • I keep thinking of “bel canto” music during this.

3. Menuetto

  • Hello, big loud chord.
  • Big arpeggios upward.
  • Very slow harmonic rhythm.
  • Sforzandi stuck in the middle of some of the trio second-violin lines give it some good contrast.
  • Boisterous movement that helps connect the disparate movements of the symphony overall.

4. Presto

  • Kind of sneaky opening.
  • Reminds me of the Le nozze di Figaro overture.
  • Oh yea, definitely.
  • Why do I say that? There are a lot of similar energy building techniques. The strings introduce a melody, and then they play a fast line that builds steam, and when they hit the climax and start to modulate, the other instrument groups join in and hit accents on weak beats, after which is a – still fast – bit quieter section for the strings. I’d be surprised if anyone familiar with the overture would listen to this and not hear similarities.
  • Still fun. Love the grace notes near the end. Humor. Mozart had it, and I’m grateful 200 and some odd years later.

Takeaways?

I enjoyed this piece. As I said, I was reminded a lot of the “Paris” Symphony, but while the “Paris” symphony felt like it led nowhere particularly interesting, this felt like it was fun and full of variety. And although I’ve been kind of ragging on the “Paris” symphony, I also have a suspicion that some of the techniques used there and developed here were also ultimately developed into music like the final movement of Beethoven’s sixth symphony, which uses sustained chords and loudness and surprise harmonies at one point to create an exquisitely orgasmic experience. Listening to this and to parts of the “Paris” symphony, I can see that musical through-line. Ideas have to start somewhere.

Until next time.

Mozart Month: Day 12 with the C minor Mass

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To gain further insight into Mozart and his Requiem, I’m moving backwards and sticking with sacred music by listening to the C minor Mass. This was also a late work, so I’m expecting some stylistic similarities with the Requiem, but otherwise, I’m not sure what to expect.

I also casually listened to some Haydn masses as well this morning. The early ones are clearly bridging the more Baroque polyphonic style with the Classical period homophonic style, but those early Haydn masses and Mozart’s C minor mass are decades apart.

The Recording

I’m listening once again to Sir Neville Marriner leading the Academy and Chorus of St. Martin in the Fields. The soloists are Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Anne Sofie von Otter, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, and Robert Lloyd.

Apple Music/iTunes

Spotify

Sheet Music (The Credo section is placed at the end because Mozart left it unfinished at the time of his death. Notice how there’s no Agnus Dei either.)

Mozart “Great” Mass in C minor K. 427

1. Kyrie

  • This is heavy. I don’t normally think of the “Kyrie” being quite this dramatic.
  • Much more polyphonic than most Mozart music.
  • Once the soloist enters, it sounds much more classical. The orchestra plays chords, and the chorus moves as one.
  • Nice low notes, Dame Kiri.
  • The call and response between soloists and chorus is used to great effect.
  • When the chorus takes over again, we’re back to polyphony.

2. Gloria: Gloria in Excelsis Deo

  • Hyperactive. A bit manic after that first movement.
  • Almost sounds like Handel at times (“in Excelsis! in Excelsis! in Excelsis!”).
  • At the end, a staggered entrance that is more like those in his instrumental music. Staggered, but not really polyphonic and then coalescing into homophony.

3. Gloria: Laudamus Te

  • Hard to separate the piece from how well Anne Sofie von Otter sings it. Gorgeous phrases and phrasing.
  • In some ways, it resembles a Baroque “da capo” aria, in that it’s basically an ABA structure, but it’s all composed out here. There’s also a lot of repetition of single phrases.

4. Gloria: Gratias

  • A return of drama.
  • Interestingly jagged “Gratias”.
  • That dotted rhythm is a constant in the orchestra as well. Another novel effect as unifying element.
  • Brief. Wow.

5. Gloria: Domine

  • Dual soprano duet.
  • Virtuosic for both.
  • Some great imitative moments.

6. Gloria: Qui Tollis

  • More super jagged writing.
  • Dual choir.
  • The chorus however, at least at the start, sings in contrast to the orchestra with sustained tones.
  • Surprising harmonies. Surprising sudden dynamics.
  • Yea, listen to the moments where it shifts suddenly to piano, and hear that funny harmony change. I love that.
  • Choirs remain in contrast.

7. Gloria: Quoniam

  • Trio with soprano/soprano/tenor.
  • Most of the time, they’re singing their own thing and only occasionally do they really come together rhythmically.
  • Sequential writing at times.
  • This is pretty tough. The contrasting lines mean that you’re really on your own when singing.

8. Gloria: Jesu Christe – Cum Sancto Spirtu

  • Ah, the “Jesu Christe” section serves as a dramatic introduction to the “Cum Sancto Spirtu” part.
  • And then we have an extended fugue movement.
  • The little turn figure is the unifying musical gesture. It reappears over and over.
  • Dynamics are clearly specified, with several unexpected piano measures followed by more forte singing.
  • The whole note melodies get timpani accompaniment with every down beat.
  • Lots of melismas. I bet this is a ton of fun to sing.
  • The whole movement is charming.

9. Credo: Credo in Unum Deum

  • This is a very bouncy statement of beliefs.
  • Mostly homophonic as they recite the text with a few imitative polyphonic sections.
  • The sixteenth/sixteenth/eighth rhythm is the unifying musical gesture. Over and over.

10. Credo: Et Incarnatus Est

  • Solo soprano with solo oboe/flute/bassoon.
  • Lots of interplay between solos, especially soprano and oboe.
  • THE CADENZAS ARE SO COOL. You have to hear it. Any soprano who gets to sing this is one of the luckiest people on the planet.

If you only have time for one movement, then this is the one. Unfortunately, the one listed above isn’t available on YouTube, so here’s another excellent rendition:

11. Sanctus

  • This piece rocks. I want to head bang to this.
  • Well, not during the fugue.
  • I take that back.
  • Very active fugue. So much happening besides the voices.

12/13. Benedictus

  • Polyphonic orchestral introduction.
  • Welcome finally, bass soloist.
  • Long quartet of the soloists.
  • Staggered chorus entrances.
  • Lots of melismas, sometimes all voices are singing a melisma in unison.
  • Orchestra is also very active. Lots of contrast between chorus/winds/strings.

Takeaways

I’m enjoying listening to these sacred pieces and getting to hear the combination of many traditional Baroque compositional techniques modified to fit in the later part of the 1700’s. Besides that, I hear a lot of what draws me to Mozart in the first place.

Until next time.