The Best of Mozart PROGRAMME NOTES Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

The Best of Mozart PROGRAMME NOTES

Eine kleine Nachtmusik The title “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” derives from Mozart’s own brief description of this Serenade in G Major in his catalogue of his own works: “kleine” not because it was “little,” but rather because it was short (most serenades include seven or eight movements). Vienna was famous for its outdoor “night music,” as described in the following account of 1793:

During the summer months, if the weather is fine, one comes across serenades performed in the streets almost daily and at all hours, sometimes at one o’clock and even later. It is just these nocturnal concerts that show very clearly the universality and greatness of the love of music, since, no matter how late at night they take place — at hours when, usually, everyone is hurrying home — one nevertheless soon discovers people at their open windows, and within a few minutes the musicians are surrounded by an applauding crowd of listeners who rarely depart until the serenade has come to an end, and then troupes of them often accompany [the musicians] to yet other neighbourhoods of the city.

Most of the Viennese serenades would probably have been played by so-called Harmoniemusik, ensembles of wind players whose instruments were arguably better suited to outdoor performance than string instruments. This serenade, scored only for strings, is therefore rather exceptional. Nothing is known about the circumstances of its composition or performance, but perhaps it was meant for an indoor gathering, possibly written on commission. It is also not known whether it was meant by Mozart to be played by just five players (the usual string quartet plus double bass), or by an entire string ensemble. In fact, it sounds delightful both ways. It was to be Mozart’s last serenade, and remains one of his familiar and beloved works, full of elegance, wit, and charm.

Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola

The Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat, KV. 364 is thought to have been composed in Salzburg during the summer of 1779, when Mozart was twenty-three years old. He had recently returned from a trip to Mannheim and Paris. Mannheim is considered the birthplace of the sinfonia concertante, a form that blends elements of the newer symphonic form with the baroque concerto grosso, in which a group of soloists is contrasted with a larger ensemble. This form was extremely popular in Paris, and a mainstay of the Concert Spiritual, a public concert series held at the Tuileries Palace. Mozart had written a sinfonia concertante for performance there in April 1778 (K.297b, scored for solo flute, oboe, horn, and bassoon with orchestra; for unknown reasons it was never performed). Back in Salzburg a year later, he set out to compose two sinfonia concertantes. The first, featuring solo violin, viola, and cello, was unfortunately never completed. Thankfully he completed the second, scored for violin and viola, and it is counted among the most original and masterful works written by Mozart during his years in Salzburg. He was obviously keen to feature the often-overlooked viola, and interestingly wrote the viola part a half-step lower than all the others, in D major rather than E-flat. This requires the violist to tune his or her instrument a half-step higher in order to sound in the same key as everyone else, giving the viola added brilliance, and allowing it to compete more equally with the solo violin. It has been conjectured that the beautiful, somewhat introspective Andante may be a tribute to Mozart’s mother, who had died in 1778 during their stay in Paris.

Symphony no. 40 in G Minor Count Arco, Master of Archbishop Colloredo’s Kitchen, had said to Mozart when he left Salzburg in 1781: “here [in Vienna] a man’s success is of short duration — at the outset one reaps all possible praises and earns a great deal of money as well, That is true, but for how long? — after a few months the Viennese want something new again.”

If Mozart’s fortunes looked bright during his first years in Vienna, they indeed soon turned. By 1788 Mozart was in serious debt, as attested by a series of heartrending letters to his fellow Mason, Michael Puchberg, pleading for money. In all, Puchberg lent Mozart 1,415 gulden, a significant sum. Constanze’s health was suffering from the strain of repeated pregnancies, and on June 29 the Mozarts’ fourth child, Theresia, died at the age of six months. Three days earlier Mozart had completed Symphony no. 39 in E-Flat Major. Symphony no. 40 in G Minor followed four weeks later, and Symphony no. 41 in C Major two weeks after that. These last three symphonies of Mozart were apparently composed neither on commission, nor with any concrete plans for performance. It is possible that Mozart directed performances of the works during his travels to Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, and Berlin, undertaken in search of renewed fame and fortune outside the confines of fickle Vienna.

The final three symphonies are remarkable works, widely contrasting, and together a comprehensive summary of the classical symphony. Of the three symphonies, the one that has drawn the most attention is the arresting Symphony no. 40. In 1793, two years after Mozart’s death, it was advertised by the Viennese music dealer Johann Traeg as “one of the last and most beautiful of this master.” The work was widely known and performed, and was very influential. Its unusual quiet opening has been described by the Mozart scholar Neal Zaslaw as “an accompaniment waiting for a tune to accompany.” He goes on to point out that its essence can be heard again in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and Bruckner symphonies. The slow movement is quoted by Haydn in his oratorio The Seasons. The quotation appears in the aria where winter is compared to old age, following the words “exhausted is the summer’s strength” — Haydn’s gesture a commemoration of the loss of his younger colleague as well as a reflection of the approaching end of his own career. Schubert made a copy of the Minuet and used it as a model for the G-Minor Minuet of his Fifth Symphony.

Early nineteenth-century critics already described the symphony as “romantic,” and although it is a near-perfect exemplar of the classical style, it is also a deeply personal, original, and intense work. Much has been written about its significance as a link between musical classicism and romanticism. Zaslaw describes it as “perhaps even a mournful hint at what Mozart might have composed had he lived a normal lifespan.”