CHRISTOPH KONCZ MOZART’S VIOLIN THE COMPLETE VIOLIN CONCERTOS LES MUSICIENS DU LOUVRE WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756–1791 THE CONCERTOS FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA Die Konzerte für Violine und Orchester Cadenzas: Christoph Koncz CD 1 CD 2 CONCERTO NO. 1 IN B-FLAT MAJOR K 207 CONCERTO NO. 4 IN D MAJOR K 218 Konzert Nr. 1 B-Dur Konzert Nr. 4 D-Dur 1 I [Allegro moderato] 7:27 1 I Allegro 9:10 2 II Adagio 7:27 2 II Andante cantabile 6:14 3 III Presto 5:50 3 III Rondeau. Andante grazioso – Allegro ma non troppo 7:29 CONCERTO NO. 2 IN D MAJOR K 211 CONCERTO NO. 5 IN A MAJOR K 219 Konzert Nr. 2 D-Dur Konzert Nr. 5 A-Dur 4 I [Allegro moderato] 9:16 4 I Allegro aperto – Adagio – Allegro aperto 10:08 5 II [Andante] 7:40 5 II Adagio 10:06 6 III Rondeau. Allegro 4:22 6 III Rondeau. Tempo di Menuetto – Allegro – Tempo di Menuetto 8:51 CONCERTO NO. 3 IN G MAJOR K 216 Konzert Nr. 3 G-Dur 7 I Allegro 9:31 8 II Adagio 7:39 CHRISTOPH KONCZ violin & direction 9 III Rondeau. Allegro – Andante – Allegretto [– Tempo primo] 6:17 LES MUSICIENS DU LOUVRE 2 “EVERYONE STA RED, W IDE-EYED AND OPEN-MOUTHED” Mozart’s violin concertos on Mozart’s violin hen Christoph Koncz fi rst held to have been made in the workshop of the Mozart’s original concert violin famous violin-maker Jacob Stainer in Absam, W in his hands in the Mozarteum an attribution even attested by a note inside Foundation vault in 2012, what he felt was an the instrument. Rather, it was made by the awakening experience. This was the violin on Klotz family of Mittenwald in the early eight- which Mozart had played as concertmaster eenth century. But this circumstance does in the Salzburg Hofkapelle, starting in 1769: nothing to affect its aura and its quality, and “What we are dealing with here is a very spe- the idea of recording Mozart’s fi ve violin con- cial instrument – a Baroque violin that was certos for the fi rst time on the composer’s carefully preserved after Mozart’s death and own concert violin was one that Christoph treated almost as a holy relic. As a result, it Koncz found irresistibly fascinating. “There’s has come down to us in its original condition a close connection between these concertos – contrary to almost all of the other surviving and this instrument, and Mozart’s own expe- violins from this period, which were modern- rience of this violin undoubtedly inspired him ized in the nineteenth century. We understood greatly. In his violin concertos he was fond one another at once.” We know that this vio- of using the instrument’s upper tessitura and lin was in the possession of Mozart’s sister coloratura register, which is where his violin Maria Anna (Nannerl) until 1820. It passed sounds particularly beautiful.” into the hands of the Mozarteum Foundation There is something almost symbolic in 1955. The instrument was long believed about the fact that when Mozart left Salz burg 4 5 3 3 for Vienna in 1781, he entrusted his violin to one praised my beautiful, pure tone.” And 1773 following Mozart’s return from Italy, Josef Myslivecˇek and Johann Baptist Vanhal, his sister. It was as if the instrument em- when he performed one of his cassations where his opera Lucio Silla had been a sig- Mozart created a new and independent bodied all that he was determined to leave and an extended violin solo in Munich in nal success. It is still audibly indebted to the type of concerto. In terms of the complexity behind him in the form of the hated town early October 1777, “everyone stared, wide- Baroque tradition, while the four great con- of his thematic writing and motivic interrela- of Salzburg, its prince-archbishop, Hier- eyed and open-mouthed. I played as if I were certos of the autumn of 1775 are rightly re- tionships, he clearly went beyond German onymus Colloredo, and his father’s stifl ing the greatest fi ddler in all Europe.” Be that as garded as masterpieces of the galant style. contemporaries such as Carl Stamitz. At the infl uence. There is no doubt that Mozart was it may, there is no evidence that in his youth For Christoph Koncz Mozart’s violin con- same time, Christoph Koncz sees an enor- an excellent violinist, and Christoph Koncz, Mozart’s artistry on the violin was in any way certos are “fundamentally more Italian than mous development within these fi ve con- too, believes that the composer almost cer- inferior to that on the keyboard. Nor is there German. Even the earlier B-fl at major Con- certos: “Each work has its own independ- tainly wrote his violin concertos for his own any proof that he wrote his violin concertos certo – Mozart’s fi rst independent concerto ent character, one far more marked than in particular use. “When he set out for Paris in for Antonio Brunetti, his successor at the and, as such, earlier than his fi rst keyboard his early symphonies. It is hard to grasp the 1777 and spent several months in Augsburg Salzburg court. According to Leopold, Bru- concerto – is virtuosic and ponderous, with extent to which Mozart developed between and Mannheim, he took his violin with him netti is said to have commented on Mozart’s a cadenza-like passage early on in the fi rst the D major Concerto K 211 and the G ma- and played it at his concerts. His father was violin-playing: “Dammit, there’s nothing he movement’s recapitulation. In this particular jor Concerto K 216. The latter defi nitively a noted teacher and had written one of the couldn’t play.” case Mozart leaves it to the performer to de- marks a new level of inspiration. From here principal violin tutors of his age. Mozart nat- Mozart had studied his father’s violin cide many of the questions relating to the on, the orchestra is the soloist’s equal part- urally learnt a lot from him.” In 1777 Leopold tutor as early as 1763. In it Leopold express- work’s articulation and phrasing, and in this ner. At the same time the demands on the confi rmed this in a letter to his son: “You ly warns his reader against vapid virtuosity respect, too, the work undoubtedly comes soloist are greater in the later group of three yourself don’t know how well you play the and against the desire to achieve virtuosic closest to the Baroque tradition.” concertos. The concertos also become violin.” That same year he struck a more wist- brilliance at the expense of expressivity. This Alongside a fascinating synthesis longer and are full of harmonic complexities ful note: “Whenever I approach our house, I tenet is refl ected in the gestural language of of styles in which Italian composers such and also of dissonances. And – astonish- always think I can hear you playing the violin.” Mozart’s violin concertos, in which musical- as Tartini, Pugnani and Nardini play a role ingly enough – this development takes For his part, Mozart wrote from Augsburg in ity takes precedence over digital dexterity, but which also refl ects the infl uence, albeit place over a matter of only a few weeks. October 1777: “In the evening at supper I regardless of the high demands that these more distant, of the French violinists Marie- Time and time again Mozart tries out new played my Strasbourg Concerto [K 216 in pieces place on their performer. The Con- Alexandre Guénin and Pierre Gaviniès, to things in these concertos, experimenting G major]; it went very smoothly, and every- certo in B-fl at major K 207 was written in say nothing of Bohemian composers like tirelessly.” 6 7 4 4 Many commentators have stressed the wrote these last three concertos, which he nothing short of enchanting. In the insanely phrase, which seems to drift away into thin affi nities between Mozart’s concertos and evidently intended as a set, with the ulterior daring opening movement of K 219 the solo air. It is hard to imagine this series of violin his stage works, including his operas. These motive of putting his name forward for loft- violin does not take up the main theme of the concertos ending in a more beautiful or a affi nities are apparent at every turn in his vio- ier tasks away from a town that he hated? orchestral introduction but introduces itself more powerfully symbolic way. lin concertos. For Christoph Koncz, too, “the Could they have been letters of recommen- in a thoroughly unconventional way with a We may regret the fact that Mozart theatrical element is ever-present in Mozart dation that he wrote for himself in his search lyrical adagio melody that soars skywards – did not leave behind cadenzas for any of and is already found here in embryonic form. for an artistic freedom that he fi nally found a a moment in which time stands still and the these concertos, but we may also regard When he wrote his B-fl at major Concerto, few years later in Vienna? violin can rival any operatic diva. Only then this as an opportunity. The second of these he had just enjoyed great personal success Whatever the answer, these concertos does the violin re-enter in a lively tempo and alternatives is the course adopted by Chris- with his stage works in Italy, and there is no are without exception high points of the vio- make it clear that everything we have heard toph Koncz, who naturally performs his own doubt that this inspired him.