Mozart Avie DESIGNERS
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www.apollosfire.org AV2159 o Wolfgang Amadeus MOzART (1756-1791) SyMPhONy N . 40 IN G M INOR , K. 550 q Molto Allegro 7:28 SYMPHONY N o. 40 in G Minor w Andante 9:52 e Menuetto 4:15 BALLET MUSIC from Idomeneo r Allegro assai 9:27 Lucio Silla , K. 135 OPERA SERIA 1772 APOLLO’S FIRE | The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra | on period instruments t Recitativo accompagnato - In un istante 2:48 JEANNETTE SORRELL y Aria - Parto, m’affretto 4:30 AMANdA FORSyThE , soprano Amanda Forsythe, soprano Erica Brenner, recording producer Thomas Knab, recording engineer BALLET MuSIC FROM Idomeneo , K. 367 Recorded in April 2008 u Chaconne 3:57 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church i Passepied 3:04 Cleveland Heights, Ohio o Gavotte 1:59 Exception: Tracks 12-15 (Dances) 1) La chaconne, qui reprend 2:51 from live performance, April 2003 1! Pas seul de M. LeGrand 4:29 Cover photo: Roger Mastronianni Additional photos: Roger Mastroianni dANCES /T äNzE Booklet design: KeinZweifel 1@ Kontretanz, K. 123 1:19 Translations: Marie-Stella Pâris (French) 1# Menuetto cantabile (Adagio), K. 463 2:07 Elke Hockings (German) 1$ Kontretänze, K. 462 (N os . 5 & 6) 1:27 Prof. Gregory Sorrell 1% Kontretanz, K.123, reprise 1:28 (French & German Vocal Texts) This recording is made possible in part by a TOTAL TIME: 61:05 generous gift from THOMAS PETERSON and is dedicated to the loving memory of DR. SHATTUCK HARTWELL. 3 Salzburg to Vienna: sacrifice the first person he meets on the the heroic and brilliant “Pas seul pour M. Viennese, and large balls would often fea - shore of his homeland. That person turns Le Grand.” Here, the strings shoot up tri - ture an orchestra of around forty musicians. Ten Years of Triumph & Tragedy out to be his son, and thus the tragedy un - umphant coups d’archets (flourishes), evok - Dance music played a more important role folds. The story includes a sea monster ing the celebration for the victorious Prince by Jeannette Sorrell in Mozart’s life than we often realize. In and other stormy elements, and thanks to Idamante. The tension of these flourishes 1787 he was named the successor to Gluck In 1781, Mozart was 24 years old and rest - the heroic deeds of Prince Idamante, a then gives way to a delightfully frothy romp as court composer for dance music. His job less in provincial Salzburg. He longed to happy ending is achieved. The celebration for happy Cretians, (their monster slain), was to provide music for the masked and stretch his wings. By 1791, he was dead requires 20 minutes of dance – and Mozart along with a happy and virtuosic orchestra. festive balls in the imperial halls, where the in Vienna – a celebrity with an adoring provided the most splendid and festive Bal - Just a few months later, a happy Mozart Emperor in disguise mingled with dancers public, a long list of debts, creditors at his let Music that opera seria had ever seen. door, graves of four children, and a surviv - found himself escaping Salzburg. In Vi - from various classes. Mozart’s love of danc - ing family that he could not feed. The Ballet Music from Idomeneo vividly enna, a new emperor was ascending the ing sparkles through in the set of Con - reflects the events of the libretto. One can throne, and Mozart’s employer, the Arch - tredanses we offer on this recording. We The whirlwind tailspin of these ten years imagine the sea monster rising out of the bishop of Salzburg, brought him to the cap - see the hand of the master in the way he inevitably finds echoes in the music he waves at the beginning of the turbulent ital for the festivities. Mozart took the trip, manages to change the atmosphere and wrote. While it would be naïve to link Chaconne in d minor, and the brave and then upon arrival, managed to get him - paint different scenes in just a few bars. each of Mozart’s compositions with the Idamante battling it with a sword in the self released from service, with “a swift The problem was that this small court po - event that took place that month, we do stylized manner of 18 th century ballet. kick in the pants” from the annoyed Arch - sition as dance composer was Mozart’s gain insight into his music if we better un - Throughout the suite, Mozart masterfully bishop. He was free at last. only post. He watched inferior rivals ob - derstand who this person was. integrates his classical language with the Almost as if he knew he had only ten years tain substantial salaried positions through rhythms and nuances of baroque dances, Our story begins when the 24-year-old to live, the young composer went into high political intrigue, while he himself had vir - including the Chaconne, the Passepied, Mozart received a commission to write an speed. Within a year he became an oper - tually nothing – except a huge and adoring th and the Gavotte. opera seria (music-drama of the 18 cen - atic superstar, thanks to the sensational public for his concerts. The socio-political tury) for Munich. He was delighted to ac - Idomeneo was subject to extensive cuts, success of Abduction from the Seraglio. He historian Volkmar Braunbehrens has com - cept this invitation to escape the confines changes, and re-orderings by the composer fell in love and became the subject of scan - piled overwhelming evidence to show that of provincial Salzburg. The result was the himself. Thus there is no definitive version, dalous rumors. Indeed, the Vienna of the Mozart was indeed a celebrity with a much masterfully innovative Idomeneo – one of and the order of the movements of the Bal - Enlightenment was a city that would have higher concert income than other success - the last and greatest operas in the opera let Music was surely flexible. I have se - made any intellectual giddy. Foreign ful composers such as Haydn. In modern seria tradition. The opera concerns the lected and ordered the movements in my newspapers, political journals, operas, con - terms, his box-office draw was stellar. But King of Crete and his unfortunate vow to own way, for dramatic purposes. Thus the certs and dance halls filled the city. Danc - lacking a substantial salaried position, his Neptune (god of the sea): if Neptune will stormy sea-monster chaconne erupts into ing was said to be the passion of the cash-flow problems spiraled out of control. bring him safely to land, Idomeneo will 4 5 By 1788 he had experienced the realities tering motifs that seem to cascade down Aria for an Angel of disillusionment in an unjust world. He from another world. By contrast the was caught in the 18th-century equivalent Menuetto is bold and sharply focused, of “credit card debt,” and found himself making use of canonic imitation until we begging for loans. The distraction and the reach the sunny and graceful Trio. In 1772, an Austrian composer journeyed to Milan, where he had been engaged to shame of his position must have been The Finale is a tour-de-force – a gripping write an opera for the star singers there. The composer understood that arias must nearly unbearable. and virtuosic journey that drives relent - be written completely in engagement with a singer’s skills –each aria tailor-made for Written against this backdrop of turmoil, lessly to its dark conclusion. The sharply its performer. Thus, in keeping with the conventions of the day, he went to stay with Mozart’s Symphony no. 40 in G Minor angular modulations in the development breaks new ground in terms of romantic section must have been shocking to the singers for whom he would be writing, so that the creative process could happen expression. The work is so familiar to us Mozart’s listeners – and indeed they are as a collaboration. It was not so typical that this composer brought his father along. now that it is easy to forget how striking the shocking to us in Apollo’s Fire, since we But that was because he was only 16. opening is – beginning only with a restless come to Mozart from the baroque rather accompaniment figure in the violas. When than the romantic symphonic repertoire. The opera was Lucio Silla , the composer was Mozart, and the heroine of the show was the melody belatedly enters, it consists of But although they seem shocking, they also one of Italy’s greatest sopranos, Anna de Amicis. Amicis sang the role of Giunia, the breathless sighs. Mozart indicated “Allegro seem inevitable. Every note of this piece molto” for this first movement, and I feel is set in motion by the first measure. faithful and noble fiancée of a Roman senator, courageously determined to defend her that the word “molto” is there for a reason. Playing Mozart for us is an exhilarating betrothed from an evil dictator. Amicis’ talents inspired the young Mozart to break This is a new kind of Sturm und Drang journey, each time we undertake it. Since new ground in opera seria , composing arias of compelling pathos and dazzling vocal dis - music, building on the foundation he had we play on instruments from the period, the play. Leopold Mozart wrote to his wife in Salzburg that de Amicis “sings like an angel.” laid years earlier in his previous symphony voyage has a sense of danger. We use in G minor (no. 25), but now exploring a these instruments not to be “authentic,” but In the dramatic recitative “In un istante,” Giunia confesses both her fear and her de - more intricate emotional landscape - rest - because we find them to be helpful tools as termination to die at the side of her beloved if she cannot save him.