Alessio Bax Plays Mozart ARTIST’S NOTE Mozart did not write specific cadenzas for K. 491, but many major composers and pianists have Mozart’s piano concerti were the reason I fell in done so, usually expanding upon the darkness, love with the piano. I vividly remember hearing grandeur and virtuosity of the piece. While Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 the development section of the first movement of cadenzas are an opportunity to showcase a 1 I. Allegro [13.19] K. 467 during the closing titles of a TV mini-series performer’s keyboard skills, in the case of K. 491 2 II. Larghetto [7.16] on the development of the atomic bomb and how I prefer not to interfere and disrupt the order 3 III. Allegretto [8.50] it led to the closing events of World War Two. It Mozart so carefully shapes in the first movement. Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595 was heavy subject matter for an eight-year old, I have written a small cadenza based simply on 4 I. Allegro [14.08] but what blew me away was the power of that the material Mozart provides, which, in my 5 II. Larghetto [8.40] music. I instantly decided to learn it, and even humble opinion, keeps the continuity of the 6 III. Allegro [8.53] made a little version for piano trio to perform pacing of the movement while shifting the focus with my violinist brother and a cellist friend. For from the orchestra to the soloist. 8 Solo Variations on Sarti’s “Come un agnello”, K. 460 years I dreamed of making K. 467 the first concerto 7 Thema [0.43] I recorded. That lasted until a couple of seasons When I first approached K. 595, I knew very little 8 Variation 1 [0.41] ago, when I was asked to perform K. 491 and K. 595 about the piece, except that it had a gorgeous 9 Variation 2 [0.56] with multiple orchestras. Getting to know these slow movement and a very charming Finale. 0 Variation 3 [0.41] two concerti in depth left a mark so deep that I soon discovered that its apparent simplicity q Variation 4 [0.53] I have moved my beloved K. 467 to the backburner hid content of immense depth. This is Mozart’s w Variation 5 [0.45] e Variation 6 [0.41] for the time being. last concerto, written at the end of his life, at a r Variation 7 [2.22] time when he had abandoned his career as a t Variation 8 [4.30] K. 491 is an intensely powerful piece, at times virtuoso performer of his own works. It is lean dark and desperate, sweet and beautiful, and and almost simplistic. The notes are not the main Total timings: [73.21] highly virtuosic in the last movement. Mozart wrote focus, but rather subtle changes in pacing, only two concerti in a minor key, and in K. 491 he harmony, texture, and the use of rests. Mozart creates an amazing emotional universe and sound provides the cadenzas for K. 595, as if to tell ALESSIO BAX Piano world through color, instrumentation and sheer performers that any improvisations within the SOUTHBANK SINFONIA imagination. I always look forward to performing concerto’s beautifully balanced world could SIMON OVER Conductor this concerto; it is an incredibly thrilling ride. create havoc. They are, in my mind, perfect www.signumrecords.com - 3 - cadenzas that seem to stop time while sounding complicity among the players involved. I consider involved little more than taking divine dictation. What, then, to make of the Piano Concerto No. 24 completely made up on the spot. Mozart’s concerti to be chamber music for a Equally important are his vacillating reception in C minor, K. 491? This stirring concerto, larger ensemble, and for these two in particular, among the fickle Viennese public – rock stardom composed in March 1786, at the height of I thought these two contrasting concerti would the ensemble needs virtuoso instrumentalists in the mid-1780s, then popular decline and Mozart’s celebrity, does much to confirm, but make a perfect pairing for a disc. K. 595, with its with an innate understanding of Mozart’s idiom. financial hardship (not helped by the composer’s more to confute, our mythic perceptions of pure melodies and revealing textures seems to The amazing Southbank Sinfonia, conducted extravagant tastes, but which, happily for us, Mozart. His legendary genius is in full evidence. be set in heaven, while K. 491 has its feet firmly by Simon Over, was my first choice for this disc. encouraged the prolificacy of his final years) – and But it is manifested in more traditionally on earth, describing humankind with all our ups These are highly accomplished players, and the his untimely death at 35 (from rheumatic fever; not, “Beethovenian” than “Mozartian” fashion: and downs. group has the flexibility, curiosity, energy and as Hollywood might prefer, Salieri’s poisonous envy). starting with C minor, the key of Beethoven’s fearlessness to bring this music to life. It has darkest, stormiest nights. The volatile first theme The Eight Variations on ‘Come un agnello’ from been an honor and great fun to work with them But central to our understanding of who Mozart defies the notion of Mozart’s Classical purity. Sarti’s Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode are an on this project. was is our understanding of his music. Mozart The 18th-century idea of balance – symmetrical incredible showcase of Mozart’s creativity. He has captured the imagination of listeners, four-bar phrases – is cast aside. The theme, transforms and develops the theme in seemingly © Alessio Bax, 2012 musicians, and scholars for more than two uttered first in a menacing whisper, then by limitless ways in each variation and through a centuries as a paragon of the Classical style. the orchestra at full strength, is an angular wealth of moods and atmospheres. The variations WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART We value his music as the quintessence of sequence of four measures, two, three, and four push the piano’s technical boundaries to new Born Salzburg, January 27, 1756; balance, symmetry, clarity of expression. It follows (the last four-bar phrase overlapping with the heights. From the sound control and the shaping died Vienna, December 5, 1791 naturally that his brand of genius should be forte restatement). Disjunct leaps of sixths of phrases required in the slow variations, to equally transcendent. We marvel at his pristine and sevenths puncture the melodic contour; the double thirds, sixths, leaps and quick hand The Mozart narrative’s essential points are manuscripts, over which Shaffer’s astonished the theme’s stark chromaticism shades its crossings in the fast ones, they are Mozart’s well known. Anyone familiar with the Peter Salieri exclaims, “But they showed no corrections demonic character (see figure 1 on the next page). unabashed displays of virtuosity. At the same Shaffer play-cum-Miloš Forman film Amadeus of any kind. Not one. He had simply written down time, the improvisatory cadenzas and slow can provide a thumbnail sketch: the Salzburg- music already finished in his head.” We think This tempestuous Allegro has inspired speculation variations are so inspired that they make this born wunderkind who spent his childhood touring of the firebrand Beethoven taking Vienna by that a public execution known to have taken one of the most fulfilling, if seldom performed, Europe with his proud taskmaster father, Leopold; storm in Mozart’s wake, heralding the Romantic place within view of Mozart’s studio two weeks sets of variations in the keyboard repertoire. the foul-mouthed savant whose scatological era with such viscerally human statements as before the work’s completion may have darkened sense of humor belied the sublimity of his the sea-parting Fifth Symphony. Beethoven, the the composer’s mood. As scholarship, it’s a stretch All Mozart concerti, and especially K. 491 and musical imagination; ‘Amadeus’, God’s beloved, vest-pocket narrative goes, wrote music of the (Mozart’s simultaneous writing of the bucolic K. 595, require an incredible partnership and whose perfect compositional technique seemingly earth; Mozart, of the heavens. A major Concerto, K. 488, discredits such an - 4 - - 5 - Figure 1. Figure 2. Vln. I Ob. Clar. Bsn. explanation), but a telling assessment nonetheless Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Cliff Hn. of the C minor Concerto’s disturbing character. Eisen and Stanley Sadie identify the dozen concerti written in these three years as “unquestionably It is worth pausing to note the significance of the the most important works of their kind”. Indeed, piano concerto to Mozart’s oeuvre and Mozart’s the C minor Concerto demonstrates exceptionally reciprocal importance to its literature. Establishing refined craftsmanship in balance with its himself in Vienna as history’s first freelance Romantic ferocity. At the first tutti entrance, composer, Mozart played the dual roles of artist we encounter the most imposing orchestra and impresario to great success between 1784 among any of Mozart’s concerti: scored for and 1786. He frequently presented concerts flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, unveiling his latest compositions: typically a two trumpets, two horns, timpani, and strings, symphony, a chamber work, perhaps a keyboard the C minor is Mozart’s only concerto to use pairs improvisation, and a piano concerto. Mozart of oboes, clarinets, and trumpets all at once (and composed twelve of his 27 piano concerti (from is one of only two concerti Mozart would ever pen Figure 3. K. 449 to K. 503) for these concerts.