Mozart's Clarinet Concerto
Grażyna Bacewicz
Sinfonietta
Allegro – Andante – Vivace
Born in Łódź to Lithuanian and Polish parents, Grażyna Bacewicz shaped her own musical destiny – as violinist, composer and later teacher – with real grit and individuality. When she graduated from the Warsaw Conservatoire in 1932, Poland’s great musical nationalist (and former Prime Minister), the pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski, paid for her to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Throughout her years as leader of the Polish Radio Orchestra, and later as Professor at the Łódź Conservatoire, she composed with unstoppable energy – even during the Nazi occupation, when concerts had to take place in secret. A car accident in 1954 brought her performing career to an end, but not her creative drive. These were turbulent years in Poland, and Bacewicz refused to be boxed in. For her, music was a place of freedom.
Bacewicz wrote her Sinfonietta in 1935, and you can hear a young composer revelling in what a string orchestra can do. It’s lean, punchy, restless music – packed with movement and colour. The opening Allegro springs into life with sharp rhythms and quick-fire exchanges between the players. There’s a real sense of momentum here, like the music is constantly darting forwards, full of nervous energy and bright flashes of light.
The central Andante slows things down, but not for long. Beneath the calmer surface there’s still tension humming away. The strings sing in long, searching lines before Bacewicz shifts the mood again and launches into the final Vivo. This last movement is playful, wiry and brilliantly alive.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Clarinet Concerto
Allegro – Adagio – Rondo: Allegro
The Clarinet Concerto belongs to that incredibly creative last year of Mozart’s life and is perhaps the most inventive and emotionally moving piece ever written for the instrument.
The fact that less than two months after it was composed Mozart was dead, aged 35, adds poignancy to this beautiful work – encouraged by the tender melancholy of the Adagio middle movement – but the concerto in its entirety is a life-affirming work and a wonderful example of how this young master-craftsman was able to combine the forces of soloist and orchestra in a way that enhanced each other’s playing.
Mozart loved the clarinet. He first heard one played in Milan in 1779 and was immediately hooked, using it from that point on in his symphonies, concertos, wind serenades and operas whenever the instrumental resources were available.
As the concerto opens, the orchestra takes centre-stage with a cheerful and rhythmic Allegro introduction. The clarinet then picks up on this statement, entering with a melodious song which explores the instrument’s range, often contrasting high notes against low. As the movement develops it soon becomes clear this is no mere showcase for a virtuoso player – there’s a close partnership between soloist and orchestra, and the exchanges between them enhance the whole.
This harmonious relationship is extended in the sublime Adagio. It’s the turn of the clarinet to introduce the movement with its serene song, which is then delicately exchanged between the soloist and the other players.
In the lively concluding Rondo: Allegro movement the clarinet sweeps in with a pert country dance-like ditty – and the fascinating conversation continues…
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 1
Molto allegro – Andante – Presto
In 1763 Leopold Mozart uprooted his wife and family from Salzburg for a money-making three-year tour of Europe to display the musical skills of their talented children, Nannerl and her brother Wolfgang. This extensive expedition meant performances in Munich, Frankfurt, Brussels and Paris, and then they spent more than a year in London before the tour took the homeward route via the Netherlands and Switzerland.
While in London, the Mozarts met Johann Christian Bach, youngest son of the famed Johann Sebastian, who had been living and working successfully in the capital since 1762. Wolfgang was much taken with the melodic galant style “the English Bach” had been developing in his symphonies and, in sketching out his first symphony – with big sister Nannerl sitting alongside, copying the parts for him – the boy’s writing revealed the influence of his friend.
Symphony No.1 was first performed in London in February 1765. Leopold remarked to the eight-year old that his symphony was rather basic! Even so, Wolfgang had shown how aware he was of the need for balance in orchestration, matching the music for pairs of horns and oboes to the string writing with some sophistication.
The symphony opens Molto allegro with an energetic theme repeated a number of times and answered with a more reflective passage. A second theme is introduced that gives more scope than would be usual for the violas – instruments the young Mozart already favoured as a player in family gatherings.
In the Andante slow movement Wolfgang makes use of a four-note motif on the horns that would remain a favourite of his in years to come. It is heard again in the Symphony No. 33 of 1779 and in the finale of his majestic ‘Jupiter’ symphony of 1788.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 41 ‘Jupiter’
Allegro vivace – Andante cantabile – Allegretto – Molto allegro
This majestic piece of music was the last symphony Mozart wrote, even though there were to be another three years of his tragically short life to come. He composed it in Vienna, along with the Symphonies No. 39 and 40, in just six weeks – but the title ‘Jupiter’ did not come from Mozart.
Some say the nickname was coined by the London pianist Johann Cramer, but Mozart’s son, Franz Xaver Mozart, claimed it had been dubbed so by the impresario Johann Salomon.
Why Jupiter? Perhaps because as a piece of music, and like the god of gods on Mount Olympus, it towered above Mozart’s other “divine” creations.
From its Allegro vivace opening, no other symphony had sounded like this, had embraced such rich harmonies, achieved such balanced orchestration, or introduced such intricate techniques. It’s a work that would serve as a bridge from the Classical to the Romantic symphony, one soon to be crossed by the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven.
As we encounter the symphony’s Andante cantabile second movement it’s difficult to dismiss from our minds Mozart’s tragic circumstances at this point in his brief life. Leopold Mozart had recently died – a devoted father who had been such an influence but, to Wolfgang’s great sorrow, stubbornly unforgiving over his son’s marriage to Constanze Weber. The anguished sighs from the strings in this slow movement leave the listener awe-struck, yet in no doubt of their tragic portent.
Confidence is restored in the Menuetto that follows, and its broad, sweeping rhythm allows for some colourful displays from the woodwinds.
The Molto allegro finale in particular astonished musicians of the day with its fugal, overlapping themes and contrapuntal interweaving of several tunes from the earlier movements.
All programme notes © Richard C. Yates