Re: Horn Concertos
I love the horn. I love Mozart. What's not to love here. Of all his concertos (save the latter Piano Concertos), the horn concertos may be my favorite. And I came to that conclusion before my daughter took up.French Horn.
Re: Piano Concertos
The late ones are the best, some of the best by any composer, and 20 may well be the best of the best. Uchida totally nails it, both as conductor and soloist. That's probably the most stirring rendition I've ever heard. Definitely gonna' have to get me a copy.
FischmanRockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMasterProfile Land of Enchantment
I have to admit, I haven't spent time with Mozart's piano sonatas. After all the great symphonies and concertos, his solo piano works just didn't grab me in the same way, nor did they grab me the same way that Beethoven's piano sonatas did, so when I reach for classical sonatas, I generally reach for Ludwig.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the clip of the #8. Mozart so seldom composed in a minor as a home key, but it seems whenever he did, it came out absolutely spectacular (hence my love of Symphony 40). Nobody else has ever so deftly crafted such a combination of rich melody and compelling drama. That slow movement of the #8 is nothing short of astonishing. Another big thanks for a most enjoyable link!
RoundTheBendI miss the comfort in being sadProfile Ground Control
While I remain a big fan of #29 (experts often cite that one as being his first "mature" symphony), there's no doubt 35 - 41 are the genuine masterpieces.
Listening to your samples was another great reminder of how important the performance is. 40 and 41 are my favorites with 40 well in the lead. I'm most familiar with my recording, a Sony Classics series with George Szell an the Cleveland Orchestra performing #s 35, 40 and 41.
Upon listening to your samples, I was immediately turned off by Karajan's 40. His tempo sounded too fast, especially in the first theme. This is Mozart's most dire opening and those notes need time to express themselves... for me, Karajan completely lost the emotional impact of the movement.
Conversely, though, Karajan brought out all sorts of light and shade in the 41 that Szell, relatively speaking, seems to just muddle through. Had I only heard the Karajan, I'm sure I would have confidently declared #41 my favorite and #40 a distant second. Karajan also brings more life to the 35 and his reading of the Prague also destroys my bargain Naxos disc. I never really cared for the Prague, which was disappointing given how much I like Czech music (understanding that the connection may be in name only). I just figured Mozart wasn't a great match for this mood, but now having heard the Karajan, I'm completely changing that assessment.
Yeah it's crazy how much an interpretation/subtle change in performance can either be a major turn off or totally bring the work to life! Totally agree.
Also oddly enough I went into this with 40 being my all time favorite, and leaving wondering if it was 41 too.
Last edited by RoundTheBend on 08/11/2019 14:06; edited 1 time in total
RoundTheBendI miss the comfort in being sadProfile Ground Control
Re: Horn Concertos
I love the horn. I love Mozart. What's not to love here. Of all his concertos (save the latter Piano Concertos), the horn concertos may be my favorite. And I came to that conclusion before my daughter took up.French Horn.
Re: Piano Concertos
The late ones are the best, some of the best by any composer, and 20 may well be the best of the best. Uchida totally nails it, both as conductor and soloist. That's probably the most stirring rendition I've ever heard. Definitely gonna' have to get me a copy.
Wow, I've heard French Horn is really hard to play. That's cool.
Also yes, Uchida totally rocks this performance.
RoundTheBendI miss the comfort in being sadProfile Ground Control
I have to admit, I haven't spent time with Mozart's piano sonatas. After all the great symphonies and concertos, his solo piano works just didn't grab me in the same way, nor did they grab me the same way that Beethoven's piano sonatas did, so when I reach for classical sonatas, I generally reach for Ludwig.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the clip of the #8. Mozart so seldom composed in a minor as a home key, but it seems whenever he did, it came out absolutely spectacular (hence my love of Symphony 40). Nobody else has ever so deftly crafted such a combination of rich melody and compelling drama. That slow movement of the #8 is nothing short of astonishing. Another big thanks for a most enjoyable link!
You are welcome! I'm thinking the same about your jazz thread... very excited to discover in fuller detail.
I'll let you know when I get to Alfred Brendel's 10 hour set of all of Beethoven's piano works... hehe. But you are likely right, Mozart had this jovial playful quality Beethoven touched upon, but Beethoven has some kind of intensity and true sturm und drang that I can't put my finger on exactly what makes it better, but often is. Having said that of the piano sonatas Mozart wrote, they all have this playful genius quality that is unique to Mozart.
RoundTheBendI miss the comfort in being sadProfile Ground Control
If Gluck took opera to a new level, Mozart took it even further... pushing a lot of boundaries with this one musically and otherwise. I'm not a big fan of opera musically... it usually has some great musical highlights, but then I'd rather read the story/sometimes seeing it live is the key to truly enjoying it (I know that's true of any musical experience, but probably even more true with opera as it basically was their form of film... that's a stretch, but just go with it...hehe). Anyway, musically this was easily the best opera I've ever heard. Like I said earlier, Gluck did indeed make recitatives way more musical, but for Mozart it almost wasn't even a recitative... it was nearly all musical. I think they called it singspiel instead (totally only have exposure, not experience). Anyway if there were a gateway drug to Opera, this might be it.
Quote:
Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto for Mozart's Figaro after falling out with Antonio Salieri, who, as imperial court composer, had obtained the position of court poet for da Ponte. At the time of the opera's composition and first performances, there was a climate of antagonism among factions of Italian musicians and poets living in Vienna, among whom was counted Salieri. Although the efforts of the anti-Mozart Italian clique did not succeed in having Mozart's Figaro banned from the stage, the opera did receive fewer than ten performances in Vienna immediately after its première at the Burgtheater on May 1, 1786. Figaro would have tremendous success in Prague, however, before spreading to other parts of Europe and becoming a classic of the opera buffa repertory. So began the fortuitous Mozart/da Ponte relationship, from which would come two further masterworks, Don Giovanni (1787) and Così fan tutte (1789-1790).
Mozart admired Pierre Auguste Caron de Beaumarchais' politically radical play Le mariage de Figaro (1781), the second play in what would become a trilogy based on the autobiographical character Figaro. Beaumarchais' Le barbier de Séville had been performed in 1775 and the third play of the trilogy, La mère coupable, would be premièred in 1793. In his Figaro plays, Beaumarchais, who himself was a participant in the Revolution, working towards anti-aristocratic revolutionary ideas, sharply spoofs pre-Revolution French society.
Mozart's music for Figaro consists of conventional dry and accompanied recitative, aria, and ensemble pieces. The overture, despite having no development section, is essentially in sonata form. Mozart musically conveys the range of Figaro's perturbation in his Act One cavatina, "Se vuol ballare," by whimsically changing the character of his music to correspond with Figaro's machinations. Mozart also imbues Figaro's rondo-form aria, "Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso," with colorful musical depictions of Cherubino's forthcoming military service through dotted rhythms and trumpet arpeggio fanfares. The Countess' cavatina, "Porgi amor," conveys the character's elevated social status through its graceful melodic language. The duet ("Aprite, presto, aprite") between Susanna and Cherubino in Act Two bristles expectantly with its moto perpetuo string writing and nervous, patter vocal declamation. In the Count's and Susanna's Act Three duet ("Crudel! Perchè finora"), the minor mode conveys the Count's initial grief and a shift to major mode, after Susanna agrees to come to the garden, confirms a sense of momentary resolution. Later, in the Count's accompanied recitative ("Hai già vinta la causa!"), the orchestra adds an extra emphasis to his verbal expression of anger and agitation through impetuous dotted rhythms and string tremolos. Through furiously rapid-scale passages and trills, the orchestra maintains this angry intensity in the Count's vengeance aria ("Vedrò mentr'io sospiro"). Barbaina's Act Four cavatina, "L'ho perduta...me meschina!" introduces a minor mode melody of classic Mozartean pathos. The finale of Act Four brings the principal characters to beg the Count's forgiveness and the music swells from a pious hymn-like ensemble to a triumphant fanfare-laden exultation.
While this opera has much more serious tone and more mature orchestrations than Le nozze di Figaro, I struggled with some of the recitative not being in the singspiel format (losing it's musicality) which notched it down a bit. It's a bit harrowing and the beginning of a movement to turn to opera/art as the true mouth piece of morality... replacing religion as such in Europe (this is not a slight against religion, just a well known fact of cultural history... RE: Lessing, or even as early as Martin Luther, etc.).
Quote:
While in Prague from January to February 1787, attending and conducting performances of his most recently completed opera Le nozze di Figaro and concerts of several of his instrumental works, Mozart received a commission from Prague impresario Pasquale Bondini for a new opera, which was to be produced in Prague during October 1787. Mozart returned to Vienna and asked Lorenzo Da Ponte, the librettist for Figaro, for another opera libretto. Don Giovanni became the second of three opere buffe Mozart would compose to a libretto by Da Ponte, the third of which, Così fan tutte, Mozart would complete in early 1790. Da Ponte's libretto shows the influence of Bertati's libretto for Gazzaniga's opera Convitato di pietra. The premiere of Don Giovanni took place to great public and critical acclaim in Prague on October 29, 1787. The Prague reception of Don Giovanni was more positive than that of the opera's first Vienna performances in 1788, for which reviews suggested mild dissatisfaction with the work's extended length and unnecessary plot elaborations.
Mozart creates levels of dramatic expression through recitativo secco, recitative accompagnato, and aria styles. Through recitativo secco, Mozart reveals large amounts of plot information with utmost musical economy. Recitativo accompagnato is reserved for moments of great emotion, in which the accompanying orchestra virtually assumes a dramatic role. In Act Two, Scene Ten (d), the orchestra virtually speaks for the conflicted Donna Elvira, emphatic dotted rhythms in the orchestra conveying her rage and slurred couplets giving musical voice to her sighs. The dramatically stagnant da capo aria that was the mainstay of the operas of George Friedrich Handel is virtually absent from Don Giovanni. Leporello's so-called "catalog aria" ("Madamina, il catalogo è questo") in Act One, Scene Five, for example, suggests both through-composed and bi-partite formal elements. Some arias in Don Giovanni, however, such as Don Ottavio's Act One, Scene Fourteen aria ("Dalla sue pace"), contain traces of the ternary form idea of returning to beginning material after a section of contrasting music. Donna Elvira's aria in Act Two, Scene Ten(d) ("Mi tradì quell'alma ingrata") juxtaposes ternary and rondo form ideas, reinforcing through musical form Donna Elvira's returning to the same position of pity and longing for Don Giovanni. In keeping with the function of the opera overture to introduce the opera's important themes, the music that begins the overture, marked by alternations between the D minor tonic and its dominant, returns in the Commendatore's scene in Act Two, Scene Fifteen. The drama of this scene is set in relief by the light use popular music in the preceding party scene, where the on-stage musicians play melodies from arias by Martín y Soler, Sarti, and even Mozart's own Le nozze di Figaro during Don Giovanni's party. Don Giovanni's canzonetta ("Deh, vieni alla fenestra, o mio tesoro") in Act Two, Scene Three, an airy strophic song scored for pizzicato strings and mandolin, is a similarly witty musical juxtaposition of planes of realism. - Jennifer Hambrick, AllMusic
I have to admit, I haven't spent time with Mozart's piano sonatas. After all the great symphonies and concertos, his solo piano works just didn't grab me in the same way, nor did they grab me the same way that Beethoven's piano sonatas did, so when I reach for classical sonatas, I generally reach for Ludwig.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the clip of the #8. Mozart so seldom composed in a minor as a home key, but it seems whenever he did, it came out absolutely spectacular (hence my love of Symphony 40). Nobody else has ever so deftly crafted such a combination of rich melody and compelling drama. That slow movement of the #8 is nothing short of astonishing. Another big thanks for a most enjoyable link!
You are welcome! I'm thinking the same about your jazz thread... very excited to discover in fuller detail.
I'll let you know when I get to Alfred Brendel's 10 hour set of all of Beethoven's piano works... hehe. But you are likely right, Mozart had this jovial playful quality Beethoven touched upon, but Beethoven has some kind of intensity and true sturm und drang that I can't put my finger on exactly what makes it better, but often is. Having said that of the piano sonatas Mozart wrote, they all have this playful genius quality that is unique to Mozart.
Interestingly, Brendel is my favorite interpreter of Beethoven, especially his piano sonatas. His Phillips recording of the #17 (nicknamed "The Tempest") is one of my all time favorite performances.
If you're a fan of classical piano sonatas, don't overlook Haydn. Not as playful as Mozart, not as powerful as Beethoven, and not as great as his symphonies or quartets, but many of them are still a very good listen.
FischmanRockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMasterProfile Land of Enchantment
I'm also not the biggest opera fan. My Mother-in-Law is, and she often buys extra tickets for my wife and I, so I've seen a lot more opera than I otherwise would have. That musicality that permeates Mozart's operas does seem to make them more listenable end-to-end. Even better, Mozart seemed to introduce a good deal of humor into his operas, both musically and plot-wise. The only other composer I found to be able to sustain that level of musicality through a whole opera is Verdi, especially in La Traviata, but that one is so heavy and tragic while Mozart always sneaks some fun into his operas.
RoundTheBendI miss the comfort in being sadProfile Ground Control
I'm also not the biggest opera fan. My Mother-in-Law is, and she often buys extra tickets for my wife and I, so I've seen a lot more opera than I otherwise would have. That musicality that permeates Mozart's operas does seem to make them more listenable end-to-end. Even better, Mozart seemed to introduce a good deal of humor into his operas, both musically and plot-wise. The only other composer I found to be able to sustain that level of musicality through a whole opera is Verdi, especially in La Traviata, but that one is so heavy and tragic while Mozart always sneaks some fun into his operas.
I've seen a few at Dorothy Chandler and some venue in Pasadena and then in SLC at the Capitol Theater... then there's like performances I've seen put on at a university or 4. Never been to the Met or something though.
But yes Mozart's operas so far are the best to just listen to, and I have seen Die Zauberflöte live and it was enjoyable to watch as well.
Only thing I've seen live for Verdi is his Requiem.
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