Mozart, Piano Sonata in A minor - K 310

In August 1777, 21-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart resigned from his modest position at the Salzburg court. On September 23, accompanied by his mother Anna Maria, he ventured to seek employment at the courts of Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich.

In Mannheim, he fell in love with the singing student Aloysia Weber, one of the four daughters of a well-known music-loving family. Still, as far as employment was concerned, notwithstanding his enchantment with the city's famous orchestra, nothing happened at all.

On March 14, 1778, mother and son left Mannheim for Paris, where the boy Mozart had dazzled the court of Versailles 15 years earlier. This time everything would be different.

Going cold and hungry
This time, Mozart, in his twenties, dazzles no one. This time, Parisians do not queue up to see him. A small room in a modest neighborhood was the lodging of mother and son. It was cold, and money was scarce. Job offers were also scarce. In a letter to his father, he says in passing that he has been offered the possibility of taking the organist position in Versailles. But Wolfgang is not at all interested in that kind of work, although he is in debt, and according to some scholars, he must have gone to pawnshops to get some money.

Anna Maria Pertl (1720 - 1778)

Mom's death
In mid-June, Anna Maria became seriously ill. Mozart got some medical assistance, but apparently belatedly, due to the precarious financial situation. Anna Maria died on July 3. She was 57 years old, a simple housewife who had given everything for her son's future.

Mozart left Paris in September. He spent a few days in Mannheim and Munich, where he again met Aloysia, now a successful touring singer, who to Wolfgang's misfortune had lost all interest in him.

The young master finally arrived in Salzburg on January 15, 1779, where his father Leopold was waiting for him to take up the position of court organist, which Leopold had arranged in his absence.

Piano Sonata in A minor, K 310
While in Paris, Mozart composed relatively little. Among the most recognized works are Symphony No. 31, called "Paris," and the piano Sonata No. 8, in A minor. According to scholars, the sonata is among the best of the young Mozart.

It is the first of only two sonatas composed in a minor key (in C minor, K 457 is the other, from 1784).

Unlike what the master had composed up to that time, the spirit of the sonata is somewhat stormy. We do not know if it was composed after, or before, the death of Anna Maria, but listening to it leaves the impression that Mozart had accumulated a quota of drama at the time of writing it.

Movements:
00:00  Allegro maestoso
06:11  Andante cantabile con espressione
15:47  Presto

The performance is by the young Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz.

Beethoven, Sonata No 6, opus 10 No 2

Beethoven dedicated the three piano sonatas of Opus 10 (from 1798) to Countess Anna Margaret von Browne, wife of a general of the Russian imperial army who became a count, standing out as Beethoven's patron in Vienna. The Browne family had already had the honor of receiving a dedication from the young master. They returned the distinction on that occasion by presenting him with a horse.

After digesting the surprise, Beethoven rode it a couple of times and then completely forgot about the gift, a circumstance his servant took advantage of to rent the equine for his own benefit as many times as he wanted.

The anecdote tells of the cultural and musical environment that Beethoven found in Vienna, where he had arrived in 1792 when he was twenty-two years old. The city was already the musical capital of Europe, built on a flourishing economy and the aristocracy's patronage. It was a very competitive environment, indeed. Pianists/composers (indistinct roles) had to compete for the financial favors of the noble benefactors, whose names were thus forever inscribed on the works of the great masters.

By the end of the 1790s, Beethoven was already recognized as the most important piano virtuoso in Vienna, a position he had to defend, for the competition was nothing less than merciless. The pianistic virtues displayed in improvisations in any aristocratic salon were quickly imitated by other colleagues. Likewise, the works had to be published promptly to ensure their provenance and to make known to a cultured audience the new stylistic and technical achievements that the composer had attained.

In short, much effort had to be made, even if such efforts were sometimes rewarded with a gift that did not measure up to the greatness of the artist being honored.

Sonata No 6, opus 10 No 2

It is in three movements but none of them qualify as a "slow movement", although this will not be unusual in future Beethoven. It is the shortest (approximately 14 minutes) of the three sonatas that make up the opus (No 5 and No 7, the others) and has also been regarded as the least important of the group. Even so, it contains the simple beauty (not without humor, according to scholars) of the earlier works that already augur the mastery of the mature composer.

Movements:

00:00  Allegro

05:28  Allegretto

10:11  Presto

The performance is by Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa, in a recording studio.

Beethoven, Three Early Sonatas, WoO 47

The master of masters, Ludwig van Beethoven, probably came into this world in Bonn on December 16, 1770. We say "probably" since the only certain date we know is that of his baptism, which took place on December 17. It is even possible that he may have been born a few days earlier if we remember that Johann, Ludwig's father, was accustomed to greeting good times (and even bad times) with plenty of alcohol. If he did so for the birth of his second offspring (the first, dead six days), he may have needed a couple of days to recover and organize the christening properly. Anyway.

In these days, we have learned that in the Bundeskunsthalle, the great federal museum in Bonn, there is a memorandum from 1784 that reviews some members of the court chapel, where Johann would sing, in the tenor tessitura. Johann is described as "with a very worn voice". His social status is also noted, as "very poor."

Further on, Ludwig himself is mentioned as the organist's substitute when the latter was absent. No remuneration is specified. We assume that there was none.

But in compensation for such abuse of those times, the document describes him as an able musician, "still young" and, as was to be expected, he is also distinguished as "poor".

Eight years later, on November 2, 1792, at six o'clock in the morning, Beethoven left for Vienna, where he would reside for the rest of his life, without ever returning to Bonn. Among many others, he will be seen off by Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, who would write in Ludwig's "travelogue":

“Dear Beethoven! 

You are now going to Vienna in fulfillment of your long-frustrated wishes. Mozart’s genius still mourns and is weeping over the death of its pupil. In the inexhaustible Haydn, it had found refuge but no occupation; through him it wishes to form a union with another. Through uninterrupted diligence you shall receive Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands.

Your true friend,

Waldstein”

Of course, the master had no intention of receiving anyone's spirit, although in Vienna he studied with some masters, among them Salieri, the alleged "poisoner" of Mozart. But when asked later from what sources he had drawn, the master of masters would answer, proudly: "I am a pupil of Socrates, and of Jesus Christ".

Sonatas WoO 47

The three very early piano sonatas WoO 47 (Werk ohne Opuszahl: Works Without Opus number) were composed between 1782 and 1783, when Beethoven was a boy of twelve or thirteen. Therefore, he did not assign them opus numbers, because he did not know that this task would be part of his future profession.

Dedicated to the Elector (Kurfürst) of Cologne, they are also known as Kurfürstensonaten.

The inclusion of these three sonatas brings Beethoven's sonata corpus to a total of 35 sonatas.

They are, of course, tributary to the work of Haydn and Clementi. And – needless to say – they foreshadow the genius of the 32 masterpieces contained in the usual canon.

This modest blog is today celebrating Ludwig the child's birthday with the three sonatas of this "opus" in the rendition by two young Chinese pianists. Zuja Huang, 12 years old at the time of the video, is in charge of sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and an unnamed girl, is in charge of the third one.

Movements:
Sonata No 1 in E flat (lasting 8 minutes)
– Allegro cantabile
– Andante
– Rondo vivace

Sonata No 2 en Fa menor (lasting 9 minutes)
– Larghetto maestoso – Allegro assai
– Andante
– Presto

Sonata No 3 in D major (lasting 10 minutes)
– Allegro
– Menuetto – Sostenuto
– Scherzando: Allegretto, ma non troppo

Wagner, Twilight of the Gods - Finale

The pursuit of a world without the tyranny of gods

It took Richard Wagner more than a quarter of a century to complete his most ambitious work, the tetralogy of The Ring of the Nibelung. The first steps (rather modest, in the sense that they did not contemplate at all the writing of four operas) were taken in 1848 when Europe was in turmoil. The last ones, in 1874, were in the peace and serenity of Wahnfried, the villa he had built in Bayreuth.

In the meantime, he flirted with anarchism, married, fell in love with the wife of his protector, lived miserable years in various European cities, separated from his wife, left Vienna to avoid being arrested for debts, met the very young gay King Ludwig II of Bavaria, premiered Tristan and Isolde, was widowed, and married Cosima Liszt. Thus came 1876, when he premiered the complete tetralogy in Bayreuth, from August 13 to 17 of that year.

The cycle of four epic operas based on episodes of Germanic mythology includes the works "The Rhine Gold", "The Valkyrie", "Siegfried" and "Twilight of the Gods". That is the chronological order of their premiere, but not the sequence in which they were written.

Thus, "Twilight...", the last one, was the first to be conceived. Wagner, an author of his own librettos, worked first with the story of Siegfried, the typical Wagnerian hero, who, a victim of his own greatness, ends up dead.

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)

The construction of the saga 

As Siegfried was dead, Wagner felt he needed to tell the previous story, Siegfried's youth. It was called "Young Siegfried" (later, just Siegfried). Then he added the story of Siegfried's conception and other avatars (The Valkyrie). Finally, he decided that he needed a prelude telling the story of the Rhine gold and the creation of the ring (The Rhine Gold). With the saga thus constructed, Wagner felt that the story of Siegfried's death, the first to emerge, was the one that closed the cycle since the gods also died. So, he called it "The Twilight of the Gods". 

"Twilight of the Gods" - the story
The "Twilight of the Gods" tells the story of how the cursed ring made of gold stolen from the Rhine by a dwarf (Alberich, a "Nibelung"), will lead to the tragic death of Siegfried; and also the immolation of Brunhild, the Valkyrie. After her death and cremation together with her beloved Siegfried, their bodies burn and expiate the curse of the Nibelung's ring, falling then into Valhalla, the abode of the gods, where Wotan dwelled, and which will burn leaving the world without the tyranny of the gods. Already with the gods of Valhalla dead, humanity will have been liberated by the pure will of its hero and heroine, Siegfried and Brunhild.

Twilight of the Gods - Finale

Unlike the libretto, the music of the cycle was written in the order we know today. On the last page, Wagner added a small note:

"Completed at Wahnfried on November 21, 1874 - I will say no more!!!!! RW."

The work is in three acts and a prologue. Its length is just over four hours, ending with a symphonic finale that brings together all the relevant "leitmotifs".

This Finale is presented here in a 1989 recording, with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Mozart, Piano Concerto No 8, in C major

As is known, Maria Anna Mozart, familiarly called Nannerl, was as much a pianist as her brother Wolfgang Amadeus. Many of the piano sonatas and some concertos of the child genius were made known to Nannerl before anyone else. She hastened to study them under the supervision and advice of her younger brother, who – sometimes from far away – encouraged her to do so in letters full of enthusiasm.

  

But Mozart was not always so enthusiastic with those who devoted themselves to the study of his works. In a letter to Salzburg sent from Mannheim, he mentions the renowned German professor Georg Vogler, whom he heard – in Wolfgang's words – "eagerly working his way through" his Concerto in C major for piano and orchestra.

Wolfgang himself used the concerto for didactic purposes for many years, and this explains, perhaps, why the work has three cadenzas, of varying difficulty, while they were usually left to the will and abilities of the performer.

Mozart in 1777. Portrait painted
in Bologna by an unknown artist.

It is time to remember that the piano concerto, as a musical form, was the last of the classical forms to be developed. And this happened almost entirely thanks to Mozart, who after settling in Vienna in 1782 produced 17 masterpieces that form the soul of the classical concerto repertoire.
His early efforts were influenced by concertos and sonatas by several other composers, including Johann Christian Bach (whom he met in London in 1764), adapting material from those composers, working on the allegro of one, or the adagio of another.
It was not until the end of 1773 that Mozart composed his first completely original concerto (in D major, K. 175). The one we are concerned with will see the light of day three years later.

Concerto in C major, K 246

This is the fourth of the entirely original concertos. It was composed in Salzburg, dated April 1776, a year after Mozart and his father Leopold returned from their third and last visit to Italy. It was composed for the young Countess Antonia Lützow, granddaughter of Mozart's employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg, and possibly a pupil of the father, Leopold.

It is in the usual three-movement sequence: fast - slow - fast. It is less brilliant than the other concertos composed around the same time, but the outer movements demand very nimble fingers, suggesting that the young countess was a skilled performer. The Andante prefigures the large slow movements that would characterize future Viennese concertos.

Movements:

00:00  Allegro aperto (a "brilliant" allegro)

07:36  Andante

17:28  Rondeau. Tempo di Menuetto

Mikhail Pletnev at the piano. accompanied by the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Vladislav Lavrik.

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet - Suite No. 2

"For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo"  

The music of the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev is one of the most beautiful scores of all time. But at first, it turned out to be anything but. While preparing for a repeatedly postponed premiere, the Bolshoi Ballet dancers complained bitterly about the score, calling it "unattainable."

The ballet was born as a joint project between Prokofiev and the avant-garde Russian director Sergei Radlov, who had staged in 1926 the opera Love for Three Oranges, also by Prokofiev, and eight years later would perform a daring version of Shakespeare's play telling the story of the famous Veronese lovers. Radlov felt that to turn the story into a beautiful avant-garde ballet, only the music was missing. 

Prokofiev was formally living in Paris when he began to compose the work. He was settled there but in January 1936 he had to move to Russia to work full time there. He spent much of the year at a summer residence near a beautiful river, the Oká, where many artists associated with the Bolshoi Theater would spend their vacations.

Thus he wrote to a friend:

"I am enjoying this tranquility and peace. I go swimming in the river, play chess and tennis. I walk in the woods with our dancers, read a little, and work about five hours a day..... I haven't had much rest writing the Romeo."

The ballet was to have been premiered at the Marinsky Theater in Leningrad, but political turbulence led to a change of plans, and it had to be rescheduled for the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. This new plan also failed.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)

Premiere
Finally, the ballet saw the light on stage in 1938, not in Russia but in Czechoslovakia. It arrived in Russia in 1940, first in Leningrad with the Kirov Ballet and, very later, in Moscow in December 1946, after the musicians of the Bolshoi Ballet were convinced that, after all, the ballet was not as "unattainable" as they had thought.

The suites
Frustrated and tired of so much postponement and delay, Prokofiev decided to extract an orchestral suite from the full score, premiering it in November 1936, two years before the ballet reached the stage. A second followed, and finally a third, in 1946. The first two became very popular in a short time, up to the present day. Of these two, the second is the one that has received the greatest favor from the ordinary public.

Romeo and Juliet - Suite No. 2
The video contains five of the six sections that make up the suite:

02:52  Montagues and Capulets (Dance of the Knights).
07:50  Young Juliet
10:56  Dance
13:08  Romeo at Juliet's house before he departs
20:08  Romeo at Juliet's tomb

Denis Vlasenko conducts Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre's Orchestra.

Sarasate, "Zapateado", for violin and piano

 

Pablo Martín Melton Sarasate y Navascuez, better known as Pablo de Sarasate, made his public debut at the age of eight. At twelve, he entered the Paris Conservatory thanks to a scholarship granted by Queen Isabella II of Spain after dazzling the court in Madrid with his talent. Five years later, he won first prize for violin at the Conservatory.

The violinist

Born in 1844 in Pamplona, the city famous for the running of the bulls in the festival of San Fermin, nowadays in the doldrums due to the legitimate "animalistic" claims, he will start from Paris an extensive and endless tour that will last almost three decades, touring Europe and the United States, reaping successes and recognition of the authors in vogue who will dedicate their works to him and will gladly agree to request works for his instrument, the violin.

Pablo de Sarasate (1844 - 1908)

The composer

Pablo de Sarasate is the author of around 50 pieces for violin and piano (or violin and orchestra), which formed part of his sought-after repertoire. Among the most popular are Aires Gitanos (Zigeunerweisen), from 1878, and the Fantasia on Carmen, Bizet's opera, composed in 1883 when the opera had already gained public favor after its failed premiere in 1875, which left the unfortunate Georges convinced he had composed a failed work, three months before his death.

Sarasate spent the last years of his life in a villa in Biarritz, France. But he did not forget his origins. Every year, until his death, he traveled to Pamplona, to celebrate with his violin the festivities of San Fermin.

The Spanish Dances

Between 1878 and 1882, Sarasate composed four volumes of short Spanish dances, for violin and piano or violin and orchestra (Opus 21 to 23, and 26), which quickly won the favor of the public, generating not inconsiderable economic income for the author and others involved in his performance.

The most famous of these is Zapateado, which is No. 2 of Opus 23. The dance not only derives its rhythm and gestures directly from Spanish popular music but also represents a sort of catalog of "violinistic" effects, very popular among the virtuosos of the instrument at the end of the 19th century.

The rendition is by Japanese-American artist Midori Goto. At the piano, Robert McDonald.

Mahler in Maiernigg, 5th Symphony

An Adagietto for Alma

When Gustav Mahler was writing his Fifth Symphony, during the summers of 1901 and 1902, he was escaping from Vienna which for him had become a source of unbearable stress. On 1⁰ April 1901, he was exonerated from his post at the Vienna Philharmonic after a three-year period in which the anti-Semitic sentiment of the Viennese musical environment was exacerbated. Mahler had no choice but to cling to the other important position he held, as conductor of the Vienna Court Opera, which was also stressful, perhaps a little less so but still caused him a permanent uneasiness, affecting his health, seriously.

Meeting Alma
But in November 1901, while working on the Symphony, an important event occurred that changed his life forever. At a dinner party, he met the most beautiful woman in Vienna, the budding composer Alma Schindler, who had just ended a relationship with her composition teacher. Gustav and Alma were immediately attracted to each other. They married a few months later, on March 9, 1902, when their first daughter, Maria, was already lodged in Alma's womb. It was a complex and at times unhappy relationship, although they remained together until Mahler died in 1911.

Maiernigg, and the "composition hut"
Yet Mahler could look forward to the future, composing. In the summer of that year, he escaped to Maiernigg, on the southern shore of the Wörthersee, a bucolic place in the region of Carinthia in southern Austria, where the composer was building a villa facing the lake, which he finished while working on the symphony.
Earlier, he had had a small, sparsely furnished hut - just enough to avoid being called a hermit - built on the hill behind his villa. Every morning he walked there along a forest path to work in splendid isolation. There he completed the Fifth Symphony - though later revisions took him five years.

Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor
The work, about an hour long, is in five movements (as opposed to the typical four of most symphonies) grouped into three sections. The first and third sections comprise two movements each, while the Scherzo stands between them as a section in its own right. Also, very curiously, the first movement is written in C♯ minor and the last, a half-tone higher, in D major.

Movements:
00:00  Funeral March
13:36  Stürmisch bewegt (stormy)
28:20  Scherzo
45:17  Adagietto. Sehr langsam (very slow)
53:49  Rondo-Finale

The Adagietto
The most famous movement of all Mahler's symphonies, the beautiful Adagietto of the Fifth Symphony ("quoted" also in the last movement), deserves a separate paragraph. Written only for strings and harp, its reflective, moving, nostalgic character, more resigned than mournful, makes it unique and memorable. It was an essential part of the soundtrack of Lucchino Visconti's film Death in Venice, and has been performed at numerous funerals of great personalities, such as Robert Kennedy and Leonard Bernstein.
According to some scholars, it was written as a tribute and love letter in code for Alma Schindler, to whom he sent the finished manuscript without accompanying it with any words.

Claudio Abbado conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, 2004.

Beethoven, 9th Symphony - 4th mov

A symphony denouement unique in the history of music

Very few people do not know the tune of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". Of the millions who know it, many will be aware that it belongs to the fourth movement and finale of his Ninth Symphony, also called Choral Symphony, since it incorporates solo voices and chorus in that movement.
But such a novel ending was not clear at first.
Recent research suggests that Beethoven had misgivings about undertaking such a grandiose project. While working on the symphony's finale, he considered the alternative of incorporating a purely instrumental finale, eliminating such an innovative closure. Doubts continued and he spoke of removing solo singing and chorus on more than one occasion.
In the end, he did not do so, which shows the immense ambition with which the maestro undertook the construction of such a portentous score.

Schiller's poem
From a very young age, Beethoven was captivated by the grandiose exaltation of the brotherhood of man present in the lines of Schiller's poem, An die Freude (To Joy). As early as 1793 he thought he had to incorporate it into his music, "verse by verse". And Schiller's ode became an obsession. Year after year, sketch after sketch, the celebrated melody of the Ninth Symphony was meticulously elaborated until it found its final form only in 1822, with selected texts from Schiller's works and some introductory words by Beethoven.

The Symphony
The symphony itself, whose full title is "Symphony, with a final chorus on Schiller's Ode to Joy", was written over six years, from 1817 to 1823. Its composition was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London.
Dedicated to none other than King Frederick William III of Prussia, it had a grand premiere on May 7, 1824, in Vienna. It was the maestro's first public appearance in twelve years.

That evening
By this time, Beethoven's progressive deafness had reached a stage that made it impossible for him to conduct. That evening, however, he did something similar, standing close to the conductor during the performance to indicate the correct tempi.

The fourth movement arrived, and the soloists and chorus intoned the ode. The music came to an end. The applause was thunderous, but Beethoven, with his back to the audience, continued to set the tempo until one of the soloists, the contralto, signaled him to turn in the direction of the audience. Only then did the maestro realize that the work was over and that the Viennese audience was applauding wildly.

Symphony No. 9 - Fourth movement and finale
Marked Presto; Allegro assai, the fourth movement is in the form of a theme and variations, with two themes plus an introduction.

Musical material from each of the previous three movements – though none is a literal quotation – is presented in turn. These give way to instrumental passages by the low strings. After this, the theme "Ode to Joy" is introduced by the cellos and double basses. After three instrumental variations on this theme, the human voice is introduced for the first time by the baritone, who sings words written by Beethoven himself: "O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!" Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen, und freudenvollere. '' ("O friends, not these sounds! Instead, let us look for more pleasant and more joyful ones!").

The ode is played, first by the orchestra, then by the choir. Cellos, flutes, and oboes set the mood, and male and female voices alternate declaiming the Ode to Joy, accompanied by the full orchestra.

The symphony advances and rises above itself, as the choruses reach thunderous levels. A double fugue provides the leisurely counterpoint that leads to the swift and prolonged final chant, a symphony denouement unique in the history of music.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the National US Choir, conducted by maestro Daniel Barenboim, give this magnificent performance.

Chopin, Waltz Op 34 No 1

Maria and Frédéric, getting closer 

After bidding farewell to the Wodzinsky family in Dresden, and already on his way to Paris, Chopin detoured to Leipzig to pay a brief visit to a couple of friends and colleagues: Schumann and Mendelssohn. This gave time for one more event of an emotional nature to occur, which ended up overflowing with joy that year of 1835. A letter from Maria Wodzinska had been waiting for him for a long time in Paris. It was a very affectionate, almost tender note:

"How we miss you!!!! My brothers are dejected... Mom only talks to me about you... Mom, my father and my brothers embrace you tenderly... You have forgotten the pencil here, we keep it respectfully, like an heirloom..... Goodbye!"

Marienbad and Dresden
The expressions of affection from Mother Wodzinska and Maria did not stop throughout the winter. Thus, in the summer of the following year, Frederic again found himself enjoying the summer season with the Wodzinskys. But this time it was not one week but almost two months that he shared with them, first in Marienbad and then in Dresden, so that the occasions to be together multiplied. Long walks in the surroundings brought Maria and Frédéric closer together definitively.

Maria says "Yes"
The day before his departure, Frederic received Maria's "yes" to his marriage proposal. The day before, another yes from Countess Wodzinska, who asked to keep the engagement a secret until she had the opportunity to inform her husband.
Three days after the departure, and along with sending him some slippers embroidered by her, Maria added a postscript to a brother's letter:

"...We cannot take comfort from your departure... Do you miss your friends a little? I answer for you: yes. ...I need to believe so... Farewell. See you soon. Ah! if that could be as soon as possible!"

Chopin takes a second helping... Another year, blissful, is about to come to fruition.

Brilliant waltz in A-flat
During the three weeks he spent in Karlsbad in the company of his parents the previous summer, Chopin composed a mazurka, a polonaise, and a delicious waltz: the Waltz in A Flat, opus 34 No. 1.

The version is by the Austrian-Swiss pianist Ingolf Wunder.

Schubert, Fantasia for piano four hands

Little Franz in love, in his early twenty

In just over eighteen years, Franz Schubert could write almost a thousand works. In this almost miraculous abundance that his catalog presents, about fifty pieces written to be performed by two musicians at the piano stand out: they are his pieces for piano four hands.

From the Fantasia in G minor of 1810 (when he was thirteen years old) to the Sonatina D 968 composed the same year of his death, Franz Schubert did not cease to compose works in this format and in very diverse genres, ranging from transcriptions of his own orchestral works to those written for the nascent salon music that was beginning to enchant an incipient middle class that also wanted to make music in their own homes.

In the years 1818 and 1819, Schubert, in his twenties, spent the summer in the castle of Szeliz, about 150 km from Vienna, hired as musical preceptor of the daughters of Count Johann Esterházy, cousin of Haydn's protector.

The girls were two: Carolina, 13, and Maria, 15. With Maria, the lessons were more interesting because she showed a more advanced level than her sister. Still, in the second summer, little Schubert began to be sentimentally interested in Carolina, who, of course, was now fourteen.

Countess Caroline Esterhazy

But his proverbial shyness worked against him, not allowing the little master to make much progress in the field of seduction. However, ten years later, Franz will remember his former pupil and dedicate to her, Carolina Esterházy, now a twenty-four-year-old countess, his masterpiece for piano four hands.

Fantasia for piano four hands, Op 103, in F minor
It was composed between January and April 1828 and performed for the first time on May 9 of that year, on the occasion of one of the last "schubertiades" held with his friends, among them the composer Franz Lachner, who played his part on the piano, accompanying Schubert.

It was published posthumously the following year.
We will never know whether Countess Caroline ever acceded to Franz's solicitations, but today more than a few performers have noted that it is not at all whimsical to hear in the yearning love duet of the central section "the idealized expression of a relationship that social differences alone made impossible."

Considered his best work, among many, for piano four hands, the work is structured in four movements that are played without pause, connected by a lyrical melody.

Movements:
I     Allegro molto moderato
II   Largo
III  Scherzo. Allegro vivace
IV  Finale. Allegro molto moderato

The performance is by the brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Dutch pianists.

Beethoven, Missa Solemnis in D major (Sanctus and Benedictus)

Discounting his participation as a viola player in the court orchestra of the Elector of Cologne, in 1783, when he was thirteen, Ludwig van Beethoven never worked full-time for a ruler, or under the wing of a nobleman, or a religious institution. Hence, then, his output of sacred music is relatively sparse. Apart from an oratorio in German, Christ on the Mount of Olives, of 1803, only two complete masses make up his religious production: the Mass in C major, of 1807, and the Missa Solemnis in D major of 1824, written at the same time as the Ninth Symphony.

With the help of his friends
Although he did not rely on a particular patronage, Beethoven did not lack noble friends. And although he never asked for it, in 1809, three of them undertook to grant Beethoven an annual stipend of 4,000 guilders, with the sole requirement that he remain in Vienna, dedicated to composing. Some of these enviable relationships had begun at the level of master and pupil. This is the case of Emperor Franz I's brother, Archduke Rudolph Johann Joseph Rainer, who, after behaving as a diligent pupil, later became Beethoven's greatest benefactor, making the master the first independent artist and composer in history.

Archduke Rudolph (1788 - 1831)

A great mass
In 1819, the archduke above was distinguished as the next archbishop of Olmütz, a city in Moravia, a position he was to assume in March of the following year. The master had one year to write the work of homage to his generous benefactor and admirer. A mass, a great mass, seemed to him the appropriate offering for such a solemn occasion.

Hummel enters
By this time, Beethoven was fifty years old. He was alone, deaf, and living in supplication for the affection of his nephew Karl, whose tutor he was. To make matters worse, he was engaged by the London Philharmonic Society to compose a new symphony (the Ninth). So the Great Mass was not completed for the occasion. The archbishop had to be satisfied with a mass written by Hummel.

We do not know if the maestro apologized. What is certain is that he continued to work, unperturbed, on the Ninth, the last three sonatas, and the last quartets, along with the mass.
The work was not completed until early 1823. Finally, the première took place on May 7, 1824, in St. Petersburg.

Mass for Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra in D Major, Missa Solemnis, Op. 123
Intended to arouse and instill religious feelings in the performers and the audience, Beethoven combined the Catholic liturgy with great dramatic expressiveness, making it "the greatest production ever to come out of my mind," in Beethoven's own words.

The complete Mass with the usual sections of the Catholic liturgy: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus dei, lasts about an hour and a half. Presented here are the Sanctus and Benedictus pieces, the latter, being its most moving moment, according to scholars.

The performance is by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Chorus with tenor, bass, soprano, and alto soloists, all conducted by Sir Gilbert Levine.

Puccini: La Boheme - "O soave fanciulla"

A memorable lesson of singing

It took less than fifteen minutes for Rodolfo to fall in love with Mimi, and for Mimi to fall in love with Rodolfo. This is the magic of opera, the magic act that closes with the beautiful duet that ends Act I of La Boheme, an opera in four acts with music by Giacomo Puccini, premiered in Turin on February 1, 1896, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

At that time, the author was 38 years old, and three years earlier he had premiered with great success Manon Lescaut (1893). Later came Tosca (1900), Mme Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (unfinished, 1926), among others.

La Boheme portrays a group of artists who survive in the Latin Quarter of Paris, around 1830, sacrificing their lives for art.
Much of the work is original, but the basic idea originates in the serialized novel (or collection of vignettes, rather) "Scenes of Bohemian Life" by French writer Henry Murger, published in a newspaper over five years in the middle of the century.

Four artists make up the group of bohemians, each with his intellectual restlessness: Rodolfo is a poet; Marcello is a painter; Colline studies philosophy; Schaunard is a musician. They live in a garret in a building in the Latin Quarter. They are joined by the singer Musetta, and a fragile and naive seamstress named Mimi, who lives in the same building.

Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924)

It is a cold winter. After futilely trying to warm up, the friends decide to go out for a drink. But Rodolfo, the poet, has to work. He will join them later. A knock at the door interrupts him. It is a young woman, who asks for help to relight her candle, which has gone out. As she leaves, she forgets her key. He goes back to get it. Both candles go out, and here the magic begins. They must search for the key in the dark. Their hands meet, and in a couple of minutes they tell each other their whole life story. Rodolfo sings Che gelida manina (What a cold little hand). Mimi introduces herself, singing Si, mi chiamano Mimi (They call me Mimi). 

They have found love. Both sing the duet that Rodolfo begins with the words O soave fanciulla (Oh, sweet girl), confessing their newfound love to each other. Thus, in love, they will join the group of friends. They leave the room. The last bars are sung offstage, magnificently.

The rendition is by Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavaroti. Met, 1977.

Franz Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6

Franz Liszt, inventor of the piano recital

According to a few intrepid scholars, Franz Liszt's Hungarian rhapsodies represent "the less respectable side" of the composer. Their charm would lie not in their musical invention but in the dazzling expansion of the spectrum of expression possible on the piano, or put less elegantly, in "the variety of noises that can be made with a piano." Tough words.

In any case, in 1840, Franz Liszt invented the piano recital as we know it today: the concert of a single instrumentalist who makes music with his own or other people's works, at the piano. Between that year and 1847 (when he met Princess Carolyne of Sayn-Wittgenstein, who urged him to give priority to composition at home) he made many extensive tours throughout Europe, visiting cities as far away as Seville and Moscow. In all of them he received "the affection of his public", as we would say today. Liszt made an effort to please that audience, playing three or four times a week, for the special enjoyment of the ladies, who would faint in the middle of the recital, or would make a trifecta to take possession of the artist's handkerchief, when he retired, after offering an encore with a couple of Hungarian rhapsodies.

Liszt visited Hungary in 1839, after thirteen years settled in Paris. A new visit the following year led to the production, between 1840 and 1847 (precisely his "piano star" years), of ten volumes of piano pieces based on Hungarian themes. Between 1851 and 1853 he published fifteen of them under the title Hungarian Rhapsodies. In 1882-1886 he published four more.

Photograph of Liszt, in 1843
(1811 - 1886)

While in Hungary, the master transcribed numerous melodies heard from native gypsy bands. By using these "old" melodies in his Hungarian rhapsodies, Liszt believed he was immortalizing the soul of the Hungarian people. The truth is that many of these pieces had been written by contemporary composers, achieving popularity in rural areas. But Liszt didn't care. As long as the ladies kept swooning, it was all right.

Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies derive from an 18th century style and dance called verbunkos, used in Hungary during the recruitment of troops (for the purpose of enthusiasm, we imagine). It features at least two contrasting sections: a slow one, or lassan, and a fast one, or friska.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6, in D flat major
Discounting the overwhelming popular presence of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (in C sharp minor), No. 6 is one of the best known, incorporating in less than seven minutes the pomp and playfulness, the exotic and the ostentatious, at once. It has five sections, marked Tempo giusto, Presto, Andante, Allegro and Presto.

The piece is highly demanding. The final Presto illustrates the extraordinary virtuosity that the maestro relied on to provoke swooning and brawls across Europe.

In opposition, the work responds exactly to the kind of piece that for a time allowed Liszt to be mistakenly labeled as just a virtuoso pianist.

The performance is by Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova.

Benjamin Britten: Violin Concerto

Rendering service to his country as a musician in the midst of a war

British composer Benjamin Britten was not yet twenty years old when European politics entered a complex phase. On September 3, 1939, in response to the German army's invasion of Poland, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Four months earlier, in the company of tenor Peter Pears, his sentimental partner, Britten had left England for the United States. He would remain there until April 1942. An avowed pacifist, Britten understood perfectly well that his humanitarian stance would not be well received in an England in the midst of war, especially coming from an artist who was gay.

Back in England, 1942
When he returned to England, a judge had to decide his future as a potential combatant. He could have been incorporated into the rearguard, in non-combat duties, but the judge made a very wise decision: the best service Britten could render to England was to continue writing music. And that is precisely what he did. He would soon earn a reputation as the greatest British composer since Henry Purcell, two and a half centuries earlier. 

The Spanish Civil War
Even before the Second War, Britten's anti-war sentiments had been strengthened by the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. In 1936 he had traveled to Barcelona to participate in a festival of contemporary music with his suite opus 6, with himself at the piano and his friend Antonio Brosa on violin. There he had the opportunity to listen to Alban Berg's Violin Concerto, a "requiem-like" concerto of which he was captivated. That was his inspiration to write his own work for violin with a similar commemorative character. According to Brosa, the third movement was conceived as a tribute to the British volunteers who had fallen fighting the fascist forces in Spain.

Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)

Violin Concerto, Opus 15
Dedicated to his former teacher at the Royal College of Music, the work was premiered in New York in March 1940 and was warmly received by critics. A contributor to the New York World Telegram, pleased, made a very personal comment: "Mr. Britten, a lanky 26-year-old boy came on stage after the concert and greeted the audience somewhat shyly and awkwardly. To be frank, he did not seem to be the author of this concerto. But, in music, you never know."

Movements:
There are three, in unusual slow-fast-slow sequence. They are played without interruption.

I Moderato con moto - Agitato - Tempo primo

II Vivace - Animando - Largamente - Cadenza

III Passacaglia. Andante Lento

The Dutch violinist Janine Jansen is accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris conducted by the Russian conductor Paavo Järvi.

Wagner, The Flying Dutchman - Overture

In early 1839, 26-year-old Richard Wagner was hired as director of the national opera in Riga, the capital of Latvia. An extravagant lifestyle coupled with the retirement from the stage of his wife, the singer Minna Planer, caused him to incur large debts. Unable to pay them, he devised a plan to evade his creditors. He would finish the work he was working on, the opera Rienzi, with the idea of performing it in Paris and making some money with it. He set off for Paris, via London.

The ghost ship legend
After illegally crossing the Prussian border, the couple embarked on a ship that would be the worst sailing experience of their lives. Faced with a series of storms, the ship was finally able to find shelter in a Norwegian fjord after days of endless struggle with rough seas. They arrived in London three weeks after leaving Riga. The experience reminded Wagner of the old legend of the ghost ship, the ship unable to call, forced to sail the seas for life in search of redemption.

And already in Paris, things did not improve either. Wagner could not get a job as a conductor and the Paris Opera refused to stage his Rienzi. The couple faced great financial hardship, having to live on the help of friends and the little money Wagner could get by publishing music articles and copying scores. In these circumstances, he drew on his recent experience and devised the composition of a short one-act play on the legend of the ghost ship, which in some versions has a Dutchman as captain, a "wandering Dutchman".

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)

A resounding failure
The work was intended to serve as a "curtain-raiser" for a ballet at the Opera. Wagner based it on a satire by Heine that took up the legend of the Flying Dutchman, modifying the story to present the wandering captain as a cursed character who can only be redeemed by the loyal love of a woman. The libretto, with the title "The Phantom Ship", and together with three important passages of the opera, were released in July 1841 to the Paris Opera, which agreed to buy the rights from Wagner for 500 francs, and to entrust the music and the libretto in French to other artists.
"The Phantom Ship" was a resounding failure. After its premiere, in November 1842, it fell into complete oblivion.

Der fliegende Holländer
Meanwhile, during the summer of 1841, Wagner wrote the rest of the opera, expanding the work to the more traditional three-act form, and now titled Der fliegende Holländer. The initial libretto set the work in Scotland. Wagner changed the names of the characters and the setting to Norway, in an attempt to distance himself from the failed Ghost Ship.

It was premiered in Dresden in January 1843, under the baton of the author, but was not the success Wagner had hoped for. Soon after, however, it gained in popularity and became a favorite of the public to this day, because despite the initial disappointment, it is one of the most accessible operas of the German author.

The Flying Dutchman - Overture
The overture is the last section that Wagner wrote. It contains all the leitmotifs of the work, those famous musical passages that illustrate and accompany either the characters or the situations through which they pass according to the plot, and of which Wagner made his trademark for the rest of his work.
It opens with a motif that could be called "oceanic" or "stormy".

The performance is by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti.

Mahler, Ninth Symphony - Mov 4, Adagio

Gustav Mahler working, close to death

In 1907, two years before he began composing his Ninth Symphony, Gustav Mahler's world changed from heaven to earth. On March 17 he resigned as assistant conductor of the Vienna Opera, a position he had held for ten years (although he would soon sign a contract with the New York Met), capitulating to friction with the administration and the growing anti-Semitism of the Viennese press. In the interregnum of that summer, he took Alma and her two daughters to his villa in Maiernigg, where he could compose in the peace of his famous "composition hut." But on July 5, victim of scarlet fever, his eldest daughter, barely four years old, died. A few days later, Mahler was diagnosed with the heart disease that would take the composer to his grave in less than four years.

Mahler refused to return to Maiernigg the following summer, so Alma found a house in Toblach, in the Dolomites (in the mountain range of the Eastern Alps), a huge farmhouse with eleven rooms, two terraces and two bathrooms, "undoubtedly somewhat primitive, but in splendid surroundings," as Alma put it, referring to the expansive mountain view. There, over the course of the next three summers, Mahler will complete his last works: The Song of the Earth, the Ninth Symphony, and begin the Tenth, which was left unfinished when his heart finally failed.

Obsessed with the idea of death
The three works were written while Mahler was obsessed with the idea of death, and clearly reveal how disturbed he was by its immediacy. But the composer did not give up without a fight, even though his doctors tried to restrict his diet and warned him to discontinue the swimming, cycling and hiking he enjoyed so much. His last four years, filled with commitments as a conductor, great efforts to compose and varied personal affairs (a meeting with Sibelius in 1907, sessions posing for Auguste Rodin in 1909, and a single visit, that dreaded and often postponed session with Freud in 1910) hardly reflect the routine of an incapacitated person.

The superstition
Yet Mahler had tried to avoid composing exactly nine symphonies, knowing that neither Beethoven nor Bruckner had gone further than that. He therefore called The Song of the Earth (which followed the Eighth Symphony) "a symphony for alto, tenor and orchestra," without adding a number. Only a few days after completing the next symphony, which he openly, and perhaps even defiantly, called the Ninth Symphony, Mahler set about composing a tenth, as if to make sure he had defeated superstition, which, of course, won the day.

Symphony No. 9 in D major - 4th movement - Adagio
The work was premiered posthumously in June 1912 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the German conductor Bruno Walter, Mahler's personal friend.
It is structured in four movements, slow first and last, thus breaking with tradition, although Mahler had already experimented with a slow finale in his Third Symphony.
The complete work lasts about an hour and a half.
Presented here is the fourth movement, the Adagio, marked, in German, Sehr langsam und noch zuruckhaltend, something like "very slow and 'held back,'" or literally, "reservedly." It is initiated by the strings.

The finale is almost pure silence, stillness and waiting. The first violins sing a phrase from the Kindertotenlieder, the songs of grief over the death of children that Mahler, to his own horror, wrote shortly before the death of his daughter Maria. In the last twenty-four bars, very slow and pianissimo - one of the most moving pages ever written, notwithstanding the sparse notes - the music gradually recedes, serene and resolute.

The performance is by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Mozart, Concerto for two pianos, in E-flat

Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart, called Nannerl in her family circle, lived to be 78, far surpassing her brother Wolfgang Amadeus. But that was her misfortune, being Mozart's sister. Nannerl was as musically gifted as her genius brother, playing the violin and harpsichord to perfection by the time she was seven years old. So when little Wolfgang was six and already shining as brightly as Nannerl, who was eleven, their father Leopold took the two children on tour to the courts of Paris, Vienna and London, to let the world know about the divine miracle: he had two genius children. However, when they were a little older, Leopold, a man of his time, chose to favor the boy's career, and Nannerl had to stay at home.

Maria Anna Mozart (1751 - 1829)

But Wolfgang never turned a blind eye to his older sister's remarkable talent. If he was on tour, or later, from Vienna, he always sent Nannerl a copy of his keyboard creations, to ask for her opinion, while encouraging her to study them carefully.

The Concerto for two pianos No. 10 is supposedly composed to be performed, at some time, with Nannerl. Mozart completed it in 1779 but there are hints that the first sketches were much earlier, from 1775, while the two teenagers were living in Salzburg. It is his only concerto for two pianos and the last one written before he left Salzburg for Vienna, where he arrived at the age of twenty-three to follow a path of his own, and thus escape the overwhelming but kindly domination of his father Leopold, who, incidentally, never willingly participated in this idea of independence.

Concerto for Two Pianos No. 10 in E-flat, K. 365
A concerto for two pianos differs from the solo piano concerto format because the very nature of the ensemble assumes that there will be a certain amount of dialogue between the two pianos as musical ideas sprout from one and the other, as if they were in competition. With Nannerl in mind, perhaps, Wolfgang had the finesse to give the two soloists equally striking passages, although the concerto is much more than an opportunity for the musical rivalry of two siblings in front of an audience.ts that the first sketches were much earlier, from 1775, while the two teenagers were living in Salzburg. It is his only concerto for two pianos and the last one written before he left Salzburg for Vienna, where he arrived at the age of twenty-three to follow a path of his own, and thus escape the overwhelming but kindly domination of his father Leopold, who, incidentally, never willingly participated in this idea of independence.

Movements:
00:00  Allegro - Vigorous at times and lyrical at others, it presents no particularly relevant musical ideas. Mozart seems to be just having fun, letting his ideas flow freely.
10:16  Andante - A fine, delicate movement. The orchestra, for the most part, remains in the background, allowing the enchantment to emerge from the couple in the solo parts.
17:31  Rondo: Allegro - The finale is energetic to a high degree, full of rhythmic momentum in the rondo's main theme. One of the great moments in Mozart's rondos is the novel way in which Mozart returns to the main theme. This movement is no exception.

The performance is by the extraordinary South American pianists Martha Argerich and Maria Joao Pires.

Vivaldi, "L'Estro Armonico" - Concerto 10

Twelve concertos for string instruments

Antonio Vivaldi was born and lived most of his life in Venice. There he served for a long time, albeit intermittently, as a violin teacher and composer at the Pio Ospedale della Pietá, a residence for orphan girls who were provided with an education with special emphasis on musical instruction. Vivaldi's task was to compose music for the girls to play at religious ceremonies and festivities, often accompanied, or conducted, by Vivaldi himself.

But the continuity of the job was not assured. Notwithstanding the composer's genius, his tenure at the institution was periodically put to a vote. In 1709, shortly before the publication of L'Estro Armonico, Vivaldi found himself out of a job, dismissed by a few votes. It was the first of his many departures from, and subsequent returns to, the Ospedale.

L'estro armonico (like The Harmonic Inspiration) is a set of twelve concertos for string instruments, published in Amsterdam in 1711. It is the author's opus 3, the two previous ones being sonatas, so this is the first set of concertos to be published. Much later, in 1725, the collection Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione would appear, which contains the famous Four Seasons.

Its publication was not only the most celebrated event in Italian orchestral music of the first half of the 18th century but also the most important work in all European orchestral music. In the opinion of scholars, L'estro armonico took Corelli's solid concerto style and infused it with a luminosity, muscularity, and virtuosity that completely determined the future history of the genre.

The "rediscovery" of Vivaldi
The ensemble was suitable for various transcriptions. The earliest and most important are those made by Bach as part of a series of arrangements for keyboard and organ during his stay in Weimar in the 1710s. It is these transcriptions that will play a decisive role in the "rediscovery" of Vivaldi during the first half of the 20th century, which is almost a serendipity since musicologists were not so much interested in Vivaldi himself but rather in how to deepen their knowledge of Bach through his transcriptions.

Concerto No. 10, for four violins, strings (two violas and cello) and continuo

The tenth work in the collection is the Concerto in B minor, RV 580. A work in three movements for four violins plus orchestral ripieno (the tutti) of violins, violas, cello, and basso continuo. As in the other concertos, the Allegro alternates between continuo and ripieno. In the central movement, spiccato chords from the ripieno alternate with imitative arpeggios by the soloists (a central episode predictive of the Winter slow movement from The Four Seasons follows). The final allegro: a dancing theme in ternary compass signature of the ripieno alternating with sparkling sections by the four soloists.

Bach's transcription of this piece is his Concerto in A minor for four harpsichords, strings and continuo, BWV 1065.

Movimientos:
00:00  Allegro
04:28  Largo e spiccato (spiccato, indication for the strings, the bow should move along the strings discontinuously, in small jumps).
06:56  Allegro

The rendition is by the Karol Szymanowski Music School Orchestra, of Polonia, conducted from the keyboard by his conductor Marcin Grabosz.

Haydn, Symphony No 85, "The Queen"

A symphony for an ill-fated queen 
Three years before being arrested with her husband in Varennes, and seven years before being beheaded, Marie Antoinette of Austria attended, in February 1786, delighted with life, the performance of a couple of symphonies by Haydn in the salons of the Tuileries Palace. She heard, among others, the Symphony in B-flat, whose music she fell in love with, and so she commented that same evening to her hostesses, while they lavished her with their care. The symphony became one of her favorite pieces, and hence the nickname, "The Queen", the only one of the so-called Paris Symphonies that earned a nickname in the eighteenth century, and which did not lose renown after the unfortunate end of the Queen Consort.

The previous year, Joseph Haydn had learned of the commission for six symphonies to be performed before the French court by the renowned orchestra Concert de la Loge Olympique, an ensemble founded in that innovative decade under the generous patronage of Claude-François-Marie Rigoley, Count of Ogny. The fees were set at thirty gold Louis for each symphony, which amounted to 180 Louis for the total, a considerable amount for the time —and for this one as well (googling, I have learned that the total amounts to the equivalent of 50,000 today's dollars).

Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)

Such retribution testifies to the wide fame enjoyed by the maestro, who devoted himself with enthusiasm to the task. By the end of that year, 1785, he completed the first three symphonies. At the beginning of the following year, he finished the remaining three. The six symphonies, which, as already mentioned, are known today as the Paris Symphonies, were generally warmly received, and the maestro was commissioned to write another set of three symphonies, which he completed in 1788-89.

Symphony No. 85, in B-flat major, "The Queen".
Haydn was aware that the Concert de la Loge Olympique had a large number of instrumentalists, perhaps three times the twenty or twenty-five musicians he had at Esterháza. So the maestro felt at ease to compose, without instrumental restrictions. Above all, he took advantage of the opportunities that this license offered him to achieve effects that would have been impossible with a reduced orchestra. The Symphony in B-flat, in four movements, is a brilliant example of this.

Movements:
00:00  Adagio - Vivace  — Remarkable for its quiet introduction, and for the main theme.
10:50  Romanze. Allegretto  — Theme and variations, on a French ballad of the time.
16:44  Menuetto - Trio  — Some Haydian mood.
20:45  Finale. Presto  — Alternating sonata and rondo form.

The rendition is by the American ensemble Ars Lyrica Houston.