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.