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.

George Gershwin, Concerto in F major / Yuja Wang

The first performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue occurred on February 12, 1924, at New York's Aeolian Hall with the composer at the piano. The now-famous Rhapsody was part of a concert entitled "An Experiment in Modern Music", which marked the first significant rapprochement between jazz and classical music. Gershwin was not correctly a jazz musician, but his sensitivity to African-American music allowed him to create music intelligently colored by its textures and rhythms.

That evening, the German-born American conductor Walter Damrosch was present. Attracted by the novelty, the next day he contacted Gershwin to compose for the New York Symphony Orchestra a large-scale piano concerto in the full line of classical formality.

By this time, Gershwin was working on three Broadway musicals, so he only began sketching the Concerto in May 1925. Returning from a trip to London, he began writing for two pianos. By the end of July, he finished the first movement, in August the second, and the third in September. The complete orchestration of the three movements was finished on November 10.

At the end of that month, Gershwin hired, at his own expense, an orchestra of 55 instrumentalists for a general rehearsal, with the assistance of the commissioner, Walter Damrosch, who was delighted although he suggested some revisions.

George Gershwin, at 37
(1898 - 1937)

At The Carnegie Hall
The work was finally premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York on December 3, 1925, with the composer as soloist and Damrosch conducting. It was a huge box-office success, warmly applauded by the audience. However, his colleagues had mixed opinions. Prokofiev called the work "amateurish". But Arnold Schoenberg praised it without qualms.

George Gershwin lived only 38 years. On February 11, 1937, he played his Concerto in F in a special evening dedicated only to his music. Gershwin was a very gifted pianist, at least playing his own music, but that night suffered from coordination problems and forgetfulness. On July 9 of that year, he had to be hospitalized and fell into a coma. His doctors suggested that he might be suffering from a brain tumor. Indeed, two days after a large tumor was removed. The composer died that same night, on July 11, 1937.

Concerto in F major
On the day of its premiere, despite the success of the public, the critics did not hide their astonishment, unable to define whether they were in front of jazz music or a classical concert.

But Gershwin himself provided a brief but very accurate description of the concerto.

"The first movement employs the charleston rhythm. It is fast and pulsating, and represents the young and enthusiastic spirit of American life. It begins with a rhythmic motif given by the timpani.... The main theme is announced by the bassoon. Later, the piano introduces a second theme. The second movement has a poetic, nocturnal atmosphere similar to American blues, but in a purer form than usual. The final movement returns to the style of the first. It is an orgy of rhythms, which begins violently, maintaining the same vivacity throughout the movement."

Movements:
00:00  Allegro
14:00  Adagio - Andante con moto
26:25  Allegro agitato

The performance is by brilliant Yuja Wang, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by American conductor Tilson Thomas.

Richard Strauss, "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks"

The German Rogue

Till Eulenspiegel is a character from German folklore, a rogue who, unlike his Latin congeners, seems to have really existed. It is said that he was born around 1300, growing up in contact with the lower classes of German feudal society. A tireless globetrotter, he traveled throughout the Holy Roman Empire, mocking everyone, kings or vassals. Sentenced to death on more than one occasion, he would have escaped them all to finally die because of the Bubonic Plague that ravaged Europe during the 14th century.

The stories of Till's adventures became legendary. In 1890 a new, beautifully illustrated account of his adventures appeared, which caught the attention of a young Richard Strauss, only twenty-five years old.

The young Richard had been appointed assistant conductor of the Munich opera at the age of twenty-two, and in the early 1890s, he was in Weimar as conductor of the Weimar Theater. And only recently, in 1889, he had premiered his first great masterpiece, the symphonic poem Don Juan, hailed by audiences and critics alike in Weimar, and later the world.

But, in the case of Till, his first idea was to make him the hero of an opera. He went so far as to write a libretto: the stories were at hand.

Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949)

But he soon abandoned the idea, perhaps moved by the success of Don Juan, opting for the composition of a purely instrumental symphonic poem, which would tell the story, the adventures of Till, in music, which did not seem at all simple if we remember that the most common amusement of the German rogue was to pretend not to understand what is spoken to him, taking literally the figurative expressions of his interlocutor, to make fun of him.

But the decision was a happy one. Written for a large orchestra between 1894 and 1895, the work had its premiere and warm reception on November 5, 1896, in Cologne.

"Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks", tone poem, opus 28
The structure of the work is generally based on the rondo form. The central theme goes with Till's personality, and his adventures as episodes that appear between one and another repetition of the central theme, or the other themes. The clarinet, alternating with the horn, represents Till Eulenspiegel.

Lasting approximately fifteen minutes, Till's antics, told in music, unfold according to the following steps: Introducing the character / Till's antics / The trial / Sentence and execution / Epilogue.

As we can appreciate, the German antics end badly.

The version is by the WDR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Semyon Bychkov.