Download PROGRAM NOTES by Paul Schiavo Mozart and Haydn During the

PROGRAM NOTES by Paul Schiavo
Mozart and Haydn
During the last quarter of the 18th century, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
were by far the brightest stars in the musical firmament. Born nearly a quarter of a century apart,
these two men differed markedly in character, in musical ability and in the course their careers
took. Mozart seems to have been quick-witted, confident and proud, perhaps even a bit vain.
Haydn, by contrast, was modest and diffident. Mozart was a child prodigy, an excellent violinist
and a virtuoso pianist. Haydn played instruments indifferently and mastered the art of
composition only through diligent study and experiment. Mozart was cosmopolitan, having
toured the capitals of Europe from an early age. Haydn spent most of his career working in semiisolation at the rural estate of a Hungarian prince.
And yet, these two musicians developed a bond of mutual respect and affection. Haydn
acknowledged his younger contemporary as “the greatest composer known to me, either in
person or by name.” Mozart, in turn, dedicated six superb string quartets to Haydn and referred
to him as “my very dear friend.” The compositions of Haydn and Mozart represent the full
flowering of music’s Classical style, and they form the subject of our program.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Selections from Ballet Music from Idomeneo, rè di Creta, K. 367
Born: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg
Died: December 5, 1791, in Vienna
Work composed: 1780–81
World premiere: January 29, 1781, in Munich, conducted by the composer.
Mozart’s mature operas — The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute among
them — have long enjoyed favor with opera audiences. But recent years have seen growing
appreciation of the composer’s earlier works for the stage. One composition that has benefitted
especially from this reappraisal has been Idomeneo, rè di Creta, now widely considered Mozart’s
first operatic masterpiece.
Mozart composed Idomeneo during the winter of 1780–81. Its plot concerns the return of
Idomeneo, King of Crete, from the Trojan War. Encountering a deadly storm en route, the
monarch secures safe passage by vowing to sacrifice to the sea god Neptune the first creature he
meets on shore. This is the same fatal bargain made by the Old Testament warrior Jeptha. And
like Jeptha, Idomeneo arrives home to encounter immediately his own child. Needless to say,
intense psychological conflicts ensue, but tragedy is averted when, at the climactic moment,
Neptune agrees to forego the sacrifice if Idomeneo will relinquish the throne to his son,
Idamantes, the intended sacrificial victim.
Mozart originally expected to interpolate ballet numbers into Idomeneo, but as he worked on the
composition it became apparent that the opera would be more than long enough without the
dance interludes. So instead, he fashioned a separate ballet for performance after the conclusion
of the opera. Although we do not know what scenario was conveyed by its choreography, both
the opera’s story and Mozart’s music suggest that it might have been festivities attending the
coronation of Prince Idamantes, which should naturally occur at the point where the opera
concludes.
Mozart’s ballet consists of a suite of brief dances, the major number being a Chaconne. This bears
scant resemblance to the familiar Baroque-period chaconne, which typically entails contrapuntal
elaboration of a repeating short melodic figure. Instead, Mozart casts his music as a rondo, with a
majestic main theme that sounds several times in alternation with other ideas. Some of the fast
passages convey a sense of high drama. The ensuing music, written for a solo dance (the Pas
seul), follows without pause
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Mozart’s Chaconne begins in a splendorous manner, with fanfare figures, timpani strokes, unison
runs and other types of stirring passagework. The subsidiary themes that sound between
recurrences of this idea include an elegant minuet, which forms essentially a relaxed middle
movement within the piece as a whole. The beginning of the Pas seul maintains the elevated
character of the Chaconne, but the music soon veers in a jocular direction, with different kinds of
laughing figures played by the winds and violins. A second acceleration brings a rapidly flowing
final section.
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes and 2 bassoons; 2 horns and 2 trumpets; timpani and strings.
© 2016 Paul Schiavo