Posted on 04/17/2006 11:30:05 AM PDT by sitetest
He wrote about 650 pieces; why do we always hear the same old six? By Gavin Borchert
Man of the moment.It's Mozart's 250th birthday, and almost as prevalent as concerts of his music are complaints by critics that everyone plays Mozart all the time anyway. How do you keep standard repertory fresh and bring in audiences in such a situation? With Mozart's birth (1756) and death (1791) both celebrated every 50 years, we've barely had time to get over the 1991 party.
Any music festival's first responsibility in programming, I suppose, is to justify itself—to convince concertgoers that saturation bombing of Composer X (or Period Y or Geographic Region Z) is warranted. Among a somewhat halfhearted collection of standard-repertory symphonies and concertos, the Seattle Symphony's January Mozart festival took an oddly funereal tone with a performance of his Requiem. No doubt, there were some concertgoers puzzled that it was his birth, not his death, that was being observed—not to mention that the SSO plays the work every year anyway, and it's only half by Mozart.
On the other hand, its Feb. 2 concert told us something new: Opulent, Technicolor arrangements of Mozart's music by Tchaikovsky (a few obscure piano pieces) and Richard Strauss (an ensemble from the opera Idomeneo) showed us how two arch-Romantics reworked Wolfgang in their own image. Their admiration for him didn't prevent them from tinkering with holy writ, revealing that our culture's own worshipful attitude toward Mozart is a recent development.
Yet the essential Mozart in these reworkings survives and shines through—just as it did in an even more daring reimagining, the big-band version of Symphony No. 40 that, as played by the UW Studio Jazz Ensemble, made a fantastic climax to the School of Music's Feb. 9 all-Mozart evening. Witty without being shticky, it demonstrated how little you had to alter (a ninth chord here, a syncopation there) to twist one idiom into another, and how thin and fragile are the walls we build to compartmentalize musical genres.
The Northwest Sinfonietta put Mozart in historical context by placing his music next to that of a typical 18th-century journeyman like Antonio Salieri. The two sinfonias played on its Feb. 17 program were snappy little numbers, but alongside Mozart's Symphony No. 36—richer, more imaginative, and more compelling—the difference between craftsmanship and genius becomes clearer. And remember which one had the fame, the money, and the cushy Kapellmeister post; ponder the relationship between immediate popularity and lasting artistic value, and you may pause a moment the next time you're inclined to dismiss an "inaccessible" piece of new music.
Yet why pick on Salieri? Mozart's peaks can be put into perspective as well by his own lesser works. Earlier this month, the Seattle Symphony did a salutary service in this season of reverence by presenting a rare Mozartean misfire: the Adagio and Fugue, K. 546, a leaden, charm-free string version of an earlier work for two pianos. Wolfgang could turn out four-voice counterpoint like nobody's business, but he sure didn't have Bach's skill at keeping things moving along.
Even with a composer this beloved, programmers still gravitate to the greatest hits. It was already a problem in 1891, when George Bernard Shaw griped about the unadventurous death-centennial observances: "The Crystal Palace committed itself to the 'Jupiter' Symphony and the Requiem; the Albert Hall, by way of varying the entertainment, announced the Requiem and the 'Jupiter' Symphony."
But back then, much of his music was still unexplored. Exhibit A, Cosí fan tutte, Seattle Opera's contribution to this Mozart season (Feb. 25–March 11) was ignored in the 19th century and didn't earn warhorse status until the 1970s. (Strauss sugared up Idomeneo to make it go down easy for a 1937 audience.) But what's left to discover, and where do we go from here?
Myself, I've always wanted to hear an unfinished Requiem—a performance confined strictly to the notes Mozart left, without any cobbling up by Süssmayr, even if some passages are just first-violin/bass skeletons, even if others trail off midphrase. After all, wouldn't that be more poignant? Here Death stayed the Master's hand. . . .
Then there are the oddball pieces Mozart devoted more time to than maybe any other famous composer. Chamber music for glass harmonica. Divertimenti for two flutes, five trumpets, and timpani. The proto-Cagean Musical Dice Game, 16 bars in minuet tempo that can be played in any order. Or his overture to the ballet Les petits riens, the best Mozart overture you've never heard. Perhaps some choir could take up the vocal canons on naughty texts, like "Leck mich im Arsch," K. 231, which means in English exactly what it sounds like in German.
Asked about her ideal Mozart commemoration, Seattle Baroque violinist Ingrid Matthews confessed to voice envy: "The way Mozart spins a tune in his vocal writing, to me, is something every violinist should study! Then there is the sorcererlike ability to evoke and manipulate human emotions." Or, alternately, "It wouldn't be bad to be locked up in a room with a feather bed and a dessert tray and listen to all the piano concertos one after another."
Conductor Roupen Shakarian's dream concert? "Tough call, but . . . a wind Serenade, the Sinfonia Concertante, the C-minor Mass." And Adam Stern's Mozart wish runs counter to current musical correctness: "Any and all Mozart is always welcome—so long as it's not played on period instruments."
Do folks find this to be the case? I don't know whether they play any substantial number of the 650 works, but here in Washington, the classical station, WGMS, seems to play a bit more than the same six pieces.
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Thanks!
He wrote all that music before the age of 35? I better get a move on.
LOL!
Seems to be the same for almost any music style. Stations play the same 15-30 tunes, over, and over, and over again. Which is, I think, why some stations are getting smart and promising "no repeat work weeks" or "no repeat work days".
I used to work in an office where people in three different parts of the office had their radios tuned to different stations, with the same format. They ALL Played the same set of songs, at different times of the day.
I see you are in the DC Metro area if you listen to WGMS. It's one of my favorite stations, and I think one of the few classical stations which really tries to mix things up a bit. I know I've heard quite a variety from a number of composers. Whoever does their programming seems to understand that too many repeats fatigue the listener.
Sadly, since they moved to 103.9 and 104.1, the signal quality hasn't been nearly as good in my area. But even though I have Sirius, WGMS' programming and on air talent is much more entertaining and engaging.
If you're interested, you can get a nice set of recordings of all his works (170 CDs) for about $110 shipped by ordering it from Amazon's German website:
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000A0HFZS/302-1605862-2756849?%5Fencoding=UTF8
You don't have to pay for VAT, which basically makes up for the shipping expense.
I did this a few weeks ago.
Then Salieri picks out "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik". The priest gets all excited "I know that! That's charming! You wrote that?"
"No" says Salieri, "HE did."
Schubert was 31 when he died! No loss was ever more untimely as he was a virtual masterpiece machine at that point. The year and a half between Beethoven's and Schubert's death has been called the best in music history.
Thanks.
While it's true that you generally hear the same Mozart over and over again, I have an extensive collection of Mozart on CDs and records. I don't have his entire collection, but pretty much.
I don't necessarily rely on orchestras and radio stations for my regular Mozart fix. I have my recordings. I also have my piano and several books full of his music, which I play with execrable skill, but with great appreciation.
If you're in a major city, someone's always performing Mozart somewhere, every week. Often the local university's string quartet or chamber orchestra is doing one of the less-heard works, and at a bargain price.
Where I am, the Minnesota Orchestra may not be playing some minor symphony of Mozart's, but one of the smaller ensembles will be doing so.
I used to be a semi-pro oboist, and always sought out opportunities to play Mozart in whatever ensemble was doing something. Fortunately, oboists aren't in great supply, so I have many chances. Sometimes, the groups were a small orchestra connected with some local church, a college group that didn't have a regular oboist, or something like that. If a piece of Mozart's music has an oboe part, I've probably played it at least once.
The writer here is apparently too snobbish to seek out the performances of works that are less than old workhorses. Too bad for the writer.
Dear Crolis,
I like the stations except for the morning host, James Bartel, who is an insufferable, opinionated, bloviating, piece-of-you-know-what liberal swine.
sitetest
Of course there seems to be a limited selection of Mozart or any other classical composer played on the air. WQXR in New York is probably better than many stations, but still the selection is limited: the last six symphonies, the Gran Partita, Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, some piano concerti and sonatas, a few string quartets and some operatic music is about 95% of what one will hear. I can't say I own a complete Mozart (always regretted not getting Phillips edition a few years ago, but I couldn't quite justify the cost to my thrifty spouse), but I have a good selection of CDs and listen to the with some attention to listening to less well-known things as well as pieces I've come to love.
I will plagiarize this excellent phrase liberally.
I was about to say the same thing.
There's lots of classical music via online radio. Helps me get through the workday. Classical Online Radio in the USA
http://www.magnatune.com/genres/classical/
Great stuff for internet listening.
Very tempting.
Have you received the huge box of CDs yet? How long did shipping take? How good are the performances?
Yes, I did receive it. The box came by regular mail after about 10 days.
You can by the complete works of Mozart from amazon's regular US site, but it costs over $300.
BTW, I learned about this from an article in the WSJ.
Soon the complete works of Bach will be available too.
Concur on Schubert. Also, Bizet and Purcell only made it to 36, and Mendelssohn to 38.
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