Program Notes }
earlier: the wonderful minor-mode
march. This builds into one of Mozart’s greatest developments in which
feisty woodwinds collaborate on equal
terms with the piano in ingenious
contrapuntal play. Indeed, throughout
this concerto orchestra and soloist are
absolutely equal partners, participating in a fascinating, ever-changing
relationship.
For the slow movement, the orchestra
creates an atmosphere of silvery nocturnal
serenity much like the final act of Figaro.
One can almost see Figaro’s characters creeping through the shadows of a
darkened formal garden, their whispered
plots wafting through the air. The piano
slips in gently to add to the spell. Listen to
the gorgeous woodwind parts — flutes,
oboes, bassoon, horns — weaving their
magic along with the soloist.
Earlier in 1786, Mozart had revised
his 1781 opera Idomeneo for its Viennese
premiere. So it’s not surprising that he
borrowed a melody from its ballet music
to become the appealing repeated-note
refrain for his rondo-form finale. However, it is surprising that the orchestra,
rather than the soloist, introduces this
theme. As trumpets and timpani enter,
this refrain takes on a grandeur we
wouldn’t expect from its modest opening. The finale’s dramatic, harmonically
questing middle episode brings a beautiful surprise: a rapturous Mozartean
melody sung by the piano and woodwind
soloists that is perhaps the concerto’s
most sublime moment. Throughout,
the piano part manages to be both
subtly eloquent and brilliantly showy:
a supreme demonstration of Mozart’s art
as both creator and performer.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
literature. Only the viola and cello and
the brass instruments were excluded. But
the woodwinds, including their honorary brass member the French horn, were
richly endowed with four horn concertos,
two concertos for flute, and one each for
oboe, clarinet, and bassoon.
The Bassoon Concerto is the earliest
of these, dating from June 1774 when
Mozart was only 18. We have no record of
whom or for what occasion it was written,
but it was undoubtedly for performance
at Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo’s
court where Mozart had been serving
since 1773. These were the most frustrating years of Mozart’s life, and he was
already yearning for greener pastures in
which to exercise his talents. His years
as a touring child prodigy regaling the
crowned heads of Europe were over, and a
trip with his father to Vienna the previous
fall had failed to land him a position. Mozart would not escape Salzburg for Vienna
until he was 25.
Although not aiming at profundity,
the Bassoon Concerto is a charming and
accomplished showpiece for the basso
of the wind section. Mozart sets off his
dark-toned soloist with a bright orchestra
of strings, oboes, and horns playing in
high register to clear them out of