{ program notes was his position as concertmaster of the Archbishop of Salzburg ’ s court orchestra . Although he always considered the piano to be his primary instrument , Mozart was also a virtuoso violinist who , at this period in his life , amazed listeners with the beauty and purity of his tone .
With the Third Concerto ( September 1775 ), Mozart soared to a level of inspiration and craft that proclaimed the child prodigy had become a mature artist . Here orchestra and soloist are beautifully melded , and the composer ’ s imagination and inventiveness never flag from one marvelous movement to the next .
The jewel of this concerto is the heartpiercingly beautiful Adagio middle movement , which taps a vein of yearning and sadness we encounter often in his later works . By nature , Mozart was high-spirited and extroverted , but he was also subject to deep bouts of melancholy , which he seldom discussed but transmuted into some of his greatest and most moving music . In this exquisitely scored slow movement , Mozart creates a nocturnal mood that mingles beauty with pain . Above the ghostly ensemble of muted strings , flute and plucked bass , the soloist sings a heartbreaking aria , which is intensified in the middle section by sighing figures in the strings .
The sonata-form opening movement features a bold principal theme taken from Mozart ’ s opera Il re pastore ( completed earlier that year ) and a development section of exceptional length and imagination for so young a composer . Opera also inspires a passage of recitative-like dialogue between the soloist and ensemble leading into the recapitulation — one can almost hear the words the violinist must be saying .
The rondo finale is less carefree than many Mozart rondos , tinged with a shadow of the slow movement ’ s sadness . It contains a pair of extraordinary central episodes — the first a lover ’ s serenade in G minor over a plucked mandolin-like accompaniment , the second a faster Allegretto with a sturdy , rustic tune based on a folksong of either Hungarian or Alsatian origin .
Instrumentation : Two flutes , two oboes , two horns , strings .
The BSO
Overture in C Major , “ In the Italian Style ”
Franz Schubert
Born in Vienna , Austria , January 31 , 1797 ; died in Vienna , November 19 , 1828
In the fall of 1816 , the Italian Opera Company made its first appearances in Vienna , performing two of Gioachino Rossini ’ s recent operas . The Viennese public , always eager for the latest musical discovery , went crazy for Rossini — an enthusiasm that would last for years and bring the Italian Opera Company back for many more performances .
Vienna ’ s most revered composer Beethoven detested Rossini ’ s effervescent operas as beneath the high moral purpose he believed music should serve . Despite his worship of Beethoven , however , the young Franz Schubert adored the Italian ’ s music . And a year later , in October and November 1817 , he created three works that were partially tributes to Rossini ’ s style : his Sixth Symphony and the two overtures “ In the Italian Style ” ( although Schubert
did not give them this title ) in D Major and C Major .
As regular concertgoers will know , the scintillating overtures Rossini wrote for his operas were a major contributor to their success . Schubert ’ s two overtures , however , were conceived not as operatic preludes but as stand-alone concert overtures . They were among his first orchestral works to be performed publically in Vienna .
We will hear the Overture in C Major , which begins with a slow introduction reveling in beautiful writing for woodwinds , especially oboes and clarinets , framed by dramatic orchestral chords . As the tempo moves to Allegro for the overture ’ s main section , the violins introduce a jaunty theme that would suit a comic opera perfectly ; its blithe merriment is intensified as the flutes , oboes and clarinets join in . The entire overture is weightier and more Teutonic in character than Rossini ’ s overtures , but it certainly captures the Italian ’ s witty , high-energy spirit .
Instrumentation : Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , timpani , strings .
January – February 2017 | Overture 37