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RIGHT HERE - WHERE WE LIVE |
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CHAMBER CONCERT 2012 |
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Chamber
Music - The Music of Friendships Johann Ernst Altenburg Luigi Boccherini I N T E R M I S S I O N Brian E. Lynn Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
For Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), the years 1781 to 1785 were peak years in terms of prestige, composition and income. His calculated move from Salzburg to Vienna had removed him - as he had hoped - from the overbearing shadow of his father Leopold and had made himself responsible for his own well being and success. Mozart's new found freedom suited him well as he sought to establish himself both as a performer and as a composer. The young composer wasted little time in seeking for himself the best opportunities for advancement the great city had to offer. No longer under the strict supervision of Leopold, he became an impresario, burnishing his credentials and pushing himself into the mainstream of Viennese musical life. Almost immediately he undertook a flurry of activity that would have amazed his stern father, who earlier often had to chide, coax, and threaten his son to get him to complete the most simple tasks. Mozart quickly discerned that the musical society of Vienna was a multi-layered affair, consisting of audiences with various and sundry tastes, and he sought to patronize each segment with music tailored specifically for it. To satisfy this diverse market, he wrote more than one hundred and fifty compositions in the four years 1782 through 1785. Among these works were pieces ranging from the small to the large, from sonatas, trios, quartets, quintets to symphonies and operas. And as he composed, his audience became wider and his income grew, so much so that he and his wife Constanza could afford a somewhat lavish lifestyle. To maintain his new standard of living, Mozart had to teach, compose and perform at such a relentless pace that his father, with whom Wolfgang corresponded most faithfully, became concerned that his son would surely fall ill. Because court theaters were available for only one subscription concert per season, the enterprising young composer devised a unique plan to utilize restaurants, inns, cafes, salons, even his own apartment to present concerts. One such venue, the Trattnerhof was a large residential building with a large room that Mozart rented to serve as a concert hall; here, in 1784 he gave a series of three concerts. In the years 1784-1786, he gave a total of eighteen subscription concerts and, in addition, performed at least twenty-three times in private aristocratic salons. As if composing the music and soliciting subscriptions and scheduling concert venues were not enough, Mozart performed at the piano in each and every production. In fact, the piano served as Mozart's chief instrument of inspiration. He composed twelve piano concertos during this Viennese period, and on occasion he would perform more than one of them at a given concert. It is to this period that we owe "the best work I have ever composed." The Quintet in E-flat major, K452 for Piano and Winds was first performed April 1, 1784, before an overflow assembly of aristocratic luminaries who clearly recognized the genius of the composer. The program consisted of two piano concertos followed by the quintet; the composer performed the piano part in all three works. "Well, to tell the truth I was really worn out in the end after playing so much - and it's greatly to my credit that my audience never got tired." Though the combination of piano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn was unusual at the time, the quintet gives a first look at Mozart's mature use of woodwinds in his subsequent compositions. In the Allegro first movement, the piano presents a theme then the woodwinds in turn play variations on it. The Larghetto second movement is typical Mozart, soft, gentle, yet engaging. The final Allegretto is of a kind with the piano concertos that the composer was enrapt with at the time. The work in total is one, as Mozart stated, "which called forth the very greatest of applause,,,how I wished you could have heard it!" Composer Brian Lynn (b. 1954) became interested in the trombone after he enrolled at the Junior Royal Academy of Music at age eleven. Following his graduation from the academy, he took a position with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and continued his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Denis Wick and Peter Gane. There then ensued employment with three major Scottish and English orchestras, as well as freelance engagements with other British musical organizations. He has been playing with the English National Opera since 1988. While Lynn is noted primarily for his brass - particularly trombone - compositions, he does compose for choir, orchestra and brass ensembles. As a member of Taverner's Trombones, he became close friends with the group's leader, the renowned trombonist John Kenny, for whom Lynn has written and arranged a great deal of repertoire. Lynn offers the following notes on his composition Steak and Kidney Supper for trombone trio:
Altenburg's claim to fame rests on his treatise An Introduction to the Heroic-Musical Trumpeters and Drummers Art, issued on a subscription basis in 1770 and published in toto in 1795. The treatise is valuable today in that it gives an insider's view of the position of court trumpeters and their tightly knit Trumpet Guild, an organization founded by the grace of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1623. Of particular interest to modern-day trumpeters, the treatise details the 'secrets' of Baroque trumpet playing related to the natural trumpet, particularly the art of clarino playing which the composer stressed should imitate the human voice,. The Concerto for Seven Trumpets and Timpani is one of several compositions that Altenburg wrote for multiple trumpets. It is not a concerto in the modern sense in that there is no orchestral accompaniment. It contains three movements, and, in some performances, the players stand as opposing choirs in the style of the Baroque antiphonal brass tradition.
Dismissed after his death by many musicologists as 'Haydn's wife,' Luigi Rudolfo Boccherini (1743-1805) has now come into his own as a notable composer of some originality and innovation. Boccherini did look to Joseph Haydn for inspiration for much of his chamber music both in style and harmony, but at the same time he gave his works a distinctly personal touch. For example, while Haydn may well be the 'Father of the String Quartet', it is Boccherini who made the cello an equal partner with the other three stringed instruments in the ensemble. A superb cellist himself, Boccherini did much in his lifetime both as player and composer to display the particular characteristics of the instrument as a solo medium. So adept was he on the cello that he often performed violin works, on pitch, by standing in for ailing violin soloists who were on tour. His total command of his instrument is clearly expressed in his compositions, particularly the quintets which employ two cellos. Boccherini was born in Lucca, Italy, the son of an accomplished cellist and double bass player. He received his first training from his father Leopoldo, then from Domenico Francesco Vannucci. In 1753, his father sent him to Rome to study with G. B. Constanzi, the celebrated music director of St. Peter's Basilica, before he and his father ventured to Vienna in 1757. Here they both were engaged by the Imperial Theater Orchestra at the Burg the at er. Most of the music Boccherini played in Vienna was ballet music by the composers of the moment Josef Starzer, Florian Leopold Gassman, and Christoph Willibald Gluck. Father and son Boccherini continued for several years to make the journey from Lucca to Vienna during the theatrical seasons for the steady employment and the solo performance opportunities provided by this great cultural center. It was during the off-seasons of 1760 and 1761 that Boccherini began to compose in earnest - composing eighteen works of quartets, trios, and duets, all for string ensembles. When his father died in 1766, Boccherini and his friend violinist Flippo Manfredi began a tour of European musical centers, with the intent to eventually arrive in London. In Paris, the two artists were received with some acclaim as their reputations as performers had preceded them. In Boccherini's case, his arrival was preceded by the publication of two 'very effective' sets of string compositions, a set of six string trios and a set of six string quartets. After an approximate six-month stay, the duo left Paris, not for London, but instead for Madrid. There they had been promised posts by the Spanish ambassador, and in the spring Boccherini and Manfredi found themselves playing in an Italian orchestra in Aranjuez. Both men continued active solo careers in and around Aranjuez and Madrid. As Boccherini's fame both as composer and performer grew, so did his fortune. In November 1768, he entered the employ of Don Luis of Aranjuez as Composer and Virtuoso of the Chamber, a relatively well-paid position. With his post and salary now settled, Boccherini entered into a long period of creative activity to expand his catalog of works. It is during this time of relative security and satisfaction that Boccherini chose to focus his considerable talents on the string quartet and the string quintet. In developing his quartets, Boccherini made the cello an equal partner to the other strings, as opposed to Haydn, greatly admired by Boccherini, who often gave the cello a secondary, accompanying role. Boccherini's innovative skills really began to shine in his string quintets; he reduced the quintet by one violin and added a second cello. He wrote numerous string quintets in this form, and the Boccherini quintet on today's program is an arrangement by Boccherini for guitar and string quartet. The Quintet No 9 in C major for Guitar, 2 Violins, Viola and Cello, G453 is one of Boccherini's most popular works. It includes the famous La Ritirata di Madrid which the composer used in other compositions outside its original setting in the String Quintet No 6. La Ritirata di Madrid, or the retreat of the Military Night Watch of Madrid concludes the piece. The Ritirata has received some notoriety, since it imitates the curfew and closing down of the city. As the composer describes it: One must imagine sitting next to the window on a summer's night...the band can be heard in the far-off distance...slowly the music grows louder until it is very loud, indicating the Night Watch is passing directly below the listener's window...then the volume decreases as the band moves off down the street into the distance.
Program Notes © 2011-2012 William H. Driver and Clinton Symphony Orchestra Association
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