Program Notes:
Stoltzman & Kashkashian play Mozart

• J.C. Bach: Symphony in C Major (op. 3 no. 2)
  
• Haydn: Symphony No. 49 in F minor ("La Passione")
  
• Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante
  

J.C. Bach: Symphony in C Major (op. 3 no. 2)

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) was the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, who died when Christian was fifteen years old. After studies with his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel in Berlin, Christian left his native Germany and by 1757 was settled in Milan, where he studied with Padre Martini and began his career as an opera composer. These works drew international attention, and JC Bach was invited to London, where he arrived in November, 1762, and remained until his death twenty years later. In 1764, he and another German expatriate, Carl Friedrich Abel, inaugurated a new series of symphony concerts, and it was for these events that Christian composed his set of six symphonies, Opus 3. In that same year (on April 23rd, to be precise) yet another German-speaking composer appeared on the London scene: this was the eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The two became great friends. One anecdote tells of them playing a sonata together, Wolfgang sitting on Christian's knee, each playing one bar of the sonata in alternation and executing this feat so smoothly that "one would not have suspected two performers" (W.J. Turner). Whether Wolfgang actually attended any of the Bach/Abel symphony concerts is not clear, but that he knew the symphonies is certain, for he copied out one of Abel's (which for years was thought to be Mozart's own), and Mozart's first symphonies, which were written in London at this time, are obviously products of the older men's influence.

J.C, Bach wrote about 60 symphonies altogether. These are not the grand, four-movement fabrics built by Haydn and Mozart in their later years, but rather, like those of his brother C.P.E. (as exemplified in the BCO's concert last month), short pieces in three sometimes joined movements. The influence on the young Mozart is most patent in the C major symphony's first movement, Allegro con spirito. The following Andante in the minor and concluding Presto have more of Christian's own flair. The symphony is scored for strings with pairs of oboes and horns, which are silent in the slow movement and subordinate to the strings throughout. Only in the Presto do the horns come momentarily to the fore, and one is reminded of another anecdote of the child Mozart writing his very first symphony and commenting to his sister, "Remind me to give the horns something interesting to do."

Haydn: Symphony No. 49 in F minor ("La Passione")

This is one of Haydn's finest efforts. Like the Symphony No. 44, the "Mourning" Symphony (heard in a BCO concert in 2003), "La Passione" dates from Haydn's Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) period, in which deeply felt emotion is the hallmark. The F minor, from 1768, is the only symphony Haydn ever wrote in that key and the last of the sonata da chiesa style symphonies, that is, ones that begin with a slow movement — and what a movement it is! An expansive and heartfelt Adagio, this beautiful piece is predominantly dolorous in tone, but the clouds do part, and one can see whence the title, which was appended in the nineteenth century, might have come: Christ's Passion mitigated by his message of peace and love. (Of course, it must be emphasized that this interpretation was not Haydn's.) The Adagio ends somberly, though, and Haydn understandably wants to avoid shattering the mood with too great a contrast; the succeeding Allegro di molto offers considerable contrast in its violence, but remains in the minor. Indeed, and most unusually, all four of the movements of this great symphony are in minor keys: only the trio of the lovely minuet, with its "gunmetal gleam of high horn notes" (H.C. Robbins Landon), is in the major. The opening of the Presto finale is all at once vigorous and restrained, suggestive of urgent, restless energy kept on a tight leash. This animal is then given plenty of latitude to scamper about, but never quite to burst its bonds — a remarkable conclusion to a remarkable symphony.

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante

In the late eighteenth century a new sort of grand concerto appeared and in short order grew to be enormously popular. This was the Sinfonia Concertante, essentially the same as a concerto, but usually with more than one soloist — often as many as four — and marked by a striving for more brilliant effect. In view of the popularity of the form, it is perhaps surprising that Haydn wrote only one Sinfonia Concertante and that Mozart completed only two. But Haydn was occupied by his demanding position at the court of the Esterházy family, and the absence of any immediate occasion no doubt kept him from essaying a Sinfonia Concertante until he travelled to London in 1792. Similarly, the genre seems to have fired Mozart's inspiration only while he was travelling in Mannheim and Paris, where the Sinfonia Concertante was especially in vogue. The form occupied Mozart's interest for only two years, but these same years also saw him produce a number of concerti for two solo instruments with orchestra. (None of these was styled Sinfonia Concertante, but clearly the idea of writing for two or more soloists with orchestra captured Mozart's imagination during this period.) The first such work to be finished was the Concerto for flute and harp (coming up in the BCO's April concerts), which was written on commission in Paris in April 1778. At the same time, Mozart was working on his first Sinfonia Concertante, for four winds, that he had started at Mannheim for the soloists of the orchestra there. This was followed by his great concerto for two pianos in E-flat, K.365 [316a], in early 1779. No sooner had he finished that than Mozart embarked on what would be the greatest of all these scores, the present Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola. Interestingly, it is in the same key as the Double Piano Concerto, E-flat, and in both works the slow movement is in the relative minor.

The work begins in splendor. Although the orchestra is a small one, only two oboes, two horns, and strings, the same as in the other works on this program, the effect is much grander. The broad conception is marked Allegro maestoso, "majestic," and the music certainly lives up to the designation. As if to ensure the unadulterated perfection of the music, Mozart himself provided the cadenzas for all three movements, and one might draw attention especially to the ravishing cadenza of the indescribably gorgeous C minor slow movement. The finale, marked Presto, is a delightful, if rather lightweight conclusion in which the striking cadenza is uncharacteristically underscored with orchestral support while the soloists take off in flight.

The aforementioned concert in April is a sort of Doppelgänger of this one: it will contain another of the Op. 3 symphonies of Christian Bach, another of Haydn's Sturm und Drang symphonies (the "Farewell"), and another "double concerto" by Mozart.

SCHEDULE & TICKETS  •  ABOUT US  •  PROGRAM NOTES  •  SUPPORT US  •  CONTACT US  •  SITE MAP & CREDITS