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1 CD -
3984-21463-2 - (p) 1998
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| Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) |
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| Symphony No. 16 in C major,
KV 128 |
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13' 50" |
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- Allegro
maestoso
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5' 10" |
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1
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- Andante
grazioso
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4' 27" |
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2
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| - Allegro |
4' 13" |
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3
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| Symphony No. 17 in G major,
KV 129 |
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11' 59" |
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- Allegro
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4' 50" |
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4
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| - Andante |
4' 05" |
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5
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| - Allegro |
3' 04" |
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6
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| Symphony No. 18 in F major,
KV 130 |
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22' 26" |
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- Allegro
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5' 45" |
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7
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| - Andantino grazioso |
6' 53" |
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8
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| - Menuetto - Trio |
2' 42" |
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9
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- Molto Allegro
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7' 06" |
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10
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| Symphony No. 21 in A major,
KV 134 |
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18' 59" |
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- Allegro
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5' 30" |
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11
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| - Andante |
5' 11" |
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12
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| - Menuetto - Trio |
3' 48" |
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13
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- Allegro
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4' 30" |
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14
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CONCENTUS MUSICUS
WIEN (with original
instruments)
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Erich Höbarth, Violine
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Herlinde Schaller, Violine (KV
134) |
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Alice Harnoncourt, Violine |
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Lynn Pascher, Viola |
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Anita Mitterer, Violine |
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Dorle Sommer, Viola |
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Andrea Bischof, Violine (KV 128,
129, 130)
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Gerold Klaus, Viola |
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Helmut Mitter, Violine |
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Ursula Kortschak, Viola (KV 128) |
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Peter Schoberwalter, Violine |
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Barbara Klebel, Violine (KV 129,
130, 134) |
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Karl Höffinger, Violine |
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Herwig Tachezi, Violoncello |
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Walter Pfeiffer, Violine |
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Dorothea Guschlbauer, Violoncello |
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Irene Troi, Violine |
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Eduard Hruza, Violone |
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Annemarie Ortner, Violine (KV
128)
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Hermann Eisterer, Violone (KV
128) |
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Gertrud Weinmeister, Violine (KV
128)
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Andrew Ackerman, Violone (KV
129, 130, 134) |
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Silvia Iberer-Walch, Violine (KV
129, 130, 134)
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Robert Wolf, Traversflöte (KV
130, 134) |
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Editha Fetz, Violine |
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Reinhard Czasch, Traverrsflöte
(KV 130, 134) |
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Veronika Kröner, Violine (KV
112)
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Hans Peter Westermann, Oboe (KV
128, 129) |
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Christian Tachezi, Violine (KV
129, 130, 134)
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Marie Wolf, Oboe (KV 128, 129) |
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Ursula Kortschak, Violine (KV
114, 133)
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Eleanor Froelich, Fagott |
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Annelie Gahl, Violine
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Hector McDonald, Horn (KV 128,
130) |
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Thomas Fheodoroff, Violine (KV
129, 130, 134)
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Eric Kushner, Horn (KV 129, 130,
134) |
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Peter Schoberwalter junior, Violine |
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Alois Schlor, Horn |
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Barbara Klebel, Violine (KV 128)
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Georg Sonnleithner, Horn (KV
130) |
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| Nikolaus
Harnoncourt |
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Luogo
e data di registrazione
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Casino
Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - ottobre 1996
(KV 129, 130, 134), dicembre 1996 (KV 128)
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Registrazione
live / studio
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| studio |
Producer
/ Engineer
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Wolfgang
Mohr / Helmut Mühle / Michael Brammann
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Prima Edizione CD
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| Teldec
"Das Alte Werk" - 3984-21463-2 - (1 cd)
- 67' 37" - (p) 1998 - DDD |
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Prima
Edizione LP
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Practice
Makes Perfect
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To no composer does
the somewhat priggish tenet quoted
above apply less readily than it does
to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: the astonishing
achievements of the musical prodigy and
the breathtaking
productivity of a composer who
notoriously died before
his time encouraged 19th century
writers to imagine that
Mozart, unlike Beethoven (a titanic
figure for whom every note nits an
effort of wlll), wus catpable
of blithely
tossing off whole operas before
breakfast, with the odd symphony thrown
in for good measure. Not until the
20th century was this Apollonian
figure despatched to
the realm of myth, when
studies of his manuscripts
und sketches and the
publication of his complete corrispondence
finally made it
clear that, as man and artisti, Mozart
had to work hard, constantly honing
and polishing all that he wrote.
Mozart was eight when, under
the guidance of Johann Christian
Bach, he took his first steps in the
field of the symphony, applying
himself to the task with such
tenacity that within barely a decade
he had completed more than thirty
such works. His most sustained
engagement with the medium came in
1772, a year that began badly for
the young composer with the death of
his patron, the prince-archbishop of
Salzburg, Siegmund, Count
Schrattenbach, on 16 December 1771,
only a day after the Mozarts
returned to Salzburg from their
second extended visit to Italy, a
visit that had seen Mozart heaped
with honours and acclaim but denied
the permanent appointment at the
Milanese court on wich he had set
his sights. Schrattenbachhad been
exceptionally well disposed to the
Mozarts, and it was for the planned
celebration of the fiftieth
anniversary of his ordination on 10
January 1772 that Mozart had written
his azione teatrale, Il sogno di
Scipione. Instead of these
splendid celebrations and first
nights, the court was now plunged
into mourning, until a successor to
Schrattenbach was found in the
person of Hieronymus, Count
Colloredo, a man of artistic
leanings but parsimonious to the
point of niggardliness, with the
result that under his princely sway
both music and theatre were much
curtailed at the Salzburg court.
Mozart adopted a flexible approach
to the changed circumstances, and
the azione teatrale that had
been intended as a homage to
Schrattenbach was duly rededicated
to Colloredo. Otherwise he used the
time to digest the musical
experiences gained in the course of
his travels. Between his return to
Salzburg and the summer of 1772,
Mozart wrote a large number of
instrumental pieces, including no
fewer than seven symphonies that
combine stylistic elements from the Italian, Austrian
and German traditions and experiment
with new ideas
and special effects.
One such effect -
and a particularly delightful
example of its kind - is to he found
at the very beginning of the
Symphony in C major K. 128, the
first of three symphonies (K. 128-30) to be completed in May 1772: here the
first subject's
regular triplet movement initially
creates the impression of a 9/8
metre, and it is not until the
second subject enters that the 3/4
time-signature is revealed as the
true underlying metre. In the
recapitulation, this triplet theme
is heard -
surprisingly - in a series of
sequences that modulate to remote
tonalities, a technique that one
might rather have expected
to encounter in the movement's
middle section. Not until we turn to
the opening Allegro of the G major
Symphony K. 129
do we find this reworking of the
thematic material in the development
section, where the first subject,
with its marked Lombardic rhythm,
dominates the whole section. Mozart
then goes a stage further in his F
major Symphony K.
130, where he
additionally takes up the first
subject at the
end of the exposition and
recapitulation, using the thematic
muterial to demarcate the movement's formal sections.
The F mnjor Symphony also finds the
composer exploring new terrotiry
from an instrumentational
standpoint, inasmuch as he now uses
four horns for the first time
instead of the usual two, pairing
them with the flutes. This colourful
writing for wind instruments
produces enchantingly
beautiful textures especially in the
Andantino grazioso, where it is
heard against a background of muted violins
and pizzicato cellos and basses.
Indeed, such beauty
is apt to make one forget that the basic melody, which
is structured in groups of 3+3+4
bars, with each group divided by
rests, is not in
itself especially memorable.
The final movement is not the
usuul rondo but a Molto allegro cast
in sonata form that sets it apart
from the typical dancelike envoi
and turns it into a
worthy counterpart of the opening
Allegro, thus allowing this last of
this group of three symphonies of
May 1772 to emerge as one of the
composer's early masterpieces.
The A major Simphony K. 134 was completed in
August 1772 and brings
to an end the present series of
Salzburg symphonies, while at the
same time marking the onset of n new
chapter in Mozart's life,
for it was in August 1772 that he
was appointed Konzertmeister to the
prince-archbishop's court on an
annual salary of 150
gulden. A glance at
this symphony's
masterly formal design makes it clear that
this recognition of the
sixteen-year-olds abilities was more
than amply justified.
Here in the opening
movement, for
example, Mozart permits himself a
stroke of genius, ignoring the
second subject in the development
section, then proceeding to ignore
the first subject in
the recapitulation, which is
limitecl to the second subject only.
These early masterpieces were long unknown to
posterity, which accepted as part of
the classical canon only the
symphonies from K. 183 (the “little”
G minor Symphony of 1773) onwards. Only
these later works were published and
regularly performed. Yet there is nothing
more exciting than to watch a genins
at work and to follow the way in
which an exceptional musical talent
gains in compositional mastery,
producing “exercises” whose beauty
and perfection can only leave us
speechless with amazement.
Annette
Oppermann
Translation:
Stewart Spencer
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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