Rejoice and be glad,

ye blessed spirits,

singing sweet songs;

the heavens join with me

echoing your chant.

The friendly day is shining

now that clouds and storms have fled;

sudden calm has risen on the just.

Dark night reigned all around;

but now arise in gladness,

ye who until now were afraid,

and offer leaves and lilies

with a generous hand,

rejoicing in the happy dawn.

Thou crown of virgins,

give us peace;

and console our minds

and our heavy hearts.

Alleluja! [and so on, and on]

IT'S NOT REALLY TRUE THAT THE SINFONIA

CONCERTANTE HAS NO MATE IN MOZART'S OUTPUT



In fact, at the very same time Mozart composed another double concerto, in the same key (!), and the two works were clearly connected in his mind. But the two-piano concerto (which wound up being numbered in the sequence of Mozart's piano concertos, as No. 10, K. 365) represents such a different sort of soloist-combining challenge that the actual music doesn't seem to me to mate especially well with the Sinfonia concertante; it winds up being another piece that occupies a genre pretty much of its own -- unless you count the three-piano concerto (which also wound up numbered among the piano concertos, as No. 7 in F, K. 242). While the latter is often paired with the two-piano concerto, it's a notably less adventurous work; again, the two really don't seem to me to have much in common.

First movement

Second movement

Third movement

BONUS: HERE ARE THE FIRST MOVEMENTS OF THOSE

THREEE OTHER WONDERFUL MULTIPLE CONCERTOS



BRAHMS: "Double" Concerto in A minor

for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra, Op. 102:

i. Allegro

Henryk Szeryng, violin; János Starker, cello; Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink, cond. Philips, recorded September 1970



BEETHOVEN: "Triple" Concerto in C

for Violin, Cello, Piano, and Orchestra, Op. 56:

i. Allegro

Renaud Capuçon, violin; Mischa Maisky, cello; Martha Argerich, piano; Orchestra of Svizzera Italiana, Alexandre Rabinovich-Barakovksy, cond. EMI, recorded live, June 2003



MOZART: Concerto in E-flat for Two Pianos

and Orchestra (Piano Concerto No. 10), K. 365:

i. Allegro

Murray Perhahia and Radu Lupu, pianos; English Chamber Orchestra, Murray Perahia, cond. CBS/Sony, recorded June 23-24, 1988

#

We have no great theme this week, just two singularly wonderful works, the motet) and thefor Violin, Viola, and Orchestra, which are kind of orphans in Mozart's vast output, in that neither has an obvious "companion" work for (for example) disc-coupling purposes.In Friday night's preview we sampled the uniquely joyful concluding "" of this relatively early piece. Now I think we're ready to hear the whole thing. There's nothing really fancy about the form, which is basically your good old-fashioned fast-slow-fast sequence. The materials just happen to be crafted by one of the supreme musical geniuses. First we'll hear it broken down into its component parts. I think the appeal of the first and last movements is pretty obvious; the perky central Andante, by a good margin the work's longest movement, is a quintessentially Mozartean operatic aria that makes it sound as if the composer is on the brink of composingAnd in case you'd like to hear the whole thing put together:. . .The which we sampled last night , is basically a double concerto, for violin and viola, which seems like a straightforward and workable enough idea -- you let your two soloists have their own versions of your thematic material, or maybe contrasting materials, and periodically you put them. Doesn't sound all that daunting, and Mozart made it sound like a snap. Here he is at the height of his creative powers -- each of the three movements seems to me musical perfection of its assigned sort -- and the way he handles his two solo instruments, he makes it sound like anybody could do it. Goodness knows, lots of composers tried it, but really only Brahms produced a real masterpiece, in his Double Concerto in A minor for violin and cello. Beethoven actually pulled off a Triple Concerto (for violin, cello, and piano), but it's really a pretty specialized entry in B's catalog.These days theis often lumped together with Mozart's five violin concertos, as is the case with the recording from which we're going to hear the first movement of the. The violin concertos are wonderful works all, but they're from a significantly earlier era in the composer's life and really have little in common with the later work. Note the scale of this first movement as well as the way Mozart distributes the solo activity between the two soloists.I've had occasion before to express my admiration for Anne-Sophie Mutter's Mozart concerto cycle, which I continue to find a joy. As conductor, Mutter seems to have cast a spell over the London Philharmonic violins in particular, who really seem to be trying to emulate her phrasing. We've also had happy encounters with violist Yuri Bashmet (most recently in Berlioz').For this, one of the great Mozart slow movements, note that he has slipped into the minor. Note too how the character of the beautiful principal theme changes character as it's handed off from orchestra to the solo violin and then, most broodingly, to the solo viola -- played especially hauntingly here by Amadeus Quartet violist Peter Schidlof.It was Schidlof's death in 1987 that ended the remarkable 40-year run of the Amadeus. The quartet had never had a personnel change in its long history, and Schidlof's colleagues couldn't imagine replacing him. As I mentioned last night, when we heard the concluding Presto of thefrom this recording, it's the last of three recordings of the piece> made by Schidlof and his Amadeus colleague violinist Norbert Brainin. It's an exceptionally broad performance, and its ruminative quality is why I've picked its slow movement -- but if you listen to the complete performance down below, I think you'll notice a remarkable difference between Brainin and Schidlof's 1983 performance and our others.We have a pretty standard rondo finale, but one that's exceptionally vivacious even by Mozart's standards. It would be hard to imagine a lither or more buoyant performance than this one by Vladimir Spivakov (conducting as well as fiddling), Shlomo Mintz, and the Moscow chamber orchestra.You mean we need a Okay, okay. Once upon a time Columbia Masterworks took advantage of their relative orphan status to make an LP of them, in really lively, beautiful performances byand the Cleveland Orchestra -- with the orchestra's concertmaster and viola principal, Rafael Druian and Abraham Skernick, as soloists in theand the lovely American soprano Judith Raskin as soloist in. I really loved that LP, which had the bonus feature that the third movement of the, the Presto we heard in Friday night's preview, was pushed onto the start of the "B" side, before, making it a snap to listen just to that irresistible movement. Naturally with the coming of CD that sublimely improvised coupling was sundered. I already had the Raskin-Szellas a filler with the Szell-Cleveland Mahler Fourth Symphony -- in whichis again the soloist. Just recently, though, I stumbled across a CD on which Sony has coupled thatwith the Szell-Cleveland Mozart Clarinet Concerto (with the orchestra's clarinet principal, Robert Marcellus), a perfectly agreeable coupling that more importantly makes the old Columbia whole for me on CD.Just so you can hear these performances sort of the way I still hear them in my mind, here they are. (Don't forget to imagine the LP side break between the second and third movements of the.)[i. 0:00; ii. 5:25; iii. 6:19; iv. 13:04] We hear first the veteran soprano Eleanor Steber, bringing to the music a voice of considerably larger format, yet singing it with plenty of panache. Then we've got a simply lovely all-around performance in the Hendricks-Marriner.[i. 0:00; ii. 4:44; iii. 5:45; iv. 12:56][i. 0:00; ii. 4:58; iii. 5:54; iv. 13:08]Here are the complete performances from which we've heard individual movements of the. In addition, along with the 1983 Brainin-Schidlof recording I thought it might be fun to hear their (mostly) 1953 one.

Labels: George Szell, Mozart, Sunday Classics