At Dimitris Mitropoulos hall on the 3rd of February took place a part of the sere ?From Mozart to the second school of Vienna’. Wolfang Amadeus Mozart’s piano, violin, viola and violoncello quartet num. 2 in E-major, K. 493 and Arnold Schoenberg’s ?Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, Op.
41′ for string, piano and voice quartet and after the break, Wolfang Amadeus Mozart’s piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon quintet in E-major, K-452. The quartets and the quintet were played as written above. Firstly, K. 493 which wasAccording to Mozart’s own catalogue, the second quartet in E-flat major was completed on June 3, 1786, less than nine months after the letter to Hoffmeister about the advance. This time, Mozart had the piece printed by the rival publisher Artaria and that edition is the earliest version we possess.
With the exception of a few drafts from the Finale, which are in the British Museum, no autograph score remains. Even if one feels the work to be a relief after its uncompromising counterpart in G minor, the later quartet cannot really be seen as an easier alternative. It is too elaborate for that. This time Mozart sets the piano against the string trio more, but this is not done purely for convenience. The strong polarity of tonic and subdominant in the first two movements creates a somber undercurrent which is emphasized by the instrumentation. The second theme of the first movement (a softer version of the pent-up energy of the beginning, introduced by the violin) is preceded by a contracted motif of two descending sixths which then persists throughout the whole movement as a kind idee fixe.
There are no less than 31 reputations of it in the development, where it serves as a harmonic pivot for a very bold series of modulations. The slow movement exudes warmth and thoughtfulness, twinned with chromatic moments of doubt. Harmonically expansive answering phrases in the strings anticipate the sublime music of the divertimento for string trio K. 563.
The movement is also a perfect example of Mozart’s skill in figuration and ornamentation. The musicians who performed that were Ralf Gothoni who played the piano, he’s appearing frequently across Europe, Canada, Russia,and Japan, Swedish Ralf Gothoni is a multitalentedmusician citing roles as solo pianist, accompanying pianist, chamber music member etc. He has worked withlarge orchestras as well as acting as art director forthree years at the festival ofSavonlinna. Moreover he teached up till 1997 at the Hamburg Academy and iscurrently employed at the Sibelian Academy and at HansHaisler of Berlin. He has won the Gilmor Prize, the Schubert Medal, an award of honor from Finland andalso is active as a pediatrician offering seminars ona global basis.
, Mirijam Contzen who played the violin, 24-year old Mirijam Contzen started her musical at thetender age of two. From the age of seven she studiedunder Tibor Varga at the Music Academy of Detmolnt andfinished her studies at the anotati scholi of Music ofElvetia. She won the first prize at the InternationalTibor Varga Violin Contest in 1993 and has played withmany orchestras such as Hamburg’s and SaintPetroupolis and Hungary’s national symphonyorchestras. In 1996 she recorded the concerto forviolin by Mendelson and Bruch and in 1998 sonatas bySains-Sans, Debissi, and Frank under the Arte Nova andBMG labels respectively. Diemut Poppen who played the viola starting from the age of seven Diemut Poppenconcentrated only on the viola from seventeen yearsold and on.
Her studies have taken her all acrossEurope and to the USA. She has appeared as a soloistin many important musical events and theatres acrossthe world. She was one of the founding members and for15 years a member of the European Chamber Orchestra. At the early age of 29 she became a teacher of theviola and chamber music at the academy of Zaarbrukenand from 1994 she teaches chamber music at theThourigian summer academy.
For the past three yearsshe has been the art director at ?Days of ChamberMusic? of Onsabruk. She has also played in many radio,television and record productions. Frans Helmerson: violoncelloFrans Helmerson born in 1945 in Sweden started playingthe violoncello at the age of eight. He studied inGermany, Italy and England and since has done concertson all inhabited continents except Australia. Heappears in many roles- soloist in symphony orchestras,in chamber music, conductor of mainly Scandinavianorchestras- on stage while carrying out duties as artdirector at the international Oumeo/Korsholm chambermusic festival, and teaching at the higher levelmusical academy of Colonia and at the higher levelschool of music ?Queen Elisabeth? of Madrid. He alsohas and frequently enriches a long recording history.
and Frans Helmerson who played the violoncello. The play was in three tempos 1. Allegro , 2. Larghetto and 3. Allegretto.
Then it was Ode to Napoleon, Op. 41 by Arnold Schoenberg which was tremendous. The most appropriate person to talk about that play is Schoenberg himself. Below there is the answer to the question ?How I Came to Compose the Ode to Napoleon?’. The League of Composers had (1942) asked me to write a piece of chamber music for their concert season.
It should employ only a limited number of instruments. I had at once the idea that this piece must not ignore the agitation aroused in mankind against the crimes that provoked this war. I remembered Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, supporting repeal of the jus prime noctis, Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell, Goethe’s Egmont, Beethoven’s Eroica and Wellington’s Victory and I knew it was the moral duty of intelligence to take a stand against tyranny. But this was only my secondary motive. I had long speculated about the more profound meaning of the nazi philosophy. There was one element that puzzled me extremely: the resemblance of the valueless individual being’s life in respect to the totality of the community or its representative: the queen or the Feuhrer.
I could not see why a whole generation of bees or of Germans should live only in order to produce another generation of the same sort, which on their part should also fulfill the same task: to keep the race alive. I even surmised that bees (or ants) instinctively believe their destiny was to be successors of mankind, when this had destroyed itself in thc same manner in which our predecessors, the Giants, Magicians, Lindworms [Dragons], Dinosaurs and others had destroyed themselves and their world, so that first men knew only a few isolated specimens. Their and the ants’ capacity of forming states and living according to laws – senseless and primitive, as they might look to us – this capacity, unique among animals, had an attractive similarity to our own life; and in our imagination we could muse a story, seeing them growing to dominating power, size and shape and creating a world of their own resembling very little the original beehive. Without such a goal the life of the bees, with the killing of the drones and the thousands of offspring of the queen seemed futile. Similarly all the sacrifices of the German Herrenvolk [Master Race] would not make sense, without a goal of world domination – in which the single individual could vest much interest. Before I started to write this text, I consulted Maeterlinck’s Life of the Bees.
I hoped to find there motives supporting my attitude. But the contrary happened: Maeterlinck’s poetic philosophy gilds everything which was not gold itself. And so wonderful are his explanations that one might decline refuting them, even if one knew they were mere poetry. I had to abandon this plan . I had to had another subject fitting my purpose. Last but not least it was the quintet K.
452, at the beginning of February 1784 Mozart took a clean manuscript book and began a catalog of all his compositions from that day forward. Mozart entered his Piano Quintet in E-flat major on March 30, 1784. It was the fourth item on the page,proceeded by three piano concertos, the last – in D major (K. 451) – finished just eight days before the quintet.
Less than two weeks later Mozart added yet another new concerto – in G major (K. 453) – before he turned the page. The entire year finds Mozart working at the peak of his powers and energy: in addition to completing several other compositions (including two more piano concertos), he maintained a heavy teaching schedule, gave at least twenty-six concerts, entertained a number of house guests, suffered from a kidney infection, recorded the birth of his second son, and moved his entire family, not once, but twice, to new lodgings. On April 10, 1784 Mozart wrote to his father, Leopold, from Vienna, apologizing for being too busy to keep in touch. He reports that nine days earlier his new quintet had been performed for the first time, and that it called forth the very greatest applause.
I myself consider it the best thing I have ever composed in my life. . . .
How I wish you could have heard it! And how beautifully it was performed! Obviously Mozart understood the greatness of the quintet, even in a year filled with masterpieces. He found it necessary to point out to his father that it is written for one oboe, one clariner, one horn, one bassoon, and pianoforte, because apparently no one had ever composed for this grouping of instruments before. Mozart was inspired by the novelty of combining four dissimilar voices with the piano (and the which he used the piano was different than that used at conserts at that time. The music he wrote savors the distinctive qualities of each instrument, yet it manages to make them function as one. Mozart begins with a slow introduction – a rarity in his works at the time – in which he introduces each instrument individually, like characters in a play, and sets the scene for the brilliant drama that follows.
Throughout all three movements, Mozart enjoys trying out various combinations of instruments, against the common backdrop of the piano. The outer movements are lively and engaging conversations, filled both with agreement and outright debate, and governed above all by the friendly exchange of ideas. The central Larghetto is one of Mozart’s great slow operatic ensembles, each player presenting its own point of view before all join together before the footlights. this is the composers only composition for piano and winds.
the play was performed for the first time at the national theatre of Viennawith Mozart playing the piano. After that, my first ?real’ journey to the classical music was over. When I say ?real’ I mean the fact that listening to music in a hall specially designed for that, is a really special and the fact that the music was so great it really made me change my mind about classical music and ,finally, I have figured out what people listen to when they go to Megaro Mousikis and if it worths. To sum up I can say that Mozart and Schoenberg were people with extraordinary musical abilities and I believe it’s really great to listen to such ingeniously inspired music.
