1 CD - 4509-90842-2 - (p) 1994

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)





Serenade No. 4 in D major


Marcia, KV 237 (189c)
3' 49" 1
Serenade, KV 203 (189b)
46' 40"
- Andante maestoso 8' 56"
2
- Andante 5' 21"
3
- Menuetto - Trio 3' 55"
4
- Allegro 5' 18"
5
- Menuetto - Trio 3' 54"
6
- Andante 9' 28"
7
- Menuetto - Trio
 4' 27"
8
- Prestissimo - Coda 5' 21"
9
Symphony No. 23 in D major, KV 181 (162b)
9' 31"
- Allegro spiritoso - Andantino grazioso - Presto assai 9' 31"
10



 
CONCENTUS MUSICUS WIEN (mit Originalinstrumenten)
- Erich Höbarth, Violine
 - Dorle Sommer, Viola
- Alice Harnoncourt, Violine - Gerold Klaus, Viola
- Anita Mitterer, Violine - Ursula Kortschak, Viola
- Andrea Bischof, Violine - Herwig Tachezi, Violoncello
- Helmut Mitter, Violine - Max Engel, Violoncello
- Peter Schoberwalter, Violine - Eduard Hruza, Violone
- Karl Höffinger, Violine - Andrew Ackerman, Violone
- Maighread McCrann, Violine - Robert Wolf, Querflöte
- Christina Busch, Violine - Reinhard Czasch, Querflöte
- Editha Fetz, Violine - Hans Peter Westermann, Oboe
- Maria Kubizek, Violine - Marie Wolf, Oboe
- Irene Troi, Violine - Christian Beuse, Fagott
- Herlinde Schaller, Violine - Andrew Joy, Naturhorn
- Christian Tachezi, Violine - Rainer Jurkiewiez, Naturhorn
- Thomas Feodoroff, Violine - Andreas Lackner, Naturtrompete
- Peter Schoberwalter junior, Violine - Martin Rabl, Naturtrompete
- Lynn Pascher, Viola - Dieter Seiler, Pauken

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Leitung
 
Luogo e data di registrazione
Casino Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - dicembre 1992
Registrazione live / studio
studio
Producer / Engineer
Wolfgang Mohr / Helmut Mühle / Michael Brammann / Stefan Witzel
Prima Edizione CD
Teldec "Das Alte Werk" - 4509-90842-2 - (1 cd) - 60' 37" - (p) 1994 - DDD
Prima Edizione LP
-

Notes
It was not until 1831 that Friedrich Rochlitz, writing in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, first signalled the existence of what he described as "three volumes of original manuscripts by W. A. Mozart" in the possession of the Hamburg music-publisher August Cranz. All three volumes were small in size and bound in blue-grey cloth. The first of them contained nine symphonies, the second a concertone (K. 190) and three serenades (K. 203, 204 and 250), and the third only a single serenade (K. 185) and a march (K. 189). Although the dates entered at the start of each work have all been rendered illegible by an unknown hand, we know that it was only after his return from his third visit to Italy, in March 1773, that Mozart began using this small landscape format. In other words, the works in question must have been written either in 1773 or later and were presumably, for the most part, the result of commissions from ltalian, Milanese or Lombardic patrons.
The D major Symphony K. 181 is written in the manner of an italian-style overture and might have been intended for an opera, an idea that receives support not only from the fact that the three movements are joined together without a break but more especially from the musical language of the work, a language which, to a degree that even today continues to elicit amazement, seems to suggest a kind of action of altogether theatrical immediacy. It is surely significant in this context that the not yet seventeen-year-old composer had been in Milan at the end of 1772 to prepare for the first performance of his opera Lucio Silla. Equally "theatrical" are the instrumental forces deployed, with two oboes, two horns and two trumpets in addition to the usual complement of strings. Motivically, tonally and dynamically, too, the listener is inevitably reminded of an opera when following the three movements of this overture-like symphony. Or was Mozart simply in an impish mood? Was he wanting, above all else, to set his listeners thinking? Perhaps there is irony waiting to be discovered here, too, an irony that has ensured that so idiosyncratically distinctive a symphony has been practically ignored in the world of music.
Certainly, one cannot help being struck by the way that tremolo passages in the strings over triadic figures in the bass can create the feeling of chords, that G minor chords and the interplay between major and minor still have the power to shock, and that there is a notable absence of any thematic writing in the sense of a clear melodic line. The diminished seventh makes as though to announce something that subsequently fails to materialize. What we hear is a number of syncopated effects, octave leaps and imitative entries creating a sense of momentum, but nothing else. Nor is there a ”second” subject, lout, instead, a dialogue between strings and wind, a feature that attests to Mozart's unique ability to operate beyond strict rules, to avoid all that is expected and, as the composer Wolfgang Rihm once said of him, ”never to do anything really ’properly': everything is somehow wrong, which is why this music still lives for us today".
It was for precisely this reason, however, that Mozart's music was able to give rise to misunderstandings, even in 1826. Thus, for example, we read in Hans Georg Nägeli's Vorlesungen über Musik mit Berücksichtigung des Dillettanten (Lectures on Music with Due Regard to the Amateur) of this year: "Tender melodies frequently alternate with harsh, abrasive sounds, charm of movement with violence. Great was Mozart’s genius, but equally great was his erroneous wish to create his effects through contrast, a failing typical of genius in general and all the more deplorable in that he constantly contrasted the non-instrumental with the instrumental, cantabile writing with a freer style. It was inartistic, as it is in all the arts when something has to achieve its effect through its polar opposite. It had a distorting effect, first and foremost on himself, because as soon as perpetual contrast is raised to the level of a general principle, one loses sight of the beautiful sense of proportion that exists between the individual parts of any work of art."
Mozart was clearly experimenting in the opening movement of K. 181, just as, thanks to his use of a characteristic timbral device involving a trill, he hesitates, rhythmically and gesturally, between a "quick march” and what Saint-Foix termed a "quick step” in the final movement. In the middle movement he gives the solo oboe an opportunity to perform a regular operatic aria. Timbre is briefly emphasized in the final movement, when Mozart suddenly demands divided violas for eight bars.
Like the D major Symphony K. 181, the Serenade in D major K. 203 has clear operatic associations, as Alfred Einstein has already pointed out: ”The built-in violin concerto, this time in B flat major and in three instead of only two movements, is now fully formed, a true work within a work, not a mere episode. One thinks involuntarily of a similar process in the history of opera: the inclusion of an opera buffa or intermezzo between the acts of an opera seria. In the opening movement of the concerto there is another remarkable pointer to the future: the contrast between the main melody and the garrulous interjections on oboes and violas, and that between Donna Anna and Don Ottavio on the one hand and Donna Elvira and Don Giovanni on the other in the B flat major quartet - even the key is the same.” In short, we have further proof here of the theatrical aspect of Mozart's thinking as an instrumental composer.
Mozart added a manuscript note to the autograph of the Serenade: "Serenata del Sgr. Wolfgango Amadeo Mozart, nel mese d’agosto 1774”. Here, too, the year was later deleted, although there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the attribution. Mozart's first biographer, Franz Xaver Niemetschek, argued that it was written for the name day of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg Hieronymus Colloredo but although the work continues to this day to bear the nickname ”Colloredo Serenade”, it seems unlikely that the work was in fact written on this occasion. To judge by the seriousness of its extended movements and the strictness of the thematico-motivic writing, one is tempted to think that Mozart must have had a more important reason for composing it. Here, too, there are contrasts of a dramatic nature. A weighty slow introductory section of symphonic significance is contrasted with sparkling fast movements unclouded in character. An Andante reveals itself as another evocation of an operatic aria, but we also hear distinctively Mozartian rninuet-like rhythms and fleeting notturno-like musings. Since Mozart was an outstandingly good violinist, it seems likely that it was with himself in mind that he wrote the violin concerto incorporated in this serenade.
At the time that Mozart wrote the D major Serenade, it was usual practice, at least in the case of open-air performances, for the players to march into position and, at the end of the performance, to march away again. Mozart is believed to have written such a march to introduce and round off the D major Serenade, too. Since there are thematic links between serenade and march, it has been assumed that both works were intended as a single entity, but the fact that the march is not scored for violas and that it demands two bassoons, instead of the single bassoon required in the serenade, might tend to favour the argument of those scholars who insist that the march is not, after all, part of the serenade. Be that as it may, the march might still function as a prologue and epilogue and, given its compositional density, would also ensure the right note of portentousness.
Wolf-Eberhard von Lewinski
Translation: Stewart Spencer

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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