In May of 1784, while reflecting on his three most recently completed piano concerti (Nos. 14, 15, and 16), Mozart insisted that he “could not choose between them,” but that “the one in E-flat [No. 14] does not belong at all to the same category. It is one of a quite peculiar kind…” Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat Major, K. 499 is intimate chamber music. Unlike Mozart’s later concerti, the wind …
When Franz Joseph Haydn composed his Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major in 1796, he was at the forefront of a thrilling new technical experiment. Traditionally, the valveless natural trumpet was limited to the pitches of the overtone series. In the lower register, these pitches amounted to bugle call notes. In classical symphonies, trumpets were used sparingly to punctuate climaxes with celebratory fanfares. Only in its highest register could the natural trumpet access …
A revolutionary current runs through Franz Joseph Haydn’s Mass in Time of War (Mass No. 10 in C Major). It approaches the liturgy with a new sense of tumultuous drama, with military fanfares ringing out in the closing movement. The rumbling artillery of its timpani rolls earned the work the nickname, Paukenmesse (“Kettledrum Mass”). In a way which foreshadows Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, the instrumental lines take on new dramatic prominence, rather than …
In June of 1789, the 33-year-old Mozart began writing a set of six string quartets for Friedrich Wilhelm II, the King of Prussia, a passionate music lover and a fine amateur cellist. Mozart had played at the King’s Potsdam court during a tour the previous spring. Ultimately, Mozart was unable to fulfill the commission. After completing the first Quartet (K. 575), he became occupied with the opera, Così fan tutte. He returned to …
Mozart’s 1786 comic opera in four acts, The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492, is filled with trickery, deception, overheard conversations, cunning disguises, and crazy schemes. Unfolding over the course of a single “day of madness,” it tells the story of two servants, Figaro and Susanna, who succeed in getting married despite the efforts of their lecherous employer, Count Almaviva. The play by Pierre Beaumarchais, on which the opera was based, faced censorship because …
Mozart’s G major string Serenade No. 13, commonly known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik (“A Little Night Music”), is among the most enduring popular music ever written. Responding to an unknown commission, Mozart dashed it off on August 10, 1787 in Vienna as he worked on the second act of the opera, Don Giovanni. Originally scored for string quartet and double bass, the piece is frequently performed by a string orchestra. German commentator Wolfgang Hildesheimer wrote, “even …
Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel insisted that Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, K. 618 is “too simple for children, and too difficult for adults.” Indeed, this simple choral, unfolding over 46 measures, imparts a cosmic “rightness.” It says all that needs to be said. The score is inscribed with a single interpretive marking—sotto voce, which implies a hushed, reverent tone. This motet was composed in the final six months of Mozart’s life, concurrently with The …