By Aaron Grad

Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K. 367 [1781]

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg

Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna

For orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. Approximately 15 minutes.

Mozart received his first major opera commission in 1780, at the age of 24. The new work, Idomeneo, was for the Munich court of Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria – the same patron who had assembled the famous orchestra in Mannheim. Mozart had visited that court in 1778, and he made enough of an impression on some of the musicians that they recommended him for the new commission two years later. The Munich engagement was a welcome relief from the frustrations of Salzburg, and the resulting exposure helped pave the way for Mozart’s move to Vienna in 1781.

The new opera was based on Idoménée, a 1712 French telling of a Greek legend, with librettist Giambattista Varesco enlisted to create an Italian version. Mozart began the opera in Salzburg, and completed it in Munich in advance of the January 1781 premiere. His most direct influence for the work was Christoph Gluck, whose operas for the Paris stage since 1774 demonstrated operatic possibilities beyond the Italianate confines that had ruled for generations. Like Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide, Mozart’s Idomeneo uses a combination of choruses, arias and recitatives to depict a Greek tale from the aftermath of the Trojan War. Most notably, Mozart’s final scene, like Gluck’s, dispenses with singing to conclude with a grand ballet.

The opera centers on Idomeneo, the king of Crete, who only survives his return voyage from the Trojan War thanks to intervention by the god Neptune. Idomeneo promises in return to sacrifice the first living creature he sees, who turns out to be his son, Idamante. By the point of the closing ballet, Idamante has been spared, and Idomeneo turns his rule over to Idamante and his new bride Ilia, a freed Trojan slave. The grand dance music celebrates this coronation with a regal Chaconne, following the precedent set by Gluck, and even borrowing some of his thematic material. A Chaconne is generally thought of as a slow and severe progression of variations over a repeating ground bass – the final movement of Bach’s Fourth Partita for Solo Violin is the quintessential model – but it first developed as a celebratory Spanish court dance, probably with roots in the New World. Mozart’s festive Chaconne connects directly to a grand solo dance (recognizable by the rapidly-ascending octave scale in the violins and flutes), with the full corps rejoining at the triplet più allegro section near the end. The ballet suite concludes with three typical court dances: Passepied, Gavotte and Passacaille.

Idomeneo was never again staged in Mozart’s lifetime, even after a 1786 revision. With future operas branching away from the Gluck model, Idomeneo stands as a unique entry point to Mozart’s maturity, and a rare taste of that most operatic composer’s dramatic dance music.

Oboe Concerto in D Major [1945]                                                                                             

RICHARD STRAUSS

Born June 11, 1864 in Munich

Died September 8, 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

For solo oboe and orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and strings. Approximately 24 minutes.

Nestled in the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany, the small town of Garmisch was Richard Strauss’ refuge from the chaos of World War II. He cloistered his Jewish daughter-in-law and grandsons there, and stayed even after Allied forces occupied the area in April of 1945. The aging composer had long been famous in the United States (his immortal tone poems were nearly 50 years old by that point), and musicians within the ranks of the army ensured Strauss’ protection. One G.I. who approached Strauss with awe was a 24-year-old intelligence officer, John de Lancie, who in his civilian life had played Strauss’ music as the Solo Oboist for the Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner. Over a series of dinners in the summer of 1945, de Lancie had the opportunity to compliment the composer on his oboe writing, and asked if he had ever considered writing a concerto. Strauss’s answer was simply “No.”

Sergeant de Lancie was understandably surprised when he received a clipping a few months later with news of Strauss’ latest composition, an Oboe Concerto. Evidently fuzzy on the origins of his guest, Strauss had inscribed on the title page, “Oboe Concerto 1945 / Inspired by an American soldier / (oboist from Chicago).” Strauss later tried to arrange for de Lancie to give the American premiere, but a question of orchestral seniority interfered – de Lancie had joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as Associate First Oboist, and the concerto privileges were reserved for the principal player. Even after becoming the Principal Oboist in 1954, de Lancie had to contend with conductor Eugene Ormandy’s distaste for the concerto, and it took until 1987 for the oboist who inspired Strauss to finally record the piece, in a session he arranged privately with members of Orpheus.

The sweeping melodies and pivoting harmonies of the Oboe Concerto reveal some of the Romantic flair expected from Strauss, but he repackaged his sound into taut structures and crystalline textures, more redolent of Haydn than of Wagner. The work begins with a compact flurry of four notes, a figure that decorates and informs the florid lines soaring through the opening movement. The transparent orchestration allows the oboe to carry lively tunes with bravado, a well-balanced contrast to the instrument’s innate lyricism. The oboe’s singing quality is on display from the start of the second movement, with the initial four-note figure bridging the transition into new material. A solo cadenza, punctuated by pizzicato chords, connects directly to the boisterous finale.

Eight Instrumental Miniatures [1962]

IGOR STRAVINSKY

Born June 5,1882 near St. Petersburg

Died April 6, 1971 in New York

For ensemble consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, horn, 2 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos. Approximately 8 minutes.

In 1921, Stravinsky wrote Les cinq doigts (The Five Fingers), a series of very easy piano pieces for his young children. As hinted by the title, the eight short movements explore the melodic possibilities of leaving the right hand mostly stationary over a single set of five notes. Even with such limited materials, the music sounds unmistakably like Stravinsky: Its dry, dancing rhythms and fractured themes elaborate on the “neoclassical” sound first used in Pulcinella a year earlier. In another sense, Les cinq doigts prefigures the serial experiments from late in the composer’s career, when he again played with restricted tone combinations.

Stravinsky resurrected the little piano score in 1962, creating the arrangement Eight Instrumental Miniatures for a 15-member ensemble. The orchestration went beyond mere note distribution, to include what Stravinsky described as “rhythmic rewriting, phrase regrouping, canonic elaboration, [and] new modulation.” The 80-year-old maestro conducted the premiere in Toronto; it would be the last time he led a concert debut of his music.

Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425 (“Linz”) [1783]

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg

Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna

For ensemble consisting of 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. Approximately 26 minutes.

Mozart deferred to his father in most matters, but one notable act of defiance was marrying Constanze Weber in 1782, a union that Leopold only grudgingly approved, with his consent arriving a day after the nuptials. The younger Mozart knew he should visit Salzburg to smooth over matters with his family, but he postponed the trip several times. Finally, the young couple left Vienna in July 1783, and Constanze met Leopold for the first time, as well as Mozart’s beloved (and equally disapproving) sister Nannerl. Beyond the tension one might expect from such an introduction, the Mozarts also had to face the news that their first son, born only a few weeks earlier and left behind in Vienna, had died.

Wolfgang and Constanze stopped in Linz on their way back to Vienna a few months later. Their host, Count Johann Joseph Anton von Thun-Hohenstein, welcomed them to his palace and arranged for the court orchestra to perform a concert. Wolfgang wrote to his father, “I really cannot tell you what kindnesses the family are showering on us. On Tuesday, November 4, I am giving a concert in the theater here and, as I have not a single symphony with me, I am writing a new one at break-neck speed, which must be finished by that time.” It was breakneck speed indeed, for Mozart only arrived on October 30, leaving him less than five days to compose the new piece, copy out the parts, and rehearse with the orchestra.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 in C Major, nicknamed “Linz” for its city of origin, betrays no evidence of strained composition. In fact, it is rare among Mozart’s symphonies in that it begins with a leisurely introduction. The opening harmonies wander away from C major and soon settle in C minor, creating a moody counterpoint to the generally sunny disposition of the symphony. Unexpected detours into minor keys recur in the movement’s secondary theme, and later in the graceful Andante movement; it is as if Mozart must shake free the lingering clouds of Salzburg. After a playful little Minuet, the Presto finale sprints through a fluid range of themes, with short motives and ideas bouncing among sections. One may note a certain family resemblance between this finale and another C-major movement that is among Mozart’s most famous, the contrapuntal closing of the Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”).

 © 2009 Aaron Grad.

Back to Concert Page