All Mozart, all the time

Anthony Marwood

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This weekend at Powell Hall (October 11-13) it's an all-Mozart program.  You might think an evening of music by one of the most frequently performed composers in Western history couldn't possibly have any surprises.  You'd be wrong.

Let's start with the fact that this weekend's concerts open with a relative rarity: the Symphony No. 1 in E-flat, K. 16.  Mozart was all of eight years old when he wrote it in 1764, during the England segment of a "Grand Tour" of Europe promoting young Wolfgang's skill as a piano prodigy.  Papa Leopold took ill, forcing the family to temporarily relocate from London to Chelsea and idling Wolfgang.  Other kids might have played games; Wolfgang wrote his first symphony.  It's pretty derivative stuff—he was just getting started, after all—but, as Paul Schiavo points out in his program notes, "it forecasts his mature style to a remarkable degree. The work’s initial phrase presents a strong unison statement followed at once by a more lyrical one, thus establishing two poles of expression in its very first moments. This would remain a favorite Mozartean device".

Up next are two Mozart violin concertos: No. 2 in D major, K. 211 and No. 3 in G major, K. 216—and another surprise.  The soloist, British violinist Anthony Marwood,  is also the conductor (as he is for the entire evening).  That's not as unusual as you might think.  Until relatively recently in Western musical history it wasn't at all unusual for the conductor to also be an instrumentalist—most commonly the keyboard player.  Handel, for example, got his first big break as an opera composer (Almira, which he wrote in 1705 at age 19) in part because he had the very visible job of harpsichordist/conductor at a theater in Hamburg.

Still, it's rare for a major modern orchestra to be conducted this way.  “I’m looking forward to Anthony Marwood playing and conducting," says first violinist Helen Kim in the program notes. "Performing this way tends to open up your ears. We get used to a certain dynamic with conductors, but when there’s not somebody with a baton the whole time you have to be very alert aurally to much more subtle cues. It usually results in a more cohesive string sound. There’s more interaction between sections. You’ll see more eyes looking around, the musicians tracking each other.”

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The concertos themselves are lovely little things and a reminder that while Mozart was primarily a keyboard man he was, as as Mr. Schiavo writes, "a precociously accomplished violinist."  "We hear most about his playing during his travels in 1777-8," writes Paul Walls in the February 1992 issue of Early Music. "In Munich he took part in a private concert given to celebrate the name-day of his music-loving inkeeper."  Describing the reaction to his performance of his Divertimento in B-flat, K. 287 at that concert in a letter to his father, the composer wrote: "The all opened their eyes!  I played as though I were the finest fiddler in Europe."

The concerts conclude with Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385.  It's known as the "Haffner" because it represents a re-working of a serenade he had written the previous year to fulfill a commission from Sigmund Haffner, head of a prominent Salzburg family and a childhood friend of Mozart.  It was an instant hit at its March 23, 1783 premiere in Vienna, most notably with the Austrian Emperor Josef II.  He actually stayed for the entire concert (unusual for him) and even coughed up 25 ducats to show his support.  It's a dramatic and energetic piece with a commanding first movement, graceful second and third, and a lively finale which (as Mr. Schiavo notes) Mozart wanted played "as fast as possible."

The all-Mozart concerts are Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM at Powell Hall.  For ticket information: stlsymphony.org.  The Saturday concert will be broadcast on St. Louis Public Radio 90.7 FM and HD 1 as well as via the station Internet stream (which usually has the best sound) at the web site and via the St. Louis Public Radio mobile app.