Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Page 30 – C Major Entertainment

Born on 11 February 1946, Rudolf Buchbinder celebrated his 60th birthday just two weeks after Mozart’s 250th birthday – a happy coincidence of landmark events that prompted the great Austrian pianist to present a series of Mozart piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the 2006 Vienna Festival. The works, recorded live at the Musikverein in Vienna on 7 May 2006, represent the crème de la crème of Mozart’s concerto output of the years 1784 to 1786. Mozart had arrived in Vienna in March 1781 to work as an independent composer. In addition to seeking commissions from the Imperial Court, he also held subscription concerts at various venues, including the homes of the nobility. Mozart had to satisfy the needs of the fashionable Viennese public by creating a steady flow of virtuoso arias, symphonies, chamber music and piano concertos. Between 1784 and 1786 he wrote no fewer than 12 piano concertos, many of them unsurpassed in the history of this genre. The earliest work on this recording is the Concerto in E flat major K. 449, a work of fairly modest dimensions that was followed in early 1785 by the great D minor Concerto K. 466, a dramatic, gripping piece painted with tormented “Sturm und Drang” brushstrokes. Later that year, he wrote the “big” E flat Concerto K. 482, the first to include clarinets, a natural development in a genre that was increasingly taking on symphonic traits. While the A major Concerto K. 488 glows with an inner serenity, the C minor work that follows it, K. 491, is a grand, almost heroic, work with wild outbursts of raw passion. It is also the most heavily scored of Mozart’s concertos. Its successor, the C major Concerto K. 503, is the most technically difficult of all of the concertos, and can perhaps be seen as the culmination of his output in this genre. Although Rudolf Buchbinder commands a mighty repertoire, he is best known for his interpretations of the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. In recent years, Buchbinder has specialized in giving cycles of performances – the complete Haydn sonatas, for example, or the complete Beethoven sonatas – which he prefers to record live. This live recording of six masterpieces by Mozart provides a lasting testimony to Buchbinder’s canon of Mozart interpretations in his 60th year – and Mozart’s 250th.

Bastien und Bastienne (Mozart 22)

“Bastien und Bastienne” takes up the plot of the little French opera “Le devin du village” (The Village Soothsayer) by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The “soothsayer” Colas, a wise old shepherd, advises the unhappy shepherdess Bastienne to secure the love of the fickle Bastien by arousing his jealousy. The despairing Bastien then also seeks advice from Colas, who pretends to use magic to bring the two lovers together again. “Der Schauspieldirektor” revolves around an impresario’s problems in assembling a group of singers for a performance. With “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” and “Die Zauberflöte,” Mozart made immortal contributions to the genre of the German Singspiel – German-language opera with spoken dialogues. But in the course of his career, Mozart also wrote two short German-language works that are different in musical craftsmanship, but both utterly delightful: “Bastien und Bastienne” K. 50, one of Mozart’s earliest dramatic works, and “Der Schauspieldirektor” (The Impresario) K. 486, a mature work written at the same time as “Le nozze di Figaro.” Entrusting the two operas to the world-famous Salzburg Marionette Theater for the Mozart 22 cycle was perfectly natural, especially since “Bastien und Bastienne” was the very first work staged by this theater at its inaugural performance in 1913. Nevertheless, Thomas Reichert, responsible for the stage direction, sets and costumes, hit upon a truly brilliant idea: instead of performing one piece after the other, he combined “Bastien und Bastienne” and “Der Schauspieldirektor” in a way that captures the world of the Singspiel in Mozart’s day. Here the impresario is still holding auditions, but now he’s casting the Singspiel “Bastien und Bastienne.” Finding a Bastien is easy, but two potential Bastiennes sing their arias so well that the impresario can’t decide. He makes a run-through of “Bastien und Bastienne,” after which the women continue to argue about who should get the role. The clever impresario hopes to squirm his way out by hiring both, one as the A-cast and one as the B-cast. But this only provokes a new quarrel about who will sing at the premiere… Led by its founder Elisabeth Fuchs, the Junge Philharmonie Salzburg and a cast of fresh young singers provide the spirited, light-hearted music to this charming double fill.

Der Schauspieldirektor (Mozart 22)

Irrfahrten III: Rex Tremendus (Mozart 22)

The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy comprises three independent, self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres – music, theater, dance and video – are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlömer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the “odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination.” (Schlömer) This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom. At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart’s first opera buffa, “La finta semplice” (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell’arte-style characters. “The music,” says Schlömer, “tells of wanting something – even if the characters still don’t really know what they want.” The second Odyssey, “Abendempfindung” (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, “Rex tremendus” presents a thought-provoking combination of two opera buffa fragments, “Lo sposo deluso” and “L’oca del Cairo,” along with various unfinished pieces and fragments from Mozart’s last work, the Requiem. It represents the artist’s ultimate liberation from the restrictions and conventions of society, his farewell from the world, in total darkness… Schlömer on his Odysseys: “It is about the path the artist follows from his entrance into adult life to a period of artistic crisis, comparable to the midlife crisis we all go through, and on to a fragmentation and liberation from all interpretation of the artist’s activity.” Irrfahrten / Odysseys is one of the most illuminating productions of the Mozart 22 cycle, one that makes Mozart’s genius shine in all of its facets.

Gala Matinee – Mozart Arias

The most spectacular homage to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on his 250th birthday in 2006 was incontestably the presentation of all of his operas and operatic fragments at the Salzburg Festival, ‘Mozart22.’ Recorded on film, this monumental project has been preserved for posterity as a benchmark of Mozart interpretation in the early 21st century. The ‘Mozart Gala’ held at the Felsenreitschule on 30 July 2006, in the first days of the 2006 Salzburg Festival, presents a kind of microcosm of the Mozart festivities, with a selection of arias and orchestral music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Harding and featuring some of the top vocalists of the 2006 Salzburg Festival.

Mozart, Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K.488

Mozart, Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K.466

Mozart, Symphony No.29 in A major, K. 201

Filmed mainly in Vienna’s splendid “Musikvereinssaal,” the Mozart symphonies conducted by Karl Böhm are all interpreted by one of the world’s foremost orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, whose principal conductors have included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and, of course, Karl Böhm. “Thanks to Bruno Walter’s exemplary performances, particularly of Mozart’s works, I grabbed on to Mozart and fell in love with him so much that I had only one wish: to conduct Mozart, Mozart, Mozart.” (Karl Böhm) This scintillating little symphonic gem marks a new climax in Mozart’s treatment of the form: in addition to the forceful, clear-cut themes of the first and last movements, Mozart now makes a more refined and subtle use of counterpoint. The last movement also features the most dramatic development section thus far. Although certain aspects of the work may point to the influence of Michael Haydn, Joseph Haydn’s younger brother, Mozart basically dipped into the stock of proven orchestral devices and techniques, transforming them into inimitably “Mozartean” ideas. Karl Böhm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Böhm’s first loves, his friendship with Richard Strauss led to a deep knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his autobiography, Böhm wrote that “Richard Strauss revealed to me the ultimate secrets of this, in my opinion, greatest of all musical geniuses, Mozart.” Böhm’s discovery of these secrets transformed his Mozart interpretations into unforgettable events.

Mozart, Piano Concerto No.14 in E flat major, K.449

Mozart, Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor, K.491

Mozart, Piano Concerto No.22 in E flat major, K.482