Tucson Symphony Orchestra Masterworks Series
José Luis Gomez, conductor
PROGRAM
Franz Liszt: The Black Gondola (arr. John Adams)
Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 40
Nov. 6, 7:30 P.M., Nov 7, 2:00 P.M., CFHS Auditorium
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A Few Mozartian Forethoughts...
MOZART: SUPERHERO!
As a little kid growing up during the so-called "Age of Affluence and Assassinations", I had three heroes: a local basketball player, the world record holder in the mile run, and a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart composed the 'Rondo Alla Turca' -- the coolest music by far! -- and I was obsessed. I played the Rondo, very badly, and wanted to know everything about Mozart. In 4th grade I went to the big public library in my hometown and checked out three biographies of Mozart. Much was beyond my comprehension, mostly learning that his father, Leopold, was by far the greatest influence on Wolfgang’s life and music, and the fulcrum of all of his activities through childhood and beyond. Athletic heroes generally far outlive their peak performances; their achievements somewhat ephemeral, as future generations break their records with greater talent and skill sets. Musical achievements, on the other hand, can live forever.
Mozart died rather young, yet his compositional output was outrageously prodigious; the mastery of his art, always on the rise. When in high school I discovered the Great G-minor Symphony, Mozart's 40th, it took over my mind and spirit for months. I lived inside of it. This was not a choice. At one point I transcribed the 'Menuetto. Allegretto – Trio' for piano solo, playing it badly for a couple of audiences.
Mozart, just 14 years Beethoven's senior, died when Beethoven was but 21. And while Mozart was known for the perfecting of all things musical, and Beethoven for stridently extending, breaking down, and reinventing musical formal structures and the boundaries of expression, the former is said to have had a powerful influence on the latter. It seems far easier to hear and understand the influence of Haydn on Beethoven, with whom he had studied, than it is the influence of Mozart. That is, until you listen to the 40th Symphony. In their time, the Age of Reason and Enlightenment; of Goethe, Schiller, and Immanuel Kant, the nature of cause and effect, both physical and social, was being studied intensely and debated fiercely. One of Beethoven's most riveting, thrilling, and inspiring achievements, the motivic construction and development of musical thematic material, best exhibited and exploited in his Fifth Symphony, grows directly out of this thinking and its passionate pursuit; that a simple, seminal idea is the true source of everything that follows. Cause, effect, reason. It’s all there in Mozart’s 40th, fifteen years before Beethoven’s 5th.
The opening Molto Allegro begins with what appears to be an accompanimental figure. Instead, however subtly introduced, this innocuous little statement is then threaded throughout the music, culminating the exposition and recapitulation sections, and occupying the development. And that glorious little middle section exhibits exactly what Beethoven later exploited so well and to such extremes; the distillation of a tiny, powerful musical kernel. It’s arguable that there is nothing in Beethoven quite so natural and sublime as the transition from development to recapitulation in the first movement of Mozart’s 40th. In terms of drama, and of complete and natural mastery of the expressive idiom, this opening movement is a towering achievement; a generous prize we all can savor to this day, and on this day!
The Andante is another one-of-a-kind Mozart creation. The layering of a simple repeated note figure, then gathers to take wing in a gracefully embellished melodic form. The peaks and valleys here are mostly gradual, yet the motions, means, manner, and meaning are all strikingly original and majestic. When someone observes that so-and-so has more talent in their pinkie than the complete talent of everyone else in that field, that is Mozart. His simple toying of ideas is a literal gold mine of musicality.
The 'Menuetto. Allegretto – Trio’ is a high contrast of marching tutti and finely feathered woodwind ideas; a delicious challenge for the very accomplished Tucson Symphony Orchestra woodwinds. The ‘Allegro Assai’ finale, with its signature rocket motif opening, may seem more of a romp than a serious statement. Yet even here, as increased chromaticism wends its way through the themes in recapitulation, the completeness of the vision and thorough, concise working out of ideas is stunning and deeply satisfying.
Bravo to Director José Luis Gomez and the TSO for programming this music, along with Lizst's 'The Black Gondola' and Wagner’s ‘Siegfried Idyll’. The gods are certainly crazy. Luckily, they will be in house tonight!
~ Steven Gendel
HEAR IT - Humanity's Expressive Artists Reveal & Illuminate Truth
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