MOZART ’ S PIANO CONCERTO NO . 20
Used more or less continuously since its origins in 17th-century Spain , a passacaglia features a repeating bass line , usually descending , and is traditionally in a triple-meter like 3 / 4 . In the case of Op . 33b , Britten notates 4 / 4 , although ( as with the opening viola solo ) it is not always obvious from the listener ’ s perspective as to where the downbeat lies . Much like the sea , this music is prone to sudden change . It is capable of great violence , mystery , caprice , and , much like Grimes himself , also unexpected tenderness .
Instrumentation : two flutes ( one doubling piccolo ), two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , contrabassoon , four horns , two trumpets , piccolo trumpet , three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion , harp , celeste , and strings .
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born January 27 , 1756 in Salzburg , Austria Died December 5 , 1791 in Vienna , Austria
PIANO CONCERTO NO . 20 IN D MINOR , K . 466 [ 1785 ]
On February 10 , 1785 , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiered as soloist his Piano Concerto No . 20 in D minor , K . 466 . By the time the downbeat fell , the ink was barely yet dry on the orchestral parts ; the composer had , in a blaze of effort , completed the concerto only one day prior . The following week , Wolfgang ’ s father , Leopold Mozart , recounted the occasion in a letter to his daughter , Marianne , writing of “ a new and excellent piano concerto by Wolfgang , where the copyist was still at work when we arrived , and your brother didn ’ t even have time to play through the rondo because he had to supervise the copying operation .” Given its hurried completion , and for a piano concerto , no less , one is obliged to make a joke about coming in under the wire — or wires , rather .
But little is humorous , at least musically speaking , about the work itself , the darker of only two piano concerti Mozart placed in a minor key . ( And he wrote 27 !) D minor shares the same fateful key as his unfinished Requiem , whose mythology ( and it is just that ) was famously immortalized in the hit film , Amadeus ; the Queen of the Night ’ s vengeful “ Der Hölle Rache ” aria in The Magic Flute ; as well as numerous crucial moments in Don Giovanni , among them the Damnation Scene .
As for the Piano Concerto No . 20 , mood , not melody , characterize the Allegro ’ s disquieted opening bars . Anxious syncopations emanate from the upper strings , grating in hushed tones against a steady rumble from the cellos and basses . Growing in intensity with the staggered entrances of horn , bassoon , then oboe , Mozart unleashes a sudden forte . A softening texture suggests the possibility of a second theme , but a melody does not yet emerge . It is only with the piano ’ s entrance that a singable tune arrives : a plaintive , sighing motive in F major that momentarily tempers the orchestra ’ s outburst . A somber second theme follows , after which Mozart recontextualizes fragments of previous material , placing them in new keys and toying with minor / major relationships . A cadenza — a semi-improvisatory solo section built on the movement ’ s main themes — concludes the movement .
Listeners might recognize the second movement , Romance , from the final scene of Amadeus . Delicate and mannered , it is a far cry from the Allegro ’ s tumult . And in the Rondo : Allegro assai , minimal orchestral accompaniment foregrounding the solo piano , cycling through a range of moods and affects from the angst-ridden to genteel . Herein lies some of the composer ’ s thorniest piano writing , which might easily be mistaken for early Beethoven , though in the end it is Mozart ’ s angels who win the day .
Instrumentation : flute , two oboes , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , timpani , and strings in addition to the solo piano .
Witold Lutosławski
Born January 25 , 1913 in Warsaw , Poland ( then the Russian Empire ) Died February 7 , 1994 in Warsaw , Poland
CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA [ 1954 ]
BSO audiences may recognize the 1944 Concerto for Orchestra by Béla Bartók , which BSO Music Director Jonathon Heyward led last November . In June , BSO Composer in Residence James Lee III will unveil his Concerto for Orchestra , also under Heyward ’ s baton . Between them , both with respect to compositional chronology as well as their order within the season , sits the 1954 Concerto for Orchestra by Witold Lutosławski , perhaps the finest Polish composer since Chopin . At face value a work in the Bartók-ian vein , saturated with folk melodies from Warsaw ’ s Masovia region , in actuality it stands in a category of its own , its melodic features , while ingenious , accessories to an extraordinary universe of textures , timbres , and gestures .
Had Lutosławski composed his Concerto just a few years earlier , it might have shared the same unfortunate fate as his 1947 Symphony No . 1 , banned and condemned for being “ formalist ” ( a catch-all critique leveled at art judged to be in violation of the tenets of socialist realism , which maintained that music should be comprehensible to the public and beneficial for the ideals of a socialist society ). Much of the music he composed prior to the Concerto for Orchestra had been “ functional ”— existing for a specific purpose such as film , radio , or theater — but Stalin ’ s death in 1953 dampened artistic scrutiny not only within the Soviet Union , but also across the Eastern Bloc ( and thus , Poland ). With the Concerto for Orchestra , Lutosławski resumed where he left off with his First Symphony , merging folk song with a daring , nontonal musical language that prefaced his hyper-modernist music soon to come .
In a Concerto for Orchestra , everyone ( or at least every section ) is a soloist , all
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