MOZART’ S JUPITER
2017-2018 SEASON
OFF THE
CUFF:
A piece of music so wild, so barbaric and so brilliant, Stravinsky’ s Rite of Spring is considered one of the most influential works of the 20th century. Join Marin Alsop and the BSO for a performance of Stravinsky ' s masterpiece.
Stay with us after the performance for a conductor-led Q & A session.
FRI, FEB 23 | 8:15 PM STRATHMORE SAT, FEB 24 | 7 PM MEYERHOFF
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Writing for flute and harp with orchestra is a tricky assignment, for these two are delicate-toned instruments that must be handled with care. Mozart contrived for them to be equal partners throughout, perfectly balanced against each other and never swamped by the orchestra. In the sonata-form first movement, all the instrumental figures are light and sparkling, setting up the special color world of the soloists. Especially well-suited to the flute is the lyrical second theme that leaps gracefully upward. And in the development section, a haunting melody for the soloists intensifies this by carrying the harmonies into the minor mode.
The jewel of this concerto is the second-movement Andantino in F major, which boasts one of the most exquisitely beautiful themes Mozart ever created. Constantly yearning upward, it seems to reflect Mozart’ s longings to leave the frustrations of Paris behind and perhaps be reunited with his beloved Aloysia. His ability to exploit the tears in the flute’ s sound and to make every trill and ornament intensify the mood are mesmerizing.
The rondo form, with its recurring refrain and companion episodes, was born in France; Mozart’ s use of it for the finale seems to be a diplomatic gesture. It also adopts the rhythmic character of a very French dance, the gavotte— though dancers would be hard-pressed to match this breakneck tempo! Uncorking one delicious tune after another and giving the harpist fabulous opportunities to sparkle, this rondo is pure enchantment.
Instrumentation: Two oboes, two horns and strings.
SYMPHONY NO. 41 IN C MAJOR
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart did not actually call his last and most famous symphony, completed on August 10, 1788, the“ Jupiter.” According to his son Franz Xaver Mozart, it was the London impresario Johann Peter Salomon( the same man who engineered Haydn’ s spectacular London career in the 1790s) who devised this nickname as a catchy advertising device for the symphony’ s London performances in 1819.
Why might Salomon have chosen the name of the thunderbolt-hurling chief of the Roman gods for this work? Certainly it is the most magisterial of Mozart’ s symphonies, with a ceremonial quality in keeping with its key of C major. Although today we think of C major as the most basic of keys( all white notes on the piano), in the late-18 th century it was usually associated with court and high church pomp since it was well suited to the valve-less trumpets of the period. The work’ s ceremonial quality, however, extends far beyond key and scoring. Throughout the piece, there is a majesty of conception we find in no other Mozart symphony. Its melodic themes are more formal and less personal than those he created for its two companions, symphonies 39 and 40; Donald Francis Tovey, the dean of annotators, called them not only formal but“ formulas”: stock musical gestures used over and over by composers in this era. The originality and greatness of the“ Jupiter” are not to be found in the materials Mozart used but in how he used them. Above all, the finale, with its spectacular fugal deployment of themes shows Mozart’ s genius at its zenith. In its stately progression to this greatest of all Mozart movements, the“ Jupiter” becomes a grand summation of the splendors of 18 th-century music, incorporating the aesthetics of both its Baroque first half and its Classical conclusion.
The dramatic intensity of the sonata-form first movement reflects Mozart’ s opera Don Giovanni, which had received its Viennese premiere just three months earlier. And, indeed, in the three major theme groups of this movement, we experience the emotional versatility that made Mozart a peerless operatic composer in his day. First, the bold opening music: imperial and full of courtly flourishes, with overtones of bombast and militarism ironically recalling the ongoing Austrian-Turkish
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