Shadowy and Tempestuous The Listeners Membership

All through the music of Mozart, D minor evokes shadowy supernatural forces. It’s the central key of Mozart’s Requiem, in addition to the searing aria that’s sung by the Queen of the Night time in the second act of The Magic Flute. Essentially the most haunting moments of Don Giovanni are set in D minor, starting with the Overture’s blood-chilling opening chord. The Overture’s gradual introduction foreshadows the ghostly Commendatore Scene, which happens close to the top of the opera, by which an ominous knock on the door hastens the trembling Don Giovanni’s “hour of doom.”

The seeds of this dramatic music might be heard within the opening bars of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, Ok. 466, written two years earlier than Don Giovanni in 1785. The orchestral introduction begins with quietly trembling syncopations which recommend a way of stressed anxiousness. Quickly, foreboding is changed by pure terror with a ferocious eruption, punctuated by army fanfare rhythms within the winds. The piano enters quietly with a way of lonely pathos. It introduces a brand new theme which is full of anguished upward leaps. The primary motion unfolds as a ghostly and tempestuous drama. The solo piano doesn’t try and oppose or transcend the prevailing environment. As a substitute, it joins a dialog already in progress and heightens the strain with new embellishing traces. The ominous closing bars fade again into the shadows.

Mozart titled the second motion Romance, suggesting a serene vocal tune. A young and intimate melody in B-flat main opens the door to an adventurous 5 half rondo (ABACA). The rondo’s C part veers abruptly right into a turbulent G minor, with virtuosic traces working up and down the keyboard. The storm subsides as rapidly because it got here and we return to the serene contentment of the opening. Earlier than the motion concludes, we get a fleeting glimpse of a brand new, deeper and extra mysterious actuality. Within the shimmering closing moments, the musical voices appear to hold on, as if to delay the inevitable closing decision.

The ultimate motion (Allegro assai) returns to stormy D minor. It begins with the taking pictures sparks of an ascending line referred to as the Mannheim Rocket. The jagged rondo theme, launched by the piano, darts unpredictably. It’s a harmful and exhilarating trip full of sudden harmonic turns. Maybe most shocking of all is the coda’s jubilant and surprising flip to D main. As with the Act II Finale which concludes Don Giovanni, in these frolicking closing moments all ghosts are banished and the music surges to a celebratory conclusion.

The February 11, 1785 premiere of Piano Concerto No. 20 got here on the peak of Mozart’s reputation in Vienna. Apparently, Mozart’s notation of the rating was accomplished on the final minute and the ink was nonetheless moist on the live performance. In a letter addressed to Mozart’s sister, Nannerl, Leopold Mozart wrote,

[I heard] a superb new piano concerto by Wolfgang, on which the copyist was nonetheless at work once we bought right here, and your brother didn’t even have time to play by the rondo as a result of he needed to oversee the copying operation.

The Sturm und Drang turbulence of this music anticipated Romanticism. Beethoven carried out the Concerto quite a few instances and it’s his cadenzas (within the first and final actions) which we hear on this 1985 recording that includes Mitsuko Uchida with Jeffrey Tate and the English Chamber Orchestra:

Recordings

Featured Picture: “A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas,” Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789)