Concerto No. 5 in A major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 219, "Turkish"
Composed 1775; Duration: 31 minutes
First BPO Performance: February 27, 1940 (Helen Teschner Tas, violin; Franco Autori, conductor)
Last BPO Performance: May 7-8, 2016 (Mayuko Kamio, violin; JoAnn Falletta, conductor)
The immensely cultured Amadeus was bored to death in his first job in his Salzburg hometown, and he was neither stimulated by the salary, the mostly religious compositional assignments, nor the provincial setting. As he imagined the more satisfying adventures awaiting him in Mannheim and Paris, the prolific composer wrote a number of instrumental works for friends and acquaintances. During a surprisingly short period in 1775, he composed his only five violin concertos. It is unclear for whom these—and other “extracurricular” works—were composed, but they portray a brilliant and restless Mozart.
An initial call to action is followed by a sleepy sequence of seemingly uninspired upward arpeggios, only to be followed by a jolting downward motion of staccato rhythms. Mozart’s melodies don’t take long to take shape, as the soft and loud, up and down, simple and complex are displayed in contrast. The melodies lilt as the rhythms tighten together, only to halt, making way for a surprisingly elegant and stunning violinist who plays the opening arpeggio, but now in an Adagio. Rarely does one hear such a still entrance in the opening movement, but the accompaniment quietly undulates below, leading to the original Allegro, this time with the soloist unleashing flurries of patterns between beautifully timed melodies.
Constantly in motion, the elegant central movement is propelled by rhythmic phrases with steady underpinnings, occasionally breaking in silence to elevate the melodic intrigue. The violin begins long phrases alone, while the orchestra grows in strength to bolster the harmonic motion towards emotionally satisfying peaks. The finale is a fun minuet with a rustic melody that recalls a nimble country fiddle tune. In contrasting episodes, there is an exotic chromatic melody and a powerful military march. While out of place in a typical concerto, Mozart dazzled the provincial audiences with this transportive music in a powerful Turkish style, from which the concerto earned its nickname.