Mozart in the Meadows: Blossom 2021
July 11, 2021
Blossom Festival Week Two

The Cleveland Orchestra
CONCERT PRESENTATION
Blossom Music Center
1145 West Steels Corners Road
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 44223
_____________________   

Mozart in the Meadows

Sunday, July 11, 2021, at 7 p.m.


The Cleveland Orchestra
Jane Glover, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano


WOLFGANG AMADÈ MOZART (1756-1791)

Divertimento in D major, K.136 (for strings)
    1.  Allegro
    2.  Andante
    3.  Presto

Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K.488
    1.  Allegro
    2.  Adagio
    3.  Allegro assai

I N T E R M I S S I O N

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K.550
    1.  Molto allegro
    2.  Andante
    3.  Menuetto:  Allegretto
    4.  Finale:  Allegro assai   
  

_____________________

2021 Blossom Music Festival
Presenting Sponsor: 

   The J.M. Smucker Company

_____________________

This evening’s concert is dedicated
to
Sandy and Ted Wiese in recognition
of their extraordinary generosity
in support of The Cleveland Orchestra.
    

T O W A R D   T H E   E N D  of his all-too-short life, Wolfgang Amadè Mozart, suffering from both financial and personal woes, moved from the fashionable center of Vienna to a more affordable apartment on the outskirts of the city.  There he would find solace in a peaceful garden as well as inspiration for some of his greatest works. 

       This evening’s concert, Mozart in the Meadows, brings together these two elements — the stirring beauty of nature and the genius of Mozart — under the baton of Jane Glover, one of the foremost authorities on the composer.

       The evening starts, however, much earlier in his career, as the 16-year-old Mozart was emerging from a precocious wunderkind who dazzled the courts of Europe into one of the most profound interpreters of the human spirit.  Recognized as a musical genius by the time he was six, it took the immensely gifted Mozart time to fully realize his compositional gifts.  Considered among the composer’s first mature works, the Divertimento in D major is one of a series of three divertimentos for string orchestra he wrote during the winter of 1772.  It shows him in command of his rapidly developing talent.  Humble in title, the work belies an ambitious and innovative mind.

       Fourteen years later, in 1786, Mozart was at the height of his popularity when he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 23, performed tonight by soloist Conrad Tao. This piece came about toward the end of a string of piano concertos that Mozart premiered at venues around Vienna to adoring audiences.  Radical in its nuance and rich tapestry of emotions, it was prized by the composer — who circulated it among a select group of music-lovers.

       The final work of the evening, Symphony No. 40, brings us to that serene garden on the outskirts of Vienna during the summer of 1788. There, Mozart would experience a legendary burst of creativity that resulted in his towering three final symphonies, written in a mere three months. Nicknamed the "Great G minor symphony," tonight’s finale is the second of the three masterpieces, and an elegant demonstration of Classical principles as well as anticipation of the Romantic era to come. 

Amanda Angel

 

DIVERTIMENTO in D major, K.136
by Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-1791)

Composed: 1772

Scored:  for strings

Duration: approximately 15 minutes

______________________________________

M O S T   M O Z A R T  connoisseurs would agree that this delightful work for strings and its two companions — the Divertimentos in B-flat major (K.137) and F major (K.138) — are among the composer’s earliest works in which Mozart appears no longer as a child prodigy but a fully fledged, mature genius.  He was 16 years old when he wrote these three works early in 1772.  It is not altogether clear whether he originally intended them for a solo string quartet or for a string ensemble with multiple players on each part and with the cellos reinforced by basses.  The works can and are frequently performed both ways, though the style is more symphonic than chamber-like.

       Unlike most Mozart divertimentos, which are in six movements, K.136-38 have only three movements each and follow the fast-slow-fast outline of the Italian sinfonia, which at the time could serve either as an operatic overture or an independent concert piece.  The Italian features of the works led the great Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein to believe that they had been written in preparation for Mozart’s third — and, in the event, last — journey to Italy. 

       Each of K.136’s three movements abounds in exquisite melodies, presented in a simple and graceful way.  The virtuosity of the first movement, the tenderness of the second, and the playful quality of the third show three different sides of the young Mozart, all developed to perfection. 

—program note by Peter Laki © The Cleveland Orchestra  

 

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA TIMELINE:  The Cleveland Orchestra first performed this divertimento in November 1966, under the direction of Louis Lane.  It was last presented at Severance Hall in April 2010 and at Blossom in 2003.
     

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 23 in A major, K.488
by Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-1791)

Composed: 1786

Scored for: flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings, plus the solo piano

Duration: about 25 minutes

______________________________________

M O Z A R T   H A D   A   W A Y  with the piano concerto — like no other composer before or after him.  Building upon the achievements of two of J.S. Bach’s sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, Mozart gave the word “concerto” a whole new meaning — and set up expectations not just in the minds of his own audiences, but for generations to come.  He continued the idea of alternating orchestral and solo passages, and also kept a number of other structural elements (how each movement is constructed).  But then he completely expanded on the earlier form, making it both more complex and more flexible.  In his hands, the piano concerto became capable of expressing the most diverse characters and feelings, from grandiose and festive to lyrical and intimate, with innumerable shadings in between.

        For a series of years in the 1780s, Mozart wrote several concertos each season, which he then premiered to great acclaim.  What we now know as Concerto No. 23 (the group was cataloged and numbered decades after Mozart’s death) was written in 1786, the year Mozart completed his opera The Marriage of Figaro.

        The first movement of the Piano Concerto K.488 does not open with a fanfare or any kind of powerful “curtain-raising” motif, as many other concertos do.  It begins instead with a gentle melody, played quietly (piano), setting the stage for a movement with a nuanced blend of moods.  Here we experience a quiet serenity with occasional touches of wistfulness.  In the orchestration, one notes the absence of oboes and the presence of clarinets, resulting in a special, darker-hued sound.  Here the strings begin a new theme that is immediately embellished by the piano and elaborated on in many variations by the orchestra.

For many of Mozart’s concertos, we do not have a solo cadenza written in Mozart’s own hand.  Most often, he left this part of the score blank and improvised in performance.  By not writing down his own ideas for the cadenza, he kept competing artists from performing one of his concertos with the composer’s genuine voice.  For the first movement of the Piano Concerto K.488, however, an original cadenza by Mozart has survived.  This cadenza tells us a great deal about Mozart the improviser.  Besides virtuosic passages, it also contains expressive, singing music, and expands upon the concerto’s thematic material in simple yet ingenious ways.

   The emotional high point in Mozart’s mature piano concertos is often the second movement.  The Adagio movement of K.488, however, is extraordinary even among Mozart’s concertos.  Its dominating sentiment in many ways presages Romanticism.  The melody moves in the quiet rhythm of the siciliano dance, but contains expressive wide leaps, emphasizing chromatic half-steps and the melancholy-sounding “Neapolitan” sixth chord.  The key of F-sharp minor is extremely rare in Mozart’s music — in fact, this is the only time it is the main key of a movement in the composer’s entire catalog of works.  The unusual quality of the key gives the music a certain heightened poignancy that is easier to feel than to describe.

   The third-movement finale, marked “Allegro assai,” is a playful romp with a multitude of spirited melodies.  It is an extended sonata-rondo, meaning that a recurrent first theme alternates with a number of episodes (rondo), but with the layering of sonata form onto this practice, so that one of the episodes also returns, just as a second theme would do in a sonata recapitulation.  The fusion of these two forms results in a structure that allows us to enjoy the wonderful melodies several times, while the alternations and transformations of the melodies afford a seemingly inexhaustible diversity.

        Mozart was well aware of the exceptional richness of this concerto.  It was one of a select group of works he sent to Prince Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen.  In an accompanying letter to Sebastian Winter, a former servant of the Mozart family who now worked for the Prince, the composer wrote that these were “compositions which I keep for myself or for a small circle of music-lovers and connoisseurs (who promise not to let them out of their hands).”  He wanted the Prince to be assured that these compositions had not been circulating widely; and he did not hide his hopes that His Highness might also commission symphonies, concertos, and chamber works on a regular basis, for performances by the Prince’s own orchestra.  Mozart received a total of 143½ florins for the scores he sent (four symphonies, five concertos, and three chamber works) — which paid for about three months’ rent at his apartment on the Schulerstrasse in Vienna.  But the additional commissions Mozart was hoping for never materialized.

—program note by Peter Laki © The Cleveland Orchestra

 

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA TIMELINE:  The Cleveland Orchestra first performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in March 1929, under the direction of Nikolai Sokoloff and with Myra Hess as soloist. It was most recently performed in November 2016 at Severance Hall with Daniil Trifonov as soloist and Jaap van Zweden conducting.
     
   

SYMPHONY NO. 40 in G minor, K.550
by Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-1791)

Composed: 1788

Scored for:  flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings (with divided violas). A later revision added clarinets and made changes to the oboe parts. Tonight's performance is using the original scoring without clarinets.

Duration:  about 35 minutes

______________________________________

W H E N   M O Z A R T  took up residence in Vienna in the first half of the 1780s, the amount of music making — and the accompanying professional opportunities present there for someone of his all-encompassing talents — seemed almost infinite.  He quickly found in the salons of the nobility the practical advantage of connections and patronage (if not the mutual respect and camaraderie) that he had long been seeking.  In addition, his interest and participation in Free Masonry also benefited him in his quest for monetary support.  The Masonic lodge was a kind of salon in which, as a Mason, he could mix as a “brother” with both the established nobility and newly ennobled bourgeois in the pursuit of sponsorships.  

        By mid-decade, however, support for Mozart from the noble class began to wane —  even as collective efforts among the aristocracy and bourgeoisie allowed him to continue to finance and produce subscription concerts that helped fill recurring gaps in his finances.  But as the decade progressed further, two major factors contributed to an almost complete decline of support, placing Mozart in desperate financial straits. 

       First, war between Austria-Hungary and Turkey drained the Viennese economy.  Second, and perhaps even worse, an unfortunate drop in Mozart’s popularity thinned his income further.  And, in spite of financial assistance from the Emperor and from his friend Baron van Swieten — in both instances to help cover specific projects — by 1788 Mozart’s concert career lay in shambles and his finances in ruin.  Rarely flush with money even in good times, his household’s ledger was now plunging deeper and deeper into debt.  The future did not present a pretty picture. 

   Forced into action in June 1788, Mozart moved his family from the center of Vienna to a cheaper apartment further out.  It did, however, include a calming garden, as a kind of consolation from his troubles.  At the end of a letter, dated June 27, to his Masonic “brother” the merchant Michael Puchberg, Mozart clearly and desperately stated his situation and begged for financial assistance:  “If you, my most worthy Brother, will not help me in my predicament, I shall lose honor and credit, which of all things I dearly wish to  preserve. . . . If my wish is fulfilled I can breathe freely again, for I shall then be able to get my affairs in order and keep them so.  Do come see me!  I am always at home.  I have done more work in ten days since I came to these rooms than in two months at any other lodgings, and were I not visited so frequently by black thoughts (which I must forcibly banish), I should do still better, for I live here pleasantly, comfortably, and — cheaply.  I will not detain you longer with chatter of my affairs, but will hold my tongue — and hope!” 

       The narration is bleak, but still, there was some hope, for the “ten days” of working was on the great triptych of symphonies he composed that summer in less than three months.  Later known as Symphonies Nos. 39, 40, and 41, it is the second of these, in G minor, that we are hearing this evening.

        There has been much speculation among Mozart scholars as to what purpose these three big and complex symphonies served.  For what cause or occasion did the composer spend so much time in their creation?  Was it simply an act of pure inspiration, or as Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein poetically muses, “an appeal to eternity”?  Scholar Neal Zaslaw rebuts this idea by stating that it “flies in the face of Mozart’s known attitudes to music and life, and the financial straits in which he then found himself. . . . While he may often have found great personal pleasure in composing . . . he composed to pay his rent and to be a useful member of society.”  

       If Zaslaw is correct, then Mozart must have composed these works with real performance opportunities in mind.  Furthermore, the fact that he made two versions of the Symphony in G minor (No. 40) — first without, then with clarinets and an altered oboe part — suggests that both versions were performed.  Still, no record of a financial payment has ever been found, and while some surviving playbills (from concerts between 1789 and 1791) suggest a real possibility of performances, the detailing on those documents is not specific enough to know for sure which “grand symphony” was played in each instance.  Chances are that we will never know why Mozart created his last three symphonies.

ABOUT THE MUSIC
       Mozart’s last three symphonies, created we don’t know why, are often viewed as a great summing up of the composer’s understanding of what a symphony could be.  In particular, No. 40, written in the minor, is greatly appealing and a masterful statement of “Classical” proportions without some of the length and self-evident artfulness of the “Jupiter” (No. 41) that followed.

       Overall, this work had a profound effect upon the ensuing Romantic generation.  The symphony’s rhythmic drive, along with its rich chromaticism, thematic working-out, passionate outpouring, and general ambiguity — especially in the last movement — found deep resonance in the composers of the 19th century.  Even the understated and expectant accompaniment of the violas in the opening movement seemed to signal that change was afoot.

       Right at the start, Mozart sets the Allegro molto first movement in motion through the rhythmic impulse of the first theme-group, stated in the first violins over a driving ostinato figure in the viola accompaniment.  This stark forward propulsion is interrupted by the dialogue-like interplay of strings and winds in the second theme-group.  This group is undermined near its close by the recurrence of the opening motifs, now fragmented and distributed between strings and winds.  The movement’s development section is dominated by the first-theme group and impressive contrapuntal textures.  In the recapitulation, the transition between the first and second thematic groups functions as a second development, further adding to the driving intensity (and complexity) of the movement. 

       The Andante second movement is a hybrid creation, with expressive tension carried over from the Allegro molto mixed with a lyricism of melodic writing of a more settled nature.  The expressive tension permeates the movement’s development section via a chromatic ascending bass supporting descending thirds in the winds, violins, and violas. 

       The pronounced melodic syncopation and imitative counterpoint displayed in the third movement, marked Minuetto, brings a seriousness and gravity to this music, unusual for the period.  Even though the movement’s contrasting trio section is more relaxed, it is hardly a light shepherd’s dance. 

       Once again, as in the first movement, a single minded rhythmic propulsion characterizes the first theme of the Allegro assai fourth movement.  The second theme group, separated from the first by a rest, gives some relief to the music’s relentless drive.  Still, in the scheme of things, such relaxation is momentary.  The development section is completely shaped around the opening ascending “rocket” motif.  Symphony No. 40 ends as it began, in the minor mode, the manifest verification of its relentless daemonic drive. 

—program note by Steve LaCoste © 2021

 

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA TIMELINE:  The Cleveland Orchestra first performed Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in its second season, in November 1919, under Nikolai Sokoloff’s direction.  The most recent performances were given in February 2018, led by Bernard Labadie (revised version with clarinets) and in August 2009 led by Jayce Ogren (original version without clarinets).
       

M O Z A R T  was baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus
Mozart.  His first two baptismal names, Johannes Chrysostomus, represent his saints’ names, following the custom of the Roman Catholic Church at the time.  
In everyday life, his family called him Wolfgang (along with a few other nicknames).  Theophilus comes from Greek and can be rendered as “lover of God” or “loved by God.”  Amadeus is a Latin version of this same name.  Mozart most often signed his name as “Wolfgang Amadè Mozart,” saving Amadeus only as an occasional joke.  At the time of his death, scholars in all fields of learning were quite enamored of Latin naming and conventions (this is the period of the classification and cataloging of life on earth into king-dom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, etc.) and successfully “changed” his name to Amadeus.  Only in recent years have we started remembering the Amadè middle name he actually preferred.

—Eric Sellen

 

Jane Glover

B R I T I S H   C O N D U C T OR  Jane Glover has been Music of the Baroque’s music director since 2002. She made her professional debut at the Wexford Festival in 1975, conducting her own edition of Cavalli’s LʼEritrea.  She joined Glyndebourne in 1979 and was music director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1981 until 1985.  She was artistic director of the London Mozart Players from 1984 to 1991, and has also held principal conductorships of both the Huddersfield and the London Choral Societies.  From 2009 until 2016 she was director of opera at the Royal Academy of Music where she is now the Felix Mendelssohn visiting professor.  She was recently visiting professor of opera at the University of Oxford, her alma mater.

       Ms. Glover has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia.  In recent seasons she appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco, Houston, St. Louis, Sydney, Cincinnati, and Toronto symphony orchestras, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Bamberg Symphony.  She made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in April 2014 and most recently led performances at Severance Hall in December 2018.

       She has worked with period-instrument orchestras Philharmonia Baroque and the Handel and Haydn Society, and has made regular appearances at the BBC Proms.

       In demand on the international opera stage, Ms. Glover has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Glyndebourne, the Berlin Staatsoper, Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, Opera National de Bordeaux, Opera Australia, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera National du Rhin, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Luminato, Teatro Real, Madrid, Royal Danish Opera, and Teatro La Fenice.  A Mozart specialist, she has conducted all the composer's operas all over the world, having first performed them at Glyndebourne in the 1980s.  Her core operatic repertoire also includes Monteverdi, Handel, and Britten.

       Future and recent engagements include her continuing seasons with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, her returns to the Houston Grand Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (at Carnegie Hall), and the London Mozart Players.  In the 2019-20 season she made debuts with Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, the Bremen Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Malaysia Philharmonic.

       She is the author of Mozartʼs Women and Handel in London.  She holds a personal professorship at the University of London, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music and Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, and holds several honorary degrees.  She was made a Commander of the British Empire in the 2003 New Year’s Honours, and most recently was elevated to Dame Commander in the 2021 Year Year's Honours.
    

Conrad Tao
Piano

C O N R A D   T A O  has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer and has been dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times. Mr. Tao is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist, and received a 2019 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award in composition for More Forever, his collaboration with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher. He has recently appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony. He made his Cleveland Orchestra debut during the 2019 Blossom Music Festival.

       In 2020-21, Mr. Tao was the focus of a series of concerts and interviews with the Finnish Radio Symphony, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Andrew Norman’s Suspend live on television. He appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony and Louis Langrée, and returned to the Seattle Symphony to perform Beethoven Concerto No. 4. Mr. Tao and Caleb Teicher's latest collaboration for the Guggenheim's Works & Process series, Rhapsody in Blue, kicked off the museum’s return to in-person performances and was lauded by The New York Times as “monumental.” The duo also gave the inaugural virtual recital of the season for Concerts from the Library of Congress.

       In the 2019-20 season, Mr. Tao was presented in recital by Carnegie Hall, performing works by David Lang, Bach, Julia Wolfe, Jason Eckhardt, Carter, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann. He also made his debut in recital at Walt Disney Concert Hall, where the LA Phil presented him in works by Copland and Rzewski. Following his debut at Blossom Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra invited Mr. Tao to perform at Severance Hall in a special program featuring music by Mary Lou Williams and Ligeti, and improvisation alongside pianist Aaron Diehl. After his debut with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, Mr. Tao was invited to give a streamed recital for its Great Performers series, where he played works by Felipe Lara, Crawford Seeger, Tania León, David Lang, and Beethoven.

       In the 2018-19 season, the New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden gave the world premiere of Mr. Tao’s work, Everything Must Go. The European premiere will take place in 2021-22 with the Antwerp Symphony. Other recent performances of his compositions include his own performance of The Oneiroi in New York with the Seattle Symphony, and Spoonfuls with the IRIS Orchestra. His violin concerto for Stefan Jackiw will be premiered in the 2021-22 season.

       Other recent highlights include Mr. Tao’s LA Opera debut in the West Coast premiere of David Lang's adaptation of Thomas Bernhard’s novel The Loser. In Europe, he has been presented by the Swedish Radio Symphony in recital and in Andrew Norman’s Suspend alongside Susanna Mälkki; he also recently returned to the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, performing with Antonio Pappano.

________________________

Piano by Steinway & Sons.
  

Mozart in the Meadows: Blossom 2021
July 11, 2021
Blossom Festival Week Two

The Cleveland Orchestra
CONCERT PRESENTATION
Blossom Music Center
1145 West Steels Corners Road
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 44223
_____________________   

Mozart in the Meadows

Sunday, July 11, 2021, at 7 p.m.


The Cleveland Orchestra
Jane Glover, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano


WOLFGANG AMADÈ MOZART (1756-1791)

Divertimento in D major, K.136 (for strings)
    1.  Allegro
    2.  Andante
    3.  Presto

Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K.488
    1.  Allegro
    2.  Adagio
    3.  Allegro assai

I N T E R M I S S I O N

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K.550
    1.  Molto allegro
    2.  Andante
    3.  Menuetto:  Allegretto
    4.  Finale:  Allegro assai   
  

_____________________

2021 Blossom Music Festival
Presenting Sponsor: 

   The J.M. Smucker Company

_____________________

This evening’s concert is dedicated
to
Sandy and Ted Wiese in recognition
of their extraordinary generosity
in support of The Cleveland Orchestra.
    

T O W A R D   T H E   E N D  of his all-too-short life, Wolfgang Amadè Mozart, suffering from both financial and personal woes, moved from the fashionable center of Vienna to a more affordable apartment on the outskirts of the city.  There he would find solace in a peaceful garden as well as inspiration for some of his greatest works. 

       This evening’s concert, Mozart in the Meadows, brings together these two elements — the stirring beauty of nature and the genius of Mozart — under the baton of Jane Glover, one of the foremost authorities on the composer.

       The evening starts, however, much earlier in his career, as the 16-year-old Mozart was emerging from a precocious wunderkind who dazzled the courts of Europe into one of the most profound interpreters of the human spirit.  Recognized as a musical genius by the time he was six, it took the immensely gifted Mozart time to fully realize his compositional gifts.  Considered among the composer’s first mature works, the Divertimento in D major is one of a series of three divertimentos for string orchestra he wrote during the winter of 1772.  It shows him in command of his rapidly developing talent.  Humble in title, the work belies an ambitious and innovative mind.

       Fourteen years later, in 1786, Mozart was at the height of his popularity when he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 23, performed tonight by soloist Conrad Tao. This piece came about toward the end of a string of piano concertos that Mozart premiered at venues around Vienna to adoring audiences.  Radical in its nuance and rich tapestry of emotions, it was prized by the composer — who circulated it among a select group of music-lovers.

       The final work of the evening, Symphony No. 40, brings us to that serene garden on the outskirts of Vienna during the summer of 1788. There, Mozart would experience a legendary burst of creativity that resulted in his towering three final symphonies, written in a mere three months. Nicknamed the "Great G minor symphony," tonight’s finale is the second of the three masterpieces, and an elegant demonstration of Classical principles as well as anticipation of the Romantic era to come. 

Amanda Angel

 

DIVERTIMENTO in D major, K.136
by Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-1791)

Composed: 1772

Scored:  for strings

Duration: approximately 15 minutes

______________________________________

M O S T   M O Z A R T  connoisseurs would agree that this delightful work for strings and its two companions — the Divertimentos in B-flat major (K.137) and F major (K.138) — are among the composer’s earliest works in which Mozart appears no longer as a child prodigy but a fully fledged, mature genius.  He was 16 years old when he wrote these three works early in 1772.  It is not altogether clear whether he originally intended them for a solo string quartet or for a string ensemble with multiple players on each part and with the cellos reinforced by basses.  The works can and are frequently performed both ways, though the style is more symphonic than chamber-like.

       Unlike most Mozart divertimentos, which are in six movements, K.136-38 have only three movements each and follow the fast-slow-fast outline of the Italian sinfonia, which at the time could serve either as an operatic overture or an independent concert piece.  The Italian features of the works led the great Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein to believe that they had been written in preparation for Mozart’s third — and, in the event, last — journey to Italy. 

       Each of K.136’s three movements abounds in exquisite melodies, presented in a simple and graceful way.  The virtuosity of the first movement, the tenderness of the second, and the playful quality of the third show three different sides of the young Mozart, all developed to perfection. 

—program note by Peter Laki © The Cleveland Orchestra  

 

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA TIMELINE:  The Cleveland Orchestra first performed this divertimento in November 1966, under the direction of Louis Lane.  It was last presented at Severance Hall in April 2010 and at Blossom in 2003.
     

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 23 in A major, K.488
by Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-1791)

Composed: 1786

Scored for: flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings, plus the solo piano

Duration: about 25 minutes

______________________________________

M O Z A R T   H A D   A   W A Y  with the piano concerto — like no other composer before or after him.  Building upon the achievements of two of J.S. Bach’s sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, Mozart gave the word “concerto” a whole new meaning — and set up expectations not just in the minds of his own audiences, but for generations to come.  He continued the idea of alternating orchestral and solo passages, and also kept a number of other structural elements (how each movement is constructed).  But then he completely expanded on the earlier form, making it both more complex and more flexible.  In his hands, the piano concerto became capable of expressing the most diverse characters and feelings, from grandiose and festive to lyrical and intimate, with innumerable shadings in between.

        For a series of years in the 1780s, Mozart wrote several concertos each season, which he then premiered to great acclaim.  What we now know as Concerto No. 23 (the group was cataloged and numbered decades after Mozart’s death) was written in 1786, the year Mozart completed his opera The Marriage of Figaro.

        The first movement of the Piano Concerto K.488 does not open with a fanfare or any kind of powerful “curtain-raising” motif, as many other concertos do.  It begins instead with a gentle melody, played quietly (piano), setting the stage for a movement with a nuanced blend of moods.  Here we experience a quiet serenity with occasional touches of wistfulness.  In the orchestration, one notes the absence of oboes and the presence of clarinets, resulting in a special, darker-hued sound.  Here the strings begin a new theme that is immediately embellished by the piano and elaborated on in many variations by the orchestra.

For many of Mozart’s concertos, we do not have a solo cadenza written in Mozart’s own hand.  Most often, he left this part of the score blank and improvised in performance.  By not writing down his own ideas for the cadenza, he kept competing artists from performing one of his concertos with the composer’s genuine voice.  For the first movement of the Piano Concerto K.488, however, an original cadenza by Mozart has survived.  This cadenza tells us a great deal about Mozart the improviser.  Besides virtuosic passages, it also contains expressive, singing music, and expands upon the concerto’s thematic material in simple yet ingenious ways.

   The emotional high point in Mozart’s mature piano concertos is often the second movement.  The Adagio movement of K.488, however, is extraordinary even among Mozart’s concertos.  Its dominating sentiment in many ways presages Romanticism.  The melody moves in the quiet rhythm of the siciliano dance, but contains expressive wide leaps, emphasizing chromatic half-steps and the melancholy-sounding “Neapolitan” sixth chord.  The key of F-sharp minor is extremely rare in Mozart’s music — in fact, this is the only time it is the main key of a movement in the composer’s entire catalog of works.  The unusual quality of the key gives the music a certain heightened poignancy that is easier to feel than to describe.

   The third-movement finale, marked “Allegro assai,” is a playful romp with a multitude of spirited melodies.  It is an extended sonata-rondo, meaning that a recurrent first theme alternates with a number of episodes (rondo), but with the layering of sonata form onto this practice, so that one of the episodes also returns, just as a second theme would do in a sonata recapitulation.  The fusion of these two forms results in a structure that allows us to enjoy the wonderful melodies several times, while the alternations and transformations of the melodies afford a seemingly inexhaustible diversity.

        Mozart was well aware of the exceptional richness of this concerto.  It was one of a select group of works he sent to Prince Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen.  In an accompanying letter to Sebastian Winter, a former servant of the Mozart family who now worked for the Prince, the composer wrote that these were “compositions which I keep for myself or for a small circle of music-lovers and connoisseurs (who promise not to let them out of their hands).”  He wanted the Prince to be assured that these compositions had not been circulating widely; and he did not hide his hopes that His Highness might also commission symphonies, concertos, and chamber works on a regular basis, for performances by the Prince’s own orchestra.  Mozart received a total of 143½ florins for the scores he sent (four symphonies, five concertos, and three chamber works) — which paid for about three months’ rent at his apartment on the Schulerstrasse in Vienna.  But the additional commissions Mozart was hoping for never materialized.

—program note by Peter Laki © The Cleveland Orchestra

 

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA TIMELINE:  The Cleveland Orchestra first performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in March 1929, under the direction of Nikolai Sokoloff and with Myra Hess as soloist. It was most recently performed in November 2016 at Severance Hall with Daniil Trifonov as soloist and Jaap van Zweden conducting.
     
   

SYMPHONY NO. 40 in G minor, K.550
by Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-1791)

Composed: 1788

Scored for:  flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings (with divided violas). A later revision added clarinets and made changes to the oboe parts. Tonight's performance is using the original scoring without clarinets.

Duration:  about 35 minutes

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W H E N   M O Z A R T  took up residence in Vienna in the first half of the 1780s, the amount of music making — and the accompanying professional opportunities present there for someone of his all-encompassing talents — seemed almost infinite.  He quickly found in the salons of the nobility the practical advantage of connections and patronage (if not the mutual respect and camaraderie) that he had long been seeking.  In addition, his interest and participation in Free Masonry also benefited him in his quest for monetary support.  The Masonic lodge was a kind of salon in which, as a Mason, he could mix as a “brother” with both the established nobility and newly ennobled bourgeois in the pursuit of sponsorships.  

        By mid-decade, however, support for Mozart from the noble class began to wane —  even as collective efforts among the aristocracy and bourgeoisie allowed him to continue to finance and produce subscription concerts that helped fill recurring gaps in his finances.  But as the decade progressed further, two major factors contributed to an almost complete decline of support, placing Mozart in desperate financial straits. 

       First, war between Austria-Hungary and Turkey drained the Viennese economy.  Second, and perhaps even worse, an unfortunate drop in Mozart’s popularity thinned his income further.  And, in spite of financial assistance from the Emperor and from his friend Baron van Swieten — in both instances to help cover specific projects — by 1788 Mozart’s concert career lay in shambles and his finances in ruin.  Rarely flush with money even in good times, his household’s ledger was now plunging deeper and deeper into debt.  The future did not present a pretty picture. 

   Forced into action in June 1788, Mozart moved his family from the center of Vienna to a cheaper apartment further out.  It did, however, include a calming garden, as a kind of consolation from his troubles.  At the end of a letter, dated June 27, to his Masonic “brother” the merchant Michael Puchberg, Mozart clearly and desperately stated his situation and begged for financial assistance:  “If you, my most worthy Brother, will not help me in my predicament, I shall lose honor and credit, which of all things I dearly wish to  preserve. . . . If my wish is fulfilled I can breathe freely again, for I shall then be able to get my affairs in order and keep them so.  Do come see me!  I am always at home.  I have done more work in ten days since I came to these rooms than in two months at any other lodgings, and were I not visited so frequently by black thoughts (which I must forcibly banish), I should do still better, for I live here pleasantly, comfortably, and — cheaply.  I will not detain you longer with chatter of my affairs, but will hold my tongue — and hope!” 

       The narration is bleak, but still, there was some hope, for the “ten days” of working was on the great triptych of symphonies he composed that summer in less than three months.  Later known as Symphonies Nos. 39, 40, and 41, it is the second of these, in G minor, that we are hearing this evening.

        There has been much speculation among Mozart scholars as to what purpose these three big and complex symphonies served.  For what cause or occasion did the composer spend so much time in their creation?  Was it simply an act of pure inspiration, or as Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein poetically muses, “an appeal to eternity”?  Scholar Neal Zaslaw rebuts this idea by stating that it “flies in the face of Mozart’s known attitudes to music and life, and the financial straits in which he then found himself. . . . While he may often have found great personal pleasure in composing . . . he composed to pay his rent and to be a useful member of society.”  

       If Zaslaw is correct, then Mozart must have composed these works with real performance opportunities in mind.  Furthermore, the fact that he made two versions of the Symphony in G minor (No. 40) — first without, then with clarinets and an altered oboe part — suggests that both versions were performed.  Still, no record of a financial payment has ever been found, and while some surviving playbills (from concerts between 1789 and 1791) suggest a real possibility of performances, the detailing on those documents is not specific enough to know for sure which “grand symphony” was played in each instance.  Chances are that we will never know why Mozart created his last three symphonies.

ABOUT THE MUSIC
       Mozart’s last three symphonies, created we don’t know why, are often viewed as a great summing up of the composer’s understanding of what a symphony could be.  In particular, No. 40, written in the minor, is greatly appealing and a masterful statement of “Classical” proportions without some of the length and self-evident artfulness of the “Jupiter” (No. 41) that followed.

       Overall, this work had a profound effect upon the ensuing Romantic generation.  The symphony’s rhythmic drive, along with its rich chromaticism, thematic working-out, passionate outpouring, and general ambiguity — especially in the last movement — found deep resonance in the composers of the 19th century.  Even the understated and expectant accompaniment of the violas in the opening movement seemed to signal that change was afoot.

       Right at the start, Mozart sets the Allegro molto first movement in motion through the rhythmic impulse of the first theme-group, stated in the first violins over a driving ostinato figure in the viola accompaniment.  This stark forward propulsion is interrupted by the dialogue-like interplay of strings and winds in the second theme-group.  This group is undermined near its close by the recurrence of the opening motifs, now fragmented and distributed between strings and winds.  The movement’s development section is dominated by the first-theme group and impressive contrapuntal textures.  In the recapitulation, the transition between the first and second thematic groups functions as a second development, further adding to the driving intensity (and complexity) of the movement. 

       The Andante second movement is a hybrid creation, with expressive tension carried over from the Allegro molto mixed with a lyricism of melodic writing of a more settled nature.  The expressive tension permeates the movement’s development section via a chromatic ascending bass supporting descending thirds in the winds, violins, and violas. 

       The pronounced melodic syncopation and imitative counterpoint displayed in the third movement, marked Minuetto, brings a seriousness and gravity to this music, unusual for the period.  Even though the movement’s contrasting trio section is more relaxed, it is hardly a light shepherd’s dance. 

       Once again, as in the first movement, a single minded rhythmic propulsion characterizes the first theme of the Allegro assai fourth movement.  The second theme group, separated from the first by a rest, gives some relief to the music’s relentless drive.  Still, in the scheme of things, such relaxation is momentary.  The development section is completely shaped around the opening ascending “rocket” motif.  Symphony No. 40 ends as it began, in the minor mode, the manifest verification of its relentless daemonic drive. 

—program note by Steve LaCoste © 2021

 

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA TIMELINE:  The Cleveland Orchestra first performed Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in its second season, in November 1919, under Nikolai Sokoloff’s direction.  The most recent performances were given in February 2018, led by Bernard Labadie (revised version with clarinets) and in August 2009 led by Jayce Ogren (original version without clarinets).
       

M O Z A R T  was baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus
Mozart.  His first two baptismal names, Johannes Chrysostomus, represent his saints’ names, following the custom of the Roman Catholic Church at the time.  
In everyday life, his family called him Wolfgang (along with a few other nicknames).  Theophilus comes from Greek and can be rendered as “lover of God” or “loved by God.”  Amadeus is a Latin version of this same name.  Mozart most often signed his name as “Wolfgang Amadè Mozart,” saving Amadeus only as an occasional joke.  At the time of his death, scholars in all fields of learning were quite enamored of Latin naming and conventions (this is the period of the classification and cataloging of life on earth into king-dom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, etc.) and successfully “changed” his name to Amadeus.  Only in recent years have we started remembering the Amadè middle name he actually preferred.

—Eric Sellen

 

Jane Glover

B R I T I S H   C O N D U C T OR  Jane Glover has been Music of the Baroque’s music director since 2002. She made her professional debut at the Wexford Festival in 1975, conducting her own edition of Cavalli’s LʼEritrea.  She joined Glyndebourne in 1979 and was music director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1981 until 1985.  She was artistic director of the London Mozart Players from 1984 to 1991, and has also held principal conductorships of both the Huddersfield and the London Choral Societies.  From 2009 until 2016 she was director of opera at the Royal Academy of Music where she is now the Felix Mendelssohn visiting professor.  She was recently visiting professor of opera at the University of Oxford, her alma mater.

       Ms. Glover has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia.  In recent seasons she appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco, Houston, St. Louis, Sydney, Cincinnati, and Toronto symphony orchestras, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Bamberg Symphony.  She made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in April 2014 and most recently led performances at Severance Hall in December 2018.

       She has worked with period-instrument orchestras Philharmonia Baroque and the Handel and Haydn Society, and has made regular appearances at the BBC Proms.

       In demand on the international opera stage, Ms. Glover has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Glyndebourne, the Berlin Staatsoper, Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, Opera National de Bordeaux, Opera Australia, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera National du Rhin, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Luminato, Teatro Real, Madrid, Royal Danish Opera, and Teatro La Fenice.  A Mozart specialist, she has conducted all the composer's operas all over the world, having first performed them at Glyndebourne in the 1980s.  Her core operatic repertoire also includes Monteverdi, Handel, and Britten.

       Future and recent engagements include her continuing seasons with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, her returns to the Houston Grand Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (at Carnegie Hall), and the London Mozart Players.  In the 2019-20 season she made debuts with Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, the Bremen Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Malaysia Philharmonic.

       She is the author of Mozartʼs Women and Handel in London.  She holds a personal professorship at the University of London, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music and Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, and holds several honorary degrees.  She was made a Commander of the British Empire in the 2003 New Year’s Honours, and most recently was elevated to Dame Commander in the 2021 Year Year's Honours.
    

Conrad Tao
Piano

C O N R A D   T A O  has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer and has been dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times. Mr. Tao is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist, and received a 2019 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award in composition for More Forever, his collaboration with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher. He has recently appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony. He made his Cleveland Orchestra debut during the 2019 Blossom Music Festival.

       In 2020-21, Mr. Tao was the focus of a series of concerts and interviews with the Finnish Radio Symphony, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Andrew Norman’s Suspend live on television. He appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony and Louis Langrée, and returned to the Seattle Symphony to perform Beethoven Concerto No. 4. Mr. Tao and Caleb Teicher's latest collaboration for the Guggenheim's Works & Process series, Rhapsody in Blue, kicked off the museum’s return to in-person performances and was lauded by The New York Times as “monumental.” The duo also gave the inaugural virtual recital of the season for Concerts from the Library of Congress.

       In the 2019-20 season, Mr. Tao was presented in recital by Carnegie Hall, performing works by David Lang, Bach, Julia Wolfe, Jason Eckhardt, Carter, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann. He also made his debut in recital at Walt Disney Concert Hall, where the LA Phil presented him in works by Copland and Rzewski. Following his debut at Blossom Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra invited Mr. Tao to perform at Severance Hall in a special program featuring music by Mary Lou Williams and Ligeti, and improvisation alongside pianist Aaron Diehl. After his debut with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, Mr. Tao was invited to give a streamed recital for its Great Performers series, where he played works by Felipe Lara, Crawford Seeger, Tania León, David Lang, and Beethoven.

       In the 2018-19 season, the New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden gave the world premiere of Mr. Tao’s work, Everything Must Go. The European premiere will take place in 2021-22 with the Antwerp Symphony. Other recent performances of his compositions include his own performance of The Oneiroi in New York with the Seattle Symphony, and Spoonfuls with the IRIS Orchestra. His violin concerto for Stefan Jackiw will be premiered in the 2021-22 season.

       Other recent highlights include Mr. Tao’s LA Opera debut in the West Coast premiere of David Lang's adaptation of Thomas Bernhard’s novel The Loser. In Europe, he has been presented by the Swedish Radio Symphony in recital and in Andrew Norman’s Suspend alongside Susanna Mälkki; he also recently returned to the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, performing with Antonio Pappano.

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Piano by Steinway & Sons.