CCLXXII. MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus: Sonata #17 for Piano and Violin in C Major, K. 296

CCLXXII. MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791)

Sonata #17 for Piano and Violin in C Major, K. 296 (1778)
1. Allegro vivace
2. Andante sostenuto
3. Allegro [Rondo]
Anne Sophie Mutter, violin
Lambert Orkis, piano
(16:16)

Mozart certainly set the template for such sonatas of the future Beethoven, who reversed the title for Violin and Piano.

This lovely Mannheim style work was written when the Young Genius had reached the ripe old age of 22. He originally dedicated it to the 17-year-old daughter of his landlord, but ultimately the honor went to another love, Josepha Barbara Auernhammer.

He may have been in love, but was still critical:

"Almost every day after dinner I am at H: v: Auernhammer's -- The Miss is a monster! -- plays delightfully though, however, she lacks the genuine fine and lilting quality of cantabile; she plucks too much."

First Movement

Both instruments begin by outlining a descending C Major triad, but the piano gets the flourishes.

The development begins -- typically enough -- in the dominant G Major:

but then he introduces some astonishing modulations:

beginning in the parallel minor and using secondary dominants (V of V / V of ii / V of vi, etc.) until gracefully returning to the major.

Second Movement

Ah, young love.

The three-against-four rhythm would qualify as cantabile lilting.

Third Movement

A typical rousing rondo:

CCLXXI. FROBERGER, Johann Jakob: Lamentation

CCLXXI. FROBERGER, Johann Jakob (1616-1667)

Lamentation faite sur la mort très douloureuse de Sa Majesté Impériale, Ferdinand le troisième (1657)
Robert Hill, harpsichord
[scrolling score]
(5:01)

Froberger was huge in his day.

Today, he is remembered for being perhaps the first composer to collect (French) dance suites into a collected composition.

This piece, however, is a stand-alone, in memory of his patron at the time, Ferdinand III. Note the three repeated F's which end the piece! F-III!

Just in time, too -- he didn't get along with Ferdinand's successor Leopold I.

**

He refused to allow his work to be published during his lifetime, giving them exclusively to the nobility which supported him. 

CCLXX. BACH, J.S. Cantata #168: Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort, BWV 168

CCLXX. BACH, J.S. (1685-1750)

Cantata #168: Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort, BWV 168 (1725)
1. Aria (Basso): Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort
2. Recitativo (Tenore): Es ist nur fremdes Gut
3. Aria (Tenore): Kapital und Interssen
4. Recitativoe (Basso): Jedoch, erschrocknes Herz
5. Aria (Duetto: Soprano, Alto): Herz, zerreiß des Mammons Kette
6. Choral (Coro): Stärk mich mit deinem Freudengeist
Noëmi Sohn Nad, soprano
Antonia Frey, alto
Johannes Kaleschke, tenor
Peter Harvey, bass
Choir and Orchestra of the J. S. Bach Foundation
Rudolf Lutz, cond.
(17:25)

Text by Salomo Franck, from Luke 16:1-9 -- The Parable of the Unjust Steward.

And he said also unto his disciples: There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

And he called him, and said unto him: How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first: How much owest thou unto my lord?

And he said: A hundred measures of oil And he said unto him: Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.

Then said he to another: And how much owest thou? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him: Take thy bill, and write fourscore (80).

And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

And I say unto you: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

**

Intimately scored for four voices, two oboes, strings and continuo, this is a taut, but intense cantata using the above parable as a lesson in the accounting of Judgement Day.

1. Aria (Basso): Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort

Thine accounting! Judgement Day! / When the mountains split to pieces / Hark, the blood within me freezes / Thine accounting! Thou must pay! / All thy chattels thou must tender / Life and body must surrender / Thine accounting! Judgement Day!

2. Recitativo (Tenore): Es ist nur fremdes Gut

This recitative goes into detail about the sin of unjust accounting, with poetic nuance:

This life is not mine own / Which I today on earth am living / Soul, body are a loan / My lot and station are the Father's giving / The goods which God is lending / Are held in trust against the spending / Of more than I can well afford / Ah! woe is me! O Lord / I ask my conscience oft in terror / How stands my reckoning? So full it is of error / I tremble day and night / Lest I default in my accounting / And shudder, cold with fright! / What may I do, my God, to pass Thy judgment? / O harken to my plea / Ye mountains fall, ye hillocks cover me / Take note of my repentance / And so withhold from me Thy awful sentence!

3. Aria (Tenore): Kapital und Interssen

The aria has a dance-like quality -- which seems to delightfully support the gravitas of the text:

Capital and Int'rest payment / All my debits great and small / I must soon account for all / Ev'ry failing, base and sordid / In the Book of God recorded / As if graven deep in stone.

4. Recitativoe (Basso): Jedoch, erschrocknes Herz

A secco recitative with reassuring language, lasting two minutes!

Take heart, and tremble not / Live, nor bemoan thy lot / But joyous meet thy God / If, burdened by thy guilty conscience / Before the judge thy words shall fail thee / Thy Surety is by / Who all thy debts will satisfy / Be not afraid, the debt is wholly paid / Which thou, O man, didst owe to God alone / By Jesus blood, O mighty love! / Of ev'ry wrong committed / In full art thou acquitted / Be not afraid, thy debt is paid! / So, steward, make no slip, but heed thy stewardship / Be sure to use thy talent wisely / Invest it well, nor vainly spend it / In goodly deeds excel / So wilt thou, when thy life on earth is ended / In Heaven's Mansions ever dwell.

5. Aria (Duetto: Soprano, Alto): Herz, zerreiß des Mammons Kette

Bach employs an unusual Renaissance dance -- the canarie -- to underpin this delicious duet.

Rend, my heart, the chains of Mammon / Scatter, hands, the seeds of Grace! / Make ye soft my cruel deathbed / Build in Heav'n my restingplace / There forever loved and cherished / When the Earth in dust has perished.

6. Choral (Coro): Stärk mich mit deinem Freudengeist

By Thine atonement make me strong / Thy love and grace reveal me / Wash Thou my soul of ev'ry wrong / Of ev'ry trespass heal me! / And take me, when it pleases Thee / In Heaven evermore to be / With Thee and Thine Elected.

The only text not by Franck -- this is from a 1588 hymn by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt.

Molly's ancestor? 

CCLXIX. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van: Egmont, Op. 84

CCLXIX. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (1770-1827)

Egmont, Op. 84 (1809-10)
1. Overture: Sostenuto, ma non troppo -- Allegro
2. Lied: "Die Trommel gerühret"
3. Entracte: Andante
4. Entracte: Larghetto
5. Lied: "Freudvoll and leidvoll"
6. Entracte: Allegro -- Marcia
7. Entracte: Poco sostenuto e risoluto
8. Klärchens Tod
9. Melodram: "Sußer Schlaf"
10. Siegessymphonie (symphony of victory): Allegro con brio
Gandula Janowitz, Soprano (Clärchen)
Erich Schellow, Speaker (Egmont)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan, (cond.)
(37:03)

Goethe's 1788 play (here; it took me 90 minutes to read) fired up Beethoven's imagination -- after all, the Eroica (see Post XXIX) was meant to convey the Hero, the man who valued Freedom and the Rights of Man above all else -- and of course when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor, Beethoven ripped up the dedication.

But in the Hero of Goethe's play -- Count Egmont (1522-1568) -- he had no fear of being contradicted in the present time.

Egmont was indeed an admirable hero for his times. The year of his death is, in fact, the first year of the Eighty-Years' War. And Goethe's play is confined to this date, as well.

**

On October 29, 1787, the Prague Opera was set to premiere Mozart's Don Giovanni. The story goes that Mozart was still writing the Overture on the 29th, and that the copyists were rushing the parts to the music stands just before the curtain fell -- the ink still wet.

In any case, it was not unusual for composers to save the overture for last. It's purpose is to introduce the themes for various characters in an instrumental context, so that when they appear in the production (opera, or in this case incidental music to a play), the audience has already been familiarized with the musical tropes.

Thus, this famous overture was the last of the ten parts to be composed.

And it is justifiably considered a giant in the works of the Master. Egmont's death is foreshadowed, as is the triumph of the ideas of freedom and liberty in the coda (which is reprised in the 10th movement: "The Symphony of Victory.")

In between are depictions of Clärchen's emotions and other elements taken from the plot of Goethe's play.

**

1. The Overture

That we are about to witness a tragedy is evident from the first unison F under a fermata. The stately, serious chords which follow -- in 3/2 time, a Baroque feeling -- deepen the feeeling. The winds follow with a melancholy four-note motif, that seems awfully familiar:

From the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 (see Post CXLIV)

The Fuge theme is an exact inversion of the Egmont riff with the exception of the final interval (Minor Second vs. Major Second) ...

Later, we hear something very similar to some of the working out of the Fifth Symphony.

Fifth Symphony:

That Beethoven's borrowed from himself is not in itself unusual. But these motivic phrases are powerful in either inversion and well-serve his purposes here.

2. Lied: "Die Trommel gerühret"

The drum beats, (timpani)
the fife squeals! (piccolo)
My lover, fully armed,
leads on his troop;
lance held high,
he rules the people.
How my heart beats!
How my blood races!
O had I but a doublet
breeches and helmet!

I'd follow him with bold steps
through the city gates
and go through the provinces,
go everywhere with him.
The enemy is retreating,
we shoot into them!
What fortune beyond compare
to be a man!

It would be four more centuries before she'd be allowed in some country's military ...

The second section anticipates the action in Act II, depicting the excitement of the crowd.

**

3. Entracte: Andante

This one somberly relates to the end of Act II in which Orange warns Egmont that the Spanish leadership is about to change from the accomodating Regent Margaret to the ruthless Duke of Alba; and looks forward to Act III, where Margaret despairs of Alba's impending rule.

4. Entracte: Larghetto

5. Lied: "Freudvoll and leidvoll"

Clärchen declares her undying love for Egmont:

Joyful
and sorrowful,
sunk in thought,
longing
and fearful
in painful suspense,
rejoicing to heaven,
grieving to death --
happy alone is the heart
that is in love.

6. Entracte: Allegro -- Marcia

Clärchen's emotions after the sensitive scene with Egmont ending Act III. The march signifies the arrival of Alba and his troops.

7. Entracte: Poco sostenuto e risoluto

Goethe and Beethoven refer back to #4 where Orange had warned Egmont. Now Beethoven anticipates Clärchen's tragic fate.

8. Klärchens Tod

Clärchen's despair.

9. Melodram: "Sußer Schlaf"

The narrator assumes Egmont's voice, in jail, awaiting his execution:

Sweet sleep! You come as pure chance, most readily when asked, unsought. You loosen the bonds of painful thoughts, mingle all images of joy and sorrow; the circle of inner harmonies flows without hindrance, and we sink, enveloped in a pleasing delusion, and cease to be.

(He falls asleep; music accompanies his slumbers.)

The wall opens.

The wreath (Clärchen's image) has vanished! Beauteous image, the light of day has frightened you away! Yes, they were there, the two sweetest joys of my heart were united there. Divine liberty borrowed the shape of my beloved: the enchanting maiden arrayed herself in my friend's heavenly robe. In one serious moment they appeared combined, more serious than lovely.

With bloodstained feet she stepped before me, the fluttering folds of her garments spotted with blood. It was my blood and that of many noble souls. No, it was not shed in vain. Forward, gallant people! The goddess of victory leads you! And as the sea breaks through your dams, so break and tear down the wall of tyranny and sweep it away in a flood from the land it has usurped!

Hark! Hark! How often that sound has summoned me with unhampered steps to the field of battle and victory!

(Drum on the stage, rather slow and distant)

I go forth from this prison to meet a glorious death; I die for freedom, for which I lived and fought, and to which I now resignedly sacrifice myself.

(Drums nearer. He perceives Spanish soldiers in the background.)

Yes, lead them on! Close your ranks; you do not frighten me! I am used to standing in front of spears, facing spears. The enemy encircles you on every side! Swords are gleaming -- friends, have courage! You have behind you parents, wives, children!

(pointing to the guards)

And these are driven only by a hollow word from their master, not by the convictions. Protect what is yours! And to save what you hold most dear, fall joyfully, as I set you an example!

10. Siegessymphonie (symphony of victory): Allegro con brio

The Symphony of Victory.

CCLXVIII. BIBER, Heinrich Ignaz Franz: Motet "Plaudite tympana"

CCLXVIII. BIBER, Heinrich Ignaz Franz (1644-1704)

Motet "Plaudite tympana"
Musica Antiqua Köln
(Reinhard Goebel, cond.)
Gabrieli Consort & Players
(Paul McCreesh, cond.)
(5:52)

1682 was the 1100th anniversary of Salzburg as the center of Christianity. The nobility planned a grand celebration. The Missa Salisburgenis was to be the music provided for the occasion. Biber's authorship was long in question -- the manuscript was not discovered until the 1870s in the home of a greengrocer in Salzburg. Apparently, it was rescued just in time to prevent it from being used to wrap vegetables.

**

Now universally accepted to have been composed by Biber, the Mass is perhaps one of the best examples of what is termed the Colossal Baroque.

The motet featured here was an extension of the Mass performance, featuring the same gigantic forces:

Allow me to make it readable:

Sound the drums,
peal the bells,
sing together, you faithful,
let your voices proclaim
with chorus and rejoicing
the greatest shepherd.
Acclaim your fatherland,
celebrate (Saint) Rupert.

This blessed day is thrice delightful,
a day full of pleasures
in which we celebrate Rupert,
in which we honour our patron,
a most happy day.
Be joyful, O happy fatherland,
clap, O happy race,
the noble mind of Rupert
triumphs above the stars;
among the thousand of angels
in the applause of the blessed
triumphs his noble mind.
Live, Salzburg, be joyful,
thrice applaud your great father
with drums and voices,
with lutes and clapping.
Live, Salzburg, be joyful,
thrice applaud your great father,
celebrate Rupert,
rejoice in the shepherd.

CCLXVII. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van: Symphony #2 in D Major, Op. 36 (piano reduction)

CCLXVII. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (1770-1827)

Symphony #2 in D Major, Op. 36 (1801-02)
Piano reduction by Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
1. Adagio molto -- Allegro con brio
2. Larghetto
3. Scherzo: Allegro
4. Allegro molto
Cyprien Katsaris, piano
[scrolling score]
(34:39)

Having studied the orchestral scores since I was a child, my initial reaction after coming across these reductions was one of indifference verging on horror.

After all -- who dared to try to reduce Beethoven's might Nine to the 88 keys of the piano?

But as I began to immerse myself -- left-hand page for the bass; right-hand side for the treble -- I began to appreciate some of the details which escapes the study of the scores, no matter how thorough I thought I might have been.

Besides, I imagined they sounded delightful, although I had never played them with another pianist.

**

I met my wife at a party on May 15, 1981 where we exchanged maybe five sentences and then phone numbers. One of the sentences had to do with the fact that we both played piano.

So our first date was set -- we'd read through the first movement of the Pastoral (see Post CXV). I bought a new tie. I was nervous. What if she was like a real concert pianist and my pitiful composer-piano would be so embarrassing?

She decided she wanted the left-hand page, so we sat on the bench and began.

So far, so good. Turn the page. The notes are coming fast and furious, but we're making music! Then I noticed that she was rushing.

We started over. Even though she was getting most of the notes, she was still rushing.

We took a break, and poured ourselves some Scotch. The rushing didn't stop, but she began giggling and I knew I was in love. (It took her a few more dates.)

**

We played the whole first movement at our wedding which was luckily caught on VHS. Now when my son-in-law percussionist/pianist comes to visit we give it a try, too!

**

Liszt did an amazing job -- the transcriptions were originally intended for just a solo pianist -- until he got to the Ninth (see Post C). He found he needed two pianos for that one!

In 1866, he was urged by the publisher Breitkopf and Härtel to try his hand at the string quartets:

"It is very mortifying to me to have to confess that I have most awkwardly come to a standstill with the Beethoven Quartets. After several attempts the result was absolutely unplayable -- or insipid stuff."

**

Thank God for that.

CCLXVI. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van: String Quartet #16 in F Major, Op. 135

CCLXVI. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (1770-1827)

String Quartet #16 in F Major, Op. 135 (1826)
1. Allegretto
2. Vivace
3. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo
4. "Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß." Grave, ma non troppo tratto ("Muss es sein?") -- Allegro ("Es muss sein!") -- Grave, ma non troppo tratto -- Allegro
Ariel Quartet
(26:54)

This the penultimate work of the Master (after this, he composed a new finale for Op. 130 to replace the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 [see Post CXLIV], which was published as a stand-alone work).

Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß (The Difficult Decision)
Muss es sein? (Must it be?)
Es muss sein! (It must be.)

Not much doubt about what was on Beethoven's mind here, written a year before his death.

**

Ah, but the story has deeper roots!

The above mentioned Op. 130 was premiered at house quartet party by Ignaz Schuppanzigh on March 21, 1826, when the Grosse Fuge still served as the final movement.

An wealthy Austrian music-lover by the name of Ignaz Dembscher wanted a copy for his own house party. Beethoven -- as usual with determined chutzpah -- insisted that Dembscher pay the full subscription price, since he had missed the premiere.

"50 florins," said the violinist Karl Holz (who was Beethoven's secretary at this time).

"Must it be?" replied Dembscher ...

**

In a letter from the summer of 1826, Beethoven wrote to Holz:

"Holz! -- Bring wood! Tomorrow very early the least dangerous of all persons (his trusted old housekeeper) will bring money for that purpose. Must it be Herr __________ and agent? It must be!"

Then -- as was Beethoven's frequent habit -- he composed a short canon on the spot and attached it to the letter as a postscript:

Listen to WoO 196a -- the Es muß sein! canon.

First Movement

Considering that an immortal like Beethoven was contemplating his disappearance from life, this is quite breezy music! Haydn-like, yet notice he waits until Bar 10 before coming to a full tonic cadence!

The movement is flushed with delightful nuances like the two 32nd-note grace notes which first appear in Bar 2 of the first violin. These occur throughout the movement as does a change of rhythm to 16th-note triplets, super-effective in passages like this one:

Second Movement

One of Beethoven's favorite devices -- syncopation -- is front-and-center for this wonderul vivace! The off beats produce that peculiar feeling of something completely unbalanced for most of the movement. The second violin enters first on a preparatory beat, then the viola a beat later, and one beat after that the first violin. The cello plays a merry, bumpy line, anchoring the 3/4 feel.

The pink star is the shocking, accented unison E-Flat which leads off the next section.

The unison E-Flat is hammered on for a few bars, and then Beethoven simply moves it back to an E-natural and continues the three-beat motif.

Notice how he transfers the skipping line started by the cello on to the violins (purple star)

Something new -- this five-note riff, at first hardly noticeable.

becoming more prominent:

until it is finally a unison accompaniment to a rumbling, wildly skipping, arpeggiated F Major triad in the first violin:

Third Movement

Originally planned as an 8th movement for Opus 131 [see Post II], Beethoven wrote 54 bars of some of the most exquisite beauty ever composed for the string quartet.

Here's the entire movement.

Note how he shifts to the enharmonic parallel minor of C-Sharp Minor midway (the key of Op. 131). Also note the heart-wrenching first violin part on the last page. Under a chromatically downward-moving cello part, the violin reaches for the heavens (circled high B-Flat) and descends back down to earth -- rises again momentarily -- and dissolves into a D-Flat Major chord ...

Fourth Movement

Must it Be?
Yes, It Must.