楽曲解説 / Program Notes

By April L. Racana

Sunday, October 30 The 871st Suntory Hall Subscription Concert

Opera City

Program Notes

109

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
I. Allegro  (ca. 13 min)II. (Largetto) (ca. 6 min)III. (Allegretto)  (ca. 9 min)His business acumen aside, Mozart’s
renown for his mastery as a concerto
composer continues to this day. Scholars
point to his development as a composer
through his various concerti, the first ofwhich was composed when he was stilla child at the age of eleven. The last wascomposed in 1791, the same year of
his death. The first concerti were morealong the lines of arrangements of othercomposers’ sonatas, with the addition oforchestral interludes and accompaniments.
But it wasn’t long before he created hisown thematic material on his way tocomposing 27 piano concertos, more thanany other composer.

1018Suntory Hall

By the time Mozart had left the serviceof the Archbishop in Salzburg to pursue hismusical career in Vienna in 1781, he hadalready composed six piano concertos. But
it was during his years in Vienna that henot only relied on additional compositionsin this genre to establish himself bothas a composer and as a pianist, but also
depended on them for financial support.
Some might say he was in fact shrewd in
his timing for composing and presenting
some of these works for public, as many
were premiered during the Lenten season
when the majority of theatres in the region
were closed, so that competition for an
audience was greatly reduced.

The Piano Concerto No. 26 in D minor
was completed in February of 1788, oneof two final works of this genre that werecomposed during the last years of hislife. The premiere was given in April of1789 in Dresden when the composer wason tour in Germany. However it would
be the performance the following year
in Frankfurt that would give the work
its “Coronation”(Krönung) title, when
it was presented as part of festivities forthe coronation of Leopold II as the Holy
Roman Emperor, October of 1790.

Orchard Hall

Piano Concerto No. 26 in D major, “Krönung” K.537

1030

The solo piano part was initially onlywritten in sketches with the left hand part
often left nearly blank or with just a simple
outline, given that Mozart probably knew
himself how he would fill this in. This has
left scholars and soloists the additional
job of determining the composers’ intent
for these missing parts. Scholars believe
this work may be looking forward to theRomantic style given that there seems to
be more of an emphasis on virtuosity inthe solo piano, rather than the Classicalstyle where there was more of a balance
between the orchestra and soloist.
Consequently it would become the mostpopular of all of Mozart’s concerti during
the 19th century.
Instrumentation: solo piano, flute, 2 oboes, 2bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

April L. Racana / please refer to p.28

39

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Symphony No. 1 in D major
One of the great composers in theAustro-German tradition, Mahler waswell known as a conductor as well.
He completed nine symphonies andnumerous orchestral songs, not only
expanding the size of the ensembles,
but also incorporating new instrumental
explorations in various combinations.
In addition, he infused song (or ‘lied’)
into his symphonies. His exposure as achild to a large repertoire of folksongs
had great effect on his themes, as can beheard in this symphony, as well as manyof his other works.
Perhaps the key feature of Mahler’s
c o m p o s i t i o n s i s i n t h i s ve r y c l o s erelationship between the lieder ands y m p h o n i e s . Th e Fi r s t S y m p h o ny,
composed initially in 1888, and variously
revised over the years, draws much ofits material from his song cycle Liedereines farhenden Gesellen (1883-1885).
The first movement takes its thematic
motives from the second of this collectionof lieder. Hans und Grethe, a lieder
composed when Mahler was 20 years
old, supplies several motifs for the second
movement, while Freres Jacques provides
the framework for the minor Funeral
March of the third movement. The fourth
movement uses a typical Mahlerian
ascending motif that is often heard whenwishing to express ascension to a higher
order. This is perhaps in direct contrast
to the descending fourth heard in thefirst movement which is meant to portraythe sound of a cuckoo (typically given
a descending third) and more earthly
aspects of nature and spring.
It has been said that Mahler wrote
program notes of his own to assist theaudiences of his time to better understandthis work, at the time titled SymphonicPoem. And although he insisted that40

the eventual subtitle Titan did notreflect accurately any reference to JeanPaul Richter’s novel of the same name,the program notes seemed to suggest
otherwise, since some of the original
titles ascribed to each of the movements
seem to be borrowed from Mr. Richter.
Here then are excerpts from Mahler’s own
program notes that show his inclination
to integrate lieder into his symphony aswell as perhaps themes from significant
literature of the time:
Part I‘Memories of Youth’: fruit, flower andthorn pieces
1.‘Spring goes on and on’(Introductionand Allegro comodo).
The introduction describes nature’s
awakening from its long winter sleep
2. ‘Blumine’ (Andante) later omitted
3. ‘Full sail’ (Scherzo)  
Part II
4. ‘Aground!’ (A funeral march in thestyle of Callot)
The following will help to explain
this movement: the initial inspiration
for it was found by the composer in aburlesque engraving: ‘The Huntsman’s
Funeral’, well known to all Austrianchildren, and taken from an old bookof fairy stories…. This movement isintended to express a mood alternating
between ironic gaiety and uncannybrooding, which is then suddenlyinterrupted by:
5. ‘Dall’Inferno’ (Allegro Furioso)
The sudden outburst of despair from a
deeply wounded heart.
Instrumentation: 4 flutes (2 doubling on
piccolos), 4 oboes (doubling on English horn),
4 clarinets (doubling on bass clarinet, doublingon E-flat clarinet), 3 bassoons (doublingon contrabassoon), 7 horns, 4 trumpets, 3trombones, tuba, timpani (2 players), bass drum,
cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, harp, strings