Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Concerto in B Flat for Bassoon and Orchestra, K. 191
Concerto in C major for Oboe and Orchestra, K. 285d
Concerto in A major for Clarinet and Orchestra, K. 622
The life of Mozart has recently attracted considerable
attention, his character distorted to suit modern dramatic requirements and his
contemporary achievement thereby belittled. The reality seems to have been rather
different. While he may never, as an adult, have achieved the material position that he
and his father regarded as his due, he nevertheless won considerable success during the
last ten years of his life in Vienna, if never quite able to match the international
acclaim that had greeted his appearance in the 1760s as a child prodigy.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756, the son
of a court musician, Leopald Mozart, who in 1756 had published an important book on violin
technique and who represented a new breed of musician in his breadth of interests and his
association with distinguished writers and intellectuals of the day. Neither Leopald nor
Wolfgang Mozart were ever to regard themselves as mere craftsmen, whatever the social
exigencies of their profession.
In childhood Mozart and his elder sister, Nannerl, travelled
widely, performing prodigious musical feats to the amazement of audiences throughout
Europe. As an adolescent the harsher reality of life in Salzburg, under a much less
congenial patron, Hieronymus Count von Colloredo, the new Archbishop, led to constant
dissatisfaction. Opportunities in Salzburg were limited; there was no opera-house and
provincial society lacked the allure of Vienna. In 1777 Mozart secured his dismissal from
the archiepiscopal service to seek his fortune in Mannheim and Paris, an abortive
expedition, during the course of which his mother, who had accompanied him to France, fell
ill and died. The journey was a fateful one in that it brought Mozart into contact with
the Webers, to be jilted by the eldest daughter of the family, who found a more profitable
match. Later he was to marry a younger daughter, Constanze, a step that caused amazement
to the Emperor, in view of the bride's lack of money, and consternation to Mozart's father
for equally compelling reasons.
By the time of his marriage Mozart has escaped from the
drudgery of Salzburg, where he had been re-employed on his return from Paris in 1778. In
1781 he had accompanied the Archbishop of Salzburg to Vienna, where he had finally and
irrevocably quarrelled with his patron, after finding himself prevented from making full
use of his abilities in the capital.
The final decade of Mozart's life in Vienna brought variable
fame and popularity. His operas were successful, in general, and his Singspiel, The Magic
Flute, was drawing enthusiastic audiences in 1791, as the composer lay dying in sudden
illness that has been the subject of considerable imaginative speculation by later
generations.
Mozart wrote a number of piano concertos, principally for his
own use, violin concertos played in Salzburg, flute concertos on commission in Mannheim
and horn concertos for his Salzburg friend Ignaz Leutgeb. Mozart wrote his only surviving
bassoon concerto in Salzburg in 1774, possibly for Freiherr Thaddaeus von Duernitz, an
enthusiastic amateur, for whom he later wrote a piano sonata, as well as three other
concertos and a bassoon sonata. The concerto, again in three movements, makes splendid use
of the solo instrument, with contrasts of register and the necessary elements of display.
C
major Oboe Concerto in Salzburg in the spring or summer of 1777, before his
autumn departure for Augsburg, designing it for the oboist Ferlendis, who had joined the
Archbishop's musical establishment in April that year. In Mannheim, which he reached on
30th October, Mozart met the oboist Friedrich Ramm, a member of the famous court
orchestra, and made him a present of the concerto. Ramm, as Mozart told his father, was delighted, and by February was performing it for the
fifth time, now, in Mozart's words, his cheval de bataille Pressed for time in his
subsequent commission for the amateur flautist De Jean, he arranged the oboe concerto for
flute Mozart mentions the oboe concerto once more in a letter to his father written on
15th February 1783 from Vienna. Here he asks for the notebook containing the Ferlendis
concerto, since he has been offered three ducats for it by the oboist of Haydn’s
orchestra at Esterháza, and twice that sum for a new concerto.
Oboe
Concerto is scored for two oboes, two horns and strings and has ail the clarity
of texture that we should expect Alter the orchestral exposition the soloist enters with a
brief scale. leading to a sustained high note and the first solo theme.
The slow movement in F major, offers
the oboe a sustained aria of great beauty and this is followed by a lively Rondo, into
which the soloist leads the way.
His clarinet concerto in A major, K 622, was written for another friend, Anton
Stadler, who had settled in Vienna in 1773 to become, with his younger brother, Johann
Nepomuk, the first clarinettists to be employed by the Court Orchestra, in 1787.
Anton Stadler, who played second
clarinet in the orchestra, made technical changes in the instrument to allow a downward
ex1ension and it was for this so-called basset clarinet and for this player that Mozart
wrote his concerto a month or so before his death in 1791. The clarinet itself, derived
from the earlier single-reed chalumeau, had been developed from the beginning of the
eighteenth century It was only towards the end of Mozart's life that it came to be
accepted as a permanent element of the orchestra rather than as an occasional and optional
substitute for the oboe.
Stepan Turnovsky
He was born in Prague in 1959, the son
of conductor Martin Turnovsky. In 1958 he moved to Vienna with his father. From 1973 he
studied at the Vienna Hochschuie für Musik with Prof. Karl Öhlberger. In 1978 he joined
the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1985
he is solo bassoonist of both orchestras At the same time, he is teaching "Wind
Chamber Music" at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna.
As soloist he has performed in radio
productions in Austria and internationally. As a member of the Vienna Bläserensemble and
the Neues Wiener Oktett he is extremely active in the field of chamber music. He also was
a member of the Concentus Musicus Vienna for many years.
Martin Gabriel
He was born in Vienna in 1956 as a son
of musical parents After graduating from the Realgymnasium for Music Students in Vienna he
received his diploma at the Vienna Musikhochschule with distinction. After an engagement
as solo oboist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and with the Orchestra of the Vienna
Volksoper he has been an oboist in the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and of the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra since 1982. Since 1987 he has been a solo oboist of the
Vienna Phiiharmonic. He frequently performs as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles in
Vienna and inter nationally.
Ernst Ottensamer
Ernst Ottensamer was born in 1955 at
Wallern in Upper Austria and studied the clarinet at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz,
before moving to Vienna Musikhochschuie, where he completed his studies in 1979. He first
played with the Vienna State Opera and Vienna Phiiharmonic Orchestra in 1978, before
becoming a principal clarinettist in 1983 Since 1986 he has also been a member of the
teaching staff of the Vienna Musikhochschuie. Ernst
Ottensamer enjoys a busy career
as a founder-member of the Vienna Wind Ensemble, with which he has undertaken more than
150 engagements at home and abroad. He has appeared as a soloist with a number of leading
orchestras in Vienna and performed the Weber E flat Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic
as part of the 1990 Salzburg Easter Festival.
Vienna Mozart Academy The Vienna Mozart Academy is a chamber
orchestra formed by leading musicians from the principal orchestras in Vienna, the Vienna
Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The Academy concentrates largely on the
music of Mozart, while including other repertoire from the 18th and 19th centuries. Under
the direction of Johannes Wildner, the orchestra continues the Viennese tradition and
style of Mozart performance.
