PERFORMERS:
Rodion Tolmachev (bassoon)
Peter Laul (piano)
The Mariinsky Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Ivan Stolbov
PROGRAMME:
Carl Maria von Weber
Bassoon Concerto in F Major, Op. 75
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, KV 466
Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No.3 in A Minor (Scottish), Op. 56
Concerto No 20 in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra is one of the most popular of Mozart’s concerti thanks to its romantic and passionate character. The first section precedes the emotional pages of Don Giovanni, while the third is the finale of Symphony No 40.
Mozart completed the score on 10 February 1785, and already the next day the composer performed his latest work in the casino room of the Mehlgrub at the opening of a series of six subscription concert. Performing the keyboard at the same time as conducting was his favourite method of influencing the public. It was Mozart, in the 1780s, who created a revolution, ridding the piano of its role as accompanist (which in line with tradition had been performed in the orchestra by the harpsichord and other keyboard instruments) and transformed it into a real soloist.
Mozart intended his concerti for the broader public. In a letter to his father he wrote: “It is concerti that are somewhere between too hard and too easy, there is much dazzle in them, they are pleasant to the ear, but, of course, they do not disappear into emptiness; in certain places there is satisfaction to be had only by connoisseurs – apropos, non-connoisseurs should inexplicably be pleased with them.”
Anna Bulycheva
Carl Maria von Weber was among the pioneers of new Romantic orchestration and a new attitude to wind instruments, and Glinka referred to his turning to bassoons in Notes about Instrumentation as being true genius. The one and only Bassoon Concerto was composed by von Weber in late November 1811 in Munich “for signor Brandt” (Georg Friedrich Brandt). At the time, the composer held the honorary title of “Royal Court Master of Music”, which had been bestowed upon him by the Duke of Württemberg, although he lived his life freely as a travelling musician. In 1822 he somewhat revised the concerto for publishing (most importantly expanding the orchestral ritornellos in the first movement).
With von Weber the classical concerto became slightly simpler in terms of composition, but it was to be filled with new intonations. The first movement opens with a march, although this march is marked by Romantic agitation and unexpected gloom. In the second movement the bassoon is given a delightful cantilena, a magical ensemble with two French horns and a brilliant solo towards the end. The rondo finale with its delicate humour was written in the then “shining style” and stands apart for the incredible number of rapid passages and broad leaps, indicating the vast range of the instrument which in von Weber’s view was certainly no less broad than in Stravinsky’s opinion.
Felix Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony, dedicated to Queen Victoria, was completed in 1841 and first performed in 1842 in both Leipzig and London. It had been conceived as far back as 1829 when the composer visited Scotland. For any Romantic, Scotland is the poems of the legendary Celtic bard Ossian and the novels of Sir Walter Scott. The gloomy Ossian-like colour comes in the first movement which opens to the sounds of the wind instruments and the violas, while the violins only appear much, much later. The scherzo conjures up associations with a bagpiping competition held in Edinburgh that Mendelssohn had attended. The slow third movement is generally linked with the image of Mary, Queen of Scots, whose prison cell was then a mandatory stopping point on the tourist trail. Mendelssohn proposed to call the fourth movement
Allegro guerriero, underscoring its bellicose quality (apparently as one facet of the Scottish character). The movements of the symphony are all performed together without interruption – an innovation that was introduced simultaneously by Mendelssohn and Schumann. Perhaps Queen Victoria might have preferred an “English” symphony, but the “Scottish” one fittingly crowns his symphonic works.
Anna Bulycheva
