Program Notes
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK (SERENADE
NO. 13 IN G MAJOR), K. 525
Duration: ca. 16 minutes
Eine kleine Nachtmusik is at once one of the most familiar
yet one of the most mysterious of Mozart’s works. He dated
the completed manuscript on August 10, 1787, the day on
which he entered it into his catalog of compositions. There
is no other contemporary record of the work’s provenance,
composition or performance. It was the first piece of the
serenade type he had written since the magnificent C minor
Wind Octet (K. 388) of 1782, and it seems unlikely that, at a
time when he was increasingly mired in debt, he would have
returned to the genre without some promise of payment.
Indeed, he had to set aside his furious preparations for the
October premiere of Don Giovanni in Prague to compose
the piece. The simple, transparent style of Eine kleine
Nachtmusik, reminiscent of the music of Mozart’s Salzburg
years and so different from the rich expression of his later
music except for the dances he wrote for the Habsburg
court balls, suggests that it was designed for amateur
performance, perhaps at the request of some aristocratic
Viennese player of limited musical ability. Though sunny and
cheerful throughout, when seen in the light of its immediate
musical companions of 1787 — Don Giovanni, A major Violin
Sonata (K. 526), C major and G minor String Quintets — Eine
kleine Nachtmusik takes on an added depth of expression as
much for what it eschews as for what it contains.
JOSEPH HAYDN
CONCERTO NO. 1 FOR CELLO IN C MAJOR,
HOB. VIIB:1
Duration: ca. 24 minutes
Overview
Haydn was among the most industrious composers in the
history of music. He summarized his philosophy of nononsense
professionalism when he wrote, “I know that God
has bestowed a talent upon me, and I thank Him for it. I think
I have done my duty and been of use in my generation by
my works. Let others do the same.” His talent for simple hard
work and seemingly boundless fecundity was apparent as
soon as he joined the musical staff of the Esterházy family
in 1761, his employer for the next half century. Not only did
he compose, but he was also general administrator of the
music establishment, chief keyboard player for chamber
and orchestral concerts, and conductor of the orchestra.
Regarding the press of his duties, the noted scholar H.C.
Robbins Landon related an amusing anecdote about Haydn
during those years: “He was extremely busy at this time, and
THE FLORIDA OR 52 CHESTRA | 2017-2018
when he wrote out the score of the First Horn Concerto he
mixed up the staves of the oboe and the first violin and wrote
on the score, as he corrected his mistake, ‘Written while
asleep.’”
Haydn was never so rushed, however, that he lost concern
for the musicians in his charge. He composed concertos
for a number of them so they could show their skills in the
best light to their employer. He lived in the same so-called
“music building” with them, and became their close friend
and trusted advisor. He was a witness at many of their
weddings, and he even stood as godfather to a number of
their children. One who extended to him this last honor was
the cellist Joseph Franz Weigl, a close friend for many years.
It was for Weigl that Haydn wrote this lovely C major Cello
Concerto as one of the products of those fertile early years
with the Esterházys. The Concerto was certainly played at
one of the palace concerts, after which Haydn entered its
opening measures into a catalog of his compositions that he
compiled in 1765.
What To Listen For
This Concerto is one of the very few works in which all of the
three movements are in the same form, as though Haydn
were experimenting with the still-developing Classical
sonata form to discover what sort of musical material best fit
into that particular construction. Each movement comprises
alternations between the orchestra and the soloist, the basic
formal principle of the waning Baroque concerto. There
are four orchestral sections interspersed with three for the
cellist. Unlike the Baroque model, however, the three cello
sections take on the properties of exposition, development
and recapitulation with the intervening orchestral episodes
serving as introduction, interludes and coda. The soloist is
provided with an opportunity for a cadenza in the closing
orchestral coda. There are only two exceptions to this pattern
in the Concerto: the second movement has no orchestral
interlude before the soloist’s recapitulation and there is no
cadenza in the last movement.
MAX BRUCH
KOL NIDREI FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA,
OP. 47
Duration: ca. 10 minutes
Overview
The ancient Jewish melody Kol Nidrei is sung at the opening
of the Yom Kippur service, on the eve of the sacred Day of
Atonement. Having been passed down by oral tradition
rather than by written record for most of its history, the Kol