January 23, 2012. Mozart. Friday the 27th of January marks the 256th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This sublime piece of music, the terzettino, or short trio Soave sia il vento (“May the wind be gentle”) from the 1st act of his opera Così fan tutte, was most likely written at the end of 1789, when Mozart was 33 – just two short years before his death (Così was first performed in Vienna on January 26, 1790, a day before Mozart turned 34). One cannot but stop and contemplate in amazement how different the history of classical music would have been had he lived another 20 years. This was not to be, but in the 30 years that he had been composing (his father Leopold wrote down some piece that Wolfgang composed – and played on the piano – at the age of five), he created a body of work unparallel in the history of music.
It’s rather pointless to try to select "the best of Mozart," so we’ll present several performances from recent uploads. The husband-and-wife piano duo Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung perform Sonata for Piano Four-Hands in C Major K. 521is from 1787 (here). Piano Trio in B-flat Major, K.502 was written a year earlier. It’s performed by Yoon-Jung Yang , violin, Hiro Matsuo, cello, and Helen Huang, piano (here). Sonata in C Major for Violin and Piano K. 303 is considered one of Mozart’s "mature" violin sonatas. He was just 22 when he wrote it (in 1778), but by then he had already written 19 violin sonatas. Here it’s performed by the violinists Ariana Kim with Ieva Jokubaviciute on the piano. And finally, an old recording of Six Variations on "Salve Tu, Domine" K. 398 made by the great Russian pianist Emil Gilels. It was brought to us by Istituto Europeo di Musica. Listen to it here.
Mozart 2012
January 23, 2012. Mozart. Friday the 27th of January marks the 256th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This sublime piece of music, the terzettino, or short trio Soave sia il vento (“May the wind be gentle”) from the 1st act of his opera Così fan tutte, was most likely written at the end of 1789, when Mozart was 33 – just two short years before his death (Così was first performed in Vienna on January 26, 1790, a day before Mozart turned 34).
One cannot but stop and contemplate in amazement how different the history of classical music would have been had he lived another 20 years. This was not to be, but in the 30 years that he had been composing (his father Leopold wrote down some piece that Wolfgang composed – and played on the piano – at the age of five), he created a body of work unparallel in the history of music.
It’s rather pointless to try to select "the best of Mozart," so we’ll present several performances from recent uploads. The husband-and-wife piano duo Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung perform Sonata for Piano Four-Hands in C Major K. 521 is from 1787 (here). Piano Trio in B-flat Major, K.502 was written a year earlier. It’s performed by Yoon-Jung Yang , violin, Hiro Matsuo, cello, and Helen Huang, piano (here). Sonata in C Major for Violin and Piano K. 303 is considered one of Mozart’s "mature" violin sonatas. He was just 22 when he wrote it (in 1778), but by then he had already written 19 violin sonatas. Here it’s performed by the violinists Ariana Kim with Ieva Jokubaviciute on the piano. And finally, an old recording of Six Variations on "Salve Tu, Domine" K. 398 made by the great Russian pianist Emil Gilels. It was brought to us by Istituto Europeo di Musica. Listen to it here.