Whilst serving as maestro di cappella in the city of Köthen, Johann Sebastian Bach composed the 24 preludes and fugues that form the Book I of The Well-Tempered Klavier.He had arrived in Köthen in 1717, shortly after his then employer, the Duke of Weimar, had lifted the punishment he had imposed upon Bach, releasing him from prison.
The Duke had an assortment of peculiarities which had been slowly but surely worsening his relationships with his "lackey" Bach (i.e. an assistant for various purposes), who had been serving him from 1708 as both chamber musician and organist of the Court. To the mix, we should add the rebellious character of konzertmeister Johann Sebastian, and his stubbornness and obstinacy, traits that accompanied him throughout his life, often hampering his dealings with his superiors.
In 1717, Bach learned that he had been recommended for the position of kapellmeister at the Court of Köthen, which he accepted with alacrity, sending at once his family to that city.Alas, he had not requested the mandatory authorization from the Duke...
When he did it, it was too late.Exasperated, the Duke did not respond and after Bach’s insistence, surely not very tactful, the boss lost his patience. After four weeks of imprisonment, Bach “was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavourable discharge”, as reads the note by the Registrar of the Court. Eventually, Bach reunited with his family in Köthen and took charge of his post, where he remained until 1723.
JS Bach - Prelude No. 2
This version of the Prelude No. 2 of The Well Tempered Klavier, Book 1, by Glenn Gould, is unmistakable. The Canadian pianist and composer renewed the interpretation of Bach (despite the fact that he used to play sitting at the piano on a short-legged chair, with his chin almost touching the keyboard!).
Many people have walked in pomp and circumstance along the aisle, arm in arm with their future life partner. Their slow happy steps were perhaps marked by that most beautiful melody known as Schubert's Ave Maria, one of the many Ave Marias composed by numerous authors over the years. It is the most popular for such occasions; no doubt, it was the one that many of us heard in our own wedding, whilst we bowed here and there to friends and relatives, with a radiant smile of happiness.
However, an author unintentionally composed half of an Ave Maria; to be fair, more than one-half. It was 1772 and Johann Sebastian Bach was beginning his greatest pedagogical and systematic work for the keyboard, The Well-Tempered Clavier. The book includes 24 preludes and fugues for the twelve major keys and twelve minor ones. Of enormous significance, the work helped to impose the division of the octave in exactly twelve chromatic halftones, which allowed for the mechanism of modulations (the smooth transition from one key to another within the same piece), to develop to its limits.
The first prelude is in C major; here we hear it in a modest version performed on a digital keyboard:
Clave Bien Temperado - Preludio N° 1
Many years later, during the 1850s, the author of the opera Faust, Charles Gounod, was enjoying his own interpretation of this prelude when suddenly his Muse delicately touched his shoulder suggesting to him a tune he immediately called, "Meditation on Bach’s Prelude No. 1". Soon afterwards, the French composer realised that the words of the very old prayer called in Latin Ave Maria, fitted his beautiful melody perfectly.
This is what we know today as the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria. Although less popular, it is in my opinion as beautiful as the one written by Schubert, if not more.
The version presented here is for harp and violin, which allows for a clear recognition of the prelude, and at the same time the appreciation of the obviously talented work of Gounod. Those who like singing can learn the melody here, and then use the Prelude above to rehearse their own version of the piece.
Title page of the Goldberg Variations (first edition).
Clavier Ubung means "keyboard exercises".
You would not find a person in the world who would not believe that the so-called classical music soothes the soul and helps to eradicate our inner demons. Those people also see themselves as good folks, sensitive souls that would be incapable of killing a fly. However, this is not always true.
The Goldberg Variations is a work that would confirm the perceived virtues of classical music. Composed for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, it was completed around 1742, almost at the end of his life, while serving as kantor in Leipzig. The work includes an aria and 30 variations; it all ends with a shorter version of the initial aria, as if to remind us where everything came from. The complete piece lasts a little less than an hour and it is customarily played in one go, even though the interpreter generally takes a break after Variation 15th. This is what noticed during Alfredo Perl's recent rendition at the Municipal Theatre in Santiago.
According to one of Bach's biographers, the Variatons were composed at the request of a count in Dresden, to be performed by his harpsichordist (a certain Herr Goldberg) during the count's long sleepless nights. The purpose was succesfully fulfilled and Johann Sebastian was generously rewarded.
Let us now listen to the Aria. The version is from the Taiwanese pianist Chen Pi-hsien.
Goldberg Variations - Aria (3:13):
Many, many years later, The Silence of the Lambs, a novel by Thomas Harris, was published. Its male protagonist, the fearsome killer psychiatrist, Dr Hannibal Lecter, is a great lover of the music of Bach. Later, the homonymous film was unveiled; on it we can see that minutes before Dr Lecter savagely killed the police officers who guarded him, the prisoner is enthralled to the aria of the Variations, just as we do it right now.
The officers are taking the supper to him and have to open the gate of the cage where Hannibal is locked. During this scene, parts of 6th and 7th variations can be heard.
6th Variation
7th Variation
While the hideous killing occurs, part of the 12th, 13th and 21th variations are played. Here you can listen to them in their entirety:
12th Variation
13th Variation
21th Variation
Dr. Lecter got rid of his jailers. He devoured a chunk of the face of one of the guards, and trashed to death the other one. Once the mission is accomplished, ecstatic, Hannibal enjoys the shorter, final version of the aria.
Johann Sebastian Bach died in 1750, the same year when an eminent English doctor, who happened to be in Leipzig at the time, recommended the great musician an ophthalmic operation to avoid blindness. Overcoming his initial reticence, Johann Sebastian agreed. The eminent doctor carried out the operation, but it failed. Then, the eminent doctor performed a second operation. This time, the father of Western music became completely blind.
Fortunately, Bach had already produced almost all the 1087 pieces included in the Bach Work Catalogue (BWV for Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis); he had tried practically all musical forms, with the exception of the opera, a genre he never tackled.
Johann Sebastian composed four orchestral suites, of which suite No. 3 is one of the best known of all his orchestral production. This suite, also called Overture, consists of a succession of the dances of the time, whose French names —allemande, courante, bourrée, sarabande and others, ending with a gigue— reflect the influence of the French court during XVI and XVII centuries, period during which such structure was all the rage. The second movement of Suite No. 3 is an “air” that has become even more popular than the suite itself. Its musical beauty is sustained by a central melody that effectively interweaves with other melodic lines lead by a violin and a viola.
JS Bach. Air from Suite No. 3. The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Following Bach’s death, these suites fell into complete oblivion. They were heard again, like so many of Johann Sebastian’s other work, only since February 1838, when Felix Mendelssohn conducted the complete Suite No. 3 in Leipzig.
There are many versions for different instruments for this “air”. One of these, arranged for violin and orchestra by a German composer during the 19th century, was most influential in establishing the popularity of the piece. Transposing the “air” from the original D major key to G major, he made it possible to play the main melody on one string only, the G string of the instrument. Thus, the moniker, "Air on the G string" was born.
Back in the 60s, the jazz pianist Jacques Loussier completely “modernized" it, creating a radical change in the atmosphere of the piece. Accompanied only by a bass and percussion, this jazz version would have struck with astonishment poor Johann Sebastian.
Thanks to Mendelssohn, we can say Bach is still with us. Thanks to Jacques, we can say Bach is one of us.
A signal to Mozart's grave at St. Marx Cemetery, in Austria
Round about the time of the composition of Concerto No. 20, Mozart's fame was already considerable. A Vienesse newspaper, commenting on a concert, mentioned his "well-deserved reputation" and pointed out that Wolfgang was "known universally".
To be truthful, his main source of income was still his music lessons, but he also gave concerts with some regularity, playing as piano soloist. In addition, he had the proceeds from his numerous publications. Considered individually, thet were poorly paid, but the total amount of their sale would have helped him to make ends meet.
Last but not least, one has to consider the earnings accrued from the performances of his operas. Not all yielded all that Mozart would have liked, but some of them certainly did.
Concerto No. 20 - 2nd movement: Romance. Piano: Ivan Klansky
This is why is intriguing that the couple suffered persistent economic hardship, to the extreme that Mozart had to borrow money from some fellow Masons. At the same time he would ask them to send him students, stressing the fact that he charged "low prices".
A number of scholars blame poor Konstanze, accussing her of extravagance, frivolity and a fondness for luxury. Part of it might be true. But one has to consider that, if one year Konstanze was not pregnant it was only because she was sick. Therefore, I prefer the more pragmatic first-hand opinion of Nannerl: "My brother did not know how to run his finances, and Konstanze was unable to help him on this".
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35. The following day the myth of the mass grave and the storm was born. None of it is true. Although no one recorded the exact spot of his resting place, he was not buried in a pauper's grave. And on 6th of December, Vienna saw one of the most placid and sunny afternoons of that Autumm.
When in 1780, Wolfgang Amadeus learned that his first love, Aloysia, had just married another man, he did not dispair or contemplate suicide. (Göethe had not yet given to the world his Sorrows of Young Werther...). Instead, he turned a little and set his sights on the black eyes of little Konstanze, who was one year younger than her sister Aloysia, and was just hanging around over there.
They married in 1782, and the following years, up until his dead in 1791, were probably the happiest in Wolfgang's entire life. Two years later and still deeply in love, Konstanze and Wolfgang would write to Mozart's younger sister Nannerl, on the eve of her marriage: "We wish that you two will live together as harmoniously as we two".
They immersed themselves in the dazzling artistic life of the Vienna of that era. The year 1785 found Mozart totally dedicated to his intense musical life; a period that proved to be very productive regarding publications.
Because of its popularity, the Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 20 in D minor stands out amongst his work of that time.
Beethoven, by then a fifteen years old lad, would maintain this concert in his repertoire for many years. Additionally, he would compose the cadenzas (i.e. the solo sections improvised by the interpreter or played according to prepared guidelines) for this and other concerts.
Concerto No. 20 - First Movement
The initial movement begins with a two-minute introduction by the orchestra, after which enters the piano soloist. I have chosen a version by the excellent Czech pianist Ivan Klansky, because of his amazing technique. He plays with such ease that his gestures seem to directly communicate with his emotions.
I apologize for the unavoidable cuts.
The trip to Vienna imposed by the Prince-Archbishop was perhaps the last straw; Mozart realized that the time had come to ditch Colloredo and his prosaic court once and for all. For this reason, he began to act more and more discourteously towards the Archbishop. He started by staying away from the visits that every servant was supposed to pay to Colloredo each morning, and then he added some other signs of independence and rebellion.
Wolfgang mischief did not go unnoticed. Colloredo forced him to arrive at the table after the house servants, but before the cooks. For Mozart, this was just too much and he requested an interview with Colloredo, grudgingly granted by the Archbishop. In there, the dispute got out of hand.
This was such an unpleasant situation, that still angers me, more than two hundred years later.
The quarrel must have been very tough. In a letter to his father, Wolfgang reports that Colloredo called him "a scoundrel, a rascal, a vagabond". After stoically enduring these insults, Wolfgang asked:
"-So, Your Grace, is not satisfied with me?
To which the Archbishop replied:
"-What, you dare to threaten me, you scoundrel? There is the door! Look out, for I will have nothing more to do with such a miserable wretch."
"At last, I said:
"-Nor I with you"
"-Well, be off."
This is the point where some scholars mention the kick-up-the-backside issue. The strict truth is that the following day Mozart handed in his resignation, which was accepted a month later.
Thus, Wolfgang became the first musician in history who decided to do business single-handedly. To dramatize a little, he would have cut the tickets, helped the audience to their seats and only then he would have sat to play the piano.
This new lifestyle would demand Mozart to be aware of fashion. During those years, the European society had a keen ear to the fashionable marches performed by the Turkish Imperial Guard. No doubt, Mozart's Rondo alla Turca would have responded to such trend.
In 1778, Wolfgang Amadeus, no longer a child prodigy, was in Paris trying to build a future as a mature musician and composer. On that year he wrote three new sonatas for piano, which a perceptive musicologist and historian called "Paris sonatas". Of these, the Sonata in A major is the most frequently heard, no doubt thanks to its third movement or "Turkish March" which over the years became one of Mozart's best known piano pieces. Mozart´s stay in Paris was the natural consequence of the composer’s unhappiness with his situation in Salzburg as a court musician, a post he had resigned the previous year by means of a sarcastic letter to his employer Prince-Archbishop Colloredo. Unfortunately, after eighteen months of unsuccessful attempts to secure a position in the court of any city with bursting musical life (such as Munich, Paris or Vienna) Amadeus had no other option but to return to Salzburg his tail between his legs. But he carried three published piano sonatas tucked under his arm.
Sonata No 11 in A major - K 331 The sonata in A major consists of three movements: Andante grazioso, Menuetto and Rondo alla turca. The first movement, unlike the traditional A-B-A structure, consists of a theme and six variations. Here you can enjoy it, performed by the Latvian pianist Olga Jegunova.
In January 1779, Wolfgang was back in Salzburg to take charge of a position his father had secured for him:
organist at the court. Mozart would be again under Colloredo. His duties included playing for the court and the cathedral, assisting with the instruction of the children's choir and composing when necessary.
Eventually, during the tedious Salzburg summer of 1780, what Mozart had expected for a long time finally happened; he was asked to write an opera for the Munich court. The composer had to go there as he needed to be acquainted with the singers in order to compose arias suitable for their voices. The Prince-Archbishop granted an authorization for Mozart to travel because, in some ways, the Munich court's request benefited Colloredo. Thus, Wolfgang was able to embark on the journey with a curious mixture of being on secondment and moonlighting the same time.
The opera –Idomeneo– was succesfully premiered in January 1871. Leopold and Nannerl went to the premiere and on their return, accompanied by Amadeus, they took a well deserved vacation in Ausgburg. Unfortunately the fun was stopped short by Prince-Archbishop who commanded Mozart to immediately report in Vienna since Colloredo had been invited to the coronation of Joseph II and he would assist along with his small personal court, which of course should include his keyboardist Mozart.
Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Count Hieronymus von Colloredo,
as characterized in Milos Forman's film Amadeus
View of Graben Street, in Vienna, in the time of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived only 35 years, but in his short life he managed to compose 27 concertos for piano and orchestra. The early ones, created from age 11 onwards, were not written for the keyboard virtuoso but for the dilettante, the music lover who could afford buying the sheet music and then invite his friends, also amateur musicians, to play together and enjoy a pleasant evening.
A good example of this is the concerto No. 7 for three pianos, composed in 1776 for the two daughters of a certain countess Logron. In this composition, Mozart wrote an extremely simple part for one of the girls who was still an inexperienced beginner.
Years later, already established in Vienna, he produced concertos that were far more demanding for the interpreter. Mozart was a hard worker --between 1784 and 1786 he composed twelve concertos for piano and orchestra.
In 1783 he married Constanza Weber --Amadeus' father Leopold was not amused-- following the failure of a naive courtship with Constanza's elder sister Aloysia. Apparently, this was a good choice because after two years of, if his biographers are to be believed, intense marital life, the world saw in 1785 the arrival of three concertos, two of which ended up as probably the most famous to this day: the Concertos No. 20 and 21. Of these, the latter, also known as "Elvira Madigan", is the most popular and also, the more accessible of the two.
Since time immemorial, the Chilean National TV channel had made their inhabitants listen to the central movement --andante-- for the duration of the weather report, which proceeds from north to south. But, despite the inordinate length of the country, the weather report ends up well before the andante does.
As we all know, the piece begins with a very calm and relaxed introduction by the orchestra on its own.
Roughly by the region of Copiapó, where, if you remember, the 33 miners were trapped, the piano would key in with the main theme in F major (1:27).
The weather report closes with the forecast for the next three days just when viewers are about to hear the wistful tone modulation of the andante from C minor to A flat. At this moment, the melody slows down and the orchestra becomes silent for an instant, then the original theme is restarted in the new key (4:28). The viewers always miss this magic moment, but here you can enjoy it.
After all these years in which poor Chileans have had to endure the truncated piece, now we are releasing, for their sake, the entire andante, or 2nd movement of the Piano Concerto No 21 by WA Mozart, with the venezuelan pianist Pablo Arencibia.
In the summer of 1763, Leopold Mozart came to the conclusion that it was time to move away from Salzburg and, once and for all, set off on a long tour across Europe with his son Wolfgang and his older sister Nannerl, who both had shown, from an early age, extraordinary musical talents.
A year earlier, in 1762 —Wolfgang was not yet six— the children had successfully performed in Munich and, in September of the same year, dazzled the courts of Vienna gaining fervent applause, a watch, some elegant clothes and some kisses on the cheeks.
After returning from these 'flying' visits which normally took a couple of weeks (each way), Leopold began planning an extensive European tour. This, eventually, would last more than three years, leading them to travel throughout France and England. The aim of this tour was to present the world with what he called "the gift that God has given me" and expecting from it, naturally, some money.
Leopold was right. The tour resulted in a huge success and became useful in many ways: little Wolfgang, only seven, had a lavish premiere playing in the courts of great kings and princes, deepening his experience as a musician, improviser and composer. Above all, it made money, and plenty.
But this was not manna from heaven.
In fact, in the second half of the eighteenth century, Leopold Mozart behaved as a seasoned entrepreneur, as we should say today. Before coming to each village, Leopold, the producer, used to publish a notice in local newspapers announcing the arrival of these amazing children and reporting the marvelous things they could do with a keyboard, even if it was covered with a cloth avoiding the children to see the keys.
An advertisement in a London newspaper, in 1763, reads:
"To all Lovers of Sciences:
The greatest prodigy that Europe, or that even Human Nature has to boast of, is, without contradiction, the little German boy Wolfgang Mozart; a boy, eigth years old who has, and indeed very justly, raised the admiration not only of the greatest men, but also of the greatest musicians in Europe. It is hard to say, whether his execution upon the harpsichord and his playing and singing at sight, or his own caprice, fancy and compositions for all instruments, are more astonishing. The father of this miracle, being obliged by desire of several ladies and gentlemen to postpone, for a very short time, his departure from England, will give an opportunity to hear this little composer and his sister, whose musical knowledge wants no apology.
Performs every day in the week, from twelve to three o'clock, in the Great Room, at the Swan and Hoop, Cornhill.
Admittance 2s. 6d. each person."
If Leopold was an outstanding producer of cultural events, he was far less successful as a promoter of his son’s career. He tried hard to obtain for Wolfgang a stable position in a court other than Salzburg's. Fortunately for posterity, all of them were unsuccessful, which allowedMozarttoapply his mind at working for himself.
Sonata in F major - Adagio - Piano: Elisabeth Leonskaja
Although in 1762 the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria rewarded Wolfgang for his performance in Vienna with a little suit decorated with gold braids, later she was less well disposed towards him. In 1771, having received an inquiry from his son, the Archduke Ferdinand, about employing Wolfgang in his court, Maria Theresa advised him not to admit "composers or any other useless people like them", in particular, "none of the Mozarts, who drift around the world like beggars".
Maria Theresa is remembered as a great promoter of science and the arts; a genuine representative of enlightened despotism, even though in this case the anecdote shows that she was a little bit more despotic than enlightened.
The Empress left this world in 1780. So, we may assume that she might have been able to enjoy some of the three sonatas that Mozart, the beggar, composed in Paris in 1778.
The Sonata in F major is less well known than the Sonata in A major (with its popular Rondo alla turca or Turkish march) but it is equally beautiful, and represents another illustration of the rich diversity of Mozart's instrumental output. This sonata has three movements and a conventional structure: allegro - adagio - allegro molto. The adagio is one of the sweetest and delicate slow movements of the keyboard music of its time.
As everybody knows, Wolfgang Amadeus composed not only piano sonatas. Leopold, a visionary, prophesied that Wolfgang's goal as a composer should be Italian opera.
As a sign of it, let's listen three splendid voices singing the trio "Soave sia il vento", from the opera buffa "Cossi fan tutte" composed in 1790, a year before his premature death (Leopold, the tireless promoter, had died in 1787).
Many people would shed tears listening this song of abandonment and inconsolable sadness. The song is a farewell, but a fraudulent one: the man is cheating on the girls to win a bet. This piece is used in a sad scene of the movie "Closer", in which a traumatic break-up takes place in the aisles of a theatre inside which the singers perform the aria.
The beautiful ladies are Miah Persson and Anke Vondung. The bass is Nicolas Rivenq.
During the eight years he lived in Paris, Frédéric wrote four impromptus. The first one was composed in 1834 (he was 24) and was never published during his lifetime as Chopin himself removed it from the catalog of his works. It was his friend and pianist Julian Fontana who published it in 1856, six years after his death, ignoring Chopin's request to throw it into the fire. One wonders if Julian refrained from doing so because the composition was dedicated to him.
The young woman in the picture is the Polish countess Delfina Potocka, at the age of 23. Five years before she had married Count Potocki, thus acquiring both the surname and the title.
But Delfina was unhappy in her marriage, and she divorced the count in 1830. Afterwards, she began her traveling.
It is said that the first meeting Chopin had with the novelist George Sand went like this:
-What a repulsive woman Sand is! -Chopin said to a friend. -I'm inclined to doubt it.
Almost simultaneously, on the other side of the room, Sand whispered to a friend:
-That Monsieur Chopin, is he a girl?
Frédéric Chopin knew the Wodzinsky family since childhood, and in the summer of 1835 he was invited to Dresden to spend a short time with them There he met Maria again, the youngest daughter. He remembered her as a child who used to annoy the grown-ups by pulling faces at them or rowdily running around. Now, she was a beautiful girl of sixteen who liked painting and played the piano. Frédéric, who had already turned twenty-five, reciprocated the hospitality by giving piano lessons to Maria every afternoon.
The maestro asked the young girl to have her music book at hand on the piano, in order to write down any musical ideas that would arise at any time.
