During the years 1781 – 1791 the residents of Vienna enjoyed a golden age. There was freedom of speech, the establishment of an open and tolerant society and even an end to the death penalty in the Hapsburg empire. Indeed, the enlightenment had truly arrived.
And the music: both Haydn and Mozart were alive producing between them, masterpieces at the rate of one every other month. 1791 saw the untimely death of Mozart of course (and Mozart’s last year will be the subject of a future presentation on 28th of November) and by now political events were beginning to have their effects in Austria.
Tim Rowe took us through some of these masterpieces with some carefully selected excerpts from the great works. He started with the Gran Partita by Mozart which is a serenade for 13 mostly wind instruments. Wind ensembles of various kinds were very popular at this time and the K361 is certainly the most popular.
This was followed by a Haydn string quartet, opus 33/1 played by the Casals Quartet (pictured). Haydn is considered the ‘father’ of the string quartet and the form had a profound influence on Mozart. Even though there are only 4 instruments, the form is extremely difficult to master and although Mozart could compose at great speed, modern paper studies show that he struggled to complete several of his own quartets.
Opera was hugely popular at this time and we heard extracts from several of Mozart’s pieces. These included the overture from The Marriage of Figaro, arias from Don Giovani and finally three arias from Cosi fan Tutti. For many, this is his finest opera, but strangely it was condemned by both Beethoven and Wagner.
Other pieces included part of the Mass in C minor and the piano sonata Alla Turca played on a forte piano.
A most interesting evening of a momentous period in musical history.
Apology
We must apologise to members for the problems we had with the keys to our normal venue. Unfortunately, we were given the wrong set of keys so we had to repair to Ed and Sue Tinline’s house to hold the meeting.
The next meeting is a member’s evening and is on 14 November at the usual place – assuming that is we can get in!
Salisbury Recorded Music Society 