Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, K. 364 (Op.104, 1779)
Allegro maestoso
Andante
Presto
The beginning of 1778 saw Mozart in the midst of travels in search of employment rather more fulfilling than his stultifying servitude under Hieronymus Colloredo, Archbishop of Salzburg. He had by then reached Mannheim, via Munich and Augsburg, having thus far met with scant success in the main purpose of the trip. Then on 14th March he left Mannheim for Paris (accompanied by his mother) – reluctantly so, having just fallen in love there with Aloysia Weber, elder sister of his eventual wife Constanze. Here, he frustratingly encountered more interest in current factions, representing respectively Gluck and Piccini, than in his own arrival in the French capital. Finally, back home by mid-January 1779, there followed what Eric Blom has described as “two unsatisfactory and not very fruitful years” – which at least produced three more symphonies, plus this Sinfonia Concertante, before he eventually gave up on Salzburg altogether in 1781 and uprooted to Vienna.
During his stay in Paris, four well known wind players from the famous Mannheim Orchestra were also visiting the city, prompting Mozart to write to his father, “I am now going to compose a sinfonia concertante for flute, oboe, horn, and bassoon…”. In a later missive he reported that something funny was “going on behind the scenes” with his sinfonia concertante. Though the four wind players apparently loved it, the promoter of the Concert Spirituel (in which it was to be premiered), Joseph LeGros, would seem to have been obstructive, such that the performance never took place. A few months later, while travelling home to Salzburg following the blow of his mother’s death in Paris, he wrote, “I am bringing back no finished work with me except my sonatas, for LeGros purchased from me two overtures and the sinfonia concertante”. This is the last time Mozart ever mentioned the work.
So which Sinfonia Concertante was he referring to? The one for clarinet, oboe, horn, and bassoon, that we know as K.297b? We know that between 1773 and 1777 he was regularly active as a violinist, and it is clear from the concertos he produced in 1775 that he was an accomplished exponent – not that he particularly enjoyed playing the instrument, or had much faith in his own ability. Thereafter, it would appear he became interested in the broader genre of Sinfonia Concertante – maybe from time spent in Paris, and especially Mannheim, with its incomparable orchestra (“an army of generals”, according to Burney in 1772). Yet K.297b has never been absolutely proven to be the work he wrote about above; and there is no record of any performance of the present K.364 – even though the genre was currently popular in Salzburg, making it likely to have been composed there sometime in 1779 – so we can’t be sure whether he played it himself, nor which part he might have taken – although viola players do like to think it was our instrument. We do have some justification, in that by the early 1780s it was certainly his preferred instrument for chamber music; also, that he owned a fine Testore viola (which I have seen in Salzburg in 1975, and which looked almost identical to my own instrument at that time). There is also the evidence of so many works specially featuring the viola: the string quintets, the duos with violin, the clarinet trio – not to mention his habitual quest for extra richness by dividing the orchestra viola section in two – as in the present K.364, or the opening of the great G minor symphony.
Further evidence of his intimate familiarity with the instrument is demonstrated by his instruction for the solo viola to be tuned a semitone higher, such that the part needed to be notated in D major; the technique known as scordatura was certainly not unfamiliar at the time, dating back to the 17th century and still used to this day – incorporating such works as Biber’s Rosary sonatas and Mahler’s fourth symphony along the way. Mozart would have been well aware that the gut strung, lighter toned instruments of that time could thereby produce a brighter sound, supplemented by increased opportunity to use open strings (listen out for the G#, D#, and A# strings) – all enabling a stronger match for the solo violin.
Although composed before what H C Robbins Landon describes as “Mozart’s Golden Years” (1781 – 91), it is certainly very much on the threshold – to the extent that my former York University colleague, Prof David Blake, has memorably referred to it as “THE first great [Mozart] work”.
© Alan George
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