SUPPORT YOUR SYMPHONY

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (pictured here with the Seattle Symphony in 2020 performing Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto) returns to Benaroya Hall to play and conduct works by Hadyn, Mozart & Beethoven (January 12–14). Photo by James Holt.

During these concerts, Bavouzet will perform his own cadenza in the Haydn concerto. For the Mozart concerto, the first cadenza is by Paul Badura-Skoda, while the cadenzas in the second and third movements are by Bavouzet. For Beethoven’s concerto, the cadenza is by the composer. 

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN
Keyboard Concerto in F major, H.XVIII:3
BORN: March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria
DIED: May 31, 1809, in Vienna, Austria
WORK COMPOSED: 1765–67
WORLD PREMIERE: unknown

What to Listen For:

• The buoyant, playful energy that defines Haydn’s music, and the spirited interplay between piano and orchestra.

Joseph Haydn was the most celebrated composer in Europe during the 18th century. His music and manner reflected the ideals of the Enlightenment by embracing reason, structure and balance. He had grown up poor, the son of a wagon maker, and was sent away at the age of 6 to study to become a clergyman. His musical talents were evident early on and he worked as a choirboy in Saint Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna until he was 17. After leaving the cathedral, Haydn struggled to make ends meet, diligently working on his craft and gaining a reputation as a composer until he was able to gain aristocratic patronage.

For the majority of his life, he worked for the extremely wealthy and noble Esterházy family at their vast countryside estate in Hungary. There, musicians were part of the hired help and considered a much lower class than the nobility. These customs would soon evolve with the onset of Romanticism, when the young Beethoven elevated the stature of composers to a new level of stardom. But in 1761, when Haydn began work at the Esterházy’s palace, he viewed the security of his post as a welcome change in his career. During his tenure as the court’s head musician, Haydn was known for being generous, good humored and even-tempered; musicians who worked under him in the orchestra often called him “Papa Haydn.”

The pianoforte came to prominence during Haydn’s lifetime, overtaking the ubiquitous harpsichord in popularity. It is unknown which keyboard Haydn had in mind for his concertos — it may have even been an organ — but evidence shows he was a capable pianist who wrote beautifully for the instrument. Unlike Mozart and Beethoven, who composed concertos to highlight their own skills as soloists, Haydn was not a virtuoso performer. This is reflected in his concertos, which integrate soloist and orchestra in an equitable interplay and dialogue.

The F-major concerto is energetic and buoyant, in typical Haydn fashion. The first movement delights in contrasting major and minor modes while the second movement brings to mind an operatic aria with the soloist ornamenting a beautiful melody over a gentle and simple string accompaniment. The finale is a joyous romp with rollicking passages full of light playfulness.
 

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19
BORN: December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany
DIED: March 26, 1827, Vienna
WORK COMPOSED: 1793
WORLD PREMIERE: March 29, 1795, in Vienna

What to Listen For:

• Between the effervescent outer movements, Beethoven wrote an exquisite chorale that eventually becomes an unadorned melody of utter simplicity and marked silences.
• Completed while studying with Haydn, the intimate orchestration and exuberant spirit of this concerto are akin to the music of Haydn and Mozart.

Beethoven was a force of nature who made waves in Viennese culture when he settled there in 1792. He came to Vienna as a piano virtuoso with a brilliant and dramatic approach to the instrument that was unlike anyone before him. His erratic temper, messiness and arrogance were excused as the traits of a creative genius, and he was embraced by aristocratic society for his unparalleled talents. Beethoven’s own declaration of himself as an artist who wrote important music that reflected his inner life and the world around him gave weight to his endeavors and elevated the status of composers in society in an altogether new way.

Despite his image and reputation as a rule-breaker, Beethoven had a deep respect for his predecessors and even took piano lessons from Haydn (and possibly Mozart) when he first arrived in Vienna. Mozart was the reigning genius of the piano concerto and Beethoven’s earliest forays into the genre clearly take up the mantle of his predecessor: the Second Piano Concerto’s traditional sonata-form structure in the first movement and the light orchestration that leaves out trumpets and timpani are reminiscent of the late Classical-era Mozart. Though it is titled No. 2, this piece is the first piano concerto Beethoven composed and he likely worked on early sketches of it while still in his hometown of Bonn. His next concerto ended up being published first, thus garnering the title of No. 1. Describing what became his Second Concerto to a publisher, Beethoven said it was “one of my first concertos, and therefore not one of the best of my compositions.” Perhaps he was trying to distance himself from his younger work, feeling that he had since matured as a composer, but his love of this work was evident and he performed it numerous times during his career.

The concerto opens with a lengthy orchestral introduction full of contrast. After a boisterous first theme in B-flat major, Beethoven delivers a stark transition: three unison C notes followed by a pause and three D-flat notes. By moving abruptly up a half step, he enters the world of a very distant key from where the movement began. The piano enters with new material before elaborating on the first theme with virtuosic flare.

In the second movement, a simple chorale is developed by the soloist in an improvisatory fashion. Beethoven neglected to write down the piano part before the premiere, relying instead on his brilliance as an improviser to guide him through the performance. In a moment of exquisite beauty, Beethoven builds the orchestra to a grand pause, setting the stage for a traditional cadenza — a space usually reserved for flashy displays of technique by the soloist — only to have the piano play the chorale melody alone, stripped of all harmony and ornamentation, the silences between phrases creating an otherworldly impression.

The rondo snaps back to reality with brisk energy and rhythmic fervor. Quick off-beat accents and dissonances drive the music forward with excitement. Towards the end, the ensemble appears to drift away as the piano trills softly, hovering in the air before bursting back in a playful conclusion.
 

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Piano Concerto No. 26 in D major, K. 537, “Coronation”
BORN: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria
DIED: December 5, 1791, in Vienna
WORK COMPOSED: February 1788
WORLD PREMIERE: 1789

What to Listen For:

• The virtuosity and elegant simplicity of the piano part, which was left largely in skeletal form since Mozart would often improvise his part during performances

When Mozart settled in Vienna in 1781, he did so on his own terms, finally free from his employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg, whose demands were grating on the composer’s quest for independence. By this time, he had already composed six piano concertos; within the next five years, he would write another 12. He was in such high demand as a performer, and each new concerto provided the opportunity for more concerts and therefore a healthy income. By 1788, Mozart’s fame had begun to dwindle and he composed only one concerto, K. 537. This would be his penultimate concerto before his death three years later at the age of 35. It was premiered in Dresden in 1789 while Mozart was on tour there, and didn’t receive its nickname, “Coronation,” until two years later, when Mozart performed it in Frankfurt during celebrations for the crowning of Leopold II as the new Emperor of Austria.

The stylistic virtuosity found in this concerto sets it apart from earlier works where the piano was on more equal footing with the orchestra. Here, Mozart foreshadows the Romantic era, when concertos became more of a vehicle for impressive technical prowess and the orchestra was relegated to a supporting role. These Romantic qualities led to the “Coronation” concerto’s immense popularity during the 19th century. Mozart was also influenced by Haydn, who, although 24 years his senior, was Mozart’s greatest contemporary. Haydn had pushed orchestral music to new heights, imbuing it with the dramatic tension and emotional impact that was mostly reserved for opera at the time. Mozart expanded on this trend, and his uncanny genius as an opera composer translated to remarkable and timeless instrumental works rich in melody and character.

Mozart was a brilliant improvisor and sometimes neglected to write down every note of his piano parts — a task deemed unnecessary since he was so often the soloist. This concerto in particular has many sections where the left-hand part is blank or written as a rough outline, leaving scholars and performers to decipher Mozart’s intentions. The first movement opens with a quiet march that quickly breaks into the full orchestra, complete with trumpets and timpani. The second theme, introduced by violins alone, is more delicate in nature and the second movement is especially sparse and serene in its simplicity. The final rondo modulates through a series of key signatures as it repeats the theme, finally returning to the home key of D major for a festive and jubilant conclusion.

Catherine Case © 2022