K. 588 Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (Thus Do They All, or The School for Lovers),

An Italian-language opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed on 26 January 1790, at the Wiener Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte, who also wrote Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. Although it is commonly held that Così fan tutte was written and composed at the suggestion of the Emperor Joseph II, recent research does not support this idea. There is evidence that Mozart's contemporary Antonio Salieri tried to set the libretto but left it unfinished. In 1994, John Rice uncovered two terzetti by Salieri in the Austrian National Library. The title, Così fan tutte, literally means "Thus do all [women]" and is popularly used to mean "Women are like that". The words are sung by the three men in act 2, scene 13, just before the finale. Da Ponte had used the line "Così fan tutte le belle" earlier in Le nozze di Figaro (in act 1, scene 7)

WIKIPEDIA



VIDEO: Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte will be performed by The Atlanta Opera in April, 2011 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. The will be the third and final production of The Atlanta Opera's 2010-2011 season.

 

K 211 Violin Concerto No 2 in D

It is generally believed that the Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major K. 211 was composed by Mozart in 1775. WIKIPEDIA  But there is no certainty when he wrote his five violin concertos as he quite possibly changed the date on the manuscripts to give the impression they were written at a later date, Perhaps 1780, and then changed back to 1775. Handwriting and watermarking indicate that Concertos Nos 2 to 5 were actually written in 1775 in Salzburg. This Concerto No 2 is not as well known as his later ones. Mozart was only nineteen when he wrote this concerto. There is a serenade ­like quality to this piece.
 
VIDEO: Maxim Vengerov - Mozart - Violin Concerto No 2 in D major, K 211 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Violin Concerto No 2 in D major, K 211 1 Allegro moderato 2 Andante 3 Rondeau, Allegro Maxim Vengerov, violin & conductor Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.

KV. 550 Symphony No. 40 in G minor, (1788):

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, KV. 550, in 1788. It is sometimes referred to as the "Great G minor symphony," to distinguish it from the "Little G minor symphony," No. 25. The two are the only extant minor key symphonies Mozart wrote The 40th Symphony was completed on 25 July 1788. The composition occupied an exceptionally productive period of just a few weeks in 1788, during which time he also completed the 39th and 41st symphonies (26 June and 10 August, respectively). Nikolaus Harnoncourt argues that Mozart composed the three symphonies as a unified work, pointing, among other things, to the fact that the Symphony No. 40, as the middle work, has no introduction (unlike No. 39) and does not have a finale of the scale of No. 41's.

WIKIPEDIA



VIDEO: The Chamber Orchestra of Europe Conductor - Nikolaus Harnoncourt Grosser Musikvereinsaal Wien

 

K 486 Der Schauspieldirektor, The Impresario by Mozart

Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), K. 486, is a comic singspiel by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, set to a German libretto by Gottlieb Stephanie, an Austrian Schauspieldirektor. Originally, it was written because of "the imperial command" of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II who had invited 80 guests to a private luncheon. It is regarded as "a parody on the vanity of singers", who argue over status and pay. Mozart, who describes it as "comedy with music" wrote it as his entry in a musical competition which was given a private performance hosted on 7 February 1786 by Joseph II at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. This competition pitted a German singspiel, presented at one end of the room, against a competing Italian opera, the Italian entry being Antonio Salieri's opera buffa, Prima la musica, poi le parole (First the Music, then the Words), which was then given at the other end of the room. The premiere was followed by the first of three public performances given four days later at the Kärntnertor Theater, Vienna, on 11 February.
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VIDEO: The Impresario (Mozart) The Lyric Opera of Dallas Madame Goldentrill Gale Odom...

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (November 14, 1719 – May 28, 1787) was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist.

8notes Bio Leopold Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule. He was born in Augsburg, son of Johann Georg Mozart (1679–1736), a bookbinder, and his second wife Anna Maria Sulzer (1696–1766). From an early age he sang as a choirboy. He attended a local Jesuit school, the St. Salvator Gymnasium, where he studied logic, science, theology, graduating magna cum laude in 1735. He then moved on to a more advanced school, the St. Salvator Lyceum. Leopold discovered that his two children were musically gifted in about 1759, when he began with keyboard lessons for the seven-year-old Nannerl. The toddler Wolfgang immediately began imitating his sister, at first picking out thirds on the keyboard and then making rapid progress under Leopold's instruction. By 1762, the children were ready to work as concert performers, and Leopold began taking the family on extensive concert tours, performing for both aristocracy and public, throughout central and western Europe. This tour included Munich, Vienna, Presburg, Paris and the Hague together with a lengthy stay in London; see Mozart family Grand Tour. The discovery of his children's talent is considered to have been a life-transforming event for Leopold. He once referred to his son as the "miracle which God let be born in Salzburg"

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VIDEO: Leopold Mozart - Toy Symphony 

K. 478 Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478, is considered the first major piece composed for piano quartet in the chamber music repertoire. The piece is scored for violin, viola, cello, and piano. Mozart received a commission for three quartets in 1785 from the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister. Hoffmeister thought this quartet was too difficult and that the public would not buy it, so he released Mozart from the obligation of completing the set. (Nine months later, Mozart composed a second quartet anyway, in E-flat major, K. 493). Hofmeister's fear that the work was too difficult for amateurs was borne out by an article in the Journal des Luxus und der Moden published in Weimar in June 1788. The article highly praised Mozart and his work, but expressed dismay over attempts by amateurs to perform it: At the time the piece was written, the harpsichord was still widely used. Although the piece was originally published with the title "Quatuor pour le Clavecin ou Forte Piano, Violon, Tallie [sic] et Basse," stylistic evidence suggests Mozart intended the piano part for "the 'Viennese' fortepiano of the period" and that our modern piano is "a perfectly acceptable alternative." WIKIPEDIA


 VIDEO: Ilan Rechtman, piano, Alexander Pavlowsky, violin, Amichai Grosz, viola, Peter Bruns, cello performing Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor K. 478 at the Tel Aviv Museum, on January 21st 2009. First movement

K 344 Zaide (originally, Das Serail) is an unfinished opera, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1780.

Emperor Joseph II, in 1778, was in the process of setting up an opera company for the purpose of performing German opera. One condition required of the composer to join this company was that he should write a comic opera. At Salzburg in 1779 Mozart began work on a new opera (now known as Zaide although Mozart did not give it such a title). It contains spoken dialogue, which also classifies it as a Singspiel (literally, "singing play"). Only the arias and ensembles from the first two acts were composed. Missing are an overture and third act. It was popular at the time for operas to depict the rescue of enslaved Westerners from Muslim courts, since Muslim pirates were preying on Mediterranean shipping, particularly to obtain slaves for various purposes. This story portrays Zaide's effort to save her beloved, Gomatz. Mozart was composing for a German libretto by Johann Andreas Schachtner, set in Turkey, which was the scene of his next, completed rescue Singspiel (Die Entführung aus dem Serail). He soon abandoned Zaide, to work on Idomeneo, and never returned to the project. The work was lost until after his death, when Constanze Mozart, his wife, found it in his scattered manuscripts in 1799. The fragments wouldn't be published until 1838, and its first performance was held in Frankfurt on January 27, 1866, the 110th anniversary of Mozart's birth. Zaide has since been said to be the foundations of a masterpiece, and received critical acclaim. The tender soprano air, "Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben" is the only number that might be called moderately familiar. WIKIPEDIA



VIDEO: Queen City Chamber Opera (QueenCityChamberOpera.org) Recorded January 26, 2013 

K 345 Thamos, King of Egypt (or King Thamos; in German, Thamos, König in Ägypten) is a play by Tobias Philipp, baron von Gebler, for which, between 1773 and 1780, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote incidental music of an operatic character.

It is not known for certain whether the music that Mozart composed was performed with the play during his lifetime. The play's première took place at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, probably on 4 April 1774, by which time two choruses had been written. Performances in Salzburg in 1776 and 1779-80 may have incorporated the orchestral interludes and the three choruses in their final form, respectively. The music was re-used in 1783 in a different play (set in India, not Egypt), Lanassa, by Karl Martin Plümicke.

  WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Chöre und Zwischenaktmusiken zu dem heroischen Drama von Tobias Philipp Freiherr von Gebler, KV 345 (336a) Charlotte Lehmann, soprano. Rose Scheible, alto. Oly Pfaff, tenor. Bruce Abel, bass. Württenbergisches Kammerchor und Orchester, Jörg Faerber, conductor....

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K 314 Oboe Concerto in C Major,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314 was originally composed in Spring or Summer 1777 for oboist Giuseppe Ferlendis (1755–1802) from Bergamo, then reworked by the composer as a concerto for flute in D major in 1778. The concerto is a widely-studied piece for both instruments and is one of the more important concerti for the oboe. While the original version for oboe had been lost before Alfred Einstein wrote Mozart: His Character, His Work, the oboe origin of the flute concerto was suspected then, in part because of references in letters to a now-missing oboe concerto, as Einstein wrote, and of similar details in the orchestral string lines which suggested a transposition was used. Also, Einstein noted the two scores in D Major and C Major of the K. 314 Concerto in the Library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, which led to the belief that the oboe concerto was the origin of the flute concerto. The orchestra parts of the composition and solo oboe part in C were rediscovered by Bernhard Paumgartner in Salzburg, in 1920.WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: Heinz Holliger(oboe) Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne conducted by Jesus Lopez Cobos Music "Concerto pour hautbois et orchestre, KV 344: I. Allegro aperto" by Orchestre de Chambre Bernard Calmel, Bernard Calmel, Jean-Michel Penot, Orchestre de Chambre Bernard Calmel, Bernard Calmel, Jean-Michel Penot

Happy 259th Birthday.... W A MOZART

K. 135 Lucio Silla (pronounced /ˈluːtʃoʊ ˈsɪlɒ/, Italian pronunciation: [ˈluːtʃo ˈsilla]),

Lucio Silla (pronounced /ˈluːtʃoʊ ˈsɪlɒ/, Italian pronunciation: [ˈluːtʃo ˈsilla]), K. 135, is an Italian opera in three acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Giovanni de Gamerra. It was first performed on 26 December 1772 at the Teatro Regio Ducal in Milan and was regarded as "a moderate success". The opera was given its first performance in the UK on 7 March 1967 at Camden Town Hall in London. Its US premiere followed in 1968 with a performance in Baltimore on 19 January. Lucio Silla is not often performed today, although it was given by The Santa Fe Opera in 2005  and in Warsaw in June 2011. It was performed by the Classical Opera Company in London on 8 March 2012, conducted by Ian Page. Performances were presented at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in June and July 2013. That same year, it was also performed at the Mozartwoche Salzburg in January and the Salzburg Festival in the summer. Handel's opera Silla (1713) covered the same subject. Other operas with the same title were also composed by Pasquale Anfossi (1774), and Johann Christian Bach (1776).WIKIPEDIA
VIDEO: Lucio Silla, Dramma per musica in tre atti KV 135. Libretto, Giovanni de Gamerra. Lucio Silla, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson. Giunia, Lella Cuberli. Cecilio, Ann Murray. Cinna, Britt-Marie Aruhn. Celia, Christine Barbaux. Aufidio, Ad van Baasbank. Orchestre et Choeurs du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Sylvain Cambreling.

K546 Adagio and Fugue in C Minor for String Quartet,

Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546, for strings by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, dated "Vienna, 26 June 1788". The fugue is a transcription of his fugue in C minor for two pianos, K. 426, which he wrote in December 1783. The work is scored for first and second violins, viola, cello, and double bass. It is partly inspired by the contrapuntal style of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bach background of the piece can be heard with the underlying dark intensity along with a gradual style change from the classicism of Mozart's time to a more Baroque style. Mozart was introduced to the music of Bach and Handel in 1782 by his patron Gottfried van Swieten. Mozart had previously transcribed some of Bach's fugues for string quartet. WIKIPEDIA



 VIDEO: Adagio and Fugue (W.A. Mozart) - Cézanne Quartet

K 298 Flute Quartet No 4 in A Major,

The Flute Quartet No. 4 in A major, K. 298,  is Mozart's final composition for flute quartet. Unlike the previous three quartets, written for the flutist Ferdinand De Jean, the Quartet in A is believed to have been written for recreational purposes, as opposed to on commission. The low Köchel number is misleading. The work is thought to have been written sometime in 1786 or 1787, only a few years before the composer's death. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Guy Eshed, Flute | David Mc'Carroll, Violin | Wenting Kang, Viola | Michal Korman, cello Live performance at YMCA Jerusalem. March, 2014

K. 310 Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor, K. 310/300d, was written in 1778 and consists of three movements: The A minor sonata is the first of only two Mozart piano sonatas in a minor key (the other being No. 14 in C minor, K. 457). It was written in one of the most tragic times of his life: his mother [Anna Maria Mozart]had just died, and his father blamed him for his wife's death. Mozart was devastated, and poured his constant torment into his sonata, one of the darkest. The last movement in particular has an obsessive, haunted quality about it.
WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: Daniel Barenboim's historically excellent interpretations of Mozart's Piano Sonata's is explored once again here in the A minor sonata K.310. His rendition on this clip from the late 80's...

K 492 Le nozze di Figaro

The Marriage of Figaro (Italian: Le nozze di Figaro, pronounced [le ˈnɔttse di ˈfiːɡaro]), K. 492, is an opera buffa (comic opera) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. The opera's libretto is based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (first performed in 1784). The Marriage of Figaro is now regarded as a cornerstone of the standard operatic repertoire, and it appears among the top ten at the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.

WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: "Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K.492 - Original Version, Vienna 1786 / Act 2 - "Porgi amor" (Live)" by Dorothea Röschmann

K573 Variations on the Minuet of JP Duport in D Major,

In April 1789, Mozart traveled to Berlin with Prince Carl Lichnowsky (who would become Beethoven’s steadfast friend and patron). En route they stopped in Potsdam where the composer met the eminent cellist/minor composer Jean-Pierre Duport (1741-1818). Duport had landed a plum job chez Frederick the Great, eventually becoming cello teacher to Frederick Wilhelm II. Mozart, ever in search of a stable, full-time position worthy of his genius, took the opportunity to compose—or essentially improvise—a set of variations on a minuet from Duport’s Sonata for Cello, Op. 4, No. 6.

 

K 396 Fantasia in C Minor,

Fantasy No. 2 in C minor, K. 396/385f (German: Fragment einer Fantasie in c) is a fragment of a violin sonata composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna in August or September 1782. Its tempo marking is adagio. The fragment consists of 27 bars, the violin part entering at bar 23. Maximilian Stadler later composed a "completion" of the work for solo piano which is 70 bars long and ends in C major. A copy of the piece in Stadler's hand contains a dedication to Constanze Mozart. It is this version which is usually performed and recorded.

WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Mozart Fantasia K 396 by Naoumoff. Reims France June 27 2011

K 511 Rondo in A Minor,

Rondo in A minor, K. 511, for piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was written in 1787. It is in one movement: Andante. The rondo follows an A-B-A-C-A pattern. The principal theme in A minor primarily uses eighth notes while the first episode is in F major using sixteenth notes and the second episode is in A major using triplet-sixteenths.

WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO...MOZART: Rondo in A Minor, K.511 Canadian pianist Tina Chong