For Gábor Takács Nagy, leading the musicians of the Budapest Festival Orchestra performing works by Mozart and Haydn is nothing new; he has been a regular conductor of the successful, decades-long, Haydn-Mozart Plus concert series. The upcoming concert nonetheless promises to be unique for several reasons. But why?
Let’s start with Mozart’s first symphony, in E-flat major. He was a boy of just eight when he composed the piece. The story is that he and his older sister, Nannerl, were invited along with their father to England, for the two talented children to perform something on the violin and on the piano in the royal court. Nannerl unexpectedly fell ill, so they had to postpone the journey. To pass the time, Mozart composed his first symphony.
Did he ever end up playing for the king?
There are no accounts of that (or at least none that I am aware of), but what is certain is that he did show the piece later to the Prince of Wales.
As someone who is a highly skilled musician, and is an expert in Mozart’s music: if you listen to this piece carefully, do you sense anything about this symphony which is more typical of the thinking of a child and is less like that of an adult? In other words, do you see the child Mozart in this piece?
What I would say is that Mozart remained a brilliant child his whole life. Certainly, he later grew up, but the child within always stayed with him. He retained his childlike sincerity, freshness and curiosity his entire life. This is clearly apparent in all of his music. I have, here in front of me, the score for the symphony; tucked between the sheets of music I keep a copy of the words Nannerl took down after the untimely death of her younger brother. I’d like to quote a few lines: “Wolfgang remained a child his whole life. He always needed a father, a mother or someone who could watch over his life. He could not manage money in the least. Against the protests of his father, he married a girl unfit for him. One example of this is that their home was always in upheaval. His heart was overly warm and giving; if anyone got close to him, they could ask my brother for anything. This often got Wolfgang into trouble. He lost a great deal of money this way...”
This seems to match the character of Mozart we saw in the well-known film, Amadeus. I imagine these texts were among the ones Peter Shaffer studied when producing the film.
I think that is right. He painted an outstanding portrait of the Mozart that researchers have studied so thoroughly, and his childlike sincerity. And of how he did not check his words? He simply said everything that was on his mind. As far as I know, he made an astounding number of enemies in Vienna in his time, as he was not only one hundred times more talented than anyone else, but he also never kept his opinions to himself. To come back to his first symphony: it is a mature, sparkling piece of music. It is every bit as perfect as his other symphonies.
Did he ever go back to work on the first version?
I don’t believe he did. At least we have no knowledge of this. We know the piece as it was first completed.
The concert will also feature three unusual concert arias by Mozart. What are these three pieces like?
The first song, Ch’io mi scordi di te , is simply incredible in its arrangement, with a highly innovative selection of instruments. The piano is given its own role to play, for instance, which is very rare with arias of this type. But, of course, Mozart was a theatre man by birth, and opera was particularly near to his heart. The story of how the other piece, “Bella mia Fiamma,” was said to have been composed, is very funny. It, too, will be performed by the wonderful young Ukrainian singer, Olena Tokar. Mozart was forced to write the piece by the opera singer wife of a friend of his. Out of revenge, he composed a piece so difficult to perform that the woman could barely sing it. It is, however, a beautiful aria, but it’s true that only few people are able to perform it perfectly. Olena is one such artist.
