KNOW YOUR CLASSICS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 484, 1 October 1948, Page 12

KNOW YOUR CLASSICS

HIS series of articles, written for "The Listener’ by BESSIE POLLARD, is designed to help the student and the interested listener towards a more complete appreciation of good music, Each article deals in outline with one accepted masterpiece and illustrates : its main themes. (13) Symphonie Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E Flat, K.364 (Mozart) N the latter half of the 18th Century the orchestra at Mannheim made that musical centre one of the most advanced in Europe, and the experiments and research carried out there were largely responsible for the "new look" in serious music at that time. It was at Mennheim in 1778, that young twenty-two-year-old Mozart heard the new Sonata form, and also,the then novel form of ConcertSymphony which was to supersede the Concerto Grosso. This Concert-Symphony differed from the older Concerto Grosso form in that the group of soloists was more independent of the orchestral background, but, on the other hand, it was less exalted than in the solo instrumental Concerto proper. : Following his return to Salzburg in 1779, Mozart composed his E flat twopiano Concerto (K.365); the Symphonie Concertante (K.364); and mapped out a Concerto for Violin, Viola, ‘Cello and Orchestra. The Symphonie Concertante, K.364; is fundamentally a Symphony in range and style. The orchestra is not subordinate to the soloists--for example, as the work unfolds, we frequently find the orchestral oboes and horns giving out subject material of the same importance as that announced by the solo violin and viola. The first movement begins with a long symphonic exposition in wiles the orchestra sets out the thematic material. Here are the first subject ("A" below) and the second ("B" below)- :

When the soloists enter, we hear additional subsidiary themes, one in C minor ("A" below) and a new theme in bar 126 ("B" below) —

, In the second movement the main theme is announced by the. orchestra, and then taken over by the soloists, who repeat it with variations (‘‘A" below); the second subject is in the major mode ("B" below) —

The Finale is cast in the typical Mozartian combination of Rondo and Sonata form; the principal section ("A" below) is contrasted with ‘a second strain ("B" below) —

Later the fomns ate prominent ("A" below) and ‘the = section — forward yet another theme ("B" below) in bar 79-~

Mozart's Symphonie Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E Flat, K.364, will be heard trom Station 2YC at 8.29 p.m. on Saturday, October 9.