ORCHESTRA AT TIMARU

New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 631, 3 August 1951, Page 17

ORCHESTRA AT TIMARU

N Monday, August 6, the National Orchestra, conducted by Michael Bowles, will present a public concert at Timaru. The programme includes: Symphony No. 3 in F, Op, 90 (Brahms); Three Irish Dances (Michael Bowles); Rienzi Overture (Brahms); and the Mozart Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A, K.219, in

which the soloist is Eric Lawson.

Here

BESSIE

POLLARD

discusses

the last-named work in outline. VERY little is known in detail of the history of the series of five violin concertos Mozart composed at Salzburg between April and December, 1775 (B flat, K.207; D, K.211; G, K.216; D, K.218; and A, K.219). Although Mozart had from his youngest days played the violin (as a child-prodigy, of course, he was known pre-eminently as a keyboard virtuoso); and he became eventually an accomplished violinist, he never attained the heights on that instrument that Leopold Mozart, his father, wished. Leopold was a gifted violinist. whose treatise on violin playing, published in Augsburg in the year of Wolfgang’s birth (1756), and later translated into many languages, was for some years the recognised textbook on the subject. In the Concerto in A-scored originally for two oboes, two horns and strings -the structure and texture are simple and crystal clear. The first movement (Allegro aperto) begins with a chord of A major, following which comes the usual opening "tutti," closing with an Adagio section; then the soloist leads into the second exposition of thematic material. While the orchestra plays the opening theme of the movement, the soloist combines with it a more decorative melody, I quote both these themes below-

The second subject ("A" below) is characterised by rising reiterations of one note; at bar 62 a new theme appears ("B" below)-

‘The development section introduces a new arid lovely theme in the key of C sharp minor (below), which Mozart works out with the two main themes of the movement-

The slow movement (Adagio) is built almost entirely on one melody announced by the soloist and orchestral first violins (below) and afterwards delicately embellished by the solo violin- ,

The Finale (Tempo di menuetto; Allegro) begins with a section in Minuet time ("A" below); then a change to 2/4 time and a quicker tempo (Allegro) brings with it new thematic material where strings and oboe discourse, dialogue fashion, with the solo violin ("B" below). Mozart borrowed this Allegro section in "Turkish" style from one of his earlier works-it appeared as an intermezzo in a ballet, Le Gelosie del Serraglio, in his opera seria, Lucio Silla, written at Milan in 1773-