Mar 15, 2020
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when Mozart was angry
Mozart, Serenade No. 12 for Winds in C minor, K. 388 (1782) The Scottish National Orchestra Wind Ensemble / Paavo Järvi (1985) I was in the car the other month, playing the Heifetz + Piatigorsky recording of the G minor Quintet, introduction to the last movement, when I realized how easy and natural it was to come up with a seria-type recitative for it (the first violin Confessing, Plaintive, Despairing, Pleading, Pledging, Triumphing, etc). That's all to say that occasionally music might have had and could be said to have its nouns, its subjects and objects -- but after all it's nothing but verbs. In this serenade, one of my favorite pieces by Mozart, the music almost seems to invite a dramatic interpretation. Invent a straightforward little episodic narrative for the last movement, and something affettuoso, self-doubtful, fiery underneath, for the lyric Andante -- and doing this might heighten your response. But I'm not sure about this music's verbs: it's definitely not a serenade, and no lover would ever play it under a burgher's daughter's window on a cool March night. What's painful, at least in interpretation, is that this music can be so general that nothing sticks to it, and so specific that one can imagine only a single story coming out of it. Its subjects and objects come and go, and we never seem to remember their faces. Only a few gestures hold, significant and highly necessary, but even these can seem uncertain. Richter said he could never remember Mozart's music. You can remember Beethoven's: the declaiming wants its declaimer, even if his object isn't clear.
Mozart, Serenade No. 12 for winds in C minor, K. 388 (1782): 3. Minuetto in canone Paul Goodwin + Lorraine Wood, oboes Colin Lawson + Michael Harris, clarinets Alberto Grazzi + Sally Jackson, bassoons Anthony Halstead + Christian Rutherford, horns Rec. 1996
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Serenata n. 12 in do minore K. 388 per 8 strumenti a fiato - IV. Allegro
Amadeus Winds Christopher Hogwood
