The Overture to
Der Schauspieldirector
also called The Impresario or Le Directeur
de Théâtre.
Mozart already had a passionate interest in opera from early
childhood. During his travels throughout Europe, he came to know and
love opera in all its forms -from
opera seria to opera buffa
and singspiel. In addition to
the fun-loving Mozart’s four operatic masterpices – The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte and The Magic
Flute, he composed a number of other operas including Der Schauspieldirektor. In this one-act comic opera,
Mozart makes fun of the rival prima donnas. It was performed at
Schönbrunn, on the same occasion as an opera by Salieri.
In this album, the overture to
Der Schauspieldirektor gives a spirited, positive, and stimulating
introduction to the beautiful Piano Concerto No. 25 that follows.
Mozart Piano Concerto No.25 K503. In
1784, Mozart began his Catalogue of all my Works. Between January 1784 and December 1786
Mozart composed 12 piano concerti, all of them masterpieces.
Among them, Piano Concerto No.25 was composed for subscription concerts,
or academies, that Mozart
held during the winter months to earn a living.
Mozart’s musical mind, as we know it, is abundantly evident
in the first movement of this concerto and proceeds in an elegant and
stately fashion to the second movement. With its beautiful, gentle,
and lyrical melody,
the soloist is echoed
by the oboe and flute in an atmosphere of peacefulness and
tranquillity. The third movement carries over the melody and brings us
back to the majesty of the first movement and on to a joyous finale.
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3
was completed in 1800 at the start of the period of Beethoven’s more
heroic works. It was the first to illustrate the highly personal
characteristics of Beethoven’s compositions which ignored many
conventions of virtuoso concerti fashionable at the time. That this
work points forward to his later style is evident in the first
movement with its two greatly contrasting themes which become the
accelerating factor of dramatic conflict. The highly imaginative
instrumentation of the largo movement and the complete integration of
the piano into the orchestral context give this movement classical
beauty and depth of feeling. The rondo is a harmonically original,
playful, and mischievous piece that leads this concerto into a
festively vigorous finale.