Re: Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Thu, 31 Aug 2000, Cline, Eric wrote:

> Mozart's horn concerti
> were not written for Punto - They were written for a hornist whose name
> escapes me here at work. In one of the scores Mozart, taunted him playfully,
> by writing the parts in different colours and writing "Mozart took pity on
> [I can't remember the name] ox, ass and fool" . In some of the more
> difficult passages he wrote comments on this person's playing ability.

In the recording by the Old Fairfield Academy with R J Kelley on natural
horn (Musicmasters 67169) there are delightful program notes by Robert
Levin.  He points out that some of the horn writing took into account the
fact that Leutgeb was missing some teeth and that affected his embouchure.
He also cites Franz Giegling in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe for some comments
about that color coding...it might be indicating the importance and
coloring of the passages, not just a joke.  (But nobody knows for sure.)

Levin also re-orchestrated some of the pieces for this recording, since
there is evidence that Sussmayr had done some damage to the pieces
(meaning well, of course) after Mozart's demise.

And then on this disc the last track is that famous annotated finale
performed with a narrator.  First time recorded that way, I believe.  The
narrator declaims those Italian phrases and the booklet has English
translations...let's just say there are some bits that would instantly
earn an R or NC-17 rating if this were a film.  It's pretty much like the
"dialogue" in a porno, plus some street slang.

Bradley Lehman | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/ | Dayton, VA, USA

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only
sparks from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot