Re: Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto

["Cline, Eric" <Eric.Cline@REICHHOLD.COM>]

                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.

Sussmayr didn't just re-orchestrate the horn concerti movements, he deleted
whole passages (or was it added passages ?!), this is especially true for
the D major concerto which is actually a coupling of two independent
movements into a concerto. The last movement has been heavily doctored IIRC.
Christopher Hogwood's recording of the horn concerti includes Sussmayr
"surgically altered" version and a reconstruction of the original. IIRC,
Sussmayer added a passage from the "Lamentations of Jeremiah" to commemorate
Mozart's recent demise. Also, as time went on and Leutgeb got older and
began to lose some playing ability, Mozart made the concerti gradually
easier, less high notes etc. I wish I had the Hogwood recording here so I
could look up the exact facts for sure.


Eric Cline x 8116
Senior R & D Chemist
Emulsion, Urethane & UV Polymer Synthesis
Reichhold, Inc.
North American Coatings Business
e-mail: eric.cline@reichhold.com <mailto:eric.cline@reichhold.com>
http://www.reichhold.com <http://www.reichhold.com>
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                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Bradley P Lehman [mailto:bpl@UMICH.EDU]
                Sent:   Thursday, August 31, 2000 11:26 AM
                To:     F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
                Subject:        Re: Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto

                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