Mozart Symphony Analysis #35-41 Justin SeenarineProf. Dean Witten 1/14/15

Mozart Symphony #35 in D Major (Haffner)Conductor: Claudio AbbadoTimpanist: Rainer SeegersOrchestra: Berlin(er) PhilharmonikerObservation(s): The Timpani and Brass, mainly the trumpets, play rhythmically in unison. Aside from just playing rhythmically in unison, for the most part, they share the same note durations and articulation. Although, the two groups move in different motions, for example bar thirty the brass move in a similar descending motion while the timpani moves in an ascending motion thus creating a tension of contrary motion. The great challenge for the Timpanist is to approach the music with the same feel as his/her's Brass counterparts. The range pitch wise only spans over two drums.

Dynamics & Presence: Concerning the Timpani, Mozart's range for the instrument is from Piano to Forte and nothing higher. Some of the strings has Sforzando's throughout the work, yet the Timpani and the Brass do not. In regards to presence, the Timpani isn't bombastic in anyway. I believe that the player still has to have some backbone, but in the orchestra the Timpani blends.

Muffling: Seegers appears to use muffling throughout his playing in this work even when the Brass have sustained notes, I presume that would be so he doesn't muddy the overall sound quality with notes bleeding into on another.

Mallets: I'm not able to discern what kind of mallets Rainer is using, and I don't know enough to make an educated guess.

Mozart Symphony #39 in Eb MajorConductor: James LevineTimpanist: Tim GenisOrchestra: Boston Symphony OrchestraObservation(s): The Timpani and Brass, mainly the trumpets, play rhythmically in unison. Aside from just playing rhythmically in unison, for the most part, they share the same note durations and articulation. In this work, the Timpani doesn't always play with the Brass, it seems the Timpani fills in the notes in the bar around some of the figures that the Brass are playing. A lot of the motion between the Brass and Timpani are the same, mainly it appears to be a similar motion. The range pitch wise spans over two drums.

Dynamics & Presence: The range dynamically varies slightly from the 35th Symphony in that within the first movement there's a Sforzando Piano written which I found to be interesting considering I've never seen it in my life; other than that the range is the same. Tim Genis's interpretation of this work is neat, it seems less dramatic than the playing of Seegers, and it really breathes.

Muffling: Genis appears to use muffling throughout this work even when the Brass have sustained notes. He muffles when the opportunity presents itself in rests and when switches from drum to drum.

Mallets: I'm not able to discern what kind of mallets Tim is using, my best guess would be to say that he switches from his Hard Tonals to his Beethoven Softs.

Mozart Symphony #41 in C Major (Jupiter)Conductor: James LevineTimpanist: Tim GenisOrchestra: Boston Symphony OrchestraObservation(s): The Timpani and Brass, mainly the trumpets, play rhythmically in unison. Aside from just playing rhythmically in unison, for the most part, they share the same note durations and articulation. In this work, the Timpani mainly play exactly what the Brass is playing as far as articulation, rhythms, and duration go yet there are times when Mozart strays away from this pattern and let's the Timpani add it's own words to the phrase aside from what it's already said in conversation with the Brass. Just like in the second movement of the Symphony thirty-nine, Mozart makes the Timpani tacet for this movement, the pattern is that he keeps the Timpani out of the Andante sections of the Symphony's unlike a composer such as Beethoven (Symphony #9 Mvt 3) who used Timpani in an even slower setting. The range pitch wise is over three drums instead of two like the preceding symphony's.

Dynamics & Presence: The dynamic range of this work appears to be the same as Symphony 35, excluding the interpretation. It seems that Tim lays back until the very end of this work, dynamically he's blending enough to really bring out some important moments and phrases yet he's playing enough inside the orchestra that if you stop playing attention you'll miss him.

Muffling: Genis appears to use muffling throughout this work even when the Brass have sustained notes. He muffles when the opportunity presents itself in rests and when switches from drum to drum.

Mallets: I'm not able to discern what kind of mallets Tim is using, my best guess would be to say that he switches from his Hard Tonal's to his Beethoven Softs.