14 PIANO CONCERTOS & 13 DOCUMENTARIESFollowing Mozart’s journey through Europe

Vladimir Ashkenazy · Malcolm Frager · Homero FranceschHeidrun Holtmann · Ivan Klánsky · Zoltán Kocsis

Alicia de Larrocha · Radu Lupu · André Previn · Dezsó RánkiMitsuko Uchida · Christian Zacharias

Hosted by André Previn

MOZART ON TOUR

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Mozart on Tour

Episode 1

London – The First Journey 26:48

Piano Concerto in A major, K. 414 25:14

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Soloist and Conductor: Vladimir ASHKENAZY Recorded at Hampton Court Palace, London

Episode 2 Mantua – Initial Steps 19:40

Piano Concerti, in F major K. 37 and in G major K. 41 35:27

Orchestra della Radiotelevisione della Svizzera Italiana Conductor: Marc ANDREAE Soloist: Heidrun HOLTMANN Recorded in the Teatro Scientifico del Bibiena, Mantua

Episode 3 Milan – Learning by Travelling 29:05

Piano Concerto in D major, K. 175 22:58

Orchestra della Radiotelevisione della Svizzera Italiana Conductor: Marc ANDREAE Soloist: Malcolm FRAGER Recorded in the Teatro Scientifico del Bibiena, Mantua

Episode 4 Mannheim – Aloysia and Constanze 30:38

Piano Concerto in B-flat major, K. 238 21:02

Radiosinfonieorchester Stuttgart Conductor: Gianluigi GELMETTI Soloist: Christian ZACHARIAS Recorded in the Rokokotheater, Schloss Schwetzingen

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Episode 5 Schwetzingen – Musicians and Princess 30:40

Piano Concerto in C major, K. 246 21:30

Radiosinfonieorchester Stuttgart Conductor: Gianluigi GELMETTI Soloist: Christian ZACHARIAS Recorded in the Rokokotheater, Schloss Schwetzingen

Episode 6 Paris – Far from Salzburg 22:10

Piano Concerto E-flat major, K. 271 “Jeune home” 33:38

Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg Conductor: Jeffrey TATE Soloist: Mitsuko UCHIDA Recorded in the Mozarteum Salzburg (Salzburg Festival 1989)

Episode 7 Vienna – A double Abduction 26:28

Piano Concerto in G major, K. 453 33:19

Englisch Chamber Orchestra Conductor: Jeffrey TATE Soloist: Deszó RÁNKI Recorded in the Grosse Galerie, Schloss Schönbrunn

Episode 8 Vienna – The best City for my Métier 25:10

Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466 (Cadenzas by Ivan Klánský) 2:24

Virtuosi di Praga Conductor: Jir í BELOHLÁVEK Soloist: Ivan KLÁNSKÝ Recorded in the Rittersaal of the Palais Waldstein, Prague

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Episode 9 Vienna & Prague – The other Side of the Coin 23:34

Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491 31:24

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Soloist and Conductor: André PREVIN Recorded in the Grosse Galerie, Schloss Schönbrunn

Episode 10 Prague – Success with Da Ponte 29:00

Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488 23:07

Virtuosi di Praga Conductor: Jir í BELOHLÁVEK Soloist: Zoltán KOCSIS Recorded in the Rittersaal of the Palais Waldstein, Prague

Episode 11 Frankfurt – Coronation 27:48

Piano Concerto in F major, K. 459 27:20

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Conductor: David ZINMAN Soloist: Radu LUPU Recorded in the Sophiensaal, Munich

Episode 12 Munich – Way Station 24:29

Piano Concerto in D major, K. 537 “Coronation” (Cadenzas by Edwin Fischer) 30:33

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Conductor: Gerd ALBRECHT Soloist: Homero FRANCESCH Recorded in the Christian Zaiss Saal, Wiesbaden

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Episode 13 Vienna – The Last Year 23:46

Piano Concerto in B-flat major, K. 595 31:41

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: André PREVIN Soloist: Aleksandar MADZAR Recorded in the Grosse Galerie, Schloss Schönbrunn

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Episode 1 – LondonIn this episode we return to one of Mozart’s happiest periods, his childhood visit to the British capital, where he and his family were idolized by the royal court and came into contact with some of the foremost musicians of the time. Two musicians who had a seminal influence on the young man were German immigrants who ran an important concert series, Johann Christian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel, the son of the great Johann Sebastian and one of the Thomaskantor’s prize pupils. Both men had spent significant phases of their musical development in Italy, and so their music, which inspired Mozart’s style, represented a virtual symbiosis of the greatest musical styles of the century, styles which saw their ultimate realization in works like Mozart’s K. 414.In our performance, Vladimir Ashkenazy will perform the double role of soloist and conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the great hall of Lancaster House.

Episode 2 – MantuaOne of the first tours the Mozart family made with their two gifted children brought them over the Alps to Italy. Here they encountered a culture which was to influence Wolfgang Amadeus for the rest of his life. The “Manzuoli style” of virtuoso singing, the Italian school of composition and a relatively new instrument called the pianoforte were to have a profound impact on Mozart’s creativity. One of the many musical exercises Leopold Mozart used with his children involved copying out the works of other composers and then using them as a point of departure for their own pieces. Today we might even call it plagiarism, but back then it was considered a compliment. Two of Mozart’s earliest piano concerti were “pasticcio” arrangements for piano and orchestra made by Wolfgang and Leopold together, and based on piano sonatas by other composers. Even at this early age, the works bear the indelible imprint of the sublime musical master. Our performance in the historic Teatro Bibiena in Mantua feature Heidrun Holtmann, and the RISI Orchestra under the direction of Marc Andreae.

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Episode 3 – Milan/BolognaIf Italy is the well-spring of music, the city of Bologna is its ultimate source. The illustrious Bologna conservatory has educated scores of Italy’s greatest composers and musicians from the rest of the world as well. Even though still a small child, Mozart showed the Bolognese they just might have something to learn from him. Although he was too young to be accepted, for studies at the conservatory, his father still wanted him to take the entrance examination to prove his talent. When the great padre Martini saw what little Wolfgang had done with his assigned themes, he bent the rules a bit and “corrected” the voice leading. Mozart was prescient enough to retain both versions of the exam - his own inspired, work and the good father’s well-meant revision. Italy has also been the ultimate land of song from time immemorial, and so it was no wonder that the boy Wolfgang fell in love with the art of opera and the language which sounds like singing whether or not there is music playing. The Piano Concerto K. 175 is full of singing drama, as well as some of the intricate contrapuntal writing Mozart must have perfected under Martini’s tutelage. In our performance, at the Teatro Bibiena in Mantua, Malcolm Frager is the soloist along with the RISI Orchestra under the direction of Marc Andreae.

Episode 4 – MannheimMozart’s time in Mannheim was a period of fateful encounters. For his musical development, the Mannheim Orchestra and the school of composition that went with it represented significant turning points in Mozart’s work. His artistic and emotional life also took a major turn in Mannheim when he met the music copyist Fridolin Weber and his singing daughters, He immediately fell in love with the second child, Aloysia, and concocted a master plan to make her an opera star in Italy, a plan that rocked his parents to their heels. Life takes strange turns, Aloysia Weber married another man, but eventually sang leading roles in two of Mozart’s greatest operas, “The Abduction from the Seraglio” and “Don Giovanni”. Her older sister Josepha later created the part of the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s last opera, “The Magic Flute”. And a third soprano daughter, Constanze, would figure most significantly in his life at a later date. The Mannheim Elector’s court spent a great deal of time at their country palace In Schwetzingen, and it is at Schwetzingen Palace that we hear Piano Concerto K. 238,

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performed by Christian Zacharias with the Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti.

Episode 5 – SchwetzingenNot only was Mozart unlucky in love in Mannheim, he also failed to achieve his ambition of becoming court composer to the elector, a turn of events perhaps partly attributable to the forthright, no-nonsense manner of this still very young man. He attended a puplic rehearsal of music by the renowned Abbé Vogler only to walk out after a few bars, in full view of the entire court, pronouncing this music amateurish and unlistenable.Faced with the necessity of making money as best he could, he composed music on order for whoever could pay for it. The young lady for whom he wrote K. 246 was not a very accomplished performer, and the music is correspondingly simple. But in all its simplicity, this concerto, like virtually everything else this master composed, is seldom short of sublime. An object lesson in making do with what you’ve got, well worth the attention of our modern composers with all their foundation grants and high-paid commissions.In our performance, conductor Gianluigi Gelmetti and the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra again join forces with soloist Christian Zacharias on the stage of Schwetzingen Palace.

Episode 6 – ParisThe City of Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace and childhood home, with his peripatetic life. He hated the place, its provinciality and the humiliation of making music for the Archbishop, and would do almost anything to get out of town. And so, when a prominent French pianist named Mlle. Jeunehomme visited Salzburg and performed some of Wolfgang’s works, it was no wonder that he and his family took it as a sign fate wanted him in Paris.But his stay in the City of Light was no Gaîté Parisienne. The few job offers he received were not to his liking, and then his beloved mother, who had accompanied him there, took violently ill and died. The way in which he broke the news to his family back home was a remarkable sign of the 21-year old musician’s tact and maturity, as well as a touching document of the love for his family that shone through his music and his life. The “Jeunehomme Concerto” will be heard in a kind of reconciliation with Salzburg, the city that today counts Mozart as its finest son and has dedicated the world’s most prestigious arts festival to his music. In a Salzburg Festival performance, with the Mozarteum Orchestra

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under Jeffrey Tate, we hear one of the pre-eminent Mozart interpreters of our day. pianist Mitsuko Uchida.

Episode 7 – ViennaIn Vienna, Mozart experienced the highest and lowest points of his life. Travelling in the retinue of his ecclesiastical employer, Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, Wolfgang had a bitter fight over his position at court, resulting in his being literally kicked in the pants and summarily fired from his job; Too proud to follow his father’s example and beg for his old position back, Wolfgang found himself abandoned, friendless and destitute - when, lo and behold! Whom did he run into but the Weber’s from Mannheim, the family with the beautiful talented daughters, who had come here to live after the death of father Fridolin. Mrs. Weber, however, soon had reason to regret her decision to provide a home for the young musician, when the impoverished Wolfgang fell madly in love with her daughter Constanze, a resourceful young lady who was prepared to do anything and everything to get her man. Their stormy courtship and ultimate marriage has gone down as one of the greatest love stories in human history. The piano Concerto K. 453, composed for one of Mozart’s most gifted pupils, takes place in the Austrian Imperial Palace in Schönbrunn and features soloist Deszcó Ránki and the European Chamber Orchestra.

Episode 8 – ViennaWith Wolfgang and Constanze comfortably ensconced in Vienna, adored by the local music loving community, life looked better than ever, Wolfgang enhanced his artistic position as the focal point of a number of musical “academies”, not educational events, but rather large-scale concert presentations centered around the works of the featured composer.Feelings were mixed when Leopold Mozart announced his intentions to pay a visit. Relations between father and son had been strained ever since Wolfgang’s precipitous dismissal from the service of the Salzburg Archbishop, and Leopold made little secret of his distaste for what he considered his son’s rather frivolous life-style. But a moving reconciliation took place when the most celebrated composer of the day Franz Joseph Haydn, came to call. After joining both Mozarts in a reading of the string quartets Wolfgang had dedicated to him, he solemnly thanked Leopold “before God as an

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honest man” for his contribution to the musical education of the man he declared to be the greatest composer he had ever known. His piano works from this period give us some idea of what a consummate performer he must have been as well. We will hear his concerto K. 466 played in the city where he experienced his greatest successes, Prague, in a performance at Waldstein Palace featuring soloist Ivan Klánský and Jir í Be lohlávek at the podium of the Prague Chamber Orchestra.

Episode 9 – Vienna/PragueWolfgang Amadeus Mozart hardly ever did anything by halves. When he decided to compose his magnum opus, he based it on a play considered downright seditious at the Austrian court and banned by the royal censors. His librettist da Ponte was assigned the onerous task of convincing the emperor the operatic version would not set the tumbrils rolling. Da Ponte must have been a super salesman, because not only was “The Marriage of Figaro” performed, it opened the season – Mozart wouldn’t have it any other way. While perhaps not rife with the political satire of its original author, Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais, whose leading character “Figaro” is a pun on his own name, le Fils Caron (Caron junior), Mozart’s work asks some pretty basic questions about the relationships of men and women, the aristocracy and their servants, and is, to this day, possibly the most mature, genuinely human operatic composition ever written, with sublimely beautiful music that supports, intensifies and enhances the drama every step of the way. Like Mozart’s operas, concerto K. 491 is solid drama from start to finish, with a minor harmonic structure reminiscent of “Don Giovanni”. In our performance, recorded at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the host of “Mozart on Tour” does double-duty as soloist and conductor of the European Cbamber Orchestra.

Episode 10 – PragueMozart was invited to Prague to conduct his “Marriage of Figaro” , an opera that had been more controversial than successful at its Viennese premiere. The composition took the Czech capital completely by storm and resulted in the commission for “Don Giovanni”, to another libretto by that prolific, one-of-a kind wordsmith, Lorenzo da Ponte, who was so facile that he batted out the inspired words for Mozart’s immortal music while simultaneously working on two libretti for other composers. Everything about the concerto K. 488 is operatic

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in approach and execution - from the grand drama of the opening bars to the sublime, vocal lyricism of the central movement, to the soaring melody of the finale.In our performance, Hungarian pianist Zoltán Kocsis joins Czech conductor Jir í Be lohlávek and the Prague Chamber Orchestra in the great hall of Waldstein Palace in Prague.

Episode 11 – FrankfurtWhen Austria’s Emperor Leopold II went to the Congress City of Frankfurt to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor, Mozart went along for the ride, hoping to be honored with a commission for a coronation work, or better yet, an imperial appointment. The results were disastrous. His arch-rival Salieri received the commission for the coronation opera, a commission which must have been doubly galling for Mozart because the libretto was an adaptation by Lorenzo da Ponte, of a play by Beaumarchais, two men who had figured so importantly in his own operatic development. After being frustrated at just about every turn, Mozart was finally asked to write and perform a piano concerto for a concert on the fringe of the coronation ceremonies, a work which is no less regal for being virtually ignored at the time of its creation.In our presentation the Coronation Concerto K. 459 will be played in the Imperial Hall of the Residence Palace in Munich, the city where it received one of its major initial hearings, in a reading by pianist Radu Lupu and the German Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra under David Zinman.

Episode 12 – MunichThe Bavarian capital of Munich was always one of Mozart’s favorite places - it saw important performances of many of his major instrumental works and hosted the world premiere of his monumental opera seria “Idomeneo, re di Creta”. The first printed edition of his concerto K. 537, written for Munich, is remarkable for the fact that it doesn’t contain all the notes of the solo part. This method prevented the music from falling into the hands of dishonest copyists, but more importantly, it reflects the fact that pianists were pretty much expected to know what the composer wanted from a musical sketch which called upon them to improvise the necessary harmonies, sometimes at sight. In our performance, given at Munich’s Residence Palace, the musical adviser of “Mozart on Tour”, Maestro Wilhelm Keitel leads members of me Bavarian Radio Orchestra with Homero Francesch at the keyboard.

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Episode 13 – ViennaWith his short life cruelly and rapidly drawing to a close, Mozart once again turned to the compositional style which most directly and profoundly reflected his own personality, the concerto for piano and orchestra, to say a few final things. The work, which, because of Mozart’s dwindling eminence, had to be performed in another musician’s academy, might have turned out to be a solemn, lugubrious work, but Mozart, even in his final days, was not about to make his farewells with a superficial, obvious cliché. In the final movement of an entirely positive and uplifting composition he regales his audiences with a lyrical children’s song, invoking the joys of youth and springtime, perhaps a reflection back on those halcyon days when the monumental child prodigy first tasted the delights of being “Mozart on Tour”. In a fitting finale to our series, the grand lady of the keyboard, Alicia de Larrocha, joins Maestro André Previn and the European Chamber Orchestra in Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace for a performance of Mozart’s final concerto. Mozart’s Great Piano ConcertosMozart’s E flat Concerto, K. 271, composed in 1777, when he had just turned 21, is the first of his concertos to demonstrate a towering genius in full flight, from first note to last. The entry of the piano after the orchestra has only played one bar was an unheard-of, revolutionary stroke that must have caused an audible gasp in the audience. And then the also revolutionary “operatic” character of the slow movement (one of the greatest ever written), complete with recitatives and a cadenza! And the irresistible joy of the finale, with its own “slow” movement (actually a minuet) in the middle – another revolutionary move! The work is worth a thousand exclamation points! Musically, this work can be seen as Mozart’s unofficial declaration of independence (only a year after the Americans’ official one). No coming of age was ever so magnificently marked. And there is an extramusical mystery to boot: the concerto was apparently written for a French pianist, one Mademoiselle Jeunehomme – and she must have been quite a pianist – of whom there is no other trace. In 1781, Mozart embarked on a new life in Vienna. His first task was to establish his presence beyond the shadow of a doubt. In order to show himself off to best advantage, as both composer and performer, he set up, among other things, a series of subscription concerts, and it was for one such series in 1783 that he wrote the three concertos K. 413–415.

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As ever, he gauged his audience shrewdly. Writing to his father, he remarked: “These concertos are a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult; they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural without being vapid. There are passages here and there from which connoisseurs alone can derive satisfaction; but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased, though without knowing why.” Of the three, the A major, with its warmth of feeling and profusion of wonderful themes, has always been the most popular. For most of the 19th century the “Coronation” Concerto equaled the great D minor in popularity (not many others were even known). For much of the 20th century it was treated rather as an embarrassing elder relative, best kept out of sight. No one would class it with the greatest of Mozart’s concertos, but, in its ceremonial, somewhat impersonal character, it suits its purpose splendidly. Indeed, it bears a kind of family resemblance with Mozart’s two other D major piano concertos, K. 175 and 451 (interestingly, both of these have suffered even worse neglect). The nickname derives from Mozart’s playing of it during the coronation festivities for Emperor Leopold II in 1790. With his popularity ebbing in Vienna, he clearly wrote the concerto as a showcase for himself, in the hope of finding employment elsewhere. But while it received much praise, it brought in very little money and no appointments. Debt overcame him, and, a little over a year later, he died at 35 and was buried in an unmarked paupers’ grave. Mozart’s first concertos, written in 1767, when he was 11, were not original, but rather orchestral settings of solo piano pieces by other composers – composers whose identity tells us a lot about the musical world in which Mozart grew up. Today, in our age of scholarship and mass communications, we almost take for granted the works of the great masters. The music of living composers we hardly know at all. In Mozart’s childhood, the situation was almost exactly the reverse: most of the music played was contemporary music. And that didn’t mean Bach, Handel and Scarlatti; it meant Dittersdorf, Quantz, Vanhal, Michael Haydn (but not Joseph), C.P.E. and J.C. Bach (but not J.S.), and such still more obscure figures as Schroter, Wagenseil, Honauer, Raupach, Schobert, Eckard and Leopold Hoffmann – most of whom are remembered today only because the child Mozart arranged their music. The two concertos presented here are based on sonatas by Honauer and Raupach. By the time he wrote his Concerto No.23, nineteen years had passed, and Mozart was at the height of his powers. The sheer lyrical warmth of the A major Concerto, K. 488, has made

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it a favourite with generations of music lovers in widely differing periods and places, not least for the heart-rending poignancy of its middle movement – the only movement in his entire output to be cast in the key of F sharp minor. With the exception of the slow movement, one of the saddest ever written, this is one of several Mozart concertos which seem to transcend the limitations of specific moods and enter a world of pure music, where one can feel, with Keats, that “‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” The word “autumnal” has often been attached to this concerto. While it is very difficult to say precisely what this means, one can understand it in reference to the first two movements. But the finale? What bounce! What drive! What vitality! What game-playing! There is a virile physicality here which one expects in Beethoven, but seldom encounters in Mozart. Leaves have never fallen like this! There is nothing ambiguous about the C minor Concerto, K. 491, unique in many respects, not least for the abiding sense of darkness with which it leaves one. Even the stormy D minor (K.466) ends on a note of optimism; but here, Mozart’s increasing awareness that he had grown beyond the reach of his Viennese audience keeps its grip on the piece from beginning to end. It uses the largest orchestra of the entire canon, complete with trumpets and drums, yet it is more dramatic than ceremonial, more solemn than turbulent, more fateful than tragic. The opening movement is the longest but one (K. 503), the slow movement (not so slow) maintains its basic mood throughout, and the finale, a march and eight variations, of which the first five are increasingly dramatic, is the darkest and most resigned of them all. Mozart’s first original piano concerto, No.5, K.175, composed in 1773, proved altogether too original for some. Ever sensitive to the nature of his audience, he withdrew for his next few concertos to the safer territory of pure, and supremely elegant, galanterie. In the period between his return from Italy in 1773 and his departure for Mannheim and Paris four years later he curbed the questing passions unleashed in him by adolescence and the example of Italian opera. The five violin concertos and the next three piano concertos offer the listener a stream of enchanting melodies and exquisite orchestral colors but make no very great demands on the analytical mind. The B flat Concerto, K.238, is as mild as a lamb compared with its forthright predecessor (excepting, perhaps, a surprising burst of passion in the development of the opening Allegro) and harks back to the well-tailored “society works” of J.C. Bach. Its most unusual feature, perhaps, is the fact that all three of its movements end quietly. For all its delights, the B flat Concerto is outclassed at every level by the F major Concerto,

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K.459 – the last in the great series of six which Mozart produced in 1784. By this time, he had raised the art of instrumental tone painting and dramatic interplay to hitherto undreamed-of heights. Another feature, perfectly exemplified here, is an extraordinary translucency of texture. No matter what the prevailing character at any given moment, the details, whether of color, rhythm, melody or harmony, remain clearly in focus, yet there is nothing whatever clinical about it. Like its elder sibling (only just), the G major Concerto, K.453, the mood of the work as a whole is elusive. But while there are certainly moments of unease, one can safely describe its character in general as overwhelmingly benign – and the vitality, wit and conversation of the finale are irresistible. The difference of character between the F major Concerto and its successor is enormous. If the mood of the F major is ambiguous, that of the D minor Concerto, K.466, is anything but. Never in the history of the genre had there been anything like this. Dark, brooding, turbulent, intense – no words can adequately describe its mysterious, swirling opening. Nor does it begin to sound like a theme. Hardly even a mood. Just an atmosphere. And then, as from a thick fog, a theme emerges. But what a restless, fearful start. If the essential engine of sonata form is the alternation of stability and flux, what kind of stability is this? Almost everything about this Concerto disturbed the bulk of Mozart’s Viennese audience. Their appetite was for entertainment, albeit of a very high class. They did not go to concerts to get all shook up. It wasn’t until the 19th century that this Concerto achieved true popularity. Foremost among its admirers was Beethoven, who wrote the cadenzas for the first and last movements, which are still played by most pianists. It would be simplistic to say that in this work Mozart set the agenda for the Romantic Age, but he did anticipate its spirit. Mozart’s first entirely original concerto, No.5 in D, K.175, was written in 1773, when he was 17. Already, it left even the best of his contemporaries in the shade. Many of its first listeners, however, were startled by the sheer sophistication of the style, culminating in a finale full of masterful counterpoint which made what were then regarded as exceptional “intellectual” demands of the audience. (A finale which demanded concentration was one innovation too many!) Today, one can only wonder what the fuss was about. Still, Mozart took it to heart and later replaced it with a charming but undemanding rondo. Time passed, audiences grew more sophisticated and eventually the original finale returned to its rightful place, the interim rondo going on to become a popular work in its own right. The next two piano concertos are neither major works nor particularly significant, except

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that they show Mozart drawing back to safer ground, but are entirely enjoyable nevertheless. The chief item of interest in the C major Concerto, K.246, written for the Countess Lützow, is the first appearance of an idea to which Mozart returned in two later concertos. The first solo subject was to be reborn, each time subtly altered, in K.415 and K.503, both of them also in C major. The G major Concerto, K.453, again composed for a soloist other than himself (his pupil Barbara Ployer), is almost too good to be true. Seldom if ever has a work so overflowed with inspired, enchanting themes, such myriad touches of miraculous orchestral tone painting, such sparkling, and sometimes profound, conversation between soloist and orchestra, such breathtaking craftsmanship. Among its characteristically Mozartian properties is that it seems to rise above the mere play of moods, to a new plateau of ideal beauty. And with this Concerto, more than any before it, the role of the wind instruments becomes a major feature of the drama being played out – both as mediators between the piano and strings and as commentators on the proceedings as a whole. No one has ever surpassed Mozart in creating a debate in which everyone speaks at once and yet all make perfect sense, both collectively and individually. This reached truly miraculous proportions in The Marriage of Figaro, which followed not long after this Concerto. Indeed one might well say that Mozart’s concertos are really undercover operas, lacking only the words. Mozart’s last concerto for the piano, the B flat, K.595, has taken on certain valedictory associations almost certainly nurtured by the wisdom of hindsight. It seems unlikely, however, that the thirty-four-year-old Mozart saw it as his farewell to the medium, though he had but nine months left to live. In its extreme simplicity of utterance, its transcendence of the storms and stresses of earthly life and its breathtaking economy of means, it brings us to the end of one chapter and to what the composer had every reason to believe was the beginning of another. That he was mistaken is our tragedy as much as his.

Jeremy Siepmann

Mozart on Tour – Concerts (Episodes)

Lighting Cameraman: Peter Klingenberg (1,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13), Gerd Rosenbaum (2,3), Günter Handwerker (12)Camera: Jochen Flis (1,), Harry Haener (2,3), Rainer Hefele (4,5), Dieter Kerner (1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13), Irene Lauterbach (1,7,8,9,10,11,13), Wolfgang Lehr (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13), Franz Müller-Lüdenscheidt (12), Michael Petersen (12), Maria Müller (1,7,9,13), Giorgio Marioni (2,3), Nicola Viglezio (2,3), Arnold Reidelhuber (1,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13), Peter Stein (4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13), Georg Steinweh (12)Lighting: Karsten Gierss (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,11,12,13)Audio Producer: Wilhelm Hellweg (1,6,8,10,11,12), Kees de Visser (1,7,9,13), Friedrich Schumacher (2,3), Uli Kraus (4,5)Vision Mixer: Frederikke Mench (1,4,5,6,7,9,13), Cristina Hefti (2,3,8,10,11,12)Vision Control: Goran Gavran (1,2,3,6,7,9,13), Marinus de Ruyter (12)Technical Producer: Achim Jendges (1,2,3,4,5,6,8,10,11), Hans Bloomgaard (12)Unit Manager: Birgit Schmid (1,2,3,4,5,6,11), Matthias Börner (7,9,13), Boris Keidies (8,10), Barbara Josek (12)Assistant Director: Marie-Danielle Timpanaro (1,2,3,7,9,11,12,13), Sanda Chiriacescu (4,5,6), Elisabeth Malzer (7,8,9,10,12,13)Directed by János Darvas

Mozart on Tour – DocumentariesMozart Letters: Michael KitchenDirectors of Photography: Chris O‘Dell, Thomas WeberCamera Assistants: Simon Sharkey, Dean ThompsonLighting: Ladislav LinhardSound Engineers: Ivan Hajek, Paul VigarsSound Mix: Martin GöringRostrum Camera: lvor RichardsonProps: Petr DivisGrip: Markus PlutaEditing: Ann-Malen Witt, Heinz Hommel, lan PichConsultants: Wilhelm Keitel, Dr. Stanley SadieProduction Managers: Hans-Peter Birke, Brigitte Hellthaler, Michael StrickerUnit Managers: Andrea Kurschuß, Günter Klebingat, Stefan DiepenbrockProduction Assistant: Jackie UnsworthScript: Gabriele Faust, Donald Arthur, Robin Lough, André PrevinAssistant Directors: Christian Hannoschöck, Elvira Bolz, Eileen MorganDirected by Robin Lough

Produced by Bernd Hellthaler, documentaries directed by Robin Lough, concertos directed by János Darvas.A co-production of EuroArts Music and brilliant media/Videal in co-production with SWR, SDR, WDR, CST, KCET, MTV, TSI and Philips Classics Baarn. © 1991 EuroArts Music. Artwork & Editorial © 2014 EuroArts Music.

Executive Producer Blu-ray Disc: Hanno Plate-AndreiniProduction & Editorial Management: Alexandra Stolle, Tobias BönschBlu-ray Disc Authoring: Digital Images, Halle · Design: Barbara Huber, Wuppertal

Artwork & Editorial © 2014 EuroArts Music International.www.euroarts.com

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