Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791 )
Piano Variations Vol. 1
Sechs Variationen in F. K. 54 (547b)
(Six Variations in F)
Acht Variationen in G über das holländische Lied
"Laat ons juichen, Batavieren!" von Christian Ernst
Graaf, K. 24
(Eight Variations in G on the Dutch Song
"Laat ons juichen, Batavieren!" by Christian Ernst
Graaf)
Sieben Variationen in D über das holländischen Lied
"Willem van Nassau", K. 25
(Seven Variations in D on the Dutch Song "Willem van
Nassau")
Sechs Variationen in G über "Mio caro Adone" aus
dem Finale (II. Akt)
der Oper "La fiera di Venezia" (Antonio Salieri), K.
180 (173c)
(Six Variations in G on "Mio caro Adone" from the
Finale (Act II) of the Opera "La fiera di Venezia" by Antonio Salieri)
Zwölf Variationen in C über ein Menuett von Johann
Christian Fischer, K.179 (189a)
(Twelve Variations in C on a Minuet by Johann Christian
Fischer)
Zwölf Variationen in Es über die Romanze "Je
suis Lindor"
aus der Komödie "Le barbier de Séville"
(Antoine-Laurent Baudron), K. 354 (299a)
(Twelve Variations in E Flat on the Romance "Je suis
Lindor" from the Comedy "Le barbier de Séville" by Antoine-Laurent
Baudron)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756, the
youngest and second surviving child of Leopold Mozart, author of a well known treatise on
violin-playing and a musician in the service of the ruling Archbishop. Leopold Mozart was
to sacrifice his own career in order to foster the God-given genius he soon perceived in
his son. A childhood spent in successful tours throughout Europe, in which the young
Mozart demonstrated his skill on the violin, and on the keyboard in improvisation and in
performance with his sister Nannerl. There were later visits to Italy and commissioned
operas, but adolescence principally at home in Salzburg proved less satisfactory. Mozart's
talent was none the less, but there seemed little opportunity at home, particularly after
the death of the old Archbishop and the succession of a less indulgent patron. In 1777
Mozart and his father, now Vice-Kapellmeister, were refused leave to travel, and Mozart
himself resigned his position as Konzertmeister of the court orchestra and set out,
accompanied only by his mother, to seek his fortune elsewhere. The journey took him to
Augsburg, to Munich and eventually to Paris, but only after a prolonged stay in Mannheim,
the seat of the Elector Palatine, famous for its musical establishment.
In Mannheim Mozart made many friends among the musicians at
court, but neither here nor in any of the other places he visited was there a suitable
position for him. The following year, after the death of his mother in Paris, he made his
way slowly back to Salzburg, where his father had found him another position at court that
he retained until 1781, when he found final precarious independence in Vienna, after a
quarrel with the Archbishop during the course of a visit to the imperial capital. The
following year he married the penniless younger sister of a singer on whom he had first
set his heart in Mannheim and won initial success with his German opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail. There were pupils
and subscription concerts, and chances to arouse the admiration of fashionable audiences
by his skill as composer and keyboard-player in a new series of piano concertos. By the
end of the decade, however, his popularity had waned, although there were signs of a
change of fortune in the success of a new German opera, Die
Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), which was still running at the time of his
sudden death in December 1791.
Variations on a given theme had long been among the most
popular forms of music and the surviving cycles of keyboard variations by Mozart remained
among the most frequently played of his compositions in the century that followed his
death. These sets of variations followed the current general practice of varying the
melody over harmonies that remained largely the same. The earliest surviving composition
of this type by Mozart was written when he was ten, the last in the year of his death, and
throughout his life there were opportunities for improvised variations, a necessary
element in the career of a performer and composer.
The F
major Theme and Variations, K. 54, a work written relatively late in Mozart's
life, a year after the death of Leopold Mozart in Salzburg, must have been composed after
10th July 1788, the date of Mozart's F major
Violin Sonata, K. 547, where the theme is used for a set of identical
variations, with a violin accompaniment that seems generally optional. The fourth
variation of the set for piano is generally regarded as spurious. The cycle includes a
penultimate version in the tonic minor key and a final variation in rapid demisemiquavers.
25 years earlier, in June 1763, the
Mozart family had set out from Salzburg on an extended tour of Europe, visiting first the
principal cities of South Germany and the Rhineland, then Brussels, Paris and finally
London, where they remained for eighteen months. This was followed by a stay during the
winter of 1765-66 in Holland. With a letter to his Salzburg landlord and banker Lorenz
Hagenauer Leopold Mozart enclosed some of his son's compositions, one of them a set of
keyboard variations written on a theme for the celebration of the majority and
installation of the Prince of Orange at The Hague on 8th March and a second set written
hurriedly on the old Dutch anthem William of Nassau, a melody that everyone in Holland,
according to Leopold Mozart, was singing, playing and whistling. In a later reproachful
letter to his errant son in 1778 he reminded him of the time when he would sing to his
father at bed-time the nonsense words "Oragna fiagata fa marina gamina fa" to
this tune. In 1766, however, the father could only be proud of the boy's achievement,
evidence of which he asks Hagenauer to offer to the Archbishop of Salzburg. The first set
of variations is based on a song written by the Kapellmeister to Prince William of Orange,
Christian Ernst Graaf, in celebration of the majority and installation of the Prince. The
theme is followed by a simple melodic variation, a second version with elements of
syncopation, a third in triplet rhythm and a fourth in shorter note values. The fifth
variation uses dotted rhythms, the sixth syncopation and the seventh the elaboration
suitable for an Adagio. The last variation presents the theme over an Alberti bass. The
William of Nassau variations open with the theme followed by a variation embellished with
passing notes, a second in syncopation, a third in semiquavers, a fourth in dotted rhythm
and a fifth an ornamented Adagio. The sixth variation divides the labour between
the two hands and the seventh presents the melody over a semiquaver bass.
The first years of the new decade brought journeys to Italy,
honours and commissions, but no prospect of suitable employment away from Salzburg. In the
summer of 1773 Leopold Mozart and his son took advantage of the absence of the new
Archbishop from Salzburg to travel to Vienna, in the hope of attracting interest at court.
There Mozart wrote a set of string quartets and in the autumn, before their return home, a
set of variations on "Mio caro Adone" (My dear Adonis) from the Finale of the
opera La fieradi Venezia (The Proud Woman of Venice)
by the court opera composer Antonio Salieri, a work that had been staged first in Vienna
in January 1772. It enjoyed considerable success throughout Europe and was staged some
thirty times during Salieri's life-time. Leopold Mozart saw the piece in Salzburg in 1785,
but found nothing good in it, describing it as "erzdumme welsche Kinderey"
(stupid foreign childishness). The Minuet theme, marked Andante, is followed by a quaver
variation, a second in triplets and a third in semiquavers. The fourth has chromatic
decoration, followed by a fifth Adagio and a final Allegretto.
The Twelve Variations on a
Minuet by Johann Christian Fischer, German oboist and composer and a son-in-law
of Gainsborough in London, acquainted with the Mozarts from their stay in The Hague in
1765, were written by December 1774, presumably in Salzburg. The theme itself, described
as Menuet de Mr. Fischer a Rondeau, was
taken from Fischer's Favourite Concerto for the Hoboy
or German Flute, published in London in 1768 and was possibly known to Mozart
through a keyboard arrangement by Fischer's friend and colleague in London, Johann
Christian Bach. The theme is simply embellished in the first variation, with a second
allowing some imitation between right and left hands. A third variation in triplets, a
fourth in semiquavers and a fifth with arpeggiated chords over a triplet rhythm bass are
followed by a sixth over an Alberti bass. An arpeggio opening extends the range of the
seventh variation, followed by a syncopated eighth, a ninth with hand-crossing and a tenth
in octaves lead to an Adagio and a concluding Allegro.
In 1778 Mozart was in Paris,
determined to show the French that he was not just a stupid German, while similarly
intolerant himself of the French. His variations on "Jesuis Lindor" made use of
a theme by the composer and violinist Antoine Laurent Baudron, leader and director of the
orchestra of the Comédie-Française and composer and arranger of stage music,
including collaboration with Beaumarchais in music for Le
barbier de Séville (The Barber of Seville) and later for Le mariage de Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro).
"Je suis Lindor" (I am Lindor) is the second couplet of the Count's song, in
which he declares in a serenade to his beloved Rosina his assumed identity. The theme is
followed by a semiquaver first variation, a second over a running bass and a third with an
ornamented upper part. There is hand-crossing in the fourth variation, octave treatment of
the theme in the fifth, an octave bass in the sixth and a seventh with opening arpeggiated
chords. The eighth variation is fuller in texture, followed by a slower E flat minor
version of the melody and a tenth and eleventh that make use of octave demisemiquavers in
the upper and lower registers respectively. The elaborately embellished twelfth variation
is marked Molto adagio e cantabile and leads to the re-appearance of the original theme.
Francesco Nicolosi
Francesco Nicolosi was born in Catania
in 1954 and studied first at the Liceo Musicale Vincenzo Bellini in his native city,
taking lessons from Giovanna Ferro and later from Vincenzo Vitale in Naples, where he now
lives. A prize-winner in 1980 at the Santander International Competition and, in the same
month, in Geneva, where his performance of Mozart's D
minor Piano Concerto won the praise of Clara Haskil, he has since secured a
reputation as one of the most interesting young pianists of his generation. He has
performed in the concert hall with leading orchestras and in chamber music has partnered
the distinguished Korean cellist Myung Wha Chung. His first compact disc recording, in
1984, was devoted to transcriptions of Bellini by Liszt and Thalberg. In 1988 he gave the
first performance in Italy of Thalberg's F minor Piano
Concerto. For Marco Polo he has recorded the complete Italian operatic
paraphrases of Thalberg, on four compact discs.