Saturday, May 14, 2011; 8:00 pm
Wortham Center, Cullen Theater

Mozart and Mendelssohn:  The Final Frontier

For many music lovers, early music ends at 1750. As the designated finale of the Baroque period, the year of J.S. Bach’s death has traditionally cordoned off early music groups from modern ones.  Performance practice, the use of instruments and stylistic practices from the composer’s era, is now accepted as the default performance standard for earlier eras, however major orchestras around the world have long claimed the genius of late 18th-century composers as their hallowed ground. Because of this claim, it takes a courageous early music ensemble to explore composers like Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. But now, intelligent audiences are curious about what Mozart, et al, heard when their music was performed.

Enter, Mercury Baroque, going where few Houston ensembles have gone before.  The space of the great masters – the final frontier. Mercury’s music has been into outer space, but in many ways the space that follows 1750 is much more dangerous. Re-envisioning the music of composers whose works have already been widely recorded presents a daunting challenge. Mercury bravely steps into the rarely charted second half of the 18th century at sunset.
Serenades of this era were light entertainments performed outdoors at night. They typically began with marches because the musicians often walked to the performance space. Using a smaller period ensemble for Mozart’s Serenata notturna, with its three spirited movements, Mercury’s performance reflects a more accurate replica of serenade tradition.

The Requiem, on the other hand, embodies a tradition of mystery. Mozart, constantly in debt, was commissioned to write a funeral mass.  A major part of the contract was the continued anonymity of both patron and terms. Since the commission meant financial survival for Mozart’s wife Costanze and their two young sons, she refused to take any chance that the deposit might have to be returned when her husband was unable to complete the task. Mozart had died after completing the Requiem aeternum, the Kyrie, and most of the Dies irae. He had also composed the vocal parts and bass lines, then sketched out instrumentation for all but the last three remaining movements.

Who composed what parts of this requiem when has remained a mystery for some time. This piece was, to use Balzac’s words, a “perfect maze of intrigue”!  Costanze farmed out the incomplete sections to her husband’s best students, including Franz Süssmayr who was able to write in Mozart’s hand.  She passed on the results to patron Count Walsegg as her husband’s work.  Secretly, she held back two copies of the requiem and sold them – one to the King of Prussia and one to a publishing company.  This embarrassed the Count, who had already given the work to his wife as his own creation. Amazingly, in the 1960s, researchers uncovered a fugal Amen that Mozart apparently intended for this requiem. Performance practice studies guided scholar/performer Robert D. Levin in constructing a completed version of the entire requiem.

The only intrigue associated with Mendelssohn’s sinfonia was how a 12-year-old could write so well. That was the age at which this wunderkind became so inspired that he completed six string sinfonias in one year!  Mendelssohn’s study of Bach and Mozart shines in the formal clarity and operatic drama apparent in this sinfonia. When combined with the transparency created by authentic performance practices, we are returned full circle to our launching ground.  The adventure continues.

Dr. Yvonne Kendall

Tickets: $20-$55
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Purchase by phone: 713-533-0080 (regular business hours).

This Concert Has Been Generously Supported By:
The Houston Saengerbund
Baker Botts, L.L.P.
The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts

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