While they were not close friends, Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) had a fine, collegial relationship which was characterized by a high degree of mutual respect.  Haydn said of Mozart, “If only I could impress Mozart's inimitable works on the soul of every friend of music...with the same musical understanding and with the same deep feeling as I understand and feel them, the nations would vie with each other to possess such a jewel."  Mozart was equally effusive in his praise of Haydn’s work, and always addressed the older man with the affectionate and respectful sobriquet “Papa.”

Since the dawn of time (or the dawn of music, anyway), musicians have had a sometimes contentious relationship with authority figures.  One thinks of Fritz Reiner, a conductor who used rather minute and distinctly minimal baton work to lead his orchestra.  When a bass player produced a telescope at a rehearsal and explained that he was “just trying to find the beat,” Reiner fired him on the spot.  And then there’s the story of Chuck Berry, who actually sacked an entire band onstage during a gig (“I told you, no ad-libbing!”) and finished the engagement by himself.

In the case of Haydn’s Symphony No. 45, a work which has come to be known as the Farewell symphony, the musician’s beef was actually not so much with the conductor (Haydn), but with his (and their) employer, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy.  In 1772, the prince had decided to extend the court’s stay in its summer home of Esterhaza, much to the consternation of the musicians, who had left their families back home in Eisenstadt. 

As a none-too-subtle hint to the prince that it might be time to return home, Haydn arranged the final movement of the Farewell symphony so that the number of players was steadily reduced, instructing the musicians to extinguish the candles on their music stands and leave the stage once their part in the score was complete.  By the end of the movement, only two violinists (Haydn and the concertmaster) were left onstage, brining the symphony to a decidedly subdued close.  The prince got the message, and the court packed up and headed back to Eisenstadt shortly thereafter.

So what exactly is a sinfonia concertante?  In this case, the name pretty much says it all – it is a hybrid of two different musical forms, the symphony and the concerto.  In the case of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364, the featured instruments are the violin and the viola.
During a period spanning the years 1777-1779, Mozart embarked upon a tour of Europe, bringing his music to the continent and, at the same time, soaking up a number of crucial influences in the process.  His time spent in Mannheim was particularly significant.  The so-called “Mannheim School” was built around the court of the Elector Charles III Philip, which moved from Heidelberg to Mannheim in 1720.  Following the relocation, the size of the court orchestra grew to be one of the largest in Europe, attracting virtuoso musicians of the day and leading composers, including Johann Stamitz, Franz Xaver Richter, Carl Stamitz, and Christian Cannabich.

The Mannheim composers - along with the superlative orchestra at their disposal - introduced a number of significant innovations to the musical landscape of the period, including the “Mannheim Roller,” a crescendo featuring an ascending melody over a repeating bass line.  This term was, a couple of hundred years later, to be combined with the parlance of heavy machinery to provide the name for the new-age group Mannheim Steamroller.  But we digress... 

The shadow cast by the Mannheim School was vast, influencing not only Mozart, but Haydn and Beethoven, among many others.  In the case of Mozart, he took the idea of a symphony - slash -concerto for multiple instruments back to Salzburg and composed his Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola. 

It is believed that Mozart himself played the viola part when the work premiered in 1779, as the viola was his preferred instrument at the time.  In fact, Mozart and Haydn reportedly once performed in a string quartet together at a social gathering, with Haydn playing the first violin part and Mozart the viola, along with fellow composers Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Johan Baptist Vanhal playing the second violin and cello parts, respectively.

And just in case you might wonder, as the Mercury musicians make their exits at the conclusion of the Farewell symphony, yes, they – like the players in Haydn’s band – will get a much-deserved break after this concert.  But they will be back next month for A French Valentine.

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