Amazingly, there are only two weeks left till Joana and Martin give us Strauss (Sonata in G Major), Mozart (sonato No 27 in G major), Lili Boulanger (Nocture and Cortège) and Luise Adolpha le Beau (Romance) in the chapel.
Book tickets for the 27th in the Highgate School Chapel.
Mozart’s Sonata no 27 was written in 1781 when he was 25 and is one of the last works he composed while he was in the service of the Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo of Salzburg. The sonata was composed for a concert on April 8th and, although you would not know it, was composed at some speed.
“Today” he wrote to his father Leopold, “(for I am writing at eleven o’clock at night) we had a concert where three of my compositions were performed — new ones, of course; a rondo for a concerto for Brunetti [Antonio Brunetti, the Archbishop’s concertmaster], a sonata with violin accompaniment for myself [sonata no 27], which I composed last night between eleven and twelve (but in order to be able to finish it, I only wrote out the accompaniment for Brunetti and retained my own part in my head): and then a rondo for Ceccarelli [the castrato Francesco Ceccarelli, also in the service of the Archbishop], which he had to repeat.”
Brian Robbins, to whom I am grateful for the above quote, goes on to comment:
‘This passage casts interesting light on the status of the violin and piano duo sonata in Mozart’s time, making it clear that the violin part was still looked upon as essentially an accompaniment to the keyboard part. Despite this clear suggestion of the dominance of the keyboard part, Mozart’s sonatas were in reality increasingly working toward a greater degree of equality between the two instruments.’
I am not sure whether Joana and Martin would agree about that. We look forward to seeing you in the chapel to find out.
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