Welcome to Music for Life, enhancing the Armstrong concert experience. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. In today's episode, we will explore a symphony by Haydn and one by Mozart in the lead-up to their performance at Armstrong Auditorium. On Tuesday, March 24th, the legendary conductor Gerard Schwartz returns to Armstrong to lead the Mozart Orchestra of New York in a variety of Baroque and Classical-era works. Among them is Franz Josef Haydn's Symphony No. 22, nicknamed The Philosopher, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 33 in B-flat major.
We'll talk about some of the genius and unusual elements in both these works today on Music for Life. On Tuesday, March 24th, Armstrong Auditorium is pleased to feature cellist Julian Schwartz. He will be performing in two concerti, those are works for solo instrument and orchestra, alongside the Mozart Orchestra of New York with his father, the world-renowned Gerard Schwartz, conducting. Julian will play Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1 in C. He will also team up with our own Seth Malone for the Concerto for Two Cellos by Antonio Vivaldi.
More on these two concerti in our next episode. Today, we'll talk about the two works the orchestra will do on its own. Mozart's Symphony No. 33 in Bb, Kirchhoff 319, which will end the program, and Haydn's Symphony No. 22 in Eb, which will begin the program.
Before we get into that, I wanted to read a lovely email I received all the way from the other side of the globe. Mabuhai from the Philippines, it says, I am an avid listener of your Music for Life program and never miss an episode. I want to express my thanks and support to your program. Thank you for sharing the upcoming musical programs of the Armstrong Auditorium. I not only get to know and understand the music, but the musicians as well. Your program is very well presented and helps expand my knowledge and appreciation about music. Thank you for your effort and hard work. So I really appreciate that being sent in. So let's get into our discussion of these two symphonies today, starting with Haydn.
Franz Josef Haydn wrote 108 symphonies, in fact. He wrote his 22nd symphony in 1764 while working for the prominent Esterhazy estate. We discussed Haydn's employment with the Esterhasis in our first season of Music for Life. In short, he owed his prolific output to this employment, a post which began in 1761. He started merely as the assistant music director, but since the music director was elderly and in poor health, Haydn was responsible for all the conducting and rehearsing. He composed most of the music required and served as chief of the music personnel, supervising even the musicians' salaries, wardrobes, and even...
their moral behavior. Haydn took over the top musical post when the music director died five years after Haydn started working there, at which time the succeeding prince of the Esterhazy court was now Nikolaus I. Under Prince Nikolaus, Haydn became the highest paid official apart from the property manager and the prince's personal physician. Other perks of Haydn's job that yielded some great musical results, he had command of an excellent group of singers and players, and he enjoyed economic security at a time when artists typically didn't. What's more, the prince encouraged Haydn to compose in the latest style. Later in life, he was even allowed enough freedom to live in Vienna and to travel across Europe.
In the words of Haydn himself, my prince was content with all my efforts and gave me his approval. As leader of the orchestra, I could experiment, take note of what made an impression and what lessened it, and so could improve by adding, trimming, and taking risks. I was isolated from the rest of the world. There was no one nearby to bother me or distract me from my chosen path, and so I was obliged to become original. Haydn's 22nd Symphony would have been written when he was still in the assistant music director position. One of the distinguishing features of this particular symphony is the use of the corps anglais, or the English horn, one of the fewer works of the era to include this instrument. If you recall, the English horn looks like and sounds a lot like an oboe, but it's bigger, and so it's slightly lower. So think an alto oboe, perhaps. Haydn's 22nd Symphony also contrasts from many symphonies of the day by starting with a slow movement.
British conductor Sir Mark Elder deems it one of the five symphonies that changed music for its revolutionary nature ahead of its time. Though Haydn did not originally nickname the symphony in his original manuscript, the symphony was later nicknamed the Philosopher on a manuscript copy dated to a time when Haydn was still alive. The name most likely refers to the opening statements of the symphony using counterpoint to depict a question-answer conversation common to the Philosopher. So as we listen to the first movement, the slow movement, listen for the conversation between the horns and the English horns, the horns referring to French horns, a brass instrument, and the English horns referring to the medium-low, oboe-like... Let's go ahead and start this movement, and I'll continue to describe things throughout as it plays. We will be hearing this recording of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Mariner. Now the violins break away from the accompaniment figure and play this melody.
Now that whole first section, or exposition, gets repeated. Now in this next section, the violins take a turn at playing the opening horn theme. Then the English horns state the French horn motive. Now we have a recapitulation, where the horns state their theme as at the beginning, and the English horns reply. Now we have this lovely descending response from the violins. We hear the violins on this melody one more time before the movement closes.
That was the first movement of Franz Josef Haydn's Symphony No. 22, nicknamed The Philosopher. We're exploring this symphony as we listen to a recording of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Mariner. This symphony will open the program of the Mozart Orchestra of New York when it comes to Armstrong Auditorium Tuesday, March 24th, under the baton of the legendary Gerard Schwartz. The first movement of this symphony is slow, which is unusual for symphonies of this period. Instead, Haydn makes the second movement quick. It's marked presto, meaning very quick. The strings take their mutes off and play this bright and cheery movement.
That was the sprightly second movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 22 in Eb. In this symphony, the first movement is slow and the second movement is fast. The third movement, however, is exactly as expected. In a four-movement symphony, the third movement at this time was based on the meter, tempo, and structure of the aristocratic dance known as the minuet. These were written in two major sections, the first section called the minuet, and the second section called the trio, and then the music indicated that the performers were to go back and repeat the minuet section. So all in all, it's a ternary form, the minuet section, the trio section, then the minuet section. Within each of these larger sections were two smaller sections, each of which got repeated, and as we listen, I'll talk you through it by using the term minuet A and minuet B, or trio A and trio B.
It starts with, of course, Minuet A.
We're listening to Haydn's Symphony No. 22, a recording of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Mariner. This symphony will be performed by the Mozart Orchestra of New York under Gerard Schwartz when they come to Armstrong Auditorium Tuesday, March 24th. We just heard the third movement of that symphony, the standard place for a minuet movement. The fourth and final movement is, as we would expect, a fast movement, marked like the second movement as Presto. As in the first movement, you'll hear some call and response between the sections at times, the French horn stating something, the English horns replying, then the strings replying. But mostly the main material is carried by the violins. Enjoy this short finale to Franz Josef Haydn's 22nd Symphony.
in E-flat. You are listening to Music for Life. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. This is KPCG.
In today's episode, we are exploring a symphony by Haydn and one by Mozart in the lead-up to their performance at Armstrong Auditorium. On Tuesday, March 24th, the Mozart Orchestra of New York returns to the Armstrong stage under the illustrious conductor Gerard Schwartz, performing a variety of Baroque and classical-era works. Two of these works will feature his son Julian Schwartz as cello soloist. However, to bookend the program, the orchestra will play Franz Josef Haydn's Symphony No. 22, nicknamed The Philosopher, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 33 in B-flat major. We just heard the fourth and final movement of the Haydn Symphony. We were listening to Sir Neville Mariner conduct the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
work will open the concert at Armstrong. To conclude the Mozart Orchestra of New York's program, they will perform the Symphony No. 33 in B-flat, Kirkel 319, by W.A. Mozart. Let's explore this delightful work now. Mozart's 31st Symphony was written for Parisians and is nicknamed the Paris Symphony.
His 32nd symphony is notably like an Italian overture in the first movement. But for this 33rd symphony, Mozart returned to his more classic Austro-Germanic style of composition. Though he only wrote three movements for it originally, a fast movement, a slow movement, and a fast movement, he added another movement a year later. What he added was the standard dance movement or minuet movement. So that became the third movement, as we would expect, and the final movement now moved to the fourth movement position. This catered to the Viennese audience, which was accustomed to four-movement symphonies. Though it's not one of the more well-known symphonies, there is a melodic idea in this piece that Mozart reuses in his final symphony, this motive from the...
development section of the 33rd Symphony became the main theme in the final movement of Symphony No. 41. So let's explore this first movement. It's marked very fast, Allegro Acai. You may recall from previous discussions about first movements that this would typically be in a Sonata Allegro form, which it is. What Sonata Allegro form refers to is a contrast of two different themes. The A theme is presented in the tonic key, in this case Bb. It goes like this. Then Mozart modulates to the dominant key, in this case F major, to present a B theme, which goes like this.
The statement of these two themes comprises the exposition. Then Mozart takes motives or fragments from these themes and modulates through various major and minor keys, which is a section we call the development section. Finally, the piece arrives back in the original key of B flat major, at which point we hear the A theme restated. This restatement of the A theme and then eventually the B theme is called the recapitulation. In the recap, as we often shorten it, the B theme stays in the original tonic key or B flat major, and I can signal these sections as the music plays. So let's hear this first movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 33. We'll be hearing this from a 1965 recording of the Berlin Philharmonic under...
Herbert von Karajan. Here's the B theme of the exposition in the dominant key of F. Now we're hearing the end of the exposition and the beginning of the development section. Here comes the four-note theme that Mozart uses later in Symphony No. 41. Here's the recap. Here's the B theme in the tonic key of Bb.
That was the first movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 33, K319. We're exploring this symphony as we listen to a recording of the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Herbert von Karajan. This symphony will close the program of the Mozart Orchestra of New York when it comes to Armstrong Auditorium Tuesday, March 24, conducted by Gerard Schwartz. Moving on to the second movement, we'd expect a slow movement, and that's what we get. In an exquisite, genteel movement, it starts with this lovely A theme. This is contrasted by this melody.
After that B theme, we have a section that features a short little cannon, or round, between some of the instruments, based on this little motive. So let's hear this second movement, and I'll talk you through some of these sections. The next section starts with a cannon among the string section. Then the winds have a go at the cannon. Then we return to this B theme, to the original opening A theme.
That was the lovely second movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 33. The next movement is the typical third movement for these four-movement symphonies, as with the Haydn we explored earlier, based on the meter, tempo, and structure of the minuet. Mozart added this movement to the symphony about a year after the other three movements were already completed. Now, this follows the same format as the Haydn minuet in his symphony, with a minuet section in two parts, then a trio section in two parts, and then back to the minuet section. So I'll give the play-by-play of this in a similar way as we hear the recording.
Trio B. Repeat Trio B. Back to the minuet. Minuet B. You are listening to Music for Life. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. This is KPCG. In today's episode, we have explored a symphony by Haydn and one by Mozart in the lead-up to their performance at Armstrong Auditorium. On Tuesday, March 24th, the Mozart Orchestra of New York returns to the Armstrong stage under the legendary conductor Gerard Schwartz, performing a variety of Baroque and Classical-era works. Two of these works will feature his son Julian Schwartz as cello soloist. Those works we'll explore next week. However, to bookend the program, the orchestra will play Franz Josef Haydn's Symphony No. 22, nicknamed The Philosopher, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 33 in B-flat.
We just heard the stately third movement, the minuet movement of the Mozart Symphony. And before we hear the fourth and final movement to end today's episode, I'd like to mention that more information about this event and all events at Armstrong Auditorium can be found at armstrongauditorium.org. You can follow the auditorium or this program on social media. The handle for this program is at musicforlifepcg. Before we close, let me discuss a few things about this fourth and final movement. This movement is marked Allegro Asai, or Very Fast. It employs very quick, delicate string playing with occasional loud contrasts. This is what makes Mozart so great, is when an orchestra really plays into those dynamic contrasts. And that's the case in the recording we've been listening to, a 1965 recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. So here it is. Special thanks to Seth Malone for his research assistance in today's episode. I hope you enjoy the finale to this Mozart symphony, and I hope to see you soon at Armstrong.
You have been listening to Music for Life, a production of KPCG 101.3 on the FM dial in Edmond, Oklahoma. From the Herbert W. Armstrong College campus, I'm Ryan Malone. Thanks for joining me.