The Conductor part three
One of the great challenges facing conductors who agree with my approach is treading the very dangerous path between translating music into today’s audience’s hearing and listening experiences and being true to what the composer wrote as well as what he intended. Now that is a terrible sentence with which to begin any page, but since I am unable to simplify it I will try to amplify it.
Returning to the example suggested in the previous page let’s look at Mozart’s Symphony 39. If we are really tuned in to what the audience who first heard it experienced there are several obvious things to be aware of. First it begins with a slow introduction, which is not all that rare, but if you think about 40 and 41 which are to come they are not only his last symphonies they also both begin with the allegro and do not have the older tradition of a slow introduction. The next thing that will slap the original audience in the face is that the first movement is in 3/4 which is most unusual at the time. The audience would certainly sit up and take note of this innovation. By the time they got to the slow movement, the 2nd movement, they will have realized two very shocking things. First there are no oboes in the orchestra. This is very much a rarity for a classical symphony of Mozart, Haydn or Beethoven. The next really big wig-moving shock will be the awareness that instead of oboes there are two clarinets. Remember the clarinet was a very new instrument at the time and very rarely would have been heard by the audience. We know by examining Mozart’s output that he fell in love with the clarinet and wrote some of his most beautiful music for this instrument. But back to the 2nd movement. The melting writing for the clarinet duo in returning to the main theme toward the end of the movement truly melts any soul who listens to it. Imagine, if you will, the effect of this incredibly gorgeous and moving moment had on the audience who first heard it. By the time we get to the end of the 2nd movement we are totally won over to the novelty and shock of the new ideas that Mozart has incorporated. The minuet and the final movement follow much more the expected path except for the fact of the presence of clarinets and absence of oboes.
Now another facet of the unusual is that the key of the symphony is Eb major. This is not a key that Mozart often used. There are notable exceptions to this statement, but when examined it can always be discovered that Eb was a very special key to Mozart and used only sparingly when he had a particular thing to express. I don’t pretend to know what that this might be, but if you look at as many works as you can find of Mozart’s in Eb you begin to get a feeling for his feeling for this particular key. The one exception that I can think of is Donna Elvira’s aria in Don Giovanni, ’mi tradi’, which interestingly in most editions also appears in D major as a choice for the Donna Elvira and/or the conductor. I have as yet been unable to put this in the same barrel as the other Eb pieces, but someone will surely inform me one day. The only thing I can come up with is that it is such an extraordinary aria for an extraordinary character and exceptionally difficult to sing so he decided that with all this he might as well add the flavor of an unusual key such as Eb major.
So, back to my basic point about conducting this fantastic repertoire. How in the world do I as a conductor in the 21st century help the audience to have the incredible experience while listening to this work that in any way relates to what the original audience would have felt. It certainly cannot be done by imitating the performance practice of the time. It cannot be done with program notes. It cannot be done with 19th, 20th or 21th century rubato and interpretive freedoms. It cannot be done by a pre concert talk either in the foyer or from the stage.
So, how do we go about making sure that Mozart is properly represented and realized for the audience we have now?
I will give you some of my thoughts and actions in this area on the next page which I will write when I recover from having written this one.
