program - SVIZ

In his concertos, Mozart in a way reworked everything that he had learned
from Italian and French music for the violin, as well as from Czech violin music.
Each of the violin concertos has its own individual features, but from one concerto
to the next we can trace a clear formal-technical and musical-content
development. From the initial models of Vivaldi only the three-movement
form remains by the time of the last three concertos, in which influences of
the aria and sonata form are already evident.
Along with the Fifth Violin Concerto it was Violin Concerto No. 4 that met with
the best response; both works are technically demanding for the performer,
but at the same time very rewarding. The first movement of Violin Concerto
No. 4 is thematically rich and clearly structured. The Andante Cantabile
is full of lyrical emotion and inspiration. The concerto’s concluding rondo
has a folk character following the French model, as the title suggests, and
is distinguished by elegant themes and dance episodes. In the concerto we
also find resonances of Luigi Boccherini’s Violin Concerto from 1768, which
was also written in the key of D Major, as well as having a similar structural
plan and even being akin to Mozart’s concerto in terms of thematic material.
However, Mozart breathed a graciousness and brilliance into his work such
as was unknown to his predecessor.
After the death of England’s Queen Anne in 1740, George Frederic Handel
was left without a patron and England without a sovereign. As there was
no direct heir to the throne, the Saxon Duke George, Prince-elector of Hanover,
a former employer of Handel, became King George I. On his arrival
from Germany the new King avoided public appearances because he did
not want to speak English, and was thus soon regarded by his subjects as
somewhat limited. With typically English humour they labelled King George
as “a kind-hearted man, who in the whole world only hates three people: his
mother, his wife and his son”. Seeking to calm his subjects the King decided
to organise a concert spectacle.
The Prussian emissary in London, Friedrich Bonet, communicated the King’s
wishes for “a concert on the river [The Thames] similar to a masque [a characteristic
English musical genre combining poetry, vocal and instrumental
music, and theatre and dance]”. On 17 July at 8 o’clock in the morning the King
boarded his barge accompanied by some noblemen; his vessel was followed
by another barge carrying 50 instrumentalists. As the emissary continues,
the music was “composed especially for the occasion by the famous Handel,
born in Halle, the most important court composer of His Royal Highness. The
music so pleased His Highness that he ordered the entire work to be repeated
three times, irrespective of the fact that each performance lasted one hour”.
The King’s barge was accompanied by countless boats full of people who had
come to listen to the unusual concert, and the King himself dined on the river
with this enormous entourage. The Prince and the King’s wife, however, did
not attend the festivities.
The Water Music (published by Walsh in 1734 with the title The Celebrated
Water Music) is a collection of 20 movements that were performed on vari-
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