Ann Chang Plays Mozart

ANN CHANG PLAYS MOZART CLASSICAL
Nebraska- an executive role she has served
for 12 years. Dr. Chang is a Fulbright
Scholar, specializing in Classic-
Performance-Practice. She has held the
positions of Associate Professor of Practice
for over 24 years and Director of Career
Development-Music Entrepreneurship
program at the University of Nebraska
Glenn Korff School of Music. Ann was the
Founder and Director of the award-winning
Meadowlark Music Festival, and a former
TEDx and TEDwomen Speaker. Dr. Chang
is a recipient of a Doctor of Music degree
from Indiana University-Jacob School of
Music. She is a mother of three wonderful
young adults Sarah, Hannah and Peter,
and one adorable dog, Indiana Jones.
MOZART: EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK
This effervescent serenade for strings is
one of Mozart’s most popular works. Mozart
(1756-1791) wrote Eine kleine Nachtmusik in
1787, the same year as his masterful opera,
Don Giovanni, two string quartets, and the
marvelous A major Violin Sonata (K. 526).
This was also the year that Mozart’s father,
Leopold, passed away, and though Wolfgang
wrote relatively little during the following
months, these works are some of his most
profound and memorable.
Serenades originated as evening songs
for courtship, but by Mozart’s lifetime, had
evolved into multi-movement chamber
works to accompany outdoor social events.
Eine kleine Nachtmusik was undoubtedly
written for such an event, and judging by its
charming character, the event must have been
exuberant and festive.
Though the work originally comprised five
movements, the first minuet has been lost,
so the extant four-movement structure
recalls a small symphony of the time. The
first movement opens with a dazzling
fanfare and features a cheerful dialogue
between high and low strings, highlighting
the facility and intricacy of the ensemble with
broadly contrasting dynamics and graceful
ornamentations. The gentle Romanze harkens
back to the serenade’s origin as a courtship
song, with a briefly suspenseful interlude.
After a dashing minuet, which conjures
images of dancing in courtyard gardens, the
work closes with a vivacious rondo whose
melody comes from a popular Viennese song
12
of the time.
Louis Biancolli called the work “compact and
faultlessly balanced … with beautiful melodies
woven into a highly polished fabric.” Indeed, it
is easy to tell why this delightful work has
stood the test of time. Simultaneously
effortless and sophisticated, it conveys an
outpouring of joy with the fluent simplicity that
defines Mozart’s work.
STRAUSS: SERENADE FOR 13 WINDS
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) grew up in
a musical household. His father, Franz,
served for nearly 50 years as principal horn
of the Bavarian Court Opera, where he
premiered the colossal operas of Richard
Wagner’s Ring Cycle and other iconic works
of the late German Romantics. Critics and
colleagues of the time praised Franz Strauss’
virtuosity as a horn player, and one can
easily imagine his prowess considering the
brilliant and demanding horn solos Wagner
included throughout his works. Perhaps more
surprising, therefore, is that Wagner and
Franz Strauss disagreed bitterly on everything
and enjoyed a mutually cold professional
relationship. Franz disliked Wagner as a
person and disliked his music even more,
preferring the simple classical style of Mozart,
Haydn, and early Beethoven.
Throughout his life, influences of Mozart as
well as Wagner are plain in Richard Strauss’
work, which eventually developed into an
unambiguously modern style. Best known for
his program music, Strauss had a particular
ability to evoke imagery through the orchestra,
each instrument’s voice contributing to a vivid
palette of colors.
The classical influence that his father admired
shines through in Richard Strauss’ Serenade
for 13 Winds. Written at the age of seventeen,
the simplicity of this single-movement work
recalls the peaceful andantes of Mozart or
Mendelssohn, and yet a lushness and warmth
infuses it with unmistakable romanticism.
Beginning with a sweet oboe melody and
ending with a gently-rising flute gesture, it
isn’t difficult to identify this composer as the
same person who would produce the tender
expressiveness of Der Rosenkavalier or his
late Four Last Songs. The richly-woven colors
of his wind writing, as well as strident calls
from the horn section, foreshadow the