Two by Mozart

Synopsis

On today’s date, Wolfgang Mozart completed two of his most famous works: on August 10, 1787, the Serenade known as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and, on the same day 10 years later, the Jupiter Symphony — Mozart’s Symphony No. 41.

Despite the fame of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik — which translates as A Little Night Music — nothing is known for certain about the circumstances of its composition. Since a Serenade is a suite of orchestral movements normally written as background music for some rich patron’s patio party, we can assume Eine Kleine filled such a function some pleasant evening in Vienna. We can only hope the patrons appreciated what they got for their money.

Hardly any more is known about the composition of Mozart’s final symphony, the Jupiter, as no relevant letters or documents survive from this period of his life. The Jupiter nickname appears to have originated years later in London. In Germany it was just called “the symphony with the fugal finale.”

There’s a classic recording of Mozart’s symphony favorites featuring the Marlboro Festival Orchestra with Pablo Casals conducting. The Marlboro Festival is held each summer for seven weeks in a cluster of old farm buildings on a hilltop in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Talented young professional musicians from all over the country gather here, principally to study, secondly to perform, for audiences eager to hear both the emerging and established Marlboro musicians.

Music Played in Today's Program

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Neville Marriner, conductor; EMI Classics 65690

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter); Marlboro Festival Orchestra; Pablo Casals, conductor; CBS/Sony 47294

On This Day

Births

• 1813 - American composer and journalist, William Henry Fry, in Philadelphia. Some earlier sources list August 19 as Fry’s birth date.

• 1865 - Russian composer Alexander Glazunov, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: July 29)

• 1893 - American opera composer Douglas Moore, in Cutchogue (Long Island), New York

• 1932 - German-born English composer Alexander Goehr, in Berlin

• 1935 - Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, in Tbilisi, former USSR

Deaths

• 1806 - Austrian composer Michael Haydn (younger brother of Franz Joseph), in Salzburg, 68

• 1970 - German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, 52, dies by suicide in Königsdorf, leaving behind his posthumous Requiem

• 1997 - American composer Conlon Nancarrow, 84, in Mexico City

Premieres

• 1949 - Milhaud: Octet for Strings, at Mills College in California, by the combined Budapest and Paganini Quartets

• 1965 - William Schuman: Philharmonic Fanfare, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by William Steinberg, at the orchestra’s first outdoor concert in New York’s Central Park

• 1968 - Grofé: Virginia City: Requiem for a Ghost Town, in Virginia City, Nevada

• 1981 - John Tavener: Akhmatova: Requiem, at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland

• 1992 - James MacMillan: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (Percussion Concerto), at Royal Albert Hall in London, with soloist Evelyn Glennie and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Sarsate conducting

• 2001 - Per Norgard: String Quartet No. 9 (Into the Source), at the Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival, by the Orion String Quartet

Others

• 1778 - Mozart finishes his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Serenade in Vienna;

• 1788 - Mozart finishes his Jupiter Symphony in Vienna;

• 1825 - Mendelssohn, 16, finishes his opera Camacho’s Wedding

• 1895 - The late-summer Promenade Concerts (better known as The Proms) are launched in London by Henry Wood and Robert Newman