THE CHRISTIAN CENTER OF PARK CITY

Divertimento for String Orchestra in F, “Salzburg Symphony No. 3”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Duration: 10 minutes in three movements

Mozart completed the trio of divertimenti known as the “Salzburg Symphonies” in 1772 while he was in the employ of the Prince Archbishop of his native city. Mozart was only 16 then (his life almost half complete!) and nearing the end of his decade of performance tours with his father, Leopold. They made two visits to Italy near the end of this period and his musical experiences there clearly influenced these slightly uncharacteristic works. In fact, it is likely he wrote them in hopes of winning favor on a future, third trip to “the beautiful country.” The three pieces in the set straddle the fence between two important compositional forms of the day—the five (or more)-movement “divertimento” and the three-movement Italian style “symphony”— but, as one might expect with Mozart, they are not rote examples of either. As with K. 136 and 137, the music of K. 138 is light, charming, and relatively simple by the standards of Mozart’s genuine symphonies and much shorter than his later, grander forays into the divertimento form. With just three short movements, cast in an attractive fast-slow-faster fashion, the “Salzburg Symphonies” each dispense with the minuet, a dance form almost always present (often twice!) in Mozart’s other divertimenti and de rigueur in general for the time. The fourpart writing of the three 1772 divertimenti can be performed by a string quartet but there are indications in the manuscripts (a notation indicating “violas” rather than “viola,” for example) that suggest Mozart fully intended the works for string orchestra.

Duration: 26 minutes in three movements

Imagine the scene. It is May 1945, the first moments of peace in Europe, and an American GI is temporarily at loose ends in the Bavarian town of Garmisch. He, like others who left lives of music to serve their country, has heard that none other than Richard Strauss lives nearby and, through a mutual friend, pays the old master a visit. That soldier was John de Lancie, former Principal Oboe of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and eventual Director of the Curtis Institute of Music. De Lancie brought a young man’s courage to that fateful meeting and suggested that Strauss consider a concerto for his instrument, given how beautifully the composer wrote for it in his tone poems and operas. Strauss said no without hesitation but was not able to shake the notion. He began sketching out a concerto within weeks and had a score ready the following September. The American premiere was, of course, offered to de Lancie but the first performance on our shores was actually given by Mitch Miller (yes, the man from Sing Along with Mitch) in 1948. De Lancie wouldn’t get his chance until 1964 and, by then, he likely wondered if oboists the world over were cursing his name. They all loved the lyrical, unapologetically romantic music but also greatly feared the concerto’s opening, with its 57 measures of uninterrupted playing that tested their lungs like never before. The Oboe Concerto is standard repertoire now, despite its demands, and it provides yet another postwar proof point (like Metamorphosen and the Four Last Songs) that Strauss, in his 80s, was still very much in his compositional prime.