WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2025 / 8:00 PM / ST. MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH
JESSICA RIVERO ALTARRIBA , conductor UTAH SYMPHONY
MOZART
SALIERI
SALIERI
MOZART
Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (4’)
Sinfonia from Prima la musica poi le parole (3’)
Sinfonia Veneziana (9’)
I. Allegro assai
II. Andantino grazioso
III. Presto
Overture to La clemenza di Tito (5’)
INTERMISSION
MOZART
Symphony No. 38 in D major “Prague” (23’)
I. Adagio - Allegro
II. Andante
III. Presto
Nuanced interpretations, dynamic energy, and a charismatic stage presence are hallmarks of Cuban conductor Jessica Rivero Altarriba. Praised for her communicative skills, impactful performances, and equally vested in both established and well-known repertoire and contemporary compositions, Altarriba currently serves as Assistant Conductor for the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera and is a Taki Alsop Fellowship Award Recipient (2024-26). Altarriba is concurrently pursuing her master’s degree in conducting at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.
Altarriba programs and leads a diverse set of concerts in the upcoming year. This June and July she is conducting Utah Symphony’s Summer Community Concerts as well as select concerts during the Deer Valley® Music Festival including the July 16 Chamber Series Mozart vs. Salieri and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture concert closing the festival. From July 28 – August 5, she participates in the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles National Festival in California, collaborating with LA Philharmonic Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, YOLA Artistic Director Gaudy Sanchez, and the YOLA National Team in festival programming and conducting a final concert in collaboration with Dudamel.
By Ruth Eldredge
Mozart and Salieri might be the most long-lived classical music rivals in history. Even if most of the plot from Miloš Forman’s 1983 film Amadeus is largely fabricated, it does depict the composers’ close relationship and their—by all historical accounts friendly—personal competition as Vienna’s most prominent composers.
Mozart and Salieri’s rivalry itself has deeper historical significance: it symbolizes the very real aesthetic tug-of-war between German and Italian operatic styles that played out in eighteenth-century Viennese theatrical life. Neither Mozart nor Salieri were strictly Viennese, but both made their careers in Vienna and depended at least in part on influencing the Habsburg Emperor Joseph II’s musical tastes.
// 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings //
// 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, harpsichord, and strings //
In many ways, Salieri was Mozart’s opposite. Hailing from northern Italy, Salieri was orphaned in early adolescence. He arrived in Vienna in 1766 under the guardianship of Florian Leopold Gassman, the chamber composer to Emperor Joseph II, who groomed Salieri to be his successor. Salieri eventually became the director of Vienna’s Italian opera house and enjoyed considerable fame across Europe as Joseph II’s court conductor.
Salieri’s secure, salaried position didn’t future-proof his career, though, and it certainly didn’t protect him from Mozart’s popularity. Despite having the famous Salieri at his beck and call, Joseph regularly commissioned outside composers to write for both his Italian and German opera houses.
Le nozze de Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) is a veritable warhorse of the classical repertory: the overture is heard as often, perhaps more, in the concert hall as it is in the opera house. Nonetheless, it was a risky way for Mozart to start ingratiating himself to the Viennese patrons and public. Despite its catchy tunes, the opera’s subversive theme, in which a female servant outsmarts a male aristocrat, and scandalous acknowledgement of aristocratic sexual misconduct, made it much more popular with the public than with the opera’s sponsors.
The Marriage of Figaro is a fast-paced, mad-cap comedy involving Susanna and Figaro, two servants who expose the hypocrisy of their master, orchestrate their mistresses’ exoneration, and save their friend from banishment, all on their wedding day. The plot’s quick turns and humorous feel are all foreshadowed in the overture. A racing musical theme evokes secrets being whispered into ears, schemes unfolding and disguises revealed. Sudden fortissimo passages rudely interrupt the musical progress. A flirtatious center section and return of the quick-paced rhythms of the first theme suggests that, despite everyone’s foibles, the day will end in forgiveness.
The Marriage of Figaro is often considered one of opera’s great masterpieces. Don’t be surprised if you come across it in pop culture references like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The opera first premiered in Joseph II’s Italian opera house in Vienna in 1786.
Enjoying the prospect of a competition, in 1786, Joseph commissioned one opera from each composer that would be performed at a private party, one after the other. Taking place at the lavish Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna for an exclusive audience, two stages were built on opposite sides of the vast Orangerie--one for Mozart’s German opera, and another for Salieri’s Italian opera. Mozart’s opera came first; Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), is a German Singspiel. Mozart displayed his characteristic fiendishness by casting Catarina Cavalieri, well-known to be Salieri’s mistress, as the opera’s incorrigible main character.
The day, however, went to Salieri. His opera Prima la musica poi le parole, a portion of which is featured on tonight’s concert, was given twice the time to perform as was Mozart’s opera, and Salieri ultimately received twice the pay. Like Mozart, Salieri took a personal shot at Mozart and the plot-driven German Singspiel style by engaging his characters in a debate as to whether the music or the words and plot were the most important part of an opera. Mozart had called his own operetta “a comedy with music,” suggesting that the plot was more important than the music. On the contrary, in Salieri’s music the composer wins the day by proclaiming that in opera of true quality, the music always comes first.
// 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings //
The History
Unlike Mozart, Salieri wrote little instrumental music outside of opera overtures—perhaps he was too busy writing operas, running the court music industry, and teaching students like Beethoven and Schubert. This didn’t stop music publishers from capitalizing on Salieri’s fame, productivity, and the relative lack of copyright laws: Sinfonia Veneziana is a pastiche of three opera overtures, all of which enjoyed great success in their day but are littleknown today. Its name references Salieri himself: Salieri was educated and discovered in Venice and was widely known as ‘The Venetian’ composer in Viennese circles.
// 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings //
The History
Mozart and Salieri’s rivalry continued in 1791, when Leopold II, the new king of Bohemia, commissioned a new opera to be premiered as part of his coronation festivities. His first choice was Salieri, and only when he declined was Mozart offered the job. Leopold benefited from this change of plan: Mozart was hugely popular in Prague, the Bohemian capital, and his commission met with approval from the city’s inhabitants. The overture’s opening fanfare and grand style are a fitting celebration of Leopold’s coronation, in addition to making a majestic introduction to the opera itself.
// 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings //
If Salieri and Mozart battled for notoriety in Viennese opera halls, Mozart’s instrumental music stood out on its own. Nonetheless, Symphony No. 38, nicknamed “Prague,” also has operatic connections. Mozart wrote the symphony to be premiered in Prague in 1786, in hopes of gaining a commission for an opera.
Even today, the “Prague” Symphony is still considered one of the most innovative symphonic works ever written. The symphony shows off Mozart’s wide range of talents and musical interests and his love for Prague’s welcoming audiences. The complicated counterpoint of the first movement demonstrates his newfound love for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, even if it would never be mistaken for a work by the Baroque composer. The complex counterpoint and experimental, proto-diatonic harmonies were inspired by Bach; the symphony’s frenetic pace and singable melodic lines are characteristically Mozart’s. The grand scale of the first movement makes it comparable in length to the first movement of Beethoven’s Third Symphony.
Mozart left nothing to chance in his bid for the love of Prague’s audiences--the symphony’s third movement also quotes a scene from The Marriage of Figaro, which was hugely popular in Prague, making up for its modest reception in Vienna. The “Prague” symphony itself has lived on to become one of Mozart’s most-beloved instrumental works and one of the defining pieces of symphonic form.