![]() ![]() ![]() While working on that masterpiece, he was also composing some individual settings of Rückert. Kindertotenlieder (“Songs of the Death of Children,” 1901-1904) became Mahler’s most famous Rückert orchestral song cycle. Over the next three years, Mahler composed ten songs on Rückert’s verse, and in 1905 he wrote to composer Anton Webern: “After Des Knaben Wunderhorn I could not compose anything but Rückert - this is lyric poetry from the source, all else is lyric poetry of a derivative sort.” However, beginning in 1901, his inspiration came largely from a single poet, the German romantic Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866). In his early works (before 1900), Mahler’s chief poetic source was Brentano’s large collection of folk poetry titled Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”), which also become the title of a Mahler song cycle. His song composition often flowed into his symphonic thought a song composed with piano or orchestral accompaniment sometimes became a symphonic movement. Mahler wrote six groups of orchestrally accompanied songs for voice(s) and included the voice in four of his ten symphonies. This theme alternates with contrasting episodes, including a second cadenza, and brings the concerto to a delightful ending. The finale begins with a cheerful theme that Mozart adapted for a song called “ Yearning for Spring,” perhaps a reflection of his hopes for the future. The contesting middle section introduces a graceful new theme that dreamily slips into a distant key, slowly winding its way back to a reprise of the opening section. The orchestra’s conclusion of the theme, however, introduces a powerful dissonance before bringing the theme to its conclusion. The pianist introduces a contrasting phrase that leads back to the beginning of the melody. The slow second movement has a simple ternary (A-B-A) structure it begins with a lovely melody introduced by the piano and then taken up by the orchestra. Mozart’s cadenza primarily revisits the second and first themes before ending with the traditional trill, a signal to the orchestra to bring the movement to a close. At the premiere Mozart would have improvised the cadenza on the spot, but when he later prepared the score for publication, he wrote down a version of the cadenza that other pianists could use. The orchestra and soloist then reprise the movement’s themes-including the last one this time-leading to the cadenza for the soloist alone. Changing key 20 times in a mere 60 measures, this development focuses on fragments of the first theme, which are overlapped and recombined with each other to great expressive effect. The pianist then similarly reinterprets the other themes, except the last instead, the minor-key shadows send the music into an exquisite developmental section. The pianist then enters with a lightly embellished version of the first theme before digressing into a richly chromatic, minor-key episode. The first theme is an elegant conversation between violins and woodwinds the second is a lyrical melody with echoes from the flute the third introduces a more humorous tone with its twittering figures in the violins last is a lyrical, singing theme that occurs after the shadow of the parallel minor key passes briefly over the music. The concerto begins with an orchestral introduction that presents the four main themes of the first movement. Sadly, it would be his final public appearance as a pianist. Mozart performed the premiere himself at a concert in Vienna on March 4, 1791. 27 in Bb) sometime in 1788, he would not complete it until January 1791, which was to be the last year of his life. Though Mozart likely began composing his last piano concerto ( Piano Concerto No. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
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