Yesterday I went to Alice Tully Hall to hear a performance, one of the Wednesdays at One series, given by the Juilliard Wind Orchestra. The ensemble is unusual if only because the orchestral repertoire for all-wind instruments is so limited. One genre that capitalizes on this instrumentation, however, is the serenade and on this occasion the audience was treated to two of the finest examples of this form..
The program opened with Mozart's Serenade for Winds in C Minor, K. 388/384a (1782) for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, and two bassoons. What's most notable in this piece is the composer's use of a minor key. Mozart was particularly sensitive in his selection of home keys and usually reserved the use of minor keys to works that had great personal significance to him and in which were expressed sorrowful or tragic emotions. Such an understanding would not seem to fit with the present piece. Serenades were traditionally viewed in Mozart's time as divertimenti, casual entertainments that carried with them no great emotional baggage. It must be remembered, however, that Mozart had at the time of the Serenades's composition only recently arrived in Vienna from Salzburg and was eager to make a positive impression on his new audience. Vienna had already become, thanks largely to the presence of such artists as Haydn, one of the foremost musical centers in Europe and its denizens were far more sophisticated listeners than their counterparts in Salzburg which in comparison was something of a cultural backwater. Seen in this light, it's understandable that Mozart would have been inclined to expend more effort on his earliest efforts in his new home than might otherwise have been the case. He certainly was careful to include in the Serenade elements that highlighted his abilities. For example, the third movement menuet is actually a canon displaced by one bar. And the final movement is a set of variations, a technique at which Mozart excelled. That the composer himself saw in the Serenade profound depths of expression appropriate to a more serious genre may be inferred from the fact that five years later he reworked it into one of his greatest chamber pieces, the String Quintet, K. 406/516b. Additionally, Mozart may have had a specific goal in mind for his Serenade. Emperor Joseph II, a true musical connoisseur on whose favor any Viennese composer's success depended, had recently established a wind band at court and the newly arrived composer was very likely hoping that his work would find a place in its repertoire. Whatever Mozart's motives in composing so accomplished a work, the beneficiaries of his industry are the audience who are presented with a much more complex and fulfilling work than they would normally expect of this genre.
The second and final work was Dvořák's Serenade for Winds in D minor, Op. 44 (1878) for two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and three horns. There was also an "ad lib" part for contrabassoon, an instrument not always readily available to local orchestras and not included at this performance, and Dvořák later added parts for a cello and double bass. The work is significant for having been written immediately before the composer's first major success, the Slavonic Dances, when he was on the cusp of achieving international fame thanks to the efforts of Brahms and the critic Eduard Hanslick. Brahms was particularly enthusiastic about the Serenade and the following year commended it to his close friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim, writing:
"I hope you will enjoy it [the Serenade] as much as I do...It would be difficult to discover a finer, more refreshing impression of really abundant and charming creative talent. Have it played to you; I feel sure the players will enjoy doing it!"
Although the work hearkens back the Classical serenades of Mozart, such as the K. 388 performed earlier, and is generally lighthearted in nature in spite of its use of a minor key, it has an entirely different character from the Classical Viennese serenade due to its incorporation of Bohemian folk sources. The folk tradition had afforded Dvořák his earliest inspiration and he was to remain true to it for the remainder of his career even if its presence were sometimes overlaid by more conventional West European musical forms. In that sense, the present piece is noteworthy as an example of Dvořák's early style before coming more directly under the influence of Brahms. The folk sources are here most readily apparent in the second movement, marked minuetto but actually embodying traditional Czech dance forms.
This was a very enjoyable concert. While the tone of the works performed may have been casual, they nevertheless represented masterpieces by two great composers at the height of their powers and were thoroughly rewarding to hear. Conductor Nathan Hughes did an excellent job in pulling it all together.
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