Programme — Songs, Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte K.520 (1787), Das Veilchen K.476 (1785) …

7 Songs

Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte K.520 (1787)

Das Veilchen K.476 (1785)

Abendempfindung an Laura K.523 (1787)

Dans un bois solitaire K.308 (c.1778)

Ridente la calma K.152/K.210a (arr.c.1772)

Wie unglücklich bin ich nit K.147 (1784?)

Der Zauberer K.472 (1785)

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

7 Lieder

Neue Liebe Op.19a No.4 (1830)

Der Mond Op. 86 No.5 (?1847)

Es weiss und rät es doch keiner Op. 99 No. 6 (1842)

Romanze Op.8 No.10

Im Frühling Op.9 No.4 (1830)

Frage: Ist es wahr? Op. 9 No.1 (1827)

Hexenlied Op. 8 No. 8 (1827)

Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)

12 Lieder from the Italienische Liederbücher Nos.1 (1890–91) and 2 (1896)

Auch kleine Dinge (Book 1)

Mein Liebster ist so klein (Book 1)

Wer rief dich denn? (Book 1)

Mein Liebster hat zu Tische mich geladen (Book 2)

Du denkst mit einem Fädchen mich zu fangen (Book 1)

Mein Liebster singt am Haus (Book 1)

Wohl kenn ich Euren Stand (Book 2)

Wir haben beide lange Zeit (Book1)

Schweig' einmal still (Book 2)

Ich hab in Penna einen Liebsten (Book 2)

Song was not an area that Mozart consciously cultivated. It was always a casual matter for him, the work of an entertaining hour or so, undertaken in many cases to please a particular singer, whose qualities and tastes – rather than any ambition to set an agenda for the future of German song – would determine the choice of the text and the form and style of the setting.

Gabriele von Baumberg’s Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liehabers verbrannte appealed to him above all, it seems, as the basis for a miniature scena for Gottfried von Jacquin, good friend and amateur bass singer. Certainly, it was published with a dedication to Jacquin and it is so liberal in its use of operatic devices and dramatic minor harmonies that it could almost be a private joke between singer and composer. Das Veilchen, on the other hand, could be claimed as the prototype of the Lied in its pre-Schubertian folk-style setting of Goethe’s little poem. Abendempfindung an Laura, a clearly serious inspiration, is one of the most inspired and most expressive of Mozart’s songs – through-composed and thoroughly spontaneous both in the freely melodious inflections of the vocal line and in the unpredictable directions taken by the harmonies.

Mozart could, of course, turn his hand to anything – as in Dans un bois solitaire, one of two stylish French ariettes written for Augusta Wendling in Mannheim. It offers a virtuoso display of both the composer’s and the singer’s narrative art in the dramatically articulated middle section. In Ridente la calma, although it was long accepted as a genuine item in the canon, he did no more than put new words to Josef Myslivecek’s

canzonetta Il caro mio bene. The authenticity of Wie unglücklich bin ich nit is not beyond doubt and its date, which could be anything from the early 1770s to the mid 1780s, is impossible to determine. At least we know where we are with Der Zauberer, one of three Weisse settings written in Vienna in May 1785 and an authentic example of Mozart wit which, far from being inhibited by the strophic construction, makes a positive virtue of it.