MOZARTThursday, January 30, 2020 at 7:00 PM • MOZART QUARTETS FOR FLUTE AND STRINGS • Jeffrey Cohan ~ one-keyed flute Carrie Krause ~ violin Victoria Gunn ~ viola Caroline Nicolas ~ cello Mozart's flute quartets are most often performed on historical flutes and bows and performance techniques that evolved after his lifetime and are more appropriate for the performance of early Beethoven, with flutes with additional keys and stringed instruments with the longer, straighter bows that provide the brilliance and cutting power that was expected in a later evolving musical perspective. Tomorrow's performance presents Mozart's complete flute quartets in the context of the earlier, subtler, warmer and more delicate musical tapestry that Mozart knew, with the flute with just one key, the shorter more curved bows and the lower pitch that were common in late 1770's.   ~  +  ~  +  ~  +  ~ The following notes are copyright © Susan Halpern, 2020.  All rights reserved. Mozart (born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg; died December 5, 1791, in Vienna) composed four flute quartets.  Although his professed distaste for the flute is legendary, it is certainly not evident in the music he wrote for it: flute concertos, quartets for flute and strings, and ravishing flute solos in his late orchestral works.  What he really disliked was the personality of the gentleman who commissioned much of his flute music, which was written in Mannheim and Paris between Christmas of 1777 and the summer of 1778.  The despised individual was a wealthy amateur, an East Indian Dutchman named De Jean, who wanted four concertos and six quartets.  Johann Baptist Wendling, a Mannheim musician who was a friend of Mozart, introduced him to De Jean, who expected “short and simple” works. On February 14, 1778, Mozart, who felt these quartets distracted him from writing an opera, which would have much increased his chances of gaining a good livelihood, wrote home to his father, “De Jean is leaving and, because I have finished only two concertos and three quartets, has sent me 96 gulden evidently supposing this to be half of 200, but he must pay me in full, for that was my agreement, and I can send him the other pieces later.”  Justifiably, De Jean had probably discovered that one of the concertos was only an arrangement of Mozart’s earlier oboe concerto.  In fact, De Jean had probably heard it performed as it was quite popular in Mannheim; as is apparent from surviving documents, Mozart had, at this time, completed at most two quartets and only part of another.  Mozart wrote his father the reasons for his procrastination: “One is not always in the mood for working.  I could, to be sure scribble off things the whole day long, but a composition of this kind goes off into the world, and naturally I do not want to have cause to be ashamed of my name on the title page.  Moreover, you know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument I cannot bear.”  Leopold Mozart’s letter to his son rebuked him, predictably, “And you received only 96 instead of 200 gulden? Why?  Because you supplied him with only 2 Concertos and only 3 Quartets!  How many, then, were you supposed to write for him, since he refused to pay more than half the sum?  Why did you tell me a Lie, that you were only expected to make him 3 small, easy little Concertos and a couple of quartets; why did you not heed me when I explicitly wrote, you must first of all, and as soon as possible, serve that Gentleman.  Why?  So that you could be sure of getting those 200 gulden, for I know human nature better than you do.” Mozart completed his first quartet (K. 285) in Mannheim on Christmas Day of 1777.   ~  +  ~  +  ~  +  ~ Thursday January 30, 2020 at 7:00 PM St. Luke's Memorial Episcopal Church  •  (253) 759-3534 3615 North Gove Street in Tacoma   •  suggested donation $15, $20 or $25  •  18 and under free  • /www.salishseafestival.org/tacoma/ EMA /The Salish Sea Early Music Festival is proud to be an affiliate organization of *Early Music America*, which develops, strengthens, and celebrates early music and historically informed performance in North America. /