109. Parisian Mozart, London Haydn

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first visited Paris (where he and his sister Nannerl played for Louis XV) and London (where they performed before George III) at the age of eight. He returned to the French capital several more times. There, for example, he sought employment that would allow him to escape from Salzburg, from the court of Archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo. In 1778, after his mother’s death, he was unfortunately forced to return to the city he hated following another trip to Mannheim and Paris. Sated by listening to the best orchestras in Europe performing in those two cities, and perhaps also inspired by a meeting with one of the greatest masters of violin playing, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, he quickly (as always) composed several new works. Among them was the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra. Mozart’s connection to Paris also stems from his composing on commission for the organizers of the city’s ticketed concerts. This method of presenting new music to the public was also very popular in London, for which, in turn, the older (but much longer-lived) of the Viennese classics, Joseph Haydn, wrote particularly extensively. The latest group of his symphonies, composed after Mozart’s death, is even referred to as the “London” symphonies, and one of them – the last – bears that very nickname. Scored for a large orchestra with double flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani, and, of course, a string quintet, it serves as a model of the genre and a starting point for Beethoven’s greatest works.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)