Mozart: Komm, liebe Zither, K351

Mozart created masterpieces in virtually all the established genres. We know him as symphonist, writer of a great many concertos, especially for piano, and a unique and very productive opera composer. His sublime chamber music was written for numerous ensembles, and he composed dozens of the most beautiful serenades and divertimentos. But as a lied composer he is perhaps rather neglected, perhaps because in the minds of many music lovers the German lied is a phenomenon that came into being with Franz Schubert some decades after Mozart’s death in 1791. In fact, Mozart wrote about thirty lieder, fourteen of which were published during his lifetime. It is hardly too much to say that he was also the most important lied composer of his day.

The soprano Gemma Bertagnolli compares the music of Mozart to a country; “I feel welcome in this place of grandeur and miniature, of rigour and frivolity, of love and terror, of truth and jest.” She performs these works with passionate elegance.

Mozart’s songs are surprisingly varied in many ways. Although there isn’t a great number of them, they date from all periods of the composer’s short life and are widely diverse in character, from simple strophic charmers such as ‘Komm, lieber Mai’ (Sehnsucht nach dem Frühlinge) to extended and intensely serious utterances such as those he wrote for the Freemasons (Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls, from Eine kleine deutsche Kantate). They also vary in language: most are in German but he also set French and Italian texts.

All are represented here, sung by two of Britain’s most popular and outstanding singers.

Despite the substantial number of Lieder written for voice and piano in the 19th century, the guitar was also used occasionally as an accompaniment -- it was Berlioz's first instrument, and Schubert composed a number of Lieder for guitar and voice, considering himself a guitarist first and a pianist second. Therefore, while the three sets of German Songs by Louis Spohr on this recording were composed originally for piano and voice in 1816--1826, with editions for guitar appearing shortly after the original publications, we can be sure that Spohr would have approved of these arrangements.

The Mozart songs included on this disc were also originally composed for piano, with the exception of K351 and K349, which were written for mandolin accompaniment. Three of the songs were transcribed for guitar by Wenzeslaus Matiega (1773--1830) a Bohemian who was based in Vienna.

Mozart was Spohr's idol, so it is fitting that these two composers' songs have been programmed together to create a unique and complementary programme.

Mozart loved the human voice, which he used as an instrument of musical expression throughout his compositional career from the age of six or seven. His Lieder, written largely in response to requests and commissions from acquaintances, friends and publishers deal with everyday subjects such as friendship and romance but also with social and political occasions such as the Emperor Joseph II’s Turkish campaign. Some were written in connection with Mozart’s activities as a freemason. Only one, the bitter-sweet Das Veilchen (The Violet) is set to the words of a major poet, Goethe. The many miniature masterpieces to be heard on this recording include Komm, liebe Zither, komm (Come, dear Zither), a musical precursor, with mandolin accompaniment, of Don Giovanni’s serenade Deh vieni alla finestra, the idyllic Der Zauberer (The Sorcerer) and the dramatically graphic Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte (When Louisa burned the letters of her unfaithful lover).

The combination of flute and harp is one that has fascinated composers over the centuries, and this outstanding new recording features some of the best pieces written for these instruments alongside new and rhapsodic transcriptions of music that has been arranged admirably for the natural combination of these beautiful instruments by these very gifted instrumentalists.

The album takes its title from the pieces by Mendelssohn which open and interpolate the programme, and here also are two rare but very charming songs by Mozart, and a group of four by Gabriel Fauré, with two by de Falla, alongside music from famous operas by Tchaikovsky, Mascagni and Massenet. There is music from France by Poulenc and from Russia by Rimsky-Korsakov, and this delightful album ends with a group of appealing Romanian folk-songs. A most charming record of wide appeal.