Review: ‘Transformation’: Academy of Ancient Music (Director Laurence Cummings). Viennese Virtuosity: Symphonies by Mozart, Haydn & Friends

On Wednesday evening The Academy of Ancient Music and Director Laurence Cummings continued their ‘Transformation’ season of concerts at West Road with a performance titled ‘Viennese Virtuosity.’

There were ‘Symphonies by Mozart, Haydn & friends’, a total of one each by Haydn and Mozart, and one each by two of their now less-familiar contemporaries, Vanhal and Dittersdorf.

In the parallel literary world of the British Romantics the poetry that was being mostly read at this time was not so much that of the since acknowledged giants of the age, but that of figures such as Thomas Campbell, Samuel Rogers, Charlotte Smith, Thomas Moore.

Although now barely encountered, except perhaps in one or two obscure degree-course modules, poets such as these were nevertheless hugely influential on those who would eventually surpass them in renown.

And so it was with music. Composers now judged to be much greater artists were closely associated with, and often inspired by, those who are now less-known, perhaps less regarded, but who in their own times were the recipients of much admiration.

AAM had chosen to re-create the same kind of musical gathering as one that took place in Vienna (exact date unknown, but likely to have been in 1784-85). It is described by Michael Kelly (an Irish tenor and a friend of Mozart) in his ‘Reminiscences’ (1826) as a ‘quartett.’

The remarkable event took place at the home of Stephen Storace, an English composer and another of Mozart’s friends, and was a quartet made up of Haydn (first violin), Dittersdorf (second violin), Vanhal (cello) and Mozart (viola).

AAM began with Vanhal, a composer much esteemed by Mozart, and whose Symphony in D major was one of 77 he composed. A collection of them was made by Haydn, possibly at this time the most famous musician in Europe. One reviewer referred to the ‘well-known and celebrated’ Vanhal and praised this symphony which, like the Mozart one to follow, began with a short slow introduction before commencing its first movement proper.

The Andante molto was a rather melancholy one, but this gave way to an Adagio molto where the aforementioned reviewer specifically singled out as noteworthy the melodic flute tune accompanied by pizzicato strings.

On Wednesday evening the soloist who gave a most beautiful account of this melody was Rachel Brown who was duly singled out by Laurence Cummings to receive her rightful acclaim from the audience at the conclusion of the work

Next came Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 in C major. Mozart and his wife, Constanze, stayed with friends in Linz on their way home to Vienna from a visit to Salzburg in November 1783. Symphony 36 subsequently came to be known as the ‘Linz’, and was an occasional piece written for a concert scheduled there for 4 November 1783. Mozart referred to writing it ‘at breakneck speed.’

Although there is no specific evidence that Mozart completed the entire symphony in just 4 days, it is nevertheless quite possible that as a highly gifted composer he did so. As with Handel, perhaps some self-plagiarism played its part.

The spirited and ebullient first movement of the ‘Linz’ gave way to a slow melodic second. And the elegant Menuetto together with the Finale marked ‘Presto’ gave an overall impression of a composer completely and confidently au fait with the orchestration of his symphonies.

Prior to the evening’s performance there was discussion of what was in store for us hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenter Ian Skelly and including AAM oboist Leo Duarte, and Timpanist Benedict Hoffnung. Their comments were useful in many ways as when, for example, Hoffnung remarked that ‘Mozart wrote exquisitely for the drums,’ thus alerting us to keep an ear open for this new angle to Mozart appreciation.

After the Interval we heard from the Austrian composer and violinist Dittersdorf. His symphony No. 4 in F major (from Symphonies after Ovid’s Metamorphoses) was one of 15 he wrote to correspond with the number of books in Ovid’s work. Twelve of these survive in various forms, but only six in their full orchestral form, No. 4 being one of them and based on the myth of Perseus and Andromeda.

The lengthy first movement is a tuneful but plaintive piece for oboe, and was performed with beguiling expressiveness by oboist Leo Duarte who, as with Rachel Brown earlier, the audience scarcely needed an invitation from Laurence Cummings to commend.

Cummings amusingly laced the narrative by turning to face the audience and deliver its prefatory remarks before each movement. The pre-concert forum agreed that Dittersdorf was a wonderful creator of dramatic (and in his case almost cinematically) vivid pictures, something he shared with the final symphonist of the evening.

The concert concluded with an immaculate and inspiring rendition of Haydn’s Symphony No. 80 in D minor, full of the composer’s typical playfulness with numerous hesitations, pauses and false endings.

The evening was a thoroughly enjoyable guided tour through the work of the prominent symphonic composers in the golden age of Viennese music. Once again, taking us back in time AAM had created, from their seemingly inexhaustible repertoire, a characteristic combination of instruction and delight, wonderfully ‘transforming’ us all in the process.