Mozart - Idomeneo, Ballet Music K. 367 (1781)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 - 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era. According to Bartje Bartmans the greatest and brightest star on the firmament.
Ballettmusik zur Oper Idomeneo (1781)
1. Chaconne
2. Pas seul (de Mr Le Grand) (9:56)
3. Passepied (14:27)
4. Gavotte (17:43)
5. Passacaille (20:24)
6. Marcia (26:25)
Vienna Mozart Ensemble conducted by Willi Boskovsky
Mozart composed Idomeneo during the winter of 1780-81. Its plot concerns the return of Idomeneo, King of Crete, from the Trojan War. Encountering a deadly storm en route, the monarch secures safe passage by vowing to sacrifice to the sea god Neptune the first creature he meets on shore. This is the same fatal bargain made by the Old Testament warrior Jeptha. And like Jeptha, Idomeneo arrives home to encounter immediately his own child. Needless to say, intense psychological conflicts ensue, but tragedy is averted when, at the climactic moment, Neptune agrees to forego the sacrifice if Idomeneo will relinquish the throne to his son, Idamantes, the intended sacrificial victim.
Mozart originally expected to interpolate ballet numbers into Idomeneo, but as he worked on the composition it became apparent that the opera would be more than long enough without the dance interludes. So instead, he fashioned a separate ballet for performance after the conclusion of the opera. Although we do not know what scenario was conveyed by its choreography, both the opera’s story and Mozart’s music suggest that it might have been festivities attending the coronation of Prince Idamantes, which should naturally occur at the point where the opera concludes.
Mozart’s ballet consists of a suite of brief dances, the major number being a Chaconne. This bears scant resemblance to the familiar Baroque-period chaconne, which typically entails contrapuntal elaboration of a repeating short melodic figure. Instead, Mozart casts his music as a rondo, with a majestic main theme that sounds several times in alternation with other ideas. Some of the fast passages convey a sense of high drama. The ensuing music, written for a solo dance (the Pas seul), follows without pause.

[@Kris9kris]

17:45 - the main theme is the 3rd movement of the K. 503 Piano Concerto :)

[@FrenchMartini]

Idomeneo is my favorite of Mozart's mature operas. I especially love this ballet music!

[@LPCLASSICAL]

This is top notch Mozart. I hope more people will discover this music.

[@simonkawasaki4229]

The pas seul is amazing.

[@simonkawasaki4229]

@@ignacioclerici5341 Haha, no. I still don’t know very much about Mozart’s canons (except the notorious Leck Mich im Arsch, which has proven to be spurious). And there are a few early chamber/keyboard pieces that I don’t really have the desire to listen to.

[@paulmauffray]

notice how the bassoons are missing in the grand opening Chaconne, then first appear in the score in the Larghetto (4:12), and that they enter with a sustained dotted-half-note (unlike the bass in that bar) and they remain very independent from the cello and bass line throughout the Larghetto. However, then at the return of the music of the opening Chaconne (at 8:59) the bassoons are now indeed written in the score. This is a clear example if how Mozart (and many other composers of that period) would merely write "Basso" or "Basso Continuo" in the score from which it would be expected that the bassoons would play unison with the cello and bass. And for that matter, looking at Mozart's autographs you will often find that he has also not specified "violoncello" but like with the bassoon the cello is considered part of the basso continuo too.

[@paulmauffray]

@RünerTheWolf 25 Thank you for that insight. Could you please let me know examples of where you have seen "bassi" and especially why that would mean "cello and bass". Do you think there is any evidence that that would mean "without bassoon"? Because those orchestras had full-time bassoon players in them, and when Mozart wrote "basso" without a separate bassoon line (as here in Idomeneo) he sometimes then filled in the bassoon part for certain later sections (again as here in Idomeneo). So I only see evidence that "basso" or "bassi" referred to all bass instruments of the basso continuo including bassoon.

[@paulmauffray]

@RünerTheWolf 25 it sounds like it might be difficult to convince you or to change your mind, but I will gladly take the challenge :-) You wrote "If you see the right edition", however, I am not interested in how editors chose to interpret the sources, but instead I am examining the autograph scores directly. Yes, when Mozart wanted an individual part to be played only by Violoncello, he wrote that in as a divergent from the Basso part. Haydn and other composers also did that. That, however, in no way negates the fact that bassoons were part of the Basso group. Only after Mozart left Salzburg and beginning with his "Paris" Symphony (#31) did he begin regularly writing a separate part for the bassoon in his orchestra scores. And yes, as you mention, even when the bassoon is now written out separately, he continues to list the contrabass and violoncello as "basso", however, look at the autograph of the Haffner symphony for example, and you will see that right from the start instead of giving notes to the bassoons, he merely writes "Col Basso". I see no evidence that Mozart did not want bassoons to play with the basso continuo, and yet there is plenty of evidence to show that they should play.

[@paulmauffray]

@RünerTheWolf 25 Actually, Mozart did use basso continuo in his symphonies (especially the earlier ones), and these were in fact frequently led from the keyboard. There are plenty of articles about historical performance practice and what type of keyboards (harpsichords or fortepianos) were used in orchestral works of that period. Check out for instance recordings of Trevor Pinnock or of my mentor Sir Charles Mackerras.

[@jameseckert8590]

Oh wonderful! Some new Mozart for me! With this ballet score, which I hadn't to here realized existed, the previously ignored Idomeneo opera can in small part be salvaged for me! Though a classical music lover over 50 years I have an incurable antipathy (I've tried!) to operatic singing and resenting also the effort of having to overcome the "language problem". Perhaps for me the Mozart operas, though, are some of the least intolerable - who can't like non piu andrai, the Queen of the Night aria, or the Don Giovanni judgement scene! But don't even mention to me Wagner, Puccini, Verdi, Rossini etc. (their excellent overtures, preludes, instrumental excerpts always excepted). I'm a Beethoven lover but have never tried getting through Fidelio, a Schubert lover who regrets he wasted half his life and talent trying to succeed at opera. Also a Haydn lover, I forgive him - he had a patron to satisfy. Yes I know a whole lot of good music, even almost totally some composers, is thus lost to me, shame on me, my problem! But again thank heaven for things like this ballet music, or things like the Carmen suites and others (though I do almost like the Carmen opera).

[@christianwouters6764]

Concert practice in those days was very different from now. Imagine a performance of st Matthews passion would be interrupted by a ballet with beautiful ladies in nice costumes. Otherwise the listeners would be bored by the serious stuff.

[@danhu4465]

It's kinda like Handel's Royal Fireworks 😂

[@TrazommozarT]

👏

[@johnsimca7093]

Can’t you put the ads between movements rather than interrupt the music?

[@bartjebartmans]

I have no say about the ads. If you get KZbin premium you won't see an ad ever again.

[@TrazommozarT]

👏