大象传媒

Donald Macleod explores Mozart鈥檚 provocative late operas.

Five years before Mozart鈥檚 premature death aged 35, the composer felt at the top of his game. He was performing regularly in Vienna and his music was beloved throughout the city. However, the Austro-Turkish War between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire would soon have a negative impact on Mozart鈥檚 prospects, along with changing musical taste in the Austrian capital. The nobility had more important things to do than hold concerts and commission new music. Money was in shorter supply. As a composer for hire, Mozart had to change tack and write chamber music for publication and for performance in middle class homes, rather than concertos for the nobility.

In this episode Donald Macleod explores Mozart鈥檚 late operas. Today we see these works as creative triumphs. It鈥檚 hard to believe they were not received as such by audiences of their day. However, these late masterpieces were inherently provocative. 1786鈥檚 Le nozze di Figaro mercilessly attacked a bigoted aristocracy from the perspective of a servant. Cosi fan tutte's depictions of the ambivalence of human emotions skirted the boundaries of contemporary morality, and 1791鈥檚 The Magic Flute dealt with freemasonry - many Viennese saw it as an allegory for the French Revolution. What lay behind these bold statements of intent? Was Mozart deliberately biting the hand that fed him?

Gigue in G major, K. 574, "Leipziger Gigue"
Mitsuko Uchida, piano

Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), K. 492 (Overture, Act I Scene 1: Duet
Act I Scene 1: Recitative; Act I Scene 1: Duet)
Patrizia Ciofi (Susanna)
Lorenzo Regazzo (Figaro)
Concerto K枚ln
Ren茅 Jacobs, conductor

Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, "Jupiter鈥�
II. Andante cantabile
Concentus Musicus Wien
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

Don Giovanni, K. 527 (Act II Scene 12: Rondo; Recitativo accompagnato e Rondo; Act II Scene 13: Finale)
Carmela Remigio (Donna Anna)
Uwe Heilmann (Don Ottavio)
Simon Keenlyside (Don Giovanni)
Bryn Terfel (Leporello)
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Cos矛 fan tutte, K. 588 (Act I Scene 2; Act II Scene 1)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Fiordiligi)
Hanny Steffek (Despina)
Christa Ludwig (Dorabella)
Walter Berry (Don Alfonso)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Karl B枚hm, conductor

Die Zauberfl枚te (The Magic Flute), K. 620 (Act II: Allegro)
Gerald Finley (Papageno)
Constanze Backes (Papagena)
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor