"LA EUROPA GALANTE", TRES OBRAS DE UN MISMO PERÍODO MUSICAL CON UNA PERSONALIDAD MUY DISTINTA

"LA EUROPA GALANTE", THREE WORKS FROM THE SAME MUSICAL PERIOD WITH A VERY DIFFERENT PERSONALITY

Dear public

Next Saturday, May 21, we will have the opportunity to enjoy Iberian Sinfonietta again. On this occasion, an eminently classic program will make up the evening. There will be three works, by authors from the same period, in the case of the first two, Haydn and Johann Christian Bach, or the “London Bach”, as it has also been called. Finally, an imposing work by Mozart, who was younger than them, will close the program.

The concert will open with Symphony No. 1 by one of Bach's most musically important sons. A composer with a happy and fun character, who understood that the complexity of his father's style did not suit him. Christian Bach studied with the best, since he had them at home, but when Bach died, when he was only 15 years old, he left for Berlin, to continue evolving his style with his brother Carl Philipp Emanuel, and a few years later He established himself as Master Organist at the Cathedral of Milan and a few years later he settled permanently in London. The concert on Saturday the 21st will allow us to enjoy his first symphony, with a clear interest in the melody, something common at the time, but in his case, it has the interest of seeing how a son wanted to find his own style, since the Bach's importance was and is immense.

His Italian cantabile style, the fullness employed by the strings and the use of wind instruments, had a great influence on Mozart's works. This relationship is evident, for example, between J. Ch. Bach's Symphony Op. 3 No. 1 and Mozart's Symphony KV.19 . When Mozart learned of his death in 1782, he paid a moving tribute to him by using a theme from an overture by J. Ch. Bach in the slow movement of his Piano Concerto in A Major KV 41 4. These thematic borrowings are frequently found in the works of Mozart, testifying to the profound influence that J. Ch. Bach exerted for a long time on the Salzburg master.

The next work will be by the Symphony Master, Franz Joseph Haydn, only three years older than Christian. Haydn is one of the most renowned and beloved musicians of his time, and is really the promoter of the Symphony form, composing more than 100. Iberian Sinfonieta will perform one of the most peculiar, No. 44, called “funebre”. Haydn wrote his Symphony in E minor around 1771 for the Esterházy court orchestra, where he conducted the music for many years. Haydn, after not writing any symphonies in minor keys before 1767, wrote seven symphonies in minor keys between 1767 and 1773. Both the abrupt opening motif of the minor-key symphony and the long-awaited chant that follows it are hallmarks of the new emotional style, which laid the foundations of what we call Romanticism and began the trend towards the symphony as a drama that continued into the 20th century. The Symphony got its nickname “funereal” or “mourning” from the fact that the composer himself requested that the slow movement be played at his funeral. Whether the story is true or not, the movement was not, in fact, played at his funeral or any of the memorial services over the following weeks. The finale is as stormy and stressful as the first movement, impressive in its relentless drive and determination, with the main theme never out of the frame.

We understand that they are two very interesting symphonies and even more so listening to them together, with the stylistic contrast of both. It will therefore be a perfect evening for a May afternoon, precisely on May 21, you know, at the Peace Palace, in Fuengirola. Enjoy it.

Jorge Rodríguez Morata
 Pedagogical content coordinator

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