17 / 40
The
Divertimento in B flat major K137
offers a highly unusual structure. Here
the slow movement, marked Andante, is placed at the start of the work, thus
underlining the arresting contrast with the vibrant Allegro di molto that follows.
The Andante is perfectly balanced, with a touch of solemnity, but also of rhythmic
élan, its dramatic contrasts attenuated by the cantabile of the first violin.
The finale, Allegro assai, is in rondo form. It elegantly dissimulates a robust peasant
dance, underscored with gusto by the bass line. This is music written without
ulterior motives, whose sole aim is to please.
The colours borrowed from the Italian and German Baroque are so evident in the
Divertimento in F major K138
that, still more than the two previous works, they
justify the nickname of ‘Salzburg Symphonies’ that is sometimes given to the set.
At first hearing, the vivacity of the themes evokes Italy while the internal structure
of the piece is modelled on the style of Michael Haydn. The first violin plays a
dominant role.
This divertimento consists of just three movements – Allegro, Andante, Allegro
– whereas other pieces of the same name may have as many as seven (the two
minuets traditional in the divertimento, notably, have been omitted).
The Allegro presents a melodic line carried by the first violin. The theme of the
Andante is of a beauty at once simple and profound. It is in the treatment of this
theme that one recognises the stylistic signature of the young Mozart, already so
personal. It oscillates between the spirit of the string quartet, a genre then at its
very beginnings, and that of the symphony. The work concludes with an Allegro,
a sort of rondo in
opera buffa
style. How can one not hear in this the charm of the
Italian sinfonia?
17
TALICH QUARTET