Mozart: Serenade No. 12, for Winds in C minor
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra
Paul Watkins, cellist
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2, Op 36
In this final concert of the SummerFest 2015 season, climb aboard for a whirlwind round-trip-express-tour, all the way from the musical touchstone city of Vienna, Austria to the Baltic gem of St. Petersburg, Russia and back again. In 1782, when Mozart was wooing Constanze Weber, the daughter of the family where he lodged in Vienna, the courtship was not going entirely smoothly. The composer may have written this seductive ‘Night Music’ to woo his intended; if so, it worked, as the couple was married in Vienna’s musically and visually iconic Cathedral, St. Stephen’s in August of 1782. Far away in Russia in 1876, Tchaikovsky - a great admirer of Mozart - took the elegant decorations of the previous century as his inspiration and created a dazzling showpiece for cello. The ‘Rococo Variations’ tumble and leap with light-hearted and cheerful variations on a theme. Then we return to Vienna, now in 1802 finding Beethoven in despair, facing his increasing deafness, but determined to ‘Seize fate by the throat’. Incredibly, during this agonizing time he created his Symphony No. 2; filled with lyricism, wit, lively energy and hope.