Notes for: July 11, 2017
Friendship was the inspiration for this Trio, which probably got its nickname through a mix-up. Purportedly Mozart composed it while enjoying a game of skittles, an early form of bowling. (“Kegelstatt” means “skittle alley.”) In fact Mozart did compose a work while bowling with friends – it just wasn’t this one. A week earlier he had composed a set of duets for horns, and on that manuscript he had written, “Vienna 27 July 1786 while playing skittles.” Somehow “Kegelstatt” got appended to this Clarinet Trio. Accurate or not, the nickname does suggest one of the Trio’s many endearing qualities: it is, as Alfred Einstein notes, “a work of intimate friendship and love,” written to be enjoyed by friends playing together at home.
Mozart had a rich social life. His closest friend was Gottfried von Jacquin, the son of the famous botanist Nikolaus von Jacquin and the brother of Franziska, Mozart’s talented young piano pupil. Mozart was part of a group that gathered weekly at the Jacquin house for talk, games, and music-making. Another good friend was Anton Stadler, a fellow Mason, a rogue, and, most important, a brilliant clarinetist. Mozart loved the sound of Stadler’s clarinet and wrote the Clarinet Quintet and the Clarinet Concerto for him. He also loved the deep, rich sound of the viola, his instrument of choice when he played chamber music. All of these elements came together in the E-Flat Major Trio. Mozart wrote it for Franziska Jaquin to play at one of the family’s informal gatherings, and he scored it for a unique combination of his favorite instruments. Most likely the Trio was first performed at the Jacquin home with Franziska playing the piano, Mozart the viola, and Stadler the clarinet.
The Trio is a splendid example of chamber music as a perfectly balanced conversation among equals. Unusually, Mozart begins with a first movement Andante rather than an Allegro. Unusually, too, while the movement is in sonata form, Mozart develops just one theme. To achieve unity he relies on subtle elaborations and instrumental interplay, and on the gruppetto (ornamental turn) that recurs throughout the movement. Like the Andante, the cheerful Menuetto is distinguished by Mozart’s blending of the genial galant style with complex polyphony. The movement’s minor-key trio – with its dynamic contrasts and the viola’s energetic triplets – adds bite; and the reappearance of the trio’s theme at the end of the movement is a delectable touch. Mozart concludes with a rondo that “sings from beginning to end,” in Einstein’s words. It features colorful contrasts, virtuosic turns, melodic and contrapuntal delights, a minor-key episode that briefly turns the movement darker, and a joyful ending that brings the work to a perfect close.