Concerto for alphorn and strings

Leopold Mozart’s Concerto for Alphorn epitomizes the spatial aspect of tonight’s concert by featuring a non-classical instrument striking both for its size and its outdoor use. In order to call the instrument to mind, one word alone is needed: Ricola! Yes, the alphorn is more familiar from coughdrop commercials and alpine folklore than from any concert setting. Papa Mozart must have had a specific commission on hand, since the piece does not stake new claims in the area of musical inventiveness. His themes are predominantly triadic and simple, the rhythms predictable, and the chromaticism kept to a bare minimum. Interest centers instead on the unique sonority and spectacle generated by situating a nine-foot long tube in the midst of a full string band. That judgment may seem harsh, but if this piece had been composed for the familiar French horn—bringing it into competition with the four horn concertos written by Wolfgang—we probably wouldn’t even hear the work today. The elder Mozart did not break a sweat turning out pages of G-major scales and arpeggios that hardly rise to the level of his other compositions. This is light, incidental music that strives only to provide only a sonorous diversion, and it is perfectly suited in that way to the ambience of this festival’s opening, outdoor performance.

(c) Jason Stell