Two Songs

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) did not write extensively in the solo song genre. Yet considering his astounding gifts in vocal music generally, we will not be astonished that he could successfully compose such songs when opportunity or inspiration arose. In the case of Abendempfindung, K. 523 (1787), he crafts a tender melody over rippling arpeggio accompaniment. The mood captures the languor of the text, written by an unknown poet and which ruminates over leaving this lovely world behind. Without being particularly daring or inventive here, Mozart is still sensitive to the poem, and he cares enough to create different music for successive moments in the poet’s sentimental reflections.
By comparison Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling, K. 596, is a very brief strophic song making no pretense to emotional drama or transformation. With the voice and keyboard moving in lockstep, the entire texture remains lucid and lithe as in a true folksong. The text by Christian Adolph Overbeck offers a paean to a child’s simple joy in nature and the longings for spring that sustain one through winter. Here the metaphorical meaning is all too clear: the emergence of love after a chilly initial reception. Mozart judiciously set only three of the five overly-sentimental stanzas. The song was written on January 14, 1791 alongside two other songs for children. Ardent fans of Mozart’s music will note the theme’s similarity to music written just a few days earlier for the finale of the great Piano Concerto in B-flat, K. 595. Clearly Bach was not the only composer to self-borrow ideas that caught his fancy.

(c) Jason Stell