Beethoven's Eccentric Große Fugue

There is hardly any other fugue in the history of classical music that would attract such a long row of controversial and striking epithets besides the renowned work by one of the most influential composers of all time, Ludwig van Beethoven.

Your face when you are trying to analyse Beethoven's Große Fugue

The massive one-movement “Große Fugue” is definitely in the row of the most complex and complicated classical creations out there. At the time of its composition around 1823, the critics universally reproved the work, calling it all possible negative names: “incomprehensible like Chinese”, “Armaggedon”, “eccentric”, “a confusion of Babel”, “inaccessible”, “filled with paradoxes”, “an indecipherable, uncorrected horror” and so many more. For the record, it annoyed the composer: Beethoven would scream in irritation “Cattle! Asses!” when he found out that the work was never asked for encore, for he never doubted the grandeur of his unique creation.

Originally, the fugue was part of Beethoven’s string quartet No.13 serving its final movement. However, the publisher of the work miraculously managed to convince Beethoven (which is surprising as a fact) to write a different finale. The fugue was thus published independently in 1827.

The awareness of the fugue’s greatness only came in the 20th century. Like Stravinsky mentioned, the fugue was an absolutely contemporary piece that will remain contemporary forever. Perhaps it was too contemporary for its time?

The music critics and researchers never came to a consensus in terms of the fugue’s analysis. Dozens were trying to break down its structure and stylistic patterns but no universal description emerged. Beethoven’s fugue will keep fascinating musicians for years to come, remaining one of his biggest achievements and a truly challenging piece to master.

Edvard Grieg’s One and Only Piano Concerto

The concerto composed by Edvard Grieg was meant to become not just one of the most popular compositions among his own pieces but also a world-class music work, one of the most outstanding and most-performed piano concerti in the world.

The Piano Concerto in A Minor (Op.16) is the only work that Grieg composed in this genre. It was born during his visit to Denmark in 1868, where composer headed to improve his health staying in a favourable climate. Apparently, the climate affected positively his creative skills too.

The concert is often compared to Schumann’s “one and only” Piano Concerto that is also written in the same key. And that’s no wonder: Grieg was a huge fan of Schumann’s talent and was taught piano by his friend (E. Wenzel). There are also clear references to the folk music of Grieg’s native country – Norway. The special motif (falling minor 2nd followed by the falling major 3rd) can be traced both in the concerto and in other works by Grieg, including his first string quartet.

Edvard Grieg could not be present at the premiere of his concerto, although he could easily play the piano part himself. This work became the 1st concerto ever recorded: it was done by Wilhelm Backhaus in 1909.

The version that we hear and enjoy today has gone through 7 major edits by Grieg who made over 300 changes to the original score all in all. The final exemplar of the score was ready just a few weeks before the composer’s death.

To me, this concerto is one of the most relaxing pieces of music ever written. So I gladly put it on when the mood longs for the calm and beautiful. Below is Julia Fischer’s interpretation (piano).

Frédéric Chopin's Signature Lullaby "Berceuse"

Literally, ‘Berceuse’ is translated as ‘lullaby’, or ‘cradle song’ and, to be honest, I would have been the happiest kid if such a lullaby had been played to me as a baby!

Frédéric Chopin had initially been planning to name the work “Variations” as it does consists of variations played in D-major flat. The title was changed to the present-day “Berceuse” at the moment of the piece’s publication in 1844. It was published by J. Meissonnier of Paris and officially dedicated to the lady Elise Gavard who was Chopin’s loyal pupil and admirer of his talent.

It was Chopin who elevated the specific genre of the cradle-song to an entirely new level. The simple harmony ornamented with 14 beautiful accompaniments make Berceuse a wonderful work of art, charming and elegant. Many composers including Franz Liszt later took it as a guide in this form of art song.

One of my favourite interpretations of this magnificent piece of music is the performance by the Brazilian pianist Guiomar Novaes who was among the best musicians of the 20th century.

The DA-DA-DA-DAH Symphony

Perhaps in all of the classical music ever written there is hardly a combination of notes more widely-recognized than the four famous ‘da-da-da-daah’ notes everyone’s ear has heard at least once in their lives. Maybe not everyone would name the title of the work at once, maybe not even the composer of the work, but the pattern is popular far outside the musical circle. Let’s re-live Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5!

Premiered in 1808 in Vienna, the symphony was greatly criticized: the size of the orchestra needed to perform the complex work was too big compared to the ‘norms’ and the symphony appeared very under-rehearsed by its debut. However, Beethoven’s composition genius could not but shine through these drawbacks and the public eventually could not remain indifferent charmed by the impressive scale of the Fifth.

As Schindler described the work, its first sounds were just like “death knocking upon the door”. And indeed, Beethoven’s Fifth was the symbol of victory at the time of World War II, hence the saying ‘V for Victory’. The Roman ‘V’ became a lucky and symbolically powerful coincidence with the symphony’s serial number.

The ”fate motif” excerpt (famous initial pattern) from the symphony in Beethoven’s favorite ‘heroic’ tonality – the key of C minor – was used in all possible spheres of human life, from pop culture, commercials and disco/rock covers to important social projects and events.

Below is a very entertaining vision of the Symphony No. 5 from the point of view of a ‘commentator’. The authors tried to elaborate the work just like a sport event so that the listener was aware of what is going on. Have fun!

Drawing Debussy’s Arabesque No.1

Claude Debussy is well-known to represent the art of impressionism in music, though composer himself did not like to be coined with the term. Labels aside, most of his music has the ability to evoke strong visual ties with the nature. Playing with keys and modes, the composer could skillfully draw the lines and shapes of nature in his pieces.

Perhaps one of the brightest examples of composer’s early impressionistic pieces is the two arabesques he composed in 1888 – 1891. The slower and more melodic Arabesque No.1 and the faster in tempo No.2 are the beginning of Debussy’s distinctive style: this is where he starts using a special impressionistic technique – parallelism of triads and the pentatonic scale.

Classical music is something for our ear and mind. But in case of Debussy, the eye is longing for an image too. Therefore, his works of impressionism, like the two arabesques, are very-well perceived when accompanied with quality visuals. I personally enjoyed listening to the piece watching the vid below. Hope you’ll enjoy it as well!

The Problem of Modern Film Music

We all have a few favorite movies that are remembered and loved not only by the plot but also for some other important components of a good film. Every carefully selected phrase, characteristic acting manner and memorable sound make us sometimes almost forget the movie but keep remembering a saying from it, a behavioral pattern or a song.

Music is by far one of the most important elements that can become key to the success of a certain film work. But as time shows, old film music was way more sophisticated compared to what is offered by the modern cinematography. And the problem to this is what is referred to as ‘temp music’. A notion that makes all major scenes in different film sound almost same and thus not memorable.

Let’s say you are asked to sing some tune from the Pink Panther. No doubt, the first thing you’d remember and reproduce would be the famous to-do, to-do, to-do, to-do, to-doo, the theme composed by Henri Mancini. Or, asked to sing something from a James Bond movie, you would unmistakably come up with the few recognizable notes of the theme.

However, if we take some of the contemporary films like those made by Marvel studio (great films, though!), we might find ourselves at a loss, since hardly anyone would remember a popular brand piece of music from them. Symphonic music is getting widely sampled and is roaming from one film to another, losing the power of its influence on the viewer. The video below describes this problem in detail and I would like you to watch it too. I think that but for it, I would not pay any attention to this issue, for so smooth and unnoticeable this transition has been made.

Wagner’s Tannhäuser in the Scanner

Science is a curious madam. She wants to know where you’ve been, what you’ve done and how you did it. She just has to!

Here’s a pretty amazing video on how this curious madam decided to see what happens to the vocal chords of a professional singer on the inside. Well, rather say from the side. Michael Volle, a German operatic baritone, went inside of the MRI scanner for another performance. He sang the popular yet challenging aria from Richard Wagner’s opera “Tannhäuser” and his moves were carefully watched and analyzed.

Experts say that this experiment might help to solve some of the mysteries concerning the way operatic singers belt out sounds and will also provide more information on the mechanisms and special features of the vocal tract in general.

Amazing Grace: Important Symbol of Christian World

Amazing Grace is among the music compositions most loved by the English language world, particularly by the Americans. It can be heard in most churches, beautifully sung by mixed choirs, it is performed by solo performers at various occasions – contests, auditions – at stage, it can be heard at the homes of common people at festive holidays, religious and not. And it could be even heard sung by the President of the U.S. Barack Obama in public (which was later featured by Coldplay in their song Kaleidoscope). All in all, they say the approximate number of times the hymn is performed annually reaches 10 million. Why so?

Barack Obama sings Amazing Grace (2015)

Digging into the history behind the piece, I realized that it has some of the elements that could not but make it popular among the people. Based on the words and story of the English poet John Newton, the hymn has become a universal work to encompass what people value in life. According to the author’s experience where he passed the way from sinning to redemption (J. Newton was in slave trading for a long time), it becomes obvious that even the toughest hardships in life can be resolved with the help of God and faith. The moment Newton begged for God’s mercy in a violent storm became the start of his spiritual conversion.

The message of the spiritual is so emblematic that the composition crossed the line of religious music pretty fast and welled over into the secular genre. Thousands of all possible music arrangements appeared with time and the interest to Amazing Grace has not run out of steam yet. Arrangers tried adding most unusual and unexpected elements to the hymnal, making it sound a bit jazzy, or a bit soulful, for example. The variety of instrumental combinations for which the piece was score is also surprisingly extensive. Some things will always be valued, it seems.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – a YouTube Star

In 2012, I was honestly surprised to find out that the video to a pop song by some Korean guy beat all possible records and broke YouTube’s views counter exceeding its limits. Of course, pop music’s feature is its massive character, it’s meant to be popular worldwide and cover the widest range of audience.

Classical music, unlike Pop, is a much narrower sphere aimed at the limited audience. No matter how beautiful classics are, tastes differ and the crowd prefers what’s mainstream.

In this regard, my big pleasure was to find out that a few days ago one of the most well-known classical masterpieces – Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” – became another ‘YouTube star’ by passing the 100 mln views milestone. Isn’t it great that a huge music work like that is in the row of videos most viewed by the people? Could Vivaldi imagine something like that back in 1725 when his set of four concerti was premiered in Amsterdam? It still far from Psy’s Gangnam Style’s 2,6 bln views yet but I think it’s already an important sign.

I sincerely hope that classical music will become more popular among the young people of today.

Maurice Ravel’s Bolero Is Free

Composing one of his last works, Maurice Ravel had hardly thought that this one would become his most renowned and well-known piece of music. “Boléro” was intended to become a ballet to be commissioned by the talented actress and ballet dancer Ida Rubinstein, a most charming and attractive woman, on top of that, who asked Ravel to orchestrate 6 pieces by Isaac Albéniz' known as “Iberia”.

Ida Rubinstein (1913)

Portrait by Antonio de la Gandara 

However, another orchestration to that piano set already existed (by Enrique Fernández Arbós), so Ravel did not want to sort out the copyright issues. Instead, he decided to create a completely new piece. One of composer’s interests was experimenting with dance themes. He loved to reinvent and restyle various dances, so the one-movement “Boléro” (the name of a Spanish dance too) became a perfect foothold for that.

The sensational popularity and success that followed became a sheer surprise to Ravel. Premiered in 1928 in Paris, the musical work was a big delight to the public. The author, however, was not always pleased with the interpretation of his creation on stage. Ravel often judged the conductors for the too fast tempo. Even Arturo Toscanini’s premiere of “Boléro” in New York (that made the work popular in the USA) did not please the composer, for the same reason – a too fast tempo!

These disputes, however, did not stop the ballet from becoming one of the most popular masterpieces in the history of music. According to the French Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers, the performance of “Boléro” begins every 10 minutes somewhere in the world. Just think about it!

And more figures: $60 mln is the sum of the royalties earned by the copyright holders of the famous piece since as long as 1960. But on May 1, 2016, this flow of royalties has stopped. Maurice Ravel’s “Boléro” has officially entered into the public domain and is free now.

Can-Can by Jacques Offenbach

The scandalous and provocative dance ‘of prostitutes’, can-can was to traditional dancing culture of the 19th century what rock’n’roll was to music at its origins. The physically demanding dance was not accepted that easily by the conservative society and was often banned in public. People protested against seeing women’s underwear being revealed so obviously during the performance of the famous high kicks (What would they say to modern ‘twerk’, huh?).

Cancan dancers

In fact, the origin of the now popular French dance is not so naughty. It is believed that cancan could have derived from quadrille dance (final part) or the acrobatic tricks of the entertainer known as Charles Mazurier (1820s). Moreover, at the very beginning both sexes performed the dance and there were solely male cancan groups too. The famous cabaret of Paris – Moulin Rouge – brought to light the first female cancan star-dancers (La Goulue & Jane Avril) and the notion “French cancan” turned into a national peculiarity attracting tourists from abroad.

The catchy tune that most of us would associate with the popular dance was composed by the French cellist and composer born in Germany – Jacques Offenbach. His “Can-Can” is actually titled “Infernal Galop” and is a part of the classical operetta “Orpheus in the Underworld” first performed in 1858. Just like the dance, this music work shocked the public at the premiere with too much satire in it. The entire work became a parody for the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Gluck.

Offenbach’s ‘can-can’ was also arranged by the famous French composer Camille Saint-Saëns and appears in his renowned The Carnival of the Animals, where the piece is used for the tortoise part.  

Schubert's String Quartet "Death and the Maiden"

This quartet can by right be called one of the strongest pillars in the genre of chamber music. Most of the string quartets out there would necessarily have it in their repertoire. It might seem that the negative emotions in our life, be it anger, fear, despair and what not, are the best catalysts for creating art masterpieces, compared to the emotions of happiness that trigger fewer grand works.

Original manuscript of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden"

Schubert wrote the work in 1824, during a very hard period of life for him. He lived in poverty and his health was rapidly leaving him (assumable, syphilis). The moment he realized that death is soon and inevitable, is brightly depicted in this music work. Although death is the subject of the 2nd movement, one can note that it soars through the entire composition. The string quartet “Death and the Maiden” was not a completely new work. The composer took its theme from his earlier work of the same name, a lied based on a poem by Matthias Claudius that he wrote in 1817.

Reportedly, the first violinist to perform the quartet (Schuppanzigh) was not quite impressed with Schubert’s depressive composition. However, after being published 3 years after the composer’s death it promptly conquered its place at the concert stage. The work was soon transcribed by Robert Franz and Gustav Mahler and later, in the 20th century, versions for full orchestra appeared (J. Foulds, A. Stein). The memorable composition also inspired the creation of the play/film of the same name, as well as was used in a number of other films like “Sherlock Holmes” or Polanski’s “What?”, for example.

Personally, I like perhaps the only death-unrelated part of the work – the tarantella at the very end of the quartet. It is believed that tarantella dance used to be a traditional treatment for madness and a way of fighting off death (after a tarantula’s bite). Well, maybe this was the expression of the subtle hope that was still beaming in the heart of the dying composer.

Coldplay’s Magic Up & Up as Farewell Song

When it comes to rock music, one of the reasons for Britain to be proud in this regard is the fact that it’s homeland to one of the best alternative rock bands of today – Coldplay. Since 1996 when it was formed by Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland, the band has released 7 studio albums, the latest being recorded in 2015. The good thing is that it’s a bright work, the bad thing – perhaps it’s a farewell studio work of the legendary music artists.

“A Head Full of Dreams”, that’s how it’s titled, is a set of 11 beautiful conceptual songs, the final being ‘final’ in many senses. It’s titled “Up & Up” (the sheet music is available here), and it’s a perfect way to make a pause in creating music, which is the band’s intention, according to their frontman Chris Martin. The song is dreamy, poignant but at the same time full of hope and encouragement. Ever a wider spectrum of emotions is caused after watching the impossible music video to this song.

It makes one’s mind expand because of the extraordinary surreal imagery used. A pop-corn erupting volcano, an underwater-flying eagle and Chris-Martin-the-Gulliver resting between the mountains and the ocean. The stunningly unusual perspectives are only part of the whole thing. The lyrics, accompanied by the speaking visuals, touch upon some of the most important social and political issues of today and call for fixing all that’s gone wrong with humanity.

I love works like that, truly. When music turns from a fun-to-listen thingy into a powerful tool of sending a message to the mankind. With the scale of influence Coldplay has on the hearts and minds of their broad audience, songs like that could hopefully change something.

Longest Piano Concert in the World (Chilly Gonzales)

They say that the more you practice the better. That practicing should be a never-ending process and you could spend your life doing it and still find a lot to master. There’s a very true-to-life tip as far as practicing goes:

Best Practicing Tip

But how much can a person actually play the instrument on end? I was curious to find the answer and did some googling recently. From tips of advice on the necessary amount of time to practice per day (a few hours is a must), I then go to the extremes of the matter.

People love setting records and beating them. To try oneself, to push the limits, to prove something to people, to be the winner and realize one’s absolute uniqueness (on the planet!) – these are perhaps the major aims of such record-setters. I got curious what a musician can be capable of in terms of performing. There a lot of interesting music records in the Guinness Book of Records, like the longest career as performer/music teacher, the most prolific creative life, the loudest player, the fastest player, and so many more. But I was mostly interested in how long a person can spend at his/her favourite instrument.

Below you can see a video excerpt from the piano concert by the Canadian pianist and composer known as Chilly Gonzales. How long do you think a solo concert can last? 27 hours! Can you imagine? The musician spent all that time beside his piano, performing for the public. Of course, the entire experiment was performed under the guidance of a team of specialist including doctors, etc. However, it left me amazed by what humans can actually do if they do not lack ardor and motivation.

Chopin: Heroic Polonaise, Op. 53

The Piano has always been my major musical instrument and therefore there is a special list of piano solos that are either among my favorites to play or that make the so-called ‘goals’ as far as piano performance plans go.

Original music score of Chopin's Polonaise Op.53

Today I will dwell a bit on the second part of that list where my to-play pieces wait for their glory hour. And on of such pieces is Chopin’s Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53. It’s been on the list for 4 years already and it’s high time to settle this matter!

Chopin composed the piece in 1842 and dedicated it to his financial advisory during his stay in Paris – Auguste Léo. His lover George Sand strongly associated the composition with the French Revolution on hearing it. That’s where the title “Heroic” comes from, although the composer himself was not quite eager to give the piece such a nickname. However, the vigour and the expressive power of the polonaise was so dramatic that the sobriquet hitched too tightly until nowadays.

Featuring quite a number of really difficult techniques, this piano solo will not yield easily to an inexperienced piano player. The rapid octave scaling, wide-fingering chords, fast perfect fourths and weaker-fingers trills will make one stay in the practice room for hours on end. The brilliant Polonaise is admired by pianists worldwide but requires immense proficiency to play it brilliantly on your own.

Time has come to raise the piano skills to near-virtuosity, so I’ll put here one of the pro interpretations by a young girl in order to have someone to get inspired by. I will, Mr. Chopin, make you proud one day too!

Paganini's Caprice No. 24: Advanced Violinists Only

What’s the caprice anyway? 24 is number of the last caprice in Paganini’s set of 24 works for solo violin. All of those were composed in the period between 1802 and 1817 and are created in the form of etudes. Each of them was aimed at training an exact skill of a performer, be it fast switching of strings or other.

Each of the caprices had a certain dedication, most;y to famous musicians like, for example, Louis Spohr or Franz Liszt or Antonio Bazzini, among others.

As for the final caprice (24th), it became Paganini’s dedication to his own self. Or to be more precise, “to my self, regrettably buried”, according to the author. Up to now, No. 24 is considered to be one of the most technically difficult pieces for advanced violin performers only. A performer like should be skillful enough to rapidly shift the scales, possess the parallel octaves technique, left-hand pizzicato and not only.

Now look at one of the really good examples of such a gifted performance of this work. Below is Hilary Hahn's brilliant interpretation:

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6 From the Inside

In 1893, the great Russian composer Petr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's completed his Symphony No.6 that is commonly known as 'Pathétique'. So why was it ‘pathetic’ anyway?

Petr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

First of all, the symphony became composer’s last work. Petr Ilyich dies just 9 days after it was finally created. Luckily, within this short period of time, Saint Petersburg saw the premiere of the soon-to-become famous music work. This is another peculiarity, as a situation like this is a rare thing in the history of music. Too many outstanding composers never lived to the acclaim or even premier of their masterpieces. Moreover, Tchaikovsky not only saw it but took part in it – he led the first performance himself.

Another explanation of the ‘pathetic’ title for the symphony could lie in its music mood. It is well-known that Tchaikovsky frequently suffered from depression which could not but pour into some of his music compositions. The start of the work on the No.6 was not quite successful and the desperate composer tore up his draft manuscripts a few times.

The Symphony Pathétique as we know and love it today slightly differs from the one people listened to on the day of its premier. Right after the performance Tchaikovsky made a few more corrections in the score. Despite all the hardships on the way to creating that masterpiece, Tchaikovsky realized that it was to become one of his most decent works in a lifetime, he even mentioned in the letter to his brother.
The Russian title of the piece does not put any accent on the depressive mood of the work, however, musicologists agree on No. 6 being composer’s sort of a ‘suicidal note’.

Loved the video of the symphony performed in a 360-degree mode. How lovely it feels to ‘be part’ of the performance of such an important work!

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto on Bayan

Advanced violin players are familiar with this outstanding work by Pyotr Ilyich. The famous Violin Concerto in D Major is known worldwide as one of the most difficult works for violin. The 3-part piece requires huge technical skill and immense concentration to be performed flawlessly (especially taking into consideration that there’s no pause between the last two movements).

Pyotr Tchaikovski and Iosif Kotek 

Written in 1878 on the shore of Lake Geneva, the concerto became composer’s way of the big depression he suffered after the devastating marriage. The young violinist Iosif Kotek (who presumably was composer’s lover) served as the major catalyst for the composition’s creation. However, to avoid the gossips, Tchaikovsky did not officially dedicate the work to his pupil.

Besides the violin, the original instrumentation of the piece includes flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani and strings. The last thing you’d probably expect this piece to be heard on is bayan. But just listen how brilliantly the third movement sounds performed on it! The young man Alexandr Chrustevich does some little magic on his instrument, so fast and yet so flawless.

Maurice Ravel's "Jeux d'Eau" for Piano

Maurice Ravel composed this piece in 1901 and admitted that it was the beginning of a certain novelty that appeared in his music style.

Literally, “Jeux d’eau” is translated from French as ‘water games’, but you can come across other translations of the piece’s title such as ‘playing water’ or even ‘fountains’. The original manuscript contains an inscription made by Ravel that says ‘river god laughing as the water tickles him…’ This is a quote from a poem by Henri de Régnier – “Cité des eaux”.

In fact, the creation of this solo piano piece had a couple of powerful influences. First of all, at the time of composition, Ravel was a student of Gabriel Fauré and it is Fauré to whom “Jeux d’eau” was dedicated. Another strong inspiration was Franz Liszt. Particularly, his piece “The Fountains of the Villa d'Este” from the 1883 “Third Year” suite. The playful melodic sound of the water cascades made many composers think of expressing this natural phenomenon in their music, in fact.

The first pianist to perform “Jeux d’eau” publicly in 1902 was Ricardo Viñes who often premiered piano works by notable composers like Debussy, Falla, Satie. I personally love the 1977’s performance of this beautiful piano work by Martha Argerich:

Dream Big: Violin and Surfing

Everyone has a dream.  Some have more than one but I think everyone has, at least, one Big Dream that always quite distant and somehow impossible. But dreaming makes us move, keeps us going through time hope to get to the desired destination one day.

Many people imagine musicians as creative but a bit nerdy people who spend hours at their work desks or exercise rooms full head in the sheet music. It is a fact that music requires concentration and full focus on the matter, whether you are composing or playing a piece. And I think you will rarely find a musician who’s performing a concert tonight, and tomorrow is skydiving from 4000m. Seems to be a rare combination, doesn’t it.

But the story of Nuno Santos proves that people like this exist. Nuno is a teacher of violin who lives in Portugal. And Portugal is the place that has Nazare. And Nazare is one of the world’s most famous surfing spots. Moreover, it’s not Just some spot for surfing, but it’s a place for really bold people – big wave surfers. During the biggest storm waves can be as tall as 30m here.
As a person living by the ocean, Nuno loved surfing. But he loves his violin too. So one day he decided he would like to combine these two incompatible passions. That became his dream. In 2015, right on Christmas, Nuno Santos’ dream came true. He took his violin on top of the wave at Nazare. Jingle Bells was picked as the glorious melody, so perfect for the Christmas occasion. It was not a really long ride but it surely was inspiring. I can only envy people who set a goal as impossible as this one and who see their dreams go live!

Constanze Mozart, Woman Behind the Genius

As the saying goes, ‘behind every successful man there is always a woman’. No, Mozart’s wife Constanze was not the one who pushed him and made a great composer out of what he was from scratch. Not at all. But she was the woman who drove his inspiration and encouraged him for experimenting. And simply, she was his Love, the kind of Love that is real and has the power of creating beautiful things.

Constanze Mozart

(from Mozart’s love letter to his wife)
“… I get all excited like a child when I think about being with you again — If people could see into my heart I should almost feel ashamed. Everything is cold to me — ice-cold. — If you were here with me, maybe I would find the courtesies people are showing me more enjoyable, — but as it is, it’s all so empty — adieu — my dear — I am Forever your Mozart who loves you with his entire soul.”

Although their marriage did not start as smoothly as other ‘big marriages’ of the time, the couple still managed to make it happen officially after acquiring all the necessary consents, including the one from Mozart’s father Leopold.

Constanze was a very well-educated woman who besides all was a musician herself. She loved music and therefore could be her husband’s best music critic and advisor. Mozart dedicated some works purely to Constanze, like Sonata for Violin and Piano No.30 in C Major, K.403. Many of them, however, remained uncompleted. Other works had parts for his wife; for example, in the well-known Grand Mass in C minor there is a soprano specially for Constanze who performed it at the premiere in 1783.

Constanze Mozart was also the one who talked her husband into writing Fantasy and Fugue, K. 394, being a lover of Baroque style counterpoint. It happened after Mozart got to study the manuscripts of Handel and Bach and got very excited about the materials.

After Wolfgang’s death his wife put a lot of effort into publishing his works and organizing memorial concerts. Besides commemorating her husband it eventually made her wealthy, which was quite an achievement taking into account all the debts Mozart left her with after death.

There are a lot of women that influenced positively the creative work of their husbands, themselves being left in the shadow. But for their driving force, we would have probably missed some of the greatest masterpieces.