Mother’s Day concert

Festive virtuoso trumpet playing was not yet commonplace in Haydn’s time. Only with the construction of a new type of keyed E-flat trumpet by the Viennese trumpeter Anton Weidinger were such sounds madepossible. This revolution in instrument making did not escape the aged Haydn. Although he did not actually intend to compose any more instrumental concertos, he was persuaded by Weidinger in 1796 to write his very first concerto for this new instrument. It was his last instrumental concerto, and by far his most popular. Mozart’s G minor symphony, also written in Vienna only eight years earlier, is equally popular. However, as fate would have it, he probably never heard it. At least, nothing is known about a performance during Mozart’s lifetime, nor who may have commissioned the work, so there is much mystery surrounding this greatest of Viennese classical symphonies. Thanks to its key of G minor – the same key in which Pamina sings her sorrowful aria in The Magic Flute,“Ewig hin der Liebe Glück” – Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 has always beenregarded as a musical depiction of his difficult circumstances at the time. Although Mozart hardly ever directly incorporated his life experiences into his work, the emotional character of this symphony is indeed undeniable.