June 30, 2009: Mozart chamber music for piano and strings

The final preview event for the Midsummer Mozart Festival in the programs for the Noontime Concerts™ series at Old St. Mary's Cathedral presented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through two examples of his chamber music at its sunniest.  These were compositions for piano and two (the B-flat major piano trio, K. 502) and three (the E-flat major piano quartet, K. 493) strings, both of which were composed in Vienna in the same calendar year, 1786.  The ensemble consisted of (yet again!) pianist Miles Graber, violinist Mariya Borozina, cellist Eric Sung, and violist Caroline Lee.

For all the ways in which these two compositions are "proximal" (in both time and instrumentation), they offer a perfect demonstration of how Mozart could find diversity in "surface level similarity."  K. 493 is, in many respects, almost like a "concerto for piano and very small orchestra" (a phrase I have previously applied to Johannes Brahms' approach to the piano quartet ensemble).  K. 502, on the other hand, is somewhat like a conversation with a multiplicity of conversants beyond the number of instruments.  Thus, while both violin and cello are given ample solo turns, they also play together as a single "contrapuntal instrument."  Similarly, the piano offers both accompanied melody and counterpoint, in addition to contributing as a continuo for the entire ensemble (including itself?).  Thus the two works, placed side by side, turn out to offer radically different listening experiences, emphasizing once again that even the most seasoned listeners never seem to run out of reasons for listening to Mozart.  Could there have been a better way to end the preview offerings in preparation for the Midsummer Mozart concerts themselves, which will begin in two weeks?