Biedermeier beauty
The early Romantic repertoire for the soprano recorder is given a welcome addition with these unpretentious flageolet variations by Franz Xaver Mozart.
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart was the youngest child of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Born in the year of his death, he was destined to become a musician as a young child and received composition and instrumental lessons in his hometown of Vienna from Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, among others. Throughout his life, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart only appeared in official documents under the name "W. A. Mozart Sohn". The demands associated with this and the constant comparison with his father caused him to doubt himself. At the age of twenty, he entered the service of various aristocratic families in the Galician capital of Lemberg as a piano teacher and performed as a pianist and conductor. He wrote various compositions for the newly founded "Dilettanten-Concerte" - possibly including this one Variations for fortep: and flageolet on the march from Alinean opera by Henri-Montan Berton that premiered in Paris in 1803.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the recorder-like flageolet became increasingly popular and manifested itself in various forms - e.g. as an English or French flageolet. It is not possible to determine which type Mozart used, but as the score calls for an instrument in the four-foot position, a version for soprano recorder suggests itself. The piano and recorder enter into a dialog and take turns playing the leading part. As the underlying theme from Aline the pleasing variations also dispense with overly melodic or harmonic moments of shock.
An intermediate level of playing is required; only the required dynamics and the associated intonation issues must be technically mastered by the player. However, this trouvaille is a welcome addition to the narrow early Romantic original repertoire for recorder and is pleasing in its simple Biedermeier beauty.
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Variations on the March from "Aline", for soprano recorder (flute, oboe, violin) and piano, first edition edited by Nikolaj Tarasov and Helmut Schaller, DM 1431, € 13.95, Doblinger, Vienna 2012
