Mozart Hated It–We Should Love It?

Somewhere in my top-10 of all-time vapid pieces of music is Mozart's concerto for flute and harp, K. 299, in c major. It is dull, totally devoid of inspiration, and defines the tedious listening experience.

Virtually every radio announcer who introduces this playlist favorite will point out how much Mozart is reputed to have hated the flute. And then the announcer chuckles as though this is the last word in musical-genius irony and on they go to play the piece.

Okay: Mozart hated the flute, why should we listen to it play this work? It's exceptionally clear from his writing how much Mozart disliked this instrument–every note, every melody, every orchestral turn displays an utter indifference to wasting even a drop of his composing talent.

Perhaps it is thought that this concerto might partake of the Queen-of-the-Night syndrome, in which we understand that Mozart so despised the soprano who would play the role in the premier of "The Magic Flute" that he wrote an aria to torture her with as much unsingable music as his genius could generate. And, of course, it's a fabulous coloratura tour-de-force for those who can negotiate it nowadays.

But you see the difference, of course. Mozart worked at torturing that soprano musically and the outcome is brilliant pyrotechnics. In the silly flute and harp concerto his indifference to expending any musicianship on the commission is so evident that he would have phoned it in had phones been invented. The work is so dull that I suspect even Salieri would have quickly disavowed it should it have been mistakenly attributed to him.

Why did I think to mention this now? The wretched concerto was just beginning on the radio station that I had been listening to.

Posted on August 10, 2009 at 12.58 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Music & Art, Splenetics

One Response

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  1. Written by BearToast Joe
    on Monday, 10 August 2009 at 16.15
    Permalink

    I know, I know! Ah, but the Queen of the Night . . . . . .
    Maybe he only liked the magic variety. And, I've heard other stuff of Mozart "adapted" for flute. Go figure!

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