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Mozart: Violin Concerto no. 3 in G (Part I)

© Yen Loong Teoh

The year 1756 marked a turning point in history -- at least in the sense of music history. On January 27, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, and since then, we have him as the genius, the prodigy, the immortal. Perhaps Mozart is the most precocious composer the world has ever known, and we can do nothing but to be awed by his abilities as a child. Few days before his 5th birthday, Wolfgang already composed his first work for the keyboard in just a matter of 30 minutes. After that it was history. He continued pouring out compositions: his first symphony was composed at 8; the first mass when 12, and the first opera – La finta semplice – when he was just 13.

Before the age of 10, he already toured London and Paris along with his sister, Maria-Anna, and impressed the audience wherever he went. At the same time, he had 5 symphonies, several sonatas for different instruments under his belt. Everyone was impressed, even the royalties had to book him before hand for concerts. He just swept across the society by storm.

For string works, Mozart wrote a total of 5 violin concertos, and all were written primarily for him to play as a soloist. Once he wrote to his father, Leopold,

"I played as if I were the greatest fiddler in all of Europe.."

and yet the reply from his father,

"You yourself do not know how well you play the violin; if only you would do yourself credit and play with energy, with your whole heart and mind, yes, just as if you were the premier violinist in Europe!"

Well we don't really know how well Mozart played, but from the concertos written we could safely judge how well Mozart composed. Although he wrote 5 concertos for violin, the one I would like to concentrate here is the most popular of the set, the no. 3 in G, K216. The concerto was written in 1775, when he was in the service of the church court at Salzburg at the age of 19.

The young Mozart reached his full maturity when composing this concerto in G. After the Baroque period ended with JS Bach, his son, JC Bach, composed music that started the Classical period. Haydn, Mozart and the early Beethoven dominated the entire period, but if Haydn still lingering over his quasi-Baroque style of composition and Beethoven went far ahead exploring the Romantic style of writing, Mozart would be the true heir of Classical period composer. Really, this concerto was composed without any rules. And to know that Mozart could create a whole new range of expressions in the concerto form at the age of 19!

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