Quixotic Passion

With music by
Telemann, Mozart and Haydn
Soloists: Danielle Sametz, violin and Christopher Buckley, viola

The “quixotic” comes from the famous story by Cervantes, published in 1605 and perhaps the first “Blockbuster”, interpreted by Georg Philipp Telemann in about 1720; while the passion comes from the Mozart Symphony Concertante, K 364 for Violin and viola, which is one of the most sumptuous of Mozart’s compositions; as well as from Haydn’s blatantly passionate Symphony #49, La Passione”, from which we expect an impassioned interpretation from the passionate Maestro Newnham

The Quixotic

During his long and productive life (1681-1767), Telemann became one of the most celebrated of baroque composers. His output was vast, ranging from operas and cantatas to concertos and intimate chamber works.
One of his most charming pieces is the programmatic Don Quixote suite for strings and continuo. The suite opens conventionally enough, with a formal French-style baroque overture. The movements which follow, however, depict different scenes from the adventures of Don Quixote, Cervantes’ famous knight, and his squire, Sancho Panza.
It begins with the “Awakening of Don Quixote,” with string drones evoking sleep, followed immediately by the “attack on the Windmills,” with furiously rushing string passages, while “The Gallop of Sancho Panza’s Mule” shows the ungainly “start-stop” step of the squire’s transport.

The Passion
As with all the other titles that have become attached to Haydn’s symphonies, this did not originate with the composer himself. It was long believed that the nickname “La passione” or The Passion derived from the nature of the music itself: the slow opening movement of the sinfonia da chiesa, its minor key modality and its association with the Sturm und Drang period of Haydn’s symphonic output.
More Passion
At the time of its composition in 1779, Mozart was on a tour of Europe that included Mannheim and Paris. Mozart had been experimenting with the concertante genre and this work can be considered his most successful realization in this cross-over genre between symphony and concerto.