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Johanna Doderer: Ersteinspielung „Mon cher cousin“
Auftragswerk der Stadt Augsburg zum 250. Geburtstag von Maria Anna
Thekla Mozart (dem “Bäsle”), Text von Susanne Wolf
Carl Stamitz: Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester Nr. 1 G-Dur
Franz Danzi: Variationen über „La ci darem la mano“ (Don
Giovanni) für Violoncello
und Orchester
Wolfgang A. Mozart: Divertimento D-Dur KV 136
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Salome Kammer, Sopran
Monika Leskovar, Violoncello
Ulf Schirmer, Dirigent

olfgang Amadeus Mozart and his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart – the  Augsburg Mozart Festival celebrates the th birthday of the “Bäsle”. In a commissioned work, Johanna Doderer composed a “resounding” answer to Wolfgang’s letters to his “Bäsle”. Wolfgang repeatedly called his cousin “my dear little cello” – an instrument that he astonishingly never wrote any concerto for. To make up for this, we hear contemporaneous works by Stamitz and Danzi, interpreted by young cellist Monika Leskovar.

An eloquent Relationship – Mozart and the Augsburg “Bäsle”

That everything at the 2008 Augsburg Mozart Festival would revolve around the Salzburg ‘wunderkind’ was to be expected. However, this year, the festival spotlighted Mozart’s “Bäsle” – “little cousin” – Maria Anna Thekla with the premiere of a work commissioned from Austrian composer Johanna Doderer (*1969), which acknowledges the “Bäsle” in a special manner. This work has now been recorded on CD for the first time. In addition, the music comes into focus in a highly varied dialog with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – using compositions written up to the present day, which again points out the great classicist’s relevance.

On the one hand, we have the so-called Mannheim School, which was essential in the development of the classic and which greatly influenced the young Mozart. In the second half of the 18th century, the Mannheim hofkapelle of Prince Elector Karl Theodor was the most famous orchestra of its time. Composer and violinist Johann Stamitz (1717–57), originally from Bohemia, had shaped the ensemble as its kapellmeister, enabling a modern compositional style by introducing innovative effects like sharp dynamic contrasts, exciting crescendos and soloistic use of woodwinds.

Johann’s son Carl Stamitz (1745–1801), who first played violin in the Mannheim Hofkapelle before undertaking extended concert tours throughout Europe, was already thoroughly spellbound by the rich, transparent classicistic style. This is also true for the first of his three cello concertos which have come down to us. In the opening Allegro con spirito, both the orchestral treatment as well as the virtuoso entry of the solo instrument demonstrate vitality, a wealth of diversity and – despite an occasional and highly effective darker turn of phrase – lighthearted imperturbability. In contrast, the cello seems to begin with a sensitive aria in the following Romance.

The agile and dancelike Final-Rondo also takes recourse to a courtly minuet, artfully ornamented by the soloist, before return of the main theme that guarantees the piece’s buoyant conclusion. From the Rhine to Munich’s Isar: when Karl Theodor first became Prince Elector of Bavaria, he moved his court to Munich in 1778. Three years later, Mozart’s Idomeneo experienced its premiere there, with the 25-year-old composer expressing particular enthusiasm for the quality of Karl Theodor’s court orchestra, which had likewise moved to Munich.

The ensemble’s cellists included soloist Innozenz Danzi from Italy as well as his younger son Franz Danzi (1763–1826). The latter emerged as a compositional talent early on; as a conductor, he championed Mozart’s operas as well as the works of the young Carl Maria von Weber. His own compositions already point to the musical romantic era. The famous duet between Giovanni and Zerlina from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Là ci darem la mano, for example, was often used as a basis for variations, including by Beethoven or Chopin.

In his musical and easily understandable work, Danzi shows imagination and taste as well as a welcome touch of humor, letting the solo cello shine with difficult but rewarding passages. From the Isar to the Salzach (Salzburg): the need for classy and prestigious musical entertainment was just as large in the Prince Archbishop’s city of Salzburg as in Mannheim and Munich – which is why Mozart wrote so many divertimentos, serenades and cassations.

Mozart elevated these genres, derived from the baroque suite, to the heights of art by enriching these rather simple pieces with elegance, emotional depth and last but not least, lively allusions. The Divertimento K. 136 (125a), written when he was sixteen, is among his most popular creations. The lighthearted atmosphere of the first movement is darkened in the development by ‘empfindsam’ minor touches, while the finely chiseled Andante sings praises to the Galante style. The impetuous Finale boasts inventive question-answer games.

And finally to the Lech (Augsburg): Mozart’s punning and vulgar letters to his Augsburg “Bäsle” Maria Anna Thekla have come down to us – but unfortunately, not their answers. Composer Johanna Doderer (*1969) and author Susanne F. Wolf (*1964) have tried to fill in these blanks with the work Mon cher cousin. The work is about the thoughts of this girl, revolving between punning, courteous inquiries and concrete considerations on a possible future together – lastly, of course, recognized as futile. Doderer’s music imparts depth to this inner monolog, arranging the constant fluctuations that take place at a number of levels into lucid, immediately comprehensible tones.

The suspenseful atmosphere constantly veers; changing orchestral colors open doors to new inner rooms. The seemingly naïve, submissive and bourgeois daughter gradually becomes a self-assured young woman, a “demanding woman in the best sense of the word” (Doderer). Childhood and adulthood seem to be simultaneously present in this phase of adolescent upheaval; simple signal motives using the basic intervals of an octave, fifth and third contrast with clusters and complex sound carpets.

The playful stands adjacent to rationally oriented reflections on career and earnings, but also alongside passion, desire, doubt and jealousy. Towards the end of the work, Mozart’s cousin dashes her own illusions before it’s too late: what she will never write her dearest Wolfgang is her spoken realization that on account of him, there can never be any future together. “Another one will come, but she will always love Mozart,” is how the composer characterizes the work’s poetically open conclusion.



Johanna Doderer

Voralberg composer Johanna Doderer was born in 1969 in Bregenz, Austria. Today, she lives and works in Vienna. She first studied composition in Graz with Beat Furrer, continuing in Vienna with Klaus Peter Sattler and Erich Urbanner. Her current work ranges from chamber music to orchestral compositions up to and including opera, which she intends to focus on in the future.

Her second opera, Strom, successfully premiered in the Museumsquartier Wien (Vienna) on September 1, 2006. Her commissioned work Für Akkordeon und Streicher 1 was performed at the international Klangspuren festival in Schwaz, Austria on September 27, 2006. After an exceptionally successful premiere of her First Symphony, dedicated to Alfons Metzger, the premiere of her work The Big Rain, which opened the Bruckner festival, was greatly praised as well.

Johanna Doderer has won many awards and scholarships including the scholarship of the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra in 2001, the Cultural Prize of the City of Vienna (in music) in 2002, the Austrian State Scholarship for Composers in 2002; she was also composer-in-residence in the Vienna Concertverein in the 2004/05 season.

She has been commissioned to write works for the Vienna Concertverein, the Bregenz Festival, ADEvantgarde Munich, the Klangforum Vienna, the Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble, the Europeo Antidogma Musica Torino ensemble and the Nuovi Spazi Musicali Roma festival. Further commissions include her Symphony 1 (premiere in Vienna on April 13, 2007) as well as a work for Chorus and Orchestra (premiere in early 2009 in Munich with the Munich Radio Orchestra). The composition on this CD was written for the 2008 Augsburg Mozart Festival.

Monika Leskovar

Monika Leskovar was born in 1981, studied violoncello from 1996 to 2005 at the “Hanns Eisler” Academy of Music in Berlin and worked there as an assistant to David Geringas. She completed her post-graduate studies in 2005. She has taken master classes with such artists as Mstislav Rostropovich, Bernard Greenhouse, Leslie Parnas, Eleonore Schoenfeld and Sylvia Sondeckiene.

Monika Leskovar has won a number of first prizes at international cello competitions, including at the 5th Adam International Cello Festival and Competition (New Zealand), the 2nd International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians (Japan), as well as second prize and special audience prize at the International ARD Music Competition in 2001.

She appears with major conductors (e.g. Valerij Gergiev, Kazushi Ono, Alan Bouribaev, Martin Turnovsky, Vasily Sinaisky, Vjekoslav Šutej, Johannes Wildner) and performs with renowned orchestras (e.g. the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic and the Slovenian Philharmonic, the Royal Symphony Orchestra Seville, St. Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra and the Zagreb Philharmonic).

In the area of chamber music, she has concertized with Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica, Tabea Zimmermann, Sofia Gubaidulina, Mario Brunello and the Prague Chamber Orchestra, among others. Monika Leskovar appears at international music festivals and gives recitals in Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. She has presented a selection of 19th and 20th century cello music on three CD recordings. Monika Leskovar plays an instrument built by Vincenzo Postiglione in 1884 which is sponsored by the city of Zagreb and the Zagreb Philharmonic.

Salome Kammer

Salome Kammer’s talents as singer, actress, violoncellist and vocal artist defy traditional artistic genres. Her musical education (she studied cello from 1977 to 1984 with Maria Kliegel, Janos Starker and Daniel Grosgurin) was followed by an engagement as an actress at the theatre in Heidelberg, where she performed drama as well as musical theatre, and operetta.

Through her part in the film-epos Die zweite Heimat (“Second Home”) by Edgar Reitz, she became known to a wider audience. During the shooting, which lasted from 1988 to 1991, she began to take voice lessons with Yaron Windmüller and others. Since 1990, she has been performing as a vocal soloist in contemporary music concerts at home and abroad.

Salome Kammer’s repertoire encompasses all musical styles from avant-garde, virtuosic voice experiments, classical melodrama, Lieder recitals, dada lyrics to jazz and Broadway songs. Numerous contemporary music works were dedicated to and premiered by her, both nationally and internationally. Composers such as Helmut Oehring, Wolfgang Rihm, Isabel Mundry, Bernhard Lang, Peter Eötvös or Jörg Widmann have written for her.

She also performs such classics of modern music as Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire, Die sieben Todsünden by Weill, La fabricca illuminata by Nono as well as works by composers such as Cage, Berio, Zender and Kurtág. In 2001, Salome Kammer very successfully performed the speaking part in Helmut Lachenmann’s opera Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern. For many years she has been singing Weill and Eisler Lieder recitals as well as her own musical cabaret programmes.

Salome Kammer teaches Theory and Practice of Contemporary Music Performance at the Munich Conservatory. Numerous radio and CD productions document her artistic output.
www.salomekammer.de

Ulf Schirmer

Ulf Schirmer has been the artistic director of the Munich Radio Orchestra since September 2006, an ensemble with which he had previously worked intensively. In addition to a CD of Martin’s Pilate and a portrait of singer Adrianne Pieczonka, Ulf Schirmer has also recorded Lehár’s Schön ist die Welt – a recording which was included as one of the best of 2006 by the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik. The conductor achieved sensational success with his direction of three one-act works by Henze in Munich’s Prinzregententheater in November 2006.

Ulf Schirmer was born near Bremen and studied at the Hamburg Academy of Music with György Ligeti, Christoph von Dohnányi and Horst Stein. He is now a teacher at that institution as well. He gained important experiences in his work as assistant to Lorin Maazel and as house conductor of the Vienna State Opera. In addition, he was the GMD in Wiesbaden and Principle Conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he led in tours throughout Europe and America, and with which he debuted at the BBC Proms in London.

The conductor is a regular guest at the Vienna State Opera, where he debuted in 1984 with Berio’s Un re in ascolto, as well as at the Bregenz and Salzburg Festivals, at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at the Graz opera, where he conducted Wagner’s Ring. His repertoire ranges from Mozart’s Zauberflöte to Verdi’s Nabucco to Berg’s Lulu. He was especially praised for his Salome at the Scala in Milan as well as Le nozze di Figaro and Elektra in Tokyo.

In the course of his extensive concert activities, Schirmer has worked with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna and Bamberg Symphony Orchestras, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestre de la Suisse romande and the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, among others. His CDs include Strauss’ Capriccio with Kiri Te Kanawa and the Vienna Philharmonic as well as Carl Nielsen’s opera Maskerade; he received two Grammy nominations for the latter.