Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major: Changing Performance Practices

Abstract

Mozart’s violin concertos occupy a central place in violin repertoire. Their balance of technical difficulty with compositional artistry and integrity of form and structure requires great refinement of technique and a highly developed sense of musicality to perform successfully. They are the test by which the credentials of many musicians are judged at some point in their careers; for violinists, the third and particularly the fourth and fifth concertos are required for audition purposes by nearly every orchestral panel in the world. Given their importance, it is of immense benefit for students and professionals alike to understand the great performance tradition that these works have inspired. Like all performance traditions it has seen significant change over time and, since the advent and spread of recording techniques, it is possible to trace this change through the analysis of selected recordings. Taking the Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major K219 as a case study, this research project aims to investigate the entire performance history of the work, by providing an overview of classical, romantic and modern performing practices that are relevant to the concerto. It then focuses in detail on the performance history of the work in approximately the last 50 years in order to investigate nature of the effect that the historically informed performance movement (HIP) has had on performances in recent times, in order to assist in the preparation of the work for performance in the current musical environment.These two aims are accomplished by using analysis of selected recordings by fourteen artists. The recordings range in date from c1926 to 2014, and in some cases multiple recordings by a single artist are considered. To provide context and inform this analysis, primary and secondary literature that include treatises, concert and recording reviews, newspaper articles and editions of the score, are consulted. The discussion of recordings is structured with reference to specific places in the score, examples of which are included.Despite an interesting absence from documented concert programming in the nineteenth century, the early recorded history of the concerto is dominated by romantic stylings, which were replaced by more uniform modern trends in the mid twentieth century. It seems that the current state of the performance tradition is more varied than it has even been. Artists have taken on varying levels of engagement with historical practice and the sonic influence of HIP has grown. Rather than limiting avenues for interpretation, research in to HIP seems to have provided a source of inspiration that has resulted in a great diversification. Within this diversification, however, there are a few common themes, the most notable of which is a general avoidance of portamento shifting. Hybrid performing solutions that incorporate some historical elements, but not others, have become increasingly common and examples are discussed below.