Who inspired Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

When it comes to the composers that inspired Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one man in particular stands out: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. CPE Bach, as he's often called, was the second oldest and most famous son of none other than Johann Sebastian Bach. He was an influential composer during the second half of the 18th century, which straddled the Baroque and Classical eras of music.

You could describe him as a musical idol — he was even more famous than his father in his time! Mozart admired not only CPE's talent but also his courage to experiment with new sounds.

CPE Bach composed more than 1,000 pieces and also wrote treatises on piano playing. In 1768 he became the music director of the city of Hamburg, remaining in the position for 20 years until his death. During this time, he composed six symphonies, including the one we'll hear in this recording, his Symphony for Strings and Basso Continuo in B-flat Major.

CPE Bach: An innovator in his time

The dramatic progression, the expressiveness of the strings, the feelings and emotions in the music — all this was new in the early days of the Classical era. According to CPE Bach, the real masterpieces of the time would be marked by beauty, boldness and innovation — characteristics that featured in his own works.

Musically speaking, CPE Bach moved away from his father's polyphony and instead experimented with different motifs and unusual harmonies. Mozart was a great admirer of CPE Bach, and even supposedly said, "He is the father; we are the children."

Mozart Festival director Evelyn Meining sees a direct line between CPE Bach and Mozart: "I think CPE Bach's spirit of innovation can be found in all of Mozart's greatest works. Mozart was courageous — he experimented constantly and sought out new forms."

A 'Mozartian' sound

In 1791, Mozart gave his last public performance on the piano. He played his Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major. The work already hints at the Romantic era to come. The first movement modulates through numerous key signatures and uses lots of chromatics and dissonance. The other movements are song and dance-like in their sounds.

We'll be hearing this piece played by the pianist Ragna Schirmer, together with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra.

Meining is impressed by how much Schirmer knows about Mozart — and how she puts her knowledge stylistically into her playing: "Schirmer informs her approach to a piece by the technical possibilities that would have been available to Mozart, since he would have worked with this instrument when composing, and with what it offered in terms of pedaling, sustained tones, key depth. This approach gives her a very 'Mozartian' sound."

Music from Finland

It's festival tradition that a musician or orchestra from another country bring something from their homeland. So the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, which traveled to Würzburg from the sparsely populated Finnish coastal town of Kokkola, brought a piece of music by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. The work is entitled "Into the Heart of Light – Canto V."

Rautavaara died in 2016. "Into the Heart of Light – Canto V," for string orchestra, is one of his late works. It's a sort of melodic collection of ideas, or, as Rautavaara himself described it, small thoughts or scribbles that he tried to combine again and again until he had a lightbulb moment and saw how they would best fit together as a single composition.

The title word "Canto" here refers to "Cantos," a poetry volume by American poet Ezra Pound that inspired Rautavaara. The composer wrote the piece for the 40th anniversary of the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, and the ensemble premiered the work in 2012.

Pushing the limits of harmony

Many of Mozart's contemporaries, including musical ones, struggled to understand the piece up next: his famous Symphony No. 40, known as the "Great G minor Symphony." It pushed the existing limits of harmony and departed from the character that was expected in movements like an allegro or a minuet and heralded the musical future. Instead of beginning with a lot of fussing about, the symphony starts with a catchy melody — one that every Mozart fan and then some will recognize. Mozart also composed the third-movement minuet in a less dance-like and more polyphonic fashion. Both these things can be found in the music of the Romantic era.

And with that, we've reached the end of today's DW Festival Concert recording with your host, Cristina Burack. The performances were recorded live on June 2, 2023, in the Würzburg Residence, a Baroque palace, as part of the opening concert of the 2023 Mozart Festival. I hope you enjoyed listening! Thanks to producer Gaby Reucher and sound engineer Thomas Schmidt. If you have any feedback you'd like to share, write to us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you.

Performances in this recording:

1. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Symphony for Strings and Basso Continuo, B-flat major, Wq 182/2
Osthrobothnian Chamber Orchestra
Malin Broman, conductor

2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K.595
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra
Malin Broman, conductor 
Ragna Schirmer, piano

3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Excerpt from Violin Sonata in E-flat major, K.380
Ragna Schirmer, piano
Malin Broman, violin

4. Einojuhani Rautavaara
"Into the Heart of Light – Canto V" for string orchestra
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra
Malin Broman, conductor

5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, "Great G minor symphony," K. 550
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra
Malin Broman, conductor

6. Toivo Kuula
South Ostrobothnian Suite No.1, Op. 9
- "Kansanlaulu" (movement II)
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra
Malin Broman, conductor

7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in A major, K.386
English Chamber Orchestra
Joseph Wolfe, conductor
Ragna Schirmer, piano

Edited by: Manasi Gopalakrishnan and Cristina Burack