Letter from WA Mozart to his cousin Maria Thekla Mozart in Augsburg (Mannheim, November 13, 1777)

Order of the ensemble le concert impromptu

Creation on December 15, 2006 at Le Bourget du Lac “Espace la traverse” as part of the Mozart (,) show in Vienna?

Duration: approx. 4'30. Editions Francois Dhalmann

This short work is the setting to music of one of the letters that Mozart wrote to his cousin Maria Thekla Mozart (that of November 13, 1777).

These famous letters are singular in many respects: in addition to the scatological language which still today questions us about the exact nature of the relationship that Mozart had with his cousin, they are the very reflection of the musical style of their author and deserve to be studied as to their form by all apprentice musicians wishing to familiarize themselves with the style of Mozart. Namely, an inexhaustible verve, a mixture of languages, an ease of writing, an ability to go from cock to donkey, among other things thanks to the expression apropos (in French in the text and spelled Appropós or About or Apropós). In addition, these letters cover the whole range of feelings: tenderness, flattery, cunning, trickery, rudeness, insults... But also, some serious information (we get news, we give it) and a lot of calculations to obtain certain things (for example a portrait of the cousin in French attire - sexier? - or to use her as an intermediary…)

This A propós - a kind of little piece of musical theater (what another nod to Mozart who loved the Opera so much) appeals to instrumentalists in all registers: declaimed, vocal, instrumental, physical...

It is not a tribute, but rather a highlighting of what is common across the centuries in our musical writing and our way of doing and being, of loving life and human relationships. …

And then also, implicitly, the characteristic rhythm of a French-style overture and a distant echo of the famous quintetto Di scrivermi ogni giorno extracted from Cosi Fan Tutte: famous and perfectly hypocritical farewells like the lack of consideration in my opinion, Mozart for his cousin whom he abandoned when he got her to get back into the good graces of her future in-laws whom she knew personally.

Mozart's humor - very serious in fact - is that he is never where you expect him to be and that is enough to establish a style: his own!