Antonio Salieri wasn’t the only musician who had a dustup with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 1781, Muzio Filippo Clementi competed with Mozart at Emperor Joseph II’s Viennese court. The Emperor thought the idea was a lark, and at the end, declared a tie. Mozart wasn’t pleased and trash-talked Clementi’s musicianship.
If you’re not familiar with Clementi’s buoyant music, attend the season finale of the Recital Series at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango. Starting at 7 p.m. Friday (today), the Mangold Duo will perform works by Prokofiev, Ravel, Robert Schumann and, yes, Clementi.
The Mangold Duo is made up of sisters. Pianist Marilyn Mangold Garst and cellist Bonnie Mangold have been playing together since childhood. Garst is music director at the Unitarian Fellowship. She taught piano, harpsichord and keyboard ensembles for 25 years at George Washington University and moved to Durango in 2005 with her husband, Ron. Mangold studied at The Juilliard School of Music and most recently has performed with the Utah Symphony.
The program consists of solo piano works and two duos for cello and piano. Garst will open the program with Clementi’s Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 24. The Italian-born composer was a contemporary of Mozart, and the two agreed to the Emperor’s recurring party idea of a musical duel. Each musician had to perform selections from his own compositions and then improvise.
If you’ve seen “Amadeus” – the play or the movie – there’s a scene where Mozart dazzlingly improvises on a simple Salieri tune, mocking the older musician. In reality, the Clementi-Mozart competition ended with the Emperor declaring a tie and lingering animosity – mostly from Mozart.
In a letter to his father, Mozart dismissed Clementi as robotic musician, a mere mechanic. And he added an ethnic slur: “Clementi is a charlatan, like all Italians. He marks a piece with the tempo marking presto but plays only allegro.”
Garst, on the other hand, finds Clementi’s music delightful, “a bit like early Beethoven,” she said in an interview last week. “Clementi was a prolific composer, performer, a conductor and he also built pianos. He traveled a lot in Europe, especially England. And wrote tons of sonatas. I have two books of them. My goal is to read (play) through all 18. This one stood out, so I’m playing it in our recital.”
In stark contrast to Clementi’s bright sonata, a darker, more contemporary work will follow: Prokofiev’s Sonata for Cello and Piano.
“This underplayed sonata was written in 1949, a year after much of Prokofiev’s music was banned by the Stalin regime in an effort to mold cultural identity,” Garst said.
The work survived despite Stalin’s ban.
Garst will shift again to play Ravel’s highly impressionistic “Oiseaux tristes (sad birds).” And to close the evening, the Mangold Duo will perform the Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70, by Robert Schumann
The recital draws to a close 10 years of unusual chamber concerts featuring the finest local and regional musicians. Here’s hoping for another decade.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theater Critics Association.
If you go
What: The Mangold Duo, pianist Marilyn Garst, cellist Bonnie Mangold, works by Clementi, Prokofiev, Ravel and Schumann. Reception after.
When: 7 p.m. Friday (today).
Where: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango, 319 San Juan Drive.
Tickets: $20 adults, $8 children and students with ID, available at the door.
More information: Call 385-8668.
