The Academy of Ancient Music’s opening concert of their 2015/16 season was a great success, featuring rarely performed repertoire alongside Mozart’s well-known Symphony in G minor, K.183. Entitled ‘Music from the Dark Side’, the programme explored the theme of musical Sturm und Drang. Precisely what the musical manifestations of Sturm und Drang are is somewhat subjective, given that this was primarily a literary movement. However, Kraus’s Symphony in C minor is notable in that it does have clear links to this context. In 1775, three years before the symphony’s composition, Kraus wrote a treatise as a contribution to a Sturm und Drang literary circle, the Göttinger Hainbund. The treatise, Etwas von und über Musik, explores how to adapt the literary ideas to music.

The AAM fully exploited the turbulent contrasts within Kraus’s symphony; the opening of the first movement was particularly striking. The composer was born in the same year as Mozart and died just one year later. He is often referred to as the ‘Swedish Mozart’, although his symphonic style – strongly influenced by the music of Christoph Williabald Gluck – is quite different. The symphony enjoyed considerable success towards the end of the eighteenth century, published by Breitkopf and Härtel in 1797 and premiered by the Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1817. Sadly, Kraus succumbed to tuberculosis in 1792, never hearing the work performed nor benefiting from its success.

Another rarely heard work – again by a little-known composer – was František Benda’s Violin Concerto in D minor. Benda’s compositional output was substantial: he wrote over ten symphonies, fifteen concertos, and many sonatas. Benda was originally trained as a chorister, turning only to the violin when his voice broke. As Andrew Mellor’s programme notes informed us, eighteenth-century music historian Charles Burney wrote that Benda’s music was:

…So truly cantabile, that scarce a passage is to be found in his composition which is not in the power of the human voice to sing; and he is so affecting a player, so truly pathetic in an Adagio, that several able professors have assured me that he has frequently drawn tears from them in performing one.

Beznosiuk’s execution of the solo violin lines in the Adagio was beautiful, and surely matched Burney’s description of the performance by the composer himself. Equally accomplished was the technical virtuosity displayed in the outer movements, with the last movement cadenza featuring some impressive double stopping.

This concert was the first of a pair exploring the theme ‘from darkness to light’, part of an interdisciplinary project exploring ‘themes of inspiration and creative expression in music and visual art with reference to Dante’s Divine Comedy‘. The four works featured in ‘Music from the Dark Side’ were all in minor keys. To accompany the music, the programme featured several illustrations of Dante’s Inferno by visual artist Monika Beisner. Listening to the music of Haydn, Kraus, Benda and Mozart while studying illustrations of Lucifer, Florentine sodomites, and the souls of the uncommitted (to name a few) was a new experience and undoubtedly added an extra dimension to the proceedings.

Nevertheless, associating minor tonality with negative subjects is somewhat superficial. While Kraus – and perhaps Hadyn – consciously referenced the tumult of Sturm und Drang in their music, the same cannot be assumed of Mozart. The G Minor symphony K. 183 is one of only two Mozart symphonies written in a minor key, but there are surely many other musical features (such as textural and rhythmic contrasts) that are just as striking as a work’s tonality, if not more so. Moreover, literary interest in, and enthusiasm for, Dante was not fully rekindled until the early nineteenth century. Even if the featured eighteenth-century composers had read the Divine Comedy it is unlikely that it had much, if any, influence over their creative processes. Given the lack of compelling evidence for a relationship between Dante’s work and the music performed, perhaps the interest of the AAM’s project lies in exploring associations that modern listeners might make.

It is clear that a huge amount of research and planning goes into creating the AAM programmes and preparing their performance scores. As with other historically informed performances, some more information relating to the scholarly work involved in putting such a programme together would be very welcome, and I am convinced that this is something the majority of audience members would find interesting too.

The orchestra’s performance was superb. Part of the AAM’s ethos is to recapture the vivacity and thrill of the composers’ creative energy, and this aim comes through in their playing. The musicians are relaxed and communicative on stage, and the ensemble benefitted from being led by first violin and soloist Beznosiuk rather than a conductor. Visually, too, it is a nice change to see the woodwind and brass standing up to perform, as would have been the case in the eighteenth century. The woodwind trio within the third movement of the Mozart symphony was particularly charming.

Overall, this was both a fantastic evening of music and an exciting season opener. The concert’s sequel, ‘Angels and Saints’, on 18th November (Cambridge) and 20th November (London), is much anticipated. 

The Academy of Ancient Music’s ‘Music from the Dark Side’ took place on 19th October 2015 at Milton Court, London.