He studied in Germany, Italy and England and since has done concertson all
inhabited continents except Australia. Heappears in many roles- soloist in
symphony orchestras,in chamber music, conductor of mainly Scandinavianorchestras-
on stage while carrying out duties as artdirector at the international Oumeo/Korsholm
chambermusic festival, and teaching at the higher levelmusical academy of
Colonia and at the higher levelschool of music “Queen Elisabeth” of Madrid. He
alsohas and frequently enriches a long recording history. and Frans Helmerson
who played the violoncello. The play was in three tempos 1.Allegro , 2.Larghetto
and 3.Allegretto. Then it was Ode to Napoleon, Op. 41 by Arnold Schoenberg which
was tremendous. The most appropriate person to talk about that play is
Schoenberg himself. Below there is the answer to the question ‘How I Came to
Compose the Ode to Napoleon?’. The League of Composers had (1942) asked me to
write a piece of chamber music for their concert season. It should employ only a
limited number of instruments. I had at once the idea that this piece must not
ignore the agitation aroused in mankind against the crimes that provoked this
war. I remembered Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, supporting repeal of the jus
prime noctis, Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, Goethe's Egmont, Beethoven's Eroica and
Wellington's Victory and I knew it was the moral duty of intelligence to take a
stand against tyranny. But this was only my secondary motive. I had long
speculated about the more profound meaning of the nazi philosophy. There was one
element that puzzled me extremely: the resemblance of the valueless individual
being's life in respect to the totality of the community or its representative:
the queen or the Feuhrer. I could not see why a whole generation of bees or of
Germans should live only in order to produce another generation of the same
sort, which on their part should also fulfill the same task: to keep the race
alive. I even surmised that bees (or ants) instinctively believe their destiny
was to be successors of mankind, when this had destroyed itself in thc same
manner in which our predecessors, the Giants, Magicians, Lindworms [Dragons],
Dinosaurs and others had destroyed themselves and their world, so that first men
knew only a few isolated specimens.
Their and the ants' capacity of forming
states and living according to laws - senseless and primitive, as they might
look to us - this capacity, unique among animals, had an attractive similarity
to our own life; and in our imagination we could muse a story, seeing them
growing to dominating power, size and shape and creating a world of their own
resembling very little the original beehive. Without such a goal the life of the
bees, with the killing of the drones and the thousands of offspring of the queen
seemed futile. Similarly all the sacrifices of the German Herrenvolk [Master
Race] would not make sense, without a goal of world domination - in which the
single individual could vest much interest. Before I started to write this text,
I consulted Maeterlinck's Life of the Bees. I hoped to find there motives
supporting my attitude. But the contrary happened: Maeterlinck's poetic
philosophy gilds everything which was not gold itself. And so wonderful are his
explanations that one might decline refuting them, even if one knew they were
mere poetry. I had to abandon this plan . I had to had another subject fitting
my purpose. Last but not least it was the quintet K.452, at the beginning of
February 1784 Mozart took a clean manuscript book and began a catalog of all his
compositions from that day forward. Mozart entered his Piano Quintet in E-flat
major on March 30, 1784. It was the fourth item on the page, proceeded by three
piano concertos, the last - in D major (K. 451) - finished just eight days
before the quintet. Less than two weeks later Mozart added yet another new
concerto - in G major (K. 453) - before he turned the page. The entire year
finds Mozart working at the peak of his powers and energy: in addition to
completing several other compositions (including two more piano concertos), he
maintained a heavy teaching schedule, gave at least twenty-six concerts,
entertained a number of house guests, suffered from a kidney infection, recorded
the birth of his second son, and moved his entire family, not once, but twice,
to new lodgings. On April 10, 1784 Mozart wrote to his father, Leopold, from
Vienna, apologizing for being too busy to keep in touch. He reports that nine
days earlier his new quintet had been performed for the first time, and that it
called forth the very greatest applause. I myself consider it the best thing I
have ever composed in my life. ...
