Mozart - Eine Kleine Gigue K.574 (1789) {Haebler&Marriner}

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was one of the most influential, popular and prolific composers of the classical period. A child prodigy, from an early age he began composing over 600 works, including some of the most famous pieces of symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music.

1.Eine Kleine Gigue in G major, K.574. Leipzig, 16 May 1789

Ingrid Haebler, piano

2. Eine Kleine Gigue arranged by Peter I. Tchaikovsky; Mozartiana, Orchestral Suite No. 4, Op. 61 first movement (1887)

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

Kleine Gigue in G major, K. 574, is a composition for solo piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during his stay in Leipzig. It is dated 16 May 1789, the day before he left Leipzig. It was directly written into the notebook of Leipzig court organist Karl Immanuel Engel. It is often cited as a tribute by Mozart to J. S. Bach, although many scholars have likened it to Handel's Gigue from the Suite No. 8 in F minor, HWV 433. In fact, the subject of the gigue bears a marked similarity to the subject of J. S. Bach's B minor fugue no. 24 [de] from Book 1 of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier. Mozart has changed the tempo from Largo to Allegro deciso and the time signature from common time to 6
8 but the similarity between the two is unmistakable.

The gigue consists of only 38 bars and is written in 6/8 time. The bass line in the last four bars of the first half, and its transposed repetition in the second half before the coda, are notable for including all tones of the chromatic scale. However they are not tone rows as some tones are repeated.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky based the opening movement of his Mozartiana orchestral suite on this work.

[wowbagger]

I'll add a little if I may.

The above is a straight copy of the Wikipedia page about k574. I played this piece for an exam in 1971 and always loved it - even experienced musicians find it hard to believe it's Mozart.

I wrote this in 2017:

"Fast forward 46 years to the proms 2017. I watched Sir Andras Schiff’s amazing performance, playing all 24 preludes and fugues from Book 1 of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier at a single sitting, and it inspired me to get to know more Bach preludes and fugues. I have been familiar with perhaps half a dozen, especially the B flat major from Book 1, which I played when I sat my LGSM exam at the Barbican in 1981. However, after Schiff’s marathon, I was particularly taken with the B minor prelude & fugue, so set about learning them.
My immediate reaction was relating to the sheer weirdness of the music. As usual, I tackled the prelude first, and was particularly intrigued by the final 6 bars and the obscure harmonies in use. However, it wasn’t long before I found that the fugue was even weirder. The opening couple of bars start with the falling B minor triad, but from that point on tonality seems to be scattered to the four winds.
It suddenly dawned on me where I had seen something similarly weird: in the Mozart Gigue!
A short piece of research revealed that Mozart wrote the gigue on his final day in Leipzig, 16th May 1789, directly into the notebook of no less a person than the Leipzig court organist, who would, of course, have been totally familiar with the works of the great J. S. Bach. Bach had been Capellmeister in Leipzig until his death 39 years previously.

William Kinderman, in his tome “Mozart’s Piano Pieces”, has this to say about the K574 gigue:
"An admiration for J. S. Bach remained with Mozart until his final years and is reflected in one of his last independent piano pieces, the masterly contrapuntal Gigue, K. 574, in three voices, composed at Leipzig on 16 May 1789. The piece was written into the family album of the court organist Carl Immanuel Engel, evidently as a tribute to the Leipzig master, but it remains stylistically quite independent of Bach and, indeed, unlike anything else Mozart ever wrote. Particularly distinctive are the twisting angularity of the melodic lines, whose registral disparities enrich the polyphony, the bold dissonances, and the unusual pedal effects heard against shifting harmonies.”
Except it doesn’t “remain stylistically quite independent of Bach”. It’s a direct lift from Fugue number 24, which also displays “twisting angularity of the melodic lines” etc. and, in quite the jocular manner for which Mozart is noted, he has turned one of the massive heavyweights of the Bach repertoire into a jaunty 38-bar miniature.
I find it quite difficult to believe that I am the first pianist in the 228 years since Mozart penned his farewell to Herr Engel to have noticed the melodic similarity between the two works. But no-one else seems to have written their thoughts down, if they have."

[johanschneiders]

The articulation of the different voices is incedibly clear in this piano recording!

[filmscorefreak]

you just solved a long-lived mystery for me. i heard this piano piece decades ago on the radio, never caught the name i guess because i was so surprised it was mozart. years passed and thought that it was probably one of his sonatas that sounded advanced to my young ears. nope, still sounds very surprising and very un-mozart. thank you.

[aurambros]

Being ahead of its time honouring the ancients.

[danal]

This might just as well be the best performance of this work I’ve heard.

[justinandmaxgames]

What I wonderful work - I first encountered this on an old LP called Mozart auf der Orgel and was played (as one can imagine) on organ. Along with K 394 and other Klavierwerke suited for Mozart's work.

[hercir]

Después de años escuchando esta pieza aún me sigue sorprendiendo. Unas armonías increíbles para el tiempo en que fué compuesta. Motzar eterno. Gracias por compartir.

[damdarch]

Wow, again, I never would have imagined this was Mozart. It's sounds like some modern composer emulating Mozart.

[pietrolandri]

İt's already at Beethoven latest Bagatelle level of modernity Hence anticipating music of 25-30 years after 1789

[tomaxi]

Tolle Bearbeitung von Tschaikowski. Er und das Stückchen war es auch wert! Dieser Mozart!

[davidrehak]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:Kis éji Gigue KV 574
1.Zongoraváltozat 00:05
Ingrid Haebler-zongora
2.Zenekari változat (Csajkovszkij 4.Zenekari Szvit Op.61 - 1.tétel) 01:47
Frankfurti Rádió Szimfonikus Zenekara
Vezényel:Sir neville Marriner

[mantictac]

This has some very novel harmony for Mozart's time! I feel that this performance is a little fast though.

[jean-yvesPrax]

Stupéfiant ! au delà de l'art extrême du contrepoint, car le thème de la fugue de JSB n'est pas évident en soi, au delà des modulations harmoniques et chromatiques complètement démentes et modernes, Mozart s'amuse rythmiquement en jouant cela en 6/8, avec un décalage permanent du "strong beat", et se permet même de nous offrir deux superbes hémioles en hommage à la musique "ancienne"... ces deux hommes ne faisaient pas partie de la race humaine 🤩

[josswindsor]

En esta pieza divertida y saltarina camerizada u orquestada por el gran maestro ruso mozartiano hasta la médula es sencillamente insultante la genialidad del genio salzburgués si bien es verdad que tiene muchas similitudes con el sinfonismo tchaikowskyano, es una pieza muy especial que se aparta totalmente de los esquemas clásicos dieciochescos y tiene sus dosis de pasión sin discusión, mal oyente el que no lo aprecie

[nickn]

May this have been an improvisation he wrote down?

[alkishadjinicolaou]

This is analogue to Beethoven's Grand Fugue.

[dondondon]

Can we get a translation of the text written at the end of the manuscript?