Mozart

Mozart – Wind Serenades (Chamber Soloists of the RPO) [Naim 2007]
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 71:14 minutes | 1,14 GB
Source: Naim Records | Artwork

The Viennese newspapers of 23 March 1784 announced a concert at the Imperial Royal National Court Theatre to be given by the clarinettist Anton Stadler, ‘at which, among other well chosen pieces, a large wind work of a very special kind composed by Herr Mozart will be performed’. A member of the audience, Johann Friedrich Schink, listed the thirteen instruments in his diary and noted that ‘at each instrument sat a master – oh, what an effect it made – glorious and grand, excellent and sublime!’ Although Schink heard only four movements, this must have been the Serenade in B flat, K361. (The misspelt title ‘Gran Partitta’ and the erroneous date ‘1780′ were added to Mozart’s manuscript by an unknown hand.) Mozart was a close friend of Anton Stadler, and later wrote the Clarinet Concerto and Quintet for him: in his honour, Mozart augmented the basic ‘Harmonie’ octet with a second pair of horns, two basset-horns and a string bass (or contrabassoon), thus creating this ‘large wind work of a very special kind’. We do not know which four movements Schink heard; nor do we know when, or for what occasion, the remaining three movements were added.

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