It's somber piece of Nachtmusik - night music that ends with a brilliant sunrise: Mozart's Serenade for Winds in C minor, K. 388/384a, here performed by members of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. The Mozart Serenade was part of a 1991 concert at the Historischer Reichssaal in Regensburg.
00:00 Intro
00:11 I. Allegro
08:38 II. Andante
13:01 III. Menuetto in canone
17:28 IV. Allegro
The Serenade for Winds in C minor (K. 388/384a) is one of the most melancholy and enigmatic works to be written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). Composed for wind octet, with instrumentation for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons - to which for this performance a double bass has been added - its sound is close to that of the so-called 'Harmoniemusik' of its day. During Mozart's time, a Harmonie was a small wind ensemble, often found playing as the evening entertainment for Vienna's high-society parties, both indoors and outdoors. Inkeeping with the tenor of such occasions, Harmonies typically performed cheerful and light music.
Mozart, however, sets the Serenade K. 388 in C minor - a key he tended to reserve for dramatic works. It has a markedly somber tone, and its themes and motifs develop intricately, over long passages. Mozart himself referred to it as his 'Nacht Musique'. This 'night music' is unusual in its form, too; while his Salzburg serenades were structured across several movements, the C minor Serenade has but four - a kind of symphony for wind octet. Most likely composed around 1782, thus far it has remained impossible to find out which occasion Mozart wrote this extraordinary chamber music for. Nevertheless, he must have had a great personal fondness for the Serenade for Winds; In 1788 he even transcribed it for string quintet (String Quintet, K. 406/516b). Despite all its gloomy passages, the Serenade K. 388 ends on a surprisingly radiant C major - as if the sun has risen again after the darkest night.
© 1991 BR / BMG Classics
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8 июн 2024
