Search - Mozart :: The Complete Mozart Divertimentos: Historic First Recorded Edition: CD 4

This fourth of six CDs containing the complete set of Mozart Divertimentos, the only recording ever made of this repertoire, contains Divertimentos Nos. 3, 8, and 15. The program features the glorious sound of ten woodwinds in E-flat, then six woodwinds up to F, ending with the great B-flat showcase for strings and two horns. This last had a major influence on Beethoven, who used the idea of Finale as intro in his great 9th Symphony. The ensemble is led by violinist Isidore Cohen; liner notes by famed scholar and pianist Robert Levin. Also available as part of a six-CD boxed set containing the entire Divertimento collection. In the second ten-wind divertimento, K.166/159d, Mozart employs a more balanced scoring. The more spacious slow movement is rounded off by a twice-stated coda, as is the minuet. K. 213 is a direct, unpretentious work. Bright in sonority, its energetic first movement reiterates two quick upbeat figures. The tiny slow movement is but 8 bars in length, certainly one of Mozart?s shortest. The horns dominate the trio with one of the highest solos in the entire oeuvre. The divertimento concludes with another dance, in which the simple duple-meter theme alternates with several brief couplets. The richness of instrumental color in the Divertimento No. 15 is accentuated by the diversity of character in its six movements: witness the contrast between the vigor of the first allegro and the sublime adagio, in which the occasional music is elevated to highest art. Describing his performance of the first violin part of K. 287/271H on October 4, 1777, Mozart wrote, "I played as if I were the greatest violinist in Europe." In his twenty-second year, both the composition and the performance seem singular achievements. © 2002 Robert Levin