More Mozart 2-3-4

No. 288 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages, which can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast288

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This week’s Blog and Podcast doesn’t stray far off the beaten path, reprising a 2-3-4 sequence of Mozart concerti we first used earlier this year.

As we did back then two of the works on the montage are violin concertos part of the set of five « numbered » concertri composed by Amadeus between 1773 and 1776, when he occupied one of the concertmaster chairs on the Archbishop’s orchestra in Salzburg. This week’s works occupy the « 2 » and « 4 » spots on the sequence, with solo performances by Cho-Liang Lin and Anne-Sophie Mutter.

The « 3 » spot is occupied by one of Mozart’s four « student » concerti. It is believed these works were composition exercises where Mozart reused movements from sonatas by well-known keynboard virtuoisi of the day. In the case of the K. 40 concerto, the movements are (in order) by Leontzi Honauer, Johann Gottfried Eckard and Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.

As filler, I programmed one last piece for violin and orchestra: the Adagio in E, K. 261, was composed in 1776 probably as an alternate movement for the original slow movement of his Violin Concerto No. 5 in A. It is believed that Mozart wrote it specifically for the violinist Antonio Brunetti, who complained that the original slow movement was "too artificial."

I think you will love this music too.