Customer Reviews

Mozart: Night Music

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WINNER OF GRAMMOPHON'S "EDITOR'S CHOICE CD AWARD" IN 2003, THIS TOUR-DE-FORCE MOZART SERENADES CD [EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK K.525 AND SERENATA NOTTURNA K.239] PERFORMED BY VIOLINIST/CONDUCTOR ANDREW MANZE AND LONDON'S WORLD-CLASS ENGLISH CONCERT IS FOUND IN MOST MOZART AUDIOPHILE'S CD/MP3 COLLECTION!

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART [1756 - 1791]
*SERENADE NO.13 IN G EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC [K.525]
*SERENADE NO.6 IN D [SERENATA NOTTURNA K.239]
*DIVERTIMENTO IN F FOR STRINGS & HORNS [K.522 A MUSICAL JOKE]
PERFORMED BY ANDREW MANZE, VIOLINIST/CONDUCTOR OF LONDON'S WORLD-CLASS ENGLISH CONCERT

CD REVIEWER NOTE TO AMAZON.COM READERS: I TYPE WITH LARGE CAP LETTERS TO READ WHAT I WRITE BECAUSE I AM A 100% DISABLED DECORATED VIETNAM VETERAN AND AM ALMOST BLIND WITH MACULAR DEGENERATION. I APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE CAPS MAY CAUSE YOU. ~PATRICK HILL, MOZART SCHOLAR & AUTHOR~

CD REVIEW
ON THIS MOZART CD THAT IS REGARDED BY MOZART AUDIOPHILES AS ONE OF WORLD'S GREATEST RECORDINGS OF MOZART'S K.525 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC AND SERENTA NOTTURNA K.239 , VIOLINIST ANDREW MANZE CONDUCTS THE ENGLISH CONCERT ON 18TH CENTURY PERIOD INSTRUMENTS TO DELIVER A TOUR-DE-FORCE PERFORMANCE OF MOZART'S SERENADES THAT WILL DELIGHT YOUR SENSES FROM START TO FINISH! ANDREW MANZE IS A CLASSICAL VIOLINIST WITH EXTRAORDINARY FLAIR WHO PLAYS MOZART'S SERENADES WITH PANACHE AND PERFECTION EXACTLY LIKE THE COMPOSER EXPECTED HIS SERERNADES K.525 AND K.239 TO BE PLAYED.

IN THE 18TH CENTURY, ONE OF WOLFGANG MOZART'S SPECIALTIES WAS COMPOSING FESTIVE ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC CALLED DIVERTIMENTI AND SERENADES TO BE PLAYED AS BACKGROUND MUSIC BY A SMALL CHAMBER MUSIC ENSEMBLE AT OUTDOOR SOCIAL EVENTS SUCH AS NAME DAYS, BIRTHDAYS, NEW YEAR'S PARTIES, WEDDINGS, AND SCHOOL GRADUATION CELEBRATIONS WHERE GUESTS ENJOYED DRINKS AND MEALS. THE WELL-TO-DO PATRON'S OF MOZART'S ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC [ALSO CALLED CHAMBER MUSIC] WERE THE ARISTOCRACY IN MOZART'S NATIVE SALZBURG AND VIENNA.

ABOUT MOZART'S SERENADE NO.13 IN G [K.525 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC]
WOLFGANG MOZART'S SERENADE NO.13 [K.525 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC] IS WITHOUT A DOUBT HIS MOST POPULAR AND RECOGNIZED ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC! AS MOZART'S ONE AND ONLY SERENADE COMPOSED FOR STRINGS [VIOLINS, VIOLA, VIOLONCELLO, AND DOUBLE BASS], SERENADE NO.13 [K.525 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC] LEAVES MOST AUDIENCES FILLED WITH BREATHTAKING AWE AND WONDER EVERY TIME THEY HEAR ITS CLASSICAL MUSICAL BEAUTY AND PERFECTION!

SCORED FOR TWO VIOLINS, VIOLA, VIOLONCELLO, AND DOUBLE BASS, MOZART'S FAMOUS SERENADE NO.13 [K.525 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC] WAS COMPOSED AT VIENNA IN AUGUST 1787 A FEW MONTHS AFTER THE DEATH OF WOLFGANG'S FATHER LEOPOLD MOZART, WHILE WOLFGANG MOZART WAS PREPARING HIS NEW OPERA 'DON GIOVANNI' FOR PERFORMANCE IN PRAGUE.

CLOSER IN STRUCTURE TO A SYMPHONY THAN WHAT WE EXPECT OF A SERENADE, MOZART'S SERENADE NO.13 [K.525 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC] OPENS WITH ITS FAMOUS ASCENDING MANNHEIM ROCKET THEME IN ITS CHEERFULLY FAST ALLEGRO 1ST MOVEMENT, THEN K.525 SURPRISES OUR EARS WITH ITS SERENELY GRACEFUL SLOW ROMANCE 2ND MOVEMENT FULL OF SWEET SUBTLE YEARNING, THEN K.525 DELIGHTS OUR EARS WITH A VIVACIOUSLY CHARMING MINUET 3RD MOVEMENT THAT EXQUISITELY CONTRASTS FIRM RHYTHMIC NOTES WITH FLOWING LYRICAL NOTES, AND K.525'S FINALE CAPTIVATES OUR EARS WITH AN EXUBERANT RONDO 4TH MOVEMENT BUBBLING FULL OF GOOD HUMOR.

ABOUT MOZART'S SERENADE NO.6 IN D [SERENATA NOTTURNA K.239]
MOZART'S SERENADE NO.6 [SERENATA NOTTURNA K.239] IS A BEAUTIFUL ROMATIC SERENADE SCORED FOR A SOLO QUARTET OF 2 VIOLINS, VIOLAS, AND STRING BASS ON ONE SIDE, AND A LARGER GROUP OF 2 VIOLINS, VIOLAS, CELLOS, AND TIMPANI [KETTLE DRUMS]. THE USE OF THE TERM "NOTTURN"' IN THE TITLE REFERS TO A PIECE THAT WAS INTENDED TO BE PLAYED AT NIGHT RATHER THAN DAYTIME. K.239'S FIRST MOVEMENT IS A STATELY MARCH IN WHICH GROUPS OF INSTRUMENTS ARE CONTRASTED. K.239'S SECOND MOVEMENT IS A JOYOUS MINUET TRIO. K.239'S THIRD MOVEMENT IS A LIVELY COUNTRY DANCE WITH A SPIRITED CONCLUSION.

There's no debating the quality of this issue, but I just wanted to fill you in on a slightly cheaper 2011 re-release of this CD. Occasionally Harmonia Mundi will take a popular recording from their company and release it inexpensively with an issue of their full catalog, as they did a few years ago with Vivaldi: Concert for the Prince of Poland, another Andrew Manze recording. So it is with this CD, now released more cheaply at this linkMozart: Night Music. If you're going to get it, you might as well have the best price, right?

We have enjoyed listening to Night Music. If you are a Mozart fan and don't have this piece of music it is needed in your collection.

I'm not gonna tell the punchline of Mozart's "Musical Joke". If you've heard it before, all I need to say is that this performance is probably the best on CD, rivaling only by L'Archibudelli. If you haven't heard it, you must. I happened to hear "The Joke" on a classical music radio station, and it reminded me of this CD by The English Consort. The real joke, by the way, was on the performers I heard on radio, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln center; they played as if they didn't get the joke at all.

Now I suppose you think the joke's on me if I declare that the Mozart of the divertimenti and serenatas was the musical heir of Georg Philipp Telemann. So was Haydn. Just listen to Telemann's 'divertimenti', however, before you accuse me of Telemonomania. No other baroque composer besides Telemann displayed the same thigh-slapping sense of humor than Mozart so obviously relished. For evidence, I offer Telemann's Suite in F Major, "Alster Echo", which includes a Dorfmusik movement as well as a Chorus of Crows and Frogs.

Andrew Manze and The English Consort play the ever-popular Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with the enthusiasm as if they'd discovered it and had rushed to share it with the world. It is only one of many very fine 'entertainments' Mozart composed, and why it has so eclipsed all the others has little to do with music. But the wonder is that a really fine, authentic performance can make it fresh again.