These 31 little arrangements for flute and violin of tunes from four of Mozart's operas have as much claim to historical authenticity as do the actual Mozart works themselves. All were made before 1810, and the earliest group, that of Die Zauberflöte, dates from 1792, just months after Mozart's death. Arrangements of all kinds were commonplace at the time and remained so for decades. Just imagine if you were suddenly deprived of all means of sound reproduction technology: you'd be so starved of music that you'd quickly ...
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These 31 little arrangements for flute and violin of tunes from four of Mozart's operas have as much claim to historical authenticity as do the actual Mozart works themselves. All were made before 1810, and the earliest group, that of Die Zauberflöte, dates from 1792, just months after Mozart's death. Arrangements of all kinds were commonplace at the time and remained so for decades. Just imagine if you were suddenly deprived of all means of sound reproduction technology: you'd be so starved of music that you'd quickly demand such arrangements too. The pieces recorded here are presumably extracted from reductions of complete operas to the flute-violin duo format, although this is not made clear in the booklet; from Die Zauberflöte there are 12 numbers and 11 from Le nozze di Figaro, but Die Entführung aus dem Serail is represented by only two pieces. That decision works well from the listener's point of view (or hearing); the fun is in hearing how these large and formally innovative pieces get...
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