Ian Page and his Mozartists are systematically recording works by Mozart in their 250th anniversary year, and on this 2018 recording you get two genuine rarities from the year 1768, when Mozart was 12. Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50, was really Mozart's first opera (the still earlier Apollo et Hyacinthus is a sort of academic skit, in Latin), and it has been recorded from time to time. It is a German comic pastoral Singspiel, a parody of Rousseau (interesting in itself), and its compact little numbers, between spoken dialogue ...
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Ian Page and his Mozartists are systematically recording works by Mozart in their 250th anniversary year, and on this 2018 recording you get two genuine rarities from the year 1768, when Mozart was 12. Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50, was really Mozart's first opera (the still earlier Apollo et Hyacinthus is a sort of academic skit, in Latin), and it has been recorded from time to time. It is a German comic pastoral Singspiel, a parody of Rousseau (interesting in itself), and its compact little numbers, between spoken dialogue, have the characteristic Mozart simplicity and verve. The work receives a fine performance here from Page and his small cast of singers. But the real find here is the Grabmusik, K. 42, which is a little cantata about a dialogue between the Soul and an Angel at death. Reputedly Mozart wrote this on being locked in a room with only music paper by a skeptical court official who couldn't believe that a ten-year-old was capable of writing some of the music Mozart had already produced....
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