Mozart's Serenade in B flat, K. 361, dubbed the Gran Partita, is grand in every sense, a glorious expansion of the pre-Classical wind serenade to an ensemble of 13 instruments and a framework of seven spacious movements. Each movement begins with simple material that allows room, as Mozart develops it, for the introduction of lovely echo devices and the like -- the trademarks of the hunt-evoking Feldparthie and of the more party-oriented serenade. It is not known for whom Mozart composed this massive and thoroughly ...
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Mozart's Serenade in B flat, K. 361, dubbed the Gran Partita, is grand in every sense, a glorious expansion of the pre-Classical wind serenade to an ensemble of 13 instruments and a framework of seven spacious movements. Each movement begins with simple material that allows room, as Mozart develops it, for the introduction of lovely echo devices and the like -- the trademarks of the hunt-evoking Feldparthie and of the more party-oriented serenade. It is not known for whom Mozart composed this massive and thoroughly unmarketable work, but it was likely emperor Joseph II. One can almost hear him muttering that there are too many notes. The Gran Partita benefits from a tempo that keeps it moving along; with its functional-music antecedents it calls for less of an expressive presence from the performers than other Mozart works. (The same is true of the equally radical Serenade in C minor, K. 388, which doesn't need desperately whining oboes to make its intense and dark impact.) The Nederlands...
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