Leopold Mozart Serenad

Anyone thinking of Mozart as a performer probably imagines him at a harpsichord or fortepiano, an accurate picture. Mozart was a gifted keyboard player, but not a showman of the keyboard. He detested empty virtuosity. Wolfgang, however, had been trained from his earliest years by his father Leopold as a double talent. He played both harpsichord & violin. The popularity of his sonatas, variation sets, & concerti for the piano has tended to overshadow his violin compositions, but the 1st sounds that his baby ears received probably came from his father’s violin…

“Right after God comes my Papa.” These were young Wolfgang’s words of praise for his father Leopold Mozart. 2019 is the anniversary of Leopold that Aparté celebrate with a gorgeous recording of his Missa Solemnis.

The sixth disc in this highly acclaimed series combine two works in which Mozart's powers as an orchestrator come to the fore. Concerto No. 18 in B flat major, K 456, is sometimes referred to as one of the composers military concertos on the basis of the march-like main theme of the first movement. But more striking is the variety of ways that Mozart employs the various groups of instruments: strings, wind instruments and, of course, the piano. This aspect certainly didn't pass unnoticed by a listener as initiated as Mozart's father Leopold: in a letter to his daughter Nannerl he described how his enjoyment of the orchestral interplay had brought tears to his eyes.

Mozart, of course, is probably the archetypal musical prodigy, paraded around Europe, playing, improvising and composing from the ridiculously early age of about four. It used to be thought that Leopold might have done much of his son's early composing, as well as his publicity, but it's clear that even infantile Mozart is streets ahead of his father - witness the latter's supremely facile 'Toy Symphony'. Easier to overlook are the prodigious talents of Franz Schubert. It is astonishing to think that so accomplished a work as 'The Trout' was written when he was a mere 22.

The Swedish trumpet-player Niklas Eklund, born in Göteborg (Gothenburg) in 1969, trained at the School of Music and Musicology of Göteborg University. Further studies took place under the tutelage of Edward H. Tarr at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. After five years as solo trumpet with the Basle Radio Symphony Orchestra, he left the orchestra in the autumn of 1996 to further his career as a soloist. Since then he has appeared with leading ensembles and conductors such as Zubin Metha, John Eliot Gardiner, Heinz Holliger, András Schiff, Robert King, Eric Ericson, Reinhard Goebel, Gustav Leonhardt, the London Baroque, the Bach Ensemble (New York), the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble and the English Baroque Soloists.

One normally thinks of Divertimenti being occasional works, written to accompany other activities. While this was the intent of Mozart, his brilliance just can't be caged. These works are varied, interesting, expressive, and even famous. The three Divertimenti K136, K137 and K138 are actually string quartets but someone (W. Mozart? Leopold Mozart?)wrote "Divertimento" on the autograph score. Each has its own character and all have found their way into the repertoire. Often heard on classical music stations, they are tuneful and energetic works that predict correctly the brilliant future Mozart would achieve.

What could more enticing than two masterpieces written by composers still in their twenties? In a letter to his exacting father, Leopold, Mozart said he thought his recently completed quintet, K452, was his best work yet. And this in the midst of an extraordinarily purple patch, even by his standards. Beethoven's quintet (for the same instruments and in the same key) was written in deliberate imitation of Mozart's, perhaps in as much a spirit of friendly competition as homage.

Michael Haydn is understandably overshadowed by his famous older sibling, as Salieri and Leopold Mozart are by Wolfgang Amadeus. In all three cases, these Chandos recordings go a long way towards restoring the balance. With just a handful of recordings of his music, the disc or download of Michael Haydn’s music becomes mandatory for a real appreciation of Mozart’s relation to his contemporaries, especially as one of Michael Haydn’s symphonies was long attributed to Mozart as his No.37 – he actually wrote only the slow introduction.