Dvoark Serenade

The idea began to take shape a couple of years ago, after the successful performances of Mozart's Idomeneo Re di Creta who, directed by Carlo De Martini, occupied the stages of Brescia, Como, Cremona and Pavia for the 2003 season of the Circuito Lirico Lombard. The next stage saw the re-foundation of the 'Il Quartettone' Association and its organization in a structure based on a steering committee made up of five members of the Orchestra, which makes use of the musicological consultancy of Cesare Fertonani and Emilio Sala, teachers at the 'University of Milan.Thus was born the Accademia Litta, a classical orchestra with period instruments, which was officially established and presented to the public in 2005 in Milan.

Recorded at the Golden Hall in the Musikverein Vienna in 2012, this is two of the most important works of Mozart’s ‘middle’ period that Harnoncourt has never recorded with a period-instrument orchestra before. Harnoncourt is well known for his unique interpretation of Mozart and this is reflected by the highly flexible playing and phrasing from the orchestra. This album marks the 60th anniversary of the collaboration between Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien.

Die Kölner Akademie and Michael Willens have previously recorded Mozart’s complete piano concertos with Ronald Brautigam, earning praise for their fresh and colourful contributions to the series. The team now releases the first of four projected disc with further Mozart scores, beginning with two of the composer’s best-loved serenades. Serenades were a characteristic feature of Salzburg musical life: opening with a march and continuing with as many as eight or nine separate movements on an orchestral scale, such works will have been ringing in Mozart’s ears from childhood.

Die Kölner Akademie and Michael Willens have previously recorded Mozart’s complete piano concertos with Ronald Brautigam, earning praise for their fresh and colourful contributions to the series. The team now releases the first of four projected disc with further Mozart scores, beginning with two of the composer’s best-loved serenades. Serenades were a characteristic feature of Salzburg musical life: opening with a march and continuing with as many as eight or nine separate movements on an orchestral scale, such works will have been ringing in Mozart’s ears from childhood.

Globalization creates what physicists and chemists call increased entropy. Skel breaks down, flows flow freely, new orders and new disorder occur. It brings challenges and enrichments. This has always been the classical music where musicians have crossed borders for centuries to find income and good living conditions. What kind of enrichment this year causes in our domestic little spirit dam can be studied by looking at the Danish chamber ensembles, which together with our energetic organ orchestras ensure that at least live classical music is played throughout Denmark. From Armenia via Germany, Pianist Marianna Shirinyan came to Denmark 15 years ago and got a job in the Esbjerg Ensemble.

Better known as Gran Partita, Mozart’s Serenade in B-flat major, K 361 is the crowning glory of the Harmoniemusik of the Classical era. Austrian and German nobles in particular often employed small wind ensembles called Harmonien which provided entertainment during banquets and outdoor festivities. In order to satisfy the growing demand for suitable music, countless arrangements of operas and ballet music were made, while original works were supplied by a wide range of composers – Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and many lesser masters wrote Harmoniemusik. Among their works, Mozart’s Serenade stands out for several reasons. It is on a larger scale than most: with seven movements and a duration of some 50 minutes, it is scored for thirteen instruments rather than the usual eight or nine. But conceived with a cyclical layout and with a highly economic use of motivic material, it also displays a compositional sophistication unusual for the genre. The Gran Partita is here performed by wind players from one of the world’s finest orchestras, the Amsterdam Concertgebouworkest, under the direction of oboist Alexei Ogrintchouk. Ogrintchouk has also chosen the coupling, a set of variations by Beethoven on Mozart’s famous aria from Don Giovanni scored for two oboes and English horn.

Geboren in Guangzhou(China), seit ihre Kindheit ist sie beeinflusst begannt mit neuntem Lebensjahr Querflöte spielen.

When Mozart took up the popular genre of the serenade, it was to transcend it and lend it new lustre. A festive masterpiece of simplicity and emotion, his Gran Partita quickly became a genuine ‘hit’! Thanks to the distinctive, spellbinding timbres of their period instruments, the members of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin give a unique flavour to these two extraordinary serenades, over which there blows – as it were – a tremendous wind of freedom.