Mozart: Divertimenti

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How lucky the burghers of Salzburg, in Mozart's day, who had such music as this to accompany their family celebrations! Mozart wrote a small group of divertimentos for strings and horns for the... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 7th Oct 2003
Catalogue No: CDA67386
Label: Hyperion
Length: 75 minutes

Mozart: Divertimento No. 10 in F major, K247

Work length31:23

$6.60

$9.00

The Gaudier Ensemble

I. Allegro

Track length8:35

$1.10

$1.50

II. Andante grazioso

Track length3:01

$1.10

$1.50

III. Menuetto

Track length3:47

$1.10

$1.50

IV. Adagio

Track length6:52

$1.10

$1.50

V. Menuetto

Track length3:06

$1.10

$1.50

VI. Andante – Allegro assai

Track length6:02

$1.10

$1.50

Mozart: Divertimento No. 17 in D major K334

Work length44:03

$6.60

$9.00

The Gaudier Ensemble

I. Allegro

Track length10:01

$1.10

$1.50

II. Thema mit Variationen

Track length8:24

$1.10

$1.50

III. Menuetto – Trio

Track length4:03

$1.10

$1.50

IV. Adagio

Track length6:36

$1.10

$1.50

V. Menuetto – Trio I – Trio II

Track length6:04

$1.10

$1.50

VI. Rondo: Allegro

Track length8:55

$1.10

$1.50

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Two hundred years ago a German musicologist came within an ace of inventing the term 'easy listening', and applied it in his definition of divertimento, a loose term that avoided the more serious connotations of symphony or sonata. It is typical of that impish cheek we now know so well in Mozart, that he was perfectly able to serve his most profound music in the ironic guise of divertimento, as with K563 (Hyperion CDA67246). The present earlier works [both for two horns and strings] show something of the same disposition, since it is very likely that they were occasion pieces, for occasionspossibly outdoorsat which we can imagine that the audience had other social concerns on their mind; thus he fills the music with quirky turns and shifts as well as moments so beguiling we can imagine a sudden hush descend upon the chatterers! Wonderful music, here in superb performances by The Gaudier Ensemble, that take us back in time and out of our everyday bothers.

Reviews

2010

How lucky the burghers of Salzburg, in Mozart's day, who had such music as this to accompany their family celebrations! Mozart wrote a small group of divertimentos for strings and horns for the local aristocracy during his later years there, to augment his salary and prestige, and he did it with a mastery of technique that enabled him to find exactly the right blend of high spirits, warmth of expression and wit.
When they've been recorded, it's nearly always been with an orchestra rather than a solo group.
In Austria in Mozart's time, the word 'divertimento' signified solo performance, and there's a world of difference between what a sensitive solo fiddler and what a galumphing orchestra can do with that top line, in terms of technique, expressiveness and flexibility. And in these performances the bass part is played not by a cello, but, as was preferred in Salzburg, a double bass, which provides a different relationship to the upper voices, and the one that Mozart clearly intended.
The Gaudier Ensemble catch the mood of the music perfectly. The elegant sentiment of the slow movements (there are two in each work) is happily conveyed – listen to the sweetness of violinist Marieke Blankestijn's phrasing in the Adagio of K247 and her gentle, unassuming eloquence in that of K334. In the latter work the second violin is called on, too, for some degree of virtuosity, but it's to Blankestijn that most of the rapid and stratospheric music goes, and she copes in style. She also phrases the famous first minuet here gracefully. Mozart's second minuets (each divertimento has six movements) are usually more rumbustious, with the horns prominent, and these too are heartily done.
Altogether this is a delectable record.

Mozart: Divertimenti

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