BaL 12.10.19 - Mozart: Serenade no. 10 in B flat “Gran Partita” K361

[DoctorT]

I have always liked Octophorus on Accent, but there is also another excellent HIP recording by Amadeus Winds and Christopher Hogwood. The Twofer gets you all the Wind Serenades, and can be found remarkably cheap here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Wind...=Amadeus+Winds

Thanks MickyD. Duly ordered.

[Ferretfancy]

I have several recordings of this wonderful piece, but one that I always enjoy is a Vanguard Classics CD reissue by The Wind Group of the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stokowski. This may seem surprising, but it's really very good. The producer Seymour Solomon always insisted on simple microphone set ups usually emplying a couple of C12 microphones, and the results are excellent.

[Barbirollians]

1982 Berlin Phil soloists on DG.....a burnished performance.....

I had that one on cassette if I remember the Penguin Guide was a bit sniffy about it.

[BBMmk2]

I might give that a spin The Oot18C

[Tony Halstead]

I have several recordings of this wonderful piece, but one that I always enjoy is a Vanguard Classics CD reissue by The Wind Group of the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stokowski. This may seem surprising, but it's really very good. The producer Seymour Solomon always insisted on simple microphone set ups usually emplying a couple of C12 microphones, and the results are excellent.

During the period approx. 1972-1976 or so, I enjoyed playing with the ECO on quite a few 'Vanguard' recordings in London, produced by Seymour Solomon, with conductor Johannes Somary (1935-2011). These invariably took place in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, although one of them ( Mozart C minor Mass) was in Barking Town Hall.
Although a superb chamber music venue, Conway Hall was a bit too small for orchestral music IMHO, and although the recorded sound was always 'more than acceptable' and sometimes very good indeed, there was always that nagging feeling that you were 'hearing the walls of the room'...!
Somary was a fine musician but fairly autocratic as a conductor. Mr Solomon's spoken accent over the voice-feed into the hall resulted in his pronunciation of 'Johannes' as 'Your Highness'... this greatly amused the players.

[Ferretfancy]

During the period approx. 1972-1976 or so, I enjoyed playing with the ECO on quite a few 'Vanguard' recordings in London, produced by Seymour Solomon, with conductor Johannes Somary (1935-2011). These invariably took place in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, although one of them ( Mozart C minor Mass) was in Barking Town Hall.
Although a superb chamber music venue, Conway Hall was a bit too small for orchestral music IMHO, and although the recorded sound was always 'more than acceptable' and sometimes very good indeed, there was always that nagging feeling that you were 'hearing the walls of the room'...!
Somary was a fine musician but fairly autocratic as a conductor. Mr Solomon's spoken accent over the voice-feed into the hall resulted in his pronunciation of 'Johannes' as 'Your Highness'... this greatly amused the players.

Thanks for that nice insight, Tony. I seem to have acquired quite a few Vanguard discs, notably Brendel's early recordings of Mozart concertos, but only one Somary recording of Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks with the ECO. Did you play in that ? I must confess it's in what i call my reserve collection, partly because the sound is very thin-- possibly Conway Hall?
One outstanding Vanguard is the splendid version of The Soldier's Tale performed in the original french with Madeleine Milhaud as narrator and Stokowski conducting. There have been quite a few new recordings in recent years, but to my mind this is still the best.

[Tony Halstead]

Thanks for that nice insight, Tony. I seem to have acquired quite a few Vanguard discs, notably Brendel's early recordings of Mozart concertos, but only one Somary recording of Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks with the ECO. Did you play in that ? I must confess it's in what i call my reserve collection, partly because the sound is very thin-- possibly Conway Hall?
One outstanding Vanguard is the splendid version of The Soldier's Tale performed in the original french with Madeleine Milhaud as narrator and Stokowski conducting. There have been quite a few new recordings in recent years, but to my mind this is still the best.

Hello Ferretfancy,
No I didn't play on the ECO/ Somary/ Vanguard Handel Water & Fireworks Music, as it was a little before my time in the ECO ( 1972-1986).

Off the top of my head, I played in:
Bach Brandenburg Concertos (in no 1 only, of course, at that time, although nearly 20 years later I played in all the Hanover Band's EMI Brandenburgs as either horn player or harpsichordist... by the way, that wasn't some sort of ego trip but, rather, the only practical solution to the contractual stipulation that I should 'direct' all six Brandenburgs! )
Bach Mass in b minor
Mozart Mass in C minor
Britten YPG
Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf;
and I'm sure in many others, which right now I simply can't remember.

[Ferretfancy]

Hello Ferretfancy,
No I didn't play on the ECO/ Somary/ Vanguard Handel Water & Fireworks Music, as it was a little before my time in the ECO ( 1972-1986).

Off the top of my head, I played in:
Bach Brandenburg Concertos (in no 1 only, of course, at that time, although nearly 20 years later I played in all the Hanover Band's EMI Brandenburgs as either horn player or harpsichordist... by the way, that wasn't some sort of ego trip but, rather, the only practical solution to the contractual stipulation that I should 'direct' all six Brandenburgs! )
Bach Mass in b minor
Mozart Mass in C minor
Britten YPG
Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf;
and I'm sure in many others, which right now I simply can't remember.

I have that EMI set, and very good it is too. I'm treating myself to No. 6 while enjoying tea on a cold and draughty afternoon !

[Barbirollians]

Thanks for the recommendation of the VPO/Furtwangler recording - very special indeed .

[Tony Halstead]

Thanks for the recommendation of the VPO/Furtwangler recording - very special indeed .

Not sure who recommended that but I can enthusiastically recommend it once we get past the pretty disastrous first chord , a glaring example of what happens when the conductor's downbeat quivers from side to side and takes about 5 seconds to get down to the 'bounce point'!
This VPO recording is notable particularly for its superlative oboe playing by Hans Kamesch , maybe the only oboist who was able to 'tame' the Viennese 'Zeuliger' instrument so that it managed to sound like a real musical instrument rather than a travesty.

[Barbirollians]

The oboe playing is particularly marvellous. I assume he wasn't at the VPO by 1952 judging by the rather more vinegary oboe in the Ferrier/Walter Abschied.

[Richard Barrett]

These invariably took place in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square

So, something you and I have in common is that we've both played and recorded in the Conway Hall, but IIRC traffic noise is quite an issue there... maybe that wasn't so bad in the mid-70s.

Ensemble Zefiro recorded three discs of Mozart's wind ensemble music for Astrée, and this is the only recording I have of the Gran Partita. As usual this group makes a colourful and expressive sound.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

BaL 12.10.19 - Mozart: Serenade No.10 in B-flat, 'Gran Partita', K.361

09.30
Building a Library: Sarah Devonold compares recordings of Mozart's Serenade No.10 in B-flat, 'Gran Partita', K.361/370a - and picks a favourite.
'Gran Partita' as a subtitle implies that Mozart's Serenade No.10 is a large ambitious work, and although the work is clearly conceived as a whole 'cycle', it was not ascribed to the score by the composer himself. Mozart's vast 7-movement work for 13 wind instruments has an elusive compositional history and was thought for a long time to have been composed in 1780 or 1781 for a performance in Munich. No mention of the Serenade appears in any of Mozart's letters from that time and, in the 1970s, when the new critical edition of Mozart's works was published, after exhaustive studies of the autograph, it is now believed that the work was first performed in 1784 at a benefit concert for the Vienna-based basset-horn player Anton Stadler. The Serenade also bears the hallmarks of Mozart's later writing and certainly postdates the two wind serenades in E flat and C minor that were definitely composed in 1782.
The mysterious circumstances of both the subtitle 'Gran Partita' and the many versions of the score give the performer some interesting challenges, which Sarah Devonold discusses with Andrew McGregor.


Available recordings:-


Albion Ensemble *
Amati Ensemble, Salzburg Soloists
Amphion Wind Octet
L'Orchestre da la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Ensemble *
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, Karl Böhm
Bläser der Berliner Philharmoniker
Staatskapelle Berlin, Leo Blech *
Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez
Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brüggen
Chamber Orchestra of Europe Wind Soloists *
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Jesús López-Cobos
President's Own United States Marine Band, Michael J. Colburn *
Concerto Köln
Danish Wind Octet with Friends *
Ensemble Philidor
Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell
Wiener Philharmoniker, Wilhelm Furtwängler
German Wind Soloists
London Mozart Ensemble Wind Ensemble, Jane Glover
National Chamber Players, Lowell Graham *
Les Dissonances, David Grimal *
Winds of the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Philippe Herreweghe *
Nachtmusique, Eric Hoeprich
Amadeus Winds, Christopher Hogwood
I Solisti del Vento
Scottish National Orchestra, Paavo Järvi
Ensemble Fidelio, Armin Jordan *
Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jean-Jacques Kantorow
Klangverwaltung
Consortium Classicum, Dieter Klöcker
Members of Berliner Philharmoniker, Fritz Lehmann *
Linos Ensemble *
London Philharmonic Wind Ensembl
London Wind Quintet and Ensemble, Otto Klemperer
LSO Wind Ensemble (SACD)
London Winds *
London Wind Soloists, Jack Brymer *
Hungarian State Opera Wind Ensemble, Ervin Lukacs *
European Union Chamber Orchestra, Santiago Mantas
Chamber Orchestra of Moscow, Lev Markiz *
Academy of St Martin in the Fields Wind Ensemble, Sir Neville Marriner
Berliner Philharmoniker, Zubin Mehta *
Münchner Philharmoniker, Zubin Mehta
Bläserensemble, Sabine Meyer *
Marlboro Festival Orchestra, Marcel Moyce
BMC Wind Ensemble, Louis Moyse*
Slovak Chamber Orchestra, Anton Nanut
Octophoros *
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Ottetto Italiano
Orchestre de Chambre Jean-Francois Paillard, Jean-François Paillard
Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble, Trevor Pinnock (SACD)
Quatuor Dialogues (arr. Ewald Demeyere) (SACD)
Sixth Floor Orchestra, Jukka Rautasalo
Hans Rosbaud Chamber Ensemble
Wind Soloists of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Alexander Schneider
Schweizer Blaeserensemble
Stuttgart Winds (including Blu-ray audio version
Swedish Serenade Ensemble *
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Talich
Thaous Ensemble
Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Edo de Waart
American Chamber Winds, David Waybright *
Zefiro Ensemble

* = download only

[Pulcinella]

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (DG) and Wind soloists of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, directed by Anthony Halstead (BBC MM), here.
Surely no need for any other.


Another 'discussion' with Andrew, I see.

[LMcD]

Am I right in assuming that BBC MM recordings aren't included in these reviews? I, too, am very happy with the OAE Soloists under Anthony Halstead.