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

[Guest]

9.30 a.m.
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
Ensemble a vent, Maurice Bourgue
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

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

ASMF/Marriner for me. Full of life and a deep love of the composer.

But some would disagree.

[EdgeleyRob]

I have

Orchestra of the 18th century/Bruggen
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Very different but both very fine IMVHO

[Richard Tarleton]

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

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Furtwangler/VPO is very special ... but there's a BBC Music Magazine cover CD of the work with members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment led by Anthony Halstead which is very, very good: full of life and deep love and knowledge of Mozart.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Wind-Serenade-flat-Partita/dp/B00K4COL4K

But Alpie's right about the Marriner - he was at his best with this composer.

[Petrushka]

Furtwangler/VPO is very special ... but there's a BBC Music Magazine cover CD of the work with members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment led by Anthony Halstead which is very, very good: full of life and deep love and knowledge of Mozart.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Wind-Serenade-flat-Partita/dp/B00K4COL4K

But Alpie's right about the Marriner - he was at his best with this composer.

I was sure I had the VPO/Furtwangler lurking in a boxed set but can't seem to find it! Anyway, agree with Ferney on the outstanding merits of Anthony Halstead and another vote for Marriner.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Furtwangler/VPO is very special ...

I must dig that one out of the Big WF Box.

[MickyD]

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-Serenades-Amadeus-Winds/dp/B000024A0A/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1520235404&sr=1-1&keywords=Amadeus+Winds

[LMcD]

Furtwangler/VPO is very special ... but there's a BBC Music Magazine cover CD of the work with members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment led by Anthony Halstead which is very, very good: full of life and deep love and knowledge of Mozart.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Wind-Serenade-flat-Partita/dp/B00K4COL4K

But Alpie's right about the Marriner - he was at his best with this composer.

I have the Music Magazine CD and am happy to recommend it.

[BBMmk2]

Forumites know my dislike of Mozart's music but there are a very few of them I do like and this is one of them!

[richardfinegold]

Wasn’t the Mariner recording used in the movie Amadeus? Someone gave me a birthday present back then, an lp that was excerpts from the movie, and it probably had the movement used —remember the Salieri speech about the first time heard any of WM’s music and he said “A single note” transfixed him?
My two recordings may or may not be currently available. Collegium Aureum and the New York Philomusica, Richard Kapp conducting. I’ve inadvertently acquired a few recently as part of big box CD collections: a Decca box has a Viennese ensemble led by Boskovsky that sounded very fine

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Wasn’t the Mariner recording used in the movie Amadeus? Someone gave me a birthday present back then, an lp that was excerpts from the movie, and it probably had the movement used —remember the Salieri speech about the first time heard any of WM’s music and he said “A single note” transfixed him?

Marriner and the ASMF were used for the film, but I think recorded the excerpts especially for it (Imogen Cooper, not Brendel, is the soloist in the slow movement of the D minor concerto that plays under the closing credits, for example).

Yes and excellent scene, commenting on the third movement - an accompaniment like a rusty squeezebox, over which a single not held floating as if forever ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Marriner and the ASMF were used for the film, but I think recorded the excerpts especially for it (Imogen Cooper, not Brendel, is the soloist in the slow movement of the D minor concerto that plays under the closing credits, for example).

Tom Hulce, who played the part of Mozart in the film, did not play the piano before being cast, but had lessons for a few months, enabling him to play the live Piano Concerto movement to sync with the soundtrack, as well as performing some of Mozart's "tricks" on his own.

[jayne lee wilson]

I think the first k.361 I bought was the Mercury with Fennell and the splendid Eastman Winds....
....and this was the last..I recall vivid enjoyment of both works in a unique coupling....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/mozart-gran-partita-berg-kammerkonzert-mitsuko-uchida-christian-tetzlaff-ensemble-intercontemporain-pierre-boulez/0002894781094

....Harriet Smith full of praise for it (G. 12/2008)....
Haven't played either for ages, suspect I would prefer the Boulez now.

[waldo]

Marriner and the ASMF were used for the film, but I think recorded the excerpts especially for it.......

I think they must, in some places. Its ages since I've watched the film, but I seem to remember that they stitch together two separate sections of the partita. The adagio suddenly becomes the end of the finale - just as Mozart runs in to take over the conducting.