Friday, February 3, 8.00pm
Sunday, February 5, 8.00pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

CLICK HERE for directions to NEC's Jordan Hall.

Principal wind players from the Handel and Haydn Orchestra play Mozart’s great Serenade in C Minor and engaging wind arrangements of his classic operas.

Mozart: Fantasia in C Minor for piano solo, KV 475
Mozart: Serenade in C Minor, “Nachtmusique,” KV 388
Mozart: Quintet in E-sharp for piano and winds, KV 452
Selections from The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, and other works

Stephen Hammer, directing
John Gibbons, fortepiano

For Mozart, as with many other eighteenth-century composers, one common way to disseminate the hit tunes from his operas was through arrangements for wind ensembles. Musical patrons delighted in these ensembles, made up of oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons. Many of these were arranged by the wind ensembles, but Mozart himself may have set Papageno's birdcatcher aria for two clarinets. Familiar arias from The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute will be heard. Handel and Haydn's virtuoso wind soloists sing beautifully performing this repertoire, one whose original music was vocal.

In addition to the wonderful Serenade in C minor, "Nachtmusik," written for winds, the program includes the Quintet in E flat for piano and winds. About a performance of this piece Mozart wrote his father in 1784 that it "called forth the very greatest applause: I myself consider it to be the best work I have ever composed... How I wish you could have heard it! And how beautifully it was performed! Well, to tell the truth I was really worn out in the end after playing so much-and it is greatly to my credit that my listeners never got tired."

For further information:

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mozart.html
A short biography of Mozart, from the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music

http://www.proarte.org/notes/mozart3.htm
Excellent notes on Mozart’s remarkable C Minor Nachtmusique