Tuesday 27 January 2015

Mainly Classical (#1) - Mozart's Wind Serenade

Light, sumptuous, engaging. Mozart composed many enduring works, but this is definitely among my favourites: a 'must listen' for anyone building a musical library with an emphasis on the classics. Not a lot is known about the origin of the Wind Serenade (K361, sometimes known as Gran Partita); exact year or occasion. It hardly matters. There's a pastoral feel to the work, great music to sit back in a comfortable chair and de-stress to.

My choice of recordings is a performance by the London Philharmonic Wind Ensemble (you can hear an excerpt here), but almost any credible alternative will do, with Mozart you're always spoiled for choice. Most recordings come in around the 50 minute mark.

Oh yes, and today happens to be Mozart's birthday. Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag Wolfgang! The man may be gone, but the music remains.

1 comment:

  1. Mozart was probably the greatest musical genius to ever walk the planet. There are other candidates, of course: Bach, Beethoven, and a number of other classical composers. But Mozart was in a class by himself. He started composing at the age of 5 and composed over 600 works his death at the age of 35! And he did it all without benefit of a computer, other than the one between his ears. Absolutely phenomenal. Geniuses like Mozart get me feeling downright metaphysical about the concept of the universal mind which human beings tap into, some so readily that they display unbelievable abilities. Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't, but one can only stand in awe at the abilities of a Mozart or an Einstein or a Michelangelo. The other remarkable thing is the relationship between culture and the art and science which springs from it. Where do these people come from? How does a particular culture produce genius? Or is genius quite independent of culture?

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