Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer: LSO Wind Ensemble
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: LSO
Release: 2017
Size: 956 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Serenade No. 10 in B flat major, K361 ‘Gran Partita’
01. I. Largo – Molto allegro
02. II. Menuetto
03. III. Adagio
04. IV. Menuetto. Allegretto
05. V. Romance. Adagio
06. VI. Tema con variazioni
07. VII. Finale. Molto allegro
A sprightly interpretation of Mozart’s intriguing Gran Partita, this release celebrates the wealth of talent in the London Symphony Orchestra’s wind section with an ensemble that includes Italian bass clarinetist Lorenzo Iosco, renowned clarinettist Andrew Marriner and celebrated young oboist Olivier Stankiewicz. Captured live during Sound Unbound 2015, the Barbican’s first ‘classical weekender’, the recording is supported by Bowers & Wilkins and took place in the Jerwood Hall of LSO St Luke’s.
For this album, the ensemble was led Lorenzo Iosco, who played with the Orchestra for six years before joining the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He says of the work: “It’s so simple what [Mozart] writes, but at the same time so beautiful and so clear…All the seven movements are fantastic, my favourite is the third movement, because the way it starts and how it’s built is absolutely amazing. But all the movements have beautiful melodies, it’s a masterpiece!” Mozart’s sublime ‘serenade for thirteen Winds’ may have been dedicated to his bride Constanze, and it may even have been played at their wedding celebrations in 1782, fitting the occasion with its ambitious scoring and sense of amplitude.
It consists of seven movements and why Mozart decided to ignore symphonic convention is unknown. ‘Gran Partita’, which was found scribbled on the original manuscript, essentially means ‘big wind symphony’ and it is scored for 13-piece wind section: unusually large for the era. It isn’t one of Mozart’s most intricate scores, but its sensuousness and variety are unsurpassed.