This week’s online concert from Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra features an ensemble of the Orchestra’s musicians in a performance of Mozart’s Serenade in B flat major, K 361 ‘Gran Partita’, under the direction of Trevor Pinnock.
Renowned world-wide as a harpsichordist and conductor, Trevor Pinnock is credited with pioneering the modern revival of the performance of early music. In 1972 he founded the English Concert, a London-based baroque orchestra with a reputation for innovative performances, played on period instruments. He served as Artistic Director of the ensemble until 2003, since when he has devoted his time to conducting, solo and chamber music engagements and educational projects at the Royal Academy of Music where he is Principal Guest Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra.
Trevor Pinnock is a frequent guest of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphiharmonie in Bremen and the Mozarteum Orchester in Salzburg. Among the honours he has received are a CBE in 1992, and in 1998 he was made an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He is also a patron of Jessie’s Fund which helps children with complex needs or serious illness to communicate through music.
The ‘Gran Partita’ Serenade is described by Gramophone magazine as Mozart’s “most ambitious, longest and most technically complex wind serenade”, and although there is no certainty about the date of its composition, it would appear that Mozart might have written it for a benefit concert for Austrian clarinet and basset horn player, Anton Stadler – regarded as one of Vienna’s most gifted wind players. This performance was given in the Burgtheater in Vienna on 23 March 1784. Whatever the truth, the Concertgebouw’s description of the Serenade as “… chamber music of symphonic proportions ….” is valid.
Trevor Pinnock leads an ensemble of musicians of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in an online performance of Mozart’s ‘Gran Partita’ Serenade. Recorded in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the performance can be viewed free of charge from 20h00 (CET) on Friday, 5th February, on the Concertgebouw website or on its Facebook and YouTube channels. The performance will be available to watch for a week after the initial stream.
Information sourced from:
Concertgebouw Orchestra programme notes