Mozart / Serenade in D major, K. 320 "Posthorn" (Mackerras)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Serenade No. 9 in D major, K. 320 "Posthorn" (1779)

00:00 - Adagio maestoso - Allegro con spirito
08:01 - Menuetto: Allegretto
12:10 - Concertante: Andante grazioso
19:24 - Rondeau: Allegro ma non troppo
25:06 - Andantino
34:54 - Menuetto. Trio I. Trio II
39:31 - Finale: Presto

Posthorn Solo: Zdeněk Tylšar

Performed by Sir Charles Mackerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra (Telarc: 1985).

"The seven-movement 'Posthorn' Serenade, completed 3 August 1779 as the last of the serenades which Mozart wrote for Salzburg, and which was commissioned as 'Finalmusik' by the university, sets off solo flutes and oboes in its third and fourth movements. Mozart even had these two movements performed separately as a 'sinfonia concertante' at a concert he gave in the Vienna Burgtheater in March 1783.

The brilliant trumpet-and-drums panoply of the 'Posthorn' Serenade's opening Allegro is prepared by a stately slow introduction, which returns to introduce the recapitulation; the Mannheim crescendos of the Allegro reflect a recent visit by Mozart to that important musical center. This movement is offset by a courtly minuet with a 'real' Trio for solo flute, solo bassoon, and strings. The third and fourth movements comprise the 'Concertante' section discussed earlier; charm is the principal ingredient here, yet Mozart's music exhibits a grace a lesser composer would envy. Following the G major Concertante, the D minor Andantino--the emotional center of the Serenade--is altogether graver, with an almost operatic pathos to remind us that even in his 'entertainment music,' Mozart cannot repress his depth of musical feeling. Trumpet and drums, silent since the third movement, are restored for the second minuet. The first of the two Trios calls, unusually, for solo piccolo, the second for the posthorn--a valveless, high-pitched horn used by mail coach guards to announce arrivals and departures--which gives this serenade its name. The inventively energetic finale makes use in its development section of fugal textures--a bow, perhaps, to the academic occasion for which this 'Finalmusik' was written?" - Marc Mandel

Painting: Das Ständchen, Carl Spitzweg

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