Divertimento No. 11 for Oboe, Two Horns and Strings K. 251

This is one of numerous works written by Mozart to provide entertainment during the years that he was in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg. These compositions were sometimes called a serenade, sometimes a divertimento, a cassation or even notturno. Such works could be played indoors for an audience who were eating (Tafelmusik) or outdoors to celebrate some occasion, such as the end of the school year (Finalmusik).

The Divertimento, K. 251, is believed to have been written in honor of Mozart's sister Nannerl's name day on July 26, 1776, or possibly her 25th birthday on July 30. A divertimento in Mozart's day was a chamber work for ensembles of string and wind instruments, generally written for smaller groups than a serenade.

Zaslaw writes, "This work (is) one of the gayest and most light-hearted that Mozart ever penned…The opening Allegro moderato is one of Mozart's most brilliant early experiments in sonata form…Then comes another highlight, a serenely beautiful Andantino in the form of a rondeau. Mozart's own special blend of exquisite melody and heart-searching sadness is nowhere more apparent than at the point where the solo oboe takes up the tune… Then comes the Rondo, one of the most entertaining that Mozart ever wrote."

Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major K. 482

After the conclusion of a highly successful Lenten subscription series in the months leading up to March 9, 1785, and with the playing of Mozart's Twenty-First Piano Concerto, K. 467, most of Mozart's audience, chiefly nobility, left for their summer estates outside Vienna.

During this slower season Mozart finished the six quartets dedicated to Haydn, and saw them published by September 1, 1785, as well as making substantial progress on The Marriage of Figaro.

On January 13, 1786, Leopold wrote his daughter that Wolfgang had finally written, " …in which he said that he gave without much preparation three subscription concerts to 120 subscribers, that he composed a new piano concerto in E-flat in which (a rather unusual occurrence!) he had to repeat the Andante." The new concerto was what is now called K. 482. The premiere was apparently performed about December 16, 1785, but no further particulars are available.

Many commentators, including Albert Einstein, have remarked that this concerto is reminiscent of the earlier E-flat concerto, K. 271, and the two piano concertos, K. 365 and K. 449. Einstein goes on about K. 482, "[It] gives us the impression that he felt he had perhaps gone too far, had given the Viennese public credit for too much, had overstepped the boundaries of 'social music,' or more simply stated, that he saw the favor of the public waning, and sought to win it back with works that would be sure of success."

But this work, the first of Mozart's piano concertos to use clarinets in place of oboes, has long been regarded as one of Mozart's finest. It may be interesting to note that the "hunting" theme in the closing movement was used as background music in the film Amadeus in the scene in which Mozart strides out of his apartment and goes down the street in Vienna.

Bassoon Concerto in B-flat Major K. 191

A concerto for bassoon and orchestra? Well, Vivaldi wrote 38, and many other well-known composers at least one; but only Mozart's seems to be played, a tribute to his unique gift of sensing what was intrinsic to the particular instrument for which he wrote.

The bassoon concerto, finished on June 4, 1774, was his first wind instrument concerto and as Zaslaw describes it "by common consent a little masterpiece." Zaslaw goes on, "[Mozart] embraces the bassoon's virtues-its lyrical gift, its agility, its rich sonorities, its wit and its wide-stepping ability. Mozart has thus achieved a concerto intrinsically for the bassoon," or as Einstein puts it, "K. 191 is a work unmistakably conceived for a wind instrument, a real concerto, which could not be arranged, say, for a violoncello… The work was written con amore (with love) from beginning to end, as is particularly evident in the lively participation of the orchestra."

Symphony No. 34 in C major K. 338

The 34th Symphony was finished on August 29, 1780. Mozart's sister's diary mentions that Mozart played at court on September 2, 1780; this was probably its first performance. The symphony was Mozart's last in Salzburg as he was about to leave for Munich to supervise the production of Idomeneo at the Electoral Court. Levy describes the symphony as "not only big in orchestra and concept but imperious in sweeping the listener along, from its almost martial opening to its intensely vivacious final movement," and Sadie writes, "The finale is Mozart's last and most brilliant essay in the 6/8 style… a happy reconciliation between traditional high-spirited jig and symphonic vigor."