Mozart: 5 Divertimentos, K. Anh. 229

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Cat No: 8553585

Release Date: 06 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099458528

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: MOZART

Description
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Five Divertimentos, K. 439bWolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born inSalzburg in 1756, the son of a court musician who, in the year of his youngestchild's birth, published an influential book on violin-playing, Leopold Mozartrose to occupy the position of Vice- Kapellmeister to the Archbishop ofSalzburg, but sacrificed his own creative career to that of his son, in whom hedetected early signs of precocious genius, With the indulgence of his patron,he was able to undertake extended concert tours of Europe in which his son andelder daughter Nannerl were able to astonish audiences The boy played both thekeyboard and the violin and could improvise and soon write down his owncompositions.The childhood that had brought Mozartsignal success was followed by a less satisfactory period of adolescencelargely in Salzburg under the patronage of a new and less sympatheticArchbishop. Like his father, Mozart found opportunities far too limited athome, while chances of travel were now restricted. In 1777, when leave ofabsence was not granted, he gave up employment in Salzburg to seek a futureelsewhere, but neither Mannheim nor Paris, both musical centres of someimportance, had anything for him. His Mannheim connections, however, brought acommission for an opera in Munich in 1781, but after its successful staging hewas summoned by his patron to Vienna. There Mozart's dissatisfaction with hisposition resulted in a quarrel with the Archbishop and dismissal from hisservice.The last ten years of Mozart's life werespent in Vienna in precarious independence of both patron and immediatepaternal advice, a situation aggravated by an imprudent marriage Initialsuccess in the opera-house and as a performer was followed, as the decade wenton, by increasing financial difficulties. By the time of his death in December1791, however, his fortunes seemed about to change for the better, with thesuccess of the German opera Die Zauberflote and the possibility ofincreased patronage.The attribution of the FiveDivertimentos, K. 439b to Mozart has been questioned by some scholars.There is no surviving autograph and no reference to the 25 pieces in Mozart'sown catalogue of his compositions. They have, however, been identified with the'still unknown Trios for basset horn' mentioned by the composer's widow,Constanze, in a letter of 31st May 1800 to the publisher Johann Anton Andre.There she alleges that the clarinettist Anton Stadler had various manuscriptsand copies of Trios for basset-horns in his possession but claims that theyhave been stolen, while she has heard that the box containing these and otheritems has, in fact, been pawned. It should be mentioned that Stadler owedMozart 500 florins at the time of the latter's death, a debt described in theaccount of Mozart's estate as unrecoverable. The first publication of any ofthe pieces that constitute the Five Divertimentos came in 1803 fromBreitkopf and Hiirtel in Leipzig, when the firm issued a collection und
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