Gran Partita
Gran Partita is the popular name for the Serenade No. 10 in B flat major KV 361 composed in 1781 for two oboes , two clarinets , two basset horns , four French horns , two bassoons and double bass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . Today the double bass part is partly played on a double bassoon . The performance lasts about 50 minutes. The piece consists of seven movements:
- Largo - Molto Allegro
- Menuetto - Trio I – II
- adagio
- Menuetto. Allegretto - Trio I – II
- Romance. Adagio - Allegretto - Adagio
- Tema con variazioni
- Final. Molto Allegro
The British playwright Peter Shaffer lets Mozart's alleged adversary Antonio Salieri characterize the Adagio of the Serenade in his play Amadeus as well as in the film adaptation :
“The score didn't look like anything. The beginning, so simple, almost ridiculous. Just a pulsation, bassoons, basset horns - like a rusty squeeze table. But there, suddenly, high above, a lonely oboe, a single note, imperturbable above everything, until a clarinet picks it up, in a phrase of such heavenly sweetness! It wasn't a circus monkey composition! I had never heard music like this before. Full of deepest longing; a longing so insatiable that I trembled and it seemed to me as if I heard the voice of God. "
Web links
- Serenade in Bb KV 361 : Score and critical report in the New Mozart Edition (with the wrong year of origin)
- Adrian Tan: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Serenade No. 10 in B-flat, KV361 “Gran Partita”: An Introduction with Recommendations. In: The Flying Inkpot. October 28, 2000, accessed July 23, 2017 .
- Serenades & Divertimenti (Wind): Serenade in B flat (“Gran Partita”) KV 361 / KV 370a . Mozart Tower / Germany, work in wma format.