Mozart: Divertimento in E flat major | Hartmut Haenchen & Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

An exquisite piece of chamber music written by a teenage composer: The Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach under the baton of German composer Hartmut Haenchen perform Mozart’s Divertimento in E flat major, K. 113 at the Konzerthaus Berlin in 2005.

(00:00) I. Allegro
(03:21) II. Andante
(06:24) III. Menuetto
(07:58) IV. Trio-Allegro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed this divertimento in November 1771, aged 15, while traveling around Italy with his father Leopold Mozart. At this point in his life, the young man had already achieved considerable success as a composer, having created numerous symphonies, sonatas and even operas – most recently the festa teatrale in two parts “Ascanio in Alba”, K. 111.

Two versions of the Divertimento in E flat major exist. The first one, which was performed at this concert, and is written for two clarinets, two horns and strings, and a second one for oboes, English horns and bassoons. Scholars disagree whether the second version should be understood as a supplement to the first version (which would create an exceptionally large wind section) or whether the oboes in the second version were meant to be used instead of the clarinets, which might have been difficult to source in Salzburg at the time.

What can be said with certainty, however, is that this divertimento marks the first time Mozart used clarinets in any of his compositions. It is an instrument he is said to have been particularly fond of, despite its rarity at the time.

© RBB and EuroArts Music International

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