Mozart Day - Closing concert and Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Five Contradances, K. 609
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major, K. 543
-- intermission--
Allegro in D major – recently discovered work by Mozart
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525

Angela Hewitt  piano, Mihály Berecz  piano
Concerto Budapest
Conductor: András Keller

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The evening segment of Mozart Day kicks off with dance music and one of the most popular motifs from The Marriage of Figaro, because as a matter of fact the first part of the Five Contradances (1791) is a single, effective self-quotation. After pieces of the ‘light music’ of the age, the Piano Concerto in D minor (1786) featuring Angela Hewitt represents a shift in tone, about which the Mozart specialist musicologist Volkmar Braunbehrens writes thus: “It assumes an audience which does not allow anything to distract it, focusing entirely on the work, because the only object of contemplation is the given work of art.” In the wake of this concerto demanding undivided attention comes the E-flat major work from the trio of ‘late’ Mozart symphonies, which even today is somewhat overshadowed by the close proximity of the ‘Great’ G minor symphony and the ‘Jupiter’ symphony in C major. Yet even this does not mark the end of the day since from 9 pm, in the closing section called Eine kleine Nachtmusik, naturally on the one hand we can hear a performance of the work in question, the serenade in G major, and on the other hand, the recently discovered short piano work, the Allegro in D major, which audiences have been acquainted with only in the past few weeks because the first public performance took place in Salzburg this January.