Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Andrew Manze :: Mozart: Night Music

Dat Wolfi Vas a Funny Fellow!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 10/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not gonna tell the punchline of Mozart's "Musical Joke". If you've heard it before, all I need to say is that this performance is probably the best on CD, rivaling only by L'Archibudelli. If you haven't heard it, you must. I happened to hear "The Joke" on a classical music radio station, and it reminded me of this CD by The English Consort. The real joke, by the way, was on the performers I heard on radio, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln center; they played as if they didn't get the joke at all.



Now I suppose you think the joke's on me if I declare that the Mozart of the divertimenti and serenatas was the musical heir of Georg Philipp Telemann. So was Haydn. Just listen to Telemann's 'divertimenti', however, before you accuse me of Telemonomania. No other baroque composer besides Telemann displayed the same thigh-slapping sense of humor than Mozart so obviously relished. For evidence, I offer Telemann's Suite in F Major, "Alster Echo", which includes a Dorfmusik movement as well as a Chorus of Crows and Frogs.



Andrew Manze and The English Consort play the ever-popular Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with the enthusiasm as if they'd discovered it and had rushed to share it with the world. It is only one of many very fine 'entertainments' Mozart composed, and why it has so eclipsed all the others has little to do with music. But the wonder is that a really fine, authentic performance can make it fresh again."