Mozart: Divertimenti for Strings and Wind

Wonderful Chamber Ensemble Music March 13, 2001 This volume, like Vol 3 and 5, falls under the category of 'entertainment music':music intended as a background to social occasions unlike the more 'serious' music types like symphonies and concertos which were intended to be performed in a theatre, concert room or church. However light this music may be, it is still not lacking from the charm and quality of other serious work, although not quite fine as Mozart's mature works. The Academy of St Martin in the Field's Mozart Chamber Ensemble here delivered a wonderful performance of the divertimenti. In this collection you can hear 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik' played by an ensemble - the work is usually heard in full orchestra. I thoroughly enjoyed 'Ein musikalischer SpaB', not because of its quality(it is parody of the third-rate composers of Mozart's day) but because its opening notes appear in Nicola Piovani's Krautentang, part of the score of Benigni's 'La Vita e` Bella' - which is my favourite film. With this volume, together with Vols 3 and 5, Philips have made a superb complete collection of Mozart's 'light music'