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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
Midsummer Mozart Hits the Jackpot
May 18, 1999
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By Richard Stevens
Numbers 3, 8, and 13 were the winning combination for Midsummer Mozart Festival's spring
chamber music performance in Berkeley on Tuesday, May 18, 1999, entitled "Accumulating
Winds."
The concert opened with a trio -- the unusual Divertimento for 3 Basset Horns (K. 439b, No. 1),
a delightful five-movement work superbly played by Donald Carroll, Anthony Striplen, and
Clark Forbes.
The virtuoso wind players performed the Serenade (K. 375) for woodwind octet -- a wonderful
piece -- with elan, technical brilliance, and subtle expressivity. Both the solo and ensemble
passages were outstanding.
The second half was devoted to that masterpiece for chamber ensemble, the Serenade for
Thirteen Winds (K. 361 / 370a), the "Gran Partita." (This is the work that Peter Shaffer has
Salieri choose in the play Amadeus to demonstrate the magnificence of Mozart's music.)
The Serenade opens with an organ-like Largo, especially fitting in the setting of the First
Congregational Church of Berkeley. The ensemble played the ensuing Allegro with brio and
energy and the charming Menuetto with grace.
Magnificently done solos by first oboe Roger Wiesmeyer and first clarinet Mark Brandenburg
marked the stately Adagio. Following the cheerful second Menuetto, the elegant Romance
displayed subtle, nuanced playing, especially by Wiesmeyer, Brandenburg, and Rufus Olivier
(first bassoon).
The theme and variations, to my taste the most perfect movement in this string of musical gems,
was the high point of the evening. I have never heard the first oboe solos, either live or in
recordings, done more beautifully than by Weismeyer. The Finale (Molto Allegro) provided a
spirited and joyous ending to a perfect evening of Mozart wind music.
(Richard Stevens has performed both oboe and piano [but not simultaneously] with numerous
Bay Area ensembles over the past four decades.)
©1999 Richard Stevens, all rights reserved
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