ARRIEU Suite en quatre (10’)
GOUNOD Petite symphonie (20’)
MOZART Serenade No.10 K361 ‘Gran Partita’ (50’)
Mozart’s Serenade No.10 – immortalised in the 1984 film Amadeus – is considered one of the composer’s greatest works, and is a masterpiece of wind writing. Nicknamed the ‘Gran Partita’ (or ‘big wind symphony’), it is breathtaking in its beauty.
Described by English music critic Noël Goodwin as “virtually an ‘operatic’ ensemble of passionate feeling and sensuous warmth”, the work’s emotional core is the third movement’s Adagio, a lyrical, intense melody that tugs at the heartstrings.
This is chamber music on a large scale, with an array of oboes, bassoons, horns, clarinets, basset horns and a double bass playing one of the undisputed highlights of classical music.