Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Serenade No. 7 in D major, K. 250 "Haffner" (1776)

00:00 - Allegro maestoso - Allegro molto
06:58 - Andante
16:46 - Menuetto - Trio
20:25 - Rondo. Allegro

Solo Violin: Oldřich Vlček

Performed by Sir Charles Mackerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra. Recorded by Telarc in 1988.

"The 'Haffner' Serenade was written by the twenty-year-old Mozart for the marriage of Marie Elizabeth Haffner, daughter of the deceased Sigmund Haffner, at one time prominent wholesale merchant and Salzburg's Mayor, to the forwarding agent Franz Xaver Spaeth. Marie Elizabeth's brother, also Sigmund, ordered the piece and it was first performed in the garden of his summer residence in the Paris-Lodrongasse for the wedding celebrations of July 22, 1776. Mozart later wrote his 'Haffner' Symphony for the same brother, probably for the occasion when Sigmund was granted a title (in 1782). The work is one of a number of exuberant instrumental pieces turned out by the composer during 1775-1780, the years prior to the time Mozart himself was turned out of the Salzburg service for what the city's angry Archbishop considered to be his inappropriately independent ways...

The opening movement is particularly grand and elaborate in keeping with an important civic occasion. The movement's highly dramatic development section explores conventions often associated in music with the depiction of storms.

There is a prominent part for a violinist in 3 (movements 2,3,4) of the work's 8 movements. One might think of this Serenade as a hybrid work, part symphony and part violin concerto, but it would not be appropriate to do so. The Serenade is as legitimate a period type as any Concerto or Symphony and simply happens to abound in Concertante elements. Works such as this and the 'Posthorn' Serenade are essentially concertos for orchestra, since...there are often solo instrumental passages along the way...[All three Minuets] are in turns galant and rustic. There is a rocking triplet figure underlying the Trio of the 'Haffner's' Menuetto Galante which might strike a familiar note to Prague musicians. the figure is sometimes found in Smetana's music, for example, in Sarka, from Ma Vlast.

Pizzicato passages abound...notably in a short accompaniment pattern toward the close of the 'Haffner's' 6th movement (Andante). ... The refrain of this Andante is a particularly telling wisp of melody--it haunts the memory long after the Serenade itself has played out its last notes." - William Malloch

Painting: Winter Moonlight, George Inness

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