Description

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Editor: Wolf-Dieter Seiffert
Format: Conductor Score
Instrumentation: String Orchestra
Already in his early youth, Mozart made his first forays into the genre of the string quartet, the supreme discipline in chamber music. The three three-movement works K. 136138, which he designated « Divertimento », are dated « Salisburgo 1772 » in the autograph, but were presumably conceived earlier while on a concert tour under the Italian sun. They do not yet display the « erudite » four-partwriting that Joseph Haydn was perfecting at the same time, but instead strike a cheerful, playful serenade tone with mostly song-like upper voice and accompanying lower voices.
The fact that Mozart designated the lowest voice not as « Violoncello » but as « Basso » and also used the plural « Viole » for the viola part suggests that he certainly had in mind more than one instrument on a part here. In this form for small string orchestra, the three so-called « Salzburg Divertimenti » are still perennial evergreens today. Edited by Mozart expert Wolf-Dieter Seiffert, this practice-oriented chamber orchestra edition offers a verified musical text on the basis of the autograph sources.