大象传媒

What music might you have heard in 1771? Ian Page, director and founder of period instrument orchestra The Mozartists, together with harpsichordist Steven Devine and mezzo Kitty Whately, imagine a concert of contemporary music from 250 years ago including perhaps the most celebrated and innovative composer of that time. The prolific Hamburger CPE Bach is represented here by the keyboard concerto he himself considered one of his finest.

Antonio Salieri's Crusader opera Armida was his breakthrough hit which wowed Vienna and beyond in 1771 and helped pave the way to his appointment as director of the Italian opera at the Habsburg court. There's another beautiful vocal rarity from Prague-born, Italian-based Josef Myslive膷ek whose oratorio Adama ed Eva was premiered in Florence.

1771 was long before Haydn had become Europe's most lauded composer. But tied to the provincial Esterh谩zy court and, as he put it, forced to become original, Haydn's quartets and symphonies show him in the vanguard of contemporary music. He apparently wanted the the elegiac slow movement from his magnificent `Trauer鈥� symphony to be performed at his funeral.

And what of a certain Wolfgang Mozart? In 1771 he was a 15-year-old musical prodigy who spent much of his childhood hauled around Europe by his father being shown off to rich people. The Mozartists begin their concert with a lively and elegant 1771-style symphony that has yet to be authenticated as the work of the teen wunderkind.

Recorded yesterday at Cadogan Hall and introduced by Ian Skelly.

WA Mozart[?]: Symphony in F major, K.75
Josef Myslive膷ek: Aria, 鈥淣on so se il mio peccato鈥� from Adamo ed Eva
CPE Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in C minor, Wq.43/4
Antonio Salieri: Scena, 鈥淓 non degg鈥檌o seguirla鈥� Lungi da te, ben mio鈥� from Armida
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 44 in E minor, 鈥楾rauer鈥�

Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)
Steven Devine (harpsichord)
The Mozartists
Ian Page (conductor)