Tag Archives: mozart

Mozart songs – Julianne Baird (soprano), Colin Tilney (fortepiano)

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W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy and composer. He played the piano, violin, viola, and organ. He began performing and composing at a very young age.

Mozart composed works for solo piano, violin and piano, organ, piano trio, string quartet, string quintet, concertos for piano, violin, songs, and many operas, and a requiem among other works. He had a gift for writing beautiful melodies. Mozart is especially well known for the many operas that he wrote and for his requiem which was left unfinished because of his death at the age of 35.

Here are four songs performed by soprano Julianne Baird and keyboardist Colin Tilney on the fortepiano. I hope you enjoy this music.

Mozart : Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581 (featuring Benny Goodman on Clarinet)

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Mozart : Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581

W.A. Mozart’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581 is his only completed clarinet quintet.  It was composed in 1789 for clarinettist Anton Stadler.  The Quintet is one of the earliest and best-known compositions written for one clarinet and a string quartet.  It is a very popular work because of its lyrical melodies.  The second movement is the most widely known movement of the whole work.

Benny Goodman was an American jazz clarinettist and bandleader.  He formed his first big band in 1934.  It was the top band of the swing jazz era.  Benny Goodman mostly played jazz but he also had an interest in classical music written for the clarinet.  Goodman commissioned works from Bartok, Copland, and Hindemith.

Here is a recording of Benny Goodman and the Budapest String Quartet playing W.A. Mozart’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581.  This recording was made in 1948 and was Benny Goodman’s first classical music recording.  Enjoy!

W. A . Mozart : Fantasie in F minor for organ

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is known as a child prodigy (as a performer and as a composer). He played the piano, viola, violin, harpsichord, and organ. Mozart began composing around the age of 5.  He is known today for works such as the “Eine Kliene Nachtmusik” suite, the “Jupiter” Symphony, his piano sonatas, and his Requiem among other works.

Mozart also composed pieces for the pipe organ.  Mozart only wrote a few organ compositions, and among those compositions the Fantasie in f minor is a masterpiece.  The Fantasie is a massive piece that can hold its own alongside the great organ works of J.S. Bach.  It is a very difficult piece to play musically.  Listen to all the changes  of mood and the various tonal colours the organist in this recording gets out of the organ.

Here is a recording of Mozart’s Fantasie in f minor for pipe organ.  I am not sure who is playing the piece in this recording.  I hope you enjoy this piece.