All Mozart, all morning

(Salzburg, Austria) It was an all-Mozart morning in sunny Salzburg as Trevor Pinnock led the Mozarteumorchester in front of a sold-out crowd in the Mozarteum's Great Hall.

The concert got underway with the E flat symphony KV 184, Pinnock's jabbing gestures elliciting a hard-edged tone from the orchestra in the first movement. That was countered by a lush, Romantic sounding Andante second movement, and a sprightly Allegro final movement.

The Six German Dances KV 571 began with a rustic, let's-all-dance-with-our-farmer's-boots-on type of sound. In selected passages during the third dance, Pinnock had the first violins play close to the bridge resulting in a purposely scratchy sound. Pinnock and company had the final dance of this set sounding like circus music, closing it off in the humorous manner in which it was written.

The Concerto for Flute and Harp KV 299 is surely one of the most beguilingly beautiful pieces ever composed by Mozart. It was performed superbly by flutist Emmanuel Pahud and harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet who used delicacy and grace as their watchwords.

After the interval, the concert concluded with another E flat symphony, this time KV 543, an animated reading that was heavily applauded.

The concert was broadcast live by ORF on Ö1.

Photo by Leonard Turnevicius: Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Emmanuel Pahud, Trevor Pinnock and the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg in the Mozarteum's Great Hall.