Il re pastore

They are the best known of Mozart's concertos for that instrument, and were conceived in the main for the violinist Brunetti of the court orchestra.

With all their charm, they still stand below the great clavier concertos in grandeur, and epoch-making qualities wolfgang did not particularly enjoy the violin although his father exhorted him to practise and told him that he could be the greatest violinist in europe another work in seventeen seventy five was il re pastor a cross between opera and cantata to a poem by metastasio composed for a visit to the archbishop of archduke maximilian a score of sensitive loveliness it is known to-day chiefly for its tender soprano aria with violin solo lamero sarro costanda of the many other creations of this period we can only mention in passing the six clavier sonatas for the baron junitz the innumerable variations the serenades noturni divertimenti masses offertorios organ sonatas the stunning clavier concertos for his own use, for the French pianist Mademoiselle Genome, the Countess Lutzo, and other high-placed local amateurs.

Last, but far from least, he composed the Serenade, later transformed into a symphony, by the elimination of a movement or two, for the wealthy Hoffner family, of whom Sigmund Hoffner, a merchant prince, was burgomaster of Salzburg.

Monheim and Paris.

Nevertheless, Sidomeneo, when brought out late in January 1781, was warmly acclaimed, and the elector, who had followed the rehearsal from the first, marveled that so small a head should contain such great things, insisting he had never been so stirred by any music.

He had reason for his enthusiasm.

The score of Edomeneo is one of its composer's most superb achievements, and if it lives on today, chiefly as a museum piece, it does so because, like Mitradate, Lucio Silla, and Il Re Pastor before it, and La Clemenza di Tito after it, the work is a specimen of opera seria, a form that had lost every trace of vitality and dramatic punch.

Yet to the end of his days its creator valued it highly, and made some unavailing efforts to reanimate it.

But just to add some more complication, sometimes a composer would take an opera seria libretto and cut it down for a less weighty result.

And that is what Mozart did with Il re pastore, the shepherd king.

He cut the three-and-a-half-hour libretto down to two hours and made it much more pastoral.

There's no villain, no real danger, and no political crisis, just shepherds and gentle misunderstandings.

And this ended up with yet another term, a serenata.

Here is Neville Mariner conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, With the overture to Mozart's Il Re Pastore, The Shepherd King.

It's about three minutes long. . . . ¶¶ Thank you.

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ That was Neville Mariner conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with the overture to Mozart's Il re pastore, The Shepherd King.