Allegro Caps Year The Mozart Way
Allegro finishes its season at The Met with a program entitled “Delightful Divertimenti.” The music of Mozart and his contemporaries, Michael Haydn and Luigi Boccherini, will be featured.
The Divertimento contributed by Haydn, which was penned around 1772, will be a Trio in C for oboe, viola and double bass. Michael Haydn (1737-1806) was Joseph’s kid brother, younger by 5-1/2 years. He followed a similar musical path as his more famous sibling, leaving home to become a chorister and pursue musical studies at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.
He became a court musician in Salzburg and held a position of prominence in the musical world there during Mozart’s formative years. Haydn’s compositions show an accomplished hand with a good deal of originality, and it has been speculated that he might have achieved the fame his brother enjoyed had his career taken him to more cosmopolitan areas.
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) was, to say the least, a prolific composer of chamber music. He wrote more than 100 string quintets, nearly 100 quartets and more than 100 other chamber works.
Allegro’s musicians will perform his Trio, Op. 54 No. 3 in E-flat, published around 1798. Boccherini’s music has a style all its own other than generally coming from the Italian school, it is hard to pinpoint any particular influences or draw any broad comparisons. As a virtuoso himself, however, he wrote imaginatively for the virtuoso performer.
The central spot on the program is held by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). His Divertimento, K. 251 uses the largest forces of winds and strings, and his lighter K. 229 Divertimento will round out the program.
Divertimenti are, as the title suggests, diversions music written to accompany dinners and such, and not meant to take center stage. Mozart’s music, however, has a way of soaking up the spotlight even when it was intended to keep a low profile.
In addition to Allegro’s musical directors, Beverly Biggs on fortepiano and David Dutton on oboe, musicians for the performance will be Brian Haight and Tana Bachman, violins; Karen Walthinsen, viola; Cheryl Carney, cello; Eugene Jablonsky, bass; and Roger Logan and Casey Traver, horns.
There will be a pre-concert talk beginning at 7:15 by Leonard Oakland, professor at Whitworth College and classical announcer on KPBX. xxxx CONCERT Allegro presents “Delightful Divertimenti” at 8 p.m. Tuesday at The Met. Tickets range from $8 to $18 and are available at G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.