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Details
Milton Court Concert Hall
Silk St
Barbican
London
EC2Y 9BH
England
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Concerto in C major for Flute and Harp, K.299/297c
Christoph Willibald Gluck – Don Juan, Wq.52
Performers
Gergely Madaras – Conductor
Academy of Ancient Music
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
As part of their musical Grand Tour of Rennaisance Europe, the period instrument ensemble Academy of Ancient Music visit Vienna and Paris, where both Mozart and Gluck found inspiration.
During the 1700s, as technology advanced and the means of travel improved composers gained easy access to the works of colleagues in foreign lands as cross-currents in culture flowed in the spirit of enquiry. Bavarian-born and Austrian-educated, Christoph Willibald Gluck became master of the Parisian stage. He reformed opera by blending national musical styles and injecting human drama into his stage works. These primary elements combine in his masterpiece,Don Juan.
The ballet, complete with wild fandango and terrifying passacaglia, tells the tale of a duel, a banquet and a notorious philanderer’s descent into hell. Mozart, like Gluck, was inspired by the bustling Parisian music scene but not by Paris. His unhappy time there was not improved by a commission for a concerto for flute and harp, two of his least favourite instruments. In spite of these trying circumstances, this intricate and genuinely playful piece is an exquisite example of the cosmopolitan, trans-European culture of the early Classical era.
