MOZART: DIVERTIMENTI 7-15 - St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble

MOZART Divertimenti LINER NOTES

There has been much recent discussion about just how and where to draw the line between high art and simple entertainment. All such talk becomes academic when we turn to the divertimenti of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Here, unquestionably, is music that sets out purposefully to entertain (the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians translates the word divertimento as “diversion,” “recreation” or “enjoyment”); yet it remains “art” by many standards I know – and a particularly high grade of art, at that. Mozart appropriated the divertimento form from his great friend and mentor Franz Joseph Haydn, who, however, gen erally favored a five-movement frame work. Mozart preferred to plot his diverti menti on a grand scale: most of them are in six movements or more.