(Section E)
(Led by LAURANCE TURNER )
Conducted by VICTOR HELY-HUTCHINSON
(Solo Violin, ARTHUR CATTERALL )
THIS serenade is known as the ' Haffner.' It was composed for the wedding festivities of Elisabeth Haffner , daughter of the Burgomaster of Salzburg, Mozart's native town. This was in 1776, when Mozart was twenty years old and probably without much experience of weddings, for his own was not to be for another six years. At any rate, there is so much music in the Serenade, and the work would have taken so long to perform in the circumstances, that it was probably intended to be split up and the several sections played separately at various times during the festivities. However, Mozart seems to have taken an interest in the composing of the. Serenade, and it was doubtless a labour of love, for Siegmund Haffner had the reputation of being a good popular and patriotic Burgomaster, and Mozart had an intense affection for his native town. The Haffner wedding music also includes a short March, not included in the Serenade, but intended for performance at some point in the ceremony.
But the music written in connection with Burgomaster Haffner does not end with these works. In 1782, six years later, Mozart wrote the well-known Haffner Symphony, No. 35 in D. It was composed also for a wedding, this time for a younger daughter of the Burgomaster. Mozart was in Vienna at the time, and it was his father who made the suggestion to him that he should compose something for the festivities as he had done on the former occasion. A month later he was himself married to Constance Weber. There is no record, however, that he wrote any music for his own wedding.