(356.3 m. Vision ; 261.3 m. Sound)

Conductor, Adrian Boult
Ursula Greville (Soprano)

In this musical jest Mozart is poking fun not only at the simple musicians who moot together of an evening in the village inn to make music for their own pleasure, but also at the clumsy and maladroit composer. And yet, through the very helplessness on the part of the composer, which the music is meant to suggest, we can discern tho hand of a real master. To make fun so successfully as this demands a very high level of attainment. The players are all given chances of being as absurd I as they like ; the solo violin, particularly, is invited to indulge in a display of real futility.
There are four movements ; the first, Allegro, begins with a very elementary tune, harmonized with the most child-like simplicity. The second is a Minuet marked Maestoso, and though it, too, is very obvious in its design, there are little snatches of real Mozart-like grace which he clearly could not resist inserting. In the same way, tho Adagio cantabile, which is the third movement, begins with a melody which Mozart need not have blushed to give us oven in a serious work. The last movement, a bustling Presto, is rather like the first in its elementary outlines ; it is one which any good orchestra is bound to enjoy playing in the spirit of fun which inspires the whole work.