Johnson is generally strong – or in any case elaborate – on the Serenades and devotes a good amount of space to them: “I dwell on Mozart’s serenades and similar works because, for instance, it was by no means clear when he wrote the Haffner Serenade that the symphony was to emerge within a decade as the most “serious” form of musical conception. But how often is it played?” Some statement, in a Mozart biography! But well, sound recordings to the rescue of the truly curious! Below it is, along with the Kleine Nachtmusik which obviously gets mention as well. Writes Johnson: “The nocturne-serenade (K.239 ) has a double bass solo, the only one I can think of in Mozart’s œuvre, plus a pretty substantialīacking of strings and timpani, and I should like to hear what it sounds like. Some of the recommendations, to insert a teaser, you may find again in an upcoming post of the “Best 20 Mozart Recordings” on. The recommendations are sorted by genre, not by chronology of mention in the book. “Mozart: A Life” - The Discography, Part 1 | “Mozart: A Life” - The Discography, Part 3Ī playlist on Spotify – assembled as best possible the shoddy metadata and limited album availability of Spotify allows – can be found here: Sound Advice: Paul Johnson Mozart Discography Because the discography is long, I split it in three. ( * Intended for, but since Paul Johnson is also a contributor, the editors informed me of the site policy never to have fellow contributors review each other's work, which makes good sense, actually.)
In some way I am trying to fill this gap with this list of suggested listening and suggested recordings. But even the worst book about Mozart deserves a soundtrack and unfortunately “Mozart: A Life” does not give any suggestions for recordings that can bring the music to life for the reader (if it were up to me, this type of book would always include an online playlist with a few key works to whet the appetite). Right here on ionarts* I have finally published a review of Paul Johnson’s “Mozart: A Life”.
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