(++++) IN SEARCH OF TOTALITY

Mozart: “Complete” Divertimenti & Serenades. Kurpfälziches Kammerorchester Mannheim conducted by Florian Hayerick and Jirí Malát; Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum conducted by Burkhard Glaetzner; Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice conducted by Vahan Mardirossian; Amati Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gil Sharon. Brilliant Classics. $44.99 (9 CDs).

     The notion of completeness is elusive when it comes to Mozart’s music. Even attempts to gather absolutely everything he wrote into one place are less than perfect: a 160-CD “complete works” from Brilliant Classics, released some years ago, omitted a few things here and there. The company gets points for trying, though, and its latest “complete” assemblage presents nine CDs purporting to include all the divertimenti and serenades that Mozart wrote. The set is pulled together from recordings made between 1989 and 2023, involving four orchestras under five conductors. All the ensembles are fine and of an appropriate size for the music, and all the conductors handle the material with understanding and a pleasantly light touch.

     Lightness of touch is in fact the key to all this material. The divertimenti and serenades – and cassations and notturnos, all those titles being more-or-less interchangeable in the Classical era – were the equivalent of background music, intended to be pleasant-sounding, aurally unchallenging, uncompetitive with conversations at various social engagements, and to some extent forgettable; yet as always with Mozart, the music rises above the occasions for which it was composed and is distinguished by perfect poise, balance and an understanding of the capabilities and blending possibilities of the instruments. So although it is justifiable to think of this material as the equivalent of 18^th-century “mood music,” these works are nevertheless high art, amounting to a pinnacle of sorts even if they are scarcely as complex and memorable as Mozart’s more-substantive productions.

     As for the notion of completeness, that remains “more honored in the breach than the observance.” This release does not give the music the usual numbering – e.g., for the most famous of these pieces, not Serenade No. 13 (“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”) – but only identification by Köchel numbering (Serenade in G, K525). Various serenades do not appear at all – e.g., K361/K370a and K375 (Nos. 10 and 11 in the usual numbering). But pieces not generally thought of as being in this grouping do show up, notably Ein Musikalische Spaß (“A Musical Joke”), K522.

     Ultimately, the “complete” designation will matter far less to listeners than the nearly 10 hours of music on these nine discs. There are plenty of straightforward items here, often from early in Mozart’s oeuvre, but even among the early works, there are surprises and special pleasures. For example, K113 of 1771, written when Mozart was 15, is the first piece in which the composer used clarinets – although years later he revised it to include oboes, English horns and bassoons, so the clarinets could be left out. In K131, written the following year, Mozart includes no fewer than four horns and uses them as a solo quartet repeatedly. And in several works, Mozart splits instrumental sections (K131 divides the violas) or sets a smaller group of instruments against a larger one (as in K239, the “Serenata Notturna”). There are some genuinely impressive pieces in this collection: K250, the “Haffner” serenade, is an eight-movement work lasting almost an hour. And there are a few items that are simply strange, such as the very early Gallimathias Musicum, K32, a piece of “musical nonsense” (hence the title) that includes six 30-second movements and others that are not much longer, almost all based on popular and folk music of Mozart’s time.

     Complete or not, this intriguing and well-played set provides a rare opportunity to hear Mozart in mostly unserious mode and mood, producing overtly entertaining material for the soirées and aristocratic gatherings of his time, experimenting now and then with sonorities and instrumental combinations, but never losing sight of the importance of keeping everything simultaneously unobtrusive and entertaining. Certainly the entertainment value of these works remains very much in the forefront some two-and-a-half centuries after Mozart created them.