Mozart's Pets
Composer
General Information
Year: 2021
Duration: 11 minutes
Publisher: Edition Peters
Instrumentation
Flute I-III (Part III doubling piccolo)
Oboe I-II
Bb Clarinet I-III
Bb Bass Clarinet
Bb Contrabass Clarinet
Eb Alto Saxophone I-II
Bb Tenor Saxophone
Eb Baritone Saxophone
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
Movements
- Miss Bimperl, Fox Terrier
- A London Cat
- Dawn Chorus in a Viennese Bird Seller’s Shop
- Grasshopper
- A Canary Sings by Mozart’s Death Bed
Programme notes
Mozart’s Pets is a sequence of five vignettes, taking the listener on a whimsical journey through a curious menagerie as we encounter the animals who shared their world with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The piece concludes with a plaintive deathbed recitation voiced by his pet canary. Historical records validate Mozart’s fondness for pets and extant diaries refer to the presence of dogs, horses and birds in his childhood and adult households, but it is one particular starling that stole his heart. Bought in 1784, the starling became a companion to Mozart and up until its death three years later was never far from his side. It was, however, the celebrity starling’s successor, a canary, which held the ear of the dying Mozart. According to records, it was removed from his deathbed as its song proved too distressing. Whatever the truth of such biographical by-roads, Judith’s playful take on Mozart’s ‘friends’ is elegant and charming and with her inclusion of an improvised coda in Dawn Chorus and instrumental key clicking in Grasshopper, the composition asserts its modernity within more formal musical ideas.
Performances
(World Premiere) Bloomsbury Woodwind Ensemble (Shea Lolin, conductor) at St James's Clerkwenwell, London on 27 November 2021.
Recordings
Mozart's Pets is feautred on an album recorded with the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, released on 12 January 2024. Full details are avaialble at: shealolin.co.uk/chromosphere
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