Mozart, Dohnanyi
Contzen, Guzzo, Bonomini

Mirijam Contzen, violino

Giovanni Guzzo, viola

Paolo Bonomini, violoncello

W. A. Mozart (1756–1791)

Duo for Violin and Viola in B-flat major, K. 424

E. Dohnányi (1877–1960)

Serenade for String Trio, Op. 10

40’ | Ticket €10

Not all great music is born of great ambition: Mozart’s K 424 duo was composed as an act of solidarity toward a friend in need. Michael Haydn, composer and friend of Mozart, had been commissioned by the Archbishop of Salzburg to write a series of duets for violin and viola, but a serious illness prevented him from delivering them on time, and the Archbishop threatened to suspend his salary. Mozart wrote the two missing duets in just a few days, submitting them under his friend’s name. No one noticed that the works were not by Haydn, yet the unmistakable hand of Mozart is present throughout: elegance, inexhaustible melodic invention, and a dialogue between the two instruments of rare equality and balance.

Completing the program is Ernő Dohnányi’s Serenade Op. 10, composed in 1902 during a tour in London and Vienna: five movements in which late-Romantic influences intertwine with elements of Hungarian folk tradition, in a refined and highly vibrant writing.

An evening that moves lightly and deeply across two centuries of music.

Text by Giada De Sio