Mozart Sinfonia Concertante KV 364 - Concertone KV 190

The Sinfonia Concertante KV 364 takes on a deaths that is very different from the Gallant grace of the earlier compositions. The marvelous dialogue of the two solo instruments is sustained by an orchestra whose participation in the dramatic oscillations of the score is totally penetrating. In formal terms, many points of contact, if not indeed real parallels can be identified between the score, and the Concerto in E flat for two pianos KV 365 written in the same period: this much can be seen in the familiar ring of the melodies, borrowed from the latter example which had been written some time earlier for the use of Wolfgang himself and his sister Nannerl.

The Concertone in C Major for two violins, completed in Salzburg on the 3rd of May 1773, belongs not so much to the family of concertos (examples of concertos for two violins and orchestra can be found in Bach’s works) as to the group of instrumental divertimenti, and seems to follow the pattern of an earlier Concerto or Divertimento in E flat major KV 113, written in Milan in November 1771. The habitual division into three movements (Allegro spiritoso – Andantino grazioso – Tempo di Menuetto), a writing which principally makes use of imitative play of the two solo instruments, and the definition of a concertante style that is destined to have important developments are the elements that characterize a piece which is rarely featured in concert programmes yet which does offer numerous points of interest that help us to understand the evolution of Mozart’s concertos and the reasons for the miraculous germination of concertos for violin and orchestra.