An interesting selection of compositions from the second half of the 18th century, united by a style that for expressive measure and balance is defined as gallant, synonymous at the time with ‘good taste’. The concert opens with the ‘Symphony Op. II, No. 2 in G minor’ by Johann Anton Filz, the only symphony written by the composer in a minor key.

This is followed by ‘Lungi da te’, an excerpt from ‘ Mitridate, re di Ponto ’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: the first serious opera composed by the genius from Salzburg.

The concert continues with the aria ‘Non cercar per ora... La gran vendetta ancora’, from Il Mesenzio, re d'Etruria by Luigi Cherubini, an opera first performed in Florence in September 1782.

This is followed by the ‘Symphony in D major Wq 176, H 651’ by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: of the symphonies written during his stay at the court of Berlin, one can perceive, just as in this case, a sonorous opulence and solemnity still decisively linked to Baroque poetics.

Closing the concert are two more compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Exultate, jubilate, motet written in 1773 especially for the castrato Venanzio Rauzzini - who had played the role of Cecilio in the staging of the opera Lucio Silla at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan the previous year - and the ‘Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major K. 543’; the first of the three great symphonies written by Mozart in the summer of 1788.

Johann Anton Filz (1733-1760)
Symphony Op. II, n. 2 in G minor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
From Mitridate, re di Ponto: “Lungi da te”

Luigi Cherubini
From Il Mesenzio, re d’Etruria: “Non cercar per ora… La gran vendetta ancora”

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Symphony in D major Wq 176, H 651

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Exsultate, jubilate K. 165
Symphony No. 39 in E flat major K. 543