Mozart for flute and strings

Mozart's sparkling first flute quartet (K285) was commissioned by amateur flautist Ferdinand De Jean and completed in Mannheim on Christmas Day 1777, during the composer’s first extended travels without his father. The elegant A major quartet (K298) dates from 10 years later, composed in Vienna in the fashionable Parisian quatuor d’airs dialogués form, in which a different popular melody is used as the basis for each movement.

These quartets serve as contrasting musical bookends for the monumental Divertimento for string trio (K563), first performed in Vienna in 1788, with Mozart on the viola. Meanwhile, over in England, the original Musical and Amicable Society was in full swing – a collective of local musicians who met in the Cherry Street Tavern in Birmingham 'for practice and recreation'!

Two centuries later, Kate Fawcett and Martin Perkins decided to revive this historic society as a collective of professional period-instrument specialists, performing in combinations ranging from chamber ensembles to full orchestra. Appearing for the past two decades in cathedrals and concert halls across the country, in repertoire ranging from Vivaldi to Verdi, they aim to embody the spirit of the original society – seeking to be both musical and amicable whenever they gather to play.

Performers:
Elizabeth Walker flute
Catherine Martin violin
Kate Fawcett viola
Sara MacMahon cello