Mozart 250
“Ronald Brautigam plays Mozart“
The Mozartists, Ian Page, Ronald Brautigam
Cadogan Hall, 30 June 2026
Serenata notturna, K.239
Piano Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, K.238
Piano Concerto No. 8 in C major, ‘Lützow’, K.246
Divertimento in D major, K.251
The Mozartists’ innovative MOZART 250 project travels 250 years back in time to follow the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life, works and influences. Starting on the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s childhood visit to London in January 2015, the project is now following Mozart’s musical life, year by year, up to 2041, the 250th anniversary of his death. Ronald Brautigam is one of the world’s leading fortepianists, with an award-winning discography of the complete concertos and sonatas of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. For this, his twice Covid delayed début with Ian Page and The Mozartists, he performed two concertos that Mozart wrote in Salzburg during the first half of 1776, bookended by two other pieces from 1776: the Serenata notturna K.239 and the Divertimento in D major, K.251. Playing a reproduction of an 18th-century Viennese Walter fortepiano (by Paul McNulty), this was a rare opportunity to experience the sound-world of the 20-year-old Mozart.
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Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783) is one of those historically unfortunate composers who achieved great fame during their lifetimes but have since been more-or-less forgotten. A prolific composer of opera, he was hailed by Charles Burney as being superior to all other lyric composers. Married to the famed soprano Faustina Bordoni, the couple became the Posh and Becks of their day. Usually based in Dresden in the Court of the Saxon Elector Frederick III, Hasse had special dispensation that avoided the need to travel annually to the Polish Court, where Frederick was also the elected King. He also maintained a post in Venice at the Ospedale degli Incurabili. He lived long enough to have performed in front of Bach and the young Mozart.
It is when you hear music from composers like Niccolò Jommelli (1714-74) that you realise just how deep the musical well is, if you peep behind the wall of well-known composers. Writing in that fascinating limbo period between the Baroque and Classical era, Jommelli perhaps completed too many operas for posterity to master. Il Vologeso is one of his best-known works and, on the strength of this performance by Classical Opera Company (giving the UK premiere), deserves to be heard more, and in a full staging rather than this concert performance. This was another part of their MOZART 250 project, aimed at exploring the works of Mozart and his contemporaries on the anniversary of their composition – which, in the case of Il Vologeso, was on 11 February 1766, in the enormous theatre at the Duke of Württemberg’s Ludwigsburg Palace near Stuttgart.
Pergolesi is often seen as one-horse-wonder, rather unfairly as he died aged just 26, composing his famous Stabat mater just before his death. His other works, including several operas, are usually ignored. He was one of the first composers (of around 70) to write an opera based on Metastasio’s take on Adriano in Siria (Hadrian in Syria), two years after the libretto was written, and two years before his death. The plot is based on the story of Hadrian in his days as Governor of Syria in Antioch (where he first became Emperor), and his love for his prisoner (and daughter of the Parthian King Osroa) Emirena who, in turn, is betrothed to Farnaspe, a Parthian prince. As these things inevitably go in opera seria, Adriano is married to Sabina, who, in turn, is loved by Aquilio. Rather bizarrely, Osroa tries to rescue his daughter by setting fire to the palace that she lives in. Of course, it all ends up well – the condemned Osroa is forgiven, Farnaspe marries Emirena, and Adriano stays with his wife Sabina. 
Andrew Benson-Wilson : Early Music Reviews + 