Haffner Serenade

Alexander Janiczek (violin) & Kölner Akademie, Michael Alexander Willens

Besides an acclaimed series of recordings with Ronald Brautigam of the complete piano concertos by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, Kölner Akademie and Michael Alexander Willens are undertaking a survey of Mozarts serenades and other incidental works. Their first disc in this series included the Posthorn Serenade and demonstrated, according to the reviewer on MusicWeb-International, that the ensemble is amongst the best groups in the world of period performance'. Since then the team has recorded works associated with the Freemasons, and here takes on one of the most famous of the serenades, the Haffner, named after Sigmund Haffner, who commissioned it for the festivities surrounding his sisters wedding in 1776. A notable feature of Mozarts serenades and the large-scale Haffner is no exception is the incorporation of virtuosic solo parts, here performed by the violinist Alexander Janiczek. On the amply-filled disc (almost 86 minutes!), the at times quite imposing serenade is followed by Mozarts Musical Joke Ein musikalischer Spaß, K522. A work in four movements, this is a delightful and very skilfully crafted parody of musical incompetence. It is written for strings and a pair of horns, and its frequent caricatures of the second-rate whether in composition or performance are brilliantly observed, by Mozart as well as the present performers.

Mozart:
 Serenade No. 7 in D major, K250 'Haffner'
 Ein musikalischer Spass K522
 March in D, K249

"The Musical Joke benefits from being played ‘straight’, by and large, and it’s always a peculiar delight to hear natural horns squawking away in the ‘wrong’ key...It’s the Haffner music that provides the greatest rewards. With only the merest hint of string insecurity at the highest extreme of the range, Michael Alexander Willens and his players demonstrate their immersion in Mozart’s idiom."
Gramophone Magazine - May 2020